On February 19, 2015, President Obama returned to Pullman to designate the historic district a national monument, the first in the State of Illinois. It was the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods located on Chicago’s far South Side where President Obama spent roughly three and a half years as a community organizer, beginning in 1985. He worked out of an office in the rectory of Holy Rosary Church located on 113th Street next to Palmer Park and walking distance from Pullman’s Factory Administration Building with its iconic clock tower and stunning Victorian masterwork the Hotel Florence, and its tidy historic row houses.

At Pullman’s designation ceremony, Obama placed friendly faces from his community organizing days, like Father Bill Stenzel, in the stands next to National Park Service officials and other dignitaries. In Obama’s declaration, he made the case for Pullman’s national significance noting its distinctive architecture and urban planning, as well as, its industrial and labor history. But as he continued, it became increasingly clear that this monument designation was also something very personal to him. He revealed that Michelle Obama’s great grandfather had been a Pullman Porter and described passionately how the work of A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters paved the way for him to become the first African American president: “This place is a milestone in our journey to a more perfect union,” he proclaimed.