michelle obama college thesis

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Princeton Releases Michelle Obama's Senior Thesis

February 26, 2008 / 8:18 PM EST / UWIRE.com

This story was written by Esther Breger, The Daily Princetonian

The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), her husband, received criticism from conservative media and bloggers when the University restricted access to her senior thesis until after the presidential election in November.

"A thesis can be restricted or unrestricted for a variety of reasons, including at the request of alumni," University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said in an e-mail. "It falls within the purview of alumni to discuss their academic work," she said.

Analysis of the thesis' content, in addition to its restricted availability, has featured prominently in blogs over the last few days. Written under Obama's maiden name of Michelle LaVaughn Robinson and titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community," the thesis has come under scrutiny as the presidential campaign has advanced for its analysis of race relations.

What's in the thesis?

Obama, who concentrated in sociology and received a certificate in African-American studies, examined how the attitudes of black alumni have changed over the course of their time at the University. "Will they become more or less motivated to benefit the Black community?" Obama wrote in her thesis.

After surveying 89 black graduates, Obama concluded that attending the University as an undergraduate decreased the extent to which black alumni identified with the black community as a whole.

Obama drew on her personal experiences as an example.

"As I enter my final year at Princeton, I find myself striving for many of the same goals as my White classmates -- acceptance to a prestigious graduate school or a high-paying position in a successful corporation," she wrote, citing the University's conservative values as a likely cause.

"Predominately White universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the White students comprising the bulk of their enrollments," she said, noting the small size of the African-American studies department and that there were only five black tenured professors at the University across all departments.

Obama studied the attitudes of black Princeton alumni to determine what effect their time at Princeton had on their identification with the black community. "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'Blackness' than ever before," she wrote in her introduction. "I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong."

Emeritus sociology professor Walter Wallace, who served as her thesis adviser, declined to comment for this story.

"It is important to consider the time period in which Michelle Obama wrote her thesis," College Democrats vice president Scott Weingart '09 said in an e-mail. "In 1985, Princeton was still a very conservative school; [Tiger Inn] would not admit women members for another six years. Today, the student body is a lot more progressive and diverse."

Completed theses are kept in Mudd Manuscript Library and are generally available to the public for viewing and scanning. Before today, callers to Mudd requesting information on Obama's thesis were told that the thesis has been made "temporarily unavailable" and were directed to the University Office of Communications. Following the thesis' release by the Obama campaign to politico.com, a political news site, the University lifted the restriction.

The University's actions were met with varying reactions by students.

"The school shoud generally default to freedom of information unless there is some compelling school or personal (e.g. the request of the author) interest at stake," Jason Anton '10, co-director of the Students for Barack Obama Princeton chapter, said in an e-mail.

"There's nothing about a senior thesis that's private in nature -- it's written with the knowledge that it will be kept in Mudd for all to read," Zahava Stadler '11 said.

Many students felt that the contents of the work could become a factor in the election, but they were unsure to what extent it would affect the outcome.

"Unfortunately, the thesis may very well revive the race card as a central theme of the election," Anton said.

"Her thesis seems especially pertinent given the questions that have been raised off and on about the supposed 'tight-rope' of racial identity politics that some claim Senator Obama has to carefully navigate," College Democrats president Rob Weiss '09 said in an e-mail.

Molly Alarcon '10, an Obama supporter, said she thought Michelle Obama's writing in college should not have any bearing on her husband's election, but her view was not shared by all students.

More from CBS News

• Princeton University Undergraduate Senior Theses, 1924-2023
• Sociology, 1954-2023

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Digging up dirt on Michelle Obama

SUMMARY: E-mailers go after Sen. Barack Obama by digging into his wife's college years. They take Michelle Obama's senior thesis and add their own fabrication.

There seems to be no shortage of serious issues for this campaign season, but lurking in e-mail accounts are attacks on the candidates' biographies. Sen. Barack Obama has been a particular target of anonymous e-mail; we at PolitiFact have received more negative e-mails about him than any other candidate, by a significant margin. Typically, e-mails portray him as unpatriotic and un-American. The latest chain e-mail involves his wife.

The e-mail looks at a research paper Michelle Obama wrote while a student at Princeton University 23 years ago. It takes a few actual sentences out of context, and fabricates a few quotes that don't exist in her work.

The e-mail begins:

"In her senior thesis at Princeton, Michele Obama, the wife of Barack Obama stated that America was a nation founded on 'crime and hatred.' Moreover, she stated that whites in America were 'ineradicably racist.' The 1985 thesis, titled 'Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community' was written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson."

Later the e-mail opines, "Michele (sic) Obama clearly has a chip on her shoulder. Not only does she see separate black and white societies in America, but she elevates black over white in her world."

But nowhere in the thesis does Michelle Obama write the words "crime and hatred" or that whites are "ineradicably racist." The e-mail does get the thesis title, her maiden name and the year correct. It also uses real quotations from the thesis, though a few are taken out of context.

The thesis is available on the Internet; the politics news site Politico reported on it in February and posted a copy it had obtained from Princeton University .

We downloaded a copy, which appears to be complete with no numbered pages missing. We read it, but we did not find the phrases the e-mail describes. We took the additional step of scanning the document through optical character recognition software so we could search its text electronically. An automated search did not find the words "crime," "hatred," "hate," "ineradicably," or "racist" in the document.

Every senior at Princeton writes a thesis or finishes an independent project. Famous alumni who wrote undergraduate theses at Princeton include New Yorker editor David Remnick ("The Sympathetic Thread: 'Leaves of Grass' 1855-1865") and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ("An Introduction to the Italian Constitutional Court"). Obama wrote her thesis as part of a bachelor's degree in sociology and graduated with honors, according to Princeton University's Department of Sociology Web site.

Sociology uses scientific methods to study human group behavior. In Obama's thesis, she sought to quantify how the attitudes of black Princeton alumni changed after graduation in regard to race relations and social change. Obama was especially interested in the attitudes of Princeton alumni in regard to improving the lives of lower-income blacks.

To document the change in attitudes, Obama devised an 18-question survey and mailed it to black alumni. Her thesis is a discussion of her methodology and an analysis of the results. It contains a limited amount of personal opinion in the introduction, including the sentence the e-mail cites. Here is a fuller excerpt:

"Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'Blackness' than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second."

Obama's perceptions have been supported at least in part by recent reporting: Obama's freshmen-year roommate tried to change rooms upon arrival at Princeton because her mother was horrified that Obama was black , according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But Obama writes a few paragraphs later that her earlier assumptions were changing, too:

"At the same time, however, it is conceivable that my four years of exposure to a predominately White, Ivy League University has instilled within me certain conservative values. For example, as I enter my final year at Princeton, I find myself striving for many of the same goals as my White classmates — acceptance to a prestigious graduate or professional school or a high paying position in a successful corporation. Thus, my goals after Princeton are not as clear as before."

The rest of the thesis goes on to discuss survey methodology such as independent variables, dependent variables and sample size, then summarizes the survey response. Obama found that black alumni identified with the black community the most during their years at Princeton, moreso than either before or afterward, and she discusses a number of possible reasons for the survey results.

Certainly, Obama's thesis is race-conscious. But it does not include anything that can fairly be described as antiwhite invective.

But should a candidate's wife's undergraduate course work from 23 years ago be fair game in the election? Even academics have mixed feelings about it, according to the news Web site InsideHigherEd.com , because the work is typically that of someone who has just recently entered adulthood.

Political observers have questioned the relevance of a spouse's academic work.

When the thesis became public in February 2008, it was a topic on the Fox News show Hannity & Colmes . Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, a noted conservative and a commentator for the network, said on the show he thought her thesis work wasn't relevant to the current campaign.

"First off, a spouse's personal life is out of bounds, period, end of discussion," Santorum said. "This is something that she did at an age when you write some pretty strange stuff sometimes. I hope they don't pull up my college thesis papers."

"If she's out, as she was on the campaign trail, speaking on behalf of her husband, and she says something at that point and it's in the public policy realm, fine, then that's a legitimate point," he added. "But to dig out someone's past, (it's) out of bounds. Leave it alone, move on."

Republicans may be more sensitive this year about issues of a spouse's past because of Cindy McCain's history with a painkiller addiction. McCain was stealing pills from a medical charity she ran and the incident became public in 1994. No charges were filed, and she reimbursed the charity, but the incident received national press coverage at the time.

Obama himself has defended his wife, not for her thesis but for other attacks made against her on the campaign trial, saying people should not attack his wife.

Obama said he found it "unacceptable" that the Republican Party should attack his wife or children, responding to a Tennessee state party ad that targeted Michelle Obama.

"Michelle is the most honest, the best person I know. She is one of the most caring people I know. She loves this country. And for them to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is just low class. And I think most of the American people would think that as well," Obama said.

Our Sources

Politico, Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide , Feb. 22, 2008

Princeton University, The senior thesis

Princeton University, Senior theses and Ph.D. dissertations

Princeton University, Sociology Department

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgian recalls rooming with Michelle Obama , April 13, 2008

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Roommate story resonates strongly across racial lines , April 19, 2008

Fox News Network, Hannity & Colmes transcript, Feb. 25, 2008

Associated Press, Senator's Wife Admits Prescription Drug Addiction, Aug. 22, 1994

Good Morning America, Interview with Barack Obama transcript, May 19, 2008

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by angie drobnic holan.

Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls

• © 2018
• Michelle Duster 0 ,
• Paula Marie Seniors 1 ,
• Rose C. Thevenin 2

Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, USA

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Africana Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, USA

Department of social sciences, florida memorial university, miami gardens, usa.

• Combines traditional academic essays with poetry, art, and personal essays to offer a comprehensive set of critical perspectives on Michelle Obama's legacy and impact upon African American women and girls
• The first book of its kind to offer extended academic and artistic responses to Michelle Obama
• Addresses Michelle Obama's impact as it relates to her career as First Lady and beyond, including insights to her background and current role in American society

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About this book

This edited collection explores how First Lady Michelle Obama gradually expanded and broadened her role by engaging in social, political and economic activities which directly and indirectly impacted the lives of the American people, especially young women and girls. The volume responds to the various representations of Michelle Obama and how the language and images used to depict her either affirmed, offended, represented or misrepresented her and its authors.  It is an interdisciplinary evaluation by African American women and girls of the First Lady’s overall impact through several media, including original artwork and poetry. It also examines her political activities during and post-election 2016.

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• Michelle Obama and African American Women
• Michelle Obama and the Media
• First Ladies and the Media
• Black Women and Embodiment
• Black Motherhood
• Black Women and Politics

Table of contents (36 chapters)

Front matter, queen of grace and power.

• Rhonda Gray
• Stenetta Anthony

Michelle Obama as an Administrator: Reflections

• Barbara J. Edwards

First Ladies/First Wives, First Women Presidents: Sexuality, Leadership and Power in the African Diaspora

• Carole Boyce Davies

Michelle Obama and Black Women as Alchemists

• Ruby Mendenhall

Michelle Obama: Flight vs. Fight

• Yasmine Huggins

When and Where I Enter

• Jasmine J. Wyatt

Patriotism and Service

Dark and lovely, mrs. michelle obama.

• Hazel Marie Harris Watson

Michelle Obama: American—Whether You Like It or Not

Michelle Duster

• Sandy Philippeaux

“A Quiet Untold Story of Profound Need”: The Activism, Partnerships and Advocacy of First Lady Michelle Obama, Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Military Families

Rose C. Thevenin

Celebrating African American Women Through Dance at the White House

• Daveisha Gibson

Let’s Move! with Michelle Obama

• Rachelle J. Brunn-Bevel, Kristin Richardson

Striving in Style

• Kenisha Coy

Defying Stereotypes: Black Body, Black Beauty & Motherhood

Unapologetic.

“A timely and insightful work, Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls is an impactful piece. It is one that should be read for ALL generations to come. Kudos to the authors who heeded the call and contributed to this thought-provoking book.” (Sharron Goodman-Hill, Instructor of Mass Communications, Rust College, and Host, WURC’s Straight Talk Live)

“This timely collection reminds us all how the character of our national leaders profoundly shapes our everyday lives and aspirations. In engaging and heartfelt contributions, these authors show how Michelle Obama not only influenced national policy initiatives, but how her character sets a legacy of integrity, energy and intelligence that continues to inspire and guide millions of Americans.” (Marilyn Krogh, Associate Professor of Sociology, Loyola University Chicago)

“This lively, personal, and insightful anthology makes abundantly clear the far-reaching and multi-faceted impact of Michelle Obama. In the work of these authors, the First Lady's legacy will nourish and challenge future generations of Americans to come. I welcome and celebrate this book!” (Patricia A. Schechter, Professor of History, Portland State University)

“It is necessary and inspiring to read these insightful and powerful reflections on the legacy of Michelle Obama. America’s only African American First Lady made an extraordinary impression around the world during her eight years in the White House. From her stylish emergence in 2008 to her powerful oratory at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, she has energized people around the globe. This marvelous collection of essays and reflections is a beautiful and critically important documentation of Michelle Obama’s impact and a thoughtful exploration of the issues her leadership has shaped.” (Bryan Stevenson, Director, Equal Justice Initiative and Professor of Law, New York University, and best-selling author of Just Mercy)

Editors and Affiliations

Paula Marie Seniors

About the editors

Michelle Duster  is an author, speaker and educator who teaches writing at Columbia College Chicago, USA. She co-wrote, co-edited and contributed to eight other books. Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, she earned her BA in Psychology from Dartmouth College and her MA in Media Studies from The New School.

Paula Marie Seniors is an associate professor at Virginia Tech, USA, biographer of her family’s legacy in Mae Mallory, the Monroe Defense Committee and World Revolutions: African American Women Radical Activists and award-winning author of Beyond Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Culture of Uplift, Identity and Politics in Black Musical Theater .

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls

Editors : Michelle Duster, Paula Marie Seniors, Rose C. Thevenin

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92468-7

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Literature, Cultural and Media Studies , Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-319-92467-0 Published: 07 September 2018

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-06437-2 Published: 22 December 2018

eBook ISBN : 978-3-319-92468-7 Published: 17 August 2018

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XXXIII, 307

Number of Illustrations : 5 b/w illustrations

Topics : African American Culture , Culture and Gender , American Culture , Culture and Gender , Politics and Gender

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The Controversy Over Michelle Obama's Thesis

What a yawner. Why this was ever put under lock and key, I have no idea. Anyway Politico One%20of%20harder%20things%20to%20accept%20about%20democracy,%20and%20it's%20the%20reason%20why%20up%20until%202006%20I%20had%20never%20voted,%20is%20lying.%20Politicians%20will%20lie,%20and%20there%20is%20basically%20nothing%20you%20can%20do%20about%20it.%20They%20will%20lie%20willfully%20about%20huge%20matters.%20It's%20important%20to%20note,%20while%20a%20lot%20of%20us%20get%20self-righteous%20about%20the%20lies%20of%20Bush,%20the%20same%20man%20that%20brought%20us%20the%20voting%20rights%20act,%20also%20brought%20us%20the%20<a%20href=%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Incident#Later_statements_about_the_incident%22>Gulf%20of%20Tonkin</a>.%20</p>">got it --from the Obama campaign, it's worth noting. Among the many racist bombshells to be found amongst 22-year old MIchelle Obama's anti-white, anti-American, anti-Apple Pie diatribe:

"My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

I'm sure the GOP will find some way to twist this. I guess. Though I have no idea how. This sound like every black kid I ever knew who went to an Ivy. Shoulda picked The Mecca , hun.

Obama’s ‘Sealed’ Records

By Brooks Jackson

Posted on July 31, 2012 | Updated on May 14, 2016

Q: Are Obama’s early records “sealed”?

A: No. Many records that presidential candidates don’t ordinarily release do remain confidential, but they are not “sealed” by a court. The 16 claims in a widely distributed graphic are mostly false or distorted.

FULL QUESTION

Is this true?

Subj: What? …and they want 12 years of Romney’s tax returns? THIS should be on billboards all over our nation! Forward this to others who are interested in re-claiming America and saving our future

FULL ANSWER

This is an example of mostly old baloney in a new casing. It mainly recycles years-old falsehoods and insinuations, most of which we covered long ago , in connection with an earlier viral email.

But with President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign heating up, this new graphic has appeared on countless anti-Obama websites and in viral emails like the one we’ve reprinted here. V ery little that it contains is new, and the old falsehoods have not improved with age.

Nothing ‘Sealed’

The idea that any Obama record is “sealed” is a falsehood, to start. The word “sealed” when applied to documents ordinarily refers to records that would normally be public, but that a judge has ruled cannot be released without the court’s permission. Common examples of truly “sealed” documents include records of crimes committed as a juvenile or records of adoptions . None of the claims in this message refers to records actually “sealed” in that usual sense.

In some cases, the records this screed claims are “sealed” are actually public, and open for anyone to see. Other supposedly “sealed” records are normally private documents that Obama hasn’t released — and that other presidential candidates haven’t released either.

So as with earlier versions, this is little more than an attempt to raise suspicions by asking for records that aren’t ordinarily made public, without any evidence that those records contain anything derogatory. We’ll take the claims and questions in the order they appear.

• Claims #1, 2 and 4, college records. Obama’s college records are not “sealed” by a court order, as this graphic would have you believe. It would be illegal under federal law ( the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 ) for Occidental, Columbia or Harvard Law School to give any former student’s records to reporters or members of the public without that person’s specific, written permission. Obama hasn’t released them, but neither have other presidential candidates released their college records. George W. Bush’s grades at Yale eventually became public, but only because somebody leaked them to the New Yorker magazine . Bush himself refused to release them,  according to a 1999 profile in the Washington Post .
• Claim #3, thesis paper. Obama did write a paper on nuclear disarmament for an honors course in American foreign policy during his senior year, but it wasn’t the sort of “thesis” that some colleges require for graduation and keep on file in their libraries, like those that Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama released. During the 2008 campaign, reporters were told that Columbia had not retained a copy of Obama’s 1983 paper, and that Obama didn’t have a copy, either. NBC News contacted his former professor , Michael Baron, who said he looked for his copy but couldn’t find it, and thought he probably tossed it out eight years earlier in a move. NBC quoted Baron as saying the paper likely would have disappointed Obama’s critics. “The course was not a polemical course, it was a course in decision making and how decisions got made,” Baron told NBC. “None of the papers in the class were controversial.”
• Claim #5, Selective Service registration. Obama’s Selective Service registration is public. A copy has been posted publicly, and the Selective Service confirmed that Obama registered for the draft on Sept. 4, 1980, and was given registration number 61-1125539-1. Worth noting is that nobody in the U.S. has been drafted for military service since 1972, the year Obama turned 11. Obama, like other young men turning age 18 since then, was required to register on a standby basis, in case Congress ever resumes an active military draft. Failure to register is technically a crime, and disqualifies a man for federal student aid or from holding certain federal jobs.
• Claim #6, medical records. During the 2008 campaign, Obama released summary medical information from his personal physician, who pronounced him to be in “excellent health” with routine test results for such things as cholesterol all within normal levels. (McCain, who is a cancer survivor and was 71 at the time, let reporters see his records for three hours to show he was cancer-free.) Since taking office, Obama has followed the practice of earlier presidents. He released results of his first “periodic” physical exam on Feb. 28, 2010. Results of his second “periodic” exam were released Oct. 31, 2011. His physician described him as being “in excellent health and ‘fit for duty.'”
• Claims #7 and 8, Illinois state Senate records. Obama’s voting record in the Illinois state Senate is a matter of public record, and about as far from being “sealed” as one can imagine. Reporters extensively went over his votes in 2008.  Transcripts of Senate debates in which Obama took part while in office (1997 – 2004) can even be found online, at the website of the Illinois General Assembly. Obama’s personal appointment calendar as a state senator may still be private — if it still exists — but we’ve seen nothing to suggest that would add much to what is already public. As president, Obama has released records of visitors to the White House (2.4 million so far). There are some exceptions. Personal information about visitors, such as Social Security numbers are not released. And there’s an exemption for “particularly sensitive” information, which might include a visit by a potential Supreme Court nominee, for example. But that’s still more disclosure than any previous president has made, by far.
• Claim #9, law firm clients. It’s true that Obama has not released a list of the 30 or so clients for whom he worked personally while he was a lawyer with the firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard in Illinois. He did routinely disclose the law firm’s entire client list while he was in the state Senate, however. And his campaign confirmed in 2008 several specific clients that Obama represented personally, when reporters asked about them. For example, he once represented the liberal group ACORN in a 1995 lawsuit against the state of Illinois, to make voter registration easier.
• Claims #10 and 11, birth certificates. The claim that Obama’s birth certificate is “sealed” is pure nonsense. Copies of both the so-called “short” and “long” certificates have been released, and state officials in Hawaii have said repeatedly that Obama was born there in 1961 and is a “natural born American citizen.”
• Claim #12, baptism record. If a paper record exists (and we’ve seen no evidence that it does), it would most likely show only what numerous, undisputed news accounts have stated: Obama was baptized in 1988 in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama was often seen in attendance at Wright’s church in the 20 years that followed. He was married there, and his two daughters were baptized there. He remained a member even after some of Wright’s controversial sermons were given national attention in early 2008. When Obama reluctantly severed ties with Wright after weeks of controversy, it was a major news event . Obama and his family now attend St. John’s Episcopal Church , near the White House, though not on a regular basis.
• Claim #13: Michelle Obama’s law license. It’s simply not true that the first lady “can no longer practice law as an attorney.” She could resume the practice of law any time she chooses . Both the president and his wife have voluntarily inactivated their Illinois law licenses, thereby avoiding a requirement to take continuing education classes and pay hundreds of dollars in annual fees, which is common for lawyers no longer actively practicing.
• Claim #14, first ladies’ assistants. It’s true that the first lady has more than 20 on her staff, but that’s roughly the same as other recent first ladies . The claim that “other first ladies had only one” might conceivably be true of Martha Washington or Dolley Madison, but it’s certainly not true of Laura Bush or Hillary Clinton. Bush had at least 18 that we could count, and probably more with job titles that didn’t make the link clear. The White House has said Michelle Obama’s staff is the same size as Laura Bush’s was.
• Claim #15, foreign student aid. The claim that Obama got “foreign student aid” is untrue. That wild falsehood began as an absurd April Fools’ Day hoax in 2009, which we quickly exposed.
• Claim #16, Obama’s passport. There’s no reason to think Obama used anything but the then-current version of his U.S. passport when he traveled to Pakistan as a student in 1981. Some who questioned Obama’s birthplace made baseless claims that Pakistan had banned U.S. citizen s from visiting in 1981, and speculated that he must have used an Indonesian passport. But they were quite wrong. There was no such travel ban. In fact, the New York Times published a travel piece that year describing the author’s own visit to Lahore, and the U.S. consul later wrote a letter to the Times saying he would “ welcome an influx of Americans ” and giving advice on how to make the journey.

Other Claims

Besides the numbered claims, the graphic also states that Obama has been endorsed by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). It’s true that the Communist Party USA supports Obama . It claims to have about 2,000 members . Obama didn’t seek the CPUSA endorsement, nor has he endorsed that group.

The graphic also attributes three quotes to Obama, all of which are commonly offered on conservative websites. All the quotes are accurate. Here’s the background:

• Obama appeared at the Service Employees International Union Sept. 17, 2007 , to seek the union’s endorsement for the Democratic nomination, and he said, “your agenda has been my agenda in the United States Senate.” (The words appear at about 3 minutes and 15 seconds into this video .) And the SEIU eventually endorsed Obama , but not until February 2008, helping him wrap up the nomination battle against Hillary Clinton. The union has endorsed him again for reelection.
• At the 2008 National Council of La Raza annual meeting in San Diego, Calif., on July 13, 2008, Obama concluded his remarks by saying, “And together, we won’t just win an election – we will transform this nation. Thank you, and God bless you.”
• And speaking to the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 17, 2008 , Obama said electricity costs would “necessarily skyrocket” as a result of capping carbon emissions. However, the cap-and-trade legislation he endorsed provided allowances intended to protect consumers from higher bills.

In summary, there are bits here that are true. But most is wrong or misleading, and overall the graphic falls far short of getting our seal of approval for accuracy. Call it “unsealed.”

Update, May 14, 2016: This item was updated to include a “Share the Facts” widget.

— Brooks Jackson

https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/45ae4938-2177-48cb-986b-e928eeb66404

Jackson, Brooks. “ Clueless ‘Columbo.’ ” FactCheck.org. 18 Jan 2010.

Higbee, Matthew K. “ Legal Terminology in Criminal Record Clearing. ” Law Firm of Higbee & Associates. Undated web page, accessed 31 Jul 2012.

“ How to Seal Your Juvenile Records: What Every Juvenile Should Know .” National Center for Youth Law. 7 Apr 2004.

“ Access to Adoption Records: Summary of State Laws .” Child Welfare Information Gateway, Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Jun 2009.

“ Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) .” U.S. Department of Education, Web site. accessed 31 Jul 2012.

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Michelle Obama

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 4, 2021 | Original: November 6, 2009

Michelle Obama (1964-), the wife of 44th U.S. president Barack Obama, served as first lady from 2009-2017. An Ivy League graduate, she built a successful career, first as a lawyer, and then in the private sector, which she maintained throughout her husband’s early political career. Concerned about the effect the campaign would have on their young daughters, Michelle was initially reluctant to support the idea of her husband’s run for the presidency. Despite her initial misgivings, she proved to be an effective surrogate for him on the campaign trail. After her husband’s election, she chose a number of causes to support; advocating for support for military families and encouraging healthy eating to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity. As a young mother, a fashion icon and the first African American first lady, Michelle Obama became a role model to many Americans.

WATCH: Michelle Obama

Michelle obama's childhood.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago , Illinois , to parents Marian and Fraser Robinson. Although Fraser’s modest pay as a city-pump operator led to cramped living in their South Shore bungalow, the Robinsons were a close-knit family, with Michelle and older brother Craig pushed to excel in school. Both children skipped the second grade, and Michelle was later chosen for a gifted-student program that enabled her to take French and advanced biology courses.

Making the lengthy daily trip to attend Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Michelle became student council treasurer and a member of the National Honor Society before graduating as class salutatorian in 1981. She then followed her brother to Princeton University, where she created a reading program for the children of the school’s manual laborers. A sociology major with a minor in African-American studies, she explored the connections between the school’s black alumni and their communities in her senior thesis, graduating cum laude in 1985.

Career and Life Before Becoming First Lady 

After earning her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988, Michelle joined the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin as a junior associate specializing in marketing and intellectual property. Assigned to mentor a summer intern named Barack Obama , she deflected his initial romantic advancements before they began dating. They were engaged within two years, and married at the Trinity United Church of Christ on October 3, 1992.

Michelle left corporate law in 1991 to pursue a career in public service, enabling her to fulfill a personal passion and create networking opportunities that would benefit her husband’s future political career. Initially an assistant to Chicago mayor Richard Daley , she soon became the city’s assistant commissioner of planning and development. In 1993, she was named executive director for the Chicago branch of Public Allies, a leadership-training program for young adults. Moving on to the University of Chicago as associate dean of student services, she developed the school’s first community-service program.

When Obama decided to run for Illinois state senator in 1996, Michelle proved a disciplined campaign aide by canvassing for signatures and throwing fundraising parties. However, their victory presented the family with new challenges; following the births of daughters Malia (1998) and Sasha (2001), Michelle often had to juggle the demands of work and child-rearing alone with her husband tending to business in the state capital of Springfield.

Successful despite the difficulties, Michelle was named executive director of community relations and external affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals in 2002. She was promoted to vice president after three years, and served on the boards of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, but eventually scaled back her work hours and commitments to support Obama’s entry into the U.S. presidential race.

Tenure as First Lady 

Initially criticized for her candor, Michelle soon proved an asset on the campaign trail with her knack for delivering relatable stories about her family. In addition to becoming the first African American first lady upon Obama’s Election Day victory in 2008, she became the third with a post-graduate degree.

Michelle sought to tie her own agendas to her husband’s larger legislative goals, notably targeting the epidemic of childhood obesity while the Affordable Care Act was being created. In 2009, she worked with local elementary school students to plant a 1,100-square-foot vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House . The following year she launched the Let’s Move! initiative to promote healthy eating and physical activity.

In 2011, Michelle co-founded the Joining Forces program to expand educational and employment options for veterans and to raise awareness about the difficulties plaguing military families. After helping Obama win a second term in office, she formed the Reach Higher initiative to inspire young people to explore higher education and career-development opportunities.

Continuing the family theme of her campaign speeches, the first lady stressed the importance of remaining a diligent parent and brought her mother to live with her in the White House. She was also recognized for an ability to connect to younger generations by remaining attuned to popular culture. Embracing the use of social media, she encouraged fans to follow her progress on her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, and proved willing to bring her messages to audiences by appearing in humorous sketches online and on television.

WATCH: The Best Photos of Obama's Presidency

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Barack Obama's Columbia University Thesis

Did barack obama's thesis for columbia university, entitled 'aristocracy reborn,' note that america's founding fathers 'did not allow for economic freedom', david mikkelson, published oct. 25, 2009.

Claim:   Barack Obama's thesis for Columbia University, entitled "Aristocracy Reborn," noted that America's founding fathers "did not allow for economic freedom."

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, October 2009]

I saw someone online claim that the following is a quote from Barack Obama's thesis at Columbia contains the following segment:

"... the Constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is the most revealing. The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom. While political freedom is supposedly a cornerstone of the document, the distribution of wealth is not even mentioned. While many believed that the new Constitution gave them liberty, it instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy."  

Origins:   In academia, a thesis is a typical requirement for a graduate degree (although some schools require a thesis for a bachelor's degree as well), an original research project submitted by a student on a topic related to his major. Many universities keep their students' theses on file and make them available to the public as library resources.

In recent years, theses written by U.S. presidential candidates and their spouses have become subjects of great interest, particularly for the possibility that they might provide some insight into the thinking and mindsets of their authors, including the disclosure of once-held viewpoints that might be now be considered controversial and disadvantageous to their current political careers (or those of their spouses). Accordingly, major political figures have become more circumspect about allowing public access to their theses: Former First Lady Hillary Clinton 's 1969 Wellesley College thesis on community organizer Saul D. Alinsky, for example, was not available for examination by the public during the eight years of her husband's presidency, and current First Lady Michelle Obama 's 1985 Princeton University thesis on "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community" was the subject of controversy when access to it was initially blocked during her husband's campaign for the presidency. (The Obama campaign made a copy of Michelle's thesis publicly available in February 2008, and Princeton's restriction on access to it was likewise lifted.)

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign (and afterwards), one of the items that was frequently cited as a "missing document" connected with Barack Obama was his own thesis for Columbia University, a school from which he graduated in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in political science (with a specialization in international relations). Politico noted in October 2008 that:

There's not a whole lot of information available about Obama's time at Columbia University in New York, which he attended for three years after attending Occidental College in Los Angeles for one year and from which he graduated in 1983.

His campaign would not release his transcripts, and it says it does not have a copy of his thesis, which dealt with Soviet nuclear disarmament and which has drawn intense interest.

As far as has been determined, Barack Obama did not produce a formal thesis for his degree at Columbia University; the closest match is a paper he wrote during his senior year for an honors seminar in American Foreign Policy. However, Columbia University has said it did not retain a copy of that paper, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt has said that Barack himself does not have a copy, and the professor to whom the paper was submitted has said that he no longer has a copy in his possession either:

In 1983, as a senior at Columbia in New York, Barack Obama enrolled in an intense, eight-student honors seminar called American Foreign Policy. His former professor, Michael Baron, recalled in an interview with NBC News that Obama easily aced the year-long class. But Baron says he never had any inkling that the gangly senior would scale such heights.

[Baron] had saved Obama's senior paper for years, and even hunted for it again [in July 2008] in some boxes. But he said his search was fruitless, and he now thinks he tossed it out [in 2000] during a move.

described [Obama's] paper as a "thesis" or "senior thesis" in several interviews, and said that Obama spent a year working on it. Baron recalls that the topic was nuclear negotiations with the Soviet Union.

"My recollection is that the paper was an analysis of the evolution of the arms reduction negotiations between the Soviet Union and the United States," Baron said in an e-mail. "At that time, a hot topic in foreign policy circles was finding a way in which each country could safely reduce the large arsenal of nuclear weapons pointed at the other ... For U.S. policy makers in both political parties, the aim was not disarmament, but achieving deep reductions in the Soviet nuclear arsenal and keeping a substantial and permanent American advantage. As I remember it, the paper was about those negotiations, their tactics and chances for success. Barack got an A."

Baron said that, even if he could find a copy of the paper, it would likely disappoint Obama's critics. "The course was not a polemical course, it was a course in decision making and how decisions got made," he said. "None of the papers in the class were controversial."

So would it provide any political ammunition today? "I don't think it would at all," Baron said. "It wasn't a position paper; it was an analysis of decision-making."

In October 2009, a purported excerpt from Barack Obama's "missing" Columbia thesis began circulating widely on the Internet, one which claimed the paper stated that the Constitution drafted by American's founding fathers "did not allow for economic freedom" and failed to mention "the distribution of wealth" (a play on the common campaign charge that a redistribution of wealth was one of Barack Obama's political goals).

Had someone finally turned up Barack Obama's elusive senior paper? The Pajamas Media web site reported on 21 October 2009 that writer/reporter Joe Klein had been permitted to read the first ten pages of it and had revealed that the paper (supposedly entitled "Aristocracy Reborn") included the excerpt reproduced above.

However, that claim seemed dubious, as a paper on "Aristocracy Reborn," with musings about the Founding Fathers' supposed lack of interest in "economic freedom" and "the distribution of wealth," would have been rather unusual content to find in a senior paper on the topic of Soviet nuclear disarmament, written for a seminar on American foreign policy. In fact, the putative excerpt was fictitious, something lifted from a bit of satire published on the Jumping in Pools blog back on 25 August 2009:

Obama was required to write a 'senior seminar' paper in order to graduate from Columbia. The subject of this paper, which totaled 44 pages, was American government. Entitled Aristocracy Reborn , this paper chronicled the long struggle of the working class against, as Obama put it, "plutocratic thugs with one hand on the money and the other on the government."

In the paper, in which only the first ten pages were given to the general media, Obama decries the plight of the poor: "I see poverty in every place I walk. In Los Angeles and New York, the poor reach to me with bleary eyes and all I can do is sigh."

In part, the future President blames this on the current economic system: "There are many who will defend the 'free market.' But who will defend the single mother of four working three jobs. When a system is allowed to be free at the expense of its citizens, then it is tyranny."

However, the President also singled out the American Constitution: "... the Constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is the most revealing. The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom. While political freedom is supposedly a cornerstone of the document, the distribution of wealth is not even mentioned. While many believed that the new Constitution gave them liberty, it instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy."

Pajamas Media issued a notice a few days after its original report acknowledging that the information about Barack Obama's Columbia thesis was a hoax. Joe Klein also affirmed that he had never seen the paper in question.

Last updated:   25 October 2009

    Popkin, Jim.   "Obama and the Case of the Missing 'Thesis.'"     MSNBC.com.   24 July 2008.

    Saul, Michael.   "Limbaugh Falls for Obama Thesis Hoax."     [New York] Daily News.   25 October 2009.

    Scott, Janny.   "Obama's Account of New York Years Often Differs from What Others Say."     The New York Times.   30 October 2007.

    Vogel, Kenneth P.   "What Are the Candidates Hiding?"     Politico.com.   23 October 2008.

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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