Claim via Social Media:
Social media posts claim the Obama Foundation only hired Black contractors to build the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, implying that white contractors were excluded from the project.
Explanation
This claim is false.
The Obama Presidential Center’s construction manager is Lakeside Alliance, a joint venture comprising Turner Construction and four Black-owned Chicago-area construction firms: UJAMAA Construction, Powers & Sons Construction, Brown & Momen, and Safeway Construction. That means Black-owned firms were intentionally placed in leadership roles, but the project was not limited only to Black contractors.
The Obama Foundation publicly stated that its goal was to award at least 50% of subcontracting packages to diverse vendors, not exclusively Black-owned vendors. Its own community commitments broadly define those vendors, including minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, disability-owned, and LGBTQ-owned businesses. The Foundation described this as an effort to expand opportunity for historically underrepresented contractors, not as a race-exclusive hiring policy.
The claim is also contradicted by the project’s structure. Turner Construction, a major national construction company, is part of Lakeside Alliance, and the project involved numerous subcontractors, vendors, engineers, and trades beyond the four Black-owned firms. For example, the discrimination lawsuit filed by II in One Concrete involved Thornton Tomasetti, the project’s engineering firm, which was accused by a minority-owned subcontractor of unfair treatment. Thornton Tomasetti denied the allegations and argued the issues stemmed from performance concerns.
The project has faced separate controversies, including payment disputes involving minority-owned and local subcontractors. Reports from Engineering News-Record and other outlets state that some subcontractors claim they are owed money for change orders and other work. The Obama Foundation has said it paid Lakeside Alliance in full and does not have direct contracts with those subcontractors.
Those controversies do not support the claim that only Black contractors were hired. Instead, they show a large, complex construction project involving a mix of firms and subcontractors, with disputes over management, payment, and performance.
Conclusion
Fact or Fiction? Fiction. The Obama Foundation did not hire only Black contractors. The project prioritized diversity and local participation, and four Black-owned firms were placed in leadership through Lakeside Alliance. However, the contractor and subcontractor structure included non-Black firms, including Turner Construction and other vendors. The claim misrepresents a diversity goal as an exclusionary hiring policy.
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