Obamas Surprise Center's First Visitors

The couple whose name is on the building surprised the first 100 visitors to walk through the doors of the new Obama Presidential Center on Friday by personally greeting them. Former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, joined by former Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, also read Where the Wild Things Are to 25 schoolchildren at the Chicago Public Library branch inside the center, the AP reports. When the former president read Maurice Sendak's line about being "king of all the wild things," Michelle Obama interjected, "Although there were no kings," to applause.

Later, awed guests shook hands with the Obamas against the backdrop of a colorful, 38-foot-tall painting depicting a map of Chicago stretching to the ceiling, inspired by Carl Sandburg's 1914 poem about the city: "stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders." After the surprise visit, Houefa Agassounon, of Chicago, called the surprise visit perfect: "I was literally crying. I asked for a hug and everything." She had written a letter to the Obama Foundation last year, asking if she could be there when it opened. She said meeting the Obamas was a bonus. "This is just the greatest thing of my 18 years of life," she said.

The Juneteenth opening followed a dedication ceremony Thursday where the Obamas gave rousing speeches to an audience including three former presidents, their former first ladies, and a host of politicians, celebrities, musicians, athletes, and others. Thousands more joined the livestream from a nearby park. A weekend of events is planned for the sprawling campus on Chicago's South Side near where the Obamas lived and his political career began. The campus includes a towering museum that covers the political and personal realms of the nation's first Black president and first lady. The tower's design is meant to depict four hands coming together in solidarity. Wrapped around one side are 5-foot tall concrete capital letters, an excerpt of Obama's 2015 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. It begins, "You are America."