The lines were many, the smiles countless and the pride priceless after setting foot on the Obama Presidential Center campus.
The word “magnificent” was uttered more than once.
Walkers and wheelchairs mingled with strollers and wagons where youths were carted around.
The feeling of community, brotherhood and sisterhood was evident as folks asked passersby to take their photos on opening day, which fell on Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
The Jackson Park museum opened to the public Friday, capping off more than a decade of anticipation and controversy, as the campus, which includes a forum building, parkland and a Chicago Public Library branch, reworked one of the city’s most historic parks and a major thoroughfare.
Inside the presidential center, the Obamas greeted the first 100 visitors, according to a pool report.
Awed guests shook hands with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama against the backdrop of a colorful, 38-foot-tall painting depicting a map of Chicago stretching to the ceiling, inspired by Carl Sandburg’s 1914 poem about the city: “stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.”
The Obamas – Barack in a blue button-down shirt and dark-colored slacks, Michelle wearing a brown, sleeveless top and tan pants — greeted the press pool as they walked in the room at 10:48 a.m. Chicago time. “Hey, people! Good morning, good to see you,” he said.
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Barack Obama mimicked a drum roll as the first guests arrived.
A few blocks away, the Hoover family stepped forth from their SUV with their two children. Their trek wasn’t long for the Bronzeville residents, but Chad Hoover’s sister, Amanda Lester, traveled from Bolingbrook with three of her four children to be a part of history.
“We’re going to cherish this because with the way things are going, we may never get this again.”
A cross section of the nation was in Jackson Park on Friday, celebrating not only the freedom gained on Juneteenth but also words often used during the Obama presidency: hope, action and change.
Myriad folks promenaded down Stony Island Avenue to partake in the campus’s festivities: button making, music, talks on democracy, feeding their bodies at the Forum and their minds at the 82nd branch of the Chicago Public Library.
The campus crowd, near its 15,000 capacity all day, exuded pride: strolling toward the museum, many dressed in Pan-African red, yellow and green, or other colorful gear, commemorating the moment.
Buena Park resident Brenda Dillard was in line for the museum entry before 10 a.m., but she’s already booked return visits for next weekend (for her husband’s birthday) and her birthday in August to take a VIP tour.
“It’s a place of hope, and the way we are now in the country, we need hope,” she said of the campus. “Hope came home.”
Ashburn resident Janice McFadden, a retired CPS assistant principal, rested on a wall with her cane, awaiting her turn to walk in the museum.
“I brought my arthritis cream,” she said. Just in case she needed it.
While her focus was touring the museum, she knew her grandkids would want to visit the park and the garden, she said. McFadden didn’t wait long — Obama center staffers were all around, directing, assisting, answering visitors’ questions.
“The South Side has gotten so much negative press … but this is so magnificent for young Black people to see what’s possible,” McFadden said.
Tina Cathey and her husband, Reginald, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, were part of a group of 60 people ready to spend at least six hours on campus. The group sported baby blue T-shirts with the biblical passage Romans 15:13 on the back: “Now may the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing…” The moment felt stronger than when Obama was first elected, Reginald said.
“The message of hope he is preaching cements itself right here in this area — that’s why you see so many people here, it’s like a rainbow of colors,” he said.
Jermaine Donaldson of Oak Park couldn’t think of a better way to spend Juneteenth. That’s why the Oak Park dad was on the playground — just a piece of the 20-acre campus’s amenities — with four of his five children enjoying the weather, days before Father’s Day.
“How could you not be at this place?” he said.
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The campus includes free garden spaces, the full-size NBA regulation basketball court known as “Home Court,” dining options, the 82nd branch of the Chicago Public Library, and of course, the museum.
The campus definitely evokes feelings of when Obama was elected in 2008, Donaldson said. “This does bring that back and gives you some of those good vibes of when he was elected, when he was president.”
And while that time in the nation’s history “seemed otherworldly,” the presidential campus is “grounded in something sustainable.”
Hope Bowie and Deborah Warren traveled from Galveston, Texas —the birthplace of Juneteenth—to experience this moment in history. They wore their white 1865 Juneteenth T-shirts as they took in the vistas in the museum’s “Sky Room.” As they walked in earlier, tears came to their eyes, they said. “We’ve got two presidential libraries in Texas–Bush, Jr. and Bush daddy and I’ve never been to them,” Warren said. “We got one in Arkansas and I ain’t been to that one either. Been to California and never been to the Reagan library either. But who wouldn’t want to be here?“
Trina Small of Aurora was accompanied by her three daughters, ages 15, 12 and 10. While most tweens and teens think most things are uncool, her children were impressed and happy to be there. “They can feel the Black excellence,” she said.
Now that it’s open, eyes will be on the campus to observe its effect on the neighborhood, observers say, a sentiment shared by Michael Strautmanis, the Obama Foundation’s chief corporate affairs officer. The focus turns to work with the community, economic development and fulfilling all of the promises — the bigger promise about democracy, civic engagement and how people who love their country can change it, he told the Tribune.
The public opening day, which hosted nearly 1,700 ticketed visitors, was the first of many expected successful days ahead, as the museum is booked through November, with 600,000 people predicted to tour the museum and more than 1 million to visit the campus yearly, center officials said.
Asked how the Obama team will measure success? Tina Tchen, executive vice president of programs for the Obama Foundation, said, “That moment when I can look out on the plaza or in the atrium, and see an Obama global leader who’s come into town, sitting next to the tourist family who came in from the West Coast, next to kids who came across the street from Hyde Park to eat their lunch, next to the world leader who just came in for a talk, sitting in the atrium having lunch together, just because they happen to be sitting in that same space. Because that’s pluralism, that’s what we talk about.”