Patricia Liverpool © April 22-2019
MICHELLE OBAMA FLOTUS 2009 to 2017
Michelle
LaVaughn Robinson Obama was the first and so far, only, African American First
Lady of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017. Michelle LaVaughn
Robinson was born on January 17- 1964, in Chicago, Illinois, to Fraser Robinson
III (1935–1991) and Marian Shields Robinson (July 30-1937.)
The
Robinson and Shields families trace their roots to pre-Civil War African
Americans in the American South. On her father's side, she is descended from
the Gullah people of South Carolina's Low Country region. Her paternal
great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was born into slavery in 1850 on
Friendfield Plantation, near Georgetown, South Carolina. Jim Robinson was 15 years
old when he was freed at Emancipation in 1865. Her grandfather Fraser Robinson,
Jr. built his own house in South Carolina. He and his wife LaVaughn Johnson Robinson
returned to the Low Country from Chicago after retirement.
Among
her maternal ancestors was her great-great-great-grandmother Melvinia Shields,
born into slavery in South Carolina and sold to Henry Walls Shields, who had a
200-acre farm in Clayton County, Georgia near Atlanta. Melvinia's first son,
Dolphus T. Shields, was born into slavery about 1860. Based on DNA and other
evidence, in 2012 researchers said the father of Dolphus T. Shields was likely
20-year-old Charles Marion Shields, son of Henry Walls Shields who enslaved
Melvinia. Melvinia had two other children fathered by Charles Marion Shields. Dolphus
Shields with his wife Alice moved to Birmingham, Alabama after the Civil War.
They were great-great-grandparents of Michelle Robinson, whose grandparents had
moved to Chicago.
During
Michelle Obama’s childhood, the family (parents and older brother Craig) lived
on the upper floor of 7436 South Euclid Avenue in Chicago's South Shore
community area, which her parents rented from her great-aunt, who lived on the
first floor. Her elementary school was down the street. She and her family
enjoyed playing games such as Monopoly, reading, and frequently saw extended
family on both sides. She played piano, learning from her great-aunt who was a
piano teacher. She and her older brother Craig skipped the second grade.
Her
father suffered from multiple sclerosis, which had a profound emotional effect
on her as she was growing up. She was determined to stay out of trouble and be
a good student, which was what her father wanted for her. By sixth grade,
Michelle joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School (later renamed
Bouchet Academy.) She attended Whitney Young High School, Chicago's first
magnet high school, established as a selective enrollment school, where she was
a classmate of Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita. The round-trip commute from
the Robinsons' South Side home to the Near West Side, where the school was
located, took three hours. She was on the honour roll for four years, took
advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society, and
served as student council treasurer. She graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian
of her class.
Michelle
was inspired to follow her brother to Princeton University, which she entered
in 1981. She majored in sociology and minored in African-American studies,
graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985.
Some
of her teachers in high school tried to dissuade her from applying, and warned against
"setting my sights too high." She has stated that she was overwhelmed
during her first year, attributing this to the fact that neither of her parents
had graduated from college and that she had never spent time on a college
campus.
The
mother of a white roommate had her daughter reassigned because of Michelle's
race. While at Princeton, Michelle became involved with the Third World Center
(now known as the Carl A. Fields Center), an academic and cultural group that
supported minority students. She ran their day care center, which also offered
after school tutoring for older children. She challenged the teaching
methodology for French because she felt that it should be more conversational.
As part of her requirements for graduation, she wrote a sociology thesis,
entitled Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community. She researched her
thesis by sending a questionnaire to African-American graduates, asking that
they specify when and how comfortable they were with their race prior to their
enrollment at Princeton and how they felt about it when they were a student and
since then. Of the 400 alumni to whom she sent the survey, fewer than 90
responded. Her findings did not support her hope that the black alumni would
still identify with the African-American community, even though they had
attended and graduated from an elite university.
Michelle
pursued professional study, earning her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard
Law School in 1988. Her faculty mentor at Harvard Law was Charles Ogletree, who
has said that she had answered the question that had plagued her throughout
Princeton by the time she arrived at Harvard Law: whether she would remain the
product of her parents or keep the identity she had acquired at Princeton; she
had concluded she could be "both brilliant and black".
At
Harvard, Michelle participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of
professors who were members of racialized groups. She worked for the Harvard
Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases. She is the
third First Lady with a postgraduate degree, after her two immediate
predecessors, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. She later said that her education
gave her opportunities beyond what she had ever imagined.
CAREER
Following
law school, Michelle Obama became an associate at the Chicago office of the law
firm Sidley & Austin. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual
property law. She continues to hold her law license, but as she no longer needs
it for her work, she has kept it on a voluntary inactive status since 1993.
In
1991, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an
Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and
Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of
Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on
social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies. She worked there
nearly four years and set fundraising records for the organization that still
stood 12 years after she left.
In
1996, Michelle Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the
University of Chicago, where she developed the University's Community Service
Center. In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals,
first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May 2005, as
Vice President for Community and External Affairs.
She
continued to hold the University of Chicago Hospitals position during the
primary campaign of 2008, but cut back to part-time in order to spend time with
her daughters as well as work for her husband's election. She subsequently took
a leave of absence from her job.
Michelle
Robinson met Barack Obama when they were among the few African Americans at
their law firm, Sidley Austin LLP. She was assigned to mentor him while he was
a summer associate. Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a
community organization meeting where he first impressed her. Before meeting Obama,
Michelle had told her mother she intended to focus solely on her career. The
couple's first date was to Spike Lee's movie Do the Right Thing (1989). Barack
Obama has said that the couple had an "opposites attract" scenario in
their initial interest in each other, since Michelle had stability from her
two-parent home while he was "adventurous". They married on October
3, 1992 and had two children, Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha/Sasha (born
2001.)
The
Obama family lived on Chicago's South Side, where Barack taught at the
University of Chicago Law School. He was elected to the state senate in 1996,
and to the US Senate in 2004. They chose to keep their residence in Chicago
after Barack's election rather than to move to Washington, DC, as they felt it
was better for their daughters. Throughout her husband's 2008 campaign for US
President, Michelle Obama made a "commitment to be away overnight only
once a week – to campaign only two days a week and be home by the end of the
second day" for their two daughters.
The
Obamas' daughters attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a
private school. As a member of the school's board, Michelle fought to maintain
diversity in the school when other board members connected with the University
of Chicago tried to reserve more slots for children of the university faculty.
This resulted in a plan to expand the school to increase enrollment. In
Washington, DC, Malia and Sasha attended Sidwell Friends School, after also
considering Georgetown Day School. The Obamas received advice from past first
ladies Laura Bush, Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton about raising children
in the White House. Marian Robinson, Michelle's mother, moved into the White
House to assist with child care.
Michelle
LaVaughn Robinson Obama was First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. In
2009 First Lady Michelle Obama was named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating
Person of the year. Her memoir, “Becoming” was released in November 2018 and
had sold 10 million copies by late March 2019. In her memoir, she describes her
four primary initiatives as First Lady: Let's Move!, Reach Higher, Let Girls
Learn, and Joining Forces. Some initiatives of First Lady Michelle Obama
included advocating on behalf of military families, helping working women
balance career and family, encouraging national service, and promoting the arts
and arts education. First Lady Michelle Obama made supporting military families
and spouses a personal mission and increasingly bonded with military families.
According to her aides, stories of the sacrifice these families make moved her
to tears. In April 2012, she and her husband were awarded the Jerald Washington
Memorial Founders' Award by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
(NCHV). The award is the highest honor given to homeless veterans’ advocates. She
was again honored with the award in May 2015, accepting with Jill Biden.
Despite
speculation that she would be running for president in 2020, Barack Obama
stated during a campaign rally in Nevada that Michelle Obama would not be
running for president in 2020. She has previously stated that she has no
passion for politics.
Patricia Liverpool © April 22-2019
