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- Princeton University (AB), Harvard University (JD)
- The First Lady of the United States
- Lawyer, writer
- American
- January 17, 1964
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Summary
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, born January 17, 1964, is an American lawyer, university administrator and writer, who was the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, and was the first African-American first lady. Michelle focused her attention on social issues such as poverty, healthy living and education. Her 2018 memoir, Becoming, discusses the experiences that shaped her, from her childhood in Chicago to her years living in the White House.
History
Early years
Michelle La Vaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964 in Chicago. Her father was Fraser Robinson (1935–1991), while her mother is Marian Shields Robinson, secretary (born in 1937). Great-grandfather Michelle was a slave at the plantation in Georgetown. Fraser Robinson was an employee of municipal waterworks and an activist of the Democratic Party. Michelle’s older brother Craig was a basketball player. In 1970, the Robinson family moved to a slightly richer Chicago district – South Shore. From a young age, Michelle witnessed racial segregation. She attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School (English), while attending lectures in biology at Kennedy-King College (English).
After graduating from high school, in 1981 she began studying at Princeton University. The future first lady most often spent time with black peers, of whom there were about 10% at the entire university. In 1985 she graduated from Princeton with the title of Bachelor of Arts and began studying law at Harvard University. At the end of her education at Princeton, she wrote a work entitled Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community. At Harvard, she belonged to the Black Law Students Association. Two years later she graduated.
Career
After graduating, she got a job at Sidley Austin. In this firm, she met her future husband, Barack Obama. Shortly afterwards, they both began to date, and in 1991 they got engaged. After their engagement, they went to Kenya, where Obama introduced his family to her. They were married on October 3, 1992, and went to the West Coast on their honeymoon.
In 1995, when Obama planned to start his political activity as a state senator, Michelle initially protested against this idea. Ultimately, however, she supported her husband and actively joined the campaign. At the time, she worked as an assistant to the Chicago mayor Richard Daley. In 2001 she was employed in a hospital at the University of Chicago. When in 2004 her husband planned to run for the Senate, she objected again, but eventually changed her mind and took part in the campaign. After the winning election, Barack moved to Washington, while Michelle remained in Chicago.
First Lady
In 2007, when her husband announced his desire to run for president, she went part-time in the hospital to be able to help in the election campaign. During the campaign, she demanded that her husband quit smoking. After winning the elections, she moved into the White House with her family. Jackie Norris (English) became the head of her East Wing office, who met regularly with the head of the president’s office, Rahm Emanuel. In autumn 2009, she agitated for Chicago as a candidate for the 2016 Olympic Games. Together with her husband, she went to the Olympic Committee to Copenhagen, but despite this, Chicago’s candidacy fell out in the first ballot. Like most previous first ladies, she became involved in social activities. She got involved among others in promoting universal access to healthcare. She also promoted the idea of a healthy lifestyle. In 2010, she began a program to combat obesity, especially among children and adolescents, under the name Let’s Move!. Thus, she appealed to food companies to change their marketing policy. As a result, the president obliged federal agencies to implement a healthy eating program. In addition, the first lady established the Partnership for Healthy America foundation, which was to deal with the fight against obesity. In 2011, she encouraged American women to breastfeed as long as possible for children, citing studies that said longer periods of breastfeeding reduce the risk of being overweight. She received the Big Help Award in March 2010 for her activities.
As fashion influencer
Performing the duties of the first lady, she determined trends in American fashion. According to the American press, her outfits look impeccable, which is why in March 2009, she presented herself on the cover of “Vogue”. It occupies 50th place on the list of 50 richest politicians in the world prepared by the weekly “Angora” as the owner of USD 11.8 million in personal assets.
Autobiography
On November 13, 2018, the long-awaited and promised autobiography of Michelle Obama was published in the United States under the original title Becoming. It quickly gained the status of bestseller – only on the day of its release in the US and Canada, over 725,000 copies were sold. The book was the result of a contract that Obama signed with the Penguin Random House publishing house in 2017. The contract had a value of 65 million. dollars and it was the highest amount ever paid for the presidential diary. By 2019, the book had been published in several dozen countries in 25 languages.
Private life
She married Barack Obama on October 3, 1992 in Chicago. The wedding, which took place at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, was delivered by pastor Jeremiah Wright. Obama has two daughters: Malia Ann (born on July 4, 1998) and Natasha “Sasha” (born on June 10, 2001). Both daughters attended the private school of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. In 2018, she announced that the children she had with Barack Obama were born as a result of an in vitro procedure.