and there s just this diverse array of people. in grant park. there was no going back. a new day had dawned. coming up. michelle obama talked about feeling the pressure of being the first african american first lady and often feeling like there was no room for error. here we go. discover.
supporters. i can t think of no better way to end my time as first lady than celebrating with all of you. so i want to close the day by simply saying thank you. being your first lady has been the greatest honor of my life. and i hope i ve made you proud. [ cheers and applause ] there s a sort of very formal day that tapes, so the new president and the first lady come over, they meet the chief usher. they tea. she said she felt emotional in terms of saying goodbye to the staff, but she was worried about shedding a tear knowing if the cameras caught that that someone would say she was crying because of the new administration. so she was very steely throughout and had already made clear that she s ready for this new phase. michelle left the public eye
what you see later in the presidency is her being honest about her views in big new ambitious way. it had the feeling of michelle obama saying in public what she said in private which i think was not always true. she plugged into something so deep and transformative for her, it became transformative for millions of americans. her passion was her platform. she spoke openly about civil rights and issues of racism. no longer can we be barred from university or hotel or arrested for sitting at front of the bus or forced to use a separate bathroom or water fountain because of the color of our skin. ishows a level of courage ifou re african-american person in public life, a lot of people tell you, lay off the black stuff, makes people uncomfortable, don t talk about civil rights, don t mention slavery.
effectiveness. so the question of race relations obviously a huge topic for this president right now and in this presidency. and she remarks there, we need to build a country in terms of a boundless promise. you take us back to 2008 where she said i hate diversity workshops. what has he done for race relations in this country? what might she do? in terms of what she s done, i would say simply being the first african-american first lady is a pretty enormous contribution, the kind of everyday work of that job, figuring out what the first african-american first lady looks like, sounds like, sending that role model to people. there s actually a tremendous amount of work that went into that. i think the question about the
she would soon leave her high-powered job behind. do you believe in what this country can be? by now, her husband barack obama was senator barack obama, and he had his sights set on the white house. michelle gave up a big career, but there is nothing to compete with this historic opportunity for those who sense that they can be a part of of history. she is the love of my life, the rock of our household. when you strip away princeton and harvard and all those wonderful degrees and accomplishments, deep down, i m just a girl who grew up in the south side of chicago. candid and confident, qualities instilled in her by her parents went a long way with voters on the campaign trail. because every time in my life, when i tried to do something, there were people around telling me why i couldn t. and mrs. obama was a bridge to african-american women, in ways like no one else who came before her.