Michelle Obama, née Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, (born January 17, 1964, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American first lady (2009–17), the wife of Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States. She was the first African American first lady. Michelle Robinson, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side, was the daughter of Marian, a homemaker, and Frasier Robinson, a worker in the city’s water-purification plant. She studied sociology and African American studies at Princeton University (B.A., 1985) in New Jersey before attending Harvard Law School (J.D., 1988). Returning to Chicago, she took a job as a junior associate at Sidley & Austin (now