Obama Presidential Center opening brings tears, nostalgia and call to action

“For Black Americans, I think the call to action is clear,” U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), a former Obama White House official, told theGrio.

The city of Chicago came alive on Thursday as thousands gathered in the South Side to celebrate the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center.

Ten years in the making, the center cements the legacy of America’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whose historic 2008 campaign brought together a multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-generational coalition that believed in Obama’s message and vision of hope and togetherness.

Joining in the celebration were Obama’s wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama; his daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama; former Presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush; former First Ladies Jill Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush; and former Vice President Kamala Harris. The ceremony included several performances from musical artists, including Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Common, Tems, and others.

The Obama Presidential Center sits on a 19.3-acre campus that includes a museum exploring the legacy of Barack and Michelle Obama during their time at the White House, a public library, a basketball court, and several community spaces for activities and gatherings.

The ceremony was also an emotional one for the Obamas. President Obama was brought to tears as his wife, Michelle Obama, paid tribute to him.

“You told me all those years ago that you couldn’t promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life, and of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both,” said the former first lady. “I know it hasn’t always been easy, but there hasn’t been a single second through this experience that standing by your side hasn’t left me in awe.”

Michelle Obama praised her husband for withstanding racist attacks and unfair criticisms of his qualifications for the job.

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

Making a difference for Black Chicagoans

While delivering remarks, Barack Obama acknowledged the presidential center’s intentional location on Chicago’s South Side, where he relocated in 1985 as a community organizer, met his now-wife, and embarked on his political career.

“It’s an expression of thanks, of acknowledgment that so much of what I hold most dear I owe to the people of this city, the people of these surrounding neighborhoods,” said the 44th President of the United States.

He added, “It’s not just a place to see Michelle’s dresses, although I understand that will be the top attraction. We wanted it to be a vibrant living celebration of community, where we can learn together and share the joys of art, music, sport, and play.”

Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Strattton, a Chicago native who grew up in the South Side (as did Michelle Obama), told theGrio that having the $850 million presidential center in the neighborhood is deeply meaningful.

“This is going to be a real lighthouse where people will be drawn from all over the world,” said Stratton, who is poised to become Illinois’s next U.S. Senator in November. “The economic impact of having people come from all over the world to the South Side of Chicago; this is a tremendous investment in our city, in our community, it’s a tremendous investment in our young people, and the return on the investment is going to be great.”

Ghian Foreman, president and CEO of Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, partnered with the Obama Foundation to ensure that as the center attracts millions over the years to come, the economic well-being of the surrounding communities of about 300,000 residents remains top of mind.

Foreman told theGrio that more than 100 years of disinvestment in Chicago’s South Side has resulted in more than 500 acres of vacant lots the size of Disneyland. He is working with the Obama Foundation to correct the historical racial harms in the community.

“If people only come to the center, buy a t-shirt here, and then leave and go back downtown, it’ll have very little economic impact from the perspective of outsiders having an economic impact,” said Foreman. “But if they do stop in a restaurant, they stay at an Airbnb, they come to hang out at one of our beaches and see why we call this place home… it will have a significant economic impact.”

Racial equity is also reflected in the construction of the Obama Presidential Center, which was built in partnership with Lakesidei Alliance, a coalition of five minority-owned companies.

Kelly Powers Baria, executive vice president at Powers & Sons Construction, said her father, who served as CEO of their family construction business during Obama’s presidency, called for Obama’s presidential library to be in Chicago.

“[He believed] the Black contracting community should have a major role,” she told theGrio.

Powers Baria said the building of the Obama Presidential Center was a “complicated project” that included over 5,000 workers.

“A project such as this takes a lot of energy, a lot of effort from the community, from the trades, from the design side, the construction side. Truly, it is a team effort,” she said. “It is important for us, and it was important for the foundation that this project was built by the folks who live in the city of Chicago and is reflective of those who live on the south and west and local side of the Chicago community.”

Obama’s call to action in 2026

During his remarks, President Obama delivered a call to action to attendees at Thursday’s grand opening ceremony. As Black and other marginalized groups see rollbacks in voting rights and civil rights protections, access to health care, and other critical services under President Donald Trump, he urged the public to keep the faith in America’s democracy–as fragile it may be.

“I am not immune to anger or doubt, but I do know this: 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,” said Obama. “After all this country has been through, the 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.”

Michael D. Smith, former executive director of Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, said Obama’s message was poignant given today’s cynicism and political environment.

Recalling Obama’s famous campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” Smith told theGrio, “There’s this arch here [at the center] that symbolizes the moral arc of the universe. We’ve been through worse before; we will get over this time, and if we come back to the ‘Yes We Can’ spirit, we can get there again.”

U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), who worked for Obama’s 2008 campaign and White House before being elected Rhode Island’s first Black congressman in 2023, told theGrio that while the opening of the Obama Center may bring up feelings of nostalgia, now is the time for action.

“Relying on nostalgia is lazy. Nostalgia should be a call to action. And so, for Black Americans, I think the call to action is clear. The dangers and the threats to democracy and the economic stability and future of our community [are], in fact, on the line,” said Amo. “So today is a good inflection point to reconnect, to dig deep, and to get back on making hope turn into action, fighting for our communities and getting everybody involved.”

Reflecting on President Obama’s historically diverse coalition of voters who elected to office for two terms, Smith, who also served as CEO of AmeriCorps, said, “We worked together for urban communities, for rural communities, and we got big things done, and I really believe, if we look at the history of this country, the only time we have had major wins to move the needle forward is when we came together.”

He told theGrio, “That’s what’s represented here today, and that’s what people are fired up about.”