January 20, 1977: Jimmy Carter is inaugurated

[Minstrel Boy]

President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter walk down Pennsylvania Avenue:



From Carter's inaugural speech:

You have given me a great responsibility--to stay close to you, to be worthy of you, and to exemplify what you are. Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes.

Let us learn together and laugh together and work together and pray together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the right.

...

Let our recent mistakes bring a resurgent commitment to the basic principles of our Nation, for we know that if we despise our own government we have no future. We recall in special times when we have stood briefly, but magnificently, united. In those times no prize was beyond our grasp.

But we cannot dwell upon remembered glory. We cannot afford to drift. We reject the prospect of failure or mediocrity or an inferior quality of life for any person. Our Government must at the same time be both competent and compassionate.

...

We have learned that "more" is not necessarily "better," that even our great Nation has its recognized limits, and that we can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems. We cannot afford to do everything, nor can we afford to lack boldness as we meet the future. So, together, in a spirit of individual sacrifice for the common good, we must simply do our best.
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/carter.htm

From The Washington Post:

"The last attempt to downscale the balls came in the post-Watergate era of Jimmy Carter. The entire inauguration was anti-glitz; Carter renamed the balls "parties," declared that no ticket could cost more than $25, and served pretzels and peanuts. It was a resounding public relations disaster. It took -- who else? -- a former actor to bring panache back to the event. Ronald Reagan...."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63420-2001Jan15_2.html