ATLANTA (AP) – After emerging victorious from a crowded field and a bitterly contested runoff, Keisha Lance Bottoms was sworn in Tuesday as Atlanta’s mayor.
Bottoms took her oath of office during an inauguration ceremony in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College. She promised in her inaugural speech to work on fighting homelessness, to improve transparency at City Hall and to create a senior-level staff position for education, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Bottoms reiterated many of her campaign promises in her speech Tuesday, which ran about 35 minutes, the Journal-Constitution reported. Those included supporting the arts, improving transit and working with state government to propel the city forward.
She announced an initiative to invest $1 billion in housing affordability, and said details would be offered in the coming months.
Her swearing in makes her Atlanta’s 60th mayor and the city’s sixth consecutive black mayor since Maynard Jackson was elected in 1973.