A Candidate Who Mirrors Their Lives

But Cotten's devotion to the couple is now over, she said recently, done in by what she characterized as "Obama bashing, both by Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton." Campaigning before the South Carolina primary, Hillary Clinton said it took the work of President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass civil rights legislation, while the former president likened Obama's claims about his record on Iraq to a "fairy tale." The first comment was interpreted by many voters as a slight of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the second was a dismissal of Obama's assertion of consistent opposition to the war in Iraq.

And Cotten said she feels something stir when she listens to Obama. "When Obama speaks, it seems to come from the heart," she said.

College-educated African Americans remain an "elite" group, said Pattillo, noting that just 17 percent of black adults ages 25 and over have undergraduate degrees. "They think it's extraordinary that you have this eminently qualified man," said Candace Tolliver, a longtime Hill aide who now works as an Obama campaign spokeswoman. "They expect no less because that's what they expect of themselves."

"A lot of these people are in positions to do well financially. . . . They are concerned about education because they are going to have children, or have children. Can we send our kids to Georgetown Day and Sidwell Friends?" she asked, referring to two of the more exclusive private schools in the area.

Obama's message of change and building community also resonates with many in this demographic who were raised to pull up those less fortunate. When members of Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternities joined with other young black professionals and the "Sistahs for Obama" to throw the Bohemian Caverns fundraiser, they dubbed themselves "The Talented Tenth Society," a nod to W.E.B. Du Bois's concept of looking to a small group of educated blacks as the community's leaders.

Jarvis Houston, dreadlocked and goateed, grew up in Chicago, where Obama did his community organizing. The oldest of four children, he was raised by a single mother. "All of us went to college," he said. He's been traveling the country hosting fundraising parties like the one at Bohemian Caverns. But he said his group's efforts have branched out to match Obama's reach.

"We're pulling single mothers who only have a GED," he said. "They're living check to check, but they are giving their last $25 to Obama. They are looking to the future. They want a better life for their kids."

For Wiggins, the campaign he has watched grow over the past six months now feels historic and euphoric.

"This time in our country is going to be one that many years from now, our children [will] ask us where we were when this happened and what we were doing," he said, "just like we ask our parents about the civil rights movement."