Black Republicans who attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration believe that he will get the country back on track morally and stand up for Christian values.
After the president’s inaugural address Friday at the United States Capitol, Dr. Marshall McNeil, a Republican from Georgia, said what stood out from the speech “was unification and a nation that was going to be reconciled back to God and the fear of God.”
“The bible says that in Proverbs 14:30 that righteousness exalts a nation, so we have to put God first,” he said. “I think we as a nation have gotten away from principles that we were founded on.”
McNeil who has attended every inauguration since the age of 12, starting with Jimmy Carter, believes that Trump will unify the country and get people working again, which will build their integrity and self-worth.
“We must get unified,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if we are black, brown or white. It is most important that we work together to build a great nation. In the next four years, we are going to get America working again, the economy up, go into the inner cities, the rural areas and build education back up. I’m excited.”
Two black women, friends and self-identified conservatives trekked from St. Louis to the District to support Donald Trump’s presidency and get a head start for the March for Life rally in D.C. on Friday, Jan. 27.
“I came here to the inauguration because I see it as another chance for our nation, Christian-wise,” said one of the women, Zina Hackworth. “God has given our country another chance at not being a socialist country. We are supposed to be a free country and we were heading towards socialism — and we don’t want socialism, we like freedom.”
Hackworth said like McNeil she took away from Trump’s speech a spirit of unity, but “we will wait and see what he does.”
She also loved the idea of Trump coming strongly against radical Islam.
“Not just Islam but radical Islam extremist,” she said. “When we don’t protect ourselves and see the danger that’s right in front of us than we are opening ourselves up to all kinds of things like what Europe has now.”
Hackworth’s friend and travel partner Connie A., who attends the March for Life rally every year, couldn’t miss the opportunity to celebrate President Trump.
“Pro-life, homelessness, mental illness and poverty are major issues for me, and President Trump said he is going to address all and poverty,” she said. “If you are a Christian or a pro-lifer in this nation, then you know we have just come through eight years of oppression.”
Connie said it’s Americans’ duty to make sure for the next four years they exercise all of their freedoms and raise their voice about what matters.
“We have to protect everyone, like they say, from the womb to the tomb,” she said. “The United States has to remain the United States with our identity. If people give Vice President Pence and President Donald Trump a chance and get over their prejudices, then it’s amazing what can happen in this country when we work together.”