Opinion: Tears of the crowd
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Deborah Sheffield of Norfolk, Va., above, wipes tears from her eyes as she stands in the National Mall during the inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington. ‘This is for my mother and my grandmother,’ Sheffield told the Associated Press.
Tears were seen throughout Washington, as well as through the nation. Dorothy Sindel, above, an employee at the Ohio State University Student Health Center, wipes away tears as she watches the presidential inauguration at the Hale Black Cultural Center in Columbus, Ohio. More evidence of emotion during the president’s speech after the jump.
Rhonda Ward, above, from San Antonio, Tex., sheds a tear while listening to Obama’s inaugural speech on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.
The track of a tear is seen on Tim McGregor’s cheek, above, of Cape Cod, Mass., during the inaugural ceremonies on the National Mall.
UPDATED, 1:32 p.m.: Below, more glimpses of the crowds that gathered nationwide to watch the inauguration.
Ella Crawford, 73, above left, wipes a tear while watching inauguration coverage with Mary K. Jones, 78, above right, at the Hannan House in Detroit.
National Voting Rights Museum and Institute worker Sherrette Spicer, above, wipes away a tear as she watches the inaugural address in Selma, Ala.
Mary Taylor and her friend, Fred Alicea, above, react with tears of joy while they watch the inauguration at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Elizabeth Dann, above, watches the inaugural address on television at the Harvard Law School student center in Cambridge, Mass. Obama is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and Dann is a college senior hoping to attend the law school next year.
Yvonne Sayers, above, wipes away a tear while watching the inauguration at the Nicodemus, Kan., township hall. Nicodemus, a western Kansas farming community settled by former slaves after the Civil War, is now a national historic site.
Student Jacquie Wayans, above, sheds a tear as she watches the inauguration ceremony at Columbia University in New York.
‘I can’t believe it,’ said a crying Herbert Bridges, 94, above left, as granddaughter Donna French, above right, smiles after watching the inauguration on television in the family’s home in Los Angeles.
For more photos from the crowd, check out these galleries: Celebs at the inauguration, the inauguration gallery, ghosts of Pennsylvania Ave. and Your Scene.
-- Tony Pierce
AP photo of Deborah Sheffield by Carolyn Kaster; AP photo of Dorothy Sindel by Kiichiro Sato; AP photo of Rhonda Ward by Charlie Neibergall; AP photo of Tim McGregor by Matt Rourke; AP photo of Ella Crawford and Mary K. Jones by Paul Sancya; AP photo of Sherrette Spicer by Dave Martin; EPA photo of Mary Taylor and Fred Alicea by Gary I. Rothstein; AP photo of Elizabeth Dann by Stephan Savoia; AP photo of Yvonne Sayers by Charlie Riedel; AP photo of Jacquie Wayans by Stephen Chernin; Los Angeles Times photo of Herbert Bridges and Donna French by Genaro Molina.