In his unpublished biography "Journeys in Black and White," Barack Obama, then a student at Harvard Law School, said that he was born in Kenya. Obama's literary agent, Dystel & Goderich, listed Obama as being born in Kenya for a total of 16 years (between 1991 and 2007). The firm finally changed Obama's bio on their website on April 21, 2007.
Two months before the agency removed the disqualifying information, Obama declared his candidacy for president of the United States. Obama made the announcement in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln once delivered his famous "House Divided" speech in 1858.
On Feb. 10, 2007 Obama (ironically) said:
I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness -- a certain audacity -- to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.
Article 2 Section 1 of the U.S. constitution says:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President
Here is the full bio on Obama in a 1991 leaflet:
Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation. He served as project coordinator in Harlem for the New York Public Interest Research Group, and was Executive Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago's South Side. His commitment to social and racial issues will be evident in his first book, Journeys in Black and White.
For undisclosed reasons, Obama's autobiography was cancelled and the book never released. However, the promotional material remained as Dystel & Goderich sought to provide a distinguished list of authors it represented.
On April 3, 2007 Dystel & Goderich's website read:
BARACK OBAMA is the junior Democratic senator from Illinois and was the dynamic keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was also the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was born in Kenya to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister and was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Chicago. His first book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE, has been a long time New York Times bestseller.
That information was posted two months after Obama's speech in Springfield announcing his intention to run for the White House. Three weeks later, on April 21, the agency changed the bio and stated that Obama was born in Hawaii.
BARACK OBAMA is the junior Democratic senator from Illinois and was the dynamic keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was also the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was born in Hawaii to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister and was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Chicago. His first book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE, has been a long time New York Times bestseller.
For 16 years, Obama's own literary agent listed their author as being "born in Kenya".
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