- This is one of a pair of reviews debating the Obama Presidential Center, which opened on June 19, 2026, in Chicago. Read the companion piece by Anna Kornbluh here.
IN 2017, ACTIVISTS with the Woodlawn organization Southside Together Organizing for Power asked Barack Obama if he would sign a community benefits agreement. Fearing impending displacement in the predominantly Black neighborhood surrounding the proposed Obama Presidential Center (OPC), the group asked for a suite of rent control measures, affordable housing guarantees, and requirements for local hiring. Obama met the activists over video call. He wore an unbuttoned black suit jacket and greeted them cordially.
Then, with all the money in the world and no future elections to lose, the former president refused their entreaty, denigrating the experienced organizers present in the room as potential grifters. “I’m not an outsider here,” he said. “I know the neighborhood. I know that the minute you start saying, ‘Well, we’re thinking about signing something that will determine who …
