Loving Michelle Obama wasn't much of a choice. It was something that came naturally, because of how she carried herself. Because she resembled us and was moving in spaces where, as black Americans, we weren't exactly meant to be, she seemed so powerful.
When I first met her, I was embraced by a warm, regal, confident woman who possessed a reassuring calm, on the eve of President Obama's historic first Inauguration.
Michelle Obama spent 2008 campaigning for her husband Barack, experiencing a level of scrutiny that was undeniably linked to her race and would persist for years to come. That August, she delivered a stirring address at the Democratic National Convention in which she talked about the improbable journey from her working-class Chicago upbringing to that very stage. Speaking of her young daughters, she shared that their future and all our children's future is my stake in this election.
After her husband won, she gracefully stepped into the role of First Lady as the first black woman to do so. Focused on social issues like education and healthy living, she was deeply committed to the well-being of our nation and to the future of its people, especially its children. Her charisma, confidence and openness created an approachable air to the White House. Though her days as First Lady are over, her influence hasn't waned. Her lived experience sends the message that through kindness, diligence, intelligence and honesty, you can effectively change the world. If she can do it, you can do it too.
Michelle Obama Fills In Ellen DeGeneres On Her Family's Self-Isolation Routine
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Michelle Obama Encourages Thanks for First Responders Amid Pandemic Plus Other Ways to Help
"A simple 'thank you' text can go a long way in showing our appreciation for these heroes among us," the former first lady wrote on Twitter
Other Facts Graduated magna cum laude with a sociology degree from Princeton. Met Barack Obama when she was assigned to be his mentor at Sidley and Austin, a Chicago law firm. Her father suffered from and eventually died of multiple sclerosis.
Timeline 1988-1991 - Associate attorney at Sidley and Austin in Chicago. 1991-1992 - Assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. 1992-1993 - Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. 1993-1996 - Founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago. 1996-2002 - Associate Dean of Student Services for the University of Chicago and director of the University Community Service Center. 2002-2005 - Executive Director for Community Affairs for University of Chicago Hospitals. 2005-2007 - Member of the board of Tree House Foods, a food supplier for Walmart stores. 2005-January 2009 - Vice President of Community and External Affairs for University of Chicago Hospitals.
She is an attorney with degrees from Princeton and Harvard. She is the former first lady of the United States, and the first African-American one. She just came off a gangbusters book tour for her memoir, Becoming, which was Amazon's longest-standing No. 1 title since Fifty Shades of Grey. And, according to polls, she is the most admired woman in the world.
She has conducted her life with the utmost honor, dignity and grace. Every day I miss her and her husband's presence in the White House. Their contrast with the Trumps is so stark that it's painful. America downgraded erudition to indecency. Obama owes no one anything. She has nothing to prove. It is already proven.
She had rhythm, a flow and swerve, hands slicing air, body weight moving from foot to foot, a beautiful rhythm. In anything else but a black American body, it would have been contrived. The three-quarter sleeves of her teal dress announced its appropriateness, as did her matching brooch. But the cut of the dress scorned any future first lady stuffiness; it hung easy on her, as effortless as her animation. And a brooch, Old World style accessory, yes, but hers was big and ebulliently shaped and perched center on her chest. Michelle Obama was speaking. It was the 2008 Democratic National Convention. My anxiety rose and swirled, watching and willing her to be as close to perfection as possible, not for me, because I was already a believer, but for the swaths of America that would rather she stumbled.
She first appeared in the public consciousness, all common sense and mordant humor, at ease in her skin. She had the air of a woman who could balance a checkbook, and who knew a good deal when she saw it, and who would tell off whomever needed telling off. She was tall and sure and stylish. She was reluctant to be first lady, and did not hide her reluctance beneath platitudes. She seemed not so much unique as true. She sharpened her husband's then-hazy form, made him solid, more than just a dream.
After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants. That experience honed his belief in the power of uniting ordinary people around a politics of purpose, in the hard work of citizenship, to bring about positive change. In law school, he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, then he returned to Illinois to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago and begin a career in public service, winning seats in the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is a lawyer, writer, and the wife of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. She was the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Through her four main initiatives, she has become a role model for women and an advocate for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls education.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (nee Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American lawyer and author who was the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama. She is the first African American First Lady of the United States.
Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met Barack Obama. She subsequently worked in non-profits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago as well as the vice president for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle married Barack in 1992, and they have two daughters.