Here are the search terms I used:
kennedy barack obama 1961 foundation $100,000
The first link
oliverwillis.com
will give you references to 1960 and 1961 Time Magazine articles and other useful comments, including:
grabbingsand said:
After doing some digging, I've found an answer or two about this disputed timeline. And if anyone can clarify further, go right ahead.
While it is a historical given that Kennedy didn't take office until January of 1961 (the same year that Barack, Jr. was born), it is entirely possible that the Kennedy clan was instrumental in his father's stateside arrival some years earlier.
In 1958, Tom Mboya, politician/activist/unionist from Kenya, launched a movement called Education Overseas, leading to the first educational airlift to the United States.*
Add to this a paragraph from a 1961 TIME magazine article:
Until now, African students have mostly got to the U.S. on their own and with enough disorganization to damage their studies. Kenya's passion, for example, led to the pell-mell "African Airlift" originated by Politician Tom Mboya that got so much publicity in the U.S. presidential campaign when the Kennedy Foundation beat the Eisenhower State Department to the punch with $100,000 air fare.*
So it is possible that early in the Kennedy campaign, Foundation money funded an airlift that brought Barack, Sr. stateside.
Is this a perfect explanation? No. But it makes the reference seem less like a bold-faced fabrication and more like a broad interpretation.
March 5, 2007 3:41 PM
jb1125 said:
That is what happened. No interpretation. Obama Sr was a part of Tom Mboya's "African Airlift." The Kennedy's paid for it.
Here's what Obama said, " So the Kennedy’s decided we’re going to do an air lift. We’re going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is."
There's no interpretation there.
From Time Aug 29, 1960
"Visiting the U.S. in July, Mboya wanted to meet both candidates. Nixon was busy in Chicago at the G.O.P. convention; Mboya sought out Jack Kennedy at his Hyannisport retreat. Concerned about the wavering U.S. Negro vote,
Kennedy offered to contribute part of the airlift expenses from his family's Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation (named after the brother killed in World War II) and to look around for other private funds to help the grounded students. Sargent Shriver, Kennedy's brother-in-law and managing director of the family foundation, found no uncommitted funds in other charitable foundations, in the end recommended that the Kennedy Foundation put up the entire $100,000, and provide unstipulated help for students during their stay in the U.S."
From Sept 11, 2006 WorldPress.org
"Why has he been so successful? His deceased Kenyan father, Barack Hussein Obama, had benefited from the famous airlift of Kenyans in the 1960's, and won a scholarship to further his education in Hawaii — spearheaded by a former Kenyan cabinet minister, the late Tom Mboya."
worldpress.org
From Nov 1, 2004 The East African
"Like Obama Senior, I too went to the US on the famous Tom Mboya Airlift of 1959 [when hundreds of Kenyan students were given scholarships to American universities]. I first met Obama Senior in Tom Mboya's Nairobi office [Mboya was then the secretary general of the Kenya Federation of Labour]. Obama and I met up again on returning to Nairobi and remained drinking buddies for many years."
nationmedia.com
March 5, 2007 4:58 PM
Ralph said:
Excellent piece, Oliver, and kudos for putting in your personal feelings -- which I think matter a lot, and which help make your point.
March 5, 2007 10:00 PM |
