Illinois
Lincoln and Obama, linked by Illinois roots, shaped U.S. history 150 years apart
As America turns 250 years old in 2026, CBS News Chicago is looking back at two presidents who called Illinois home.
Nearly 150 years separated the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, who both launched political careers Illinois.
In their times in office, they faced very different challenges, but the nation’s 44th president drew inspiration from the 16th president.
On a frigid February morning in 2007, then a U.S. Senator, Obama announced he was running for president. The symbolism of where he delivered the speech was unmistakable – at the Old State Capitol building in Springfield.
At the same building in 1858, Lincoln gave one of the most famous speeches in American history.
“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free,” Lincoln told the crowd.
“The Lincoln that Obama is linking himself to in that moment in announcing his candidacy is the Lincoln who gave the ‘House Divided’ speech,” said University of Chicago professor Jane Dailey. “And that’s the Lincoln Obama, I think, was channeling in that moment as he talks about visions of community and democracy.”
Lincoln and Obama will be forever linked. Both lawyers from Illinois. Both served in the Illinois legislature before they were elected to Congress and later the White House. The Great Emancipator and the nation’s first Black president.
“You ask me what they have in common, and I think they both have a very strong belief in regular people; the capacity of Americans to be moral people, not every minute of every day, to take a stand on the right side of things if given the opportunity,” Dailey said.
Both Lincoln and Obama came to Illinois from other places. Lincoln was born in Kentucky and moved to Indiana at age 7 before his family came to Illinois when he was 21. Obama was born in Hawaii and lived in Seattle, Indonesia, Los Angeles, and New York before moving to Chicago in 1985.
Where Obama is a product of Ivy League schools, Lincoln was largely self-taught.
“He just read voraciously all the time. He didn’t boast about that, but someone asked him once, ‘Who did you study law with?’ and he said ‘Nobody. I read,” Dailey said.
Poverty drove Lincoln from Kentucky to Indiana then to Illinois. Obama, inspired by the city’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, moved to Chicago to become a community organizer.
“He ends up serving the state of Illinois. I’m not sure he would have imagined that. When he came to Chicago, I think he was coming specifically to Chicago to do the kind of organizing and activism that he wanted to do in the tradition of people who had gone before him,” Dailey said.
When Obama took the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he placed his hand on Lincoln’s bible. In his second term in 2013, Obama hand wrote an essay submitted to the Lincoln Presidential Library to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
“In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg address, written in Lincoln’s own hand,” Obama wrote. “I linger on these few words that have helped define our American experiment: ‘A new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’”
“One of the things that I think he was signaling – and Lincoln himself signaled this all the time – was the open possibility of the future. Obama says constantly, we want to have a more perfect union. We’re never going to get there, we’re never going to have a perfect union, but if we all work really hard, we might have a more perfect union,” Dailey said.
In writing about Lincoln, Obama went on to say “Lincoln’s words give us confidence that whatever trials await us, this nation and the freedom we cherish can, and shall, prevail.”
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Combined state and federal taxes would take more than 50% of the top-end income for 22,000 Illinois small businesses.
Proposals in the Illinois General Assembly could slam massive tax hikes onto small businesses, the state’s primary job creator historically and in the recovery from the COVID-19 downturn.
One measure would punish 22,020 Illinois small businesses with a huge increase in their marginal state income tax rate and create a top tax rate of nearly 50.3% for them, once all state and federal income taxes are factored in.
S-corporations and partnerships, which “pass-through” their business income to their owners, who pay taxes as individuals, would see their top marginal state income tax rate jump from 4.95% to 7.95%, a 61% hike.
That would happen because the legislation, House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 21, adds a 3% income tax on income above $1 million. It is scheduled for a hearing April 23 at which it could pass out of committee and go to a potential full House vote.
Research has shown that an increase in the top marginal tax rate is associated with a decrease in entrepreneurs’ hiring activity and lower wages for their employees.
Illinois has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation and among the slowest wage growth. These are exacerbated by some of the highest state and local tax burdens in the nation, including the second-highest property taxes and eighth-highest sales taxes.
In 2017 Illinois residents endured the largest permanent income tax hike in state history, when lawmakers increased the rate by 32%, from 3.75% to 4.95%.
Illinois already pushes out more businesses than virtually any other state. The “millionaire’s tax” could make the situation even worse. Illinoisans should reject this call for higher taxes on the state’s vital small business community.
Contact your state representative to stop the small business tax hike here.
SYCAMORE, Ill. – A Sycamore mother said she is still waiting for justice more than two years after her teenage son was stabbed to death.
The case is back in court this week, where a judge will consider a key request that could change how the case moves forward.
What we know:
A mother said her son’s life was cut short during a confrontation that turned deadly.
Heather Gerken said her 17-year-old son, Kaleb McCall, was stabbed during an incident in September 2023. She said Kaleb agreed to meet another teen for what he believed would be a fist fight while sticking up for a friend.
According to Gerken, the other teen, who was 15 at the time, pulled a knife and stabbed Kaleb in the chest. Kaleb later died from his injuries.
Gerken said a jury later found that teen guilty of second-degree murder after the defense argued he acted in self-defense.
Dig deeper:
The case is not over.
Gerken says the defendant’s attorneys are now trying to move the case out of adult court and into juvenile court. That decision could impact how the teen is ultimately sentenced.
What they’re saying:
Gerken said the legal process has been long and frustrating.
She said the case has stretched on for more than two and a half years and that ongoing court proceedings have made it difficult for her to grieve her son.
“He was everybody’s big brother,” Gerken said. “He had the biggest smile and the sweetest personality. He enjoyed fishing and being outside, and he was the best gift giver. He always got me flowers for every little holiday. Just a very thoughtful boy.”
Gerken also said the possibility of the case moving to juvenile court is especially upsetting, as she continues to push for what she believes is justice for her son.
“I don’t want anybody else’s child to die the way that my son died,” Gerken said. “Caleb is my whole world. I gave birth to him at 17 and he changed my life completely. He made me a better person. He taught me what real love truly is…And I just miss him so much more every day. And just knowing that he died the way he did. It makes me sick.”
What’s next:
The case returns to court Thursday morning.
A judge is expected to determine whether the case remains in adult court or is moved to juvenile court, a decision that could shape what happens next in the case.
The Source: The information in this article was reported by FOX Chicago’s Lauren Scafidi.
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