Tuesday will mark a day in history, the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first black president, elected only 44 years after Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964 granted suffrage to African Americans, and sworn in one day after the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

And while it remains to be seen how President Obama will navigate the chop ahead, his message of hope has set expectations high, and his entrance to the Oval Office is cause for celebration among all Americans.

Logistics firms and event planners in the District of Columbia are struggling to prepare the nation’s capital for the largest inaugural event in history, setting up security infrastructure for performances by music legends Beyonce, Bono, Garth Brooks, Herbie Hancock, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor and Stevie Wonder, and screening the estimated two million attendees for prohibited items, including sticks, backpacks, strollers, umbrellas and animals (other than service animals), and most importantly, blanketing the National Mall with 5,000 portable toilets.

And while the relative simplicity of Vineyard living often comes at the cost of convenience, digital cable and high-definition television will keep everyone in the heart of the action on Tuesday, minus the crush of humanity and the $7 bottled water. The Vineyard voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama, so it comes as no surprise that the Island is bursting with opportunities to gather with friends and neighbors to celebrate this signal day in history.

For those who want to view the inauguration in a public space, the Edgartown library is offering live television coverage from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Chilmark library big screen will light up at 11:30 a.m. and the Vineyard Haven library will turn on the tube at the same time. At 11:30 a.m. Sen. Diane Feinstein will begin her welcoming remarks, with the actual swearing-in set for noon. Before that there will be an invocation speech by Dr. Rick Warren, a song by Aretha Franklin, the swearing-in of Vice President Joe Biden, and a John Williams-composed piece of music performed by Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill.

The Mansion House Inn and Spa will open its John Adams meeting room to the public, also at 11:30 a.m. The room features an eight by ten-foot screen that drops out of the ceiling.

The second floor of the Dreamland building on Oak Bluffs avenue, formerly known as the Game Room and located across the street from the Flying Horses, will also open its doors to the public with a giant screen television switched on at 11:30 a.m. This will also be the location for an inaugural potluck ball starting at 6 p.m. Admission to the ball is free, and people are asked to bring a potluck dish for six that does not require cooking or heat. There will be a cash bar and dancing to music by Mike Benjamin and Phil daRosa and Friends. The party ends at 10 p.m.

Another inaugural ball will be held at the Chilmark Community Center from 7 to 10 p.m., but the $30 tickets for this event have sold out. Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish will perform, and Vineyard formal is the suggested dress. Those without tickets are advised to beg, borrow and steal, as this is rumored to be the place to be for Island Democrats on Tuesday night.

Those who find watching television, drinking alcohol and dancing to rock music a tad too 2008 are invited to celebrate the inauguration with body awareness, deep breathing and quietude instead. Sherry Sidoti of Fly Yoga Martha’s Vineyard is offering a free 90-minute yoga class, “celebrating hope, cultivating a spirit of new beginnings, and fostering the fire for change as we together welcome our new president Barack Obama and the spark that this historical election has brought forth in our culture today.” Her studio is located at 497 State Road, directly across the street from the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank and a few driveways up-Island from the West Tisbury post office. For details, call 774-238-0176.

Many may choose to stay home. And some may not even care about the inauguration, and will go about their business as usual.

The theme of this inauguration is A New Birth of Freedom, honoring not just Mr. Obama but also Abraham Lincoln, who was born exactly 200 years ago on Feb. 12. The line is taken from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address:

“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Send us your stories. The Gazette invites Vineyarders who attend the inauguration in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to write personal accounts of their experience for publication in the weeks ahead. E-mail your accounts to news@mvgazette.com, mail them to the Vineyard Gazette, Box 66, Edgartown MA 02539, or fax to 508-627-7444. Please include a full name, town of residence and contact telephone number .