Former President Barack Obama on Friday announced that a groundbreaking ceremony for his long-awaited presidential library will be held Tuesday in Chicago.
The city is "where I got my start in public service" and "where Michelle and I started our family," he said in a recorded video announcement alongside the former first lady.
The pair chose a site in the city's South Side because "we wanted to give something back to the place that gave us so much," Michelle Obama, who grew up in the area, said.
The couple will be joined at the ceremony by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, as well as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Construction on the project began in August following years of delays.
The former president first chose the Chicago site, located on 19 acres of the historic Jackson Park, in 2016 but local activists’ concerns about the potential displacement of Black residents and legal issues with park preservation slowed the start of construction.
In August, longtime opponents of the project, including the nonprofit organization Protect Our Parks, called on the Supreme Court to halt work on the center due to the construction's potential environmental and historic impacts. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied the bid later that month.
A four-year federal review process of the center’s location was recently completed, and the Chicago City Council also approved neighborhood protections earlier this month. Obama said the project has involved community collaboration, "harnessing the collective talent of the South Side."
"Together we put the voices of the community at the heart of this project," Obama said in the video. "The result is more than a look into the past, it's a vision for the future."
