In Part 2 of the series, published on March 27th, Tribune writer Tim Jones profiled Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.
The profile of Dunham reveals some troubling things about her ideology, her parenting, and the influence her ideas may have had on her son, Barack, who was known as Barry in elementary school.
Stanley Ann Dunham was born in Kansas in November, 1942 to Stanley and Madelyn Dunham. In 1955, the family moved from El Dorado, Kansas to the Seattle area, settling on Mercer Island near Seattle.
Stanley Ann attended Mercer High School. The head of the Mercer Island School Board at the time was John Stenhouse, who testified in 1955 before the House Committee on Un-American Activities that he was a Communist Party member.
Stanley Ann, who already had a rebellious nature, fell under the influence of two teachers: Val Foubert and Jim Wichterman, who taught their students to challenge social norms and question authority. Wichterman taught philosophy. He taught them about Sartre, Kierkegaard, and questioned the existence of God. He also had them reading The Communist Manifesto.
Stanley Ann and her parents attended the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue. The current senior pastor, Peter Luton, told the Tribune: “In the 1950s, this was sometimes known as ‘the little Red church on the hill.’"
According to one of Stanley Ann’s fellow students, “She touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she’d read about and could argue,” said Maxine Box.
Chip Wall, who attended high school with Stanley Ann, described her as a “fellow traveler. … We were liberals before we knew what liberals were.” The term fellow traveler typically describes a person who was in agreement with Communist ideology, but was not formally a member of the Communist Party.
The family eventually moved to Hawaii and Stanley Ann began attending the University of Hawaii in 1960 where she met a young man named Barack Obama from Kenya.
Barack Obama, Sr., was married at the time to Kezia Obama, who was three months pregnant when her husband moved to Hawaii on a government scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii. Obama never formally divorced Kezia, yet married Stanley Ann while living in Hawaii.
Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) attended college with Barack and Stanley Ann and was part of their ongoing political discussions. Abercrombie describes Stanley Ann as “the original feminist.”
Six months after Barack and Stanley Ann wed, they announced the birth of Barack Obama, Jr. on August 4, 1961.
Barack Obama, Sr., soon left his wife and newborn son, Barack, Jr., to continue his studies at Harvard University.
He eventually returned to Kenya and worked as an economist for the government of President Jomo Kenyatta, who was formerly the leader of the feared terrorist group, the Mau Mau. This group was formed in the 1950s to oust the British from Kenya. It engaged in brutal slaughters throughout Kenya and Kenyatta was imprisoned for years for his role in terrorist killings.
Stanley Ann filed for divorce in 1964 and remarried two years later to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian who was a non-committed Muslim. Soetoro was attending the University of Hawaii. A nephew described Soetoro as someone who loved drinking and was “the naughtiest one in the family.”
After Soetoro’s student visa was revoked due to unrest in Indonesia, Stanley Ann, Barack, Jr., moved to Indonesia with him where the young boy attended school from 1967 to 1971. In Indonesia, Stanley Ann worked for the Ford Foundation.
In Indonesia, Barack Jr., attended a Catholic school and later a public school that included Muslims and Christians.
Eventually, Stanley Ann and Barack Jr. moved back to Hawaii, where Barack attended the Punahou School, an elite private prep academy. He graduated in 1979.
During his time at Punahou, his mother decided to move back to Indonesia. Barack chose to stay in Hawaii to finish high school and lived with his grandparents. Stanley Ann divorced from Lolo Soetoro in the late 1970s.
At some point in the 1970s when Barack was attending school in Hawaii, he became acquainted with Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party, USA. Davis had moved to Hawaii in 1948 from Chicago where he had been involved in Marxist-related activities.
In Hawaii, he became a mentor to Barack Obama, the man who seeks the Presidency of the United States.
Kathryn Waddell Takara, Ph.D., a Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii, has written at least two lengthy analyses of Frank M. Davis’s political activities both in Hawaii and while he was living in Chicago. Takara created the first Black Studies department at the U of H in 1971 and is an associate of such notable leftists as Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael.
Takara’s paper, “Frank Marshall Davis: Black Labor Activist and Outsider Journalist: Social Movements In Hawaii,” describes Davis’ radical activities in Hawaii as both a writer and labor organizer.
How this committed Communist became a mentor to Barack Obama remains a mystery, but it is likely that his mother was somehow involved in far left activities in Hawaii and met Davis through her left-wing network on the University of Hawaii campus. Perhaps an enterprising reporter could ask Senator Obama how he met Davis and what sort of influence he may have had on him. Likewise, one can only speculate on the influence his rebellious, left-wing mother had on his political beliefs and aspirations.
Additional Resources: Who Are Barack And Michelle Obama?; Michelle Obama Expose Published By ‘The New Yorker’; Who Is David Axelrod – Obama’s Political Advisor?; The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth