Rising Star

by David J. Garrow

  3. Obama in Mary Mitchell, “Memoir of a 21st Century History Maker,” Black Issues Book Review, January–February 2005, pp. 18–21 (“I started writing it right after law school in 1991. I took about four months off to get it started”); Kennedy Communications, “State Senator Barack Obama, Candidate for U.S. Senate: Background Report,” April 2003, RRP; “Academic Non-Faculty New Hire Form,” 3 September 1991, and Margaret Fallers to Obama, 30 September 1991, Provost Office Records, Faculty Files, Accession #2004-150, Box 20, UC Special Collections; UCLS, The Glass Menagerie 1991–92, esp. p. 40; Mark Megalli, “Bellwether Conservative: The University of Chicago Law School,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Autumn 1993, p. 82; Stone in Merriner, “The Friends of O,” CM, June 2008; Douglas Baird on CNBC, 12 January 2009; Stone in Tom Hundley, “Ivory Tower of Power,” CT Magazine, 22 March 2009; DJG interviews with Jean Rudd, Lionel Bolin, Douglas Baird, Geof Stone, and Kathryn Stell; Joel B. Pollak, “Obama’s Literary Agent in 1991 Booklet,” Breitbart.com, 17 May 2012.

  4. No contemporaneous sources or subsequent memories date with any precision Barack and Michelle’s trip to Kenya, though all contextual evidence suggests it took place sometime between late August 1991 and January 1992. By far the richest source on it is Auma Obama’s And Then Life Happens (St. Martin’s, 2012), pp. 212–16. See also Michelle L. Robinson Employee Work History, City of Chicago (first day of work 16 September 1991); Obama, DFMF, pp. 439–40 (“after our engagement”); Obama’s 2001 interview with Julieanna Richardson; John Oywa, “Sleepy Little Village Where Obama Traces His Own Roots,” Nation (Nairobi), 15 August 2004; Laurie Goering, “Obama Campaign Closely Watched—in Kenya,” CT, 10 October 2004, p. 1; Obama, TAOH, p. 53 (“shortly before” their October 1992 wedding); DJG interviews with Kevin Thompson and Zeituni Onyango. In late 1991 Barack’s brother formally petitioned to change his name from Roy Abon’go Obama to Abon’go Malik Obama. In re Obama, #91-22380, Prince George’s County Circuit Court, 29 November 1991 (granted 7 March 1992).

  5. Barack and Michelle on 60 Minutes, CBS, 16 November 2008; National Center for Careers in Public Life, “Taking Responsibility for Our Future,” 1–3 November 1991, Wingspread Conference Center, KBP; Katrina Browne, “Program Designed to Help Young People Help Others,” Wingspread The Journal, Winter 1992, pp. 1, 9; Todd Savage, “Driving for Change,” Community Jobs, March 1992, pp. 7, 10; Public Allies Board of Directors, 31 March 1992, Illinois ACORN Papers (98-059) Box 6 Fld. 2; “Mayor, Youth Organization to Honor 100 Volunteers in Public Service,” U.S. Newswire, 24 April 1992; Public Allies, Benefit Committee, D.C. Awards Ceremony program, 28 April 1992, IAP Box 6 Fld. 2; Kris Worrell, “Rock the Capital,” AJC, 15 January 1993, pp. D1, D4; Karen E. Klages, “At Your Service,” CT, 31 March 1993; Paul Schmitz, Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up (Jossey-Bass, 2012), pp. 14–20; DJG interviews with Katrina Browne, Jacky Grimshaw, Jason Scott, and Paul Schmitz.

  6. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., “The Audacity of Hope,” in Jini Kilgore Ross, ed., What Makes You So Strong? Sermons of Joy and Strength from Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. (Judson Press, 1993), pp. 97–109 (as preached at Houston’s Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in January 1991); Obama, DFMF, pp. 291–95, 440; Julia M. Speller, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian: One Congregation’s Quest for Meaning and Belonging,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, December 1996, p. 163; Speller, Walkin’ the Talk (Pilgrim Press, 2005), p. 92; Barack in E. Janet Wright, “Obama for Illinois,” Trumpet, February 2004, pp. 30–32; Barack on The Tavis Smiley Show, 23 October 2006 (believing he heard “The Audacity of Hope” in 1988); Elizabeth Taylor, “Q&A with Barack Obama,” CT, 29 October 2006, p. B3 (“a sermon that I heard probably 15 [sic] years ago when I was a community organizer”); Jodi Kantor, “A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith,” NYT, 30 April 2007, p. A1; Ariel Sabar, “Barack Obama: Putting Faith Out Front,” CSM, 16 July 2007, p. 1; Dan Gilgoff, “Barack Obama: Praying to Be ‘An Instrument of God’s Will,’” Beliefnet.com, 21 January 2008; Dwight N. Hopkins, “The Wright Neighborhood,” Religion in the News, Spring 2008; Scott Helman, “Obama’s Odyssey on Race,” BG, 20 March 2008; Stanley Kurtz, “The Audacity of the Real ‘Audacity,’” NationalReview.com, 21 April 2008; Obama’s 29 April 2008 press conference in Winston-Salem, NC; Cone in Christi Parsons and Manya A. Brachear, “What Led Obama to Wright’s Church,” CT, 4 May 2008, p. 1; Obama’s 31 May 2008 press availability in Aberdeen, SD; Kurtz, “‘Context,’ You Say?,” National Review, 19 May 2008, pp. 28–36; Barack in Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe, “‘I Am a Big Believer in Not Just Words, but Deeds and Works,’” Newsweek, 12 July 2008 (print issue 21 July); Barack in Toby Harnden, “Barack Obama’s True Colours,” Telegraph Magazine, 23 August 2008, pp. 26ff.; Michelle in Melinda Henneberger, “Michelle Obama Interview,” Reader’s Digest, October 2008, pp. 196–203 (“Barack knew the reverend from his work in the city, and we joined together”); Salim Muwakkil on “The Choice 2008,” Frontline, PBS, 14 October 2008; Toni Preckwinkle in Lizza, “Making It,” TNR, 21 July 2008, and in Martin Fletcher, “Before He Was Famous: The Truth Behind Obama’s Meteoric Ascent,” Times (London), 14 October 2008; Robert T. Starks, “How He Did It,” N’Digo Profiles, December 2008, p. 34; Melissa Harris-Lacewell in Rebecca Traister, Big Girls Don’t Cry (Free Press, 2010), p. 48; Janny Scott, A Singular Woman (Riverhead, 2011), pp. 291–92, 298, 301; Maya in Maraniss, BOTS, p. 547; “Notice of Federal Tax Lien Under Internal Revenue Laws,” #91-155273, 12 November 1991; Dunham, Against All Odds, pp. v, 99, 254; DJG interviews with Jeremiah Wright, Kevin Tyson, Deloris Burnam, Carolyn Wortham, Patricia Novick, Kathryn Stell, Greg Galluzzo, Sheila Jager, Ralph Dunham, Charles Payne, and Barack Obama. On Trinity, see also Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., “Doing Black Theology in the Black Church,” in Linda E. Thomas, ed., Living Stones in the Household of God (Fortress Press, 2004), pp. 13–23; Jason Byassee, “Africentric Church: A Visit to Chicago’s Trinity UCC,” Christian Century, 29 May 2007, pp. 18–23; Kareem Crayton, “You May Not Get There with Me: Obama and the Black Political Establishment,” in Manning Marable, ed., Barack Obama and African American Empowerment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 195–207; and Dwight N. Hopkins, “Race, Religion, and the Race for the White House,” in Charles P. Henry et al., eds., The Obama Phenomenon (University of Illinois Press, 2011), pp. 181–99. The assertion in Allison Samuels, “Why Oprah Winfrey Left Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Church,” Newsweek, 3 May 2008 (print issue 12 May), that “Winfrey was a member of Trinity” is incorrect.

  7. Kathleen Best, “Dixon’s Challengers Growing,” SLPD, 20 November 1991, p. A1; Glen C. Thompson, “New Remap Puts Currie Back in Hyde Park-Kenwood,” HPH, 22 January 1992, pp. 1, 2; Rob Karwath, “Remap Alters the Boundaries and the Rules in 2nd District,” CT, 26 January 1992; Florence C. Goold, “IVI/IPO Sets Primary Slate,” HPH, 12 February 1992, pp. 1, 2; Steve Johnson, “Savage Ahead in 2nd, Reynolds Has Hope,” CT, 2 March 1992; Johnson, “Reynolds Questions Savage’s Lead,” CT, 3 March 1992; Florence Hamlish Levinsohn, “Carol Moseley Braun,” CR, 5 March 1992; Ted Gregory and Rick Pearson, “Jewish Groups Hit Savage Attack Against Reynolds,” CT, 9 March 1992; Lynn Sweet, “Dixon Pulls Away in Senate Contest,” CST, 9 March 1992, p. 1; Sweet, “Braun Capitalizes on TV Debate Exposure,” CST, 10 March 1992, p. 9; “Local Candidates Gear Up for Next Week’s Primary Election,” and “Support for Local Candidates,” HPH, 11 March 1992, pp. 1, 2, 4; Robert Davis, “Not Anti-Israel, Just Pro-U.S., Savage Says,” CT, 12 March 1992; Janine Poe and Helaine Olen, “Reynolds Is Injured in Shooting,” CT, 13 March 1992; “Savage Plays the Race Card Again,” CT, 14 March 1992; Sweet and Bill Braden, “Poll Puts Braun at Dixon’s Heels as Hofeld Stalls,” CST, 15 March 1992, p. 17; Johnson, “Reynolds, Lipinski Win,” CT, 18 March 1992; Sweet, “A Braun Upset,” CST, 18 March 1992, p. 1; Edward Walsh, “Sen. Dixon Loses in Stunning Upset,” WP, 18 March 1992, p. A1; Isabel Wilkerson, “Illinois Senator Is Defeated by County Politician,” NYT, 18 March 1992, p. A19; John Ka
ss and Monica Copeland, “Braun’s Win a Chance to Forge New Black Power,” and Karwath, “Remap, Blacks Keys to Reynolds’ Victory,” CT, 19 March 1992; Walsh, “Illinois Opens Mean Season for Veteran Officeholders,” WP, 19 March 1992, p. A1; Goold, “Women Sweep Election Slate Here as in Rest of the State,” HPH, 25 March 1992, pp. 1, 2; Goold, “Local Election Results Don’t Reveal Surprises,” HPH, 1 April 1992, p. 3; Manuel Galvan, “Bobby Rush and Mel Reynolds Defeat Incumbent Congressmen,” Illinois Issues, May 1992, pp. 14–17; “Herald Endorsements in Local Races,” HPH, 28 October 1992, p. 4; Gretchen Reynolds, “Vote of Confidence,” Chicago Magazine, January 1993; Barack’s 27 October 1993 interview with Zeke Gonzalez, his 20 September 1995 remarks at the Cambridge (MA) Public Library, his 1 July 2002 interview with Chinta Strausberg, and his 7 February 2004 one with David Axelrod; Paul Simon, P.S.: The Autobiography of Paul Simon (Bonus Books, 1999), p. 177; Peter Slevin, “For Obama, a Handsome Payoff in Political Gambles,” WP, 13 November 2007, p. A3; “Barack Obama and the History of Project VOTE!,” YouTube, 21 March 2008; Sanford A. Newman, “ACORN Didn’t Employ Obama in ’92,” WSJ, 22 July 2008; Allison Davis in David Smallwood, “Veteran Attorneys Recall Obama,” N’Digo Profiles, December 2008, p. 24; Remnick, The Bridge, pp. 221–22; McClelland, Young Mr. Obama, pp. 65–72; Fredrick C. Harris, The Price of the Ticket (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 57–58; DJG interviews with Sandy Newman, Jacky Grimshaw, John Schmidt, John Rogers, Judd Miner, Allison Davis, Paul Strauss, Carol Harwell, and Brian Banks.

  8. Yvonne D. Delk, Joseph Gardner, and Barack Obama to Keith Kelleher, 28 April 1992, Illinois ACORN Papers (IAP) Box 6 Fld. 28; [Agenda], “Project Vote Steering Committee Meeting, 4 May 1992,” IAP (2001-111) Box 2 Fld. 55; “Project Vote Chicago Coalition Current as of 5/11/92,” Gwen Jordan (CRS), Obama, and Gardner to Steering Committee Members, Joint Voter Registration Project, “Meeting—May 18, 1992,” 15 May 1992, Project Vote, “Agenda Illinois Project Vote Steering Committee,” 19 May 1992, “Voter Registration Time-Line,” n.d., Gardner and Obama to Project Vote Steering Committee, “Re: Press Conference on Wednesday, June 3rd,” 28 May 1992, [Draft], “Coalition Pledges to Increase Minority Voter Registration by Over 100,000,” 1 June 1992, “Agenda—Project Vote Steering Committee,” n.d. [3 June 1992?], Obama to Project Vote Steering Committee, “Re: Press Conference Wednesday, June 10th, 10AM–11AM Daley Plaza,” n.d., “Voter Registration Priorities Illinois, Fall 1992,” 10 June 1992, Keith Kelleher, Local 880, to Barack Obama, Project Vote, “Request for Project Vote Funds,” 23 June 1992, all IAP Box 6 Fld. 28; Michael Sneed, “Sneed,” CST, 2 August 1992, p. 2; Vernon Jarrett, “Voter Registration Is Key to Respect,” CST, 4 August 1992, p. 23; Bruce Dixon to Deputy Registrars and Affiliated Organizations, “Re: Bud Billiken Day Parade & Picnic,” n.d. [early August 1992], IAP Box 6 Fld. 29; Jarrett, “‘Project Vote’ Brings Power to the People,” CST, 11 August 1992, p. 23; “V.O.T.E. Community & Project Vote ‘Voice of the Ethnic Community,’” 26 August 1992, IAP Box 6 Fld. 29; Sandy Newman and Linda Dickinson Kendrix to Steve Cullen, 4 September 1992, AFSCME Council 31 Papers; Zach [Pollett] to Craig [St. Louis], Madeline/Caroline/Keith [Chicago], Amy [Detroit], “Re: VR/GOTV Funding Meetings in Your Cities with Citizen Vote Initiative,” 4 September 1992, IAP Box 7 Fld. 41; “Register to Vote to Help Yourself,” CD, 8 September 1992, p. 9; Sandy Newman to Al Leuin (Coulterville, IL), 14 September 1992, AFSCME 31 Papers (A31P); Keith Kelleher to Robin Leeds, “Voter Registration, GOTV, Election Day Proposal for SEIU Local 880 and ACORN in Chicago and Southwest Illinois,” 14 September 1992, IAP Box 7 Fld. 41; Kendrix to Cullen, 16 September 1992, A31P; Chinta Strausberg, “Clinton Gets Big Welcome at Regal,” CD, 21 September 1992, pp. 1, 26; Carol Jouzaitis, “Clinton Hammers Away at Bush,” CT, 21 September 1992; Tim Gerber, “Clinton Says Registration Vital for Win in November,” CST, 21 September 1992, p. 6; Michael K. Frisby, “In Mich., Clinton Assails Bush on Economy,” BG, 21 September 1992, p. 11; Joseph E. Gardner to All Interested Parties, “Voter Registration/Ward Analysis,” 21 September 1992, IAP Box 7 Fld. 41 and IAP (162) Box 6 Fld. 29; Frisby, “Business Executives Give Clinton a Boost,” BG, 22 September 1992, p. 12; “Project VOTE Adds 50,000 Voters,” CD, 22 September 1992, p. 22; Strausberg, “Voter Registration Up in 19 Key Wards,” and “Stars to Fire Up Registration Drive,” CD, 23 September 1992, pp. 3, 5; Basil Talbott, “Jackson Brings Flair to Rush’s Voter Drive,” CST, 25 September 1992, p. 4; Ray Long, “Most New Voters from Black Wards: Study,” CT, 26 September 1992, p. 5; Jarrett, “Need for a Black Summit Is Urgent,” CST, 1 October 1992, p. 39; Mary A. Johnson and Philip Franchine, “Mail Drives, House Calls Fuel Voter Roll Surge,” CST, 3 October 1992, p. 4; Karen Ball (AP), “Voter Registration: Setting Records in Some Regions,” 4 October 1992; Reynolds, “Vote of Confidence,” CM, January 1993; Ben Joravsky, “Lou Pardo, the Czar of Voter Registration, Nears 100,000,” CR, 23 September 1993; Chicago DSA’s 36th Annual Debs-Thomas-Harrington Dinner Program, 14 May 1994; Obama, Illinois State Senate Transcript, 9 May 2002, p. 90 (recalling Newhouse’s help); Toni Foulkes, “Case Study: Chicago—The Barack Obama Campaign,” Social Policy, Winter 2003/Spring 2004, pp. 49–52, esp. p. 50; Keith Kelleher, “Growth of a Modern Union Local: A People’s History of SEIU Local 880,” Just Labour 12 (Spring 2008): 1–15, esp. p. 10 (“for” Braun); Stanley Kurtz, Radical-in-Chief (Simon & Schuster, 2010), pp. 223–27; John Atlas, Seeds of Change (Vanderbilt University Press, 2010), p. 101; Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, Caring for America (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 164–76; UCLS Announcements 1991–92, 6 September 1991, p. 27; “Academic Non-Faculty Termination or Transfer Form,” 30 October 1992, Provost Office Records, Faculty Files, #2004-150, Box 20 (Barack’s appointment as a Fellow ended 30 June); UCLS Announcements 1992–93, 27 August 1992, p. 27; UCLS, The Glass Menagerie 1992–93, esp. p. 44; Chicago Video Project, “Introducing Barack Obama,” Obama for Illinois, 2003; Obama, transcript of remarks at Heartland Cafe Rally, Chicago, 7 February 2004, JKP and TPP (“to get Bill Clinton and Carol Moseley Braun elected”); Obama, remarks at the Take Back America Forum, Washington, D.C., 19 June 2007 (“to help Bill Clinton get elected”); Monique Garcia, “Election Volunteer, Extraordinaire,” CT, 11 July 2007; Barack’s 1993 interview with Zeke Gonzalez, his 2001 one with Julieanna Richardson, and his 2002 one with Chinta Strausberg; Brian Banks and Rita Whitfield in “Barack Obama and the History of Project Vote,” BarackObama.com, 21 March 2008; Mark S. Allen, “From Adversary to Longtime Ally,” BlackVoices.com, 19 January 2009; DJG interviews with Carol Harwell, Brian Banks, Keith Kelleher, Madeline Talbott, Al Kindle, Mike Pfleger, Jeremiah Wright, Kevin Tyson, Tondra L. Loder-Jackson, Miguel del Valle, Sandy Newman, John Schmidt, Yvonne Delk, Gwendolyn Jordan, Jeff Schoenberg, Marv Dyson, James D. Holzhauer, Bill Perkins, Roberta Lynch, Ray Harris, Margaret Bagby, Alvin Love, Desta Houston, Eric Adelstein, Peter Coffey, and Carol Moseley Braun. Edward Gardner’s long-standing interest in voter registration in readily evident in his 1989 interview with Blackside’s Dave Lacy.

  On DCP as of 1991–92, see especially Ben Joravsky, “A Confederacy of Churches,” CR, 21 February 1992, which is alone in noting DCP’s huge 20 November 1991 “convention”; Lynne Owens Mock, “Validation of an Instrument to Assess the Personal Values of African-American Community Leaders,” M.A. thesis, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1994; L. Sean Azelton, “Boundary Spanning and Community Leadership: African American Leaders in the Greater Roseland Area,” M.A. thesis, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1996; John C. Glidewell et al., “Natural Development of Community Leadership,” in R. Scott Tindale et al., eds., Theory and Research on Small Groups (Plenum Press, 1998), pp. 61–86; S. Darius Tandon et al., “Constructing a Tree for Community Leaders: Contexts and Processes in Collaborative Inquiry,” American Journal of Community Psychology 26 (August 1998): 669–96; Mock, “The Personal Vision of African American Community Leaders,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1999, esp. pp. 127, 130; James G. Kelly, “Contexts an
d Community Leadership: Inquiry as an Ecological Expedition,” American Psychologist 54 (November 1999): 953–61; Kelly et al., “Collaborative Inquiry with African-American Community Leaders: Comments on a Participatory Action Research Process,” in Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury, eds., Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice (Sage Publications, 2001), pp. 348–55; Tandon et al., “Participatory Action Research as a Resource for Developing African American Community Leadership,” in Deborah L. Tolman and Mary Brydon-Miller, eds., From Subjects to Subjectivities: A Handbook of Interpretive and Participatory Methods (New York University Press, 2001), pp. 200–17; Kelly et al., “On Community Leadership: Stories About Collaborations in Action Research,” American Journal of Community Psychology 33 (June 2004): 205–16. Johnnie Owens left DCP in August 1993 and was succeeded by Cassandra Lowe. DJG interviews with Johnnie Owens, Mike Kruglik, Greg Galluzzo, Mary Gonzales, and Paul Scully.