Obama, Michelle

Michelle La Vaughn Robinson Obama was born January 17, 1964, to Fraser Robinson III (who died in 1991) and Marian Shields Robinson. Having grown up on the south side of Chicago, she is a product of the broader African American community who traces her roots to pre-Civil War African Americans in the South. Her great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was a slave in South Carolina. Michelle exemplifies achievement through discrimination as well as opportunity, becoming the first African American First Lady of the United States. Her husband, Barack Obama, is the 44th president and a former senator from Illinois. Among the many other roles she plays, she is an attorney, a mother, and a health care executive.

She graduated from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in ...