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Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama headlined the second night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The Obamas were last in Chicago for the funeral of Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, in June.
Reflecting on her mother’s values, Michelle Obama said, “she believed that all children, all people have value. That anyone can succeed if given the opportunity. She and my father didn’t aspire to be wealthy, in fact, they were suspicious of those who took more than they needed.”
“They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning,” she added.
She also noted that Vice President Kamala Harris was raised similarly and shares those values.
“Even though our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they shared the same belief in the promise of this country,” Michelle Obama said. “That’s why her mother moved here from India at 19. It’s why she taught Kamala about justice, about our obligation to lift others up, about our responsibility to give more than we take.”
Before the Obamas took the stage on Tuesday night, the atmosphere in the United Center was jubilant as delegates from each state participated in a ceremonial and celebratory roll call to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee for president.
However, during the roll call, some delegates from Minnesota staged a silent protest by remaining quiet and holding up signs with the names of Palestinians who were killed in Gaza. Back in March, Minnesota voters wanting a ceasefire in Gaza sent a message to Democrats with nearly 19% of its primary votes going to the “uncommitted” category.
During Obama’s speech, there were cheers and raucous applause, and midway through his speech, the former president invoked his famous 2008 campaign chant, saying, ‘Yes, she can,’ in reference to Harris. The room echoed the energy of Obama’s early campaign rallies as the crowd joined in, chanting, “Yes, she can. Yes, she can.”
Both of the Obamas’ speeches stirred emotions in the room and were unifying in nature. Neither shied away from talking about the divisiveness between each political party and people who share different ideological stances and implored the room to come together despite those differences.
“That sense of mutual respect has to be part of our message. Our politics has become so polarized these days that all of us, across the political spectrum, seem quick to assume the worst in others unless they agree with us on every single issue,” President Obama said. “We start thinking that the only way to win is to scold and shame and out yell the other side. And after a while, regular folks just tune out or don’t bother to vote at all,” he continued.
Obama also emphasized that progress requires acknowledging people’s “blind spots, contradictions, and prejudices.” He added that, to gain the support of those who don’t yet back Harris, there must be mutual respect and a willingness to listen on both sides.
Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones spoke to the contrasting feelings of experiencing joy within the halls of the United Center as the DNC progresses amid ongoing conflicts in the U.S. and abroad in Gaza.
“We are multifaceted. There’s a poem by Lucille Clifton, and she says, ‘Why don’t you celebrate with me? Every day, something has tried to kill me has failed,’” Jones told The TRiiBE.
“I believe that we have to have joy in our activism as well. Joy is necessary in the system of white supremacy. I work in a state legislature with 75 white men who, every day, tell me I don’t belong there, who kicked me out, who kicked me off my committees, who don’t even let us talk about issues,” he added.
In 2023, the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel Jones and Justin Pearson, another Black member of the state’s House of Representatives. They were expelled due to their involvement in gun control demonstrations at the state legislature.
Yet, while the Obamas’ speeches inside the United Center called for unity, outside, the nation and the city of Chicago were grappling with deep-seated conflicts. Organizers nationwide and in Chicago are marching in the streets, demanding that President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris end their support for Israel’s actions against Palestinians.
Meanwhile, on the South Side, residents continue to push for a community benefits agreement (CBA) for those living near the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) in South Shore.
“Our campaign has always been about not stopping the center, but making sure that the city is doing everything it can to ensure that long-term residents, Black folks who’ve been around the center in Woodlawn and South Shore for decades, are able to stay,” Dixon Romeo said, referring to the OPC in Jackson Park.
Romeo is a resident of South Shore and the executive director of Not Me We, a grassroots community group building power for poor and working-class folks in South Shore.
He’s also an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition. This group was formed in 2016 to protect area residents from displacement due to the development of the OPC in Jackson Park.
During a community meeting in 2017, Obama said his foundation—the Obama Foundation—wouldn’t sign a CBA because it doesn’t represent all of the community’s interests.
Despite Obama’s lack of support for a CBA, organizers with the Obama CBA coalition have pressed on and have secured victories through the passage of the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance in 2020, and the 2023 municipal election in which nearly 90% of South Shore residents supported a ballot referendum for the proposed South Shore CBA ordinance.
With the OPC nearing completion, Romeo and the Obama CBA coalition are pushing for the passage of the South Shore Housing Preservation Ordinance, a package of policies that would prevent displacement in South Shore.
However, without the full support of the Chicago City Council, the ordinance has stalled since it was introduced last fall.
Ald. Michelle Harris (8th Ward), whose ward includes South Shore, Chatham, Calumet Heights, Pullman, Avalon Park, Burnside and South Chicago, declined to explain whether she supports the measure at the DNC on Tuesday night.
“I’ve not been asked to really be a part of it,” Harris told The TRiiBE on the floor of the United Center. Harris is also an Illinois delegate for the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th Ward), the lead sponsor of the ordinance, is now pushing for a subject matter hearing on the proposal, but progress on scheduling that meeting remains uncertain.
As the convention goes on, it remains unclear whether Democratic leaders will listen to the demands of some delegates and voters outside the DNC. They are demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza and urging local leaders to pass legislation that prevents displacement in South Shore.
“If I could talk to the former president, I would just impress upon him whatever he could do to get [Mayor] Brandon Johnson to take action and make sure we get the CBA,” Romeo said.
