Andrea Hall thinks she first said the Pledge of Allegiance at Turner Elementary School in Albany. That was four decades ago.
On Wednesday, the city of South Fulton fire captain will lead the nation in the Pledge at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
She wouldn’t say — for security reasons — when she was asked. But her response?
“I could not think of another answer other than yes.”
Hall, 47, is the president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 3920. The national organization became an early supporter of Biden, endorsing the former Vice President just days after he announced his intention to run in April 2019.
Hall started in fire services in 1993 at a department full of White men who looked nothing like her. She said she became the first women in the history of Albany’s fire department to successfully make it through the recruitment process.
She joined the Fulton County Fire Department in 1999 and earned the rank of captain in 2004. She stayed on in February 2018 when the county’s department became the South Fulton Fire Department as a result of municipalities forming their own forces.
Hall currently runs the operations divisions. She said she was inspired by a cousin who fought fires. That cousin had the same effect on her sister, who runs the fire department in Savannah.
Hall wouldn’t say when she was contacted by the firefighter association or the inauguration committee, but she’s excited.
“I just am intending to represent, my family, the city of South Fulton, women, African-American women, firefighters, and everyone in the nation, well,” she said.
Hall is second in the line-up. “I’m between the benediction and Lady Gaga,” she said, adding with a laugh: “I’m OK with being in that sandwich.”
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