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The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama

Page 78

by David Remnick


  He tells it best: Ibid., p. 338.

  "There facing us at the bottom": Ibid.

  Lewis remembered the terrible: Ibid., p. 340.

  Dozens of demonstrators: Ibid., p. 344.

  That night, at around 9 P.M.: Branch, At Canaan's Edge, 56.

  As Robert Caro makes clear: Caro, The Path to Power, p. 166.

  "At times, history and fate": "Nation: A Meeting of History and Fate," Time, March 26, 1965.

  Watching Johnson that night: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 408.

  "I know you are asking today": Martin Luther King, Jr., Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965.

  "The Negro potential for": King, Why We Can't Wait, p. 139.

  The syndicated black radio host: Wickham, Bill Clinton and Black America, p. 24.

  Writing in The New Yorker: Toni Morrison, "Comment," The New Yorker, October 5, 1998.

  In January, according to: Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post, January 25, 2007.

  "Just because you are our color": Leslie Fulbright, San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2007.

  Artur Davis, an African-American congressman: "World News Sunday," ABC, March 4, 2007.

  When Bill Clinton read the comparative accounts: David Remnick, "The Wanderer," The New Yorker, September 18, 2006.

  "After all the hard work": Hilary Clinton, First Baptist Church, Selma, Alabama, March 4, 2007.

  "When Harriet Tubman would run": Joseph Lowery, Brown Chapel, Selma, Alabama, March 4, 2007.

  Obama's speech in Selma: Barack Obama, Brown Chapel, Selma, Alabama, March 4, 2007.

  In Moses, Man of the Mountain: Hurston, Moses, Man of the Mountain, p. 180.

  King asserted his role: King, Why We Can't Wait, p. 60.

  "I just want to do God's will": Martin Luther King, Jr., Mason Temple, Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968.

  And to universalize his message: Barack Obama, Brown Chapel, Selma, Alabama, March 4, 2007.

  After Hurricane Katrina: John M. Broder, New York Times, September 5, 2005.

  At his announcement speech in Springfield: Barack Obama, Springfield, Illinois, February 10, 2007.

  popped a piece of Nicorette: Jason Horowitz, New York Observer, March 12, 2007.

  Chapter One: A Complex Fate

  It is an ordinary day, 1951: "Kenya: Ready or Not," Time, March 7, 1960.

  At Holy Ghost College: Ibid.

  He thought about studying for the priesthood: Mboya, Freedom and After, p. 10.

  "Is nobody here?": "Kenya: Ready or Not," Time, March 7, 1960.

  When Tom was still living: Ibid.

  "Madam," he says: Ibid.

  In 1955, when he was twenty-five: Ibid.

  "Too often during the nationalist struggle": Mboya, Freedom and After, p. 141.

  Mboya tried to persuade the British: Albert G. Sims, "Africans Beat on Our College Doors," Harpers, April, 1961.

  In 1958, as Mboya was developing: Ibid.

  Albert Sims, a former State Department: Ibid.

  For six weeks, he gave as many: Shachtman, Airlift to America, p. 76.

  He obtained promises: Ibid, p. 107.

  Factually and poetically: Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, March 30, 2008.

  A Nixon ally, Senator Hugh Scott: Ibid.

  When Obama was running: Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 39.

  He was impatient with village life: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 397.

  A "domestic servant's pocket register": Ibid., p. 425.

  "Wow, that guy was mean!": Ibid., p. 369.

  "He did not like the way": Ben Macintyre and Paul Orengoh, The Times of London, December 3, 2008.

  "During the Emergency": Mboya, Freedom and After, p. 42.

  "Questions like the number of oaths": Elkins, Imperial Reckoning, p. 68.

  "The small conductor was either": Ibid., p. 258.

  According to an interview: Ben Macintyre and Paul Orengoh, The Times of London, December 3, 2008.

  "He had difficulty walking": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 418.

  "When the pupils were naughty": Xan Rice, The Guardian, June 6, 2008.

  "He asked to dance with me": John Oywa, The Standard, November 11, 2008.

  "There was so much excitement": Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2008.

  "We've got this guy": Alan Jackson, The Times of London, June 6, 2008.

  "He's like a fictional character": Bill Flanagan, The Times of London, April 6, 2009.

  And as a genealogist: http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html.

  Kansas was the "dab-smack": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 13.

  "Part of me settling in Chicago": Toby Harnden, Daily Telegraph, August 23, 2008.

  In his memoir, Obama alludes: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 14. Benac's article tells the entire story of Dunham's military career.

  "They read the Bible": Ibid.

  "He was really gung-ho": Nancy Benac, Associated Press, June 5, 2009.

  "Sgt. Dunham has been doing a good job": Ibid.

  When Stanley Dunham came home: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 15.

  In their first year in Seattle: Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times, April 8, 2008.

  Ann's friends jokingly dubbed: Ibid.

  The Dunhams sometimes attended: Tim Jones, Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007.

  "The changing time was impressing itself": "Investigations: Out of a Man's Past," Time, April 11, 1955.

  "Let's rise on our hind legs": Ibid.

  The local press took a keen interest: David Maraniss, Washington Post, August 22, 2008.

  When a Honolulu paper published: Sally Jacobs, Boston Globe, September 21, 2008.

  "When I first came here": David Maraniss, Washington Post, August 22, 2008.

  One day Obama asked her to meet him: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 127.

  She "was that girl with the movie": Ibid.

  Kezia told a Kenyan reporter: John Oywa, The Standard, November 11, 2008.

  Toward the end of her life: Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 29.

  "She was very much of the early": Amanda Ripley, "The Story of Barack Obama's Mother," Time, April 9, 2008.

  "What can you say": Jodi Kantor, New York Times, January 21, 2009.

  For him, the choice was easy: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 126.

  To survive, Lolo's mother: Ibid., p. 42.

  The Soetoros lived in a crowded: Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2007.

  "You never know": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 31.

  In Hawaii, he had seemed liberated: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 43.

  One friend, Julia Suryakusuma: Michael Sheridan and Sarah Baxter, Sunday Times, January 28, 2007.

  "At first, everybody felt it was weird": Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2007.

  one of his teachers at St. Francis: Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2007.

  Cecilia Sugini Hananto: Kirsten Scharnberg and Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2007.

  "In the Muslim school": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 154.

  Obama, Jr., has called his father: Jon Meacham, "On His Own," Newsweek, September 1, 2008.

  Philip Ochieng, a prominent Luo journalist: Philip Ochieng, Daily Nation, October 11, 2008.

  When Barack, Jr., visited Nairobi: Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2008.

  But there was more to it: Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post, November 5, 2009.

  Little more than a year: Barack H. Obama, Sr., "Problems Facing Our Socialism," East Africa Journal, July, 1965.

  As an ideologist of Kenyan independence: Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget, p. 55.

  It poses the central question: Barack H. Obama, Sr., "Problems Facing Our Socialism," East Africa Journal, July, 1965.

  "One need not be a Kenyan": Ibid.

  "To that extent, he was naive": Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2008.

  "Barack never really recovered": Ibid.

  Walgio Orwa
, a professor: Ibid.

  According to Njenga's lawyer: Billy Muiruri, Daily Nation, July 3, 2009.

  "I was with Tom only last week.": Joe Ombuor, The Standard, April 11, 2008.

  He declared that Odinga's party: "Kenya: We Will Crush You," Time, November 7, 1969.

  "He would pass out on the doorstep": Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2008.

  He complained to Okoda: John Oywa and George Olwenya, The Standard, November 15, 2008.

  In his sober moments: Ibid.

  Chapter Two: Surface and Undertow

  Years later, she confided: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 57.

  The waiting list was long: Ibid., p. 58.

  The novelist Allegra Goodman: Allegra Goodman, "Rainbow Warrior," The New Republic, February 13, 2008.

  "Would you prefer": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 59.

  "One of the challenges": Barack Obama, Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii, December 2004.

  In truth, he knew little: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 63.

  He was fragile--oddly cautious: Ibid., p 65.

  "We all stood accused": Ibid., p. 68.

  He remembers that the next day: Ibid, p 69.

  To the contrary: Ibid., p. 70.

  "We all gathered as a group": Ramos, Our Friend Barry, p. 15.

  "On the mainland": Ibid., p. 38.

  He took part in high-school goofs: Ibid., p. 81.

  Constance Ramos, whose background: Ibid., p. 13.

  "The lovely tropical home": Allegra Goodman, "Rainbow Warrior," The New Republic, February 13, 2008.

  "When I started reading": Ramos, Our Friend Barry, p. 70.

  When he started making trouble: Kirsten Scharnberg and Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2007.

  "I remember her feeling saddened": Wolffe, Renegade, p. 150.

  "Some of the problems of adolescent rebellion": David Mendell, Chicago Tribune, October 22, 2004.

  "When I think about my mother": Amanda Ripley, "The Story of Barack Obama's Mother," Time, April 9, 2008.

  "I didn't feel [her absence]": Ibid.

  She had a capacity to get: Dunham, Surviving Against the Odds, p. xxi.

  "She wasn't ideological": Amanda Ripley, "The Story of Barack Obama's Mother," Time, April 9, 2008.

  "He became the kind of person": Andra Wisnu, Jakarta Post, November 14, 2008.

  "He didn't know who he was": Jodi Kantor, New York Times, June 1, 2007.

  "Basketball was a good way for me": Todd Purdum, "Raising Obama," Vanity Fair, March 2008.

  "It was good to get a few props": Austin Murphy, "Obama Discusses His Hoops Memories at Punahou High," Sports Illustrated, May 21, 2008.

  In 1999, Obama, writing: Barack Obama, Punahou Bulletin, 1999.

  Exhausted in his attempt: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 93.

  In what may be the most famous: Ibid.

  "It was Hawaii in the seventies": Toby Harnden, Daily Telegraph, August 21, 2009.

  "I'm sure if my mother": Todd Purdum, "Raising Obama," Vanity Fair, March 2008.

  In a letter from Indonesia: Kirsten Scharnberg and Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2007.

  Obama admits, "I probably": Austin Murphy, "Obama Discusses His Hoops Memories at Punahou High," Sports Illustrated, May 21, 2008.

  "Junkie. Pothead": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 93.

  "At best, these things were a refuge": Ibid., p. 85.

  Like Stanley, Frank Marshall Davis: Davis, Livin' the Blues, p. 3.

  In his memoir, Livin' the Blues: Ibid., p. 7.

  In 1948, Paul Robeson came to Hawaii: Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 22, 1948.

  "I am not too fond": Davis, Livin' the Blues, p. xv.

  Some of his "fellow freedom fighters": Ibid., p. 311.

  "Virtually from the start": Ibid., p. 312.

  "A preacher's daughter": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 90.

  "He's basically a good man": Ibid.

  Chapter Three: Nobody Knows My Name

  As he put it, "The more": Ibid., p. 100.

  "I smoke like this because I want": Scott Helman, Boston Globe, August 25, 2008.

  "Moment: Freshman year at Oxy": Phil Boerner's Diary, March 15, 1983.

  There were very few black students: Sue Paterno, The Occidental, February 1, 1991.

  "And you could count the black faculty": Ibid.

  The college's weekly newspaper: The Occidental, January 1981.

  "I want to get into public service": Adam Goldman and Robert Tanner, Associated Press, May 15, 2008.

  During the Presidential campaign: Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate, April 2008.

  It was, as Margot Mifflin recalled: Margot Mifflin, New York Times, January 18, 2009.

  Obama was to open the rally: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 106.

  Ngubeni, who, as a student in South Africa: Anthony Russo, The Occidental, February 20, 1981.

  "After the rally, a pair of folk singers": Margot Mifflin, New York Times, January 18, 2009.

  "I was on the outside again": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 107.

  "I was concerned with urban issues": Linda Matchan, Boston Globe, February 15, 1990.

  "When I transferred, I decided": Shira Boss-Bicak, Columbia College Today, January 2005.

  Obama often fasted on Sundays: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 120.

  "We didn't have a chance in hell": Adam Goldman and Robert Tanner, Associated Press, May 15, 2008.

  Many years later, as a way of warding off the press: Ibid.

  On the night of November 24, 1982: Jon Meacham, "On His Own," Newsweek, September 1, 2008.

  "He couldn't cope," said Obama's sister: Senator Obama Goes to Africa, directed by Bob Hercules, 2007.

  "At the time of his death": Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 5.

  In March, 1983: Barack Obama, "Breaking the War Mentality," Sundial, March 10, 1983.

  In his early twenties: Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 134.

  "That was my idea of organizing": Ibid.

  He had a young idealist's disdain: Ibid., p. 136.

  "I said he needed to realize": Sasha Issenberg, Boston Globe, August 6, 2008.

  In early 1985: Obama, The Audacity of Hope, p. 42.

  "It embodied the notion": Ibid.

  Chapter Four: Black Metropolis

  In June and July: Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 54.

  Then, as a pro-Rockefeller volunteer: Ibid., p. 55.

  Finally, she spent a few weeks: Ibid., p. 56.

  "People were crushed and demoralized": Saul Alinksy interview, Playboy, March 1972.

  He arranged sit-ins: Ibid.

  Such an endorsement: Ibid.

  "Shit," Alinsky said: Ibid.

  In 1964, he threatened Mayor Daley: Ibid.

  And when Alinsky was working: Ibid.

  When an interviewer asked: Ibid.

  "Right now they're frozen": Ibid.

  At sixteen, Alinsky himself: Ibid.

  "I was their one-man student body": Ibid.

  In the late nineteen-fifties: Ibid.

  She wrote of Alinsky: Hillary Rodham Clinton, "There Is Only the Fight," senior thesis, Wellesley College, p. 6.

  "In spite of his being featured": Ibid., p. 74.

  "Keeping in mind that": Ibid., appendix.

  In the endnotes: Ibid.

  African-Americans have lived: Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, p. 31.

  Until the Civil War: Cohen and Taylor, American Pharaoh, p. 30.

  "Turn a deaf ear to everybody": Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, p. 59.

  John (Mushmouth) Johnson: Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, p. 38.

  Still, many whites in Chicago: Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, p. 64.

  One of the major white real-estate: Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, p. 66

  The August 2nd issue: Hofstadter and Wallace, American Violence, p. 246.

  That summer, the Jamaican-born poet: McKay, The Complete Poems, p. 177.


  "Every colored man who moves": The Property Owner's Journal, January 1, 1920.

  During his political races: Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, p. 347.

  And, in 1960: Cohen and Taylor, American Pharaoh, p. 95.

  Richard Wright, who had come North: Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, p. xvii.

  When, in 1951: Lemann, The Promised Land, p. 74.

  Furious with City Hall's assault: Ibid. p. 77.

  Studs Terkel once said of Daley: Rakove, Don't Make No Waves ... Don't Back No Losers, p. 16.

  When a young man from South Carolina: Lemann, The Promised Land, p. 91.

  "Whenever I would raise a point": Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, p. 236.

  Despres recalls Holman once telling Daley: Ibid.

  "A good legitimate Negro": Ibid., p. 318.

  At a downtown rally in 1965: Ibid., p. 341.

  At first, King's associate: Hampton and Fayer, Voices of Freedom, p. 302.

  Dorothy Tillman, who came to town: Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, p. 346.

  "If anything they were more zealous": Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 373.

  "I have never seen such hopelessness": Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, p. 347.

  "Yes, we are tired": Martin Luther King, Jr., Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1966.

  "I've never seen anything like it": Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, p. 386.

  "I'd never seen whites like these": Hampton and Fayer, Voices of Freedom, p. 312.

  "Like Herod, Richard Daley was a fox": Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 395.

  Chicago, David Halberstam wrote: David Halberstam, "Notes From the Bottom of the Mountain," Harpers, June 1968.

  At a press conference: Cohen and Taylor, American Pharaoh, p. 455.

  When King came to Chicago: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 444.

  Metcalfe asked Daley: R. W. Apple, Jr., New York Times, May 10, 1972.

  "What Daley did was smother King": Chicago Sun-Times, January 19, 1986.

  "I'm sick and tired": Travis, An Autobiography of Black Politics, p. 572.

  The ad said that the black church: Ibid., p. 582.

  When Washington won the nomination: "This American Life," # 376, Chicago Public Radio, March 13, 2009.

  On the streets of white ethnic neighborhoods: Levinsohn, Harold Washington, p. 200.

 

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