This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
- President Barack Obama
At noon Tuesday, according to the 20th Amendment, before he took the oath of office, and just as the exposition section of John William’s arrangement of “Simple Gifts” was wrapping up Barack Obama became President.
When he stood before nearly two million people on the mall, standing on steps of built by slaves he took an oath of office written by slave holders into a Constitution that guaranteed the rights of some while guaranteeing others would be treated no better than a chair before the law.
Two million people stood on the site of a former slave market and waved their flags as the son of a marriage that would have been illegal in many states at the time of his birth showed how far we have come as a nation simply by standing there and looking back.
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