School Professor Charles Ogletree can be called many things. The fact
that Ogletree, an African American, taught both Barack and Michelle
Obama when they were law students at the Cambridge, Mass., institution
can be called fantastic luck, great fortune or serendipity. On the eve
of the historic inauguration, Ogletree would rather be called immensely
proud. He says he’s “grown up with them” in a sense, watching them go
from trying to solve legal problems at Harvard to trying “to solve
worldly problems” in the White House. And Ogletree even admits that he
underestimated Barack Obama, even though he felt that Obama would have
a substantial impact on people in the future. He just never fathomed
that Obama’s path would lead to the Oval Office.
“This is going to be a very emotional day for me. And one minute after
noon tomorrow, I’m going to be able to say – as I’ve said in August
when he was nominated [at the Democratic National Convention] and on
Nov. 4 when he won the election and what I’ll say tomorrow when he’s
sworn in – is that we’ve done it.”
First Lady Michelle Obama attended Harvard Law School beginning in
1985. Pres. Barack Obama started the same school three years later. So
they never met until they both had graduated and returned to the South
Side of Chicago, where they both lived. The former Michelle Robinson
interviewed a younger Barack Obama for a position at a law firm she was
working at; and they were married a little more than a year later. But
Barack and Michelle made deep impressions on Ogletree, the tenured
Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard.
“Michelle really impressed me. She was a great student, but she was
also very committed to the community. She worked at the legal aid
bureau. She represented poor families in civil legal services – people
who were being evicted from their homes and things of that nature. So I
knew about her values and service,” Ogletree says. “She said said
‘Tree’ – because that’s what my law students call me – ‘My father has
given me is the opportunity to make a difference in lives. So I’m going
to use my talents to make sure that I do everything I can to help
others’. She left Harvard Law School, and she kept her promise to her
father, went back to the south side of Chicago.”
“Barack came in 1988, and he was smart, quiet, but incredibly
resourceful,” Ogletree continues. “He was the smartest in his class. He
was elected the first black president, not just the first black editor
of the Law Review, because there are 40 editors. But the first black
president, which meant he was in charge of the entire intellectual
property of Harvard Law School, in terms of scholarships for faculty.
And no African American in the history of Harvard had ever held that
position.”
When Barack Obama decided to run for state office, he tapped into the
extremely resourceful and influential Harvard network of teachers and
former students. Ogeltree said the Harvard family believed him. But
Ogletree admits he thought that Obama would be a trailblazer at a much
lower level than president.
“He was very hardworking. He was very hands on. But I underestimated
him. I said Barack Obama has so many talents, so many skills, and is
such a people person that he’s going to be one of the best mayors in
the history of mayors. But in reality, it was not to downgrade him, but
the sense is that he was going to be someone who was going to touch
people that he was going to do things that was extraordinary. No task
was too small or too complicated. And that’s why I thought he was going
to be a great asset to the country.”
So when Barack was destroyed in his congressional race against beloved
incumbent Bobby Rush in 2000, (Obama’s only political defeat), Ogletree
was shocked at what race Obama wanted to run next. “He said ‘I’m going
to run for the senate’. And I said, ‘the state senate? That’s great,
you’ve been there before’. And he said ‘no, no, no . I’m running for
United States senate’. And I said ‘are you out of your mind?!'”
But Barack’s sense of hopefulness and eloquence as why he should run
convinced Ogletree that Obama was, indeed, in his right mind – even
though Obama had no money and was in last place. Needless to say, Obama
won the U.S. senate seat in 2004, and the rest, as they say, is
history. Ogletree says Obama sowed the seeds of his presidential
victory by what he chose to do after he left law school.
“Barack left Harvard Law School as he promised his mother and went to
back the south side of Chicago. So instead of going to make money and
being famous, they [Barack and Michelle] went back to help the next
generation to help them and lift them up,” Ogletree says. “They are, to
me, prime examples of people who had much and used their opportunities
to help others.” –terry shropshire
