Michelle Obama (People in the News)

Michelle Obama (People in the News)
By Michael V. Uschan
Number Of Pages: 112
Publication Date: 2010-05-07
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1420502093
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781420502091

Lucent’s People in the News series offers young readers a deeper look into the lives of today’s newsmakers, the influences that have shaped them, and the impact they have had in their fields of endeavor and on other people’s lives. The subjects of the series hail from many disciplines and walks of life. They include authors, musicians, athletes, political leaders, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and others who have made a mark on modern life and
who, in many cases, will continue to do so for years to come.

From Introduction:

On February 18, 2009, Michelle Obama turned the East Wing of the White House into a classroom by hosting a celebration of Black History Month. In an informal lecture to nearly two hundred sixth- and seventh-grade students from Washington, D.C., schools, Obama detailed the role the White House has
played in African American history...
Barack Obama’s inauguration as the first African American U.S. president on January 20, 2009, shattered a racial barrier that many people believed might never be broken because of racism.
...
Although the government ended slavery in 1865, many African Americans were denied basic rights and discriminated against because of the color of their skin for another century...
Barack Obama’s ancestors never suffered such cruel treatment— his father was an immigrant from Kenya and his mother was white—but Michelle Obama’s did. In 1850 James Robinson, Michelle’s great-great-grandfather, was born a slave in South Carolina...
Michelle Obama’s slave ancestry is the most dramatic aspect of her family history. U.S. representative James E. Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, claims that having a descendant of slaves as First Lady is as meaningful historically as her husband’s status as the first black president...