Michelle Obama

**Michelle Obama** (born **Michelle LaVaughn Robinson** on January 17, 1964) is an American lawyer, author, philanthropist and the wife of the 44th and former President of the United States, Barack Obama and the former First Lady of the United States from (2009-17). Michelle is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. The Obamas have been married since 1992. She is the mother of two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University.

### Early life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, father, Fraser Robinson III, was a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain. Her mother, Marian Shields Robinson, was a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store. Her mother was a full-time homemaker until Michelle entered high school. The Robinson and Shields families can trace their roots to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South. Her paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was an American slave in the state of South Carolina, where some of her paternal family still resides. Her maternal great-great-great grandmother was Melvinia Shields who was also a slave. She gave birth to Michelle's biracial maternal great-great grandfather, Dolphus T. Shields.

Michelle grew up on Euclid Avenue in the South Shore community area of Chicago and was raised in what she describes as a "conventional" home. The family entertained together by playing games such as Monopoly and by reading. She and her brother, Craig skipped the second grade. 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, where she was on the honor roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society and served as student council treasurer. She was a high school classmate of Santita Jackson, the daughter of Jesse Jackson and sister of Jesse Jackson, Jr. She graduated from high school in 1981 as salutatorian.

Michelle proceeded to attend Princeton University. As part of her requirements for graduation, she wrote a thesis entitled, "Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community." "I remember being shocked," she says, "by college students who drove BMWs. I didn't even know parents who drove BMWs." Robinson majored in sociology and minored in African American studies and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985. She earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. While at Harvard, she participated in political demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of minorities.

### Marriage/Family life

While at Sidley & Austin, Michelle met Barack Obama. She mentored Obama as a summer associate. They first started their relationship at a business luncheon and from there it continued at a community organization meeting where Obama first really caught her attention. They were married in October of 1992 by Reverend Jeremiah Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ and they now have two daughters, Malia Ann who was born in 1998 and Natasha who was born in 2001.

After husband Barack's election to the U.S. Senate, the Obama family continued to live on Chicago's South Side, choosing to remain there rather than moving to Washington, D.C. Michelle is the sister of Craig Robinson, who is a basketball coach, former head coach at Oregon State University. She is the first cousin, once removed, of Rabbi Capers C. Funnye, Jr., one of the country’s most prominent black rabbis.

Michelle once requested that her then-fiancé meet her prospective boss, Valerie Jarrett, when considering her first career move. Now Jarrett is one of her husband’s closest advisors.

## Career

### Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley

Michelle held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to Mayor Richard M. Daley starting in 1991. Valerie Jarrett, then deputy chief of staff, remembers interviewing Michelle for an assistant's job in the chief of staff's office:

"The moment I met her I knew immediately we would be lucky to have her," said Jarrett, who has since vacationed with the Obamas in Martha's Vineyard. "I was instantly impressed. I think I offered her a job at the end of the first meeting."
Before she signed up, Michelle told Jarrett her fiance wanted to meet her "so he could figure out if he was comfortable with her going to work for Mayor Daley.

During this time, she also served as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago. The move was not without its benefits. Michelle's stint at the mayor's office gave her, and her husband, access to Chicago's political class. Combined with her own Southside roots — she went to high school with Santita Jackson, the Rev. Jesse Jackson's daughter — Michelle's job gave her husband entrée into the best political machine in Illinois, augmenting her ties to Jackson's powerful civil rights group, Rainbow Coalition.

As Mayor Daley's deputy chief of staff at the time, Jarrett hired Michelle to help troubleshoot for companies having problems navigating the city's bureaucracy. "Her being from Chicago, from the Southside of Chicago, was an asset to Barack in terms of enhancing his ties to the community."

### Public Allies

In 1993, Michelle served as the Founding Executive Director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that "prepares young people for public service." She served there until the Fall of 1996. She also served on their national board of directors from 1997 until 2001. They are 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.

### Sidley & Austin LLP

After graduating from Princeton and Harvard Law School in 1988, Michelle worked with Bernardine Dohrn at Sidley & Austin, the law firm where she and Barack met. Michelle worked on marketing and intellectual property. Dorn is the wife of William Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground and a friend and associate of Barack Obama. Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayer's wife, took credit for the bombings in New York by the Weather Underground.

### TreeHouse Foods, Inc.

Michelle served as a salaried board member of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS), a major Wal-Mart supplier with whom she cut ties immediately after her husband made comments critical of Wal-Mart at an AFL-CIO forum in Trenton, New Jersey, on May 14, 2007.

## Authored books

1. *American Grown*. New York: Crown Publishing Group. 2012. ISBN 978-0307956026.
2. *Becoming*. New York: Crown Publishing Group. 2018. ISBN 978-1524763138.

## References

1. ↑ Michelle Obama, Married to Barack Obama, Democratic 2008 Candidate About.com, Jan. 22, 2008
2. ↑ The woman behind Obama Sun-Times Media, Jan. 20, 2007
3. ↑ A Family Tree Rooted In American Soil The Washington Post, Oct. 2, 2008
4. ↑ From slave cabin to White House, a family rooted in black America The Times Online, Nov. 6, 2008
5. ↑ Michelle: Barack's bitter or better half? BBC News, June 24, 2008
6. ↑ Norris, Michele (July 9, 2007). Michelle Obama Sees Election as Test for America. National Public Radio (NPR). Retrieved on May 9, 2020.

 (Heard on "All Things Considered")
7. ↑ In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery The New York Times, Oct. 7, 2009
8. ↑ The woman behind Obama Sun-Times Media, Jan. 20, 2007
9. ↑ http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1270055,CST-NWS-kids10.article 'Just like us'] Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 10, 2008
10. ↑ Ressner, Jeffrey (February 23, 2008). Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide. Politico.com. Retrieved on May 6, 2020.
11. ↑ Michelle Kornblut (staff writer). "Michelle Obama's Career Timeout", The Washington Post. Retrieved on May 6, 2020.
12. ↑ http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/221458,CST-NWS-mich21.article The woman behind Obama] Chicago Sun-Times, Jan. 20, 2007
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters **url** and **title** must be specifiedJay, Newton-Small. . Time.com. Retrieved on May 5, 2020.
14. ↑ Fact Sheet About Public Allies and the Obamas Public Allies]. *PublicAllies.org*. Retrieved on May 5, 2020.
15. ↑ Michelle Obama. *TreeHouse Foods, Inc.*.
16. ↑ "Obama's Wife Quits Post On TreeHouse Foods Board", *CNBC.com*, Associated Press (AP), May 23, 2007. Retrieved on May 5, 2020.

## External links

* Michelle Obama article at *Wikipedia*
* Michelle Obama links at FreeOnes