‘Our best and brighter days are ahead of us’
Johnson takes oath of office as Chicago mayor
Brandon Johnson commenced his mayoral term Monday with a rousing promise to propel the “soul of Chicago” to its greatest era yet, capping off the former commissioner and longtime labor organizer’s once-improbable rise to be the most progressive leader of the nation’s third-largest city in decades.
Johnson took the oath of office, administered by Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, minutes before noon inside the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Credit Union 1 Arena, following a series of performances that included an
African dance group stomping in tune to a steady drumbeat and a youth choral group crooning “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the Black national anthem.
Johnson began his sweeping remarks by shouting out the greatness of Chicago: the “beauty” of Lake Michigan, its “boundary-breaking” arts and cultural scene and even the signature Italian beef. And, ever eager to reference his former profession as a social studies teacher, he shouted out the unique history of Black Chicago, starting from its founder, the Haitian voyager Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, before broadening to the city’s tapestry of immigrants who hail from all corners of the earth.
“There is something special about this city, and I like to call it the soul of Chicago,” Johnson said. “It was alive in the hearts of tens of thousands who arrived here in the Great Migration, including my grandparents, who came to Chicago in search of a home. … It is the soul of Chicago that brought immigrants from all over the world to work, to organize, to build the first skyscraper.”
The new mayor’s speech struck an earnest tone with the humorous touches he was known for on the campaign trail.
While giving shoutouts to his large family and his late mother who always opened her door to