Jerry Kellman, Hired & Supervised Sen. Obama
At Developing Communities Project - Chicago, Illinois
Remarks As Prepared For Delivery
August 25, 2008:

In 1985, I needed to hire a community organizer. I found myself in New York City, across from a 25-year-old recent college graduate. I wanted to convince him to give up a comfortable life and a bright future to come to Chicago to take up the toughest of challenges for a salary of just $10,000 a year.

It was not difficult to convince Barack to take the job. All I had to do was describe what had happened to people on the south side of Chicago. The region had once been the largest producer of steel in the entire world, but the mills had shut down one by one. Other industries began to close, then stores and offices. Without jobs, neighborhoods unraveled and kids became easy prey for gangs and drugs.

Two weeks later, using $2,000 we gave him to buy a car, Barack arrived in Chicago. Many before had quit in frustration at the challenges of organizing. Not Barack. If something didn't work, he'd stay up all night long until he figured out what went wrong and how to fix it. With his help, people who had been shut out of decisions and robbed of dignity all their lives found their voice and found one another.

He was their teacher. He stayed out of the limelight so they could shine. He earned their trust. He listened to the stories of their lives and helped them write a new story. He became one of the family. Single mothers, much like his own mom, fed him and tried to fatten him up. Obviously, that didn't work.

Barack took people who had all but given up and gave them hope. Barack took people who often disagreed with one another, who sometimes disliked one another, and taught them to work together.

His hero was Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack embraced Dr. King's vision of the beloved community, a community in which all human beings could discover that they indeed were the beloved sons and daughters of God.

When he told me he had decided to leave organizing to attend law school, this is what he said: We need significant change if we are to remain a nation of fairness, dignity and hope. He wanted to be in a place where he could help others to bring about that change. Neither of us could have imagined on that night 20 years ago that the place would be the White House. But this is America. This is the place where dreams come true. Barack Obama offers the change we need.