Posted on 01/11/2026 3:00:00 PM PST by Libloather
The Illinois Republican Party has blasted as "divisive" the hiring language the Obama Foundation is using for the Obama Presidential Center, arguing it shows the privately run project is using public land to advance a political agenda.
The Obama Foundation, which is developing the hotly debated center on Chicago’s South Side, recently advertised roughly 150 jobs at the facility, stating that successful applicants are expected to align with the foundation’s "anti-racism" goals.
"It’s an Illinois Democrat tradition to insert divisive, far-left policies into the lives of everyday Americans and to balk at the rule of law," Illinois Republican Party Chair Kathy Salvi told Fox News Digital.
"The Obama Center is no different. It is a recipient of taxpayer funds built on public lands and flouts ‘anti-racism’ hiring goals," Salvi said. "But such employment practices sound discriminatory and unmoored from any assessment of merit."
The Obama Foundation secured control of a 19.3-acre section of Jackson Park — often described as Chicago’s equivalent of Central Park — under a 99-year agreement for just $10, after city officials approved the project under the premise that the center would function as a civic institution serving the public interest.
Opponents argued the land transfer violated the public trust doctrine, a legal principle requiring public land to serve a public purpose, and filed multiple lawsuits seeking to halt construction. The courts ultimately allowed the project to proceed without adjudicating the merits of those claims.
While commonly referred to as a presidential "library," the Obama Presidential Center is not operated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and does not function as a traditional presidential library.
Instead, it is run entirely by the Obama Foundation, the former president’s private nonprofit organization, which also oversees leadership and civic programs reflecting the values and priorities of former President...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You should not “slam” a far leftist for promoting a far left agenda.
Harmon Kardon got the contract for the loud speaker atop the place to blast the call to prayer
doing a search on obama foundation it is all press releases, websites, etc.
no real news about it. pages and pages of fake news.
Perfect. Let the little commie finish building it, and THEN have the courts adjudicate it as unlawful, and requiring dismantling and restoration of the original park property.
Oh, and make sure there are hundreds of those enviro-Karens bitching constantly about every detail of the restoration.
Chicago needs a pamphlet drop - it would be a milk run with b-2s
I wonder if the Obama Center will reveal a land acknowledgement? Certainly they know they are on unceded and usurped land of the Council of the Three Fires.
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