A brief bio - #2

Synopsis

Michelle Obama was born January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1985 and went on to earn a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988. Following law school, she worked at a Chicago law firm, where she met her husband. The couple married in 1992. As First Lady she has focused her attention on current social issues.

CONTENTS

• Synopsis
• Early Life
• Gifted Student
• Marriage to Barack Obama
• High-Profile Work in Chicago
• Supporting her Husband
• Issues and Causes
• First Family

QUOTES

"When I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am."

– Michelle Obama

« prev1 / 2next »

Early Life

First lady, lawyer, Chicago city administrator, community outreach worker and wife of U.S. President Barack Obama. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was born January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois.

Michelle was raised on Chicago's South Side in a one-bedroom apartment. Her father, Frasier Robinson, was a city pump operator and a Democratic precinct captain. Her mother, Marian, was a Spiegel's secretary who later stayed home to raise Michelle and her older brother, Craig. The family has been described as a close-knit one that shared family meals, read and played games together.

Craig and Michelle, 16 months apart in age, were often mistaken for twins. The siblings also shared close quarters—they slept in the living room with a makeshift sheet serving as their room divider. Both children were raised with an emphasis on education. The brother and sister learned to read at home by the age of four, and both skipped second grade.

Gifted Student

By sixth grade, Michelle was attending gifted classes, where she learned French and took accelerated courses. She then went on to attend the city's first magnet high school for gifted children where, among other activities, she served as the student government treasurer. "Without being immodest, we were always smart, we were always driven and we were always encouraged to do the best you can do, not just what's necessary," her brother Craig, has said. "And when it came to going to schools, we all wanted to go to the best schools we could."

Michelle graduated in 1981 from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago's West Loop as class salutatorian. After high school, she followed her brother to Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1985 with a B.A. in Sociology. She went on to earn a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988, where she took part in demonstrations demanding more minority students and professors.

Marriage to Barack Obama

Following law school, Michelle worked as an associate in the Chicago branch of the law firm Sidley Austin in the area of marketing and intellectual property. There in 1989, she met her future husband, Barack Obama, a summer intern whom she was assigned as an adviser. "I went to Harvard and he went to Harvard, and the firm thought, 'Oh, we'll hook these two people up,'" Michelle said. "So, you know, there was a little intrigue, but I must say after about a month, Barack…asked me out, and I thought no way. This is completely tacky." Initially, she refused to date Obama, believing that their work relationship would make the romance improper. Eventually she relented, and the couple soon fell in love.

After two years of dating, Barack proposed. "We were at a restaurant having dinner to celebrate the fact that he had finished the bar," Michelle remembers. "Then the waiter came over with the dessert and a tray. And there was the ring. And I was completely shocked." The couple married at Trinity United Church of Christ on October 18, 1992.

High-Profile Work in Chicago

Michelle soon left her job to launch a career in public service, serving as an assistant to Mayor Daley and then as the assistant commissioner of planning and development for the City of Chicago.

In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit leadership-training program that helped young adults develop skills for future careers in the public sector.

Michelle joined the University of Chicago in 1996 as associate dean of student services, developing the University’s first community service program. She then worked for the University of Chicago Hospitals beginning in 2002, as executive director of community relations and external affairs.

In May 2005, she was appointed vice president of community relations and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she continues to work part-time. She also manages the business diversity program and sits on six boards, including the prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.

Supporting her Husband

Michelle Obama first caught the eye of a national audience at her husband's side when he delivered a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois that November.

In 2007, she scaled back her own professional work to attend to family and campaign obligations during Barack's run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Michelle says she's 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, Malia (born 1999) and Natasha (2001). It has been reported that the Obama family has no nanny, and that the children are left with their grandmother, Marian, while their parents campaign. "I've never participated at this level in any of his campaigns," Michelle says. "I have usually chosen to just appear when necessary."

Since her husband's political role pushed the Obama family into the spotlight, Michelle has been publicly recognized for her steely, no-nonsense campaign style as well as her sense of fashion. In May of 2006, Michelle was featured in Essence magazine as one of "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women." Then in September 2007, Michelle was listed in 02138 magazine as number 58 in "The Harvard 100," a list of the most influential alumni for the year. She has also made the Vanity Fair best-dressed list two years in a row, as well as People Magazine's 2008 best-dressed list.

Issues and Causes

As the 44th First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama has focused her attention on issues such as the support of military families, helping working women balance career and family, and encouraging national service. During the first year of the Obama presidency, Michelle and her husband have volunteered at homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the Washington, D.C. area. Michelle also has made appearances at public schools, stressing the importance of education and volunteer work.

Ever conscious of her family's diet and health, Michelle Obama has supported the organic food movement, instructing the White House kitchens to prepare organic food for guests and her family. In March 2009, Michelle worked with 23 fifth graders from a local school in Washington, D.C., to plant a 1,100 square foot garden of fresh vegetables and install bee hives on the South Lawn of the White House. Periodically, throughout the summer, the same students returned to harvest various foods and learned to cook fresh-grown organic vegetables. In 2010, Michelle has put efforts to fight childhood obesity near the top of her agenda.

First Family

Both Michelle and Barack Obama have stated their personal priority is their two daughters, Malia and Sasha. The parents realize that the move from Chicago to Washington, D.C., would be a major adjustment for any family. Living in the White House, having Secret Service protection, and always being in the wake of their parents' public lives has dramatically transformed their lives. Both parents try to make their daughters' lives as "normal" as possible with set times for study, bed, and getting up. "My first priority will always be to make sure that our girls are healthy and grounded," Michelle said. "Then I want to help other families get the support they need, not just to survive, but to thrive."

© 2011 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

Michelle Obama's infamous and revealing quote about the scope of the Obama Revolution

Here is the full quote from May of 2008:

MICHELLE OBAMA: "Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."

Michelle Obama's 1985 Princeton Senior Paper - All About Being Black In White Academia

These are PDF files. The thesis is divided into four files with the hope of decreasing the time it takes to open each file: The title of the thesis is Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community and can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
My right wings buds sometimes fail to get things correct [I am not perfect, either] : Princeton did pull the thesis from view until the day after the '08. What often gets left out of the story is the fact that the Obama's, themselves, took the thesis and gave it to the Politico. And that is why we have the paper today, boys and girls. Just sayin'.
Excerpts:
"My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before . . . I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

Michelle Obama's Merced Graduation Speech - May 16, 2009

MICHELLE OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you so much, Class of 2009. (Applause.) All I can say is wow, and good afternoon, everyone. I am so proud of these graduates. We have to just give them one big round of applause before I start. This is just an amazing day. (Applause.) I want to thank Dick for that lovely introduction. He makes for a good companion when you have to go to an inauguration. (Laughter.) So I'm glad he could be here with me today. I appreciate all that he has done to make this day so very special.

I want to acknowledge a few other people before I begin: Congressman Jerry McNerney, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, Attorney General Jerry Brown, and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. I want to thank you all for your leadership and for being an example of what a life in public service can mean to us all.
And of course I have to thank Chancellor Kang for this incredible welcome, and as well as President Yudof and Provost Keith Alley for all that they've done to help make this event just such a wonderful day for us all.
And to the graduates and their families and the entire community of Merced, I am so pleased, so thrilled, so honored to be here with all of you today. (Applause.)

Now, I know we've got a lot of national press out there, and a few people may be wondering why did I choose the University of California-Merced to deliver my first commencement speech as First Lady. (Applause.) Well, let me tell you something, the answer is simple: You inspired me, you touched me. (Applause.) You know, there are few things that are more rewarding than to watch young people recognize that they have the power to make their dreams come true. And you did just that. Your perseverance and creativity were on full display in your efforts to bring me here to Merced for this wonderful occasion. (Applause.) there was no applause at this point.

So let me tell you what you did. If you don't know, parents, because some of you were involved, my office received thousands of letters and, of course, Valentines cards from students; each and every one of them so filled with hope and enthusiasm. It moved not just me but my entire staff. They came up to me and said, "Michelle, you have to do this." (Laughter.) "You have to go here!" (Applause.)

They were all terrific. Like the one from Christopher Casuga that read, "Dear Mrs. Obama -- Please come to UC Merced's Commencement. We could really use the publicity." (Laughter.) That really touched me.

Or then there was one from Jim Greenwood who wrote not on his behalf but on behalf of his wife and the mother of his two children, who is graduating with us today. (Applause.)

And then there was the one from Andrea Mercado. I think this was one of my favorites. Andrea said that the role of First Lady is -- and I quote -- "the balance between politics and sanity." (Laughter.) Thank you, Andrea, for that vote of confidence. (Laughter.)

I received letters from everyone connected to this university -- not just students, but they came from parents, and grandparents, and cousins, and aunts, and uncles, and neighbors, and friends, all of them telling me about how hard you all have worked and how important this day is for you and for the entire Merced community.
And then there's that beautiful video, the "We Believe" video. Well, let me tell you, it worked, because I'm here! (Applause.)

And I want to thank in particular Sam Fong and Yaasha Sabba and all of the students who launched the "Dear Michelle" campaign. (Applause.) I am honored by your efforts and happy to be with you to celebrate this important milestone.

But I understand that this type of community-based letter writing campaign isn't unique to me. This community, this Merced community, employed the same strategy to help get the University of California to build the new campus here in Merced. (Applause.) Every school kid in the entire county, I understand, sent a postcard to the UC Board of Regents in order to convince them to select Merced, and I just love the fact that some of the graduates sitting this audience today participating were involved in that campaign, as well, and then they used the same strategy to get me here. That is amazing. And what it demonstrates is the power of many voices coming together to make something wonderful happen. And I'm telling you, next year's graduation speaker better watch out, because Merced students know how to get what they want. (Laughter and applause) This type of activism and optimism speaks volumes about the students here, the faculty, the staff, but also about the character and history of Merced -- a town built by laborers and immigrants from all over the world: early settlers who came here as pioneers and trailblazers in the late 1800s as part of the Gold Rush and built the churches and businesses and schools that exist; African Americans who escaped slavery and the racism of the South to work on the railways as truck drivers up and down Route 99; Mexican Americans who traveled north to find work on the farms and have since become the backbone of our agricultural industry -- (applause); Asian Americans who arrived in San Francisco and have slowly branched out to become a part of the community in the San Joaquin Valley. (Applause.)

Merced's make-up may have changed over the years, but its values and character have not -- long, hot days filled with hard work by generations of men and women of all races who wanted an opportunity to build a better life for their children and their grandchildren; hardworking folks who believed that access to a good education would be their building blocks to a brighter future.

You know, I grew up in one of those communities with similar values. Like Merced, the South Side of Chicago is a community where people struggled financially, but worked hard, looked out for each other and rallied around their children. My father was a blue-collar worker, as you all know. My mother stayed at home to raise me and my brother. We were the first to graduate from college in our immediate family. (Applause.)
I know that many of you out here are also the first in your families to achieve that distinction, as well. (Applause.) And as you know, being the first is often a big responsibility, particularly in a community that, like many others around our country at the moment, is struggling to cope with record high unemployment and foreclosure rates; a community where families are a single paycheck or an emergency room visit away from homelessness.

And with jobs scarce, many of you may be considering leaving town with your diploma in hand. And it wouldn't be unreasonable. For those of you who come from communities facing similar economic hardships, you may also be wondering how you'll build decent lives for yourselves if you choose to return to those communities.

But I would encourage you to call upon the same hope and hard work that brought you to this day. Call upon that optimism and tenacity that built the University of California at Merced to invest in the future of Merced in your own home towns all across this country. By using what you have learned here, you can shorten the path perhaps for kids who may not see a path at all.

And I was once one of those kids. Most of you were once one of those kids. I grew up just a few miles from the University of Chicago in my hometown. The university, like most institutions, was a major cultural, economic institution in my neighborhood. My mother even worked as a secretary there for several years.

Yet that university never played a meaningful role in my academic development. The institution made no effort to reach out to me –- a bright and promising student in their midst –- and I had no reason to believe there was a place for me there. Therefore, when it came time for me to apply to college, I never for one second considered the university in my own backyard as a viable option.

And as fate would have it, I ultimately went on and accepted a position in student affairs at the University of Chicago more than a decade later. What I found was that working within the institution gave me the opportunity to express my concerns about how little role the university plays in the life of its neighbors. I wanted desperately to be involved in helping to break down the barriers that existed between the campus and the community.

And in less than a year, through that position, I worked with others to build the university's first Office of Community Service. And today, the office continues to provide students with opportunities to help reshape relationships between the university and its surrounding community. Students there today are volunteering in local elementary schools, serving as mentors at high schools, organizing neighborhood watches, and worshiping in local churches.

But you know a little something about working with your community here, don't you, Merced?

UC Merced, its faculty and its students seem to already have a handle on this need and it speaks once again to the character of this community. As I learned more about what you have done, I am so impressed with how the students, faculty and the community are collaborating to ensure that every child in this community understands there is a place for them at this big beautiful university if they study hard and stay out of trouble.

For example, there is Kevin Mitchell, a professor in the School of Natural Science, who studies chaos, of all things. He's coordinating a program to bring physicists into local elementary and high schools to help open the eyes of students to the possibility of careers in science.

Then there is Claudia Zepeda, a junior psychology major, who is mentoring students from her high school here. The first in her family to attend college, Claudia works with the Westside Initiative for Leaders, an organization that helps prepare disadvantaged students for college. And because of her help, 10 students from her high school will attend UC Merced this coming fall. That is amazing. (Applause.)

And then there are local leaders like police officer, Nick Navarette -- (applause) -- who coordinates a program that brings about 60 UC Merced students to local elementary schools each week to mentor students from poorer neighborhoods. Nick then brings kids to campus regularly so that they can do something special; see what it's like to be on a college campus, and begin to dream.

And then there is my friend and former law school professor, Charles Ogletree, a product of the Merced public schools. (Applause.) Now, he is an example of how you can bring your skills back. His ambitions took him far away from home, but he has never forgotten where he came from.

Each year, with his help, Merced's high schools are able to hand out scholarships, not just for the best and the brightest students, but also for many students who are just stuck in poverty and simply need a hand up to compete.

So the faculty, the students, local leaders, Merced alumni, everyone here is doing their part to help the children of Merced realize that access to a quality education is available to them as long as they work hard, study hard and apply themselves.

It is this kind of commitment that we're going to need in this nation to put this country back on a path where every child expects to succeed and where every child has the tools that they need to achieve their dreams. That's what we're aiming for. (Applause.) And we're going to need all of you, graduates, this generation, we need you to lead the way.

Now, let me tell you, careers focused on lifting up our communities –- whether it's helping transform troubled schools or creating after-school programs or training workers for green jobs -– these careers are not always obvious, but today they are necessary. Solutions to our nation's most challenging social problems are not going to come from Washington alone. Real innovation often starts with individuals who apply themselves to solve a problem right in their own community. That's where the best ideas come from.

And some pretty incredible social innovations have been launched by young people all across this world.
Teach for America in this country is a great example. It was created by Wendy Kopp as a part of her undergraduate senior thesis in 1989. And now, as a result of her work then, more than 6,200 corps members are teaching in our country's neediest communities, reaching approximately 400,000 students.

And then there's Van Jones, who recently joined the Obama administration, a special adviser to the President on green jobs. Van started out as a grassroots organizer and became an advocate and a creator of "green collar" jobs –- jobs that are not only good for the environment, but also provide good wages and career advancement for both skilled and unskilled workers; jobs similar to the ones being created right here at UC Merced as this green campus continues to grow.

And then one of my heroes, Geoffrey Canada, grew up in the South Bronx. After graduating from Bowdoin and getting his masters at Harvard, he returned to New York City and used his education to ensure that the next generation would have a chance at the same opportunity. Geoffrey's Harlem Children's Zone is a nationally recognized program that covers 100 blocks and reaches nearly 10,000 children with a variety of social services to ensure that all kids are prepared to get a good education.

And in an effort to invest in and encourage the future Wendy Kopps, Van Joneses and Geoffrey Canadas, the Obama administration recently launched the Office of Social Innovation at the White House. The President has asked Congress to provide $50 million in seed capital to fund great ideas like the ones I just described. The Office is going to identify the most promising, results-oriented non-profit programs and expand their reach throughout the country.

And this university is blessed with some of the leading researchers and academics who are focusing already their attention on solving some of our nation's most critical issues, like the energy crisis, global warming, climate change, and air pollution.

And you, the students, the graduates and faculty on this campus, you're capable of changing the world, that's for sure. Where you are right now is no different from where Wendy and Van and Geoffrey were when they graduated, remember that. You too can have this same transformative effect on the community of Merced and our entire nation. We need your ideas, graduates. We need your resourcefulness. We need your inventiveness.
And as the students who helped build this school, I ask you, make your legacy a lasting one. Dream big, think broadly about your life, and please make giving back to your community a part of that vision. Take the same hope and optimism, the hard work and tenacity that brought you to this point, and carry that with you for the rest of your life in whatever you choose to do. Each and every single day, some young person is out there changing the ways -- the world in ways both big and small.

But let me tell you something, as you step out into that big, open world, and you start building your lives, the truth is that you will face tough times, you will certainly have doubts, let me tell you, because I know I did when I was your age. There will be days when you will worry about whether you're really up for the challenge. Maybe some of you already feel a little of that right now. Maybe you're wondering: Am I smart enough? Do I really belong? Can I live up to all those expectations that everyone has of me?

And you will definitely have your share of setbacks. Count on it. Your best laid plans will be consumed by obstacles. Your excellent ideas will be peppered with flaws. You will be confronted with financial strains as your loans become due and salaries fall short of both expectations and expenses. You will make mistakes that will shatter your confidence. You will make compromises that will test your convictions. You will find that there is rarely a clear and direct path to any of your visions. And you will find that you'll have to readjust again and again and again. And there may be times when you wonder whether it's all worth it. And there may be moments when you just want to quit. ]

But in those moments, those inevitable moments, I urge you to think about this day. Look around you. Look around you. There are thousands and thousands of hardworking people who have helped you get to this point, people who are celebrating with you today, who are praying for you every single day, and others who couldn't be here, for whatever reason. I want you to think of the people who sacrificed for you -- you know that -- family members who worked a third job to get you through, who took on the extra shifts to get you through, who put off doing something important for themselves to get you to this day.

And think about the friends who never got the chance to go to college but were still invested in your success -- friends who talked you out of dropping out, friends who kept you out of trouble so that you could graduate on time, friends who forced you to study when you wanted to procrastinate. (Laughter.)

Most importantly, though, think of the millions of kids living all over this world who will never come close to having the chance to stand in your shoes -- kids in New Orleans whose schools are still recovering from the ravages of Katrina; kids who will never go to school at all because they're forced to work in a sweat shop somewhere; kids in your very own communities who just can't get a break, who don't have anyone in their lives telling them that they're good enough and smart enough to do whatever they can imagine; kids who have lost the ability to dream. These kids are desperate to find someone or something to cling to. They are looking to you for some sign of hope.

So, whenever you get ready to give up, think about all of these people and remember that you are blessed. Remember that you are blessed. Remember that in exchange for those blessings, you must give something back. (Applause.) You must reach back and pull someone up. You must bend down and let someone else stand on your shoulders so that they can see a brighter future.

As advocate and activist Marian Wright Edelman says, "Service is the rent we pay for living…it is the true measure, the only measure of our success." So, graduates, when times get tough and fear sets in, think of those people who paved the way for you and those who are counting on you to pave the way for them. Never let setbacks or fear dictate the course of your life. Hold on to the possibility and push beyond the fear. Hold on to the hope that brought you here today, the hope of laborers and immigrants, settlers and slaves, whose blood and sweat built this community and made it possible for you to sit in these seats.

There are a lot of people in your lives who know a little something about the power of hope. Don't we, parents and grandparents? (Applause.) Look, I know a little something about the power of hope. My husband knows a little something about the power of hope. (Applause.)

You are the hope of Merced and of this nation. And be the realization of our dreams and the hope for the next generation. We believe in you. Thank you so much, and good luck. God bless you all. (Applause.)

Return pathway to main-page of MidKnight Review

Michelle Obama - Her Philosophical Under-Pinnings

Michelle Obama
Also known as: Michelle L. Obama, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama
Birth: January 17, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois Nationality: American Ethnicity: African American Occupation: Lawyer, administrator Source: Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 61. Gale, 2007. Updated: 09/18/2008
BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Michelle Obama, vice president of community and external affairs for the University of Chicago (UC) Hospitals, was thrust into the media spotlight in 2007 when her husband, U.S. Senator Barack Obama, launched his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Obama was among her husband's closest advisors. Many observers believed her to be a powerful asset to her husband's campaign. On January 20, 2009, Michelle Obama held the Lincoln Bible as her husband was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.
Raised on Chicago's South Side
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, Fraser Robinson, worked for the city's water-filtration department while battling multiple sclerosis. Her mother, Marian Robinson, was a secretary who, as of 2007, still lived in the South-Side bungalow where Michelle was raised. Michelle excelled in school, skipping the second grade, and attending the Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. Her mother told Cassandra West of the Chicago Tribune in 2004: "I always say Michelle raised herself from about nine years old. She had her head on straight very early." Obama told William Finnegan of the New Yorker: "I was just a typical South Side little black girl. Not a whole lot of money. Going to the circus once a year was a big deal. Getting pizza on Friday was a treat. Summers were long and fun." She admired her father and grandfather as "bright, articulate, well-read men. If they'd been white, they would have been the heads of banks."
Michelle followed her older brother Craig to Princeton University. She told Finnegan: "It helped having an older brother who was a basketball star. Of course, it was different, being black, but I found a black support base for myself. It was also different not being filthy rich...But it helped my confidence, being able to succeed there. I actually knew lots of kids in high school who could have competed there, academically. You just had to get in. So much of getting ahead in this world is access, networking." She told the Daily Princetonian: "Being one of the school's few African-American students at the time, I found there weren't many opportunities for minorities. So we created a community within a community and got involved at places like the Third World Center." Michelle ran a daycare program there for her work-study project.
Michelle Robinson graduated magna cum laude from Princeton in 1985. The Newark Star-Ledger quoted from her senior thesis: "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'Blackness' than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong." She feared that her future held "further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant." For her thesis she surveyed black Princeton alumni about their racial attitudes since graduation and whether they had sacrificed their commitment to the black community in exchange for success. She "wondered whether or not my education at Princeton would affect my identification with the Black community. I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with Whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that Black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the Black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility." Nevertheless she remained determined "to actively utilize my resources to benefit the Black community." She entered Harvard Law School.
Reexamined Her Life
After graduating from Harvard, Robinson joined the large, prestigious Chicago corporate-law firm of Sidley & Austin. Barack Obama, a Harvard Law student, joined the firm as an intern in 1988 and Robinson was charged with mentoring him. She told Ebony in February of 2007: "I was skeptical at first; everyone was raving about this smart, attractive, young first-year associate they recruited from Harvard. Everyone was like, 'Oh, he's brilliant, he's amazing and he's attractive.' I said, 'Okay, this is probably just a Brother who can talk straight.'" She told West: "I was more focused on my plan. I had made this proclamation to my mother the summer I met Barack, 'I'm not worrying about dating...I'm going to focus on me.'"
In 1991, following the death of her father and a college roommate, Robinson reexamined her career. She told the New York Times: "My father had M.S. and worked every day and rarely complained. He died on his way to work. He wasn't feeling well, but he was going to get in that car and go. That's how we grew up, living your life to be sure that you make the most of it. If what you're doing doesn't bring you joy every single day, what's the point?" Robinson considered whether or not the career path she'd been on lived up to that standard.
Obama told O Magazine: "I needed to consider what I really cared about, which was work that had a community-based feel, using my education to benefit others. So while I was still at the firm, I spent about a year meeting with people.... I developed such an interesting network that people started calling me with job offers. I ultimately decided to become an assistant to the mayor of Chicago. It required a temporary financial setback, but in the end, when you're living your dream, the economic stability comes."
Entered the Public Sector
Leaving her big salary behind, Robinson worked on human-services initiatives in Mayor Richard Daley's office. Her boss David Mosena told West: "She has her feet solidly on the ground, both of them. There's not a bone of superficiality in her. She is the real deal..." Robinson married Obama in 1992, after traveling to Kenya to meet his family. That same year, Michelle Obama moved to the city's office of planning and development as an assistant commissioner.
In 1993, Obama became founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago, an Americorps National Service Program. There she provided internships and leadership training for young adults pursuing public-service careers. She told the Daily Princetonian: "We had people who had just graduated from high school taking internships alongside people who had just graduated from Harvard. I learned that you can go to the best school in the country and still not realize what you can do to help the community." Three years later Obama was named associate dean of student services at the University of Chicago, where she coordinated student community service.
Obama became executive director of community affairs at the UC Hospitals in 2002. She initiated neighborhood-outreach programs, recruited volunteers, and increased staff diversity and minority contracting. She established a collaboration with physicians and clinics to provide primary care to low-income residents who would otherwise use the hospital emergency room.
Thrust into Politics
Being a political wife had never been part of Obama's plan. When Barack first ran for the Illinois State Senate in 1996 she told him, as quoted in Ebony in March of 2006, "I married you because you're cute and you're smart, but this is the dumbest thing you could have ever asked me to do." In his book The Audacity of Hope, Barack wrote openly of the strain that his political career placed on their marriage.
Barack Obama faced powerful political opposition in his 2004 Democratic primary run for the Illinois Senate seat. Michelle Obama's close ties to black community leaders aided his primary victory.
His keynote address to the 2004 Democratic Convention made Barack Obama famous, and he was easily elected to the U.S. Senate. Rather than move to Washington, Michelle insisted that she and their young daughters stay in Chicago. In June of 2005, the Obamas moved into a $1.6-million historic townhouse on Chicago's South Side. She told Ebony in March of 2006: "I'm in a good place because I have a job that I care about deeply, that doesn't cause me to do that job at the complete sacrifice of my family and my kids, which is ultimately my first priority. I'm in the community where I grew up, where I live and it feels like it's all coming full circle."
Promoted to Vice President
In May of 2005, Obama was promoted to vice president for community and external affairs of the UC Hospitals. Her salary tripled. Obama was determined to increase the hospitals' investment in the surrounding community. She announced in a press release: "We have an obligation to ensure that we use our resources on behalf of our neighborhood and our city. In this new role, my goal is to better integrate community engagement into the culture of this institution and to expand our partnerships with local organizations and institutions."
In her new position Obama established pediatric mobile units for the community, as well as "Principal-for-a-Day" and community fitness programs. The number of volunteers doubled. In her plenary address before the 2006 Best Bosses Conference & Celebration, Obama pronounced: "We've gone from 'community service is the right thing to do' to 'community service is a critical part of keeping our doors open.'"
Seeking experience in corporate management, Obama was elected to the board of TreeHouse Foods, Inc., a food processor. This garnered some criticism, since Wal-Mart was TreeHouse's largest customer and Barack Obama had made national headlines when he joined a campaign attacking Wal-Mart's employment practices. In addition, TreeHouse had announced the closure of a pickle plant that was the mainstay of a small Colorado town.
Hit the Campaign Trail
Michelle Obama told Ebony in March of 2006: "Our future is making sure Barack can get to our daughters' ballet recitals and balancing the demands of this current set of responsibilities with our need to build a strong family." However, within a few short months, Barack was actively campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Initially, Michelle Obama was unavailable to the press. She had told West in 2004: "If politics were my passion, I'd find out how to do it and make it work." West further quoted her as saying: "What I notice about men, all men, is that their order is me, my family, God is in there somewhere, but me is first. And for women, me is fourth, and that's not healthy."
However, in December of 2006, Obama gave her husband the go-ahead to seek the nomination on the condition that he quit smoking. By February of 2007, she was speaking at campaign fundraisers. In an appearance on the TV program 60 Minutes, as reported in the Newark Star-Ledger, Obama was asked whether she feared for her candidate husband's life. "I don't lose sleep over it because the realities are that, as a black man, Barack can get shot going to the gas station."
In February of 2007, Ebony ran a cover story on the Obamas, "The Hottest Couple in America." A February 2007 headline in the London Daily Telegraph read: "Obama prepares to unveil his secret weapon: His wife, a Princeton and Harvard graduate, has been credited with the poise of Jackie Kennedy and the brain of Hillary Clinton." Barack Obama told Ebony: "She is smart. She's got a good perspective. She's blunt, so she can tell me things that maybe other people are afraid to tell me. If I ever ran against her, I would be in trouble."
UPDATES
August 25, 2008: Obama, the prime-time speaker on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, called her husband, presidential candidate Barack Obama, "the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer." Source: New York Times, August 25, 2008.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, IL; married Barack Obama, 1992; children: Malia, Sasha Education: Princeton University, BA, sociology, 1985; Harvard University Law School, JD, 1988. Politics: Democrat. Religion: United Church of Christ. Memberships: Commission on Chicago Landmarks; Facing History and Ourselves, board member; Muntu Dance Company, board member; Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute, board member; TreeHouse Foods, Inc., director, audit committee, nominating and corporate governance committee. Addresses: Office--The University of Chicago Hospitals, 5841 S. Maryland Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60637.
AWARDS
Essence Magazine, "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women," 2006.
CAREER
Sidley & Austin, Chicago, IL, associate attorney, 1988-91; City of Chicago, assistant to the mayor, 1991-92, assistant commissioner of planning and development, 1992-93; Public Allies Chicago, founding executive director, 1993-96; University of Chicago, associate dean of student services, director of the University Community Service Center, 1996-2002; University of Chicago Hospitals, executive director for community affairs, 2002-05, executive vice president for community and external affairs, 2005-.

Our source: Gale Cengage Learning
FURTHER READINGS
Books
Obama, Barack, The Audacity of Hope, Crown, 2006.
Periodicals
Chicago Sun-Times, October 19, 2006.
Chicago Tribune, September 1, 2004; December 25, 2005; September 26, 2006.
Daily Princetonian, December 7, 2005.
Daily Telegraph (London, UK), February 3, 2007, p. 018.
Ebony, March 2006, pp. 58, 61, 63; February 2007, pp. 52-63.
New York Times, February 16, 2007, p. 1.
New Yorker, May 31, 2004.
O: The Oprah Magazine, September 2005, pp. 22, 32, 228, 230-231, 273-274.
Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), February 18, 2007, p. 1.
Online
"Michelle Obama Appointed Vice President for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals," The University of Chicago Hospitals, (March 15, 2007).
"Michelle Obama Delivers Address at Best Bosses Conference," Winning Workplaces, (March 15, 2007).
SOURCE CITATION
"Michelle Obama." Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 61. Gale, 2007. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

Obama's Offical Short Biography

Full Text of Obama's official bio:No hint of Ayers, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the Woods Fund. He does not mention that he began running for President before he really started serving as Senator. Anyway - here is the text complete with these obvious omissions. Highlighted text are by jds

Text from Obama's campaign site:

Barack Obama was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. They didn't have much money, but they taught him values from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. He took out loans to put himself through school. After college, he worked for Christian churches in Chicago, helping communities devastated when steel plants closed. Obama turned down lucrative job offers after law school to return to Chicago, leading a successful voter registration drive. He joined a small law firm, taught constitutional law and, guided by his Christian faith, stayed active in his community.

Obama and his wife Michelle are proud parents of two daughters, Sasha and Malia.Early Years Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British. Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army. Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii.

It was there, at the University of Hawaii, where Barack's parents met. His mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America. Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.

The College Years
Remembering the values of empathy and service that his mother taught him, Barack put law school and corporate life on hold after college and moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment. The group had some success, but Barack had come to realize that in order to truly improve the lives of people in that community and other communities, it would take not just a change at the local level, but a change in our laws and in our politics. He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law.

The Lawyer and Politician
Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Political Career
It has been the rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama's life - growing up in different places with people who had differing ideas - that have animated his political journey. Amid the partisanship and bickering of today's public debate, he still believes in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose - a politics [sic] that puts solving the challenges of everyday Americans ahead of partisan calculation and political gain. In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases. In the U.S. Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of a globalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no longer settles for the lowest common denominator. His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent. He has also been the lead voice in championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-style corruption in Congress.

As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world. And knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America's addiction to oil, he's working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars.

Whether it's the poverty exposed by Katrina, the genocide in Darfur, or the role of faith in our politics, Barack Obama continues to speak out on the issues that will define America in the 21st century. But above all his accomplishments and experiences, he is most proud and grateful for his family. His wife, Michelle, and his two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, live on Chicago's South Side.

Michelle Robinson Obama's Biography

MICHELLE ROBINSON OBAMA - THE EARLY YEARS
Born on January 17, 1964, Michelle Robinson was raised in a one-bedroom apartment on Chicago's South Shore.

Of note is that she shared a "bedroom" with her brother, but it wasn't much of a bedroom. It was actually the living room with a divider down the middle. Michelle's father died in 1990 two years before she married Barack, but her mother is still alive and living in the same one-bedroom apartment, protected by a burglar-proof wrought-iron door and secured windows.After high school Michelle Robinson majored in sociology at Princeton University, graduating with cum laude honors in 1985. From there she attended Harvard where she earned her law degree in 1988, one year ahead of her husband-to-be, Barack, whom she hadn't met yet but attended the same law school.*

MICHELLE AND BARACK MEET
After graduating from Harvard, Michelle accepted a position at a downtown Chicago law firm. In 1989 she was asked to mentor a summer associate from Harvard name Barack Obama. According to reports, Barack didn't have much interest in corporate law, but did have a lot of interest in Michelle.Apparently Michelle Robinson initially brushed off advances from Barack because they were working at same firm...and he was an intern and she higher up the law firm's foodchain as an associate. But love prevailed and they were married on October 18, 1992.

Interestingly Barack and Michelle waited almost seven years before having children. Their first daughter name Malia Ann Obama was born in 1999 with Natasha (often called "sasha") following two years later in 2001.When asked about what made her fall in love with him she replied "for the same reason many other people respect him; his connection with people."Even though her husband is the center of attention, Michelle has zero concerns about fidelity in their marriage. She told Ebony magazine in March 2006, "I never worry about things I can't affect, and with fidelity . . . that is between Barack and me, and if somebody can come between us, we didn't have much to begin with."

MICHELLE'S ROBINSON OBAMA'S CAREER
Michelle's impressive resume includes: Former associate dean at the University of Chicago; a member of six boards of directors including the prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and Tree House Foods; and Vice President, Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. In this position she was responsible for all programs and initiatives that involve the relationships between the hospitals and the community as well as management of the hospitals' business diversity program.

MICHELLE OBAMA'S INFLUENCES ON BARACK'S POLITICAL CAREER
Michelle's professional relationships were helpful when her husband in 2004, then a state senator, ran for the United States Senate, where he faced a primary dominated by some of the Democratic Party's most powerful political families.In this 2004 race, Obama had the support of influential black business leaders, some of whom had closer ties to his wife than they did to him. According to Newsweek, a former boss of Michelle Obama's, a powerful black woman Valerie Jarrett, chair of the Chicago Stock Exchange, served as finance chair of Barack Obama's U.S. Senate campaign.

MICHELLE OBAMA: THE MOM & WIFE
After Barack was elected to the U.S. Senate, Barack and Michelle choose to keep their children in Chicago, where Michelle continued her career as well. "We made a good decision to stay in Chicago so that has kept our family stable," Michelle Obama told the Chicago Tribune. Every Sunday the family attends services at the Trinity United Church of Christ.According to reports, Michelle has mastered being a mother, career woman and the wife of a politician. When Newsweek magazine trailed her in 2004, the reporter could not help but notice a to-do list for her two daughters Malia and Natasha that included time for "play." She is in bed most nights by 9:30 and rises each morning at 4:30 to run on a treadmill. This level of discipline and organization helps her manage her public and private pressures with poise. In New Yorker magazine Michelle noted that the life of a political wife is "hard and that's why Barack is such a grateful man."But there's more to it. "Barack didn't pledge riches" Michelle explains to Newsweek. "Only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he's delivered."