Rising Star

by David J. Garrow

  On Ronald Nelson’s murder, see Jerry Thornton, “Gunman Kills Iowa Professor Outside Church,” CT, 18 March 1985, p. A7; “Iowan Dies in Robbery on S. Side,” CST, 18 March 1985, p. 22; “Police Issue Sketch of Professor’s Killer,” CT, 21 March 1985, p. A4; William Recktenwald, “Suspect Held in Church Lot Killing,” CT, 15 April 1985, p. 6; Leon Pitt, “Sketch in Sun-Times Leads to Murder Suspect’s Arrest [sic],” CST, 15 April 1985, p. 54; “Ex-Convict Charged in Slaying at Church,” CT, 16 April 1985, p. A4; Tom Fitzpatrick, “Senseless Murder Haunts Courtroom,” CT, 11 September 1986, p. 7; Linnet Myers, “Robber Convicted in Prof’s Slaying,” CT, 12 September 1986, p. A4; Rosalind Rossi, “Ex-Con Guilty of Professor’s Murder,” CST, 12 September 1986, p. 16; Myers, “Robber Gets Death in Slaying,” CT, 9 October 1986, p. B2; Rossi, “Ex-Con Due to Die for Killing Prof,” CST, 9 October 1986, p. 34. People v. Hayes, 564 N. E. 2d 803 (Ill. S. Ct.), 21 November 1990, offers a detailed recounting of the crime and Hayes’s trial; subsequent affirmances of his conviction are Hayes v. Illinois, 499 U.S. 967 (cert. denied), 15 April 1991, Hayes v. Carter, U.S.D.C.N.D. Ill., 22 May 2003 (2003 USD Lexis 8650), Hayes v. Battaglia, 403 F. 3d 935 (7th Cir.), 13 April 2005, and People v. Hayes, Ill. App. 1st Dist., 4 November 2013 (2013 WL 5940308). Also see Illinois Department of Corrections Inmate Search (also providing current, full-color photos of Hayes).

  41. “EDA Approves Way to Sell Wis. Number 6 Mill,” DC, 7 March 1985, p. A1; Larry Galica, “Wisconsin Steel: Five Years Later, Closure Still Haunts Community,” DC, 28 March 1985, p. A5; C. D. Matthews, “Ex-Employees Remember the Painful Past,” DC, 28 March 1985, p. A7; Linnet Myers, “Good Times Ceased Rolling with the Steel,” CT, 28 March 1985, p. C1; Frank Lumpkin to Crossroads Fund, 31 March 1985 and 4 April 1985, Lumpkin, “Grant Agreement,” 26 June 1985, all CRF Box 38 Fld. 473; Tom Geoghegan to Josh Gotbaum, 5 April 1985, FLP Box 4 Fld. 12; Susan Gallagher, “Steelworkers Seek Justice,” TNW May 1985, pp. 1, 6–7; R. C. Longworth, “It’s Almost Over for Wisconsin Steel Plant,” CT, 24 June 1985, p. C1; “Meeting Planned to Save Steel Mill,” DC, 25 June 1985, p. A3; Larry Galica, “Ex-Wis. Steel Workers Told of Efforts to Save No. 6 Mill,” DC, 27 June 1985, p. A1; Galica, “Wis. Steel Vigil is Planned,” DC, 29 June 1985, p. A1; R. C. Longworth, “Final Days Close in at Wisconsin Steel,” CT, 5 July 1985, p. II-1; “Reaction Is Mixed to GM Plant Loss,” DC, 11 July 1985, p. A1; and Ranney, “The Closing of Wisconsin Steel,” p. 80.

  On South Works, see Larry Galica, “Union Will Try to Stop Demolition,” DC, 25 October 1984, p. A1; Robert Bong, “South Works Is Finished,” DC, 29 October 1984, p. A4; Larry Galica, “Demolition Begins at South Works,” DC, 15 December 1984, p. A1; “So. Works Closed Until Jan. 2,” DC, 27 December 1984, p. A2; Helene McEntee, “S. Works Planning Beam Output Boost,” CST, 24 January 1985, p. 83; “Quit Foot-Dragging in USS Suit,” DC, 18 February 1985, p. A4; Larry Galica, “Action Expected on So. Works Suit,” DC, 22 February 1985, p. A1; James Warren, “Alice Peurala Regains Reins of Steel Union Local,” CT, 1 May 1985, p. 3; “USS Demolition Ban Continued,” DC, 13 June 1985, p. A1; Larry Galica, “USS Demolition Delayed,” DC, 19 July 1985, p. A1; Robert Mier to Father George Schopp, 24 July 1985, Schopp to Frank [Lumpkin], 30 July 1985, and Paul W. Bateman (EDA) to Schopp, 2 August 1985, all FLP Box 4 Fld. 12; and Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came, pp. 425–26.

  On Republic, see DJG interview with Maury Richards; Conroy, “Mill Town,” November 1986, p. 173; 1033 News & Views, May 1982, p. 1; Linnet Myers, “Hopes Vanish Along with Steel Mills,” CT, 23 October 1983, p. C1; Larry Galica, “150 to Lose Jobs at Republic Steel,” DC, 6 January 1984, p. 1; Mark Kiesling, “Local 1033 Rejects Richards,” DC, 26 January 1984, p. A2; Kiesling, “Local 1033 Votes to Back Richards,” DC, 2 February 1984, p. A1; Larry Galica, “Republic–J&L Merger Rejected,” DC, 17 February 1984, p. A8; Mark Kiesling, “Unemployment, Dumps Concerning Richards,” DC, 6 March 1984, p. A2; “Richards Not Down,” DC, 23 March 1984, p. A2; Larry Galica, “Union Leader Not Surprised by Republic–LTV Merger OK,” DC, 23 March 1984, p. B3; Galica, “Local 1033 Leader Optimistic About Republic–LTV Merger,” DC, 2 June 1984, p. A2; “Merger Combines Major Bar Producing Facilities,” LTV Steel Reporter, July 1984, p. 1; Robert Bergsvik, “LTV Won’t Deny Layoff Rumors for Mill,” DC, 6 September 1984, p. A1; Larry Galica, “Union Griever Tosses Hat into Local 1033 Ring,” DC, 26 October 1984, p. A8; Frank Guzzo, “Outlook for South Chicago Plant Dim,” 1033 News & Views, November 1984, p. 1; Larry Galica, “Guzzo, LTV Officials Meet,” DC, 27 November 1984, p. A1; Galica, “Union Membership Angry over Death at LTV Plant,” DC, 30 November 1984, p. A1; Galica, “LTV Meeting Rocky but ‘Constructive,’” DC, 1 December 1984, p. A1; Raul Hernandez et al., “Work for Less Dues,” DC, 19 December 1984, p. A4; Hogan, Steel in the United States, p. 63; Larry Galica, “Protesters Demand Jobs,” DC, 19 January 1985, p. A2; Galica, “Local 1033 Members Reject Job Cuts,” DC, 28 January 1985, p. A1; Frank Guzzo, “Are We Satisfied with the Progress,” Labor Management Plan Talk, April 1985, p. 6; Larry Galica, “Richards Ousts Guzzo in USW Local 1033 Election,” DC, 29 April 1985, p. 1; 1033 News & Views, May 1985; Larry Galica, “Narrow 1033 Races Settled,” DC, 4 May 1985, p. A2; “New Leader,” DC, 31 May 1985, p. A2; Robert Bong, “LTV Seeks State Bail-Out,” DC, 3 June 1985; Larry Galica, “LTV Tax Relief Request Rapped,” DC, 11 June 1985, p. A1; 1033 News & Views, July 1985; and Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came, pp. 496–502, 507–12.

  42. DJG interviews with Jerry Kellman, Ken Jania, Fred Simari, Len Dubi, Mike Kruglik, Tom Kaminski, Nadyne Griffin, Betty Garrett, Marlene Dillard, Adrienne Jackson, Dan Lee, Loretta Augustine-Herron, Yvonne Lloyd, John Calicott, Jan Poledziewski, Bill Stenzel, Bonnie Nitsche, Cathy Askew, Bob Klonowski, and Glee Murray; Robert L. Johnston, “In Defense of CHD,” Chicago Catholic, 3 and 10 August 1984, p. 8; Marianne Comfort, “New CHD Grants Announced; Fund Effort Defended,” Chicago Catholic, 14 September 1984, p. 3; Mary Claire Gart, “5 Local Projects Get National CHD Grants,” Chicago Catholic, 19 October 1984, p. 7 (stating the amount was $50,000); Robert L. Johnston, “Deanery Project Links Parishes, Community,” Chicago Catholic, 14 December 1984, pp. 1, 14 (citing $42,000 rather than $50,000); “Time for ‘Time,’” Chicago Catholic, 14 December 1984, p. 8; “Time for XII Lay Ministry Training Program,” St. Victor Parish Sunday Bulletin, 10 February 1985, p. 3; Thomas Casaletto, “CHD Attacks Poverty’s Causes,” Chicago Catholic, 17 May 1985, p. 15; Renee Brereton, “CHD Proposal Evaluation Form—The Developing Communities Project,” #86-D-02-02, 7 March [1986], Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Papers (citing $42,000 rather than $50,000); Poole and Pauken, The Campaign for Human Development, p. 95 (citing $40,000); Woods Charitable Fund, Report for the Year 1985, pp. 3, 15; Marty [Adams] to Ben [Reyes], 16 April [1985], HWP DS Box 16 Fld. 47; “Woods Fund Supports Citizen Involvement,” TNW, May 1985, p. 19; Woods Charitable Fund 1985 Form 990-PF, Part XVI, 14 May 1986; Mother Jones, March 1983, p. 47, April 1983, p. 43, and May 1983, p. 52; and most crucially, of course, “Two Minority Jobs, Chicago,” Community Jobs, June 1985, p. 3. The assertion that “half” of CCRC’s budget came from church dues was an aspiration rather than reality. Kellman had advertised in Community Jobs ten months earlier, before he hired Mike Kruglik, but that ad—identical in both the July–August and September 1984 issues—had simply sought an “Organizer” or “Trainee,” with no references at all to “Minority,” “95 percent black,” “experience in the black community,” or “Affirmative action position.” “Organizer Chicago,” Community Jobs, July–August 1984, p. 7, and September 1984, p. 4. Multiple published assertions circa 2008 that Kellman also advertised in the New York Times are incorrect, as is easily confirmable: the only “community organizer” ads that appear in the Times during the first six months of 1985 are on 17 and 24 February for South Bronx People for Change and on 31 March for the Community Family Planning Council of New York City; no CCRC ad whatsoever appeared in the Times.

  On San Antonio, see Donald C. Reitzes and Dietrich S. Re
itzes, The Alinsky Legacy: Alive and Kicking (JAI Press, 1987), pp. 117–26. On Father John W. Calicott, see his essays “Black Priestly Vocations,” Upturn, December 1980–January 1981, pp. 12, 14; “A Practical and Real Necessity,” Upturn, November–December 1982, pp. 6, 8; “Another Beginning,” Upturn, December 1984–January 1985, p. 8; and “Church and Young People,” Upturn, August–September 1986, p. 14. In 1994, Calicott was removed from ministry on account of two allegations of sexual misconduct dating from 1976. He was reinstated in 1995, then removed again in 2002 solely on account of a change in U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops policy regarding prior allegations. See Scott Fornek and Philip Franchine, “Pastor of Holy Angels Accused of Sex Abuse,” CST, 12 April 1994, p. 4; Ingrid E. Bridges, “Controversial Priest Makes Official Return to Holy Angels,” CD, 16 October 1995, p. 3; Cathleen Falsani and Ana Mendieta, “Accused Priest Lecturing Kids About Sex,” CST, 22 January 2004, p. 8; Falsani, “Priest Ran Afoul of Policy on Abusers, Archdiocese Says,” CST, 23 January 2004, p. 9; and Cheryl V. Jackson, “Church Defrocks Popular Ex-Priest Accused of Abuse,” CST, 28 October 2009, p. 8.

  CHAPTER TWO: A PLACE IN THE WORLD

  1. Accounts of the Obama family’s history in Kenya are replete with uncertain dates, conflicting memories, and a plethora of relatives with multiple names or nicknames. In sorting through the history from Hussein Onyango forward, the most assiduously researched account is Peter Firstbrook’s The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family (Preface Publishing, 2010), esp. pp. 174, 184, and 201. Between April 2010 and December 2013, the late Zeituni Onyango, both in person and in scores of e-mails, kindly explained countless intricacies of her family’s history to me, and her autobiography, Tears of Abuse (Afripress Publishing, 2012), esp. pp. 7–8, is usually the best guide to the extended family’s genealogy. Her untimely passing is hugely mourned. See Katharine Q. Seelye, “Zeituni Onyango, Obama’s Aunt from Kenya, Dies at 61,” NYT, 9 April 2014, p. B19. Abon’go Malik Obama and Frank Koyoo’s Barack Obama Sr.: The Rise and Life of a True African Scholar (Xlibris, 2012), esp. p. 118, offers some valuable specifics but must be used with caution. See also Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father (Times Books, 1995), pp. 394–427, esp. 413, and Mark Obama Ndesandjo, An Obama’s Journey (Lyons Press, 2014), pp. 23, 277. Sally H. Jacobs’s The Other Barack (Public Affairs, 2011) is a generally reliable journalistic account. Countless newspaper stories, especially from 2007–2009, must be read with extreme caution. Stories that do merit attention are John Oywa, “Sleepy Little Village Where Obama Traces His Own Roots,” Nation, 15 August 2004; Laurie Goering, “Obama Campaign Closely Watched—in Kenya,” CT, 10 October 2004, p. 1; John Oywa, “Tracing Obama Snr.’s Steps as a Student at Maseno School,” Standard, 4 November 2008; Joe Ombuor, “Obama’s Father and the Origin of the Muslim Name,” Standard, 4 November 2008; John Oywa, “Keziah Obama: My Life with Obama Senior,” Standard, 11 November 2008; and Stephen Kinzer, “The Man Who Made Obama,” Guardian, 8 February 2009. Subsequent journalistic books have recycled materials from these stories, sometimes with citations, sometimes without. “Resume, Barack H. Obama,” Tom Mboya Papers Box 47 Fld. 5, which Betty Mooney Kirk prepared for him, notes the law firm and engineering firm employment; Obama, “Work Experience After Leaving School,” [18 May 1959], Phelps Stokes Fund Papers (PSFP) Box 214, describes multiple jobs without naming any employers. In a similarly dated “Application for Financial Assistance” to AAI, in which Obama listed his date of birth as 18 June 1934, he asserted, “I was forced to leave school in my last year due to financial difficulties at home . . . due to the fact that my father got very ill.” He also wrote that after college, “I hope to open my own firm of Civil Engineering and Architecture.”

  On Tom Mboya, see particularly his own Freedom and After (Andre Deutsch, 1963), esp. p. 59, and David Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget (Heineman, 1982), esp. pp. 61–62; on Bill Scheinman, see Joseph B. Treaster, “W. X. Scheinman, 72, Broker and Friend of Kenyan Leader,” NYT, 25 July 1999. Obama arrived in New York more than a month prior to the well-publicized educational “airlift” of Kenyan students that began in 1959 and continued through 1961. Organized under the aegis of the African-American Students Foundation, which Mboya and Scheinman created in the spring of 1959, the initial airlift plane delivered eighty-one young Kenyans to the U.S. to begin collegiate studies. See “81 Kenyans to Hold U.S. Scholarships,” NYT, 6 August 1959, p. 7; “81 Youths in Kenya Off to School in the U.S.,” NYT, 8 September 1959, p. 7; Gay Talese, “81 in From Kenya to Go to College,” NYT, 10 September 1959, p. 8; William X. Scheinman, “Higher Education in Kenya,” NYT, 10 September 1959, p. 34; Tom Mboya, “To Aid African Students,” NYT, 24 November 1959, p. 36; Albert G. Sims, “Africans Beat on Our College Doors,” Harper’s, April 1961, pp. 53–58; and Tom Mboya, “African Higher Education: A Challenge to America,” Atlantic, July 1961, pp. 23–26. Subsequent sources on the airlift include Alan Rake, Tom Mboya: Young Man of New Africa (Doubleday, 1962), pp. 172–79; Mboya, Freedom and After, pp. 137–38 and 143–46; Mansfield I. Smith, “The East African Airlifts of 1959, 1960, and 1961,” Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, June 1966; Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya, pp. 116–19; Michael Dobbs’s excellent article, “Obama Overstates Kennedy’s Role in Helping His Father,” WP, 30 March 2008, pp. A1, A8; James H. Meriweather, “‘Worth a Lot of Negro Votes’: Black Voters, Africa, and the 1960 Presidential Campaign,” Journal of American History 95 (December 2008): 737–63, esp. pp. 745–48; Tom Shachtman, Airlift to America (St. Martin’s Press, 2009); Cora Weiss, “From Kenya to America,” NYT Book Review, 9 May 2010, p. 6; Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student Airlifts to America, 1959–1961: An Educational Odyssey (Kenway Publications, 2013), esp. p. 62; and Ndesandjo, An Obama’s Journey, p. 25.

  2. Betty Mooney to Frank Laubach, 5 June 1958, 4 and 17 August 1958, Laubach Papers Box 7; Obama to John M. Livingstone (AAI), 20 October 1958, and Obama to Gordon P. Hagberg (AAI), 30 October 1958, PSFP Box 214; Mooney to Laubach, 21 December 1958, Frank Laubach to Floyd et al., 30 December 1958, Betty Mooney to Mrs. Laubach, 11 January 1959, Laubach Papers Box 7; Hagberg to Obama, 20 January 1959, and Mooney to Hagberg, 28 January 1959, PSFP Box 214; The Key: Kenya Adult Literacy News #5, February 1959, p. 5, Laubach Papers Box 237; Betty Mooney to Frank Laubach, 16 and 24 February 1959, Laubach Papers Box 7; Obama to Hagberg, 4 March 1959, PSFP Box 214; Mooney to Laubach, 2 March 1959, Laubach Papers Box 8; Frank J. Taylor, “Colorful Campus of the Islands,” Saturday Evening Post, 24 May 1958, pp. 38–39, 95–98; Edward T. White, Director of Admissions, University of Hawaii, “Certificate of Eligibility,” 19 February 1959, Obama INS File and PSFP Box 214; Betty Mooney to Frank Laubach, 23 March 1959, Mooney and Helen Roberts to Laubach, 28 March 1959, Laubach to Mooney, 30 March 1959, Laubach to Registrar, University of Hawaii, 30 March 1959, Mooney to Laubach, 26 April 1959, Laubach Papers Box 8; Hagberg to Obama, 14 May 1959, Hagberg to Mooney, 14 May 1959, Obama to Hagberg, 18 May 1959, Mooney to Hagberg, 20 May 1959, and Mooney to AAI, 20 May 1959, PSFP Box 214; Mooney to Laubach, 1 and 4 June 1959, Laubach Papers Box 8; Hagberg to Loyd Steere, 4 June 1959, PSFP Box 214; Mooney to Laubach, 9 June 1959, Laubach Papers Box 8; Steere to Hagberg, 12 June 1959, Mooney to Hagberg, 6 July 1959, Hagberg to Obama, n.d. [pre–13 July 1959], Hagberg to Obama, 13 July 1959, Hagberg to Mooney, 14 July 1959, Mooney to Hagberg, 21 July 1959, Hagberg to Mooney, n.d., Obama to Hagberg, 21 July 1959, Harry Heintzen to Bruce McGavren, “Air Ticket for Barack Obama,” 23 July 1959, McGavren to Heintzen, “Air Ticket—Barack Obama,” 28 July 1959, PSFP Box 214; Barack H. Obama to Dr. Frank Laubach, 28 July 1959, Laubach Papers Box 8; Barack Hussein Obama, “Statement to Be Signed by Applicant for Nonimmigrant Visa,” 29 July 1959, Obama INS File; Betty Mooney to Frank Laubach, 5 August 1959 (“Barack left last night”), Laubach Papers Box 8; Heintzen to File, “Transportation and Hotel Arrangements for Mr. Barack Obama,” 6 August 1959, PSFP Box 214; “Arrival-Departure Record,” Obama INS File; Heintzen to File, “Barack Obama,” 1
1 August 1959, and Anna Trimiar to Heintzen, “Barack Obama,” 28 August 1959, PSFP Box 214; Betty Mooney to Frank Laubach, 30 August 1959 (reporting that “Barack is at Koinonia now”), Laubach Papers Box 8. The Hawaii admissions certificate records Obama’s birth year as 1934.

  On Koinonia, see Timothy Miller, The Quest for Utopia in Twentieth-Century America: 1900–1960 (Syracuse University Press, 1998), p. 178. Helen M. Roberts’s biography is Champion of the Silent Billion: The Story of Frank C. Laubach, Apostle of Literacy (Macalester Park Publishing, 1961). Obama expressly credits the Saturday Evening Post story in a conversation with a student newspaper reporter six months later. See “First African Enrolled in Hawaii Studied Two Years by Mail,” Ka Leo O Hawaii, 8 October 1959, p. 3. Jacobs, The Other Barack, p. 92, dates the Ramogi ad to July 7, 1959; an impressive academic article, Matthew Carotenuto and Katherine Luongo, “Dala or Diaspora? Obama and the Luo Community of Kenya,” African Affairs 108 (April 2009): 197–219, at 204n29, dates it to April 7; both could well be correct. Of the three Luo primers, only the second, at least as recorded in the comprehensive worldwide OCLC database, officially lists Obama as the author. See Barack H. Obama, Otieno: The Wise Man. Book 2. Wise Ways of Farming [Otieno Jarieko] (East African Literature Bureau, 1959). See also Dana Seidenberg, “Cold Warrior for Racial Equality,” East African, 7 February 2009.

  3. Shurei Hirozawa, “Young Men from Kenya, Jordan and Iran Here to Study at U.H.,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin [HSB], 19 September 1959, p. 5; Johnny Brannon, “Hawaii’s Imperfect Melting Pot a Big Influence on Young Obama,” Honolulu Advertiser [HA], 10 February 2007; University of Hawaii to INS, “Report of Initial Registration,” 21 September 1959, Obama INS File; DJG interview with [Andy] Pake Zane, Abercrombie speaking in “Barack Obama Revealed,” CNN, 20 August 2008; to Dan Boykin, “’08: Year of Obama,” Midweek, 2 January 2008; in Jacobs, The Other Barack, pp. 107–8; on “A Childhood of Loss and Love,” ABC’s 20/20, 26 September 2008; and to David Nather, “Obama’s Quick Rise on a Non-Traditional Career Path,” CQ Weekly, 21 August 2008. The UH registration report to INS, like the Star-Bulletin story, gave Obama’s age as twenty-five, with an 18 June 1934 birth date. Sometime in the fall of 1959 Bill Scheinman’s African-American Students Foundation paid $143 to Obama, or to UH on his behalf, but no specific detail is recorded. “African-American Students Foundation, Inc., Obligations and Bills Due as of November 18, 1959,” AASF Papers Box A Fld. WXS-Bills & November 1959 Expenses; “From: W. X. S. Re: Four Year Jackie Robinson Scholarships,” n.d., AASF Papers Box A Fld. WXS-Bills, Mboya. See also “Kenya Students in the United States—May 11, 1960,” p. 6, AASF Papers Box B Fld. Lists—Airlift Students & Scheinman Papers Box 20 Fld. 2, listing “Barrack H. Obama,” and an undated document from sometime after March 1961, “IIE Grants $100,000,” AASF papers Box A Fld. IIE, p. 28, listing “Obama, B. H.” but not indicating any sum of money.