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Gamaliel and the Barack Obama Connection
by Gregory A. Galluzzo
President elect Barack Obama has throughout his political career made
repeated references to his time as a community organizer on the South
Side of Chicago. It is important that we all understand the connection
between Barack and Gamaliel. In l980 Mary Gonzales and I created the
United Neighborhood Organization of Chicago.
In l982 we decided that we needed some expertise from someone who had
done faith based community organizing. A person who had worked as such
an organizer in Illinois and in Pennsylvania approached me about joining
our organizing team. His name was Jerry Kellman. Jerry helped Mary and
myself become better organizers. While he was working for us, he
connected with a group called the Calumet Community Religious Conference
(CCRC) operating on the South Side in the South Suburbs of Chicago, and
in Indiana. CCRC had been formed in response to the massive shut down of
major industry and the resulting job loss and all of the concomitant
social tragedies.
Jerry and I reached an understanding that we would support his work in
the South Suburbs so that he could become director of his own project.
It was Jerry Kellman who put an ad in the New York Times about an
organizing position in the Chicago area. Barack responded; Jerry
interviewed him and offered him a position. Barack accepted. Almost at
this very time, Jerry propositioned an old friend of his to return to
Chicago from Texas and work with him in this new organizing venture. His
friend was Mike Kruglik. Mike and Jerry were the first mentors of Barack
in organizing.
CCRC, which spanned communities in Northwest Indiana, the South Suburbs
and parts of the City of Chicago proved to be unwieldy. Jerry and I
decided to split it into three parts. Barack would work to found a new
independent project in the South side of Chicago, Mike Kruglik would be
the director of the South Suburban Action Conference and Jerry Kellman
would develop organizing in Northwest Indiana. At that point Jerry asked
me to become Barack’s consultant.
And at this time we were just creating the Gamaliel Foundation. I met
with Barack on a regular basis as he incorporated the Developing
Communities Project, as he moved the organization into action and as he
developed the leadership structure for the organization. He would write
beautiful and brilliant weekly reports about his work and the people he
was engaging.
When Barack decided to go to Harvard Law School, he approached John
McKnight, a professor at Northwestern and a Gamaliel Board member for a
letter of recommendation. When Barack was leaving he made sure that
Gamaliel was the formal consultant to the organization that he had
created and to the staff that he had hired.
Barack has acknowledged publicly that he had been the director of a
Gamaliel affiliate. He has supported Gamaliel throughout the years by
conducting training both at the National Leadership Training events and
at the African American Leadership Commission. He has also attended our
public meetings.
We are honored and blessed by the connection between Barack and
Gamaliel.
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