A Young Obama - Photo Gallery

[QueEx]

<font size="3">
I received this photo gallery by email on yesterday. The gallery was put together by the Chicago Tribune and is hosted on its website. Since I can't post the gallery as a frame, I have posted each picture below in the order that it appears in the gallery.

Having reviewed the gallery, a thought occured: What was the point of posting the gallery. Of course, the gallery says it is a depiction of the "young Obama." Obama's heritage is what it is. Nevertheless, somehow I wondered whether the Tribune was trying to send a message via the gallery

What do you all think?

QueEx

Chicago Tribune webpage: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/070323obama-early-photogallery,0,5458360.photogallery


__________________________________

Barack Obama rides a tricycle during
his childhood in Hawaii. (Photo
courtesy of Maya Soetoro-Ng)

The 1960 high school yearbook
photo of Stanley Ann Dunham,
Barack Obama's mother. She
attended Mercer Island High
School in Washington.

THE DUNHAMS: precocious, self-assured Stanley Ann (left);
her impetuous father, who named his only child after himself;
her mother, Madelyn, the quiet, firm influence in the home.
Old friends say they see flashes of them all in Stanley Ann's
son, Sen. Barack Obama. (Photo courtesy of Maya Soetoro-Ng)

Chip Wall, a Mercer Island High School classmate of Barack
Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, says: "She was not
a standard-issue girl of her times. ... She wasn't part of the
matched-sweater-set crowd." (Tribune photo by Chuck Berman)

Susan Blake, a Mercer Island High School friend of Barack
Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, says of her
classmate, "Hers was a mind in full tilt." (Tribune photo
by Chuck Berman)

A young Barack Obama is shown
with his mother, Ann, in Hawaii
shortly after his father, Barack
Obama Sr., left the two to pursue
his studies at Harvard. Barack's
mother was given the name
Stanley Ann Dunham because
of her father's strong desire to
have a son. (Photo courtesy of
Maya Soetoro-Ng / March 23,
2007)

Barack walks along Waikiki Beach
shortly before he and his mother
moved from Hawaii to Indonesia
to live with her second husband,
Lolo Soetoro, in 1967. (Photo
courtesy of Maya Soetoro-Ng /
March 23, 2007)

Barack Obama Sr., a native of
Kenya, met his future wife while
they were students at the
University of Hawaii. In 1963,
he essentially abandoned his
family to continue his studies
at Harvard. (Photo courtesy
of Maya Soetoro-Ng / March
23, 2007)

At their home in Jakarta, Ann Dunham poses in this undated
photo with her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, their daughter,
Maya, and Barack Obama. (Photo courtesy of Barack Obama)

Children play at Jakarta’s Elementary School Menteng No. 1,
where Barack Obama was a student in 1970-71. (Getty/AFP
photo by Sonny Tumbelaka / March 23, 2007)

Barack poses with his mother, Ann,
half sister, Maya, and maternal
grandfather Stanley Dunham in
Hawaii in the early 1970s after the
family returned from Indonesia.
Neighbors remember the close
relationship between young Barack
and his grandfather. (Photo
courtesy of Maya Soetoro-Ng /
March 23, 2007)

Barack Obama Sr. poses with his son in the Honolulu airport
during Obama Sr.'s only visit to see his son while he was
growing up in Hawaii. Young Barack was in the 5th grade
when the photo was taken. (Photo courtesy of Barack
Obama / March 23, 2007)

A page from Barack Obama's senior yearbook features his
personalized message to family, friends and teammates.
(Photo from The Oahuan yearbook / March 23, 2007)

In 1979, Barack played for the
Punahou School varsity basketball
team his senior year when the
squad captured the state high
school championship. Although
he was not a starter, he was
an adept long-range shooter,
earning the nickname "Barry
O'Bomber" from his teammates.
(Photo from The Oahuan, the
yearbook of Punahou School
/ March 23, 2007)

Barack Obama poses with the Hawaii high school champs in
this 1979 yearbook photo. Obama, known as Barry then, is
in the top row, far right. The others pictured are identified
as: Front row: Greg Ramos, manager; Chris McLachlin, head
coach; Dan Moore, manager. Second row: Matt Hiu, Alan
Lum, Tom Topolinski, Darin Mauerer, Dan Hale, John Kamana.
Third row: Darryl Gabriel, Boy Eldredge, Greg Orme, Larry
Tavares and Jason Oshima. (Photo from The Oahuan
yearbook / March 23, 2007)

A senior year photo of Keith Kakugawa
from the 1977 edition The Oahuan year
book of Punahou School. In Barack
Obama's autobiography "Dreams from
My Father," he described his friendship
with an angry young man named "Ray"
who railed against the racisim of their
elite prep school. "Ray" was later revealed
to be a pseudonym for Kakugawa. (Photo
from The Oahuan yearbook / March 23, 2007)

An undated photo shows Keith Kakugawa,
a forrmer high school classmate of Barack
Obama whom he called "Ray" in his memoir
"Dreams from My Father," during one of his
stints in the California prison system.
(California Department of Corrections photo
/ March 23, 2007)

Barack Obama shakes hands during his graduation ceremony
from Punahou School in 1979. While in his early teens, Obama
chose to stay at the school and live with his grandparents
after his mother decided to move back to Jakarta, Indonesia.
(Photo courtesy of Barack Obama / March 23, 2007)

Barack Obama hugs his younger half
sister Maya at his high school
graduation. (Photo courtesy of Maya
Soetoro-Ng / March 23, 2007)

At his high school graduation, Barack Obama gets a hug from
his grandmother Madelyn as his grandfather Stanley beams.
His maternal grandparents raised Obama in Hawaii while his
mother was living in Indonesia. (Photo courtesy of Maya
Soetoro-Ng / March 23, 2007)

Students at Punahou School in downtown Honolulu hang out
in the campus quad between classes. (Tribune photo by
Chuck Berman / March 23, 2007)

While a student in the late 1970s, Barack Obama carved his
name in the pavement outside the cafeteria of Punahou School.
A representative of the school said she believes "King" was
written by another student. (Tribune photo by Chuck Berman /
March 23, 2007)

Punahou School teacher Pal Eldredge stands in front of the
Castle, where he taught Barack Obama's 5th-grade class.
(Tribune photo by Chuck Berman / March 23, 2007)

Alan Lum stands next to the Oct. 23, 2006, Time magazine
cover featuring his former classmate. Lum is a 2nd-grade
teacher at Punahou School and displays the cover in his
classroom. (Tribune photo by Chuck Berman / March 23, 2007)

Maya Soetoro-Ng, Barack Obama's half sister, teaches her
Education in American Society class at the University of
Hawaii. (Tribune photo by Chuck Berman / March 23, 2007)

Barack Obama poses at Columbia University in New York City
during a visit by his grandparents Stanley and Madelyn
Dunham. (Photo courtesy of Maya Soetoro-Ng / March 23,
2007)

 

[truplutu]

wow that was beautiful

 

[Massive G]

Real nice pics. Thanks

 

[Makkonnen]

I think its no different than pics we've seen for Bill Clinton or JFK or many other politicians

Its an attempt to humanize him. That 2nd string guy on the varsity basketball team.

Making the likable guy more likable.

 

[kesq]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. It was time well spent. Fortunately, I didn't read your question until after I saw the gallery, so my initial reaction is pretty genuine in that regard.

I am almost exactly one year older than Obama, which gives me a convenient frame of reference for observing his story. Each snapshot of a moment in his life conjures up a corresponding snapshot of mine at that moment. As a military brat growing up in multiracial environments where Blacks were present, but still a minority, it's kind of eerie really.

Except for the fact that he spent so much time in Hawaii. For those of you that haven't really been there, Hawaii aint LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Omaha or St. Louis. It's ethnic mix is such that someone who is really from the state has a hard time sorting through the racial/ethnic/political baggage we carry over here, because they don't draw their lines the same ways that we do.

I'm not sure what the Tibune wanted me to think, but I will tell you this: the feeling I had upon viewing the gallery was that I was so glad Obama spent so much time there during his formative years rather than the mainland. I believe that if he, with his undeniable passion, had seen what most of us saw during those years, in the places that we saw it, that he would harbor a degree of bitterness that seems to be absent in his character. I further believe that such a bitterness would render him less effective at promoting his message, or more likely, cause him to promote an altogether different message that would be unlikely to propel him to viable presidential contention.

It's disappointing, but it says to me that our problems are so deep that we need an "outsider" to come in and referee for us. The Tribune may be pointing out how far we need to come as a country.

Or maybe they just wanted to show pictures of our future president rocking an afro.

 

[totalmoney]

That was fire...Obama seems to come from a very diverse background...even more diverse than I actually thought

 

[QueEx]

<font size="3">
Footnote:
</font size>


-Barack Obama, Sr.

Born 1936
Died 1982 in an automoble accident
Age - 46​

- Stanley Ann Dunham

Born 1942
Died 1995 of ovarian cancer
Age - 53​

`

 

[QueEx]

<font size="4">
More of the Obama family

</font size>

Barack Obama with his grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, in
Africa

Barack Obama walks with his grandmother
Sarah Hussein Obama at his father's house
in Nyongoma Kogelo village, western Kenya,
in Aug. 2006


<font size="4">SARAH OBAMA
'Sparkling, laughing eyes'</font size>

Chicago Sun Times
September 9, 2007
BY SCOTT FORNEK Political Editor

She's really his step-grandmother, but Barack Obama calls her "Granny."

Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama's face was "smooth and big-boned, with sparkling, laughing eyes," Obama wrote in Dreams From My Father of his first visit with her. "She hugged Auma and Roy as if she were going to wrestle them to the ground, then turned to me and grabbed my hand in a hearty handshake."

Sarah Obama was the third wife of Obama's paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama.

But Barack Obama Jr.'s own father treated Sarah Obama as his natural mother after his biological mother, Akumu, left when her husband moved her and his other wives to another part of Kenya.

Sarah Obama was just 16 when she married Obama's grandfather, an older man who was her father's friend. Arranged marriages and obedience to husbands -- enforced by beatings, if necessary -- were the plight of Kenyan women of her generation, she explained in Obama's book.

" 'Our women have carried a heavy load,' " she says in the book. " 'If one is a fish, one does not try to fly -- one swims with other fish. One only knows what one knows. Perhaps if I was young today, I would not have accepted these things. Perhaps I would only care about my feelings, and falling in love. But that's not the world I was raised in. I only know what I have seen. What I have not seen doesn't make my heart heavy.' "


http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/familytree/545459,BSX-News-wotreeu09.article

 

[QueEx]

<font size="4">
Said Hussein Obama
</font size>

Said Hussein Obama
Barack Obama's uncle


. . . Another shows him seated near a tiny grass thatched house with his uncle, Said Hussein Obama in 1987.

A wedding picture of the young Barack also features prominently in his grandmother's album. Said Hussein Obama, who communicates with his now prominent nephew on the phone and through e-mail, says he remembers him as a young humble man when he came to Nyangoma Kogalo village in 1987 to do research for his autobiography.

"While he could afford to rent a car to criss-cross Nyanza Province as he gathered material on his father, the young man, in his 20s then, squeezed into matatus [taxi buses]... that was his way of knowing the people," Said Hussein Obama says.

- Excerpt from US election makes waves in Kenya, BBC News, Friday, 20 August, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3581746.stm

`

 

[QueEx]

. . . to the top

 

[PainInDAss]

Damn, amazing, King Obama as his future was foretold

 

[PainInDAss]

Damn, so he family in Africa, that's something else.

 

[QueEx]

`


<font size="4">
From Vanity Fair
April 2008 Issue

</font size>

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/03/obama_slideshow200803

Two-year-old Barack Hussein
Obama in Honolulu, Hawaii, in
1963. From Polaris.

Barack and his ninth-grade class at Punahou School in 1976. His maternal
grandparents arranged for him to receive a scholarship to the prestigious
Honolulu school. Obama says his grandmother (who became the first female
vice president of the Bank of Hawaii) “injected” into him “a lot of that very
midwestern, sort of traditional sense of prudence and hard work.”
Courtesy of Punahou School.

Barack with fellow members of Ka Wai Ola, a literary
magazine at Punahou, in a photo from the Oahuan
yearbook. Barack hid his deepest feelings from the
wealthy world around him at the school, which had
been founded for the children of white missionaries,
in 1841, but he let some of them show in his writing.
Courtesy of Punahou School.

Barack’s senior yearbook photo. He signed one friend’s
yearbook with a squiggly cartoon of a mound protruding
from the edge of the paper, and the words: “MY AFRO
STICKIN’ UP OVER THE TOP AGAIN.” Courtesy of
Punahou School.

The newly elected first black president of the Harvard Law Review,
February 1990. His ambitions growing, Obama ran for president during
his second year at Harvard Law. “I probably figured I would practice
law for a while but then be part of some large-scale community-rebuilding
effort,” he says. “I don’t think at that point that I was absolutely focused
on politics.” By Steve Liss/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.

Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama on their wedding
day, October 18, 1992, with Michelle’s mother, Marian
Robinson, at left, and Barack’s mother, Ann Dunham.
From Polaris.

 

[spanishharlem]

It's Good To See Him As A Regular Guy!! Makes Him More Likeable​

 

[Dkounciler]

Nice Drop

Obama 2008

 

[Alderuhen]

A Young Hillary

 

[LADYTEE]

Obama Was A Cute Little Dude Who Grew Up To Be A Handsome Man, Thanks For The Drop.........

 

[LADYTEE]

A Young Hillary

DAMN I THOUGHT THAT WAS SISSY SPACEK

 

[J-BOOGIE]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. It was time well spent. Fortunately, I didn't read your question until after I saw the gallery, so my initial reaction is pretty genuine in that regard.

I am almost exactly one year older than Obama, which gives me a convenient frame of reference for observing his story. Each snapshot of a moment in his life conjures up a corresponding snapshot of mine at that moment. As a military brat growing up in multiracial environments where Blacks were present, but still a minority, it's kind of eerie really.

Except for the fact that he spent so much time in Hawaii. For those of you that haven't really been there, Hawaii aint LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Omaha or St. Louis. It's ethnic mix is such that someone who is really from the state has a hard time sorting through the racial/ethnic/political baggage we carry over here, because they don't draw their lines the same ways that we do.

I'm not sure what the Tibune wanted me to think, but I will tell you this: the feeling I had upon viewing the gallery was that I was so glad Obama spent so much time there during his formative years rather than the mainland. I believe that if he, with his undeniable passion, had seen what most of us saw during those years, in the places that we saw it, that he would harbor a degree of bitterness that seems to be absent in his character. I further believe that such a bitterness would render him less effective at promoting his message, or more likely, cause him to promote an altogether different message that would be unlikely to propel him to viable presidential contention.

It's disappointing, but it says to me that our problems are so deep that we need an "outsider" to come in and referee for us. The Tribune may be pointing out how far we need to come as a country.

Or maybe they just wanted to show pictures of our future president rocking an afro.

Damn...

What a reply, really. I hope people took the time to read and take in every word, you said, Brother...

 

[Obadiah Plainman]

Thanks Que, really good pictures.

 

[itwazuntme]

He really looks like his white grandfather. He resembles his mothers father, more than he does his own dad...maybe that's why they were so close.

 

[BenQ]

A Young Hillary

 

[Willyum]

Great post.

 

[QueEx]

 

[keysersoze]

that's cold blooded. ...

 

[alyric]

great post. hard to see where the "elitist" permeates from his background

 

[Bain316]

nice

 

[Deuterion]

Obama's Dad: Do you have a bank account? Yeah? That's good because the Prince of Kenya needs you to cash an inheritance check for him. I'll go with you to the bank to cash the check, you give me $200.00USD for hooking you up, and once the other $10,000,000 clears send half to the prince! Think you can handle that?​

 

[mrchiggs]

Good selection of pics!

 

[QueEx]

 

[QueEx]

 

[QueEx]

1972 photo from yearbook of Panahou School shows Obama on back row

 

[QueEx]

A photograph taken in 1987 of Barack Obama and his grandmother
Sarah Hussein Obama hangs in her home in the village of Nyagoma-
Kogelo, western Kenya

 

[QueEx]

He studied at Columbia University in New York, where he majored in political science

 

[QueEx]

He then studied law at Harvard

`

He graduated from Harvard in 1991

`