(AURN News) — The Obama Presidential Center opens to the public today on Chicago’s South Side. More than a decade in the making, the $850 million campus sits in Jackson Park. The 19.3-acre campus includes a museum, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a playground, a basketball court, gardens, a cafe, a restaurant and open green space free to the public.
The museum is the first fully digital presidential museum of its kind. Museum tickets for opening day have already sold out.
The timing is no accident. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
The opening carries special significance for many Chicago residents and Black Americans, connecting the legacy of President Barack Obama with a holiday that commemorates freedom and emancipation.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
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