Flash back to 1992: A young law professor arrives at the University of Chicago Law School from the Harvard Law Review, where he served as its first African-American president. At a law school where economic analysis was all the rage, he taught rights, race and gender.
To be in Barack Obama’s class was just a glimpse of what he could bring to the presidency, say former students Gabe and Nicole Gore, who took Obama’s Racism and Law class during the fall of 1992.
“It was very clear that he was going to do something extraordinary, but it was less obvious that he was going to run for president of the United States,” said Gabe Gore, now a partner at Bryan Cave’s St. Louis office.
“He was exactly as I see him now,” said Nicole Gore, a JD Advisor for Washington University in St. Louis Law School, describing Obama as extremely intelligent, thoughtful, a great listener and very sharing of his life experiences.
“We saw the beginning of greatness to come.”
Obama, now a junior senator from Illinois and the Democratic presidential nominee, spent 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School. He would add diversity to the conservative law school, which had almost no minority faculty members prior to his arrival in 1992.
“There was a lot of excitement with the black students and minority students when he came to the law school,” Gabe Gore said. “We were excited about having a black professor n that’s the reason why Nicole and I signed up for the class.”
Obama arrived in Chicago fresh out of Harvard Law School, thanks to Michael W. McConnell, a conservative scholar who is now a federal appellate judge. As president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama impressed McConnell with editing suggestions on an article.
Douglas G. Baird, a professor who was head of the law school’s appointment committee, arranged for the promising young graduate to become a fellow at Chicago, where he was provided a stipend and office so he could complete his book Dreams of My Father.
Juggling work as an attorney at a top Chicago law firm and teaching law courses, Obama would frequently come to class in a suit and tie.
He was very different than the average teacher, the Gores recalled. When Gabe Gore met with Obama to discuss his project on voter disenfranchisement, he was impressed by his teacher’s ability to see both sides of an argument.
“There were sociology students in the class and they would make comments that would make all of us law students kind of laugh,” Gabe Gore said. “I was always struck by the fact that they would make these statements, and whereas we would dismiss them, he would explore them and find them relevant and interesting.”
When Obama was promoted to the senior lecturer position, he had only taught his seminar on racism and law. While his teaching schedule expanded to include constitutional law and voting rights, it was his original seminar that left the greatest impression on students. The class explored classic cases like Brown vs. Board of Education, Plessy vs. Ferguson, and Loving vs. Virginia and essays by Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The students who made up the class were nearly as diverse as Obama’s supporters today.
“It was about 50-50, but for the University of Chicago that was crazy because there were only about two minority students in other classes,” Gabe Gore said.
Hoopin’ with Obama
Gabe Gore said he knew Obama more from outside of the classroom: they occasionally played one-on-one or pick-up basketball at the school’s recreational center.
“He wasn’t a ball hog or anything. He just loved to play,” Gabe Gore said. In one-on-one, he said, Obama “would probably beat me more than I beat him. But if I were to play him today, I think I could take him. He looks like he’s lost a step or two.”
By most accounts, Obama’s time at the law school was a huge success. The law school begged him to take full-time tenure, but he turned it down, as they know now, for bigger plans. During his years at the law school, he had a successful run as a state legislator and then as an U.S. senator for Illinois.
When Obama announced his bid to run for president over a year ago, the Gores immediately decided that they would do whatever they could to get him elected.
“I was excited about electing somebody who I knew for a fact was running for the right reason,” Gabe Gore said.
In addition to fundraising efforts, he has traveled as far as Indiana registering people to vote on behalf of the Obama campaign. Although his 6-year-old son, Zachary, who usually tags along with him to canvass and to attend Obama rallies, might not yet understand the complexities of the issues facing the nation, he knows that he wants Obama to win.
“For him, the issue of race isn’t even an issue,” Gabe Gore said of his son. “He just started following it on his own.”
Gabe Gore has met the senator several times through fundraisers and a private dinner since Obama launched his campaign in February 2007. Surprisingly, the senator still remembered him after all those years.
“I told him he could have given me a better grade on my paper,” Gabe Gore said.
The Gores are hopeful for the possibilities that an Obama presidency would bring for the nation and next generation of young leaders.
“I’m excited that, whatever happens, the next generation grows up knowing that they can be and do anything they want to do,” Gabe Gore said. “The presidency is a symbol of that. That is something Zachary will know and believe in his heart.”
