--- title: Obama's Chicago Part 1: The Organizer | TIME description: A community member and the man who hired him to come to Chicago describe the young man named Barack who came to the city's south side in 1985 canonical: https://time.com/video/0nvdEyta/ og:title: Obama's Chicago Part 1: The Organizer og:description: A community member and the man who hired him to come to Chicago describe the young man named Barack who came to the city's south side in 1985 og:url: https://time.com/video/0nvdEyta/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0nvdEyta/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama's Chicago Part 1: The Organizer twitter:description: A community member and the man who hired him to come to Chicago describe the young man named Barack who came to the city's south side in 1985 twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0nvdEyta/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Obama's Chicago Part 1: The Organizer > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Obama's Chicago Part 1: The Organizer [Watch (HLS stream): Obama's Chicago Part 1: The Organizer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0nvdEyta.m3u8) (6:18)  _Published 2013-12-05. A community member and the man who hired him to come to Chicago describe the young man named Barack who came to the city's south side in 1985_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:04 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Federal Judge OKs a Lawsuit Aimed at Halting Obama's Library in Chicago](/video/f3DoVKQx/) ### Federal Judge OKs a Lawsuit Aimed at Halting Obama's Library in Chicago [Barack Obama Unveils His Plans for His Presidential Library on Chicago's South Side](/video/sEi9SrED/) ### Barack Obama Unveils His Plans for His Presidential Library on Chicago's South Side [Obama's Chicago - Part 2](/video/gL9hVHk5/) ### Obama's Chicago - Part 2 --- ## Transcript >> Hello Chicago. >> Every president's story has a creation myth, a moment or place where leadership was fostered and tested. 44 American stories with cherry trees and log cabins, battlefields and navy boats, Texas- sized reinvention, and a place called hope. And for Barack Obama who stood before a stadium crowd to accept his party's nomination, there was Chicago. >> Thank you. When I listened to another worker tell me that his factory has shutdown, I remember all those men and women on the south side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed. >> Barack and history came at the-- came at the right time. >> I always thought he was gonna be president. It was just something about him. It's a rarity. >> Obama's memories of struggle and hope are informed largely by the years he spent working as a community organizer in housing projects on Chicago's south side. >> He was very young, but he was very brilliant. Very serious even then. In his book, Dreams from My Father, Obama says he knew what he wanted to do when he graduated from Columbia University. >> In 1983, I decided to become a community organizer. Change won't come from the top I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grassroots. >> Jerry Kellman was looking for someone to help him work in Chicago's black communities, which had been hard hit by two decades of layoffs in the steel industry. >> Many of the issues involving services to the black community. Barack was an outsider, so making them believe to identifying with people who are poor, people who faced racial discrimination was not a stretch for him. I think that what he wanted was to be a civil rights organizer, but we're 11 or 12 years too late. >> Obama did much of his work here at a public housing project called Altgeld Gardens. >> Everything about the Gardens seemed a perpetual state of disrepair. Part of the problem was our base, which in the city at least have never been large. Eight Catholic parishes flung across several neighborhoods all with black congregations, but all led by white priests. >> Obama worked with Loretta Augustine- Herron helping empower the community of mostly African- Americans. >> We have rallies here. He trained people to understand the difference between a problem and an issue. A problem is vague, large, kind of something you can't get a grip on, but an issue is small, doable, and winnable and then go to whoever is responsible for resolving it. >> One project was getting residents to demand hazardous asbestos be removed from their homes. >> I think it was one of those turning points where people were really engaged in something that impacted on their lives. When you're talking about getting people engaged and standing up and fighting for their own rights and understanding what those rights are, you know, you're talking about some major stuff here. >> Obama connected with people on the south side and he developed a sense of belonging in Chicago. >> Barack is the only person that ever been president who has a-- who as an adult has lived with the poor and worked with the poor and that kind of way. He has that aspect of knowledge and involvement, which I think makes him-- makes him unique and gives him a broader of who-- what America is about to a lot of people. >> The fact that Obama's world view had been shaped by those three years as a community organizer was something that political opponents seized upon. >> He worked as a community organizer. Maybe this is the first problem on the resume. >> I guess a small- town mayor is sort of like a community organizer except that you have actual responsibilities. >> The community that Barack was in- charge of was larger than the State of Alaska in terms of numbers. >> I thought it showed ignorance even when you look at women suffrage. Don't you think this was a grand type of organizing going on? These were community organizers, by the way. How could these people be so out of touch that they didn't understand that? >> If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, tonight is your answer. >> Obama's opponents tried to undermine his bid for the White House by belittling his Chicago experience, but former colleagues say the lessons he learned long ago organizing people here will set the tone for his presidency. >> He's obviously reflective. He's thinking all the time. He isn't just jumping into action and he's also enormously resilient if things don't go well. He doesn't tank. He steps back. He thinks it through and steps right back into it. >> Could you imagine being a part of this-- and I will say dream team-- this team that has an opportunity to put a party together that will bring America back to her rightful place in the world and in society? Come on now, that's a rare chance and I think he'll make it work. >> Thank you. 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