Barack Obama Primer

By Carol Gee

Barack Obama 1-2-3-4-5

Barack Obama: Senate website

Barack Obama: Campaign homepage

Barack Obama: My Space

Barack Obama: Wikipedia

3/18/08: "The Speech" from NYT -- Obama on race

Foreshadowing References --

Roots -- From Voice of America: "Obama Receives Hero's Welcome at His Family's Ancestral Village in Kenya" (Nairobi, 8/27/06).

National oratory -- Barack Obama: 2004 Democratic Convention Speech.

Environment -- From Grist/Muckraker Barack Star :"Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama's got green cred" (by Amanda Griscom, 8/4/04). To quote:

"Environmentalism is not an upper-income issue, it's not a white issue, it's not a black issue, it's not a South or a North or an East or a West issue. It's an issue that all of us have a stake in," Obama shouted. "And if I can do anything to make sure that not just my daughter but every child in America has green pastures to run in and clean air to breathe and clean water to swim in, then that is something I'm going to work my hardest to make happen."

The crowd went bananas in response to this call for unity across ethnic and socio-economic lines, as though they'd been waiting for exactly this kind of dynamic leader to free environmentalism from the perception that it's predominately a white upper-middle-class issue.

Obama's environmental activism stretches back to his undergrad days at Columbia University, during which he did a three-month stint with a Ralph Nader offshoot organization trying to convince minority students at City College in Harlem to recycle. Later, when he worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, he fought for lead abatement in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood.

Harvard Law Review -- From The New York Times: "First Black Elected to Head Harvard's Law Review" (2/6/90). To quote:

The new president of the Review is Barack Obama, a 28-year-old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago's South Side before enrolling in law school. His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii.

''The fact that I've been elected shows a lot of progress,'' Mr. Obama said today in an interview. ''It's encouraging.

''But it's important that stories like mine aren't used to say that everything is O.K. for blacks. You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent who don't get a chance,'' he said, alluding to poverty or growing up in a drug environment.

. . . On his goals in his new post, Mr. Obama said: ''I personally am interested in pushing a strong minority perspective. I'm fairly opinionated about this. But as president of the law review, I have a limited role as only first among equals.''

Therefore, Mr. Obama said, he would concentrate on making the review a ''forum for debate,'' bringing in new writers and pushing for livelier, more accessible writing.

. . . Professors and students at the law school reacted cautiously to Mr. Obama's selection. ''For better or for worse, people will view it as historically significant,'' said Prof. Randall Kennedy, who teaches contracts and race relations law. ''But I hope it won't overwhelm this individual student's achievement.''

Today's post amounts to a little "pocket reference" on Senator Obama. I found it interesting to see his progression in print.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)