Call Her “Her Excellency”

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

On Jan. 17, history was made in Virginia when Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger raised her right hand and was sworn in as the state’s 75th and first female governor.

Ghazala Hashmi also raised her right hand and was sworn in as Lt. Governor becoming the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in America, and Jay Jones was sworn-in as Attorney General, the first African-American Virginia Attorney General. The Norfolk State Marching Band was among the performers of the day.

The swearing-in ceremony followed an array of inaugural events including gatherings for Virginia businesses and artists held on Friday evening at Richmond’s 17th Street Market  that included a performance by  Virginia Beach rapper Pusha T.

“I’m here for the vibes,” VCU student Chandler Golden said at  Richmond’s 17th Street Market. “Like it’s really nice. I’m glad that he’s supporting this too.”

Richmond native Nick Carter came out to the show because he wanted to see Pusha, though he said it was cool to see Spanberger too.

“I’m not the most political person, but I like Spanberger,” Carter said.

In her inaugural address on Saturday, the new governor discussed the Commonwealth’s history of peacefully transferring power, as well as its past and future.

“I stand before those who made it possible for a woman to also participate in that peaceful transfer of power and take that oath,” the Commonwealth’s first female governor said. The full text of her thoughtful and comprehensive speech is available online (https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom.

“And it is with a profound sense of duty to all Virginians that I assume the Governorship and pledge myself to work tirelessly on behalf of our Commonwealth.

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“This year marks the 250th anniversary of two milestones in American democracy: the first is the signing of our Declaration of Independence – drafted by Thomas Jefferson – Virginia’s second Governor and the man who designed the very building behind us today. And the second milestone we remember this year is the inauguration of Patrick Henry as Virginia’s first Governor.

“Governor Henry is best known for his call against tyranny at St. John’s Church, just up the road – words that helped launch the American Revolution. But in his final public speech, delivered in Virginia years later in 1799, he made an appeal to his fellow citizens, warning against the divisions that were threatening our young country.

“His appeal remains timeless. He said:

“United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”

“I’ll say that again. “Let us not split into factions … ” which would “destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”

“That was the challenge Governor Henry put to Virginia at the close of the 18th Century. And it is the charge we must answer again today. I know that the work of perfecting our democracy has never been finished.

“But I am heartened by the fact that so much of that work has been done right here, on these very steps and across this city – where Virginia’s history, and America’s history, has so often been written.

“On these steps, Virginia’s suffragists brought their cause to the General Assembly session after session, decade after decade. And though these brave women were voted down, time and time again, they refused to give up.

“And while the 19th amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920, it would not be until 1952 that Virginia finally ratified it. And yet for so many women, the right to vote was not truly secured until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“And in 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of more than 2,500 here in Richmond. He implored the then-Governor to comply with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

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“Building upon a message he had issued one year prior when he wrote: ‘Today is a day for great men, great ideas, great movements … ’ and in his urgent appeals for progress, he wrote, ‘As Virginia goes, so goes the South, perhaps America, and the world.’”

After the ceremony, Hashmi and Jones stood behind Spanberger as she signed her first 10 executive orders. One order that Spanberger signed Saturday rescinds a Youngkin directive from last year instructing state law enforcement and corrections officers to assist with immigration enforcement.

“Local law enforcement should not be required to divert their limited resources to enforce federal civil immigration laws,” she said.

On his 95th birthday, former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder also sat behind Spanberger and watched her inauguration.

“On these steps, Virginia inaugurated our 66th governor and our nation’s first elected African-American governor,” Spanberger said in her speech. “Gov. L. Douglas Wilder changed what so many of our fellow citizens believed was even possible.”

She will be referred to with traditional formality: “Madam Governor” or, as some officials phrase it, “Her Excellency.”

While Virginia’s inaugural traditions call for formal morning suits for men and dark attire for women, Spanberger’s all-white ensemble – complete with white gloves – was widely noted as a nod to suffrage and the ongoing journey toward equality.