Savannah Mayor Looks Forward to Attending Presidential Inauguration

Though we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, his birthday is actually Thursday, January 15. He would have turned 80 years old.

Decades after he fought for equal rights, our nation's first African-American president will be sworn into office in five days.

NEWS 3 sat down with Savannah's mayor who's heading to Washington for the inauguration.

"This will be my first presidential inauguration and it'll probably be my last," says Mayor Otis Johnson.

He tells us he never had a desire to attend a presidential inauguration, but this time, "I feel compelled to be in DC for this event. If I didn't get a ticket to be in that select number, I would have been in the masses anyway. Because I was going! I'm going!"

Mayor Johnson will be one of 240,000 attending Obama's inauguration, an inauguration many still can't believe is happening.

"As a kid growing up in Savannah and as thousands of people are already saying over and over again, we just never believed we would see a black man sworn in as president of the United States of America," says Mayor Johnson.

He already knows what clothes he's taking on the trip, lots of layers and some warm boots. "I hope they'll let me take my binoculars with me so I can really see what's going on," says Mayor Johnson.

He's never met president-elect Obama. But when he does, he knows exactly what he'll say.

"I would say that all of our hopes and dreams are wrapped up in you and I know that you will do well because everything that you've done to this point just says that you're the man," says Mayor Johnson. "This is a fulfillment of generations of aspirations and hard work and just as King said dreaming about what could be and now it is."

Mayor Johnson plans to attend the Georgia inauguration gala, as well as several receptions.

He's leaving Friday to attend a US Conference of Mayors meeting in DC Saturday morning.
Tickets to the Swearing-In Ceremony are distributed by both Senators and Representatives elected to the 111th Congress. Mayor Johnson got his ticket from Congressman John Barrow.

Mayor on Missing MLK Day Events in Savannah
"This is the first M.L. King parade that I have missed in I don’t know how many years. And I think people will understand why I won’t be there and the fact that this is so important, they won’t hold it against me."

"The parade in Savannah is very special. It is one of the largest in the country and it speaks well for our community. We were one of the first communities to start celebrating the birthday of Dr. King when it was just on January 15th, which is his birthday. But when it became a national holiday of course, we now celebrate it and this will be the first parade I have missed in decades."