(WHBC) – Some Massillon students witnessed history in person on Monday as 1980 Washington High School graduate Lori Lightfoot was sworn in as mayor of Chicago.

The students are in David Lee Morgan Jr.’s journalism class and he wanted them to be at the inauguration, not only to witness the event but to cover it.

“Lori Lightfoot is the first black, first female, first openly gay mayor, so she checks all those boxes in one election, and the students know how important this is but I also wanted them to have fun,” Morgan told Canton’s Morning News.

And he says they did have a lot of fun, and Lori even greeted them at her private luncheon with a Tigers chant.

Lightfoot said in her speech that Chicago is a city of hope for her.

“And I know in my heart that a story like mine of a kid growing up in a working class family, growing up to realize the dreams of my father and my mother through education, hard work and sheer determination, needs to be the story of possibility in every neighborhood.”