CHICAGO — Former president Barack Obama on Thursday urged a renewed hope and faith in the power of American democracy, celebrating the star-studded opening of his $850 million presidential center on the shores of Lake Michigan.
“It’s tempting to give in to cynicism and even despair, to stop trying,” Obama said in his remarks before a crowd of more than 500. While he did not mention current government leaders by name, he implicitly criticized the division and vitriol that dominates so much of modern-day politics.
When faith in each other is lost, the nation’s first Black president said, “we open the door to the most ruthless, or the most careless, or the most fearful among us, who see some groups and some people as more equal than others, and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils.
“I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end.”
The three-hour celebration at the center’s sprawling 19-acre campus — which includes a Chicago Public Library branch, basketball court and playgrounds — was live-streamed and watched by hundreds of members of the public at a nearby park. It concluded with Stevie Wonder leading Jennifer Hudson, John Legend and others in a rousing version of “Higher Ground,” which prompted the crowd — and the whole Obama family — to get up and dance.
As the sun peeked out, luminaries like Oprah Winfrey mingled with top former Obama administration officials such as Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, in a crowd that rippled with joy and the feeling of a class reunion. Attendees — the women in flowing dresses, the men in sharp suits — hugged and posed for selfies. Many sported vintage Obama gear, like an “Obama for Senate” button.
Security was tight for the event, with former president Joe Biden and wife, Jill; former president Bill Clinton and wife and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton; former president George W. Bush and wife, Laura, onstage; as well as world leaders such as former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and former German chancellor Angela Merkel. President Donald Trump, Obama’s political rival, who dismissed the new center as a “disaster,” was the only living U.S. president not invited to the event.
Michelle Obama brought the crowd to its feet, with some wiping away tears, when she spoke of the criticism that her husband had endured, including Trump’s repeated false claims that Obama was not born in the United States.
“Everything feels upside down right now,” said the former first lady, who did not mention the current president by name. “When fact and fiction run together, folks seek to stifle speech … devalue diversity, and erase the inconvenient parts of history.”
“I hope this place can be a respite from that,” she said of the center, which will open to the public on Friday, the Juneteenth holiday. She added that she hopes the center “reignites the optimism and empathy and vision that’s always powered this country’s greatest change.”
For some Obama allies, his hopeful “Yes We Can” message, which is emblazoned on one wall of the exhibit space, seemed notable at a time when the country has been at war and economic uncertainty is rife.
“You couldn’t have written this more graphically,” said civil rights activist and television personality Al Sharpton. “It’s hope versus despair … there’s still hope, and we can do it in the midterms and in the next election.”
Obama had referred obliquely to the disconnect in remarks Tuesday at a private reception for donors and staff at the center. He paid tribute to his late in-laws, Fraser and Marian Robinson, saying the working-class South Side residents who raised their children in a modest bungalow on nearby South Euclid Avenue represented “what’s best about this country and what’s best about our values.”
“We’ve got a set of institutions that have fallen victim to the siren song of, ‘Everything’s about money, and everything’s about attention, and everything’s about fame,’” he continued.
Many in the crowd on Thursday recalled Obama’s early political days in the city, first as a community organizer, then as a state senator before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) recalled that when he was a student at the University of Chicago, he campaigned door to door for Obama when he ran for state Senate.
Khanna said coming back for the day’s celebration was surreal.
“I never in a million years would have dreamed that in 1996,” he said. “It’s a testament to what type of stories are possible in this country. Deep down, I think this country is still hungry to be inspired.”
Obama recalled arriving in the city in 1985 in a “janky car” to become a community organizer in housing projects on the city’s South Side. He later met Michelle and settled in, launching his political career and raising their daughters in a brick Georgian home four miles from the center.
The 44th president began making plans for the complex in the last days of his second term, Valerie Jarrett, CEO of Obama’s foundation, said this week. The foundation eventually settled on this corner of Jackson Park, a historic area along the lakefront originally designed in 1871 by revered landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his partner Calvert Vaux.
The project suffered years of legal challenges, cost overruns and concerns from neighbors about the loss of green space and fears that it would push out existing residents.
In her remarks at the private reception, Michelle Obama recalled growing up on a South Side that was boarded-up and “uncared for.”
“The message to me and to kids like me is that we weren’t worth investing in,” she said. “Now we have this.”
The center has a sledding hill, the kind Michelle Obama always wished for while she was growing up.
Its 225-foot granite tower, which some have dubbed the “Obamalisk” for its stark, brutalist appearance, has four floors of exhibits designed to show the arc of Barack Obama’s historic victory in 2008. There is even a model of his Oval Office, where visitors can sit at the Resolute Desk.
Lazarus Daniels, a Chicago native and math teacher, met Obama when he was a senior at Hyde Park Academy High School, just steps away from Jackson Park. The presidential center was built on the school’s old athletic fields, he said, and “as it grew, it was like seeing a flower bloom.”
Samantha Smith, 44, a hairstylist and lunchroom manager, said she had “manifested” some early preview tickets to the center a few weeks ago by putting a note on Facebook. One of her friends reached out with a last-minute tour spot.
“It’s breathtaking,” Smith said. “For me, it will become a treasure for the South Side of Chicago — and Chicago in general.”
Her favorite exhibit is the video of Obama’s victory speech in 2008 in Grant Park, just up the road.
“It was electric,” she said. “I stood there and cried just like I did watching it the first time.”
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