Fresno, CA, USA (KSEE) -- In celebration of Tuesday’s historic inauguration, Obama supporters packed the African-American museum in downtown Fresno for "We Are the Change."

This celebration: held to mobilize diversity and solidarity here in Fresno.

People from around the Central Valley came out to sing songs, pray, and reflect on a day many thought they'd never live to see.

Hundreds of Obama supporters, with hopes of change, gather Tuesday night, inside Fresno’s African-American museum, to celebrate the historic 56th inauguration of our nation's first African-American president, Barack Obama.

Ray Johnson, Executive Director, African-American Museum of the San Joaquin Valley: "It’s the perfect thing for us as a museum, to help educate the community as to what's going on. Obama will be a motivating factor as we deal with young people and children."

Children like 10-year-old Tuele bell, who watched the inauguration on “live” television in their classrooms Tuesday.

Bell says he's just glad an African-American man finally president... And hopeful he really will deliver change.

Tuele Bell, Obama Supporter: "Hopefully gas prices will go down, the economy will get better."

Rashad Crozier, Obama Supporter: "It's a blessing, it's just beautiful."

Rashad Crozier says he was impressed by president Obama’s inaugural address to the nation Tuesday, and says he also felt a sense of excitement and shock, and a bit of motivation.

Crozier: "Gonna give me hope and like more expression of what I need to do."

Julia Dudley-Najieb, Event Coordinator: "I’m so amazed to see all the youth roaming around, down to the little, itty bitty, all the way to tall, because I know that one these will be the doctors and lawyers and the people leading this generation."

But for those who experienced the civil rights movement first hand; like 67-year-old Girtha Williams, who represents the "Silent Generation," born after the baby boom, Tuesday's inauguration was a dream come true, and tonight's event downtown, a chance to reflect.

Girtha Williams, Obama Supporter: "I wish my mom was alive to see it and my mother-in-law, cause they the one's that worked in the fields and stuff, so I wish they were alive to see it."

Preston Phillips, KSEE 24 News: "What would they say today if they were alive?

Williams: “I think they would mostly cry, because they wouldn't really believe it. For the things they went through, they would just be ecstatic."

For Preston Phillips’ full story, click on the video link above.

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