At 10 p.m. Tuesday, when the major networks projected that Barack Obama had won the presidency, Sharmarke Hamud, 19, and his five roommates grabbed an American flag and hit the streets.
What started at the Palisade Apartments, an upscale building at Johnson and Marion streets just off campus, turned into a spontaneous parade that made two trips to the Capitol, went up and down State Street, paused outside the beer garden at State Street Brats, went through the Union Terrace, picked up more revelers at Helen C. White Library and stopped traffic as it headed up University Avenue.
It gained and lost strength, but at its height, the parade was more than a thousand strong.