Keisha Lance Bottoms was inaugurated as Atlanta's 60th mayor Tuesday afternoon.
Bottoms' swearing in came after a contentious campaign and run-off battle for the office. The initial campaign pitted Bottoms against a dozen other competitors before the run-off which placed her squarely against fellow city council member Mary Norwood.
Both Bottoms and Norwood picked up endorsements from high-powered names from Atlanta and other parts of the nation as the campaign came down to its final days.
The new mayor landed her victory by a narrow margin and has spent the intervening weeks working to build her new administration, while Norwood initially demanded a recount. Bottoms said she understood Norwood's standpoint.
"If it were the other way around, I would want to make sure everything is in order," she said of the recount request. "But I think that's been affirmed and reaffirmed. And so I think it's just time for us to move on."
Tuesday morning, the Bottoms family, along with supporters, participated in the Inaugural Interfaith Worship Service at Impact Church in southwest Atlanta.
This year's inaugural was held at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the campus of Morehouse College. In past years, the ceremonies were held at the Atlanta Civic Center, but that venue was not available due to the sale of the facility.
The way she was received, one would have thought she was elected by acclamation rather than through a narrow victory. She addressed this in her inaugural speech.
"Now is the time for us to put aside race and division and geography and politics, and invest in becoming one Atlanta," Bottoms said.
She was flanked by an array of civil rights figures, politicians and pop music royalty.
After her speech, she vowed to keep a close ear to the concerns of Atlanta residents.
"We were talking about town hall meetings and how effective they are," she said. "It's something that I've done as a city council member for many years, but I look forward to revamping it and making sure I'm doing it more often."
Later in the day, Mayor Bottoms will host a Citizen's Reception at City Hall at 5:30 to celebrate her inauguration with city residents and employees. That event is free and open to the public.
