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U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama Through the Years

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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama grew up in a close-knit working-class family in a black neighborhood in Chicago. Raised by parents who weren’t college graduates, she and brother Craig Robinson were taught the value of education. She achieved professional success as a lawyer and hospital executive. As recently as 2003, Michelle Obama was a private citizen married to a little-known Illinois state senator. Her husband’s political success has catapulted her into the national and international spotlight.

Michelle Obama was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964, to a family whose path tracks the changes in U.S. race relations. Her great-great-grandfather was a slave on a South Carolina plantation; her grandfather moved to Chicago to seek work. Her father’s steady city-government job let her mother stay home to raise children. “Her family story is part of a classic American narrative of migration out of the South to the great urban centers of the North and Midwest,” Liza Mundy, author of Michelle: A Biography, said in a book talk.

Michelle Robinson graduated from Princeton University with a degree in sociology. In college, her love of children drew her to a job at the university day-care center, where she cared for professors’ offspring alongside children from the community, according to David Colbert, author of Michelle Obama: An American Story. Next, she attended Harvard Law School, where she worked at a legal aid clinic providing help to low-income people. After graduating from Harvard, she accepted a law firm job in part to repay school loans, Colbert said. See: Michelle Obama Presents Modern Image for Black Women

In 1989, Michelle Robinson met Barack Obama while working as a corporate lawyer for Sidley Austin; he was a summer associate at Sidley in the middle of his education at Harvard Law School. In his book The Audacity of Hope, Barack relates that when Michelle’s father, Frasier Robinson, died in 1991, Barack made a silent promise to take care of Michelle. They married in October 1992 and settled in Chicago. By then, Michelle had left the for-profit world for nonprofit and governmental institutions.

Michelle gave birth to Malia Ann Obama in July 1998 and Natasha Obama, known as Sasha, in June 2001. When Barack decided to mount a challenge in the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate in 2004, he was considered a long-shot candidate. Publicity over an opponent’s nasty divorce helped his campaign. “In part, he won because he had a much more stable marriage than some of his political opponents did,” Mundy said. When Barack was sworn in as a U.S. senator, 6-year-old Malia asked if he was going to be president, amusing onlookers. See: In Dual-Earner Couples, Family Roles Are Changing in U.S.

Throughout Barack’s campaign for president, Michelle worried about the impact on their two young daughters. As the wife of a U.S. senator, she had spoken at public events and maintained a public profile. But she had rarely gone out of town overnight and had insisted on being home for events in her children’s lives, such as ballet recitals and soccer games. Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, quit her own job to care for Malia and Sasha during the campaign and is living with the Obama family in the White House.

Even as Michelle climbed the career ladder, she made her daughters a priority. She took infant Sasha with her to a job interview at the University of Chicago Medical Center, emphasizing her commitment to her family. She landed the spot and rose to become vice president of community and external affairs, a high-paying executive position. She took a leave of absence to help Barack campaign for president and quit the job after he won the presidential election. Here, she and Sasha listen to Barack speak in Iowa.

Michelle has said her primary job will be “mom-in-chief,” making sure Malia and Sasha adjust well to life in the White House. In January 2009, the girls began studies at a private school in Washington. Previously, the Obamas had kept the family home in Chicago in order to give their children continuity and the support of family and neighbors. Here, Michelle appears on stage with her daughters after addressing the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

At age 45, Michelle is the youngest U.S. first lady since Jacqueline Kennedy, who assumed the role at 31. Michelle has said her priorities include championing military families and promoting volunteerism and community service. She also wants to advocate for work-life balance, having personally struggled with pursuing a career while raising a family. Although the first lady is unelected and unpaid, Michelle Obama commands a bully pulpit. Her words are bound to draw attention and stir action. See: Michelle Obama Enters White House with Substance and Style

Barack Obama made history by becoming the first African-American president of the United States. On election night he emphasized the important role Michelle Obama will play, calling her “my best friend for the last 16 years, the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation’s next first lady.” Each has spoken of their marriage partnership with love and affection, with Michelle famously teasing him about leaving dirty socks on the floor and forgetting to put the butter back in the refrigerator.