Barack Obama hopes presidential center in Chicago will help affirm ‘how precious our democracy truly is'
CHICAGO - The ceremony opening the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park kicked off Thursday morning as the former first family was joined by dignitaries and celebrities in a day filled with celebration and aspiration, music and motivation.
Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, who returned to town last week, welcomed former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, as well as international leaders, Chicagoans and longtime supporters for the dedication.
During his speech, which began about two hours after the ceremony, the former president discussed his first days after moving to Chicago to work as a community organizer and why the presidential center had to be located on Chicago's South Side.
"I found my purpose here, and I found my community here, friendships that would last a lifetime. I found a girl from the South Side who has been my greatest blessing," he said, referring to his wife. "For me, this center could not be any other place. It is an expression of thanks, an acknowledgment that so much of what I hold most dear I owe to the people of this city and the people of these surrounding neighborhoods."
Obama also said he, his wife and others involved in erecting the center in Jackson Park "wanted (the center) to be a vibrant living celebration of community, where we can learn together and share the joys of art and music and sport and play because it's in those moments that we're reminded of our common humanity and strengthen the bonds of trust that not only make our lives richer, but make our democracy stronger."
Discussing his career, Obama said he learned to listen and connect with people while working in Chicago as an organizer in the neighborhoods and that those lessons eventually steered him to his life in politics and eventually the presidency.
"I was possessed with this abiding faith that if we could give people more of a say in the forces that govern their lives, if we could bridge some of the differences that drove us apart, that we could build an America where everyone counts and everyone has a fair shot and everyone belongs," he said. "I learned that leadership has less to do with titles or rank or chasing attention than with helping others find their voice, reaching their potential."
Now that the center is built, he said, he hopes it stands as a symbol of what makes the United States great.
"Democracy can be frustrating. It can be slow. It can be inefficient. And yet, more than anything, I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is and remind us of what we can achieve when we embrace our shared responsibilities as citizens," he said.
During her speech, Michelle Obama paid tribute to her husband as she called the center "a beacon of hope, a monument to our unshakable values, the ones my husband has exemplified his entire life - equality, empathy, honesty, inclusion, fairness."
"Especially during these anxious and divisive times, it is so important that we remember that those values are not unique to my husband. They are the same ones that your husbands and wives, your parents and children, your friends and neighbors exhibit and pass on every single day," she said.
The former first lady also said her husband was "unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view. How absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure even once, lashed out in frustration, lost your temper? How absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud."
Referring to efforts by the Trump administration to aggressively enforce immigration policy, she said: "To ignore the simple truth, to refuse to respect the contributions and experiences of people who aren't exactly like us puts us all at risk."
"Failing to see the humanity in all people puts us all on a slippery slope, and once that slide starts, there's no telling where it stops, a dangerous precedent that flies in the very face of our faith and of the founding promise of this democracy, that all of us, all of us are created equal, that each of us is a child of God with inherent value, and no one, and I mean no one, has the right to sit in judgment of who's American enough."
"You simply don't have the luxury or time to be cynical or complacent, to wring our hands in despair, to wait for someone else to fix the problem. Y'all, hope is all we have, because hope hope is the essential spark that lights the fire of change, but hope is a choice," she said.
She also obliquely criticized President Donald Trump himself as the current president has routinely insulted the Obamas, other political opponents, and Trump's family has financially benefited from his presidency.
She said her husband didn't grab "as much as we can get for ourselves or (knock) folks down to prop ourselves up," saying her husband showed his "overwhelming goodness, the relentless striving, the quiet dignity that is inside all of us. Our greatest hope is that this center can reflect back just a fraction of that light."
About a half-hour before the event began, a number of political leaders milled about, speaking to and greeting each other, including U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Emerita of the House, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Chicago Mayor and Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and Arne Duncan, who was the Education Department secretary under Obama. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is retiring at the end of his term early next year, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who is the Democratic nominee seeking to succeed Durbin, were also in attendance, as were Hollywood directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Gov. JB Pritzker was seen chatting with actor Tom Hanks. Mayor Brandon Johnson was also spotted.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel were in attendance as well.
The American band The Roots opened the ceremony with several songs.
The event was held in the center's outdoor main plaza, named after the late civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.
Music has been a tradition for the Obamas, and after the opening, Chicagoan Jennifer Hudson sang the national anthem. Others expected to entertain included Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and rock band U2 members Bono and The Edge. Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder sang an original song titled "Better Believe" with younger singers, some from Chicago.
John Legend sang a cover of the Chicagoan Donny Hathaway's 1973 song "Someday We'll All Be Free" later welcoming the choir, Uniting Voices Chicago and rapper Common to sing the song "Glory," from the film "Selma." Obama's museum is wrapped in text from a speech at the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches.
The invocation was led by the Rev. Joel Hunter, a Florida-based evangelical pastor who has prayed with and advised Obama since his first election, and Joshua DuBois, a former Obama staffer during his time in the U.S. Senate and a spiritual adviser known for sending Obama daily devotionals.
Before the Obamas spoke, they were to be preceded by business owner Marty Nesbitt, who chairs the Obama Foundation, and the foundation's CEO, Valerie Jarrett.
"This center may be named for the Obamas, but it is built for you," Jarrett told the crowd.
Nesbitt made a reference to the tan suit he was wearing, a nod to the light-colored suit Obama wore as president, which became oddly controversial among pundits in right-wing media.
"How do y'all like my tan suit?" Nesbitt asked the crowd as Obama laughed. Attendees Stephen Colbert and David Letterman, both former hosts of "The Late Show" on CBS who sat near each other Thursday, also donned tan suits. Obama Foundation officials said the former president got rid of his tan suit while cleaning out old items.
The foundation held the ceremony in more favorable weather than had been feared earlier, as Wednesday's storms cleared to a partly sunny day in the high 60s. Clinton's presidential museum dedication in Little Rock, Arkansas, was beset by a downpour.
For those who didn't receive an invite to the event or tickets to the watch party along the Midway Plaisance, the foundation was streaming the event on its social media pages.
The celebratory nature of the event stands in sharp contrast to a nation that is currently sharply divided along political lines. The Obama center is holding a ceremonial retrospective of the history-making election of the country's first Black president at a time when the nation prepares to honor its 250th birthday and is clouded by Trump's controversial presidency.
Trump, who has made Chicago a political punching bag since his first term and earlier this week shared on social media an AI-generated image of the OPC's museum tower as a trash can surrounded by encampments, was not invited. He is returning from France, where the G-7 nations' meeting was held.
The event comes as a new CNN poll conducted by the research firm SSRS found that Obama is viewed positively by 57% of the American public, far ahead of his predecessors and successors.
Trump is viewed favorably by 34% and unfavorably by 55%; Biden stands at 30% favorable and 54% unfavorable. George W. Bush is viewed favorably by 42% and unfavorably by 33% and Clinton has a 38% to 39% favorable-to-unfavorable rating.
Obama is viewed unfavorably by 32% of the public, according to the poll results of 2,480 adults aged 18 and over who were surveyed May 7-31. The survey has an error margin of 2.7%.
Before the ceremony began, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Naperville said she cried when, in May, she saw the exhibit inside the center about the Affordable Care Act.
"I was like, we did that! And now we're fighting the same fight again. But the American people understand that they've lost, and they're angry about it. And I think that's what this election will be about. It's a health care election. It's a cost election," she said. "First of all, America is bigger than Donald Trump. And he doesn't get to define the legacy of the 250 years of this country. This is our country. And I think what's so extraordinary about president and Mrs. Obama choosing to do this in the shadows of Juneteenth, meaning Freedom Day, is I think of Juneteenth as less of a celebration and more of a call to action, and I think that we have to be reminded of what we've done before, the battles we've won, the change we have brought forth, and recommit ourselves to taking action as we're moving forward, and I think that you know, the president is going to speak to some of that today."
Stratton said the fact that the opening of the center was occurring on Juneteenth weekend shows "that this center is a center that's focused on President Barack Obama from right here in the city of Chicago, in the state of Illinois, who was the first Black president. So it's a celebration, and you can feel the energy, and this is not something that is focused on dividing and how to put other people down, this is all about how we've built each other up, and it's just really exciting to see the real contrast, to me, about what is happening here today."
Emanuel said when he toured the Obama center three months ago, he called the president and told him "it fulfills all of your dreams of making it not a presidential library, but a campus that inspires people to future work."
The museum and the rest of the campus - a forum building, parkland and Chicago Public Library branch - will formally open to the public on Friday, June 19, which is Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The opening will cap off a more-than-decade-long development and construction saga held up by lawsuits, construction delays and the reworking of one of the city's most historic parks and a major thoroughfare.
The Obamas and foundation leadership have described the project as an effort to give back to the South Side, and they are banking on the center becoming a tourist attraction that will provide an economic boost and first-class amenity to adjacent neighborhoods.
The Obamas have made a handful of public appearances since coming back to town, including meeting with kids at the campus playground and a thank-you celebration on Tuesday with people who worked on various aspects of the museum and campus. There, both Obamas spoke of Chicago's centrality to their life's work.
"Most of what has been important in my life is because of this place and the people here, because the people here taught me resilience and courage and hope," the former president, U.S. senator and state senator said Tuesday. "When I went to Washington and when we started campaigning around the country, I was carrying a piece of this community with me the entire time."
Michelle Obama, who grew up not far from Jackson Park, said she hoped the center "will be the beginning of telling the kids in this community that they are just as important, just as capable, just as valuable" and worthy of investment as the parks and cultural attractions downtown.
Appearing on a podcast for Washington, D.C.-based Punchbowl News in Chicago, Pritzker made a pitch for people to visit the center, saying, "You'll become a Democrat if you go."
"I just want everybody to know we're having festivities this week that are well deserved, because this is not only a phenomenal development for the city of Chicago, but also people who will visit this are going to experience, first, what the Obama presidency was all about, but second, it's a beautiful, beautiful facility. They've done an amazing job," Pritzker said.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 11:16 AM.