U.S. President Barrack Obama was sworn in for his second term in Washington D.C. on Monday amid excitement and concerns.
Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life turned out to cheer underneath the Washington Monument. For many, the day is particularly meaningful as the inauguration falls on the same day as the national holiday commemorating the country's late civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
"It's a very meaningful day. It's a passing of the torch from Doctor King to Obama," said a local resident.
Some are hoping Obama will do a great deal more while others want Obama to continue what he has already started.
"I'd like to see him do something about gun control and I'd like to see him wind down the Afghanistan war. I'd like to see him shore up the finances to a degree without cutting too much," a supporter said.
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Avenue, the main parade route where President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama part down from the Capitol back to the White House, was crowded with people from different states.
"I hope that we can somehow unite this country. We are much too divided here," a lady from Atlanta said, hoping Obama will do more to reduce the political and geographical divides.
The inauguration generated excitement not just in Washington D.C., but across the whole country, including President Obama's hometown Chicago.
The Valois diner in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood opened at 05:00 on Monday and offered a five-dollar breakfast special in honor of the President's inauguration.
With the Obamas' unofficial residence just a few blocks away, many locals said they're looking forward to having their President as their neighbor for another four years.
"He's the people's choice. He's a good man and they got to let him win not on his color, but on his ability, what he is doing, you know that's what they fail to realize. The man is doing everything for everybody," said a supporter of Obama named Wayne Mapp.
Obama cut his political teeth in Chicago in the 1980s working as a community activist in these neighborhoods, later representing them as a state senator and then U.S. senator.
At the DuSable Museum of African American History, a few hundred people gathered on Tuesday morning to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and celebrate Obama's inauguration.
"It means hope for this community that anyone from anywhere can come up. All things are possible, I really think so, through education," said another Obama supporter named Maxine Harris.
The Latino community also participated in the celebration on Monday. Latinos voted 7 to 1 for President Obama over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Romney's Latino support was less than any other presidential candidate in the last 16 years.
But Latinos recognize that the partisan attitudes will be a problem during President Obama's second term. Some Latinos are less than enthusiastic about a second Obama term.
"Everything that he's promised hasn't happened yet and I don't expect anything to change, I don't expect anything to happen. It's a whole lot of yes we can and I promise and things are going to change and we have yet to see anything," said a Latino voter named Leticia Lopez.
According to America's Hispanic voters, what they want to see most is the President fulfilling his promises on a comprehensive immigration reform.
