Out: A traditional presidential library for researchers. Location: Nearby Chicago Public Library branch.
What does the Obama Presidential Center reveal about him?
Barack Obama’s presidency is unique, and so is his new Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side.
Barack Obama’s presidency has been unprecedented.
That also applies to the Obama Presidential Center, which was dedicated on June 18 on Chicago’s South Side.
The monuments that presidents erect after leaving office reveal their preferred views of history and themselves: what accomplishments they want to be remembered for and what failures they want forgotten. Look at the original whitewashing of Watergate in Richard Nixon’s library and the minimal explanation of his impeachment in Bill Clinton’s library.
What lessons can we learn about President Obama from his chunky tower about to open?
It’s been nearly a decade since the 44th president left the White House to make way for Donald Trump. His successors have sought to dismantle his legacy, regularly deploying his middle name as a hint of suspicion: Barack Hussein Mr. Obama.
One of the conclusions confirmed by the dedication of the building is that there are hard feelings.
Although President Obama did not invite President Trump to attend, it will be the first time that a sitting president will not take center stage at the opening ceremony of the modern presidential library and museum.
Even Nixon, the only president forced to resign in disgrace, President George H.W. Bush, appeared at the dedication of a library in Yorba Linda, California, in 1990. Seven years later, when Bush’s library was dedicated in College Station, Texas, Clinton was there to praise the president she had ousted from office.
OK, we already knew this: he’s black
Mr. Obama’s status as the first black president is almost guaranteed to appear at the front of any extensive account of his tenure. But when he campaigned and served two terms, he generally shunned the spotlight on that breakthrough, favoring broader themes.
Now, the Obama Center embraces the role and impact of his race and places his presidency within the story of the nation’s long journey toward equality.
On both sides of the building are giant 5-foot-tall letters drawn from a 2015 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery, Alabama civil rights march.
“America is not one person’s project,” they read in part. “The most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘we.’ ‘We are the people.’ ‘We will overcome.’ ‘Yes, we can.’ That word belongs to no one. It belongs to everyone. ”
The center’s plaza is named after civil rights icon John Lewis and the observation deck of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington. Other spaces honor former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel.
“On whose shoulders are we standing?” says the center.
And then there’s the date, which was openly chosen by the former president.
Visitors can start streaming inside the building starting Juneteenth. The June 19 holiday celebrates the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger ordered the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas.
Breaking the mold: not a real library
President Obama redefined what a presidential library should contain, removing the basics that all of his modern predecessors had. That is the library part.
The Obama Archives will be the first presidential record to be fully digitized and available anywhere online, a process currently underway. The physical records of the presidential administration belong to the American people by law and are kept by the National Archives and Records Administration in suburban Chicago and Washington.
The center includes several classic exhibits from other presidential libraries. In addition to a replica of the Oval Office, which can also be found in the Truman, Johnson, and Clinton libraries, there is also an exhibit of dresses worn by first ladies to inaugural balls and other major events.
However, President Obama’s center has a younger, fashionable, and less stuffy atmosphere than most centers.
For example, it has an NBA regulation basketball court, reflecting Barack Obama’s passion for the sport. And one of Michelle Obama’s causes is a vegetable garden.
Who said anything about Syria?
The exhibit details the passage of the landmark Affordable Care Act and President Obama’s leadership during the mortgage crisis, an action that some economists credit with averting another Great Depression, which he inherited when he took office in 2009.
But there is limited mention of the administration’s controversial response to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, which President Obama condemned and imposed sanctions but did not provide significant military aid to Ukraine.
He also spoke about his decision not to use chemical weapons against civilians, after warning that threats against Syria crossed a “red line” that should not be crossed. He called it a “crime against humanity” but later withdrew his order for a military strike.
Even some supporters called it a mistake that undermined his credibility. He blames his opponents in Congress.
Dealing with low as well as high problems is a challenge for any president.
Austin’s Johnson Library is one of the most candid, portraying the Vietnam War as a national trauma and the president as a figure of conflict and constraint. LBJ said he wanted his story to be told “with the skin on.”
After the National Archives took over the Nixon Library in 2007, the original Watergate exhibit, which portrayed Nixon as a victim, was replaced with a historical account of the scandal that engulfed the president.
This is another way the Obama Center is different from other centers. It’s never part of the federal system. The National Archives will manage his archives and loan artifacts to its Chicago property, but the Obama Center will remain a nonprofit organization and the exhibits will remain under its care.
The first and last community organizer
In another change from the past, the center was designed to be a hub for the neighborhood.
There is no presidential library on site, but there is a branch of the Chicago Public Library. Jackson Park’s 19 acres include a large playground and athletic fields, as well as outdoor grills for picnics. A custom-built hill has been built for sledding during Chicago’s snowy winters. This was at the request of Michelle Obama, who grew up five miles away.
Not everyone in the community was keen on it, though. The project was delayed by years of controversy and litigation, including concerns about seizing lakefront land and gentrification that could displace current residents.
It was originally scheduled to cost $500 million and open in 2021. At that time, President Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, was the sitting president and was sure to attend. Instead, it ended up being five years behind schedule, $350 million over budget, and re-elected by President Trump for a second term.
President Obama was also considering other locations.
The finalists included offers from the University of Hawaii, in the state where he was born and spent much of his childhood, and Columbia University, where he graduated from college.
He settled on an offer from the University of Chicago on the city’s South Side.
In the end, Mr. Obama returned to his roots as a community organizer in his 20s, returning at age 64 and opening the Presidential Center with the same mission in mind.
Susan Page, USA TODAY’s Washington bureau chief, has covered 12 presidential campaigns and seven presidencies. Her most recent book is The Queen and Her Presidents (Harper, 2026).
