Obamas hope presidential center in Chicago will be a ‘beacon of hope’ for democracy

4,396 words

www.chicagotribune.com

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Obama Presidential Center was dedicated Thursday in Jackson Park to the sounds of celebration and aspiration, music and motivation to amplify Barack and Michelle Obama’s message that it serve as a “beacon of hope” for democracy and help pave the way for a new generation of political leadership.

Surrounded by former Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton and Republican ex-President George W. Bush, their spouses, former foreign leaders, federal, state and local politicians and a bevy of celebrities, former President Barack Obama urged Americans to look past the political turbulence and controversies of the Trump era that have fostered cynicism and to recapture the message of hope and change that catapulted him to the White House in 2008.

President Donald Trump was pointedly not invited to the dedication. His name went unspoken by Barack and Michelle Obama, or any other speaker during the three-hour ceremony — a notable silence given that the current president has long mocked the Obama years and, earlier this week, shared an AI-generated image of the center’s tower as a trash can.

Thousands flock to Midway Plaisance Park for Obama Presidential Center watch party: ‘This is a historic event’

But in a clear reference to Trump, Barack Obama said the center celebrates “American values we can all share,” including beliefs that the military and law enforcement do not owe their allegiance to a president, that there should be a peaceful transfer of power after an election and that “qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor” still matter.

“When we lose faith in each other, when we stop believing that voting matters, that citizenship matters, that our collective voices matter, that how we treat each other no longer matters, and we give away our power to decide our own futures, 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 and punish enemies and keep those who are different in their place,” Obama said during a 34-minute address.

“I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end,” he said. “After all this country has been through, (to give in) to cynicism and division would be a betrayal of our founding ideals, a betrayal of our faith, and I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of Americans feel the same way — that as unsettled as we are, people aren’t looking for perpetual anger and division. They are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect, that deep in our gut we want to find a way to turn towards each other again, not further away.”

Obama said the exhibits inside the $835 million center “are not meant to evoke nostalgia for some gauzy bygone era, some unattainable past that we can dream about and say, ‘Oh, we miss you, Barack.’

“They’re meant to remind us of who we can be, to remind us of what’s possible, so we can forge ahead, clear-eyed and confident and do the work that still needs to be done,” he said. “There is a new generation out there ready to write the next chapter of our story. We intend to help them do it and we ask that you join us.”

During her speech, Michelle Obama paid tribute to her husband as “unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view,” 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.

She also took an oblique dig at Trump by noting that her husband was actually awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor the current president has openly yearned for but not received. The comment sparked an audible guffaw from Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state who lost to Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Guests attend the Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Guests attend the Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Music has been a tradition for the Obamas, and the event was punctuated with several high-mark musical performances. Chicagoan Jennifer Hudson opened the event by singing the national anthem as well as “The Impossible Dream,” followed by Christina Aguilera singing “What a Wonderful World.” Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder sang an original song he said was titled “Better Believe” with younger local singers.

Entertainer John Legend sang a cover of Chicagoan Donny Hathaway’s 1973 song “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” later welcoming the choir Uniting Voices Chicago and rapper Common to sing “Glory” from the film “Selma.” The museum is wrapped in text from Obama’s speech at the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches.

Other performers included The Roots, Bruce Springsteen, Bono and The Edge from U2, with the event culminating in a performance of “Higher Ground” led by Stevie Wonder, joined by Hudson, Legend, Common, Springsteen and Vedder.

Celebrities from the political world also filled the center’s outdoor main plaza, named after the late civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

About half an hour before the event began, political leaders milled about, speaking to and greeting each other, including U.S. Rep. and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Obama chief of staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Arne Duncan, who was education 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 former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and current Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Hollywood directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were present, as were Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman, Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien, while Gov. JB Pritzker was seen chatting with actor Tom Hanks.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel were there as well.

Former President Barack Obama speaks during the opening of the Obama Presidential Center on June 18, 2026, in Chicago's Jackson Park. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Former President Barack Obama speaks during the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, June 18, 2026, in Chicago’s Jackson Park. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

But it was Barack and Michelle Obama who were the main attraction for the hundreds of invitees at the center’s plaza and the thousands attending a ticketed watch party at the nearby Midway Plaisance.

The former president, who moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer, said the center had to be located on the city’s South Side.

“I found my purpose here, and I fortified my faith 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 that 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 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, then 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 alluded to the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to enforce immigration policy, saying, “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.”

“No one, and I mean no one, has the right to sit in judgment of who’s American enough,” she said. She also contrasted her husband’s presidency with the current one, saying Barack Obama didn’t grab “as much as we can get for ourselves or (knock) folks down to prop ourselves up.” Instead, she said, 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.”

“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 is the essential spark that lights the fire of change, but hope is a choice.”

Before the Obamas spoke, they were 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. Colbert and Letterman, both former hosts of “The Late Show” on CBS who sat near each other, also donned tan. Colbert wore a full tan suit, while Letterman went with a tan blazer. Obama Foundation officials said the former president got rid of his tan suit while cleaning out old items.

Former President Barack Obama, with former First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters, laugh as family friend and Obama Foundation Chair Marty Nesbitt takes the stage wearing a tan suit during the Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony, June 18, 2026. Obama wore a tan suit during his presidency, causing controversy among conservative politicians. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Former President Barack Obama, with former first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters, laugh as family friend and Obama Foundation Chair Marty Nesbitt takes the stage wearing a tan suit during the Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony, June 18, 2026. Obama wore a tan suit during his presidency, causing controversy among conservative politicians. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

The celebratory nature of the event stood in sharp contrast to a nation that is currently sharply divided along political lines. The Obama center’s ceremonial retrospective of the history-making election of the country’s first Black president came at a time when the nation is preparing to honor its 250th birthday and is clouded by Trump’s controversial presidency.

Despite having left office in 2017, Obama remains a deeply popular former president, resulting in the 64-year-old serving as an elder statesman for a Democratic Party struggling to find its way after Trump’s 2024 election and facing internal disputes between progressives and moderates.

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, a Naperville Democrat, said she cried when, in May, she saw the center’s exhibit about the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Underwood was elected to Congress in 2018 after serving in the Obama administration as a senior adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, assisting with the act’s implementation.

“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,” she said, referring to the upcoming midterms in November. “It’s a healthcare election. It’s a cost election.”

“First of all, America is bigger than Donald Trump,” Underwood continued. “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 called the event “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 Obama 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.”

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, a frequent basketball partner of Obama’s, said, “The national mood is full of anger and vitriol and division, and I think this represents the exact opposite of all of that. I would say, hopefully, it’s a reminder of the good ol’ days when people got along and when there were substantive conversations and debates. Wasn’t all about ego and destruction and destroying the world order.”

The museum and the rest of the campus — a forum building, parkland and a Chicago Public Library branch — will formally open to the public on Friday, 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.