Background

Ethnicity: The Robinson and Shields families trace their roots to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South.

Michelle was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois. Michelle's father, Fraser Robinson, was a city-pump operator and a Democratic precinct captain. Her mother, Marian, was a secretary at Spiegel's but later stayed home to raise Michelle and her older brother, Craig. At just 21 months apart in age, Craig and Michelle were often mistaken for twins.

The Robinson family lived in a small bungalow on Chicago's South Side. Michelle and Craig shared quarters, sleeping in the living room with a sheet serving as a makeshift room divider. They were a close-knit family, typically sharing meals, reading and playing games together.

Education

Raised with an emphasis on education, both Michelle and her brother learned to read at home by age four. Both skipped the second grade. By the sixth grade, Michelle was taking classes in her school's gifted program, where she learned French and completed accelerated courses in biology.

Michelle went on to attend Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, the city's first magnet high school for gifted children, where, among other activities, she served as the student government treasurer. In 1981, she graduated from the school as class salutatorian.

Following in her older brother's footsteps, Michelle attended Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She went on to study law at Harvard Law School, where she took part in demonstrations calling for the enrollment and hiring of more minority students and professors. She was awarded her Juris Doctor in 1988.

Career

After graduating from law school in 1988, Michelle worked as an associate in the Chicago branch of the firm Sidley Austin in the area of marketing and intellectual property. In 1991, she left corporate law to pursue a career in public service, working as an assistant to Mayor Richard Daley and then as the assistant commissioner of planning and development for the City of Chicago.

In 1993, Michelle became executive director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a nonprofit leadership-training program that helped young adults develop skills for future careers in the public sector. In 1996, Michelle joined the University of Chicago as associate dean of student services, developing the school’s first community-service program. Beginning in 2002, she worked for the University of Chicago Hospitals, as executive director of community relations and external affairs.

In May 2005, Michelle was appointed vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she continued to work part-time until shortly before her husband's inauguration as president. She also served as a board member for the prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

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

In 2007, Michelle scaled back her own professional work to attend to family and campaign obligations during Barack's run for the Democratic presidential nomination. When they were out on the trail, they would leave their daughters with their grandmother Marian, Michelle's mother. Barack eventually won the nomination and was elected the 44th President of the United States. He was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

When her husband sought reelection in 2012, facing a challenging race against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Michelle diligently campaigned on his behalf. She traveled the country, giving talks and making public appearances.

On November 6, 2012, Barack was re-elected for a second term as U.S. president. After Mitt Romney conceded defeat, Michelle accompanied her husband with their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, onto the stage at McCormick Place in Chicago, where President Obama delivered his victory speech.

In September of 2012, Michelle delivered a noteworthy speech at the Democratic National Convention. "Every day, the people I meet inspire me, every day they make me proud, every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth," she said. "Serving as your first lady is an honor and a privilege."

In July 2016, Michelle campaigned in support of former first lady, senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who became the official Democratic nominee for the American presidency and the first woman in the U.S. to win a major political party's presidential nomination. On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Michelle spoke in support of Clinton, who had previously run against Barack during the 2008 primaries, and her vision of a progressive America.

On January 13, 2017, Michelle made her final speech as first lady at the White House, saying "being your first lady has been the greatest honor of my life and I hope I've made you proud."

Apart from politics, Michelle also released a book as part of her mission to promote healthy eating. American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America (2012) explores her own experience creating a vegetable garden as well as the work of community gardens elsewhere.

Achievements

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  Michelle Obama is 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.
  
  In 2009, Michelle Obama was named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the year.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Becoming

    (Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chroniclin...)

    2018
  • American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America

    (In April 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama planted a kitche...)

    2012

Religion

The Obama family attended several different Protestant churches after moving to Washington D.C. in 2009, including Shiloh Baptist Church and St. John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square, known as the Presidents' Church.

Politics

Michelle Obama, for a good part of her life, disliked politicians. In her memoir, “Becoming,” she writes that the antipathy dates back to her childhood in Chicago: “I had never been one to hold city hall in high regard.” Some of the reasons had to do with history and the way that the political system had “been used against black folks, as a means to keep us isolated and excluded.” But others were personal. “My father, who was a city employee most of his life, had essentially been conscripted into service as a Democratic precinct captain to even be considered for promotions at his job,” she writes. “He relished the social aspect of his precinct duties but had always been put off by city hall cronyism.” When she herself was conscripted into her husband’s first campaign for the Illinois State Senate, she resisted at first. Her arguments varied from discussion to discussion, but the fundamental reason, which stood “like a sequoia rooted in the ground,” was this: “I didn’t much appreciate politicians and therefore didn’t relish the idea of my husband becoming one.”

Michelle decided to stay with their daughters in Chicago while Barack commuted to Washington; she also declined an invitation to join a high-powered D.C. wives’ club. But control of the situation - her ability to maintain the border between her life and the world of politics - began to slip out of her grasp. Even before Barack won the Senate seat, when he was just through the primaries, Senator John Kerry, who was then running for President, asked him to speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, in Boston - the appearance that gave him a national profile.

She was already well on her way to agreeing to let her husband run for another, higher office. “Daddy, are you gonna try to be president?” Malia asks, having picked up the “whirlwind” around that question. “Don’t you think maybe you should be vice president or something first?” Michelle writes that, as a pragmatist, she agreed with her daughter. But perhaps her very skepticism about politics as a profession prepared her to make the leap: she never appears to have thought that campaign conference rooms or legislative back rooms were particularly good incubators of either talent or character. In a way, they were no place to learn to be President. “I said yes because I loved him and had faith in what he could do,” she writes. At the same time, “I didn’t really think he could win.”

Their time on the trail reminds her of what she doesn’t like about politics. Speaking, without a script, in Wisconsin, she says, “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country. And not because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction, and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment.”

But, as her husband approached victory and then entered the White House, Michelle became more at home with the idea of hope. There is no reason to doubt her when she says, as she has repeatedly, that she will never run for office. At the same time, her memoir gradually becomes a parable about the possibilities of the electoral system and of all that a President and, next to him, a “soft power”-wielding First Lady, can do.

During the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Michelle delivered a speech in support of the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, a former first lady.

Views

As the first lady of the United States, Michelle 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 Barack volunteered at homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the Washington, D.C. area. Michelle also made appearances at public schools, stressing the importance of education and volunteer work.

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 beehives on the South Lawn of the White House. She also put efforts to fight childhood obesity near the top of her agenda.

Michelle remained committed throughout her time as the first lady to her health-and-wellness causes. In 2012, she announced a new fitness program for kids as part of her Let's Move initiative. Along with the U.S. Olympic team and other sports organizations, she worked to get young people to try out a new sport or activity.

"This year, 1.7 million young people will be participating in Olympic and Paralympic sports in their communities - many of them for the very first time. And that is so important because sometimes all it takes is that first lesson, or clinic, or class to get a child excited about a new sport," she said in a statement.

Quotations: "One of the things - the important aspects of this race - is role modeling what good families should look like. Our view was that, if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House."

"We need to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation. We have lost our way. And it begins with inspiration. It begins with leadership."

" I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."

"Translating hope into action is something Barack has done for his entire career."

"What people were most concerned about: they were afraid. It was fear. Fear, again, raising its ugly head, in one of the most important decisions we would make. Fear; fear of everything."

"The thing that I want you all to remember: please, please, don’t base your vote, this time, on fear. Base it on possibility. Think. Listen. The game of politics is to make you afraid so that you don’t think."

"As you might imagine, for Barack, running for president is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother, Craig."

Membership

In 2010, Obama launched Let’s Move!, bringing together community leaders, educators, medical professionals, parents, and others in a nationwide effort to address the challenge of childhood obesity. Let’s Move! has an ambitious goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation. Whether it's providing healthier food in our schools, helping kids be more physically active, or urging companies to market healthier foods to our children, Let’s Move! is focused on giving parents the support they need to make healthier choices for their kids.

In 2011, Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden came together to launch Joining Forces, a nationwide initiative calling all Americans to rally around service members, veterans, and their families and support them through wellness, education, and employment opportunities. Joining Forces works hand in hand with the public and private sector to ensure that service members, veterans, and their families have the tools they need to succeed throughout their lives.

In 2014, Michelle Obama launched the Reach Higher Initiative, an effort to inspire young people across America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training program, a community college, or a four-year college or university. Reach Higher aims to ensure that all students understand what they need to complete their education by working to expose students to college and career opportunities; helping them understand financial aid eligibility; encouraging academic planning and summer learning opportunities; and supporting high school counselors who do essential work to help students get into college.

In 2015, Michelle Obama joined President Obama to launch Let Girls Learn, a U.S. government-wide initiative to help girls around the world go to school and stay in school. As part of this effort, Mrs. Obama is calling on countries across the globe to help educate and empower young women, and she is sharing the stories and struggles of these young women with young people here at home to inspire them to commit to their own education.

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  Let’s Move! , United States

  2010

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  Joining Forces , United States

  2011

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  Reach Higher , United States

  2014

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  Let Girls Learn , United States

  2015

Personality

When people ask First Lady Michelle Obama to describe herself, she doesn't hesitate to say that first and foremost, she is Malia and Sasha's mom.

Physical Characteristics: Obama has an athletic physique, so it’s no surprise that she was a great athlete. However, she was afraid of competitive sports because says her big brother, “she hated to lose.”

Height: 5 feet 11 inches.

Weight: 77 Kilograms.

Shoe Size: 11 US, 40-41 EU, 8 UK.

Interests

• gardening

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Nelson Mandela

• Politicians

  Hillary Clinton

• Writers

  Tara Westover, Zadie Smith, Toni Morrison, John Steinbeck, Tayari Jones, Ann Patchett

• Artists

  Amy Sherald

• Sport & Clubs

  football, fitness

• Music & Bands

  Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Shanice

Connections

Michelle married Barack Obama in 1992, and they have two daughters.

Father:

Fraser Robinson

Mother:

Marian Robinson

colleague:

Jill Biden

Jill Biden and Michelle Obama collaborate on several charitable initiatives.

Daughter:

Malia Obama

Daughter:

Sasha Obama

husband:

Barack Obama

44th President of the United States

Friend:

Oprah Winfrey

Friend:

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

Friend:

Alicia Keys

Friend:

Sarah Parker

Acquaintance:

Condoleezza Rice

Acquaintance:

Joe Biden

References

• Michelle Obama: A Photographic Journey
  2017
• Chasing Light: Michelle Obama Through the Lens of a White House Photographer
  2017
• Go High: The Unstoppable Presence and Poise of Michelle Obama
  2019
• Obama: An Intimate Portrait
  2017
• Michelle Obama: A Life
  2015
• The Unofficial Michelle Obama Activity Book
  2019
• Obama: The Historic Presidency of Barack Obama - 2,920 Days
  2017