Andrea Hall, a career firefighter and union leader from Fulton County, Ga., led the Pledge of Allegiance during the inauguration of President-elect Biden.
Hall recited the familiar words of the pledge out loud and in American Sign Language.
According to The 19th, a nonprofit news organization, Hall was the first Black woman hired and assigned to a station at the City of Albany Fire Department, and then the first Black woman to serve as fire captain at Fulton County Fire Rescue. She was a rare woman in an industry dominated by men — just 1% of firefighters were women when she transferred in to Fulton County, The 19th reports.
"I just am intending to represent, my family, the city of South Fulton, women, African-American women, firefighters, and everyone in the nation, well," Hall told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Hall presented the pledge in sign language, which is unusual for an inauguration. Biden's Presidential Inaugural Committee has made accessibility a stated priority and is providing ASL interpretation, live closed captioning and audio descriptions for the day's events.
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