A: Political theorist Saul Alinsky (third from right) was known for his labor organizing in Back of the Yards, then a predominately white, working-class area abutting Chicago’s great stockyards. Alinsky's unique approach influenced Obama's own community work.
Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, UPWA-CIO strike. Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Back of the Yards Newspapers Collection, Box 45, Photo 1.21.
B: Harold Washington attends the Roseland Vocational Training & Job Placement Assistance Center ribbon cutting and commercial walking tour, 1987. A young Barack Obama looks on from the background.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Harold Washington Archives & Collections. Mayoral Records. Press Office Photographs, Box 61, Photo 16.
C: Known as the “Mother of Environmental Justice,” Hazel Johnson mobilized her neighbors in the Altgeld Gardens public housing project to demand accountability for the disproportionate health effects faced by low-income, mostly Black people on Chicago’s far South Side. She both secured national legislative wins and united small, isolated communities of color into the broader environmental movement. Johnson was a mentor to Barack Obama during his time organizing in the Altgeld Gardens community.
Hazel Johnson (center), at Tampax “Women of Action” Environmental award Ceremony, Washington, DC, 1993. Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection for Afro-American History and Literature, People for Community Recovery Archives, Box 62, Photo 4.
D: Residents’ Journal was written by and for residents of Chicago's public housing. In this article from February 2000, three candidates in the First Congressional District Democratic primary, including Barack Obama, share their positions on public housing reform.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Residents’ Journal Records.
E: Barack Obama was the inaugural executive director of the Developing Communities Project, a religiously-affiliated organization devoted to improving material conditions for residents of Greater Roseland. He is pictured here at an event with fellow organizers Gwen Mackel Rice and Mamie Thomas.
Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection for Afro-American History and Literature, Developing Communities Project Records, Box 156, Photo 3018.
F: Articles of Incorporation for the Developing Communities Project, 1986. Barack Obama was the organization's first executive director.
Portions of this document have been redacted to protect personal privacy in accordance with archival access and ethical standards. The original document remains unaltered and is preserved in the Developing Communities Project Archives at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection.
Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection for Afro-American History and Literature, Developing Communities Project Records, Box 1, Folder 52.
G: Children gather for Story Hour in Welles Park, c. 1930. Located in Lincoln Square near the Sulzer Regional Library and its predecessor, the Hild Regional Library, Welles Park has hosted Story Hour for nearly a century.
Chicago Public Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection, Esther A. Barlow Collection, Box 7, Photos 1.28-1.29.
H: A map of proposed Water Fowl, Game and Song Bird Sanctuary in Jackson Park, March 1935.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Chicago Park District Archives, Drawing 0019-0005-1935, page 2.
I: Historic Preservation Analysis of South Shore Cultural Center Park Buildings and Grounds, 1992.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Chicago Park District Archives, Box 100, Folder 11, Photos 1-5.
J: The South Shore Cultural Center in 1990, as it would have appeared shortly before the Obamas married there in 1992.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Chicago Park District Archives, Box 100, Folder 9, Photo 22.
K: Gwendolyn Brooks at the Hall Branch Book Review and Lecture Forum in 1949. Brooks was an author, teacher and Pulitzer Prize winning poet who spent most of her life on Chicago's Southside. Brooks served as Poet Laureate of Illinois for over 30 years and as U.S. Poet Laureate for the 1985-86 term. Her work portrayed the diverse experiences of Black Chicagoans, especially in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
The George Cleveland Hall Branch of Chicago Public Library, located in Bronzeville, was the epicenter of the Black Chicago Renaissance. The library served as a place for Black writers, artists and thinkers to gather. The branch held an extensive collection of materials on Black life, known as the "Special Negro Collection," stewarded by head librarian Vivian G. Harsh. This collection would become the seed of what is today the Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, located at Woodson Regional Library.
Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection, George Cleveland Hall Branch Archives, Box 9, Folder 48.
L: Aerial view of Wooded Island in Jackson Park, 1935. The future site of the Obama Presidential Center is visible at the top of the photograph.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Chicago Park District Archives, Box 154, Folder 2, Photo 8.
M: The Woman's Building and Horticultural Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, now the site of the Obama Presidential Center. The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair took place across almost 700 acres of Chicago’s near southside lakefront, a tribute to Chicago’s triumph over the destruction of the Great Fire. While most of the “White City” was dismantled following the closure of the fair, the Palace of Fine Arts lives on today as the Museum of Science and Industry.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, C.D. Arnold Photographic Collection, Box 3, Volume III, Plate 3 and Plate 45.
Replica of a season pass to the World's Columbian Exposition.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Century of Progress Collection, Box 1, Folder 21.
N: Aerial view of Jackson Park, including the future site of the Obama Presidential Center, 1965.
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections, Chicago Park District Archives, Box 160, Folder 3, Photo 3.
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