In the small hours of yesterday, as tens of thousands of Chicagoans celebrated Barack Obama’s victory, something extraordinary was happening on the streets of the Windy City.

Blacks and whites were randomly embracing, making high fives, and exchanging “fist-jabs” – the black greeting sometimes used by Mr Obama and his wife.

Previously the two races had barely had anything to do with each other. Chicago, which is 37 per cent black and has the largest concentration of African-Americans anywhere in the country, is not renowned for racial harmony. South Chicago is almost entirely black, except for Hyde Park, the racially mixed enclave where Mr Obama lives. The north of the city is almost entirely white, and outside the workplace there is little interaction.

Blacks and whites were grabbing each other, however, and having their photographs taken together. White drivers flashed “V” for victory signs to black families stopped in their cars at traffic lights; the blacks responded with shouts of delight and honking horns. With the triumph of Mr Obama and his soaring election-night appeal for national renewal, a rare spirit of amity and reconciliation is coursing through its gritty streets.

'Change has come' - Obama wins in landslide

Sweeping victory for America's first black president is greeted by tumultuous scenes Watch our video

• Analysis: Barack Obama's victory is head-spinning stuff

• Full video and text: Barack Obama's victory speech

• Early US Election exit polls give hope to Barack Obama

Michelle Obama: a new type of First Lady

For Carla Bruni the game is finally up. In Michelle Obama she has truly met her match - a First Lady like none before

BACKGROUND

• Bush - 'We should all be proud of Obama'

• The challenge that greets Obama

• Full video and text: Obama's victory speech

• Voters honour Martin Luther King's dream

Multimedia

• Team Obama - who are they?

• Bonjour 'Barack'

“I believe people were listening to what Obama had to say and taking it in . . . Something extraordinary is happening here,” said Edwina Walton, 63, a retired black teacher.

“There’s a lot of love in the air,” said Patrick Hall, 42, a black electrical engineer. “I have had a lot of hugs from people I don’t know.”

“We were just hugging people we had never even met in our life. We just ran up and hugged them,” said Jumoke Ekuntunde, 13.

On the pavements vendors were selling Obama T-shirts hand over fist. There were long queues to buy the Chicago Tribune – one newsagent said that normally he sold 50 to 60 copies; yesterday the figure was closer to 600.

“Obama has united a lot of people and brought them together to work for a common cause . . . We’ve got to make it last,” said Ralph Claxton, who was selling Obama T-shirts in Michigan Avenue. Even the police entered into the spirit – politely warning unlicensed vendors to move on instead of booking them on the spot.

Sophia Smith, 21, a white student, said that normally if she bumped into someone while walking in Michigan Avenue, the central thoroughfare in Chicago, “they would say, ‘Get the hell out of the way’. They would give you attitude. Today people are really, really friendly . . . We have become one.”

Mr Obama is “an example of how people can bridge the racial divide in Chicago”, said Daniel Rucchi, 28, a white video producer. “Black people and white people now have a common aspirational figure and icon in Obama, someone who can lead both races.”

Whether the harmony will endure is another question, but as Gillette Blakey, 55, sold 1am editions of the Chicago Tribune in Michigan Avenue early yesterday he acknowledged that blacks would have to do their part.

“What Obama has shown is that we are not all jive-talkers,” he said. “There’s black people with intellect and moderate dispositions. But once he’s raised the bar we have to join him. We can’t let him stand high above everybody else. We have to be there with him.”

At the very least that meant raising children better, helping neighbours, or simply smiling at passers-by. “These little drops of water are very important,” Mr Blakey said.

There are other ways, too, in which Chicago is likely to benefit from an Obama presidency.

There was speculation that having such a powerful friend in the White House would boost the efforts of Chicago to win the 2016 Olympic Games. Mr Obama has already expressed support for the bid.

Several prominent Chicagoans are likely to receive top jobs in Washington. Above all, the success of Mr Obama may help Chicago’s long struggle to erase its image as the home of corrupt politicians and gangsters such as Al Capone.

Abner Mikva, a law professor and friend of the President-elect who also served in the Clinton Administration, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “What we will get out of this is it will make clear once and for all Chicago is not full of pork-barrel, sleazy politicians who know only ‘Machine politics’.”

Times Recommends

• Times Charity Appeal: SolarAid
• Is it Black Monday all over again for Dubai?
• Behind the scenes at the biggest deal