Kristen Rajczak Nelson - Michelle Obama: First Lady, Author, and Activist

Published in 2020 by

Lucent Press, an Imprint of Greenhaven Publishing, LLC

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Suite 255

New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2020 Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning Gale and Greenhaven Press are registered trademarks used herein under license.

All new materials copyright 2020 Lucent Press, an Imprint of Greenhaven Publishing, LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Designer: Deanna Paternostro

Editor: Kristen Rajczak Nelson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rajczak Nelson, Kristen, author.

Title: Michelle Obama: first lady, author, and activist / Kristen Rajczak Nelson.

Description: New York: Lucent Press, 2020. | Series: People in the news | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018059350 (print) | LCCN 2018060795 (ebook) | ISBN 9781534567764 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534567757 (pbk. book) | ISBN 9781534567085 (library bound book)

Subjects: LCSH: Obama, Michelle, 1964 | Obama, Michelle, 1964 |

Presidents' spousesUnited StatesBiography. | African American lawyersBiography.

| Political activistsBiography.

Classification: LCC E909.O24 (ebook) | LCC E909.O24 R35 2020 (print) | DDC 973.932092dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018059350

Printed in the United States of America

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Please visit our website, www.greenhavenpublishing.com. For a free color catalog of all our high-quality books, call toll free 1-844-317-7404 or fax 1-844-317-7405.

Contents

Foreword

W e live in a world where the latest news is always available and where it seems we have unlimited access to the lives of the people in the news. Entire television networks are devoted to news about politics, sports, and entertainment. Social media has allowed people to have an unprecedented level of interaction with celebrities. We have more information at our fingertips than ever before. However, how much do we really know about the people we see on television news programs, social media feeds, and magazine covers?

Despite the constant stream of news, the full stories behind the lives of some of the worlds most newsworthy men and women are often unknown. Who was Gal Gadot before she became Wonder Woman? What does LeBron James do when he is not playing basketball? What inspires Lin-Manuel Miranda?

This series aims to answer questions like these about some of the biggest names in pop culture, sports, politics, and technology. While the subjects of this series come from all walks of life and areas of expertise, they share a common magnetism that has made them all captivating figures in the public eye. They have shaped the world in some unique way, andin many casesthey are poised to continue to shape the world for many years to come.

These biographies are not just a collection of basic facts. They tell compelling stories that show how each figure grew to become a powerful public personality. Each book aims to paint a complete, realistic picture of its subjectfrom the challenges they overcame to the controversies they caused. In doing so, each book reinforces the idea that even the most famous faces on the news are real people who are much more complex than we are often shown in brief video clips or sound bites. Readers are also reminded that there is even more to a person than what they present to the world through social media posts, press releases, and interviews. The whole story of a persons life can only be discovered by digging beneath the surface of their public persona, and that is what this series allows readers to do.

The books in this series are filled with enlightening quotes from speeches and interviews given by the subjects, as well as quotes and anecdotes from those who know their story best: family, friends, coaches, and colleagues. All quotes are noted to provide guidance for further research. Detailed lists of additional resources are also included, as are timelines, indexes, and unique photographs. These text features come together to enhance the reading experience and encourage readers to dive deeper into the stories of these influential men and women.

Fame can be fleeting, but the subjects featured in this series have real staying power. They have fundamentally impacted their respective fields and have achieved great success through hard work and true talent. They are men and women defined by their accomplishments, and they are often seen as role models for the next generation. They have left their mark on the world in a major way, and their stories are meant to inspire readers to leave their mark, too.

Introduction

A Groundbreaking Role Model

O n February 12, 2018, the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama were unveiled at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. They immediately made history, becoming the first presidential portraits that had been commissioned to black artists. Art critics across the country spent thousands of words on their color and composition, and what they meant to the future of American art. Thousands of visitors ambled through the gallery to take in the final sign the Obama years in the White House were over. They tweeted and emailed their thoughts about the paintings all over the world.

However, it was the story of one little black girl that truly captured the meaning of what the portrait of the first black First Lady would mean going forward. In February 2018, Parker Curry, then two years old, visited the National Portrait Gallery with her mother and younger sister. She knew who Michelle was because she had seen her dance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

As Parker approached the painting, she was captivated, her mother, Jessica Curry, remembered later. I called her name repeatedly, trying to get her to turn around so I could take a photo of her looking at the camera but she was motionless, completely absorbed in the grandeur of the image. Parkers amazement was caught in a photo by a minister from North Carolina. He posted it online.

The responses to the photo of Parker echoed what Michelle Obama had said herself when her portrait was unveiled not long before: Im also thinking about all the young people particularly girls and girls of colorwho in years ahead will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution.

Once Michelle learned about Parker and her belief that the First Lady was a queen, she invited Parker to her office to meet, and they danced to Taylor Swifts Shake It Off. This perfectly embodied the spirit Michelle put into her role as First Lady: a care for and genuine connection with the American people, particularly young people. Michelle welcomed people of all ages, family backgrounds, and economic circumstances into the best-known house in the United States. She mentored teenage girls and planted a prodigious garden. She advocated for veterans and supported artists. And beyond these initiatives, Michelle quietly, boldly represented something greaterinclusion.

However wide-reaching her platform became, Michelle never stopped seeing herself as the approval-seeking achiever from the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. She spent the early years of her career and marriage questioning her own path in life, and then the path chosen by her husband. She reluctantly entered the world of politics with reservations about losing herself, damaging her daughters childhood, and opening her private world to this very public arena. Yet, the importance of what she believed her husband could do on the national stageand by extension, what she could doeventually overrode these worries. She realized the eyes of the countryand historywere on her as the first black First Lady. She decided, as she said in her final remarks as First Lady in 2017, to lead by example with hope; never fear.