Dates:
January 17, 1964 –Occupation:
attorneyMichelle LaVaughn Robinson, wife of Barack Obama, was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 17, 1964. Her father, Fraser Robinson, suffered from multiple sclerosis but continued to work as a pump operator for the Chicago water department and served as a Democratic precinct captain. Her mother, Marian Robinson, stayed home to raise Michelle and her older brother, Craig. The family lived on the South Side of Chicago in a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a brick bungalow.
Michelle Obama’s Educational Pursuits
Michelle Obama attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School before following her brother to Princeton University. As a black student, Michelle struggled with feeling out of place. In her senior thesis, "Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community" she wrote: "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." Nevertheless, Michelle attributes her decision to go on to law school as a goal influenced by the values of the school. Michelle graduated with a degree in sociology in 1985. In 1988, she graduated with a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Career Endeavors
Michelle returned to Chicago to join the law firm Sidley & Austin. One year later she met Barack Obama, a summer intern. They married in 1992. They have two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.After a few years with Sidley & Austin, Michelle ventured into public service. She worked as an assistant to Mayor Richard M. Daly and shortly thereafter, she became the assistant commissioner of planning and development for City Hall.
In 1993, she began serving as the executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, a leadership training program. Three years later, she accepted a position as the assistant dean of student services at the University of Chicago; she focused on the development of the school’s first community service program. In 2002, she took her community service focus to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was appointed executive director of community and external affairs. In 2005, she was appointed vice president of community and external affairs.
Since her husband Senator Barack Obama’s decision in 2007 to run for the Democratic presidential nominee, Michelle Obama has gradually decreased her workload in order to focus on her family and her husband’s candidacy. Barack Obama is the first person of black heritage to become the presidential nominee of a major political party.
This article was written on August 27, 2008.
