OBAMA TAKES OFFICE

Harvard Law School students gathered in Harkness Commons South for inaugural festivities

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“Amidst gathering clouds and raging storms … America has carried on … because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.”

Students, faculty, and staff gathered in Harkness Commons South on Tuesday, January 20th, where the Dean of Students’ office threw a party to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama ’91 as President of the United States. Posters, cut outs, and American flags decked Hark South, where onlookers clustered to watch the inaugural festivities on two screens. A spillover crowd filled the first floor of the building.

Obama is the first African-American and the second Harvard Law School alumnus to occupy the oval office, after Rutherford B. Hayes, Class of 1845. His inaugural oath was administered by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts ’79. At HLS, students laughed as Roberts bungled the wording of the oath, prompting Obama to smile and wait for the Chief Justice to correct himself.

Some of HLS’ more intrepid students made it ot the inauguration itself. Elaine Lin ’10 sent in the photo below from the festivities in Washington.