New Zeal: Obama's Mentor, Frank Marshall Davis - Was He Still a Communist?

New Zeal blog ^ | Oct 16, 2008 | Trevor Loudon

[Interesting Times]

Since New Zeal first publicised the connection, the late communist poet Frank Marshall Davis's relationship to Barack Obama has been the subject of thousands of articles, blog posts and talk back calls.


Obama's apologists first attempted to minimise the Obama/Davis relationship. As evidence mounted however, it became apparent that Davis was indeed a mentor to Obama. The relationship lasted from 1970 when Obama was ten until he left Hawaii for college on the mainland at age 18.

Next the Obamaphiles tried to minimise Davis's communism, portraying him as a benevolent civil rights activist and therefore, if anything, a positive influence on the young Obama.

Some have acknowledged that Davis did indeed briefly join the Communist Party in Chicago in the 1940s, but all that was well behind him by the time he met the young Obama.

As is common with Obama, the truth is distinct from the appearance.

Information from Davis's 601 page FBI file reveals that Davis (born 1905) became interested in the Communist Party as far back as 1931.

Certainly from the mid/late '30s to the early '40s Davis was involved in several Communist Party fronts including the the National Negro Congress, the League of American Writers, the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties and the Civil Rights Congress

The FBI first began tracking Davis in 1944 when they identified him as member of the Communist Party's Dorie Miller Club in Chicago-card number 47544.

Davis taught courses at the party controlled Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago and attended meetings of the party's Cultural Club until he left for Hawaii in 1948.

In Hawaii Davis became a columnist for a union financed, communist controlled newspaper, the Honolulu Record.

Despite going underground in 1950, the Hawaiian CP was one of the most dynamic in the US at the time. The mainland put huge resources into the Hawaiian party because the Soviets wanted the US military presence on the islands shut down. The Hawaiian CP was charged with agitating against the US military bases at every opportunity. Several times the FBI observed Davis photographing obscure Hawaiian beaches-possibly for espionage purposes.

Through its control of the Internatonal Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) the Hawaiian CP had huge influence on the local Democratic Party. In the mid '50s, while still a confirmed communist, Davis like many of his comrades, became an official in the local Democratic Party. The communist influence is still felt in the Hawaiian democratic party today.

At the time the underground CP was divided into two or three person independent cells. Davis led one such cell "Group 10" with his wife and one other comrade.

An extensive Senate Security Investigation in 1956 shattered the Hawaiian CP, driving the remnants completely underground where it remains to this day.

The FBI continued to monitor Davis into the '60s and though they found little if any party activity on the islands, he was still regarded as a "believer".

The FBI monitored Davis for at least 19 years. They marked him down for immediate arrest should war break out between the US and the Soviet Union-an honour reserved only for the most dangerous subversives.

One of the longest lived communist fronts was the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born. Active from 1935 until 1980, the ACFPFB was charged with preventing foreign communists such Davis's friend ILWU leader Harry Bridges from deportation.

Davis was a long time supporter of the ACFPFB, apparently at least until 1973, three years after meeting the young Obama.

ACFPFB letterhead April 12th 1973


Arrow denotes Frank Marshall Davis




Interestingly, Hawaiian lawyer, party member and long time Davis comrade Harriet Bouslog also appears on the list.

Others of the several known party members listed above include civil rights activists Carl and Anne Braden, Dirk J Struik, a mathematician and accused Soviet spy, whose daughter peace activist daughter Gwen lives in New Zealand, Hugh DeLacy a secret party member who became a Democratic Congressman for Washington State and three prominent Chicago activists, Richard Criley, Frank Wilkinson and Abe Feinglass.

When Obama decided to go to Chicago in 1983 to become a "community organiser" he was inspired by that year's election of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington.

A long time friend of the Chicago Communist Party, Washington would have almost certainly known Frank Marshall Davis from his post-War student days.

It would be interesting to know if Frank Marshall Davis ever told the young Obama about Harold Washington and his leftist connections.

What connection did Obama have to Chicago other than his boyhood mentor Frank Marshall Davis?

[Interesting Times]

More fine detective work by New Zealand's Trevor Loudon.

[Interesting Times]

Obama’s communist mentor ping.

[goodnesswins]

"What connection did Obama have to Chicago other than his boyhood mentor Frank Marshall Davis?"

AYERS!!!

[AuntB]

“What connection did Obama have to Chicago other than his boyhood mentor Frank Marshall Davis?”

THIS is the question I’ve been asking. If there is one person in Obama’s background that should be explored, it’s Frank Marshall Davis, his mentor and the ONLY tie I’ve found why Barak may have shown up in Chicago where he got connected to Ayers.

[ncfool]

This is why we need to be concerned about Bill Ayer’s and his connection to Barack Hussein Obama. He and his Wife Bernardine Dorhn raised this step Son Chesa who is a Communist ACTIVIST!. Funny how you can go from community activist to being a full fledged Communist. But American’s better wake up before we elect the real Manchurian Candidate. Obama’s link to Ayer’s and Dohrn are important to us as we will end up like Cuba or Venezuela a country that both Ayer’s and Chesa are really tied too. Do a Google search for this connection.

There is a chapter in the book by the son of Rashid Khalidi that again shows Why the Jewish voter should be alarmed with voting for Obama. Rashid’s son is Ismail Khalidi as radical as you can get. Read at Google Books his letter to his parents! This is very troubling if you’re an Israel supporter.

Recent Macalester College graduate Ismail Khalidi, 22, was born to Palestinian parents in Lebanon and grew up in Chicago. His letter is to his parents and he wrote it right after the seige and bombardment of Fallujah in November 2004. "It was written in a desolate time of year--winter--miming the desolate time in our country and other countries," says Khalidi. "It's really kind of a 'sad poem,' but also a way for me to take stock of what I believe in." And what he believes in is the struggle for justice.

, Khalid writes, "I know I am never doing enough and that I have much to learn, but I know that I am still learning, and that I will find my own way to fight. I know you understand that, and that is what pushes me onward when the wind chill plummets and when lies pass for truth."

You can only assume Ismail was another classmate of Chesa and taught by Ayers,Dorhn and Obama.
Obama’s Ties to anti-American friends is troubling and we need to stop his election by educating the American public.


Here is the link to a book published by Chesa and others. I can bet you that most of these activists are working for Obama or ACORN during this campaign in some stealth manner.

“LETTERS FROM YOUNG ACTIVISTS” Edited by Dan Berger Chesa Boudin and Kenyon Farrow

“Today’s Rebels SPEAK OUT”

Preface by Bernardine Dohrn

They even have a website called : http://www.lettersfromyoungactivists.org/

[editor-surveyor]

Thanks for the ping!

[ETL]

Frank Marshall Davis, his mentor and the ONLY tie I’ve found why Barack may have shown up in Chicago where he got connected to Ayers.

He may have met Ayers in New York City in the early eighties.

"Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983, and moved to Chicago in 1985 to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment. In 1991, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review."
http://obama.senate.gov/about/

_________________________________________________________

Bill Ayers' education:
1987 - Ed.D, Columbia University, Curriculum & Instruction
1987 - M.Ed, Teachers College, Columbia University, Early Childhood Education
1984 - M.Ed, Bank Street College, Early Childhood Education
1968 - B.A., University of Michigan, American Studies
http://education.uic.edu/directory/faculty_info.cfm?netid=bayers

_________________________________________________________

Bank Street College
Where We Are and How to Get Here:

Bank Street College is located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at 610 West 112th Street, between Broadway and Riverside Drive.

Bank Street College is located in a bustling family and university neighborhood four blocks from Columbia University
http://www.bankstreet.edu/aboutbsc/visiting.html

[ravingnutter]

From my files...

IMHO, we are overlooking the giant elephant in the room... Franklin Marshall Davis, Obama's childhood mentor, who was a confirmed member of CPUSA and an admitted pedophile:

Obama's Red Mentor was a Pervert

Davis, who was investigated by the FBI and various congressional and official inquiries, was a CPUSA member. In fact, as AIM has documented, Davis was involved in the CPUSA or its front activities, before, during and after World War II, and became a member of a secret communist apparatus in the 1950s after the CPUSA in Hawaii was reorganized on an underground basis.

AIM had confirmed that Obama’s white grandfather, Stanley Dunham, picked Davis because Obama’s black father had abandoned the family and Dunham thought Obama needed a black father-figure. AIM also confirmed that Davis was Obama’s mentor during the critical years 1975-1979.

Harnden claimed in a preceding article that Obama was introduced to Davis in 1970 when he was only nine years old. This would mean that Davis was an influence over Obama for about nine full years, until Obama was 18 and went off to college.

Harnden quotes Dawna Weatherly-Williams, a friend of Davis’s, as saying that Stanley Dunham brought Obama to meet Davis in the autumn of 1970. She “was chatting with him [Davis] that late autumn afternoon as Dunham and Barry [Obama] approached,” Harnden reports.

Harnden also reports that Davis and Dunham smoked marijuana together. Dawna Weatherly-Williams said that “Frank never really did drugs, though he and Stan would smoke pot together,” the paper said. Obama, of course, also admits that he used marijuana and cocaine in his youth.

Citing passages from Obama’s own book, Dreams From My Father, which was published in 1995, Harnden demonstrates how Obama went to “Frank” for advice about racial issues, college, and other matters at critical periods in his life. Clearly, the relationship between them, as concluded by many observers, was strong.

He can't deny this association with an admitted communist. Also see:

National Enquirer: Obama Sex Perv Scandal - even a stopped clock is right twice a day

Link to Frank Marshall Davis FBI Files and a Briefing on Obama’s Communist Ties

Frank Marshall Davis, alleged Communist, was early influence on Barack Obama

[ETL]

Here is the link to a book published by Chesa and others. I can bet you that most of these activists are working for Obama or ACORN during this campaign in some stealth manner. “LETTERS FROM YOUNG ACTIVISTS” Edited by Dan Berger, Chesa Boudin and Kenyon Farrow

Here's another book to which Dan Berger is associated:

"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (Paperback) by Dan Berger
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-America-Underground-Politics-Solidarity/dp/1904859410

________________________________________________________

From the New York Times, August 24, 2003

"they [the Weather Underground] employed revolutionary jargon, advocated armed struggle and black liberation and began bombing buildings, taking responsibility for at least 20 attacks. Estimates of their number ranged at times from several dozen to several hundred."

Article: Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[goodnesswins]

BTTT

[webrover]

"Despite going underground in 1950, the Hawaiian CP was one of the most dynamic in the US at the time.

In the US? what does that mean? Hawaii was not part of the US at that time.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping.
Communists quit identifying themselves as such and took control of the Democrat party.

[Interesting Times]

In the US? what does that mean? Hawaii was not part of the US at that time.

Presumably he means "in the US and its territories."

[potlatch]

[hoosiermama]

IIRC Ayers parents lived in Chicago. Can you confirm?

[Philo-Junius]

Bill Ayers’ father was Thomas Ayers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_G._Ayers , chairman of Commonwealth Edison, the largest electric utility in Illinois and the source of Chicago’s electricity. The elder Ayers served on the board of directors of just about every significant Chicago corporation and charity.

Bill Ayers is a classic trust-fund liberal.

[devolve]

Bump!

[potlatch]

...pety bump!!

[PhilDragoo]