Inauguration Pledge of Allegiance – Fire Captain Andrea Hall
Captain Andrea Hall of the South Fulton, Georgia, Fire Department delivers the Pledge of Allegiance during the 2021 Inauguration of President Joe Biden. At the inauguration, Captain Hall recited the 31-word pledge out loud, while simultaneously leading the pledge in American Sign Language.
Andrea Hall, 47, became the First Black Woman to be named Captain of the City of South Fulton Fire Rescue Department in 2004 – a position she still holds after 16 years. She began her career in 1993 and was the first Black woman hired and assigned to a station at the City of Albany Fire Department.
“I am thrilled and humbled to represent firefighters and other frontline workers in the state of Georgia and the City of South Fulton,” she told local news station 11 Alive ahead of the event. “It is a privilege and an honor to help usher in a new chapter of leadership for our country.”
As for the Pledge of Allegiance, Hall told CNN, “Everything it expresses, I want to embody that in that moment. And just making sure that I am representing my family, my professional family here in South Fulton, representing the nation, and making sure that they understand the passion from which I speak those words about being indivisible as a nation…because that’s what it’s going to take to move our country forward.” Source: Kerry Justich-1-20-2021. This is really about the firefighters and the frontline workers who represent our industry in this country,” Hall also told CNN.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.
In its original form it read:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
In 1923, the words, “the Flag of the United States of America” were added. At this time it read:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God,” creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy’s daughter objected to this alteration. Today it reads:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
