Barack Obama Sample Chapter

8/6/2019 Barack Obama Sample Chapter

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The Journey Begins

Barack Obama is like the country he is president o—adiverse4 mix o races, cultures and religious inuences5.

The United States o America has not always ound it easy tounderstand and live with its diverse culture. The same is true

o Barack Obama. His journey to the White House was thejourney o a young man trying to discover who he was, whathis talents6 were and what he should do with his lie.

Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961.Although he was born on the island o Hawaii, his backgroundlinks him to lands very ar rom the Pacifc and very dierentrom each other. His mother was rom Kansas, a state in the

U.S.A., and his ather was rom Kenya, a country in Arica.His mother’s name was Stanley Ann Dunham. Stanley is a

strange name or a girl. Stanley’s ather wanted a boy so whena baby girl was born, he gave her the name he had planned orthe son he was expecting.

Ann, as she liked to be called, was the only child o acouple rom Wichita, Kansas—Stanley Armour Dunham and

Madelyn Lee Payne. Stanley and Madelyn had liberal7

ideasand a love o adventure. Ater they were married in 1940, theydreamed o traveling the world, but World War II had justbegun and had made traveling difcult.

Stanley joined the army, and the couple moved to an armybase in Kansas called Fort Leavenworth, where Stanley trainedto be a soldier beore going to fght in Europe. Ann was born atFort Leavenworth in November 1942. When the war ended in1945, Stanley returned rom Europe to his wie and daughter,but he was not sure where he wanted to live. Stanley movedhis amily frst to Caliornia, then back to Kansas and then to

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Texas. In Texas, Stanley and Madelyn saw the racism8 thatwas normal in America at the time. Stanley now worked in aurniture store. The store only served Arican-American andMexican customers ater it was closed. The other employeestold Stanley that white customers would not shop in the storei blacks and Mexicans were there. That worried Stanley,but there was nothing he could do to change the situation.Madelyn was also upset by the racism that she saw. At her jobin a bank, Madelyn was criticized9 or being “too polite” to the

bank’s black janitor10.Stanley and Madelyn believed that people’s characters were

more important than the color o their skin, and they taughtthis belie to Ann. However, there was a very dierent way o thinking in Texas at the time. At the age o about eleven, thisbecame clear to Ann when she invited a black riend to herhome to play. This was fne with Ann’s parents, but not with

other people in the neighborhood. When a group o childrensaw Ann playing with her black riend, they began to throwstones at the girls and call them bad names. Ann was araidand went inside the house. Her black riend ran away.

Ann’s ather was shocked and angry. He complained tothe parents o the children who had been throwing stones,and their reaction surprised him. Instead o saying sorry, they

said that he should tell Ann that in Texas black and whitechildren did not play together. Stanley, Madelyn and Annwere growing tired o Texas. They thought about going to apart o the country where people had more liberal ideas aboutrace and religion.

Not long ater that, the amily decided to move to Seattle,Washington. Stanley worked in another urniture store,Madelyn ound a job in a bank and Ann began high school.

Ann liked to learn. She loved to read about other culturesand to explore new ways o thinking. She would meet herriends in coee shops where they would talk or hours about

The Journey Begins

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how to make the world better. Ann was a very good student andshe was oered a place at the University o Chicago, one o theU.S.A.’s best universities, at the age o only sixteen. But herather elt that Ann was too young to live on her own, and hewould not let her go. So in 1959, Ann moved with her parentsto Hawaii, where Stanley’s company had just opened a newurniture store. They lived in Honolulu, the state’s largest cityand the home o the University o Hawaii, where in 1960 Annbegan to study anthropology11. Ann was in a Russian language

class at the University o Hawaii when she met Barack HusseinObama, a student rom Kenya.

Barack Senior12 (as he was later called so he would notbe conused with his son by the same name, Barack HusseinObama Junior) had been born in 1936 in the poor village o Kanyadhiang, near Lake Victoria. At that time this region o Arica was still part o the British Empire. Barack Sr.’s ather,

Hussein Onyango Obama, had ought with the British armyin Europe in World War I and had traveled to many dierentcountries as a soldier. When he returned to Arica he became aChristian or a while, but then he changed to Islam and added“Hussein” to his name.

Barack Sr. was a clever, ambitious13 boy. Traditional villagelie, which meant looking ater goats and helping in the arm

felds, didn’t interest him. He oten got into trouble at schooland argued with his ather at home. At the age o eighteenhe let his village to go to Kenya’s largest city, Nairobi. By hisearly twenties, he had a wie, two children, a job as a shopassistant and little money. The uture did not look very goodor Barack Sr., but then two American school teachers helpedhim to apply to several universities in the U.S.A. In 1959,at the age o twenty-three, he was oered a ull scholarship14

to study economics at the University o Hawaii. And so hetraveled alone to the U.S.A. and became the University o Hawaii’s frst Arican student.

The Journey Begins

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Like Ann, Barack Sr. was interested in new ways o thinking.

“Although my ather had been raised a Muslim,” his son wouldlater write, “by the time he met my mother he was a confrmedatheist15, thinking religion to be so much superstition16.”

Ann and Barack Sr. began dating. At the time, this wasa dangerous thing to do in much o the U.S.A. Many peoplethought it was wrong or black and white people to haveromantic relationships with each other. In hal o the states inthe U.S.A., it was illegal.

But Hawaii was a long way rom the other U.S. states, bothgeographically and culturally. Nobody in Hawaii cared whetherAnn and Barack Sr. were rom the same or dierent races.

The Journey Begins

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Barack Hussein Obama Senior as a young man



Ann’s parents were impressed by Barack Sr.’s warmpersonality and intelligence. Stanley and Madelyn liked him,but they were not happy when, early in 1961, Ann and BarackSr. got married. They were worried that the dierences inculture and background would cause problems or the couple.

Stanley and Madelyn were upset and Barack Sr.’s ather wasvery angry. He reminded his son that he already had a wie andtwo children in Kenya. (Ann thought they had separated, butthis was not true.) He did not think that Ann would be happy

in Arica and he did not want Barack Sr. to stay in the U.S.A.ater his graduation rom university. He told his son to return toKenya and use his education to help his people. But there wasanother reason or Hussein Onyango Obama’s unhappiness.He wrote an angry letter to Ann’s ather saying that he “didn’twant the Obama blood sullied17 by a white woman.”

Barack Sr. was very successul at the University o Hawaii,

but Ann decided to leave. In August 1961, at the age o eighteen, she gave birth to a baby boy. The baby was namedater his ather—Barack Hussein Obama Jr. Barack means“blessed” in Swahili, one o the ofcial languages o Kenya,and in Arabic. Hussein means “beautiul” in Arabic.

In 1963, Barack Sr. graduated rom the University o Hawaii. He decided not to listen to his ather and he did not

return to Kenya. He wanted to stay in the U.S.A. to continuehis studies and work toward a Ph.D. in economics. He appliedto several American universities and was oered a ullscholarship by Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.The scholarship would give Barack Sr. enough money to liveand study in Boston. However, Ann and Barry, as Barack Jr.was oten called as a child, would have to stay in Hawaii.

Harvard is one o the best and most well-known universities

in the world, and Barack Sr. elt that he could not say no tothis oer. Barack Jr. was just two years old when his ather letthe amily home in Hawaii and ew to Massachusetts.

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Barack Sr. planned one day to return to Kenya with Ann andBarack Jr. However, with her husband away at Harvard, Ann

had time to think about her uture with him. Kenya could be adangerous place, and Ann worried about their saety there. Shealso knew that Barack Sr. already had a wie and two childrenin Kenya. Although it was normal in her husband’s cultureor a man to have more than one wie, it was not somethingthat Ann was used to. So ater Barack Sr. fnished his studiesat Harvard, he returned to Kenya without Ann and Barack Jr.Many o Ann’s riends and some o her amily blamed BarackSr. or leaving his wie and son, and the marriage ended indivorce. It would be a long time beore young Barack Jr. wouldsee his ather again.

The Journey Begins

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Barack Jr. with his mother, Ann Dunham, in the early 1960s

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Barack Obama Sample Chapter