It was no ordinary Wednesday afternoon this week in Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine District.

At least not for Raymond Daniels.

“I was almost born on this street,” the life-long Kansas City man said, gesturing around him.

Daniels, 81, said he remembers a very different time on 18th & Vine. He was nearly 40 years old before Jim Crow segregation laws ended and the 1960s Civil Rights era began.

“Just to show you changes, (African Americans) couldn’t go nowhere but here to shop,” he said, making reference to segregation.

Daniels was one of more than 3,000 people who packed the streets for nearly three blocks, from Highland to Paseo, to witness firsthand, history in the making. He had come to hear Michelle Obama speak, the wife of the first African American man to run for President of the United States as the nominee of a major party.

People of diverse races, ages and genders stood shoulder-to-shoulder, some on tippy-toes or craning necks to get a glimpse of who they hoped would be the next first lady. Parents pushed babies in strollers or hoisted older children on their shoulders. Some people swayed to the music or sang with local jazz icon Ida McBeth when she crooned the national anthem. Many shouted the Obama political mantra, “Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!”

A giant American flag was suspended across a brilliant blue sky between The Gem Theatre and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Below it, Michelle Obama, dressed in cherry red, took the stage.

“This is not just politics, this is personal,” she said. “What kind of future are (our children) going to have if we are struggling like this now?”

Michelle Obama shared Barack Obama’s plans to reform the economy, provide quality health care and higher education for all, and embrace alternative energy.

“It’s time for solutions because the old ways just won’t work,” she said.

Her husband, she reminded people, also knew firsthand what it was like to grow up as the son of a single mother.

“Barack didn’t have a silver spoon,” she added.

And she talked about her own Blue Collar upbringing on the southside of Chicago, as the daughter of a production worker.

"When men can't support families, there's something in the family that crumbles," she said. "People just want to know if they work hard enough every day, they can earn enough to pay their bills."

Barack, she said, "gets it." And if elected, his economic policy will be built around the Middle Class.

"Not a Washington that talks about family values but one that develops polices that help families," she stressed.

Michelle Obama also recommended people verify their voting status.

“Wouldn’t it be a shame to wake up Nov. 4,” she said, “and go down and find out (you) couldn’t vote? Not because someone stopped (you) but because (you) didn’t register?”

And she asked registered voters to encourage non-registered voters to register before the Oct. 8 deadline in Missouri (Oct. 12 in Kansas).

“They may be jaded, disappointed, isolated, alone, mad, discouraged,” she said. “But tell them, ‘This time it is different.’”

She said registering even a small percentage of non-registered voters in Missouri, a swing state, could potentially sway the vote in favor of her husband in this election.

The historic significance of Michelle Obama’s visit was not lost on the crowd.

“Just take a look around,” Brandy Cann, Kansas City, Kan., said. “The people are from all walks of life. It’s a beautiful thing happening here.”

Her daughter, Briana Cann, 21, Kansas City, agreed.

“It’s amazing to see all the people who want to hear from the (future) president’s wife and see all these people who want change,” she said.

Victoria Yates, Kansas City, Kan., said this election has a historic feel to it.

“There were times in the past when things took a turn,” she said. “It seems like one of these times. I see a glimpse of hope. I can see a turning point for America.”

Others, too, addressed a sense of being on the threshold of historic change.

Glenda Goodman, Kansas City, who wore a peace sign pendant around her neck, said she first became invigorated last year when she read Barack Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

“This is a most critical time for our country,” she said.

A white woman, she said she is glad that Barack Obama is African American.

“It will make our country look better internationally. But the color of his skin is very irrelevant to me.”

Wayne Snyder, Kansas City, said he, too, “sees something happening.”

“We’re at a real crossroads in this country; almost at a divide. We could take two steps back or two steps forward. People like me, we really feel we have the opportunity to move this country forward.”

And Raymond Daniels, who said he has voted in every presidential election since he has been an adult, said he is ready for these changes.

“But we have to wait and see. It takes time for justice to come. I’ve been 80 years waiting for changes. When the people of this country start looking at this country as a whole, there will be a changeover.”