Obamas Celebrate Chicago Roots, Power of Community During Presidential Center’s Opening

Arts & Entertainment

Obamas Celebrate Chicago Roots, Power of Community During Presidential Center’s Opening

Matt Masterson | Eunice Alpasan | June 18, 2026, 3:45 pm

Stay connected to Chicago news. Sign up for the free Daily Chicagoan newsletter.

For Barack Obama, the South Side of Chicago marked the spot where “hope took root” for himself and his family. After Thursday, it will also be the spot where his legacy as the 44th president of the United States will always be remembered.

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

“The story of the South Side has always been a story of possibility. And now we start writing a new chapter,” he said in a video Thursday. “Here you can do more than reflect on change. You can become it. That’s what the South Side taught us.”

Thousands gathered in Jackson Park Thursday morning for the star-studded launch of the Obama Presidential Center, a museum, library and education center celebrating the accomplishments of Obama’s eight years in office as well as his wife, Michelle, and their family.

Former President Barack Obama, back center, and former first lady Michelle Obama, right, arrive on stage with their daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, during the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo / Jeff Roberson)

In his speech to the crowd Thursday, Obama reflected on his first journey into Chicago as a 23-year-year-old in 1985, coming to the city after being hired as director of the Developing Communities Project. Inspired by Civil Rights leaders before him, Obama said he knew he wanted to make a difference, but wasn’t yet sure of how.

“It was here, in this city — the city of broad shoulders — that I found what I was looking for,” he said. “I found my purpose here and I fortified my faith here and I found my community here.”

The city remained an integral part of his life. He met Michelle in Chicago. They were married here and raised their daughters here. It was in Chicago that he launched his first ever campaign in the 1990s, seeking to become an Illinois state senator, a path, he said “ultimately and improbably led to this day.”

“For me, this center could not be anyplace else,” he said. “It’s an expression of thanks, an acknowledgement that so much of what I hold most dear, I owe to the people of this city, the people of these surrounding neighborhoods.”

Michelle Obama praised her husband’s “stubborn optimism and unflinching courage” as the nation’s first Black president while facing lies about his “birthright, faith and patriotism.”

“And you did it all with such grace, and class and cool,” she said, “that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.”

Bronzeville resident and watch party attendee Sharon Latson worked with the nonprofit We Can Build It to bring more women and people of color to the job site at the Obama Presidential Center. Latson attended the watch party with her friends and brought a Juneteenth flag.

Latson, who watched Obama’s presidential victory speech at Grant Park in 2008, said she was most proud to attend Thursday’s watch party for her parents who passed away before they could see Obama become the first Black President of the U.S.

“I know if they knew I was here, what it would mean to them, and to pass it on to my children and my grandchildren,” Latson said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do something as exciting as this in my lifetime.

The festivities included performances by Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera and John Legend, as well as native Chicagoans Jennifer Hudson, and Common.

Joining the Obama family Thursday were former presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Numerous other celebrities and politicians joined the event including Oprah, George Lucas, Stephen Colbert and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

Sakeena Tirado, a resident of the south suburban Homewood-Flossmoor area, was at the watch party when gates opened at 9 a.m. Tirado, who was born on the South Side, said she feels a kinship to the area and used to play at Midway Plaisance Park as a child.

Obama Presidential Center grand opening ceremony watch party attendee Sakeena Tirado, a resident of the south suburban Homewood-Flossmoor area, arrived at the watch party at Midway Plaisance Park when gates opened at 9 a.m. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

“Barack Obama cut his political teeth here on the South Side of Chicago, so it’s just so fitting and appropriate that that they would come back and build [the Obama Presidential Center] here, and especially in the home of Michelle Obama, it’s just beautiful,” Tirado said.

Tirado said she was overwhelmed with happiness and community at watch party. Tirado has tickets to attend the museum with her family next week.

“I just love that we get to be a community and have fun on a random Thursday, it’s just joy, and I think this highlights what the Obama Center is meant to be,” Tirado said. “I haven’t even made it inside yet, so I can only imagine what the inside’s gonna be like.”

The presidential center, which is expected to attract some 750,000 to 1 million people, has already completely sold-out tickets through November. Those who are lucky enough to have nabbed entry tickets will discover four content-rich levels that balance big ideas with small moments, and touch on both the public and personal lives of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Husband and wife George Harris and Antoinette Harris, came from Beverly to attend the watch party. They flew to Washington D.C. to attend Obama’s inauguration during his first presidential term.

“It’s just so important to support our own,” George Harris said. “This is so special to us, to have a piece of history being built right in Chicago where we were born and raised.”

Antoinette Harris said the opening of the Obama Presidential Center is a full circle moment.

“It gives us inspiration to know that anything is possible, and it’s a legacy that he has given the kids of the city,” Antoinette Harris said.

Gwendolyn Fourte traveled with her husband Chauncey Fourte from Oklahoma to attend the watch party. The couple, who were celebrating their wedding anniversary, were also joined by family and friends.

“I’m still in shock,” Gwendolyn Fourte said after the event. “I went from jumping, and screaming, and dancing, and crying, all in 30 minutes. How could I express so many emotions at one time? I feel like this is history in the making. I was glad to be a part of it.”

Due to its sheer height, the granite museum tower has been the center’s most visible element during construction. Its imposing mass and crowning latticework of lettering — excerpting one of former President Barack Obama’s speeches — have drawn mixed reviews.

Once inside, guests will encounter exhibits on historical movements from the American Revolution, through abolitionism, suffrage, the New Deal and the fight for civil rights in the 1960s.

As part of a stated mission to encourage young people to pick up the baton of public service, the museum lets people experience what it would be like to occupy the highest office in the land. A full-scale replica of the Oval Office gives people an opportunity to sit behind the Resolute Desk and “take a thoughtful moment to understand the power of that office,” said Louise Bernard, museum director.

Pointedly, an exhibit called “10 Letters a Day” appears just outside the Oval Office, highlighting Barack Obama’s practice of reading and responding to 10 letters every day out of the thousands he received. “It was his way of staying in touch with the American people,” Jarrett said.

After absorbing all of this information, some of which has proven so moving to early museum guests that boxes of tissues have been added to exhibit areas, visitors can climb up to the Sky Deck level. There, a contemplative space awaits, with windows looking out through the screen of letters.

Obama Presidential Center grand opening ceremony watch party attendees, from left, Melissa Jennings, Cynthia Cotharn and Sharon Latson at Midway Plaisance Park on June 18, 2026. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

Apart from the museum’s four levels, the rest of the center’s campus is free and open to the public, including the Sky Deck. Other buildings comprising the campus include: The Forum, which will serve as the center’s programming hub; Home Court, featuring an NBA-regulation basketball court; and a Chicago Public Library branch.

The grounds will operate like a public park, with landscaped gardens, paths and walkways. In a nod to sustainability, many of the trees, plants and shrubs are native species or were selected, in consultation with the Chicago Botanic Garden, for their resilience in a changing climate.

Obama on Thursday said he wanted the center to be “vibrant” and a “celebration,” rather than a stuffy mausoleum. He urged guests to skip the videos of his past speeches — “You’ve heard them all before,” he said — and instead look to learn more about the ordinary people who helped shape his life and presidency.

With the center now opening, Michelle Obama asked that her fellow South Siders make the facility and its grounds “a part of your lives.”

“Be inspired by the world-class art. Check out the books from our beautiful public library — and bring them back on time. Drop some beats in the recording studio, hit some corner 3s at Home Court, hold birthday parties, jumpstart clothing drives, host city-wide clean-up days here,” she said. “Use this campus to show off this place we call home.”

The crowd watches a large screen during the Obama Presidential Center grand opening ceremony. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)