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"History gives us the opportunity to change" | The first day of Biden administration brings change with many firsts in office

The Biden administration is making history by nominating people of diverse racial, gender, and sexual orientation backgrounds for roles in its cabinet.

WASHINGTON D.C., DC — People across the Charlotte-area watched Wednesday as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn into office, marking a series of firsts in American history.

Harris is the first woman to be Vice President of the United States. She is also the first Black American and the first person of South Asian descent to hold the office.

Charlitta Hatch, Junior League of Charlotte president, watched the inauguration with her three-year-old son staring at the TV screen.

"One of the things that we will tell him about this day is that when you look at women, you look at women like Kamala Harris,” Hatch said. “You know, women that can do hard things and can go where no man thought women can go."

Hatch is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the same sorority as Vice President Harris. The sorority was founded in 1908, a time when Hatch said Black women weren’t represented. She described it as a sense of pride to see a fellow member of her sorority in the White House.

“To see us move from that time period where women were fighting for the right to vote, to be able to actually vote a member of our sorority into the White House,” Hatch said, “to be a part of this historic moment, it is something I will hold for a lifetime.”

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Hatch is also a children’s book author. She wrote her first book “Black Boy Joy,” hoping to change the narrative surrounding Black boys in America as a response to the police brutality.

"If we can humanize what it means to be a Black boy and really see them through the eyes of their mother, maybe that can also help change the way that we respond when things happen in our country,” Hatch added.

She hopes seeing Kamala Harris in office will be another learning moment for America.

"I want my son to not even have those limits, that women can do all things, just like men can do, and bring different perspectives,” Hatch said. “It opens up possibilities for all women and girls to be able to dream beyond what they have typically seen."

Dr. Michael Bitzer, Catawba College political scientist, said typically inauguration speeches are filled with missions, visions, and aspirations. Bitzer said President Biden’s first speech, in contrast, called out the nation’s challenges.

"I think President Biden's inaugural speech today was very much plain-spoken,” Bitzer said. “It was very much, it felt very straight from the heart, and I would describe it as realistic optimism."

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Dr. Tom Hanchett, a community historian in Charlotte, said he thinks Wednesday’s inauguration was much more of a turning point than usual.

“Things in the last four years showed us in a way that surprised me, as a historian, how tremendously powerful a president can be, in terms of all sorts of things but also in terms of setting the tone,” Hanchett said.

The Biden administration is setting its tone from day one by adding to its lists of firsts with its cabinet nominations, including people of diverse racial, gender, and sexual orientation backgrounds.

"The Charlotte that I live in has people of every background,” Hanchett said, “and it reassures me that the Biden administration is making the people who are working for me look like the people who I know as neighbors."

When asked if he thought the day would come for a woman to be sworn in as Vice President of the United States, Hanchett pointed to this moment President Biden said in his inaugural address, "Today, we mark the swearing-in of the first woman in American history elected to national office, Vice President Kamala Harris,” Biden said. “Don't tell me things can't change."

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"I really liked what President Biden had to say, which is, that history is about change,” Hanchett said. “History is not some imagined, wonderful point in the past that we need to get back to, but it is something that continues to change."

The new administration is taking office amid health, economic, and racial challenges, with four years ahead to make their mark on America’s history.

"All of the references to history, to change, to this pathway we are on is a way of saying, ‘Have hope,’” Hanchett said. “You may not like where we are, but history gives us the opportunity to change."

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