Chapter 1: The Socialism Puzzle
1. Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (New York: Crown, 2004 [1995]), p. 122. Evidence for Obama’s attendance at New York’s Socialist Scholars Conferences is discussed in detail in Chapters Two and Three.
2. William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, “Youthful Ideals Shaped Obama Goal of Nuclear Disarmament,” New York Times, July 5, 2009. A version can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
07/05/world/05nuclear.html.
3. Associated Press, “Old friends recall Obama’s college years,” Politico, May 16, 2008, at http://www.politico.com/news/
stories/0508/10402.html.
4. David Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), p. 59.
5. Broad and Sanger, “Youthful Ideals.”
6. Barack Obama, “Breaking the War Mentality,” Sundial, March 10, 1983, at http://documents.nytimes.com/obama-s-1983 .html-college-magazine-article#p=1.
7. Broad and Sanger, “Youthful Ideals.”
8. A conference flier can be found in the Frances Fox Piven Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass., Box 84, Folder 7. A conference advertisement can be found at In These Times, March 23–29, 1983, p. 8.
9. A feature entitled “Marx Centennial: ‘His name and work will endure forever’” appeared in the American Marxist newspaper Guardian, March 16, 1983, p. 21. This feature adapted material from Philip Sheldon Foner, editor, Karl Marx Remembered: Comments at the Time of His Death, 100th Anniversary Edition (San Francisco: Synthesis Publications, 1983).
10. Ibid.
11. An early flier for the 1983 Socialist Scholars Conference attached to Piven’s hand notes for her Welcoming Remarks can be found in the Piven Papers, Box 84, folder 7. A later and more detailed conference program listing Piven’s Welcoming Remarks can be found in the Democratic Socialists of America Records, Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, Box 66, Folder: “Socialist Scholars Conference 4/1/83-4/2/83 NY.” Note that the DSA Records have not been fully processed. Many box and folder numbers and names will charge after final processing.
12. Material pertaining to Piven’s service on the DSA National Executive Committee can be found in series IV of the Piven Papers. Officially, as indicated by the brochure and advertising, the conference was cosponsored by the Institute for Democratic Socialism, an associated entity of the Democratic Socialists of America. In practical terms, although a wide variety of Marxists attended the event, the conference itself was clearly run by the DSA. For more, see Chapter Two.
13. Piven’s writings and activities will be discussed in Chapter Two.
14. Piven Papers, Box 84, Folder 7.
15. Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (New York: Random House, 1977 [1979]).
16. Marc Kaufman and Rob Stein, “Record Share of Economy Spent on Health Care,” Washington Post, January 10, 2006, http://www.wash ingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2006/01/09/AR200601090 1932.html.
17. Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas, “We Are All Socialists Now,” Newsweek, February 7, 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/
id/183663.
18. See my interview with Lou Dobbs, October 30, 2008 “Stanley Kurtz on Obama’s radicalism,” http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=3dX9x XX1XiO; See also Stanley Kurtz, “Something New Here,” National Review Online, October 20, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/375696/something
-new-here/stanley-kurtz.
19. With the assistance of librarians, I first discovered revealing programs from the 1984 and 1985 Socialist Scholars Conferences in the uncatalogued vertical files of the New York University’s Tamiment Library. Additional documentation on these conferences will be discussed in Chapter Three.
20. For Cone’s influence on Wright, see Stanley Kurtz, “Context You Say? A Guide to the Radical Theology of Rev. Jeremiah Wright,” National Review, May 19, 2008, pp. 28–36.
21. Particularly helpful background on these matters can be found in Jerrold Seigel, Marx’s Fate: The Shape of a Life (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993), pp. 217–52 (first edition Princeton University Press, 1978).
22. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 100.
23. “College Acquaintance: Young Obama Was ‘Pure Marxist Socialist,’” February 16, 2010, Breitbart TV, http://www.breitbart.tv/college-acquaintance-young
-obama-was-pure-marxist-socialist/.
24. David Remnick, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010).
25. Stanley Kurtz, “Senator Stealth: How to advance radical causes when no one’s looking,” National Review Online, November 1, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com
/?q=YjdjY2Y2YWU5YjQ1Y2Y5Mzg0MGRI NDQ4YTkwYmI2ZDE=.
26. Broad and Sanger, “Youthful Ideals.” The Internet version of this piece was published a day earlier than the front-page piece, with the title “Obama’s Youth Shaped His Nuclear-Free Vision,” http://www.ny times.com/2009/07
/05/world/05nuclear.html.
27. Consider controversies over administration figures like Van Jones, Patrick Gaspard, and Kevin Jennings. On Gaspard and Obama, see Stanley Kurtz, “Patrick Gaspard, ACORN, and Obama,” The Corner, September 28, 2009, http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/
?q=NjljYzYyMDhlY2Y4MTRhZTI4
NGQ5OGVIMGE5YmIzYTI=.
28. NakedEmporerNews1, “Shock Uncovered: Obama IN HIS OWN WORDS saying his health care plan will ELIMINATE private insurance,” August 2, 2009, http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=p-bY 92mcOdk.
29. White House, “The Truth About Health Care Insurance Reform,” August 3, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0XC16OHgiM
&feature=related.
30. Young, McKnight, and Schakowsky are discussed in the body of the book. See especially Chapters Four, Five, and Seven.
31. Stanley Kurtz, “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown,” National Review Online, August 18, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTgwZ
TVmN2QyNzk2MmUxMzA5OTg0ODZIM2Y2OGI0NDM=; Stanley Kurtz, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools, Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/
article/SB122212856075765367.html.
32. Stanley Kurtz, “Inside Obama’s Acorn: By their fruits ye shall know them,” National Review Online, May 29, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/?q
=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMj E0ODI=; Stanley Kurtz, “Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet’: The content of the magazine produced by Barack Obama’s pastor reveals the content of his character,” Weekly Standard, May 19, 2008, pp. 32–36, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles
/000/000/015/082ktdyi.asp.
33. “Barack Obama, Aspiring Commissar,” National Review Online, August 28, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmUwOTl1NmMzZDN
1MT1jMGFmY2JkZT11YmQyOTY0ODY=&w=MA==; Guy Benson, “Stanley Kurtz’s Fairness Doctrine Preview,” National Review Online’s Media Blog, August 28, 2008, http://media.nationalreview.com/
post/?q=ZmRhYmE3NzF1MT1jNTdm
ZGQ3MjhkYTVj NzdmMjVhMzE.
34. Stanley Kurtz, “Something New Here: Radical? Check. Tied to ACORN? Check. Redistributionist? Check,” National Review Online, October 20, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTc3NzZkZDYxODZiZj
E2OTg5YWRmNDkzM2U0YTIwZGQ=; Stanley Kurtz, “Life of the New Party: A redistributionist success story,” National Review Online, October 30, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/?
q=MmV1OTk1MzkwYmM2YTQzZmIxOTR
1MjY3ZjZkMTg0OTM=; “The Truth About Barack Obama and the New Party,” Fight the Smears, http://fightthesmears.com/
articles/28/KurtzSmears.html.
35. Kurtz, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools.”
36. Kurtz, “Senator Stealth: How to advance radical causes when no one’s looking.”
Chapter 2: A Conference for Marx
1. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 133.
2. Ibid., pp. 134–35.
3. Ibid., p. 135.
4. Ibid., p. 133.
5. Ibid., pp. 135–36, 139–40.
6. Ibid., p. 133.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., p. 135.
9. Janny Scott, “Obama’s Account of New York Years Often Differs From What Others Say,” New York Times, October 30, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/
us/politics/30obama.html; Ross Gold- berg, “Obama’s Years at Columbia Are a Mystery,” New York Sun, September 2, 2008, http://www.nysun.com/new-york/obamas-years
-at-columbia-are-a-mystery/85015/.
10. Scott, “Obama’s Account of New York.”
11. Broad and Sanger, “Youthful Ideals.”
12. Scott, “Obama’s Account of New York.”
13. Goldberg, “Obama’s Years at Columbia.”
14. Broad and Sanger, “Youthful Ideals.”
15. Ibid.
16. Colleen Sharkey, “Friends of Barry,” Occidental, Winter 2009, pp. 12–17.
17. Linda Matchan, “A Law Review Breakthrough,” Boston Globe, February 15, 1990, Metro/Region, p. 29.
18. Scott, “Obama’s Account of New York.”
19. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 122.
20. Associated Press, “Old friends recall.”
21. New York Democratic Socialist, March 1983, p. 1.
22. Democratic Left, January 1983, p.11; February 1983, p. 7; March 1983, p. 11.
23. In These Times, March 23–29, 1983, p. 8.
24. The Stony Brook Press, March 24, 1983, p. 6.
25. In These Times, April 11–17, 1984, p. 7.
26. Democratic Left, January–February 1985, p. 16.
27. Democratic Left, February 1983, p. 7.
28. DSA Records, Box 66, Folder: Socialist Scholars Conference 4/1/83–4/2/83 NY.
29. Of course, if Obama had attended multiple socialist conferences at Cooper Union, but not the April 1983 Socialist Scholars Conference in honor of Marx, that would only represent further involvement with organized socialism in New York. And in Chapter Three I explain that all the key themes of the 1983 Cooper Union Socialist Scholars Conference were repeated at the 1984 Socialist Scholars Conference (often presented by the same speakers), where we have very strong documentary evidence of Obama’s attendance. Any way you slice it, Obama absorbed the worldview of 1980s socialism in New York.
30. Piven Papers, Box 84, Folder 7.
31. John Trinkl, “Survivors In Search of a Revival,” Guardian, April 20, 1983, p. 9.
32. Alice Widener, “Lonely Weekend, A Report on the Third Conference of Socialist Scholars,” Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly, September, 25, 1967, p. 1.
33. Michael Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States (New York: Macmillan, 1962).
34. Gary J. Dorrien, The Democratic Socialist Vision (New Jersey: Roman and Littlefield, 1986), pp. 101–2.
35. Ibid.
36. Widener, “Lonely Weekend.”
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. A DSA file containing information on several of the revived Socialist Scholars Conferences includes planning materials from the 1983 conference. A chart assigns responsibility for various panels to individual members of the conference planning committee. Both the “Social Movements” and “Race & Class in Marxism” panels (which, I argue in this chapter, Obama likely attended) were assigned to “Stanley.” This is almost surely Stanley Aronowitz. Aronowitz was one of the few DSA members with the stature and connections to arrange the main panels. With conference organizer Bogdan Denitch representing the “Harrington wing” of the DSA, Aronowitz would have been an obvious balancing representative of DSA’s ex-NAMers. Aronowitz is listed as a member of the 1984 Socialist Scholars Conference planning committee, so it seems very likely that he is the Stanley referred to on the charts from the 1983 conference. For the chart, see DSA Records, Box 72, Folder: Socialist Scholars Conf. For Aronowitz’s name on the 1984 conference planning committee, see the program for the 2nd Annual Socialist Scholars Conference in the uncatalogued vertical files at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
40. Ibid.
41. Piven Papers, Box 84, Folder 7; DSA Records, Box 66, Folder: Socialist Scholars Conference 4/1/83-4/2/83 NY. The latter folder contains not only a detailed conference program, but other material, including a news report on the conference by Sharon McDonnell entitled “Lively Discussion and Marx Fete Mark U.S. Socialist Conference.” Unfortunately, the newspaper in which this article appeared is neither identified nor dated. This piece contains the reference to Harrington’s introduction, and much else of interest.
42. McDonnell, “Lively Discussion.”
43. Michael Harrington, “Standing Up for Marx,” Democratic Left, March 1983, pp. 3–4.
44. Dorrien, The Democratic Socialist Vision, pp. 112–21.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid., pp. 121–25.
47. McDonnell, “Lively Discussion.”
48. Trinkl, “Survivors.”
49. Ibid.
50. McDonnell, “Lively Discussion.”
51. John Atlas and Peter Dreier, “Tenant Power Is Growing,” Democratic Left, March 1981, pp. 8–11.
52. Wright’s role in the Harold Washington campaign will be discussed in Chapter Eight.
53. John Cameron and Steve Askin, “Socialists and Electoral Politics,” NAM Discussion Bulletin, No. 21, Winter 1978, pp. 88–92.
54. Arnold James Oliver, Jr., “American Socialist Strategy in Transition: The New American Movement and Electoral Politics, 1972–1982,” Ph.D. University of Colorado at Boulder, 1983.
55. Cameron and Askin, “Electoral Politics.”
56. Oliver, “Socialist Strategy.”
57. Robert A. Gorman, Michael Harrington: Speaking American (New York: Routledge, 1995), pp. 138–43.
58. John Cameron, “DSA Mobilizes for Harold Washington,” Chicago Socialist, February/March 1983, pp. 1–2, in DSA Records, Box 17, Folder: Illinois, Chicago.
59. John Cameron, “Washington Campaign Brings Chicago Hope,” Democratic Left, April 1983, pp. 4–6.
60. Bill Perkins, “Washington’s Victory Will Change Much,” Chicago Socialist, April/May 1983, p. 8, in DSA Records, Box 17, Folder: Illinois Chicago.
61. This information is contained in the responses to a detailed survey of individual chapters returned to the national DSA office by the Chicago local in DSA Records, Box 17, Folder: Illinois, Chicago.
62. Perkins, “Washington’s Victory.”
63. Advertisement in Democratic Left, April 1983, p. 7.
64. David Moberg, “Blacks, Left Spark Washington Win,” In These Times, March 2–8, 1983, pp. 3–6.
65. “Washington Victory Ushers in a New Era of Coalition Politics,” In These Times, April 20–26, 1983, p. 11.
66. John Trinkl, “Socialists Confer and Differ,” Guardian, May 2, 1984, p. 2.
67. DSA Records, Box 72, Folder: Socialist Scholars Conf.
68. David James Smith, “The ascent of Mr. Charisma,” Sunday Times (London), March 23, 2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/
us_and_americas/us_elections/article3582291.ece.
69. For conference programs, see note 30.
70. John Atlas and Peter Dreier, “Tenant Power Is Growing,” Democratic Left, March 1981, pp. 8–11; Peter Dreier and Jim Schoch, “Electoral Politics Primer,” Democratic Left, Sept.–Oct. 1982, pp. 14–15. For Social Policy articles, see below.
71. Peter Dreier, “Socialist Incubators,” Social Policy, May/June 1980, pp. 29–34.
72. Peter Dreier, “The Case for Transitional Reform,” Social Policy, January/February 1979, pp. 5–16.
73. McDonnell, “Lively Discussion.”
74. John Atlas, Peter Dreier, and John Stephens, “Progressive Politics in 1984,” July 23–30, 1983, pp. 1, 82–84.
75. Peter Dreier and Marshall Ganz, “We Have the Hope. Now Where’s the Audacity?” Washington Post, August 30, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082801817.html?sid=ST2009090403398.
76. Peter Dreier, “DSA Endorses Voter Registration Effort,” Socialist Forum A Discussion Bulletin, No. 3, 1983, pp. 69–70; Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, “Toward a Class-Based Realignment of American Politics: A Movement Strategy,” Social Policy, Winter 1983.
77. Cloward and Piven, “Class-Based Realignment.”
78. Ibid.
79. DSA Records, Box 66, Folder: Socialist Scholars Conference, 1983.
80. Ibid.
81. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 135.
82. “Democratic Socialists of America: DSOC and NAM United!” Turn Left, March 30, 1982, pp. 1–2, in DSA Records, Box 17, Folder: Illinois, Chicago.
83. DSA Records, Box 66, Folder: Socialist Scholars Conference, 1983.
84. Cornel West, “Review of How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America,” Guardian Book Supplement, Summer 1984, p. 5.
85. Manning Marable, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America (Boston: South End Press, 1983), Preface.
86. Ibid.
87. Ibid., p. 1.
88. Ibid., p. 2.
89. Ibid., p. 11.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid., pp. 11–12.
92. Ibid., p. 18.
93. Ibid., p. 12.
94. Ibid., p. 18.
95. Ibid., p. 16.
96. Ibid.
97. Ibid., p. 133.
98. Ibid., p. 170.
99. Ibid., Chapters Four and Nine.
100. Ibid., p. 176.
101. Ibid., p. 177.
102. Ibid., p. 194.
103. Ibid., p. 257.
104. Ibid., p. 258.
105. Manning Marable, “Many Messages for Marxists from Chicago Mayoral Race,” Guardian, March 16, 1983, p. 23.
106. Akinshiju C. Ola, “Blacks and ’84: Focus Is Campaign, Not Candidate,” Guardian, April 6, 1983, pp. 5–6.
107. James H. Cone, with comments by Michael Harrington, The Black Church and Marxism: What Do They Have to Say to Each Other? (New York: Institute for Democratic Socialism, 1980).
108. Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1982 [2002]), p. 169.
109. Ibid., pp. 95–127.
110. DSA Records, Harrington Correspondence, Box 6A, Folder: March–April 1982.
111. West, Prophesy, pp. 5, 136–137.
112. Ibid., p. 104.
113. Ibid., p. 105.
114. “Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Dr., Corinthian Baptist Church’s Revivalist, April 21st to April 23rd, 2003, Biographical Summary,” http://www.corinthianbaptistchurch.org/
jeremiah_a_wright_jr.htm.
115. Bogdan Denitch, “Confronting Coalition Contradictions,” Social Policy, Spring 1983, pp. 54–55.
Chapter 3: From New York to Havana
1. DSA Records, Box 81, folder: Socialist Scholars Conference.
2. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 122.
3. Minutes of the DSA governing board from an April 15, 1983, meeting quote Bogdan Denitch reporting 1,400 registered participants and a total attendance of 1,500. See Records of the Springfield, Illinois, Democratic Socialists of America, University of Illinois, Springfield, Box 1, Folder 10; Bogdan Denitch, “Marx Conference Is Big Success,” New York Democratic Socialist, May 1983, p. 1; John Trinkl, “Survivors in search of a revival,” Guardian, April 20, 1983, p. 9.
4. Programs for the 1984 Socialist Scholars Conference can be found in the uncatalogued DSA section of the vertical files of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
5. Jennifer B. Lee, “Where Obama Lived in 1980’s New York,” New York Times, City Room Blog, January 30, 2008, http://cityroom.blogs.ny times.com/
2008/01/30/where-obama-lived-in-1980s-new-york/.
6. Associated Press, “Old friends recall Obama’s college years,” at Politico, May 16, 2008.
7. Ibid.; Lee, “Where Obama Lived.”
8. Lee, “Where Obama Lived.”
9. DSA Records, Harrington Correspondence, Box 6A, folder: March–April 1982 (Anita Snitow letter to Harrington, March 1, 1982).
10. Piven Papers, Box 45, folder 2.
11. John Trinkl, “DSA Embarks on a Long March, but Where To?” Guardian, October 26, 1983.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ads for a wide range of classes at a “School for Democratic Socialism” can be found in various issues of New York Democratic Socialist during the mid-1980s. The ads were sponsored by the C.U.N.Y. Democratic Socialist Student Club, and the School for Democratic Socialism. Classes were often held at the CUNY Graduate Center, 33 West Forty-second Street, and sometimes featured prominent figures from the Socialist Scholars Conferences, such as Stanley Aronowitz, as instructors.
15. Jon Hillson, A Socialist View of the Chicago Election: Forging a Black-Latino-Labor Alliance (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1983), p. 26, in the Walter Goldwater Radical Pamphlet Collection at U.C. Davis Library.
16. Ibid.
17. Akinshiju C. Ola, “New Dawn Coming for the Rainbow Coalition?” Guardian, August 8, 1984, p. 3.
18. Paulette Pierce, “A New Direction and Democratic Alternative,” Socialist Forum, Number 10, Early Winter 1986, p. 11, Piven Papers Box 45, folder 5.
19. Akinshiju C. Ola, “All Out for Jackson … Almost,” Guardian, April 4, 1984, p. 6.
20. Ibid.
21. John Trinkl, “Jackson Campaign Sparks Broad Community Support,” Guardian, January 18, 1984, p. 3.
22. Akinshiju C. Ola, “Jackson Has Already Won More Than a Nomi- nation,” Guardian, April 25, 1984, p. 7.
23. Jack Colhoun, “What Foreign Policy Would President Jackson Pursue?” Guardian, March 7, 1984, p. 7.
24. Ibid.
25. Guardian Viewpoint, “It’s Rainbow Time,” Guardian, November 23, 1983, p. 18.
26. Jim Shoch, “DSA, Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition: Some Cautious Considerations,” Socialist Forum, Number 10, Early Winter 1986, pp. 29–29a, Piven Papers, Box 45, folder 5.
27. Pierce, “New Direction.”
28. Kevin Kelley, “Little Support for Jackson Among White Left Liberals,” Guardian, April 18, 1984, p. 3.
29. Guardian Viewpoint, “No Way to Make a Rainbow,” Guardian, March 7, 1984, p. 18.
30. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 121.
31. Akinshiju C. Ola, “History Was Happening in Harlem,” Guardian, April 1984.
32. “Second Annual Socialist Scholars Conference: The Encounter With America, April 19–21,” Program, Piven Papers, Box 85, Folder 2.
33. West’s presentation at the “Marxism and the Religious Left” panel, a panel sponsored by Monthly Review, probably appeared in reworked form in his July–August 1984 Monthly Review essay “Religion and the Left.” West’s presentation at the “New Developments in Racial Politics and Theory” panel was quite possibly published in reworked form in the DSA’s Third World Socialist in the summer of 1984. Both of these pieces are reprinted in Cornel West, Prophetic Fragments (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1988).
34. This pamphlet was published in both New York and Los Angeles. I happen to have the Los Angeles version, which appears to add some material to the basic packet with Pierce’s introduction and Garrow’s essay. David Garrow’s personal bibliography lists his pamphlet as: David Garrow, Martin Luther King, Jr.: From Reformer to Revolutionary (New York: Democratic Socialists of America, 1983, 1984.) I obtained a copy of the 1983 Los Angeles edition from the Walter Goldwater Radical Pamphlet Collection at U.C. Davis University Library. A May 17, 1983, letter from Michael Harrington to Bill Lucy appears to be a first effort to find someone to produce such a pamphlet. See DSA Records, Harrington Correspondence, Box 6A, folder: May–August, 1983.
35. “Second Annual Socialist Scholars Conference,” Program, Piven Papers, Box 85, Folder 2.
36. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 134.
37. Tim Harper, “The making of a president: Chicago helped shape Obama’s outlook as he connected with mentors and honed his political elbows,” Toronto Star, August 16, 2008.
38. Garrow pamphlet, Los Angeles edition, 1983, p. 3.
39. Ibid., p. 5.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid., p. 29.
44. Ibid., p. 35.
45. David Garrow, “Don’t Fall for Media Madness,” Democratic Left, May–June 1985, p. 15.
46. James H. Cone, Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation, 1968–1998 (Boston: Beacon Press: 1999), pp. 153–54.
47. Cone, “Black Church and Marxism,” 1980.
48. Ibid., p. 8.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid., p. 9.
51. Medell, “Promise,” p. 59.
52. In this section, I draw on material from the Black Theology Project Records, 1976–87, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library. To a lesser degree, I also refer to the Theology in the Americas Records, 1951–88, also at the Schomburg Center. A members list of the BTP delegation to Cuba is contained in the “Black Theology Project of Theology in the Americas Bulletin,” October 1984, p. 8. This can be found in BTP Records, Box 3, folder 8.
53. “Black Theology Project of Theology in the Americas Bulletin,” October 1984, p. 2.
54. Ibid., pp. 1–8.
55. Glenn C. Loury, “The New American Dilemma: Racial Politics, Black and White,” New Republic, December 31, 1984, p. 17.
56. Diego A. Abich, “Fidel Castro’s Role Behind Jesse Jackson’s Cuba Tour,” Wall Street Journal, Friday, November 2, 1984, p. 29.
57. BTP Records, Box 4, Folder 13.
58. “BTP Minutes, 9/12/86,” BTP Records, Box 1, Folder 40.
59. BTP Bulletin, October 1984, BTP Records, Box 3, Folder 8.
60. BTP Records, Box 4, Folder 13.
61. BTP Bulletin, October 1984, p. 3, BTP Records, Box 3, Folder 8.
62. Ibid., p. 4.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. Milagros Oliva, “U.S. And Caribbean Christians Condemn Reagan’s Central America Policy,” Granma, July 20, 1986, BTP Records, Box 4, Folder 13.
66. Ibid.
67. BTP Board of Directors Meeting, February 5 and 6, 1986, Minutes, BTP Records Box 1, folder 35; “Memorandum Re: Suggested Class Assignments for Board of Directors,” BTP Records Box 1, Folder 37.
68. “Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Dr., Corinthian Baptist Church Revivalist, April 21st to April 23rd, 2003, Biographical Summary.”
69. See Theology in the America’s Records finding aid.
70. “Rev. Wright Praises Magazine’s ‘No Nonsense Marxism,’” Breitbart TV, http://www.breitbart.tv/new-video-rev-wright-praises
-magazines-no-nonsense-marxism/.
71. Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 62.
72. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 135.
73. Ibid., pp. 120–21.
74. Ibid., p. 123.
75. Ibid.
76. Tom Bottomore, Editor, A Dictionary of Marxist Thought (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983), pp. 115–16.
77. NYPIRG has posted a web page entitled “President Barack Obama’s Work History as an Organizer with the New York Public Interest Research Group,” http://www.nypirg.org/goodgov/
obama.html.
78. The DSA tie with Ralph Nader’s PIRGs is less public than the other connections. I found a folder in the DSA archives, however, with information on PIRGs, and a 1984 letter that indicated a working relationship between the PIRGs and DSA organizers. DSA Records, Box 75, folder “PIRGS.”
79. Harry Boyte, The Backyard Revolution: Understanding the New Citizen Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980).
80. Ibid., pp. 75–76.
81. Ibid., p. 60.
82. Ibid., p. 89.
83. Ben Whitford, “Coal and clear skies: Obama’s balancing act,” Plenty, December 2008, http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/politics/stories/
coal-and-clear-skies-obama%E2%80%99s-balancing-act.
84. Patrick Whelan, “The Catholic Case for Obama,” Catholic Democrats, 2008, p. 51, http://www.catholicdemocrats.org/cfo/pdf/CatholicCase_
for_Obama_booklet.pdf.
85. Robert Fisher, Let the People Decide: Neighborhood Organizing in America (Boston: G. K. Hall & Company, 1984).
86. Harry C. Boyte, Community Is Possible: Repairing America’s Roots (New York: Harper & Row, 1984).
87. Another book on community organizing by an experienced practitioner that appeared in 1984 is: Gregory F. Augustine Pierce, Activism That Makes Sense: Congregations and Community Organizing (Chicago: ACTA Publications, 1984). This book is somewhat less known than the others, and slightly more specialized, since it specifically applies to church-based organizing. The book is influential, however, and is still assigned as a text to first-year organizers for the Gamaliel Foundation, Obama’s original organizing sponsor. If Obama didn’t read Pierce in New York, he very likely read it sometime after his arrival in Chicago.
88. Fisher, Let the People Decide, p. xiv.
89. Ibid., p. xv.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid., p. 163.
92. Ibid., p. 25.
93. S. M. Miller, “Challenges for Populism,” Social Policy, Summer 1985, pp. 3–6; Frank Riessman, Harry Boyte, S. M. Miller, “Populist Exchange,” Social Policy, Fall 1985, pp. 38–41.
94. Miller, “Challenges for Populism,” p. 4.
95. Ryan Lizza, “The Agitator: Barack Obama’s Unlikely Political Education,” New Republic, March 19, 2007, http://www.tnr.com/article/the-agitator-barack-obamas-
unlikely-political-education.
96. David Von Drehle, “The Five Faces of Barack Obama,” Time, August 21, 2008, http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0
,8599,1834623-3,00.html.
97. “National Journal’s 2007 Vote Ratings,” National Journal, http://www.nationaljournal.com/voteratings/sen
/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc#results.
98. Davis’s ongoing socialist sympathies are evident from his memoir, written late in life: Frank Marshall Davis, Livin’ the Blues (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1992). For more on Davis’s politics, see Kathryn Wadell Takara, “The Fire and the Phoenix,” Ph.D. University of Hawaii, 1993; John Edgar Tidwell, “Introduction: Weaving Jagged Words into Song,” in Frank Marshall Davis, Black Moods (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois, 2002).
99. “College Acquaintance: Obama was ‘pure Marxist socialist,’” Breitbart.tv, February 16, 2010, http://www.breitbart.tv/college-acquaintance
-young-obama-was-pure-marxist-socialist/; “The B-Cast Interview: Was Obama a Committed Marxist in College?” Breitbart.tv, February 12, 2010, http://www.breitbart.tv/the-b-cast-interview
-was-obama-a-committed-marxist-in-college/.
100. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 104.
101. Ibid.
102. Ibid.
103. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 105–12.
104. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 109.
105. Ibid., pp. 107–9.
106. Ibid., p. 109.
107. Sam Stein, “Obama Mocks Socialist Attacks: “I Shared My Toys,” The Huffington Post, October 29, 2008, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/29/
obama-sharpens-tone-agagain_n_138915.html.
108. Corsi, Nation, pp. 110–12; Remnick, The Bridge, pp. 62–68.
109. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 200.
110. Ibid.
111. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 109.
112. Ibid.
Chapter 4: Obama’s Organizing: The Hidden Story
1. Helena Sundman, “UNO: Taking Organizing to a New Level, or Leaving the Community Behind,” Chicago Reporter, May/June 1994, p. 9; Wilfredo Cruz, “The Nature of Alinksy-Style Community Organizing in the Mexican-American Community of Chicago: United Neigh- borhood Organization,” Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1987, p. 117; R. Bruce Dold, “Mayor Keeps Jabbing at Percy,” Chicago Tribune, October 25, 1984, Section 2, p. 3.
2. Sundman, “UNO,” p. 8.
3. Gregory A. Galluzzo, “Gamaliel and the Barack Obama Connection,” http://www.gamaliel.org/Obama%20Gamalie
%201Connection.htm.
4. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. xvii.
5. Galluzzo waited until after the 2008 election to publish an online account of his connection with Obama, “Gamaliel and the Barack Obama Connection” (see note 3). Galluzzo’s account is roughly similar to what Obama says on pp. 226–29 of Dreams, with one major exception. In Dreams, Obama speaks of making an arrangement to pay “Marty” for weekly face-to-face consultations, after Marty moves out to Gary, Indiana. In Galluzzo’s post-election account, when Jerry Kellman (Marty) moves out to Gary, he asks Galluzzo to become Obama’s consultant. It’s at least possible that Kellman drove back weekly from Gary to consult with Gary, to supplement the new weekly consulting from Galluzzo. In that case, Obama has simply left out the Galluzzo character altogether. Yet it also seems quite possible that this is a case of Obama creating a composite character (Marty) who combines elements of Kellman and Galluzzo. It’s interesting that Galluzzo seems to have waited until after Obama was safely elected to post his version of events.
6. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 234.
7. Lynn Sweet, “Obama’s Book: What’s Real, What’s Not,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 8, 2004, p. 32.
8. Sunderman, “UNO”; Cazey Sanchez, “Building Power: One of the city’s most powerful Latino organizations has figured out how to get a seat at the table,” Chicago Reporter, January/February 2006.
9. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 141.
10. Ibid., p. 289.
11. Letta Tayler and Keith Herbert, “Chicago’s Streets Obama’s Teacher,” Newsday, March 2, 2008, p. A6.
12. Harold Washington Archives and Collections (HWAC), Schedules and Evaluations Series, Box 2, Folder 10, “Vision 87” pamphlet.
13. Patrick T. Reardon, “Obama’s Chicago: Take our unauthorized tour of the candidate’s stomping grounds,” Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2008, Tempo, Zone C, p. 1.
14. Ibid.
15. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” p. 113; HWAC, Schedules and Evaluations, Box 2, Folder 10, “Vision 87” pamphlet.
16. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” p. 56.
17. Ibid., p. 57.
18. Ibid., p. 59.
19. Ibid., p. 27.
20. Ibid., pp. 118–19.
21. Ibid., pp. 144–45; HWAC, Schedules and Evaluations Series, 5/21/87, Box 14, Folder 9.
22. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” p. 37.
23. Ibid., p. 38.
24. Ibid., p. 39.
25. Ibid., pp. 76, 108, 128; Jean Davidson, “Hispanics Demand Job Training,” Chicago Tribune, April 10, 1984, Section 2, p. 3.
26. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” p. 123.
27. HWAC, Schedules and Evaluations Series, 2/19/87, Box 9, Folder 12.
28. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” p. 76.
29. Ibid., p. 77.
30. Ibid., p. 44.
31. Ibid., pp. 51, 78–79.
32. Ibid., p. 74.
33. Ibid., pp. 48–49.
34. Ibid., pp. 45, 81.
35. Ibid., p. 68.
36. Ibid., pp. 19, 64–97.
37. Ibid., p. 81.
38. Ibid., p. 91; Patricia Zapor, “Obama cites influence of Cardinal Bernardin, prepares to meet Pope,” Catholic News Service, July 2, 2009, http://www.catholicnews.com/
data/stories/cns/0903039.htm.
39. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” pp. 83–94.
40. Ibid., p. 95.
41. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 161.
42. Ibid.
43. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 184–86.
44. Ibid., p. 196.
45. Ibid., pp. 223–26.
46. Peter Wallsten, “Obama defined by contrasts: He has cultivated associations with disaffected figures while keeping his own views on race issues,” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2008, p. 1.
47. The Loretta Augustine–Herron connection has been widely reported. The fact that Will in Dreams is Deacon Dan Lee is not well known, but the link was made in Bob Secter and John McCormick, “Obama Hits Chicago During Council Wars,” Chicago Tribune, March 30, 2007.
48. HWAC, Schedules and Evaluations Series, 3/23/87, Box 11, Folder 9.
49. Ibid.
50. For conservative views, see James Bovard, “The Failure of Federal Job Training,” CATO Institute, Policy Analysis No. 77, August 28, 1986, http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?
pub_id=943, and David Muhlhausen, Ph.D., and Paul Kersey, “In the Dark on Job Training: Federal Job-Training Programs Have a Record of Failure,” Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder No. 1774, July 6, 2004, http://www.heritage.org/research
/labor/bg1774.cfm. For a view from the left, see Gordon Lafer, The Job Training Charade (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002).
51. Lafer, The Job Training Charade, p. 158.
52. Ibid., pp. 165, 169.
53. Ibid., p. 157.
54. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 150.
55. Ibid., p. 168.
56. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 179.
57. Lafer, The Job Training Charade, pp. 163–66.
58. Ibid., p. 170.
59. Muhlhausen and Kersey, “In the Dark.”
60. Lafer, The Job Training Charade, pp. 172–77.
61. HWAC, Schedules and Evaluations Series, 3/23/87, Box 11, Folder 9.
62. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 195–204.
63. Ibid., pp. 202–3.
64. Ibid., p. 196.
65. Peter Wallsten, “Fellow Activists Say Obama’s Memoir Has Too Many I’s,” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2007.
66. Wallsten, “Obama defined by contrasts.”
67. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 234–48.
68. HWAC, Mayoral Records Development Series, General Subject Files, Asbestos, etc., CHA 1986, Box 1, Folder 10.
69. HWAC, Chief of Staff Series, CHA Asbestos Report, June 1986, Box 22, Folder 9.
70. A number of news reports in the CHA Asbestos Report refer to Callie Smith as spokeswoman for the protesters, which at least suggests that this is the Sadie of Dreams.
71. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 243–45.
72. Heidi J. Swarts, Organizing Urban America: Secular and Faith-Based Progressive Movements (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), pp. 21–22.
73. Ibid., p. 23.
74. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 185, 244–45. Obama does speak of working with his group leaders “preparing a script for the meeting” (p. 184), but without specialized knowledge of Galluzzo’s techniques, it’s almost impossible for ordinary readers of Dreams to understand the nature and purpose of the “pinning” process, or even to connect the yes-or-no demands Obama describes in passing to the idea of a meeting script.
75. Cheryl Devall, “CHA Director Leaves Hot Asbestos Session,” Chicago Tribune, June 10, 1986, Chicagoland, p. 2; HWAC, Chief of Staff Series, CHA Asbestos Report, June 1986, Box 22, Folder 9.
76. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 245–47.
77. HWAC, Development Sub-Cabinet Series, UNO 1984–1987, Box 16, Folder 3; HWAC, Schedules and Evaluations Series, 5/21/87, Box 14, Folder 9.
78. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” pp. 119–21.
79. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 161.
80. Serge Kovalesky, “Obama’s Organizing Years, Guiding Others and Finding Himself,” New York Times, July 7, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/us/politics
/07community.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1.
81. Jennifer Liberto, “Origin of Obama’s Run Is on South Side,” St. Petersburg Times (Florida), October 26, 2008, p. 1A.
82. Peter Slevin, “For Clinton and Obama, a Common Ideological Touchstone,” Washington Post, March 25, 2007, A-Section, p. 1.
83. Sharon Cohen, “Barack Obama: Finding common bonds in different worlds,” Associated Press, June 3, 2008.
84. Abdon M. Pallasch, “Taught residents to lobby; Mobilized people to fight for job training, school reform,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 24, 2008, p. A15.
85. Tayler and Herbert, “Chicago’s Streets.”
86. Cruz, “Alinsky-Style,” pp. 34, 51, 108–10; Wilfredo Cruz, “UNO: Organizing at the Grass Roots,” Illinois Issues, April 1988, p. 22.
87. Ben Joravsky, “Dumpers Swamp City’s Southeast Side With Noxious, Toxic Waste,” Chicago Reporter, August 1983, pp. 1–5.
88. Steve Kerch, “Home-Grown Experts Crusade Against Waste Dumps,” Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1984, Section 3, p. 2.
89. Casey Burko, “80 Southeast Side Residents Reject Firm’s Offer On Landfill Use,” Chicago Tribune, February 9, 1988, Chicagoland, p. 3.
90. Ibid.; Cruz, “UNO,” p. 21; Tayler and Herbert, “Chicago’s Streets.”
91. Casey Sanchez, “Building Power: One of the city’s most powerful Latino organizations has figured out how to get a seat at the table,” Chicago Reporter, January/February 2006, pp. 14–15.
92. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 289.
93. Ibid., pp. 251–61.
94. Ibid., pp. 256–57.
95. Ibid., pp. 257–61.
96. HWAC, Developing Communities Project (Obama), 1987, Box 10, Folder 17.
97. HWAC, Central Files, DET, Box 27, Folder 27.
98. William S. McKersie, “Strategic Philanthropy and Local Public Policy Lessons from Chicago School Reform, 1987–1993,” Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1998, pp. 330–77.
99. Had Harold Washington backed Obama’s plans, we almost certainly would have heard about that fact. Also, a check of the Schedule and Evaluations Series of the HWAC lists no visits to Obama’s Developing Communities Project beyond the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
100. HWAC, Central Files, DET, Box 27, Folder 27.
101. John Judis, “Creation Myth: What Barack Obama won’t tell you about his community organizing past,” New Republic, September 10, 2008, http://www.tnr.com/article/creation-myth.
102. Tayler and Herbert, “Chicago’s Streets.”
103. Constanza Montana, “Meeting On School Reform Halted,” Chicago Tribune, February 19, 1988, Chicagoland, p. 3.
104. The Midwest Academy’s use of Alinskyite tactics comes out of the experience of many Academy personnel in Chicago’s Citizen’s Action Program (CAP). The tactical manufacture of anger by CAP is discussed in Emmons, “Community Organizing and Urban Policy,” pp. 60, 322, 343–44. For a similar action by ACORN, see Stanley Kurtz, “Inside Obama’s Acorn: By their fruits ye shall know them,” National Review Online, May 29, 2008.
105. Ben Joravsky, “The Chicago School Mess,” Illinois Issues, April 1988, p. 15.
106. O’Connell, “School Reform,” p. 16.
107. Pallasch, “Taught Residents.”
108. Ibid.
109. O’Connell, “School Reform,” p. 16.
110. Tom Maguire, “The Obama-Ayers Connection—Follow the Bouncing Ball,” JustOneMinute, October 15, 2008, http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/
2008/10/the-obama-ayers.html; Larry Johnson, “Obama, We Are Smarter; We Follow the Money and It Links You to Bill Ayers in the 1980’s,” No Quarter, June 2, 2008, http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06
/02/obama-we-are-smarter-we-follow-the-money
-and-it-links-you-to-bill-ayers-in-the-1980s/.
111. Galluzzo, “Gamaliel and the Barack Obama Connection.”
112. Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006), pp. 360–61.
113. John McKnight, The Careless Society: Community and Its Counterfeits (New York: Basic Books, 1995), pp. 153–60.
114. Sasha Abramsky, Inside Obama’s Brain (New York: Penguin, 2009), p. 148.
115. DSA Records, Box 19, Folder LD: Chicago.
116. Tom Carlson, “Chicago’s Health Care Dollar: What’s the Community’s Share?” Health & Medicine, Winter 1985, p. 34.
117. “Illinois: Legislators Press for Universal Care,” American Health Line, November 17, 1997; “Dr. Quentin Young, Longtime Obama Confidante and Physician to MLK Criticizes Admin’s Rejection of Single-Payer Healthcare,” Democracy Now, March 11, 2009, at http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/
11/dr_quentin_young_obama_confidante_and.
118. Ben Smith, “Obama once visited 60’s radicals,” Politico, February 22, 2008, at http://www.politico.com/news
/stories/0208/8630.html.
119. “Red Emma: Excerpts from Living My Life, the autobiography of Emma Goldman,” Health & Medicine, Spring 1987, pp. 5–6; “While Passing Through,” Health & Medicine, Spring 1987, pp. 11–13.
120. Nancy Worcester, “Nicaragua’s Health Revolution,” Health & Medicine, Winter 1985, pp. 20, 22–25.
121. Carlson, “Chicago’s Health Care Dollar.”
122. “Sweden at the Crossroads,” Health & Medicine, Winter 1985, pp. 9–12.
123. Swarts, Organizing Urban America, p. 51.
124. Ibid., pp. 52, 59.
125. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 169.
126. Dennis A. Jacobsen, Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).
127. Ibid., p. 18.
128. Ibid., p. 79.
129. Ibid., pp. 87–88.
130. Ibid., p. 78.
131. DSA Records, Box 17, Folder: Illinois-Chicago.
132. Kevin Fagan, “Transformations: A lifetime of evolving and adapting his identity has helped propel Barack Obama near the pinnacle of U. S. Politics,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 2008, p. A1.
Chapter 5: The Midwest Academy
1. This pamphlet can be found under the heading “What To Do” in the Midwest Academy Records, Box 291, Folder 16. In the Midwest Academy Records, this pamphlet is without a cover and the “What To Do” heading is on the first page of text, along with a listing of six authors: Heather Booth, Paul Booth, Harry Boyte, Sara Boyte, Steve Max, and Roger Robinson. The words “Labor Day 1969” appear at the bottom of the last page of the pamphlet. A curriculum vitae for Harry Chatten Boyte in Midwest Academy Records, Box 18. Folder: Boyte 1980 lists a 1969 pamphlet by the same six authors as a publication in 1969 under the title “Socialism and the Coming Decade.” Presumably, therefore, the missing cover/title of the manuscript pamphlet in the Midwest Academy Records is “Socialism and the Coming Decade.”
2. Lizza, “Agitator.”
3. Booth et al., “Decade,” pp. 3, 5.
4. Ibid., p. 2.
5. Ibid., pp. 1, 8.
6. Ibid., p. 4.
7. Ibid.
8. Midwest Academy Records, Box 251, Folder 12.
9. Horwitt, Rebel, pp. 529–34.
10. David Emmons, “Community Organizing and Urban Policy: Saul Alinsky and Chicago’s Citizen’s Action Program,” Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1986, p. ii.
11. Ibid., p. 301.
12. Ibid., pp. 343–44.
13. See resumes for Heather Booth and Day Creamer in Midwest Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: Historical 1972–73.
14. Heather Booth, Day Creamer, Susan Davis, Deb Dobbin, Robin Kaufman, Tobey Klass, “Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Women’s Movement,” written in 1971, reprinted by the Midwest Academy, n.d., in Midwest Academy Records, Box 48, Folder 27.
15. Sanford D. Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky—His Life and Legacy (New York: Random House, 1989).
16. Booth et al., “Socialist Feminism,” Ibid., p. 7.
17. Ibid., pp. 8–9.
18. Ibid., p. 12.
19. Ibid., p. 4.
20. Ibid., p. 15.
21. Oliver, “American Socialist Strategy,” p. 69. Other than official sources like NAM’s newsletters and the NAM Discussion Bulletin, Oliver’s dissertation is probably the most important source on the topic. Beyond the detailed page references below, Oliver should be consulted for a in-depth understanding of the political processes discussed here. Paul Booth’s founding role in NAM is confirmed in his resume in Midwest Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: History 1972–73.
22. Ibid., pp. 135–38.
23. Oliver, “American Socialist Strategy,” pp. 70, 78.
24. Ibid., p. 143.
25. Northwestern University, Special Collections (Deering Library), Paul Rosenstein, “Organizers’ Workshop,” New American Movement, April 1972, p. 4.
26. Midwest Academy Records, Box 80, Folder 2: NAM Training School, 4/7–9/72.
27. This undated letter from “Steve” to Paul and Heather Booth begins, “I got your packet of stuff on the cadre school.” See Midwest Academy Records, Box 80, Folder 2, NAM Training School, 4/7–9/72.
28. “Memo from Kat, Re: Academy Board of Directors,” November 25, 1980, Midwest Academy Records, Box 1, Folder: Board of Directors 1981.
29. Steve Max, “Summer Session, June 1973,” Manuscript in Midwest Academy Records, Box 27, Folder: Max 1973–74.
30. Ibid.
31. Midwest Academy Summer Session, June 17–June 29, 1973, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: History 1972–73.
32. Steve Max, “Academy History & Goals,” March 1979, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: History and Goals 1979–80.
33. Midwest Academy Records, Box 27, Folder: Max 1973–74.
34. James Miller, Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, [1987] 1994), pp. 73–74.
35. “Director’s Report, June 5,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 6-6-74; “Director’s Report, August 12,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 8-12-74.
36. “Director’s Report, June 5,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 6-6-74.
37. “Director’s Activity: February 14–March 18, 1974,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board Notes 3-18-74; listing of groups Academy did training for, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 8-12-74.
38. “Student List—Fall Session, 1974,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 10-8-74.
39. This undated letter to Heather Booth begins, “If this looks better typed …” and is found in Midwest Academy Records, Box 27, Folder: Max 1973–74.
40. Oliver, “American Socialist Strategy,” pp. 131–58.
41. Ibid., p. 134; “Announcing the Formation of a NAM Marxist-Leninist Organizing Caucus,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #11, September 1975, pp. 8–12.
42. For NAM’s involvement with the Cambridge Homeowners and Tenants Association, see “Where We’re Working—And Why,” Middlesex NAM, Cambridge Collective, in New American Movement Records, Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University, Box 13, Folder: Middlesex 1974–75. For the internal splits within NAM, see Frank Ackerman, “On Putting Ourselves Together,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #9, March 1975, pp. 61–63; a caucus of twelve members of Middlesex NAM, “An Evaluation of Struggle and Growth in Middlesex NAM,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #10, June/July 1975, pp. 41–48; Phil Woodbury et al., “Notes on the Political Debate Within Middlesex NAM,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #10, June/July 1975, pp. 49–53.
43. Oliver, “American Socialist Strategy,” p. 135.
44. Ibid., p. 265.
45. Ibid., p. 135. Judis’s role within NAM is treated in detail throughout Oliver.
46. John Judis, “Our New Party: Poised Between the Bolsheviks and the Democrats,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #6, March–April 1974, p. 8.
47. Ibid., p. 9.
48. Flier for Socialist Feminist Conference, Summer 1975, and Heather Booth, “Outline for Presentation to Community Organizing Workshop,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 253, Folder 6.
49. Ibid.
50. Letter from Harry Boyte to Michael Harrington, January 10, 1974, begins, “We talked several years ago,” DSA Records, Harrington Correspondence, Box 5A, Folder 1973.
51. The most important letter is an undated item to Heather Booth that begins, “I am not at the moment clear …” This letter is in a folder dated 1976, but given events discussed, probably dates from an earlier period. See Midwest Academy Records, Box 284, Folder: Correspondence Steve Max 1976. Another letter to Booth in the same folder beginning, “I had a long talk with Elizabeth …” is also of interest. The other key undated letter to Booth begins, “Here is the Committee of Correspondence stuff.” This letter, also probably earlier than the date of the folder that contains it, can be found in Midwest Academy Records, Box 27, Folder: Max 1977–78.
52. Midwest Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: Committee of Correspondence 1977.
53. Letter from John Musick to Heather Booth, May 4, 1977 in Midwest Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: Committee of Correspondence 1977.
54. A correspondent in Washington, D.C., “Committee of Correspondence #2,” p. 5, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: Committee of Correspondence 1977.
55. Steve Max, “Perspectives on our Organizational Work,” pp. 6–7, and Harry Boyte, “Committee of Correspondence #2,” p. 1, both in Mid-west Academy Records, Box 3, Folder: Committee of Correspondence 1977.
56. Oliver, “American Socialist Strategy,” pp. 173–96; Dorothy Healy, “Debate on Electoral Tactics,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #14, May 1976, pp. 54–59; Max Gordon, “Reform and Revolution,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #20, Autumn 1977, pp. 20–24; Max Gordon, “Sectarianism and NAM’s Electoral Tactics: A Discussion,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #27, Summer 1979, pp. 40–45.
57. Harry Boyte and Miles Moguleson, “Draft: Revolution, Strategy and Organization,” January 1975, pp. 22–23, manuscript in Midwest Academy Records, Box 18, Folder: Boyte 1975.
58. Ibid., p. 25.
59. Frank Ackerman, “The Melting Snowball: Limits of the ‘New Populism’ in Practice,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #18, 1977, p. 19.
60. Harry C. Boyte, “After the Snow Melts, Spring Time Begins: A Defense of Fair Share and Strategic Thoughts on the New Populism,” NAM Discussion Bulletin #19, p. 26.
61. Partial and unidentified article reprint from February 1981 in Midwest Academy Records, Box 18, Folder: Boyte 1980.
62. Harry Boyte, September 4, 1980, letter to Rick Kunnes, NAM, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 18, Folder: Boyte 1980. See also material regarding “Commonwealth” statement in Midwest Academy Records, Box 18, Folder: Boyte 1981.
63. Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition, “A History of the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition,” n.d., in Midwest Academy Records, Box 236, Folder: C/LEC Histories 1978–83; Applied Political and Social Science Research, Inc., “Report on the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition,” 1983, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 236, Folder: C/LEC Histories 1978–83; Milton R. Copulos, “CLEC: Hidden Agenda, Hidden Danger,” Heritage Foundation Reports, February 9, 1984; James T. Bennett and Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Destroying Democracy: How Government Funds Partisan Politics (Washington: CATO Institute, 1985) pp. 11–135; Andrew Battista, The Revival of Labor Liberalism (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008) pp. 103–21.
64. Applied Political and Social Science Research, “Report on the Citizen/Labor,” pp. 22–24.
65. Applied Political and Social Science Research, “Report on the Citizen/Labor;” Copulos, “Hidden Agenda,” Bennett and DiLorenzo, Destroying.
66. The exception here was the early anonymous report by Applied Political and Social Science Research, Inc. This report did mention that Winpisinger was a vice chairman of the DSOC, but the other think-tank accounts appear to have missed this.
67. A number of letters to Winpisinger regarding contributions from the International Association of Machinists are scattered throughout the Harrington correspondence. See especially DSA Records, Harrington Correspondence, Letter of January 22, 1982, Harrington to Winpisinger, Box 6A, Folder: 1–2 1982; Letter of May 20, 1982, Harrington to Winpisinger, Box 6A, Folder: 5–8 1982; Letter of March 31, 1987, Harrington to Winpisinger, Box 6A, Folder: 1987; Letter of June 22, 1987, Harrington to Winpisinger, Box 6A, Folder: 1987.
68. William W. Winpisinger, “System Slips: Change Gears,” Democratic Left, September 1979, pp. 1–4.
69. Midwest Academy Records, Box 220, Folder: Harry Boyte 1977–1979.
70. Copulos, “Hidden Agenda,” p. 10.
71. Eugene J. McAllister and William T. Poole, “The Corporate Democracy Act and Big Business Day: Rhetoric vs. Reality,” Heritage Foundation Reports, March 11, 1980.
72. William T. Poole, “The New Left in Government: Part II, The VISTA Program as Institution-Building,” Heritage Foundation Reports, February 1982.
73. Gary Delgado, Organizing the Movement: The Roots and Growth of ACORN (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), p. 23.
74. Poole, “New Left in Government.”
75. Thomas W. Pauken, “VISTA attacks on proposed phase-out self- serving move,” Dallas Times Herald, n.d., in Midwest Academy Records, Box 233, Folder: VISTA Investigation 1981.
76. Midwest Academy Records, Box 233, Folder: VISTA Investigation 1981.
77. Memo from Kat to Heather Booth, et al. Re: Academy Board of Directors, November 25, 1980, Midwest Academy Records, Box 1, Folder: Board of Directors 1981.
78. Heather Booth, “Left With the Ballot Box,” Working Papers, May/June 1981, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 292, Folder 5.
79. A history of Citizen Action by its leaders can be found in Harry C. Boyte, Heather Booth, and Steve Max, Citizen Action and the New American Populism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), pp. 47–68.
80. Ibid., p. 146.
81. Ibid.
82. Boyte, Booth, and Max, Citizen Action, p. 147; Bob Creamer, “Illinois Public Action Council,” Social Policy, Spring 1983, pp. 23–25.
83. Boyte, Booth, and Max, Citizen Action, p. 147.
84. David Moberg, “Evans Runs Again on Populist Agenda,” In These Times, October 17–23, 1984, p. 6. See also Harry Boyte, “Put the Community Into Organizing,” Democratic Left, January 1983, pp. 8–9.
85. “New Directions Initiators List (Partial Listing), Midwest Academy Records, Box 272, Folder 2. The congressmen on this list include George Crockett, Ron Dellums, Don Edwards, Lane Evans, Barney Frank, Charles Hays, Robert Kastenmeier, Parren J. Mitchell, and Esteban Torres; Chicago Socialist, October/November 1982, p. 4, in DSA Records, Box 17, Folder: Illinois, Chicago.
86. Ibid.
87. George Wood, “Citizen’s Group in Anticorporate Mood,” Democratic Left, February 1981, pp. 6–7.
88. Ibid.
89. John Herbers, “Grass-Roots Groups Go National,” New York Times, September 4, 1983, Magazine Desk, p. 22.
90. Donald C. Reitzes and Dietrich C. Reitzes, “Alinsky in the 1980’s: Two Contemporary Chicago Community Organizations,” Sociological Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 2, p. 271.
91. Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Citizen Action Development 1980–81.
92. Herbers, “Grass-Roots Groups Go National.”
93. “Obama Invited Lane Evans to Election Night Suite,” Progress Illinois, November 10, 2008, at http://www.progressillinois.com/2008/11/
09/obama-hosts-lane-evans.
94. Midwest Academy Records, Box 283, Folder: Correspondence 1977–1988.
95. Ibid.
96. “About (Jan Schakowsky),” Janschakowsky.org, at http://www.janschakowsky.org/about; “Administrative & Management Training Session: Application,” Midwest Academy Records, Box 74, Folder: Schakowsky 1976–79.
97. Midwest Academy Records, Box 74, Folder: Schakowsky 1976–79.
98. Ibid.
99. “Building Democratic Populism: Midwest Academy Retreat,” August 2–4, 1985, pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records Box 55, Folder 3; “Toward a Progressive Majority: Midwest Academy Retreat,” July 25–27, 1986, pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records, Box 56, Folder 1; “It’s Up to Us: Midwest Academy Retreat,” June 17–19, 1988, pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records, Box 56, Folder 8.
100. “Questionnaire,” Midwest Academy Records, Box 74, Folder: Schakowsky 1976–79.
101. Jan Schakowsky, “Hopes and Fears Dominate IPAC Conference,” Chicago Socialist, February/March 1983, pp. 4–5.
102. “DSAers on the Move,” DSA News, June 9, 1986, p. 2.
103. John Cameron, “A Socialist’s Guide to Citizen Action,” Socialist Forum, no. 1, undated, c. 1982, pp. 30–35.
104. Leo Casey, “Citizen Action: A Report and a Proposal,” Socialist Forum, no. 4, part 1, Focus on DSA 1983 Convention, pp. 34–38.
105. Ibid., p. 37.
106. Ibid.
107. Ibid., p. 38.
108. Cameron, “A Socialist’s Guide,” p. 35.
109. Boyte, Booth, and Max, Citizen Action.
110. Ibid., p. 34.
111. Ibid., p. 37.
112. Sasha Abramsky, Inside Obama’s Brain (New York: Penguin, 2009), p. 33.
113. Event Transcript, “Mr. Obama’s Neighborhood,” Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, p. 3, http://www.hudson.org/files/documents
/BradleyCenter/Transcript;sf2008_10_01.pdf.
114. Abramsky, Inside Obama’s Brain, pp. 72, 261.
115. Ibid., pp. 89–90, 93.
116. Tom Fitton, “Obama’s Records Problem,” Judicial Watch, March 14, 2008, at http://www.judicialwatch.org/
jwnews/2008/03142008.pdf.
117. David Moberg, “Obama’s Third Way,” Shelterforce Online, Spring 2007d, at http://www.nhi.org/online/issues
/149/obama.html; Trevor Loudon, “Obama File 26: William McNary, Yet Another Obama Radical?” September 2, 2008, at http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/09/obama
-file-26-william-mcnary-yet.html; Abramsky, Inside Obama’s Brain, p. 31.
118. Steve Max, undated letter to Heather Booth beginning, “I am not at the moment clear on how to proceed with the NYPIRG,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 284, Folder: Correspondence Steve Max 1976; Steve Max, Letter to Heather Booth, December 8, 1976, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 27, Max 1977–78.
119. “Observers invited to founding Citizen Action conference,” Midwest Academy Records, Box 128, Folder: Advisory Committee 1980.
120. Midwest Academy Records, Box 22, Folder 36.
121. Dreier and Ganz, “We Have the Hope. Now Where’s the Audacity?”
122. Casey, “Report and a Proposal,” p. 34.
123. Midwest Academy Records, Box 55, Folder 6; Box 138, Folder: International Affairs 1984–86 #1; Box 139, Folder: International Affairs Central America 1985 #1; Box 139, Folder: International Affairs Central America 1985 #2; Box 139, Folder: International Affairs Project Proposals 1983–85; Box 140, Folder: Central American Peace Campaign 1989.
124. “Central America Project: Proposal Submitted to the Philadelphia Foundation,” in Midwest Academy Records, Box 139, Folder: International Affairs Project Proposals 1983–85.
125. “Nicaragua: A Look at the Reality,” pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records, Box 140, Folder: International Affairs: Citizen Action 1984.
126. Midwest Academy Records, Box 55, Folder 6.
127. “Building Democratic Populism: Midwest Academy Retreat,” August 2–4, 1985, pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records Box 55, Folder 3; “Toward a Progressive Majority: Midwest Academy Retreat,” July 25–27, 1986, pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records, Box 56, Folder 1; “It’s Up to Us: Midwest Academy Retreat,” June 17–19, 1988, pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records, Box 56, Folder 8.
128. Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover, “Protectionism May Back- fire as Campaign Issue,” National Journal, September 21, 1985, p. 2150; Mitchell Locin, “Democrats Bandy Harsh Talk Right and Left but Find Common Ground,” Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1987, p. 8.
129. Bill Peterson, “Activists of the 60’s Meet, With Optimism, Under a New Banner,” Washington Post, January 11, 1982, p. A9; William K. Stevens, “Activists Meeting to Plan a New U.S. Agenda,” New York Times, August 2, 1987, p. 30.
130. See biography of Ken Rolling in John Simmons, “School Reform in Chicago: Lessons and Opportunities,” A Report for the Chicago Community Trust, Donors Forum of Chicago, August 200, p. 95. Available from Donors Forum Library, Chicago, IL.
131. Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 12-16-88.
132. William T. Poole and Thomas W. Pauken, The Campaign for Human Development: Christian Charity or Political Activism? (Washington, D.C.: Capital Research Center, 1988); Kathryn Jean Lopez, “Catholic Campaign for Human Development: Still Entranced by Leftist Activism, Despite Growing Unrest,” Foundation Watch, October 2000; Louis Delgado, “Lessons from Philanthropy: A Case Study Approach (A Report to the Ford Foundation),” 2007d, pp. 66–92, at http://www.luc.edu/curl/pdfs/
report_ford_case_studies.pdf.
133. “CHD Contributes Experience to CHRISTIANITY AND CAPITALISM,” Thirsting for Justice, Spring 1982, p. 1, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 227, Folder: CHD 1981–82.
134. “Three Priority Principles,” Thirsting for Justice, Spring 1982, p. 2, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 227, Folder: CHD 1981–82.
135. “Educational Materials,” CHD Report 1981, pamphlet in Midwest Academy Records, Box 227, Folder: CHD 1981–82.
136. “What in the World Are We To Do?” Keynote Address at 1982 CHD Regional Meetings by Rev. Marvin Mottet, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 227, Folder: CHD 1981–82.
137. “CHD Contributes Experience to CHRISTIANITY AND CAPITALISM,” Thirsting for Justice, Spring 1982, p. 2, in Midwest Academy Records, Box 227, Folder: CHD 1981–82.
138. Mitchell Locin, “Her School Trains Organizers,” Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1982, Metro/North p. 1.
139. Moberg, “Obama’s Third Way.”
140. Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 7-31-87.
141. Abramsky, Inside Obama’s Brain, p. 2.
142. Midwest Academy Records, Box 2, Folder: Board 7-31-87.
143. In Dreams (p. 279), Obama speaks of his successor taking over the day-to-day activities of the Developing Communities Project. On p. 290 he writes of setting dates for a training retreat. A fellow Gamaliel Foundation organizer, David Kindler, recounts a training session led by Obama in Sharon Cohen, “A political journey at warp speed,” Associated Press Online, January 17, 2009. In the piece about his organizing experiences Obama published in 1988, the byline lists him as a “consultant and instructor” for the Gamaliel Foundation. See Barack Obama, “Why Organize? Problems and Promise in the Inner City,” Illinois Issues, August & September 1988, p. 42.
144. Midwest Academy Records, Box 27, Folder 28.
145. Records of ACORN New York, Box 6, Folder 2. Contains two pamphlets: “Public Allies: An Action Plan By Young People” and “Public Allies: The National Center for Careers in Public Life Honors Tomorrow’s Leaders Today.”
146. Ibid.
147. Ibid.
148. “Young Leaders Honored, Recruited,” The Neighborhood Works, October/November 1992, p. 4.
149. Mark S. Allen, “My Personal Relationship With Obama’s (1): From Adversary to Longtime Ally: Veteran Activist/Journalist Mark S. Allen and President Barack Obama,” text begins, “At no time in our relationship of over 20 years has Barack Obama said nothing but nice things about me …” at http://www.blackvoices.com/boards/welcome/welcome/
by-welcome-forum/my-personal …
150. File on Public Allies at Donor’s Forum Library, Chicago, Ill.
151. “Public Allies Congratulates … the 1995–96 Partner Organizations,” Check-In (Public Allies Chicago Newsletter), Fall 1995, p. 3. Even the Girl Scout project had a bit of a “non-traditional” edge: “Non- Traditional G-Scouts,” Check-In, Winter 1995, p. 1; “1994–95 Allies Partner Organizations,” Check-In, Winter 1995, p. 2, see also File on Public Allies at Donor’s Forum Library, Chicago, IL.
152. “Wanted: Allies and Partners!” Check In, Spring 1997, p. 4.
153. “Team Service Projects … Allies Take Action,” Check-In, Winter 1995, p. 3; “1995–96 Ally Team Service Projects,” Check-In, Fall 1996, p. 4.
154. “Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,” Check-In, Spring 1997, p. 5. This issue of Check-In dates from just after Michelle Obama left the program, but indicates the structure already in place. The Tomorrow’s Leaders Today awards go back to the origins of the national program. See the Records of ACORN New York at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Box 6, Folder 2.
155. “Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,” Check-In, Summer 1997, p. 4.
156. Records of ACORN New York, Box 6, Folder 2.
157. Liza Mundy, Michelle: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008) p. 114.
158. The Public Allies Chicago Advisory Board is listed in several issues of Check-In. See, for example, “Public Allies Chicago Advisory Board,” Check-In, Fall 1993, p. 3.
159. Boyte, Booth, and Max, Citizen Action, p. 59.
160. Carl Shier, “The 41st Annual Debs-Thomas-Harrington Dinner,” New Ground, May–June 1999, at http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/
ng64.html#anchor713759.
161. “Board of Directors,” Midwest Academy, http://www.midwestacademy.com/
board-directors.
162. “Fact Sheet About Public Allies and the Obamas,” at http://www.publicallies.org/site/c.liKUL3PNLvF/
b.3960231/.
163. “Board of Directors, Midwest Academy,” at http://www.midwestacademy.
com/board-directors.
164. Abramsky, Inside Obama’s Brain, pp. 60, 63, 91, 95–96.
165. “Fact Sheet About Public Allies and the Obamas,” at http://www.publicallies.org/site/c
.liKUL3PNLvF/b.3960231/; “Public Allies Speakers Series Launched,” Check-In, Winter 1995, p. 3; “1996 TLT Workshops and Day of Service,” Fall 1996, p. 3.
166. “Norman Thomas–Eugene V. Debs Dinner (Program),” May 9, 1987 (See award citations to Grimshaw and Booth), and text of Heather Booth’s award acceptance speech, Midwest Academy Records, Box 273, Folder 11.
167. “New Directions for the Democratic Party: A Public Forum with Heather Booth, Miguel Del Valle, Jackie Grimshaw, and David Orr, sponsored by the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America” flier in Midwest Academy Records, Box 272, Folder 3; “Heather Booth, Jackie Grimshaw and Michael Dyson Wow Crowd at U. of Chicago,” New Ground, Spring 1992, p. 9.
168. Remnick, Bridge, p. 221.
169. Strategic Consulting Group, “A Partial List of SCG Clients,” at http://www.stratcongroup.com/clients.php.
170. Michael Higgins and Laurie Cohen, “Democrat Consultant Sentenced to Prison,” Chicago Tribune, April 6, 2006, Metro Section, p. 1.
171. Glenn Beck, “Robert Creamer’s Book Is a Hit With Progressives,” FoxNews.com, December 8, 2009, at http://www.foxnews.com/story/
0.2933.579761.00.html; Aaron Klein, “Alinsky trainer developed 1st Obama volunteers,” WorldNet Daily, March 25, 2010, at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=
PAGE.printable&pageId=131465; Biography of Robert Creamer at Discover the Networks: A Guide to the Political Left, at http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
individualProfile.asp?in did=2438; Joel B. Pollack, “Was Democrats’ Health Care Strategy Written in Federal Prison?” Big Government, December 7, 2009, at http://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2009/12/07/was-democrats
-health-care-strategy-written-in-
federal-prison/.
172. Strategic Consulting Group, “Testimonials” (for Stand Up Straight!) at http://www.stratcongroup.com/
publication/testimonials.php.
173. Ibid.
174. Higgins and Cohen, “Democrat Consultant Sentenced to Prison.”
175. Robert Creamer, “Republicans Want to Vote Against Health Care Reform? Go Ahead, Make My Day,” Huffington Post, March 8, 2010, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
robert-creamer/memo-to-
republicans-want_b_489832.html.
176. Jackie Kendall, “Midwest Academy Retreat Introduction,” July 31, 1987, Midwest Academy Records, Box 56, Folder 7.
177. See Chapter Nine.
178. Remnick, Bridge, p. 278.
179. Ben Smith, “Obama once visited 60’s radicals,” Politico, February 22, 2008, http://www.politico.com/news/
stories/0208/8630.html.
180. Basil Talbott, “‘Outsider’ Helps Lead Machine to Victory,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 11, 1996, p. 12.
181. Heather Booth, “Victories and Lessons,” The Neighborhood Works, December 1993/January 1994, p. 8.
Chapter 6: ACORN
1. Robert Fisher, ed., The People Shall Rule (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2009), pp. 5, 12, 251, 252.
2. Swarts, Organizing Urban America, pp. 41, 44.
3. Piven and Cloward, Poor People’s Movements; Richard Poe, “The Cloward-Piven Strategy,” DiscoverTheNetworks.org, 2005, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
Articles/theclowardpivenstrategypoe.html.
4. Dreier, “Socialist Incubators.”
5. Piven and Cloward, Poor People’s Movements, pp. 264–361.
6. Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty,” Nation, May 2, 1966, http://www.commondreams
.org/headline/2010/03/24-4.
7. For more on Cloward’s and Piven’s relationship to ACORN, see below and Ann Withorn, “Socialist Analysis and Organizing: An Interview with Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven,” Radical America, vol. 21, no. 1, January–February 1987, pp. 21–29.
8. “Party Time: An Interview with Dan Cantor of the New York Working Families Party,” Social Policy, Summer 2001, p. 19.
9. I say “apparently” because I am working from a portion of Cantor’s memo quoted in Gary Delgado’s book Organizing the Movement. So it’s possible that this spelling error is Delgado’s, rather than Cantor’s.
10. For Dreier’s work with ACORN on its banking campaign, see below. For an example of Dreier’s many recent pieces in defense of ACORN, see Peter Dreier, “First They Came for ACORN,” Huffington Post, September 26, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
peter-dreier/first-they-came-for-acorn_b_300941.html.
11. For the story of ACORN’s People’s Platform, see Delgado, Organizing the Movement, pp. 123–61.
12. Ibid., pp. 125–26.
13. Carey Rogers, “Neighborhood Organizing Leads to Nat’l Platform,” Democratic Left, January 1980, p. 9.
14. Webb Smedley, “Report on the ACORN Convention,” NAM Discussion Bulletin, #26, Spring 1979, p. 107.
15. Delgado, Organizing the Movement, p. 144.
16. ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 3, Wade Rathke, “H. L. Mitchell, Organizer Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union,” Community Organizing: Handbook #1, pp. 12–18.
17. “Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies,” Staff Report, U.S. House of Representatives, 111th Congress, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Darrell Issa (CA-49), Ranking Member, February 18, 2010, at http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/
images/stories/Reports/20100218followthe
moneyacornseiuandtheirpoliticalallies.pdf.
18. Ibid., p. 3.
19. Ibid., p. 4.
20. Ibid., p. 3.
21. Ibid.
22. “Chicago ACORN Board Meeting, November 27, 1984,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 11.
23. “January ’84, Regional Report, Great Lakes region,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 9.
24. “Great Lakes Regional Report, Feb. 1984, from: MT,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 9.
25. “Year End/Year Begin Report and Plan, Jan. 1/1985,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 63.
26. “Chicago ACORN YE/YB Report & Plan, 1988–89, Dec. 30–31, 1988,” p. 4, Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 62.
27. See, for example, various papers and notes related to arrests in Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 71.
28. Madeline Talbott’s spiral notebook, handwritten notes from 8/10/85 (about one-third of the way through the notebook covering that date).
29. Keith Kelleher, “Growth of a Modern Union Local: A People’s History of SEIU Local 880,” Just Labor, vol. 12, Spring 2008, p. 5, at http://www.justlabour.yorku.ca/volume12/pdfs/
01_kelleher_press.pdf.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid., p. 7.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid., p. 10.
34. “Group breaks into foreclosed home,” Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1989, section 1, p. 5.
35. Clem Richardson, “‘Squatters’ Begin Repairs,” Chicago Sun-Times, May 15, 1985.
36. Stanley Ziemba and Jerry Thornton, “Squatters Pledge to Give Houses Life,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1985.
37. TNW Roundtable, “Activist Women Explore Shelter Issues,” The Neighborhood Works, October 1986, p. 11.
38. Delgado, Organizing the Movement, p. 157.
39. “Great Lakes/Prairie Regions, Year End/Year Begins Report and Plan, Dec. ’91,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 9.
40. Tayler and Herbert, “Chicago’s streets Obama’s teacher.”
41. See “Summary of Grant Application” and attached “Proposal from the Institute for Social Justice to the Discount Foundation for the Chicago ACORN Southside Toxics Organizing Project,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 3, Folder 47.
42. ACORN/Union Internal Evaluation, December 7, 1985, p. 2, Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 72; “Chicago Board Meeting, May 21, 1985, Agenda,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 11; “Notes on March 26 Board Meeting, Chair: Irma Sherman,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 11.
43. The Montes-led action against Waste Management, which Obama helped plan, is described in Chapter Four.
44. Steuart Pittman, “Status Report, 12/17/84, Altgeld Tenants United,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 62; “Altgeld Tenants United (ATU)/ACORN, Second Organizing Committee Meeting,” October 4, 1984, Illinois ACORN Records Box 3, Folder 58; “Year End/Year Begin Report and Plan, Jan. 1/1985, Illinois ACORN Records,” Box 2, Folder 63.
45. “Organizing Plan, Chicago ACORN, 11/1/86–6/30/87,” p. 2, Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 32.
46. “Great Lakes Regional Report/Plan, Jan. ’88,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 9.F
47. “Chicago ACORN YE/YB Report & Plan, 1988–89, Dec. 30–31, 1988,” p. 3, Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 62.
48. Bill Rumbler, “Help for Home Buyers; Putting Loans Within Reach,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 28, 1995, Homelife, p. 16.
49. Aaron Pressman, “Community Reinvestment Act had nothing to do with subprime crisis,” Bloomberg Businessweek, September 29, 2008, at http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/
archives/2008/09/community_reinvestment_act_had_nothing_
to_do_with_subpri me_crisis.html.
50. Kim Nauer, “CRA,” The Neighborhood Works, December 1993/January 1994, pp. 15–19.
51. Memo from Mike Shea to HO’s Board, regarding “Information to Request from Banks,” ACORN New York Records, Box 4, Folder 20.
52. Ibid.
53. Accounts of the 1989 housing battle can be found in various documents in New York ACORN Records, Box 5, Folder 30. See, for example, “Financial Democracy Campaign Victories”; Memorandum, August 8, 1989, from Steven Kest to Friends of the Financial Democracy Campaign, regarding “Victories in the S&L Bailout Campaign”; Memorandum, June 28, 1989, from Phil Wheeler to Owen Bieber, regarding “Contacting Senator Reigle Regarding the Bailout Bill For the Savings and Loan Industry”; Memorandum, August 8, 1989, from Steven Kest to Staff and Board, regarding “Final Victory in the S&L Bailout Campaign.”
54. Letter from Phil Gramm to “Dear Colleague,” August 3, 1989, New York ACORN Records, Box 5, Folder 30.
55. See, for example, the July 5, 1989, letter of thanks, with a continued request for help, from Mildred Brown to Nancy Pelosi, and a list of others to be thanked, New York ACORN, Box 5, Folder 30.
56. Memorandum, December 19, 1990, from Dreier to Atlas, Kendall, Kest, Max, and Morrissey, regarding “Next steps for housing campaign; outreach to unions”; Memorandum from Jackie Kendall and Steve Max to Atlas, Dreier, Kest, and Morrissey, regarding “Housing Strategy, Tactics, Peter’s Memorandum of 12/20/90, And the Possibility of Recession and War”; Memorandum, January 10, 1991, from Peter Dreier to Steering Committee, regarding Housing Justice Campaign 1991–1993.
57. The crisis in this case was the tendency of S&L scandals at this time to discredit federal housing programs. The opportunity was for new federal housing programs with greater participation from community organizations, and more “progressive” banking policy generally: Memorandum, January 10, 1991, from Peter Dreier to Steering Committee, regarding “Housing Justice Campaign 1991–93.”
58. “Great Lakes Region Report/Plan, 12/30/89,” p. 3, Illinois ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder 9.
59. “Great Lakes/Prairie Regions, Year End/Year Begins Report and Plan, Dec. ’91,” Illinois ACORN, Box 1, Folder 9.
60. “YE/YB Report 1992–93, Chicago ACORN, 1-1-93,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 62.
61. Jim Allen, “Six Protesters Charged After Attempt to Storm City Council Chambers,” Chicago Daily Herald, July 31, 1997, p. 10; Madeline Talbott, “Where Do We Begin?” Boston Review, Summer 1996, http://bostonreview.net/
BR21.3/Talbott.html.
62. Ted Cornwell, “Housing Group Challenges Ill. Thrift Merger,” National Mortgage News, February 19, 1990, p. 21.
63. Mike Dorning, “Avondale Under Fire for Record On Minority, Low-Income Loans,” Chicago Tribune, April 1, 1992, Business, p. 3.
64. Monica Copeland, “Minorities Hope Banks Lend a Hand,” Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1992, Chicagoland, p. 2.
65. J. Linn Allen, “Study Cites Racial Gap In Reinvestment,” Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1992, Business, p. 1.
66. J. Linn Allen, “Banks, Activists Tailor Loans to Communities, Chicago Tribune, September 1, 1992, p. 1.
67. Memorandum, 10/28/91, from Madeline Talbott to all ACORN offices, regarding “follow up to HMDA report and press,” ACORN Records, 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Bank Campaign 1991 (Second Folder).
68. Madeleine Adamson, “The ACORN Housing Agenda,” Shelterforce, March/April 1993, pp. 8–11, ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 4.
69. Ibid.
70. Jamie Gottula Buelt, “Pressure on Lenders ‘a New Experience,’” Business Record, April 20, 1987, p. 1; Jay Rosenstein, “Community Groups Ask More Housing Loans,” American Banker, September 21, 1987.
71. ACORN Records, 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Bank Campaign 1991 (second of two folders), ACORN Alert, July 12, 1991, ACORN’s Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Affordable Housing Proposal.
72. Edward Pinto, “Acorn and the Housing Bubble,” Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424
052748703298004574459763052141456.html.
73. “YE/YB Report 1992–93, Chicago ACORN, 1-1-93,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2.
74. Michelle Malkin, “Finally: New McCain ad on ACORN,” Michelle Malkin blog, October 10, 2008, http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/10/finally
-new-mccain-ad-on-acorn/.
75. “Project Vote not ‘an arm of ACORN,’” PolitFact, October 10, 2008, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/
2008/oct/17/john-mccain/project-vote
-not-an-arm-of-acorn/; Albert Milliron, “McCain Internal memo Blasts Obama’s Involvement with ACORN,” Now Public blog, October 11, 2008, http://www.nowpublic.com/world/mccain-internal-memo
-blasts-obamas-involvement-acorn.
76. Stanley Kurtz, “Inside Obama’s Acorn,” National Review Online, May 29, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/358910/inside-oba mas
-acorn/stanley-kurtz; Stanley Kurtz, “O’s Dangerous Pals,” New York Post, September 29, 2008, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists
/item_cvq7rDCHftKwJyLaecfPQK; Stanley Kurtz, “Planting the Seeds of Disaster,” National Review Online, October 7, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/374045/planting
-seeds-of-disaster/stanley-kurtz; Stanley Kurtz, “Spreading the Virus,” New York Post, October 13, 2008, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists
/item_2apJAuC2tslB4no8AK15iO.
77. Jim Hoft, “The Obama campaign privately updated …” Gateway Pundit blog, October 12, 2008, http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/ 2008/10/oops-obama-camp-caught-scrubbing-its-fight-the-smears-web page-on-acorn/.
78. John McCormick, “Barack Obama Talks About ACORN,” The Swamp, October 14, 2008, http://www.swamppolitics.com/news politics/blog
/2008/10/obama_talks_about_his_acorn.html; Jim Hoft, “The brazen dishonesty …” Gateway Pundit, February 20, 2010, http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/02/
oh-me-oh-my-obama-caught-in-a
-major-acorn-lie-video/.
79. “Third Presidential Debate” New York Times, October 15, 2008, http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/
president/debates/transcripts/third-presidential
-debate.html.
80. “Project Vote not ‘an arm of ACORN.’”
81. “ACORN Accusations,” FactCheck.org, October 18, 2008, http:/www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/
acorn_accusations.html.
82. Stephanie Strom, “On Obama, Acorn and Voter Registration,” New York Times, October 11, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/
11/us/politics/11acorn.html.
83. Sam Graham-Felsen, “ACORN Political Action Committee Endorses Obama,” Obama ’08, Community Blogs, Sam Graham Felsen’s Blog, February 21, 2008, http://my.barackobama.com/page/
communitypost/samgrahamfelsen/gGC7zm.
84. Clark Hoyt, “The Tip That Didn’t Pan Out,” New York Times, May 16, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/
opinion/17pubed.html? _r=2; John Hinderaker, “Killing A Story: How It’s Done,” Power Line Blog, May 17, 2009, http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives
/2009/05/023580.php.
85. Sean Hannity, “Did Obama Lie About Relationship With ACORN?” Fox News, February 23, 2010, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,
587239,00.html?CFID=25138835&CFTOKEN=383c30279b85
66cc-2476617F-1D09-2FD4-733809CAD99D4172.
86. “ACORN Accusations.”
87. Peter Slevin, “For Clinton and Obama, a Common Ideological Touchstone,” Washington Post, March 25, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2007/
03/24/AR2007032401152.html.
88. “Project Vote not an ‘arm of ACORN.’”
89. See the link to Graham-Felsen’s blog post on Obama’s endorsement pitch to ACORN in Kurtz, “Inside Obama’s Acorn.”
90. Kelleher, “Growth of a Modern Union Local,” p. 10.
91. Memorandum, n.d., from Myra to “all organizing staff, ACORN and Local 880,” Illinois ACORN Records, Box 2, Folder 72.
92. Kelleher put in a proposal for voter registration funding on behalf of both SEIU Local 880 and ACORN, for example: Memo from Keith Kelleher to Robin Leeds, regarding “Voter Registration, GOTV, Election Day Proposal for SEIU Local 880 and ACORN in Chicago and Southwest Illinois.”
93. “Coalition Pledges to Increase Minority Voter Registration By Over 100,000,” Press Release dated Monday, June 1, 1992, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 28.
94. Wikipedia, “1992 Los Angeles riots,” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
1992_Los_Angeles_riots.
95. Letter from Yvonne V. Delk, Joseph Gardner, and Barack Obama to Keith Kelleher, April 28, 1992, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 28.
96. BTP Records, Box 1, Folder 37, Undated Memorandum From J. Dodson to Executive Committee “Re: Suggested Class Assignments for Board of Directors”; Box 6, Folder 10, Letter of August 2, 1986 from Yvonne Delk and William Watley to Chicago Area BTP Members, beginning: “For some time the Board …”
97. A brief biography of Gardner can be found in Midwest Academy Records, Box 274, Folder 13.
98. Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Human SERVE Records, Box 45, Folder 2034, Joseph Eugene Gardner Resume.
99. Mark S. Allen, “My Personal Relationship With Obama’s (1): From Adversary to Longtime Ally: Veteran Activist/Journalist Mark S. Allen and President Barack Obama,” Text begins, “At no time in our relationship of over 20 years has Barack Obama said nothing but nice things about me … ,” at http://www.blackvoices.com/boards/welcome/welcome
/by-welcome-forum/my-personal …
100. Human SERVE Records, Box 45, Folder 2034, Joseph Eugene Gardner Resume.
101. “Press Conference: Lakefront Citizens for Joseph E. Gardner, January 22, 1988,” Midwest Academy Records, Box 274, Folder 13.
102. Human SERVE Records, Box 45, Folder 2034.
103. For the steering committee members, I am drawing on a May 11, 1992, list of twenty-two individuals, representing twenty-two organizations, who attended the founding meeting of the Project VOTE Chicago Coalition, or were added to the list within days after that initial meeting. Since the April 28 invitation calling on Keith Kelleher to join the Project Vote steering committee refers to a May 5 meeting, I presume that the list in question (which includes Kelleher) is the Project Vote steering committee. The list contains a note indicating that while all or most of the names listed are expected to join the coalition, a final commitment to join will not be requested until the following meeting: “Project VOTE! Chicago Coalition,” SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 28.
104. Vernon Jarrett, “Voter Registration Is Key to Respect,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 4, 1992.
105. “Heather Booth,” DiscoverTheNetworks.org, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
individualProfile.asp?indid=1641.
106. Letter from Keith Kelleher to Heather Booth, May 29, 1992 and handwritten notes of 5/20/92 meeting with Heather Booth, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 28.
107. Piven Papers, Box 50, Folder 12, “ACORN’s Perspective on Voter Registration.”
108. Dee Gill, “ACORN Storms Citicorp Over Low-Income Lending,” Houston Chronicle, July 14, 1992, p. 2C, ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Banking Campaign 1991 (First Folder).
109. Memorandum, 7/18/92, from Wade to Madeline and Steve, regarding “Followup on Banking Actions,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Banking Campaign 1991 (First Folder).
110. Ibid.; Memorandum, August 2 1992, from Wade Rathke to Steuart Pittman, regarding “Banking Loose Ends and General Campaigns,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Bank Campaign 1991 (First Folder).
111. Rathke’s comment prefaced his concern that ACORN might actually be being “bribed” too “cheaply” by the banks. The memo on bankers who see ACORN as an extortion ring notes that at least a few bankers had praise for ACORN. One wonders how sincere this praise was, given the pressure from ACORN: Memorandum, 7/22/92, from Deepak to Steve, Mike, Interested Parties, regarding “Bank Campaign, Summit Follow-Up,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Bank Campaign 1991 (First Folder).
112. Memorandum, 8/31/92, from Mike Shea to Wade, Steve, Madeline, Keith, Jon, Deepac, Steuart, regarding “Citibank Negotiations results & status,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Bank Campaign 1991 (First Folder); Memorandum, 9/23/92, from Steuart to HO’s, regarding “Citicorp,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Bank Campaign 1991 (First Folder).
113. “Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank,” http://www.clearinghouse.net/
detail.php?id=10112.
114. Memorandum, October 21, 1992, from Steve to Deepak, Mike, Bruce, Steuart, Brian, Madeline, and Wade, regarding “Clinton Housing/Banking Transition,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 3, Folders: Memos 1992 (Second Folder).
115. The memo that mentions the Waters legislation is one of three attached memos. The top of the packet is a 9/23/92 memo from Steuart to HO’s, regarding Citicorp. The memo in question is a 9/23/92 memo from Steuart to HO’s, regarding “HMDA Data Release,” ACORN Rec- ords 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Bank Campaign 1991 (First Folder).
116. Bob Ringham, “The Loan Rangers,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 23, 1993, Financial, p. 57.
117. Letter from Maud Hurd to Mack McLarty, February 5, 1993, ACORN Records, 1973–1997, Box 3, Folder: Memos 1993; Memorandum, April 13, 1993, from Steve to Mike, Deepak, Steuart, Madeline, Zach, Wade, regarding “Webb Hubbell Meeting,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 3, Folder: Memos 1993; Legislative Update, March 29, 1993, ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9.
118. Legislative Update, March 29, 1993, ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9.
119. An account of ACORN’s first meeting with Cisneros can be found in a special addendum to a “Legislative Report” of May 4, 1993. The addition is titled “Legislative Report: Addendum—Report on Meeting with Cisneros, May 3, 1993,” ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9.
120. Mark R. Warren, Dry Bones Rattling (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
121. Cruz, “The Nature of Alinsky-Style Community Organizing.”
122. Memo from SRB to WR, DLR, SK, MS, DB, 5-7-93, regarding “money from Cisneros from HUD,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 3, Folder: Memos 1993; Memorandum, 5/8/93, from Zach to Steve/Madeline/Mike/Wade/Jon/Steuart/Deepak/Jerry, regarding “Thoughts on Cisneros & HUD Funding Community Organizations,” ACORN Records, 1973–1997, Box 3, Folder: Memos 1993.
123. Memorandum, May 6, 1993, from Wade Rathke to Steve Kest, regarding “Cisneros, HUD, and Funding Organizing,” ACORN Records, 1973–1997, Box 3, Folder: Memos 1993.
124. “Legislative Report, June 7, 1993,” ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9; “Legislative Report, July 12, 1993,” ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9.
125. “Legislative Report, June 21, 1993,” ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9.
126. Dennis Sewell, “Clinton Democrats are to Blame for the Credit Crunch,” Spectator.co.uk, October 1, 2008, http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/
2189196/clinton-democrats-are-to-blame
-for-the-credit-crunch.thtml.
127. Achtenberg is referred to at numerous points in ACORN’s various legislative reports. Some of the key documents are the “Report on Meeting with Cisneros,” referred to above, and “Legislative Report, May 18, 1993,” ACORN Records 2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9; “Legislative Report, June 7, 1993,” ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9; “Legislative Report, June 21, 1993,” ACORN Records, M2005-121, Box 1, Folder 9.
128. ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: USA 1993–1997; “Chicago ACORN Unites Behind School Reform,” United States of ACORN, May/June 1993, p. 6.
129. Stanley Kurtz, “Something New Here,” National Review Online, October 20, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/
375696/something-
new-here/stanley-kurtz; Stanley Kurtz, “Life of the New Party,” National Review Online, October 30, 2008, http://article.national review.com/
376951/life-of-the-new-party/stanley-kurtz.
130. “The Truth About Barack Obama and the New Party,” Fight the Smears, http://www.fightthesmears.com/articles
/28/KurtzSmears.html.
131. Ben Smith, “The Dread New Party,” Politico, October 25, 2008, http://www.politico.com/blogs/
bensmith/1008/
The_dread_New_Party.html; Ben Smith, “Choosing Corsi,” Politico, October 26, 2008, http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith
/1008/Choosing_Corsi.html; Stanley Kurtz, “A Party Without Members?” The Corner, October 26, 2008, http://corner.nationalreview.com
/post/?q=NjdmMGU4NTBkMTZhN WU0MDk1N
jU2ODAzNzM5YTkzM2Y=; Stanley Kurtz, “Bias Un-masked,” The Corner, October 26, 2008, http://corner.nationalreview.com/post
/?q=MzM4Mzc2ZmJiYzE0MzRkNTc0NGRkN2F1NzkzMG Q4NTE=.
132. Smith “The Dread New Party.”
133. Michelle Malkin, “Look what Scozzafava’s favorite ACORN front group is up to now,” Michelle Malkin Blog, October 27, 2008, http://michellemalkin.com/2009/
10/27/look-what-scozzafavas-favorite-
acorn-front-group-is-up-to-now/.
134. Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers, “Associative Democracy,” in Pranab K. Bardhan and John E. Roemer, eds., Market Socialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 236–52.
135. The Cantor/Rogers proposal is quoted in a letter/memo from Jim Lardner titled “MORE THAN A PARTY,” ACORN Records, 1973–1997, Box 1, Folder: New Party (one of several similarly titled folders).
136. Ibid.
137. SEIU 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 46, “Questions and Answers About the New Party: April 1992.”
138. SEIU 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 48, “General Points of Vision Statement,” Dan Swinney, June 4, 1993.
139. Geoff Kurtz, “Happy Birthday, Party! What ‘The Party-That’s Not-A-Party’ Is Doing As It Turns Five,” The Activist, 1998, p. 7. The Activist was a short-lived supplement to the Democratic Socialists of America Newsletter, Democratic Left, published by DSA’s Youth Section. It can be found on the same microfilm reel as Democratic Left, as part of vol. 26, no. 3, at Harvard’s Lamont Library Microfilm Stacks.
140. While the New Party had no official platform, a pamphlet authored by New Party supporter Juliet Schor was widely taken to represent the New Party’s position on the issues. The pamphlet was developed out of an article by the same title Schor published in a collection of essays by New Party supporters: Juliet Schor, “A Sustainable Economy for the Twenty-first Century,” in Greg Ruggiero and Stuart Sahulka, eds., The New American Crisis: Radical Analyses of the Problems Facing America Today (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995), pp. 266–87.
141. Geoff Kurtz, “Happy Birthday,” p. 8.
142. Schor, “Sustainable Economy.”
143. Kurtz, “Life of the New Party.”
144. Ibid.
145. Piven Papers, Box 88, Folder 4, April 1, 1993, Memo from Daniel Cantor to Shakoor Aljuwani et al. Re: “PHOTO OPPORTUNITY at the SOCIALIST SCHOLARS CONFERENCE.”
146. Kurtz, “Something New Here”, Kurtz, “Life of the New Party.”
147. Kurtz, “Something New Here.”
148. Micah Sifry, Spoiling for a Fight (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 236.
149. Talbott is described as the local New Party “convener” in a the template for a form letter from Dan Sweeney, April 27, 1993, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 49. Talbott even represented the national New Party at a meeting with Canadians: Memorandum, December 30, 1992, from Carolyn to Wade, regarding “CND $ For Chicago NP in DECEMBER and JANUARY,” SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 46. A 1993 chart lists the most active groups and participants in the Chicago New Party, with ACORN and SEIU Local 880 leading the way: “Chicago New Party Chapter Report, 6/11/93,” SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 46.
150. Geoff Kurtz, “Happy Birthday,” p. 8.
151. These two memos are stapled together. On top is a memo, dated July 13, 1993, from Wade to Zach, regarding “Reactions to Your Thoughts,” below that is a Memorandum, dated July 8, 1993, from Zach to Wade, regarding “Thoughts on Party Building,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 3, Folder: Memos 1993.
152. Fax from Commissioner Joseph Gardner to Keith Kelliher [sic], July 27, 1993, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 49.
153. Memorandum, May 19, 1992, from Madeline and Carolyn to Wade, regarding “May plan on voter reg & third party for CND $.”
154. “NP Mailing List,” SEIU Local 880, Box 6, Folder 49. This is not a full mailing list, but a much shorter list of names mean to be added to the larger list.
155. Handwritten note from MT to Keith, dated 6/4, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 48.
156. “Minutes of Chicago New Party (CNP) Meeting, June 15, 1993,” June 18, 1993, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 48.
157. “Report from the Chicago New Party, August 12, 1992, Submitted by: Madeline Talbott,” Chicago ACORN, SEIU Local 880, Box 6, Folder 43.
158. Memorandum, March 31, 1993, from Steve to Zach, regarding “Meeting with Fran Piven/Richard Cloward,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 3, Folder: Memos 1993.
159. “Chicago New Party Organizing Report,” June 2, 1993, SEIU Local 880, Box 6, Folder 47; “New Party Interim Executive Council Meeting Report,” June 11–13, 1993, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 48.
160. “What is Progressive Chicago?” SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 48.
161. “Chicago New Party Organizing Report,” June 2, 1993, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 47.
162. Keith Kelleher’s handwritten notes of meeting with Jacky Grimshaw, 5/12/93, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box Six, Folder 49.
163. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 221.
164. Handwritten notes from Keith Kelleher’s meeting with Barack Obama, 7/27/93, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 49.
165. Letter from Sarah E. Siskind to Mr. Wade Rathke, May 7, 1992, ACORN Records 1973–1997, Box 1, Folder: New Party (one of several similarly labeled New Party folders).
166. Letter from Daniel Cantor to Barack Obama, August 12, 1993, beginning “Sarah Siskind asked that I send along …” SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 48.
167. Memorandum, September 30, 1993, from Keith Kelleher to Danny Cantor, regarding “New Party Progress and Plans Since June IEC,” ACORN Records, Box 1, Folder: New Party 1993.
168. Memorandum, November 2, 1993, from Keith to MT, MG, CB, and Sam, regarding “Conversations with Steve Saltsman,” SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 47. See also Kelleher’s handwritten note of November 2, 1993, to M.T./Cindy, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 47.
169. See the top two pages of a three-page packet, Memorandum, November 10, 1993, from Steve Bachman to Keith Kelleher, Steve Saltsman, Zak [sic] Polett, Dale Rathke, regarding “attached, and letter from Steven Saltsman to Steve Bachman,” November 15, 1993, SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 47.
170. Letter from Joe Gardner and Ron Sable to Barack Obama on Progressive Chicago letterhead, December 31, 1993, beginning, “We are writing to invite you …” SEIU Local 880 Records, Box 6, Folder 49.
171. As noted, the packet of materials in question (hereafter referred to in these notes as “June 1994 Memo Packet”) is contained in a small, gray archive box with late-arriving material from 1994, as opposed to the bulk of the SEIU Local 880 Records, which are contained in large record center cartons. The folder is labeled “Correspondence File.” The four memos in question, consisting of nine pages, are stapled together. I will list them from the top to the bottom of the packet: Memorandum from KK to WR, regarding “Structure of Progressive Chicago,” June 17, 1994; Memorandum from Keith to MT, Zach, Marvin, Leslie, regarding “Conversations with Carol Harwell, June 17, 1994”; Project Vote Fax Memorandum from Leslie Watson-Davis to Marvin Randolf, Zach Polett, Subject: “Chicago Trip—For Your Information,” 6/13/1994; Memorandum from Keith Kelleher to Carol Harwell, regarding “List of Positions that Need Resolution,” June 8, 1994.
172. “Chicago Trip” Memorandum, SEIU Local 880 Records, June 1994 Memo Packet.
173. See also Gretchen Reynolds, “Vote of Confidence,” Chicago Magazine, January 1993, http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/
January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/.
174. “Conversations with Carol Harwell,” SEIU Local 880 Records, June 1994 Memo Packet.
175. “Structure of Progressive Chicago,” SEIU Local 880 Records, June 1994 Memo Packet.
176. “The Truth About Barack Obama and the New Party,” Fight the Smears.
177. Memorandum, October 23, 1994, to ACORN Offices from Zach Polett, regarding “National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) Implementation Campaign: Report and Follow-Up on NVRA Implementation Conference,” ACORN New York Records, Box 5, Folder 42.
178. Mike Robinson, “Obama Got Start in Civil Rights Practice,” Washington Post, February 20, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2007/02/20/AR2007022000045.html.
179. Human SERVE Records, Box 16, Folder 747, Memorandum, December 2, 1994, from David to “All Re: Illinois Implementation (or lack thereof)”; Box 16, Folder 747, unsigned letter of November 14, 1994, on ACORN letterhead to Ronald D. Michaelson beginning, “As the chief elections officer …” Box 35, Folder 1495, Memorandum, February 1, 1995, from Juan Cartagena to NVRA Implementation Attorney Network.
180. Human SERVE Records, Box 16, Folder 747, Memorandum, December 2, 1994, from David to “All Re: Illinois Implementation (or lack thereof)”; Box 16, Folder 747, Fax, September 30, 1994, from Susan Locke to David Plotkin; Box 16, Folder 748, Fax, March 29, 1995, from Barack H. Obama to David R. Melton; Piven Papers, Box 50, Folder 12, “ACORN’s Perspective on Voter Registration”; Piven Accession 993–50, Box 1, Memorandum of August 14, 1995 from David Plotkin to Frances and Richard “Re: ACORN.”
181. Memorandum, July 23, 1994, from Zach Polett and Maude Hurd to ACORN Delegation for White House Meeting, regarding “Preparations & Assignments for White House Meeting,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, M2003-006, Box 4, Folder: White House Meeting 1994. See also numerous other items regarding preparations for the White House meeting in this folder.
182. “ACORN Agenda for President Clinton,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, M2003-066, Box 4, Folder: White House Meeting 1994. See item 4 on Cisneros and item 4d, an implicit reference to Achtenberg, as well.
183. Memorandum, July 25, 1994, from Zach Polett to All Offices, regarding “Taking It to the Top—The Meeting with the President,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, M2003-066, Box 4, Folder: White House Meeting 1994; “Agenda Items, ACORN Meeting at the White House, July 25, 1994,” ACORN Records, Box 4, Folder: White House Meeting 1994.
184. Memorandum, July 25, 1994, from Zach Polett to All Offices, regarding “Taking It to the Top—The Meeting with the President,” ACORN Records 1973–1997, M2003-066, Box 4, Folder: White House Meeting 1994.
185. Ibid.
186. Peter J. Wallison, “Cause and Effect: Government Policies and the Financial Crisis,” American Enterprise Institute, November 2008, http://www.aei.org/outlook/29015; Peter J. Wallison, “Not a Failure of Capitalism—A Failure of Government,” American Enterprise Institute, December 2, 2009, http://www.aei.org/paper/100080.
187. Toni Foulkes, “Case Study: Chicago—The Barack Obama Campaign,” Social Policy, Winter 2003/Spring 2004, pp. 49–52; Kurtz “Inside Obama’s Acorn.”
188. See Chapter Seven.
189. Foulkes, “Case Study.”
190. Smith, “The Dread New Party”; Kurtz, “A Party Without Members.”
191. Bruce Bentley, “Chicago New Party Update,” New Ground, #42, September–October 1995, at http://www.chicagodsa.org/
ngarchive/ng42.html#anchor792932.
192. “New Party Member Heads for the Hill,” New Party News, Spring 1996, pp. 1–2. A copy of this issue can be found at the library of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A picture of the text can also be found at Trevor Loudon, “Obama File 41 Obama Was a New Party Member—Documentary Evidence,” New Zeal Blog, October 23, 2008, http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/10/
obama-file-41-obama-was-new-party.html.
193. “The Truth About Barack Obama and the New Party,” Fight the Smears.
194. Bruce Bentley, “Chicago New Party Update.”
195. Jim Cullen, Editorial, Progressive Populist, November 1996, http://www.populist.com/11.96.Edit.html
196. Bruce Bentley, “New Party Update,” New Ground, #47, July–August 1996, at http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/
ng47.html#anchor781435.
197. John Nichols, “How to Push Obama,” The Progressive, January 2009, p. 21.
198. Hoft, “The Obama campaign privately updated …”
199. Toni Foulkes, “Case Study.”
200. Stanley Kurtz, “Obama Acorn Cover-up?” The Corner, October 8, 2008, http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTNiN2YwMmQ4
Njc2MzE4ZDUxYWV1YTA1NzZlMmY3YmM=.
201. Hank De Zutter, “What Makes Obama Run?” Chicago Reader, December 8, 1995, http://www1.chicagoreader.com/
obama/951208/.
202. Ibid.
Chapter 7: Ayers and the Foundations
1. Stanley Kurtz, “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown,” National Review Online, August 18, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/366637/chicago-annenberg-challenge-shutdown/stanley-kurtz; Milt Rosenberg, “Extension 720 Audio Archives, August 2008,” wgnradio .com, http://www.wgnradio.com/shows/ext720/wgnam-ext720-audio
-archives-aug2008,0,3288472.story; John Kass, “When Daley says shhh, library is quiet on Obama,” Chicago Tribune, August 21, 2008, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/
chi-kass-ayers-thurs-21-aug21-archive,0
,3528940.column; Guy Benson, “Stanley Kurtz’s Fairness Doctrine Preview,” Media Blog, National Review Online, August 28, 2008, http://www.nationalreview.com/media-blog/32766/stanley-kurtzs-fairness-doctrine-preview/guy-benson; National Review, “Barack Obama, Aspiring Commissar,” National Review Online, August 28, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/368298/barack-obama-aspiring-commissar/the-editors; Ben Smith, “Obama camp blasts National Review writer as “slimy character assassin,” Politico, http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Obama_camp_blasts_ National_Review_writer_as_slimy_character_assassin.html; Stanley Kurtz, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools,” Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2008, http://online.wsi.com/article/SB1222 12856075765367.html; Stanley Kurtz, “Obama’s Challenge,” National Review Online, September 23, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/372023/obamas-challenge/stanley-kurtz; Stanley Kurtz, “Founding Brothers,” National Review Online, September 24, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/372137/founding-brothers/stanley-kurtz; Stanley Kurtz, “NYT’s Ayers-Obama Whitewash,” The Corner, National Review Online, http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWI0MjY3NzMyODgxZGM2ZjUwNTE1MmEzOGRiZmFkNWE=.
2. Lynn Sweet, “Mayor Daley defends Obama, vouching for William Ayers,” Lynn Sweet’s blog, Chicago Sun-Times, April 18, 2008, http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/04/mayor_daley_defends _obama_vouc.html; Kass, “When Daley says shhh.”
3. Ron Chepesiuk, Sixties Radicals Then and Now (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1995), p. 102.
4. Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days (Boston: Beacon Press, [2001] 2009); Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, eds., Sing a Battle Song (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2006); Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Race Course Against White Supremacy (Chicago: Third World Press, 2009).
5. Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Destructive Generation (New York: Free Press, 1996), p. 119.
6. Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 286.
7. Ayers and Dohrn, Race Course Against White Supremacy, p. 108.
8. Miller, Democracy Is in the Streets, p. 207.
9. Ibid., p. 6.
10. Dohrn, Ayers, and Jones, Sing a Battle Song, p. 352.
11. Ayers, Fugitive Days, pp. 82–94.
12. David Barber, A Hard Rain Fell (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008), pp. 148–49.
13. Bill Ayers and Jim Mellen, “Hot town: Summer in the City,” New Left Notes, April 4, 1969, pp. 8–9.
14. Todd Gitlin, The Sixties (New York: Bantam Books, 1987), pp. 377–408; Collier and Horowitz, Destructive Generation, pp. 67–119; Barber, Hard Rain, pp. 145–87.
15. “SDS Convention Documents,” FRED, the Socialist Press Service, Vol. 1, #23, July 21, 1969, p. 10b.
16. Collier and Horowitz, Destructive Generation, p. 84; Barber, A Hard Rain Fell, pp. 173–74.
17. Barber, A Hard Rain Fell, pp. 174–75.
18. Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 159.
19. Collier and Horowitz, Destructive Generation, p. 83; Barber, A Hard Rain Fell, pp. 176–77.
20. Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 111.
21. Dohrn, Ayers, and Jones, Sing a Battle Song, pp. 352–53.
22. Ibid., p. 255.
23. Ibid., p. 355.
24. Ayers, Fugitive Days, pp. 281–82.
25. Ibid., p. 264.
26. Ibid., p. 295.
27. Dohrn, Ayers, and Jones, Sing a Battle Song, p. 36.
28. Ibid., pp. vii, x.
29. Chepesiuk, Sixties Radicals Then and Now, pp. 99, 102.
30. Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 296; Ayers and Dohrn, Race Course Against White Supremecy, pp. 83–91.
31. Ibid., p. 95.
32. Sandra O’Donnell, Yvonne Jeffries, Frank Sanchez, and Pat Selmi, “Evaluation of the Fund’s Community Organizing Grant Programs,” Woods Fund of Chicago, April 1995, pp. 7–8.
33. Wieboldt Foundation, “1987 Annual Report,” pp. 15, 16; Wieboldt Foundation, “1988 Annual Report,” p. 15.
34. Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) Records, University of Illinois, Chicago Library, Box 130, Folder 919, Letter of September 10, 1995, Anne C. Hallett to Walter Annenberg, beginning “Gail Levin said you heard Bill Ayers and me …”
35. See, for example, front matter listing foundation officials from Wieboldt’s 1981, 1982, and 1983 annual reports.
36. Wieboldt Foundation, “1984 and 1985 Annual Reports,” front matter, p. 2; Wieboldt Foundation, “1986 Annual Report,” p. 2.
37. William Upski Wimsatt, “Anonymous Benefactor,” Chicago Reader, March 26, 1998, http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/anonymous-benefactor/Content?oid=895912.
38. “Stanley Hallett,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Hallett.
39. Malcolm Bush and Daniel Immergluck, “Research, Advocacy, and Community Reinvestment,” in Gregory D. Squires, ed., Organizing Access to Capital (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003), pp. 163–64.
40. See Chapter Four.
41. DSA Records, Box 17, Folder: Illinois-Chicago, “Organizer’s Report,” New Ground, vol. 2, no. 1, January 1988, p. 4.
42. Note that the instances of support for a given group referenced here and below are meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive. Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Years 1979 and 1980,” pp. 2–6; Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1984,” p. 3; Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1985,” pp. 2–4; Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1986,” pp. 1–3.
43. Woods Fund, “1986,” pp. 2, 11; Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1988,” p. 26.
44. Woods Fund, “1985,” pp. 15, 27; Woods Fund, “1986,” p. 22; Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1987,” pp. 23, 24.
45. Woods Fund, “1985,” pp. 4, 14; Woods Fund, “1986,” p. 20; Woods Fund, “1987,” p. 20; Todd Swanstrom and Laura Barrett, “The Road to Jobs: The Fight for Transportation Equity (Gamaliel Foundation),” Fulfilling the Dream Fund, http://www.fulfillingthedreamfund.org/
news/the-road-to-jobs-the-fight-for
-transportation-equi.
46. Woods Fund, “1988” pp. 27, 28; Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1989,” p. 22.
47. Woods Fund, “1985,” p. 22.
48. Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1993,” pp. 3–4.
49. “Woods Fund of Chicago,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Woods_Fund_of_Chicago.
50. Woods Charitable Fund, “A Report for the Year 1992,” p. 24.
51. Woods Fund, “1993,” p. 3; Woods Fund of Chicago, “1994 Annual Report,” p. 1.
52. Woods Fund, “1994,” pp. 3, 4, 6–8.
53. Ibid.
54. Woods Fund, “Evaluation,” p. 39.
55. Sandy O’Donnell, Jane Beckett, and Jean Rudd, “Promising Practices in Revenue Generation for Community Organizing,” Center for Community Change, Washington, D.C., pp. 76–79, 91–94, http://comm-org.wisc.edu/
papers2005/beckett.htm.
56. Woods Fund, “Evaluation,” p. 8.
57. Woods Fund, “1994,” p. 18; Woods Fund of Chicago, “1995 Annual Report,” p. 18.
58. Foulkes, “Case Study.”
59. Acorn Records 1973–1997, Box 4, Folder: Acorn Community Schools 1992, Memorandum, July 23, 1993, from Madeline to “Head Organizers Re: Schools Campaign.”
60. Ibid., Memorandum, April 7, 1994, from Madeline Talbott to “Head Organizers, Interested Parties Re: Report on ACORN School Development.”
61. Woods Fund, “1993,” p. 35.
62. CAC Records, Box 131, Folder 937, Memorandum, March 10, 1995, from Anne Hallett to “Annenberg Challenge Board of Directors Re: Chicago School Reform Collaborative.”
63. Dorothy Shipps and Karin Sconzert with Holly Swyers, “The Chicago Annenberg Challenge: The First Three Years,” Consortium on Chicago School Research, 1999, pp. 15, 26–27, http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications
/p0b06.pdf; Alexander Russo, “From Frontline Leader to Rearguard Action: The Chicago Annenberg Challenge,” in Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, “Can Philanthropy Fix Our Schools? Appraising Walter Annenberg’s $500 Million Gift to Public Education,” p. 42, at http://www.edexcellence.net
/doc/annenberg.pdf.
64. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 280.
65. Ayers, Fugitive Days, pp. 264–65, 294; Dinitia Smith, “No Regrets for a Love of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, A War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen,” New York Times, September 11, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001
/09/11/books/no-regrets-for-love-explo
sive-memoir-sorts-war-protester-talks
-life-with.html.
66. Ibid.
67. Anderson Cooper 360°, “Transcripts: Dow Drops; Presidential Campaign Turns Negative,” October 6, 2008, http://transcripts.cnn.com/
TRANSCRIPTS/0810/06/acd.01.html.
68. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 281.
69. Mark A. Smylie et al., “The Chicago Annenberg Challenge: Successes, Failures, and Lessons for the Future,” Consortium on Chicago School Research, August 2003, pp. 98, 104.
70. Ibid.
71. See the extensive files on grants to ACORN and the Developing Communities Project in the CAC Records.
72. Kurtz, “Ayers and Obama Pushed Radicalism.”
73. CAC Records, Box 50, Folder 250: Vision, Strategy, Goals; Box 51, Folder 253: Peace School; Box 51, Folder 254: Peace School Narrative Report; Box 51, Folder 256: Peace School Newsletter; Box 51, Folder 256: Peace School Pamphlet.
74. Marcia Froelke Coburn, “No Regrets,” Chicago Magazine, August 2001, http://www.chicagomag.
com/Chicago-Magazine/
August-2001/No-Regrets.
75. Chris Carger, section in: “An Activist Forum IV: Pledging to the World,” in William Ayers, Jean Ann Hunt, and Therese Quinn, eds., Teaching for Social Justice (New York: The New Press, 1998), pp. 241–44.
76. Gabrielle H. Lyon, “When Jamas is Enough,” in William Ayers, Michael Klonsky, and Gabrielle Lyon, eds., A Simple Justice (New York: Teachers College Press, 2000), pp. 125–135.
77. John Kass and Karen Thomas, “Firing Principals not Top Goal of Group: UNO Is Using Schools to Build Political Muscle,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1990; “Telpochcalli Community Arts Elementary School,” http://cct2.edc.org/SCIP_II/schools/
telpoch.htm: CAC Records, Box 51, Folder 256, “The Teacher Leadership Academy Directory of Network Schools,” p. 19.
78. William Ayers, To Teach (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001), p. 114.
79. William Ayers, Summerhill Revisited (New York: Teachers College Press, 2003), pp. 3–15, 37–60; William Ayers, Teaching Toward Freedom (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004), p. 18; William Ayers, Teaching the Personal and the Political (New York: Teachers College Press, 2004), p. 79.
80. Shipps and Sconzert, “Three Years,” pp. 20, 21, 27, 28, 47; Russo, “Frontline,” pp. 41–43, 49; Smylie et al., “Successes, Failures,” pp. 111–12.
81. Smylie et al., “Successes, Failures,” pp. 112–14.
82. Steve Diamond, “Behind the Annenberg Gate,” Global Labor and Politics Blog, August 20, 2008, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search
?q=cache:FhwHUTiGv3AJ:globallabor
.blogspot.com/20 08/08/behind-annenberg-gate-inside-chicago.html+%22Steve+Diamond%22+Annenberg+%22Arnold+Weber%22+principals&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us.
83. Ibid., pp. 108–9.
84. See Chapter Four.
85. Ayers, Klonsky, and Lyon, A Simple Justice.
86. “Barack Obama and the Committees of Correspondence,” Key Wiki, http://keywiki.org/index
.php/Barack_Obama_and_CoC.
87. “Carl Davidson,” DiscoverTheNetworks.org, http://www.discoverthe networks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2322; Trevor Loudon, “Obama File 36, ‘How Socialist Was Obama’s “New Party”?’” New Zeal Blog, October 11, 2008, http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-file-36-how-socialist-was-obamas.html.
88. Remnick, The Bridge, pp. 343–48.
89. Woods Fund, “1995,” pp. 4, 27.
90. Woods Fund of Chicago, “1996 Annual Report,” pp. 30, 31; Woods Fund of Chicago, “2001 Annual Report,” p. 30.
91. Woods Fund, “1996,” pp. 1, 13, 29.
92. Ayers and Dorhn, Race Course Against White Supremacy, pp. 53–66.
93. Woods Fund, “1996,” p. 13.
94. Woods Fund of Chicago, “1999 Annual Report,” pp. 2, 5–6.
95. See Chapter Nine.
96. Woods Fund of Chicago, “1997 Annual Report,” p. 29; Woods Fund of Chicago, “Form 990-PF,” p. 8.
97. Woods Fund, “1997,” p. 1.
98. Woods Fund of Chicago, “2001 Annual Report,” p. 3.
99. Woods Fund, “2001,” pp. 20, 21, 24, 29; Woods Fund of Chicago, “2002 Annual Report,” pp. 12, 31, 35, 37.
100. Woods Fund, “2001,” pp. 8–13.
101. Kurtz, “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown.”
102. Kurtz, “Founding Brothers.”
103. Rosenberg “Archives”; Benson, “Stanley Kurtz’s Fairness Doctrine Preview”; National Review, “Barack Obama: Aspiring Commissar”; Smith, “Obama camp blasts national review writer.”
104. Benson, “Stanley Kurtz’s Fairness Doctrine Preview.”
105. Kurtz, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism.”
106. Kurtz, “Obama’s Challenge.”
107. Scott Shane, “Obama and 60’s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths,” New York Times, October 3, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin.
108. Kurtz, “NYT Ayers-Obama Whitewash”; Diamond’s writings on the Ayers-Obama issue were posted at his Global Labor and Politics Blog.
Chapter 8: Jeremiah Wright
1. See Chapter Nine.
2. John Bentley, “Obama’s Church Says Pastor’s Comments Taken Out of Context,” cbsnews.com, March 16, 2008, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-502443_162
-3942187-502443.html; Remnick, The Bridge, p. 520.
3. “Obama’s Pastor: Rev. Jeremiah Wright,” FOX News Interview Archive, foxnews.com, March 2, 2007, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,256078,00.html.
4. James H. Cone, Black Theology and Black Power (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, [1969] 2006).
5. Jeremiah Wright, “An Underground Theology,” in Dwight N. Hopkins, ed., Black Faith and Public Talk (Waco, Tex., Baylor University Press, 2007), p. 98; Iva Carruthers and Gayraud Wilmore, “The Black Church in the Age of False Prophets: An Interview with Gayraud Wilmore,” in Iva E. Carruthers, Frederick D. Haynes III, and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., eds., Blow the Trumpet in Zion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005), pp. 167–68.
6. Margaret Talev, “Obama’s Church Pushes Controversial Doctrines,” McClatchy Newspapers, March 20, 2008, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/03/20/31079/obamas-church-pushes-controversial.html.
7. Cone, Black Theology and Black Power, pp. 2–3.
8. Ibid., p. 3.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 6.
12. Ibid., pp. 7–8.
13. Ibid., p. 23.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., p. 40.
16. Ibid., pp. 131, 135.
17. “Obama: Stealth Socialist?” Investor’s Business Daily, IBDeditorials .com, May 16, 2008.
18. Talev “Controversial Doctrines.”
19. Transcript, “Obama’s Remarks on Wright,” New York Times, April 29, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/world/
americas/30iht-29textobama.12450754.html.
20. Abramsky, Inside Obama’s Brain, p. 264.
21. For the history of Wright’s church, see Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., “Doing Theology in the Black Church,” in Linda E. Thomas, ed., Living Stones in the Household of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004), pp. 13–23; Julia Speller, Walkin’ the Talk: Keepin’ the Faith in Africentric Congregations (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2005), pp. 72–103; Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., “Growing the African American Church through Worship and Preaching,” in Carlyle Fielding Stewart III, ed., Growing the African American Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), pp. 63–81.
22. Stanley Kurtz, “Jeremiah Wright’s Trumpet,” Weekly Standard, May 19, 2008, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/
Public/Articles/000/000/015/082ktdyi.asp.
23. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 280.
24. James H. Cone, My Soul Looks Back (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, [1986] 2005), pp. 123, 130.
25. Ibid., p. 138.
26. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., What Makes You So Strong? (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1993), p. 98; Kurtz, “Trumpet.”
27. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 293.
28. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 470.
29. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., “Another Year, Another Chance,” Trumpet Newsmagazine, January 2007, p. 12.
30. Obasi A. Kitambi, “The Value of Black Life,” Trumpet Newsmagazine, January 2007, p. 24.
31. Remnick, The Bridge, 169.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid., p. 174.
34. Ibid., p. 175.
35. Ibid.
36. See Chapter Three.
37. Obama, Dreams from My Father, p. 283.
38. Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 76.
39. Lynn Sweet, “Obama on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ pressed by Russert with Wright questions; Transcript May 4, 2008 show,” Lynn Sweet’s Chicago Sun-Times, http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/05/
obama_on_nbcs_meet_the_press_p.html.
40. In addition to the account of sympathetic biographer David Mendell, cited above, see, for example, Cathleen Falsani, “I Have A Deep Faith,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 5, 2004, p. 14. Here Falsani reports on a lengthy interview with Obama about his religious beliefs and describes Wright as Obama’s “close confidant.”
41. “History,” Centers for New Horizons, http://cnh.org/?id=about&pageid=55.
42. Woods Charitable Fund, Inc., “A Report for the Year 1986,” pp. 1, 2.
43. See Chapter Six.
44. Beverly Reed, “Senator Obama’s Bronzeville Connection,” South Street Journal, January 17, 2008, p. 14, at http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/broadcast/hs/
journalism/southside_archive/2008/
SSJ-2008-01-17.pdf.
45. Ayana I. Karanja, Ph.D., Resume, pp. 10, 11, at http://www.luc.edu/curl/pdfs/
cv-ayana_karanja.pdf.
46. Woods Fund of Chicago, “1997 Annual Report,” p. 21; Woods Fund of Chicago, “Form 990-PF,” p. 6; Woods Fund of Chicago, “1999 Annual Report,” p. 30; Woods Fund of Chicago, “2000 Annual Report,” p. 18.
47. Trinity United Church of Christ, Perspectives, a View from Within: A Compendium Text for Churchwide Study, Chicago, Ill., 1982.
48. Ibid., p. 138.
49. Ibid., p. 140.
50. Ibid., pp. 141, 142.
51. Ibid., p. 143.
52. Ibid., pp. 80, 83.
53. Ibid., pp. 120, 122.
54. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., “What Are We Teaching Our Children?” Trumpet Newsmagazine, March 2006, p. 16.
55. Perspectives, p. 38.
56. Jeremiah Wright, “Church Growth and Political Empowerment,” in Henry J. Young, ed., The Black Church and the Harold Washington Story (Bristol, Ind.: Wyndham Hall Press, 1988), p. 1.
57. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., “Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Ahead!” Trumpet Newsmagazine, May 2006, p. 12.
58. HWAC, Series from Harold Washington’s Congressional Office, Files of the District Administration Education Task Force, 1982, Box 28, Folder 37, Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Resume and Application for School Board Appointment.
59. Wright, “Church Growth,” pp. 1–9.
60. Brookins is identified as a member of Wright’s church in briefing notes for a Harold Washington visit to Trinity United Church of Christ on February 15, 1987. HWAC, Schedules and Evaluations Series, Box 9, Folder 8.
61. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Howard B. Brookins Papers 1975–1992, Box 2, Folder: Misc. Letters, 1985, letter of June 25 1995 from Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., to Howard Brookins, beginning “I’m writing to urge you …”
62. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Howard B. Brookins Papers 1975–1992, Box 5, Folder: Misc. Correspondence, 1989–91, letter of August 8, 1990 from Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., to Howard Brookins.
63. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Howard B. Brookins Papers 1975–1992, Box 1, Folder: Centers for New Horizons, letter of July 27, 1983, Gregory F. Washington to Howard Brookins, beginning “Enclosed are copies of letters clients …”; letter of August 2, 1983, Howard Brookins to Gregory Coler, beginning “The letter comes to requests …”; letter of September 19, 1983, Mauriece L. Graham to Sokoni Karanja, beginning “As we discussed during the meeting”; letter of October 24, 1983, Howard Brookins to Mauriece L. Graham, beginning “I am in receipt of your letter …”
64. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Howard B. Brookins Papers 1975–1992, Box 3, Folder: State Board of Education Vacancies, letter of February 25, 1983, Howard Brookins to Jeremiah Wright, Jr., beginning “I appreciate your recent letter”; letter of March 29, 1983, Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., to Howard Brookins, beginning “Pursuant to your letter of March 18”; letter of April 11, 1983, Howard Brookins to Iva Carruthers, beginning, “As you may be aware …”; see similar letters on the same date from Brookins to the other three potential nominees, Vallmer E. Jordan, Randall Davenport, and Frances Holliday; Box 3, Folder: Resumes, letter of April 28, Howard Brookins to Governor James R. Thompson, beginning “I am enclosing resumes.”
65. Medell, Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 76.
66. Ibid., pp. 159–60.
67. “Obama: Wright Was Never My Political Counsel,” FOXNews.com, May 4, 2008, http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05
/04/obama-wright-was-never-
my-political-counsel/; Reuters, “Obama renounces fiery pastor’s comments,” Reuters.com, March 15, 2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/
idUSN1453951820080315.
68. Sherry Stone, “Ministers Set for ’94: Violence Issue On Agenda,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 28, 1994, p. 1-A.
69. Remnick, The Bridge, pp. 468–72.
70. Ibid., p. 518.
71. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., “Before This Time Another Year …” Trumpet Newsmagazine, January 2005, p. 6. Wright’s columns from Trumpet going back to late 2004 remained available on the Internet even after the main Trinity United Church of Christ website had been scrubbed in 2008 (shortly after the Obama-Wright controversy broke). By 2010, however, these Wright columns seem to have been removed from the Internet as well.
72. Ibid., pp. 6–7.
73. Falsani, “Deep Faith.”
74. Andrew Malcolm, “Why Oprah quit Jeremiah Wright’s church and Barack Obama didn’t,” Top of the Ticket blog, May 4, 2008, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington
/2008/05/obamaoprah.html.
75. De Zutter, “What Makes Obama Run?”
76. Kurtz, “Trumpet.”
77. Obama, “Why Organize?” p. 42.
78. Ibid.
79. Stanley Kurtz, “Wright 101,” National Review Online, October 14, 2008, http://article.nationalreview.com/
374927/wright-101/stanley-kurtz.
80. Sweet, “Meet the Press”; Anderson Cooper, “Interview With Illinois Senator Barack Obama”; “Severe Storms Strike Atlanta,” cnn.com, March 14, 2008, http://transcripts.cnn.com/
TRANSCRIPTS/0803/14/acd.01.html; Hannity & Colmes, “Obama Talks to Major Garrett on ‘Hannity & Colmes,’” RealClearPolitics.com, March 14, 2008, at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/
03/obama_talks_to _major_garrett_o.html; transcript, “Obama’s Remarks on Wright,” New York Times, April 29, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/
us/politics/29text-obama.html.
81. David Plouffe, The Audacity to Win (New York: Viking, 2009), p. 207.
82. Peter Wallsten, “Fellow Activists Say Obama’s Memoir Has Too Many I’s,” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2007, http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/
la-na-obamaorganize19-2007feb19
,0,6545664.story.
83. Lynn Sweet, “Did Obama take too much credit?” Lynn Sweet’s blog, February 20, 2007, Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obamacommentary/264478.CST-NWS-sweet20.stng.
Chapter 9: State Senate Years
1. Jodi Kantor, “Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart,” New York Times, July 30, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 265.
6. Ibid., pp. 265–66.
7. Obama, The Audacity of Hope, p. 247.
8. Ibid.
9. Jason Zengerle, “Con Law,” New Republic, July 30, 2008, http://www.tnr.com/article/con-law?id=86dd0277-c6ee-4e3c-83e9-0bb468c5c4 0d&p=2; Remnick, The Bridge, pp. 265–66, 385.
10. Kantor, “Teaching Law”; Zengerle, “Con Law”; Remnick, The Bridge, p. 264.
11. “Chicago DSA Endorsements in the March 19 Primary Election,” New Ground #45, March–April 1996, http://www.chicagodsa.orgngarchive/ng45.html#anchor1078925.
12. Ibid.
13. “New Party Member Heads for the Hill,” New Party News, Spring 1996, p. 1; Trevor Loudon, “Obama File 41: Obama Was a New Party Member—Documentary Evidence,” New Zeal Blog, October 23, 2008, http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/10/
obama-file-41-obama-was-new
-party.html.
14. The hard-copy edition of New Ground and Chicago DSA Executive Committee Meeting Minutes in the DSA Records present a more detailed account of Chicago DSA’s 1996 endorsement of Obama than the online version of New Ground: “Chicago DSA Executive Committee Meeting Synopsis, January 20, 1996,” New Ground, March–April 1996, p. 2; DSA Records, Box 116, Folder: Chicago DSA, “Chicago DSA Executive Committee Meeting Minutes,” January 20, 1996.
15. Bob Roman, “A Town Meeting on Economic Insecurity,” New Ground #45, March–April 1996, http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng45.html.
16. Robert Roman, “Chicago DSA Recommendations for the March Primary Election,” New Ground #69, March–April 2000, http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/
ng69.html#anchor535144.
17. Nancy Ryan and Thomas Hardy, “Sen. Palmer Ends Bid for Re- Election,” Chicago Tribune, January 18, 1996, http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/17170536.html?dids=17170536:17170536 &FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FTF.
18. Remnick, The Bridge, pp. 288–93.
19. Copies of New Deliberations can be found in the Alice Palmer Papers at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Woodson Regional Library, Chicago Illinois, Boxes 1 and 2. This is an unprocessed collection, without folders; Jan Carew, “Socialism Is the Only Way Forward,” New Deliberations, Spring/Summer 1986, p. 8, Alice Palmer Papers, Box 2.
20. David Freddoso, The Case Against Barack Obama (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2008), pp. 128–29.
21. Alice Palmer Papers, Box 1.
22. Remnick, The Bridge, 278.
23. DSA Records, Box 116, Folder: Chicago DSA, “Chicago DSA Executive Committee Meeting Minutes,” January 20, 1996.
24. DSA Records, Box 116, Folder: Chicago DSA, “Chicago DSA Membership Convention Minutes,” June 8, 1996 (see Addendum: Bob Roman, “State of the Chapter Report”).
25. Remnick, The Bridge, 399.
26. For a more detailed account, see Stanley Kurtz, “Barack Obama’s Lost Years,” Weekly Standard, August 11–August 18, 2008, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/
Public/Articles/000/000/
015/386abhgm.asp.
27. Chinta Strausberg, “Obama: Illinois Black Caucus is Broken,” Chicago Defender, June 1, 1999, p. 1.
28. Peter S. Canellos, “Just Don’t Call Barack Obama Liberal, Okey Doke?” Boston Globe, February 26, 2008, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/26/just_dont_call_barack_obama_liberal_okey_doke/; Peter Wehner, “Obama and the ‘L’ Word,” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB120709783253682035.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries.
29. Greg Downs, “Candidates Spar Over Health Care,” Hyde Park Herald, November 17, 1999, p. 1.
30. David Hawkings and Brian Nutting, eds., CQ’s Politics in America: 2004 (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003), p. 320.
31. Down, “Candidates Spar.”
32. Karen Shields, “Congress Campaign Moves Into Home Stretch,” Hyde Park Herald, March 15, 2000, pp. 1, 8.
33. “Our Endorsements,” Editorial, Chicago Defender, March 13, 2004.
34. Chinta Strausberg, “Fitzgerald’s Backing Out, Pushes Obama In Front,” Chicago Defender, April 16, 2003, p. 3.
35. Barack Obama, “Bye George, Gore and Bush Are Different,” Hyde Park Herald, November 1, 2000, p. 4.
36. “Who Hyde Parkers Voted For In the National Election,” Hyde Park Herald, November 22, 2000, p. 6. Figures were obtained by combining votes in both Hyde Park wards.
37. William Ayers, A Kind and Just Parent (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997).
38. Ibid., p. xv.
39. Mary Wisniewski Holden, “The Juvenile Justice Reform Act,” Chicago Lawyer, June 1998.
40. Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11chicago.html?pagewanted=all; “Mark My Word,” Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1997, Section 14, p. 5.
41. Ayers, A Kind and Just Parent, xviii.
42. Hope Reeves, “The Way We Live Now: 9-16-01: Questions for Bill Ayers; Forever Rad,” New York Times Magazine, September 16, 2001, p. 21.
43. Ayers, A Kind and Just Parent, p. 45.
44. Ibid., p. 8.
45. Ibid., p. xiii.
46. Ibid., pp. 168–74.
47. Ibid., pp. 165–67, 178, 183.
48. Shields, “Congress Campaign.”
49. Pam Belluck, “Fighting Youth Crime, Some States Blend Adult and Juvenile Justice,” New York Times, February 11, 1998, Section A, p. 1.
50. Holden, “Juvenile Justice Reform Act.”
51. Lorraine Forte, “Legislators Divided On ‘Get Tough’ Reforms,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 28, 1997.
52. Chinta Strausberg, “Obama Seeks Tougher Youth Crime Bill,” Chicago Defender, June 25, 1997, p. 5.
53. Chinta Strausberg, “Obama: Juvenile Justice System Flawed,” Chicago Defender, December 3, 1997, p. 3.
54. “Should a child ever be called a ‘super predator’?” The University of Chicago News Office, November 4, 1997, http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/
97/971104.juvenile.justice.shtml.
55. Chinta Strausberg, “Juvenile Justice Bill In Jeopardy?” Chicago De- fender, January 12, 1998, p. 1.
56. Holdern, “Juvenile Justice Reform Act”; Ray Serati, “Senate sends juvenile justice legislation to Gov. Edgar’s desk,” Copley News Service, January 29, 1998; Jason Piscia, “Senate approves Edgar’s changes to juvenile justice bill,” Copley News Service, May 5, 1998; Kurt Erickson and Mike Wiser, “Senate oks juvenile justice reforms,” The Pantagraph, May 6, 1998, p. A5; The Associated Press, “Toughened Illinois Juvenile Crime Law Wins Final OK; Dual Sentence Provision Could Keep Youths In Jail,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1998, p. B2.
57. Sam Youngman and Aaron Blake, “Obama’s crime votes are fodder for rivals,” The Hill, March 13, 2007, http://thehill.com/homenews/news/11316-obamas-crime
-votes-are-fodder-for-rivals.
58. Ayers, Fugitive Days, pp. 289–90.
59. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 280.
60. Martin Kramer, “Khalidi of the PLO,” Sandbox blog, October 30, 2008, http://sandbox.blog-city.com/khalidi
_of_the_plo.htm; Martin Kramer, “In praise of the LA Times,” Sandbox blog, November 2, 2008, http://sandbox.blog-city.com/in_praise
_of_the_los_angelestimes.htm.
61. Peter Wallsten, “Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama,” Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/
apr/10/nation/na-obamamideast10.
62. Ayers, Kind, pp. ix–x; Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 305; Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004, 2005), pp. 212–13.
63. Remnick, The Bridge, p. 281. See also Chapter Seven.
64. Edward McClelland, “The crazy uncles in Obama’s attic,” Salon, March 18, 2008, http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/
2008/03/18/hyde_park.
65. Woods Fund of Chicago, “2001 Annual Report,” p. 19; Freddoso, The Case Against Barack Obama, p. 149.
66. Joe Ruklick, “Fund-Raising Success Gives Obama Momentum,” Chicago Defender, July 26, 2003, p. 5.
67. Todd Spivak, “Racial Profiling Bill Blocked by Senate Leader, Again,” Hyde Park Herald, May 9, 2001, p. 1.
68. Ruklick, “Fund-Raising Success.”
69. Joe Ruklick, “Hail Passage of Anti-Crime Bills,” Chicago Defender, July 19, 2003, p. 1.
70. Heather Mac Donald, “The Myth of Racial Profiling,” City Journal, Spring 2001, http://www.city-journal
.org/html/11_2_the_myth.html.
71. Barack Obama, “Putting a Stop to Racial Profiling,” Hyde Park Herald, February 16, 2000, p. 4.
72. Heather Mac Donald, “Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?” City Journal, Spring 2008, http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18
_2criminal_justice_system.html.
73. Todd Spivak, “Obama Lobbies for State Racial Profiling Legislation,” Hyde Park Herald, February 28, 2001, pp. 1–2.
74. Jonann Brady, “Controversial Priest Returns to the Pulpit,” ABC News, June 26, 2008, http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=
5247464& page=1; “Michael Pfleger,” Discover the Networks, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individual
Profile.asp?indid=2313; “James Meeks,” Discover the Networks, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
individualProfile.asp?indid=2329.
75. Obama, The Audacity of Hope, pp. 230, 255, 258, 259.
76. Chinta Strausberg, “Illinois Black Caucus Bills Pass,” Chicago Defender, May 23, 2001, p. 10.
77. Randolph Burnside and Kami Whitehurst, “From the Statehouse to the White House?” Journal of Black Studies, July 31, 2007, pp. 77–91.
78. Ibid., p. 85.
79. Ibid., p. 84.
80. Charles N. Wheeler III, “Grim Prognosis,” Illinois Issues, April 2007, http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/
features/2007apr/health.html.
81. John O’Connor, “Few clear winners in austere state budget,” Associated Press, June 3, 2002; Adam Kovac, “Lawmakers Generally Play It Safe,” Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2002, Metro p. 1.
82. John O’Connor, “Legislators will have to cut more than they thought,” Associated Press, June 9, 2002.
83. “Passing the Buck,” Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 4, 2002, p. B6; “Get out the knife, Governor,” Editorial, Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2002, p. 18.
84. O’Connor, “Legislators will have to cut more.”
85. Barack Obama, “Special Session Brings Some Hard Choices,” Hyde Park Herald, July 3, 2002, p. 4; Chinta Strausberg, “Budget Cuts Severe to State’s HIV/AIDS Program,” Chicago Defender, June 11, 2002, p. 1.
86. Doug Finke, “Ryan leaves vetoes in lawmakers’ hands,” Copley News Service, June 10, 2002.
87. Charles N. Wheeler III, “The Hot Rod Express Speeds Toward a Budget Deficit Behemoth,” Illinois Issues, February 2003, http://illinoisissues-archive.uis
.edu/politics/budget2003.html.
88. On Obama’s work with Quentin Young, see Chapter Four. On Bernardin Amendment, see Barack Obama, “State Health Plan on the Table, Hyde Park Herald, November 10, 1999, p. 4; Burnside and Whitehurst, “From the Statehouse,” p. 90.
89. Barack Obama, “State-Wide Meetings Focus On Uninsured,” Hyde Park Herald, October 2, 2002, p. 4.
90. Chinta Strausberg, “Democrats Urge Congress to Help Seniors, Patients, Meet Rx Costs,” Chicago Defender, January 19, 2000; Obama, “State Health Plan;” Obama, “State-Wide Meetings.”
91. Todd Spivak, “Obama Bill Increases Rights for Rape Victims,” Hyde Park Herald, August 15, 2001, p. 2.
92. Freddoso, The Case Against Barack Obama, pp. 191–210.
93. Todd Spivak, “Sen. Obama Helps Defeat a Concealed Firearm Bill,” Hyde Park Herald, April 11, 2001, p. 3.
Chapter 10: The Obama Administration
1. Michael Harrington and the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, “Toward a Socialist Presence in America,” Social Policy, January/February 1974, pp. 5, 10.
2. Ibid., pp. 8–9.
3. This chapter freely draws upon all that has been established earlier in the book. When I am discussing material from a particular chapter, I’ll indicate it in these notes, although the links to earlier sections of the book are not meant to be exhaustive. This section on community organizing draws particularly on Chapter Four.
4. Gerald F. Seib, “In Crisis, Opportunity for Obama,” Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/
article/SB122721278056345271.html.
5. See Chapter Nine.
6. See Chapter Five.
7. Lynda Waddington, “Harkin: Think of Health Care Reform as a Starter Home,” Iowa Independent, December 17, 2009.
8. Boyte, Booth, Max, Citizen, pp. ix–x.
9. Norman J. Ornstein, “Obama: A Pragmatic Moderate Faces the ‘Socialist’ Smear,” Washington Post, April 14, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2010/04/13/
AR2010041303686.html.
10. Stephen Spruiell, “Unholy Union,” National Review, November 23, 2009, http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/
?q=ZGFmMDY4NzdkMmIwZTQ1MzU2
ZDA4NGZhNzJINGU2MTE=.
11. See Chapter Four.
12. See Chapter Five.
13. Jennifer Davis, “Freshmen Ponder Spring Lessons as They Return for the Fall Session,” Illinois Issues, October 1997, pp. 6–7.
14. See Chapter One.
15. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “For Obama, Nuance on Race Invites Questions,” New York Times, February 8, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/
09/us/politics/09race.html.
16. See Chapter Five.
17. Robert Jensen, “Is Obama a Socialist?” Counterpunch.org, September 25–27, 2009, http://www.counterpunch.org/
jensen09252009.html.
18. See Chapter Five.
19. See Chapter Five.
20. Mark Schmitt, “Populism Without Pitchforks,” American Prospect, October 20, 2008, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article
=populism_without_pitchforks.
21. “Obama Tells BW He’s Not Antibusiness,” BusinessWeek, July 29, 2009, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/
09_32/b4142000676096.htm.
22. See Chapter Two.
23. See Chapter Four.
24. Ed Morrissey, “Obama’s character assassins target another National Review journalist,” Hotair.com, September 16, 2008, http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/16/obamas-character-assassins-target-another-national-review-journalist.
25. “White House Launches Web Site to Battle Health Care ‘Rumors,’” Foxnews.com, August 10, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/10/white-house-launches-web-site-battle-health-care-rumors. Also see Chapter One.
26. Karl Rove, “The President is ‘Keeping Score,’” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1238
62834153780427.html.
27. Jim Rutenberg, “Behind the War Between White House and Fox,” New York Times, October 22, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
10/23/us/politics/23fox.html.
28. Robert Barnes and Anne E. Kornblut, “It’s Obama vs. the Supreme Court, Round 2, Over Campaign Finance Ruling,” Washington Post, March 11, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2010/03/09/
AR2010030903040.html.
29. De Zutter, “What Makes Obama Run?”
30. Ryan Lizza, “Making It: How Chicago Shaped Obama,” New Yorker, July 21, 2008, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/
2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lizza?
currentPage=all.
31. See Chapter Seven.
32. Robert Creamer, “Obama’s Secret Weapon: OFA,” Huffington Post, January 5, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert
-creamer/obamas-secret-weapon-ofa_
b_411605.html.
33. “Editorial: Rotten to the AmeriCorps,” Washington Times, February 10, 2010, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/
2010/feb/10/rotten-to-the-americorps/.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. See Chapter Two.
37. Obama, Dreams from My Father, pp. 169–70.
38. See Chapter Five.
39. See Chapter Six.
40. Patrice Hill, “Finance Bill Favors Interests of Unions, Activists,” Washington Times, July 14, 2010, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/
jul/14/finance-bill-favors-interests
-of-unions-activists/.
41. “Comments of H. Booth on S7-10-09,” August 10, 2009, Securities Ex-change Commission, http://www.sec.gov/comments/
s7-10-09s71009-91.htm; Americans for Financial Reform, “Here’s what’s on deck today, June 17, in the financial reform Conference Committee,” at http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2009/06/
call-congress-toll-free-at
-866-544-7573-2/.
42. Michael Harrington, “Serious About Socialism,” Democratic Left, November 1979, p. 4.
43. See Chapter Five.
44. See Chapter Six.
45. “Fannie Motors,” National Review Online, June 2, 2009, http://article.nationalreview.com/
395777/fannie-motors/the-editors.
46. Matthew Continetti, “The Bailout State,” Weekly Standard, June 15, 2009, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/
Articles/000/000/016/586sjvrv.asp.
47. Fred Barnes, “The Triumph of Crony Capitalism,” Weekly Standard, July 13, 2009, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/
Articles/000/000/016/695beqni.asp.
48. Ibid.
49. Franklin Foer, Noam Scheiber, “Nudge-ocracy,” New Republic, May 6, 2009, http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/
nudge-ocracy
50. See Chapter One.
51. John Judis, “Fundamentally Different,” New Republic, April 23, 2009, http://www.tnr.com/article/
politics/fundamentally-different.
52. See Chapter Five.
53. John Judis, “Classless,” New Republic, August 6, 2009, http://www.tnr.com/article/
politics/classless.
54. Thomas B. Edsall, “The Obama Coalition,” Atlantic, April 2010, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/
archive/2010/04/the-obama-coalition/38266/.
55. See Chapter Two.
56. See Chapter Two.
57. See Chapter Two.