The Battle for Illinois Two Law School Alumni Square O≠ for a Pivotal U.S
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Alumni-final 6/18/04 12:43 PM Page 75 ALUMNI The Battle for Illinois Two Law School alumni square o≠ for a pivotal U.S. Senate seat. On a temperamental May evening, Sena- tor Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Chicago on a political mission, arriving late at a downtown hotel where the main ballroom had reached its 500-person ca- pacity. “Excuse me, I’ve got the senator here,” said an aide, convincing a door- keeper to admit the actual beneficiary of all that attention: state senator Barack Obama, J.D. ’91, the Democratic candidate for the open Illinois seat in the U.S. Senate. Although it was the former First Lady who attracted the movie-star whistles, the usually soft-spoken Obama greeted the crowd’s cheers with a war whoop after his introduction onstage. After a few genial re- marks, he couldn’t re- sist a sober law-pro- fessor admonition: DAVID KATZ “The Constitution Above: Democratic senatorial candidate Barack Obama, J.D. ’91, addresses a crowd in southern Illinois. At left: Republican senatorial matters. We have a candidate Jack Ryan, J.D.-M.B.A. ’84. mutual obligation to each other that ex- Society may have who narrowly defeated Democratic in- presses itself in good had good inten- cumbent Carol Moseley Braun in 1998— government.” tions, their 35- opted against running for a second term. Meanwhile, in Oak year-old experi- His decision prompted 15 Democratic and Park, a Chicago sub- ment has clearly Republican candidates to square o≠ in the urb known for liberal failed, Ryan ar- March 16 primaries. The victorious nomi- politics, Republican gued. Half a cen- nees, Ryan and Obama (neither an initial candidate Jack Ryan, tury after Brown v. front runner) make this a national story. J.D.-M.B.A. ’84, dis- Board of Education, Both appeal to independents as well as cussed medical mal- he declared, most party regulars. Both are bright, articulate, practice and educa- of this country’s and telegenic—literally tall, dark, slender, tion concerns with children are still and handsome—running on social-justice businesspeople and studying in seg- records that defy not only party stereo- doctors in a support- COURTESY OF JACK RYAN CAMPAIGN OFFICE regated schools, types, in Ryan’s case, but those of modern er’s living room. Ryan, who quit an invest- and minorities generally attend the worst politicians in general. ment-banking career to teach in an urban ones. “This is the biggest civil-rights issue Each challenged himself intellectually at school, engaged in spirited conversation of our time,” he declared, adding that solv- Harvard Law School. Ryan, now 44, re- before rising to address the group. Stand- ing that problem is not only a moral imper- members the verbal sparring encouraged ing before an ornate fireplace, he chal- ative, but a practical necessity. by law professor Alan Dershowitz, “who lenged the guests: “How do we make life could successfully argue any side of any ar- better for everyone?” The illinois race began when incum- gument.” Obama, 42, recalls assembling a Although the architects of the Great bent Peter G. Fitzgerald—a Republican special Harvard Law Review tribute about Harvard Magazine 75 Alumni-final 6/18/04 12:44 PM Page 76 JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL cal science with an emphasis on interna- and it’s rural and it’s downstate, it’s tional a≠airs, while developing a strong northern, it’s southern, it’s black, white, interest in community activism. After Hispanic,” Obama says. “It has all the graduating, in 1983, he accepted a job trends and cross-currents.” Working in working with displaced steelworkers in the state capital, 200 miles southwest of Chicago. In 1988, he enrolled at Harvard Chicago, has taught him some important Law School, where he became the first lessons. “Most of the time in Springfield, African-American president of the Law you are working in obscurity, so the em- Review and, in his last semester, ran for the phasis is on substance rather than hype,” Board of Overseers as one of three (unsuc- he says. “The substance of politics is to COURTESY OF JACK RYAN CAMPAIGN OFFICE cessful) petition candidates backed by extend healthcare for children who didn’t Ryan announced his candidacy at Hales Franciscan School, the Catholic high school in Harvard-Radcli≠e Alumni/ae Against have it [as Obama has done through legis- Chicago where he had been teaching. Apartheid. (Media attention led to a book lation] or reform the death penalty.” deal that became Dreams from My Father: A U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Bren- Story of Race and Inheritance, a thoughtful re- Ryan, a native of the Chicago suburb of nan’s impact on the American legal sys- flection on his unique heritage.) After law Wilmette, was one of six children born tem. “He sent back a letter expressing his school, he served as the Illinois state di- into an upper-middle-class family. His fa- gratitude,” Obama says. “I still have that rector for Project Vote Smart, an organi- ther “spent 40 years in the pit” of the letter framed in my o∞ce.” zation that enlisted more than 100,000 Chicago Board of Trade; his mother, as a Beyond that, their paths diverge. Ryan, new voters in the state, mostly in minor- parent activist, helped save an all-black a graduate of Dartmouth, is a self-made ity communities, in 1992. Catholic girls’ school in the city. Ryan multimillionaire. After his marriage to TV Obama first ran for o∞ce in 1997 and has played basketball for New Trier High star Jeri Ryan broke up, he switched from represented the Thirteenth Illinois Senate School, then played football at Dart- finance to education, teaching history, District, a social and economic mix of mouth. A 1981 Phi Beta Kappa graduate, English, and SAT preparation skills in an urban constituents, ever since. He chairs he enrolled in Harvard’s joint J.D.-M.B.A. all-black Catholic high school for boys on the health and human services committee program. After graduating he spent six Chicago’s South Side. He has never held and serves on the judiciary and local gov- months working with Central American elective o∞ce. Obama, a graduate of Co- ernment committees. While campaigning, refugees in Texas before joining Goldman, lumbia, is a former community activist he is on leave from the University of Sachs in Chicago. He eventually made and lecturer at the University of Chicago Chicago, where he has been a senior lec- millions specializing in mergers and ac- Law School. A married father of two, he is turer since 1993. He lives near the campus quisitions. in his seventh year as a state legislator. If in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood with In 1994, he married Jeri Lynn Zimmer- elected, he would be the only African his wife, Michelle (Robinson), J.D. ’88, an man, a former Miss Illinois whom he met American in the U.S. Senate, and only the attorney and executive director of commu- at a charity event. They have a son, now 9, fifth in U.S. history. nity a≠airs at the University of Chicago who lives in Los Angeles with his mother, Hospital, and their two young daughters. an actress best known for her roles as the The son of a white mother from Kansas (The couple met in 1989 when Obama took cat-suit-clad Seven of Nine on Star Trek: and a black father from Kenya, Obama de- a summer job at a Chicago law firm where Voyager and a lawyer-turned-teacher in scribes his background as “exotic.” His Robinson was a new associate.) Boston Public. After their divorce in 1999, parents met as students at the University His only political misstep: running un- Ryan decided to make his dramatic career of Hawaii. When Obama was 2, his father successfully against congressman (and for- change. He opted against public-school left Hawaii for Harvard (he earned a mas- mer Black Panther) Bobby L. Rush in the teaching when he learned he’d need two ter’s in economics in 1965). Obama saw 2000 Democratic primary, a decision that more years of education courses to qual- his father only once again, when he was burned some bridges in the African-Amer- ify—a requirement that he calls “crazy.” 10. In the meantime, his parents had di- ican community. This time, Obama is run- The Roman Catholic archdiocese of vorced and his mother had moved the ning a methodical, centrist campaign em- Chicago, on the other hand, welcomed his family to Indonesia, her second husband’s phasizing his legislative record on homeland, where Obama experienced a education, healthcare, civil rights, Muslim culture and a Catholic school. criminal justice, and insurance reform But the region’s volatile political situation as he stumps the state. strained this marriage, and eventually “Part of what’s wonderful about Obama, his mother, and a new sister re- Illinois generally is it’s a microcosm turned to Hawaii, where his Midwestern- [of the United States]—it’s urban born grandparents played a major role in Obama and his wife, Michelle (Robin- his upbringing. son), J.D. ’88, at an Operation PUSH At Columbia, Obama majored in politi- meeting in Chicago. DAVID KATZ 76 July - August 2004 Alumni-final 6/18/04 12:44 PM Page 77 interest and, in the fall of 2000, he began teaching in the all-black, all-boys Hales Longer-lasting Harvardians Franciscan School. The school emphasizes high standards and rigorous discipline, in- In his foreward to the anniversary report of the class of 1954, class secretary John cluding “daily checks of the gig line,” Ryan T.Bethell made some upbeat observations about longevity.The good news, he wrote, told supporters in that Oak Park living “is that so many of us are still here to stand up and be counted.