“He was great, too, but she was better.”

That’s what Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree said of Barack and Michelle Obama, both of whom he taught during their respective law school days. Indeed, if one looked at their respective track records, Michelle Obama emerged as the early star: after graduating from Princeton and then Harvard Law, she became an associate at the Chicago law firm Sidney & Austin, Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, and then Vice President for Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals. Of course, Mrs. Obama is best known for her role as First Lady.

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks onstage during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit – Day 2 at The Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard on October 13, 2015 in Washington, DC./Paul Morigi/Getty Images

As such, she led a number of campaigns during her time in the aforementioned role. The most famous was the “Let's Move!” campaign that encouraged exercise and healthy eating in order to fight childhood obesity. Other campaigns she led as First Lady include Let Girls Learn, which backed education for girls around the world; Reach Higher, promoting post-secondary training and education and Joining Forces, a program supporting military personnel and veterans.

In 2014, Obama posted a picture of herself holding a sign with the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag, becoming perhaps the most high-profile person to promote the campaign to rescue hundreds of schoolgirls who had been kidnapped by the radical group Boko Haram in Nigeria. Obama’s 2016 speech at the Democratic National Convention emerged as one of the defining moments of that year’s political campaign – “when they go low, we go high.”

She also remains the most admired woman in America for the past three years. First Lady Obama has stated that she will never run for public office herself, even though she is constantly approached about doing so. In the words of Prof. Ogletree, “she could easily be president, but I don’t think she will."

The aforementioned 12 women all worked to make the country more just and more equal for Black women and for all Americans. Their impacts are still felt in politics and society today. Vice President Harris will now carry on their legacy, breaking new barriers and paving new paths for Black women in this country to follow.

Barbara-Jordan

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