"When I was on the plane," Dixon said, "all I thought about was this convention and being part of it."

The results had been known for months: The Democrats would come to the foot of the Rocky Mountains to nominate Barack Obama to be president. They would leave excited at the chance to take back the White House after eight years of Republican control.

But for Dixon and other black Americans who made the trek from New Jersey, Thursday was the culmination of something more. For them, it was another step on a long road toward the equality promised by the founding documents of this nation, but imperfectly delivered.

Their party nominated a black man to be president - something many thought would be unthinkable in their lifetimes.

"You're so happy and so glad that you can't put it in words."

Dixon is not a delegate. She's an aide to Atlantic City Councilman George Tibbitt, active in city politics and serves on the state's Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission. But she's not a mover and shaker. She had no way into the convention events a month ago - but she was determined to go.

She met with Monmouth County delegate Myra Campbell, who let her stay in her hotel room and got her into the Pepsi Center throughout the week.

Dixon said she watched in tears as the Democratic Party formally nominated Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday night to be the next president. She looked around the converted hockey rink and saw a multiracial cast of thousands, cheering to the tune of the O'Jays' hit "Love Train."

"That was Martin Luther King's dream," she said Thursday morning. "Everyone came together to see that done. In Martin Luther King's days you wouldn't ever have seen anything like that.

"Now you're part of history, because that's what it is: history. I'm here for that part of history."

Others from the New Jersey delegation saw the history in Obama's nomination, as well as its promise.

East Orange resident Catherine Willis came to the convention a Hillary Clinton backer, but by the end was an enthusiastic Obama supporter.

"This is not something I thought I would see in my lifetime," said Willis, 68, who came of age during the civil-rights era, and who remembers racial segregation. "To come this far, where southern states are voting for an African-American, it's just amazing."

Denver was not her first convention. So throughout the week, Willis said, she passed her credential to others who traveled from New Jersey who wanted the experience of getting in.

But not on Thursday.

She smiled. "I'm using my pass because I'm going to be there."

Delegate Damon Tyner, of Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County, said he sees Obama's success as the realization of what his family and many in the black community have preached: that getting an education and helping others will lead to success.

Tyner said the entertainment industry portrays blacks negatively, but those stereotypes have nothing to do with his experience. His father, Hank, was an Atlantic City Council president, and his father instilled in him the ethics of working hard and giving back to society.

Now a lawyer, Tyner sees Obama's rise as vindication of the things he was taught.

"I was fortunate enough to be born into a generation and family that made me believe no matter what the color of your skin is, if you go to school and work hard, you can be a success," said Tyner, 38.

"And I think Sen. Obama represents all of that," he said. "To me, that's a tremendous source of pride and self-validation."

Tyner said that because Obama's single-parent family struggled when he was young, Obama can inspire others who are experiencing hard times.

Like Dixon, Several New Jersey officials noted that Thursday's speech occurred on the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.

"Sen. Obama's accepting the nomination means to me that we are moving closer to capturing the American dream that Dr. King spoke about," said state Sen. Dana Redd, D-Camden.

She said the event made her proud of her party.

Dixon was proud of her party and proud of the convention, but more than anything else, she was proud that now a black American could actually be, and was, nominated for the highest office in the land.

"I'm proud. I'm proud that we have an actual presidential candidate," she said. "I feel like this is the first step. This, we're finally making the first step. I feel good. I feel great. It's like a feeling you can't describe."

Dixon's pride was evident in a shirt she wore Thursday. It was a black T-shirt with pictures of King, labeled "the dreamer" and Obama, labeled "the dream."

She planned to wear that shirt to Invesco Field on Thursday night while she watched history being made.

E-mail John Froonjian:

JFroonjian@pressofac.com

E-mail Derek Harper:

DHarper@pressofac.com