My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. – President Barack H. Obama
See Inauguration Supplement Inside •
C e l e b r a t i n g 4 8 Ye a r s o f S e r v i c e
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Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area / Vol. 48, No. 15 Jan. 24 - Jan. 30, 2013
President Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Monday, Jan. 21. Hundreds of thousands converged on the nation’s capital to witness the historic event. /Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah
The Nation Celebrates Obama Inauguration By Barrington M. Salmon and Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writers Clarence Meachem stood in front of President Abraham Lincoln’s statue in front of the D.C. Court of Appeals, and snapped pictures of the man credited with freeing four mil-
lion enslaved Africans. Afterward, Meachem reflected on bearing witness to President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. “I was on the [National] Mall and I thought it was great,” said Meachem, 70. “I missed the first inauguration and couldn’t miss this one. I have never been
through something of this magnitude. He was a godsend and he’s doing a good job despite the obstacles.” Meachem, a power plant operator at North Carolina A&T University, said he traveled by bus with a group of 25 from Greensboro, N.C., and after the Inaugural Parade planned to
jump back on the bus and head south. “I never thought I’d see a black president in my lifetime,” he said. “[Obama’s] election has irreversibly changed the country. His being the first black president is tremendously important. He’s done so much but it’s gone unnoticed.”
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Ambassadors Highlight Obama’s Global Support Page 14
January 21st marked the 57th Inauguration, where between 800,000 and one million people crowded the National Mall, despite chilly temperatures. A confident Obama laid out an assured and detailed vision of what he imagines America’s future to be. He took his public oath of See INAUGURATION on Page 8
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