Barack Obama was at Altgeld Gardens from 1985 to 1988. It was where he first became a community organizer.
If you see Obama’s life as following the pattern of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (think about it), then Altgeld Gardens was the Island of Misfit Toys.
Altgeld Gardens was a place without gardens, a low-rise housing estate that stands near the southern edge of Chicago, on the banks of the poisoned Calumet River. When it was built in the 1940s for black soldiers returning from the war, there was plenty of work in the nearby steel mills. But by the time Obama got there 40 years later the steel mills were all closed. There were street gangs and most lived in poverty. It was solidly black.
Across the street was a huge sewage plant. The parallel was not lost on Obama.
Obama got his degree at Columbia University in 1983. He told everyone he would become a community organizer and wrote to anyone who might help him. No luck. So he worked for two years in New York. For a while he even worked for Ralph Nader in Harlem
At last in 1985 someone answered one of his letters. Obama packed his belongings in his car and headed for Chicago. Not so much as a do-gooder, but in hopes of making sense of who he was.
When he got there Obama noticed that blacks talked quite a bit about what was wrong. They even had some good-sounding ideas, like black nationalism and self-esteem. But he also saw that an idea meant nothing unless it was backed by large numbers of people working together to put it into action.
So Obama’s challenge was to get poor blacks together in large enough numbers behind an issue so that the city would have to do something. The grass roots thing.
The man who brought him to Chicago was white. He saw poor blacks as poor but not as black. Maybe that was good in a way, but Obama saw that the people in Altgeld were not just fighting against poverty, they were also fighting the poison that whites had filled their minds with that made them hate their own blackness.
Whites blamed blacks for their own poverty. Blacks knew what a self-serving lie that was, but a part of them believed it: that when things went wrong it was because they were black, that deep down they were no good, just like white people said.
Obama was able to get work for some and worked to get the city to remove asbestos from Altgeld. It changed him. It showed what he could do. But it also showed him that he needed to rise in the power machine to to make the changes that would truly help Altgeld. So in 1988 he left to get his law degree at Harvard.
Some people even then believed he would one day become president.
See also:
- Altgeld Gardens on Google Maps – Altgeld is at 41.656 North, 87.602 West.
- Barack Obama
- Obama at Columbia
- There is absolutely nothing wrong with being black
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- black ghetto
I thought you might find this interesting.
Moveon.org, a website and organization of Obama supporters (famous and non-famous) is running this Ad competition called “Obama in 30 seconds”. People submit 30 second ads/videos about what they think Barack represents to this country right now. The winner has their Ad played on national TV .To look at the videos and vote, you can go to http://obamain30seconds.org. One of my mom’s good friends has submitted her own Ad: http://obamain30seconds.org/vote/?v=view-2476-QNl8BP
you can vote for more than one, so please, so her some support.
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Thanks.
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The organizing to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens began well before Obama arrived and continued after he left. He did not begin the effort nor did he end it. He was a participant after it had already begun. He was bright enough to understand that his life could only advance if he continued his education. So he left and went to law school.
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That sounds likely.
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Anyone have any news footage of Obama and Altgeld Gardens. I need it for a documentary.
Please send me an e-mail
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So what do you think about Obama now? He is pushing the largest tax hike in US history and is trying to push manufacturing jobs out of the country with Cap&Trade. How is this going to help anyone in the AG, let alone the whole country? He used the AG as a political stepping stone so he could say that he worked FOR the people. Through his whole political career, he has ONLY raised taxes for those people whom he claimed to help. Do some research people. Wake up. This man is screwing us all.
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