Clearly, Obama’s link to Bell was more than just a “hug,” but part of a sustained effort to align himself with the radical left–and to be seen by others as a legitimate radical–in the early stages of his public life.
Barack Obama’s association with radical Critical Race Theory professor Derrick Bell did not end after Harvard Law School–and certainly not at the April 24, 1990 rally at which Obama embraced Bell, literally and figuratively. Breitbart News has discovered a letter sent by Obama to Bell in February 1995 in which Obama asks Bell to review–and to blurb–an early version of Obama’s autobiography, then entitled Dreams of My Father.
The letter is preserved in the archives of New York University, to which Bell donated his papers. The archives–which are open to the public–include Bell’s papers from decades of research, writing, teaching, and speaking. The website for the archives lists some of Bell’s notable correspondents, but omits Obama. Though the archives do not permit full publication without permission of the copyright holder, some excerpts can be provided.
The letter, dated February 3, 1995, is on a letterhead from Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Galland, the civil rights law firm that hired Obama. Over two pages, Obama brings Bell up to date on his career in Chicago, mentions that he is using Bell’s textbook with his own students, and asks him for help in reviewing, and promoting, Dreams:
As for me, I’m keeping busy in Chicago. I’m currently working at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland here in Chicago, a small firm specializing in employment discrimination and voting rights/civil rights cases. I’m also teaching a seminar on race and the law at the University of Chicago law school — your casebook has been an invaluable reference guide for that.
The main reason I’m writing to you, though, has to do with a book that I’ve been writing, on again, off again, for the past two years. Originally, the book (called Dreams of My Father) was going to be a series of essays on issues of race and class, but as it has evolved it’s become a memoir of my family and my experiences as an organizer in Chicago…
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