The shabby Leeds suburb that is the heartbeat of the city’s black community looked the same as ever yesterday. But it felt a little different. No street parties are yet planned, but on a cold afternoon there was a buzz in the queue at the bus stop. Shop assistants served smiling faces. There was more laughter in the air than usual.

A few cynics seemed determined to play down the day’s significance, but it was evident that many residents were walking a little taller than normal. Along a boarded-up shop front in Chapeltown Road, a banner of congratulations had been posted. Spray-painted underneath, in large letters, was the message: “To Mr Barack Obama. President!” To which a second well-wisher had added: “Well done our friend!” The graffiti was probably as close as Chapeltown will come to an official civic celebration.

The bleary eyes and in some cases hangovers of those who had stayed up all night to watch the dream become a reality were shared in black African and Caribbean communities across Britain.

In North London, the television at a black barber’s shop that normally delivers a fixed diet of sport had been switched to CNN’s election coverage. Five men inside had not come for haircuts, but to watch television and discuss the election result.

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Strangers congratulated each other on the streets of St Paul’s, in Bristol, home to one of Britain’s largest black communities, where a Somali man approached a local minister yesterday morning with an urgent, Obamainspired request. “Tell the papers, tell the young people: stop the fighting and if they learn their lessons and do well, they can become somebody.”

Back in Chapeltown, Yvonne English spent the day serving excited customers at her food store, YK’s Deli, which is about to introduce a £2.35 Obama sandwich — beef, lettuce and tomato — in honour of his triumph.

Mrs English, 64, who was born in Jamaica but has spent most of her life in Leeds, was glued to the election coverage throughout the night and burst into tears when a Democratic victory became certain.

“I think it’s absolutely fantastic that a black man is the President of the United States. It’s been a long, long time in coming and I never thought I’d live to see the day, but it’s something to be proud of,” she said.

“It’s been the first thing everyone has wanted to talk about when they come into the shop, even before food. I’m sure it’s going to make a difference to the black community in Britain, especially young black men. They’ve got a role model, now. Obama is going to make a difference across the world.”

One of Mrs English’s customers, Terry Williams, a 40-year-old sound engineer, was hoping that his own teenage children would be inspired by events in America. “I stayed up until 6am. It was just me and the missus and I kept having to nudge her to wake her up, but the buzz was incredible. What happened was history and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

In 1985, Tottenham, North London, was the setting for race riots that led to the murder of PC Keith Blakelock. At 2pm yesterday Grace Dicarlo, a 37-year-old healthcare worker, left her front door to head for the bus stop, five hours later than scheduled but not unduly concerned about being so late for work.

“I was supposed to be in at 9.20am, but I just couldn’t go to bed last night. It was so brilliant. I kept saying to myself that I would stay awake for just five more minutes, just five more minutes. And then it was 6am and I’d watched the whole coverage. We have drug dealers on this street whose excuse is that they come from singleparent black families. Now they can look at Barack Obama.

“He’s a black man from a singleparent background, so what excuse do these kids have? Obama knows what it feels like for people to say ‘You’re no good’ and to prove them wrong.”

As Ms Dicarlo departed, punching the air with delight, Inin Johnson spoke of feeling overwhelmed by the outcome of the election. She is 47, the same age as Mr Obama, and a law student, as he once was. “There were celebrations throughout Tottenham and Hackney last night,” she said. “The whole world could see that the dream of Martin Luther King has become a reality, and hopefully racism will start coming to an end.”

In Bristol, the Rev Dawnecia Palmer had burst into her sister’s bedroom at 6am to announce that the world’s most powerful country was about to be ruled by a black man.

“How could she sleep at a moment like that?” she said. “I was so excited I put on special make-up and my fancy earrings and I went out and somehow it felt as though the world had changed.”

Tony Mason in Tottenham sounded a rare note of caution. “I’m glad he won, but it won’t bring any change, not at the moment, not for me. There’s a credit crunch, the world is in a mess, and I’m unemployed. People around here won’t see any benefit.”

Fears that unrealistic expectations are being raised were also voiced by some doubters in Chapeltown, but an 82-year-old man who refused to give his name was having none of it: “My people died to reach this moment.”

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