Theresa Brewster took one look at the new American president, and cried.

"I got up this morning, turned on the TV and there's Obama. I started to cry. The first thing I was thinking of was if he could accomplish such a huge thing, a lot of blacks can do the same thing," Brewster said.

Brewster is head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association Hall in Glace Bay, N.S. Her ancestors arrived in Cape Breton from the U.S. following the American Civil War.

She was glued to her TV set Tuesday as Barack Obama officially became the first black president of the United States.

"I think he's given us hope, and when you have hope you can do a lot of things, even if it's within your own community," Brewster said.

In Halifax, about 50 members of the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church danced and cheered as Obama took the oath of office.

Wanda Lewis said it was a day to be free.

"If you're a person of colour, you know what it means to be left out, [but] Barack keeps emphasizing that nobody will be left out," she said earlier. "In many ways, we've felt left out. Today, we feel alive. We feel free."

At Whitney Pier Memorial Junior High in Sydney, students gathered in the gymnasium to watch the inauguration ceremony. Many students have ancestors who came from Barbados to work in the steel plant nearly 100 years ago.

"He's very inspirational and he knows what he's talking about," said Sasha Hayward Isaac.

"It shows that no matter what colour you are, you can achieve whatever you want as long as you set your mind to it," said Andrew Green.

With files from the Canadian Press