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Book Review: Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

Hardback, Three Rivers Press, Reprint 2004, 480 pages

Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, is the autobiography of how Barack Obama grew up and developed his adult sense of faith. He wrote the book after he was elected the first African American Editor and President of Harvard Law Review before he ever considered running for public office. The book was originally published in 1995.

Barack Hussein Obama, born of a white mother Ann Dunham and a Kenyan father, started life in the Islam religion. Then his family moved to Indonesia after his mother remarried. He attended elementary school in Jakarta between the ages of 6 and 10. He attended Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School. He attended a Catholic High School in Hawaii. Barack's grandparents practiced Christianity, but his mother did not practice a religion.

Barack was only one of three black students in his High School in Hawaii. He says he never noticed that his mother was white as milk and that his father was black as tar. The memoir also tells how he struggled to belong after high school. He says Hawaii was very accepting of diversity. It is hard for white people to understand why Barack doesn't consider himself white because he was born of a white woman and raised by white grandparents. Thomas Jefferson wrote a treatise on black lineage, and he stated that a person was still a slave and black until their blood was only one sixteenth black. This means Mr. Obama had to think of himself as black and to make his way in the world as a black man.

The book "Dreams From My Father" describes Barack Obama's journey to discovering himself and his religious beliefs. After much searching he was drawn to Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ. He was drawn to the church by the teaching about Jesus and the social justice practiced by the congregation. He was drawn to the diverse congregation and their acceptance of the homeless and to those with HIV/AIDS. He was drawn to a congregation that based their lives on the gospel of Jesus Christ and acted on it each day.

This book is worth reading. It helps you understand how President Barack Obama is able to take a stand on paradoxical issues and not look as though he is going against his faith. It helps you understand how he and his wife Michelle determined where they would worship in Washington DC.

Learn more about this author, Helena Whyte.
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