Barack Obama (senior) was one of the featured speakers at a Mother’s Peace Rally in Ala Moana Park on Sunday May 13, 1962. ILWU leaders, including Jack Hall, joined the march and rally. Obama, an African student from Kenya studying economics at the University of Hawaii Afro-American Affairs Institute, told the crowd of 350, “Anything which relieves military spending will help us...Peace will release great resources...”
The march for peace was featured in the May 18, 1962 issue of the VOICE OF THE ILWU. Other speakers included Patsy Mink, Thomas Gill, Ralph Vanderslice, Rev. Nicolas Dizon, Rev. Seikan Higra, Rabbi Roy Rosenberg, Rev. Delwyn Rayson, and Dr. John Mollet.
The ILWU was opposed to the escalating US involvement in Vietnam and held many activities to educate its members and the public.Barack Obama Senior had married Ann Dunham in February 1961 and Barack Junior, who was born on August 4, 1961, would have been 10 months old at the time.
Barack Senior came to Hawaii in 1959 with a scholarship sponsored by Kenyan nationalists to educate gifted Kenyan students as the country fought for independence from British Colonial rule. Obama graduated from the University of Hawaii in June 1962, earning his degree in three years with a straight A average and Phi Betta Kappa honors. He left Hawaii on June 22 with a scholarship to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts...