[maggief]

Ogletree himself stayed out of trouble. In 1970, after high school, Ogletree enrolled in Stanford University outside San Francisco. His dormitory marked the first time he had ever had his own room. At college, Ogletree became dismayed by the elitism of the institution. Fortunately, he was also quite near the epicenter of the Black Power movement that had coalesced around San Francisco, the city of Oakland, and the University of California at Berkeley at that point in history. Ogletree became a campus radical, organizing an Afrocentric (though still integrated) dormitory, where he met his future wife, Pamela Barnes. He edited a campus Black Panther newspaper called The Real News and traveled to Africa and Cuba as part of student activist groups.

Ogletree’s first intensive experience in the courtroom sparked his intent to pursue trial law as a career. He attended nearly every day of the trial of Black Power activist and Communist Angela Davis. Some of parts of the Davis trial were tedious, Ogletree recalled in I've Known Rivers, but “the process and strategies were fascinating. I sat there wondering how they were going to tie all this together.” After graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science from Stanford in 1974, Ogletree stayed on a year to earn a master's degree. At the urging of his soon-to-be wife, he applied to Harvard Law School; the newlyweds moved to the Boston area upon his acceptance and enrollment in the fall of 1975. From the start, Ogletree recalled, he felt unease in the markedly different, monied East Coast enclave. Furthermore, the city was then in the middle of a vicious battle over busing that pitted its ethnic-American communities against the African-American populace. Academia itself was also especially tedious, and at one point he nearly quit the prestigious School of Law. “At Harvard the pressure was on, participation was mandatory, there was always a lot of competition and tension in the air,” Ogletree recalled in I've Known Rivers. He survived by closely allying himself with other African-American students and continued his political activism, even becoming national president of the Black Law Students Association.

Read more: Ogletree Charles Jr. Biography - Selected writings - Law, School, American, and African - JRank Articles http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2366/Ogletree-Jr-Charles.html#ixzz1ofJ7lITE

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http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2008/images/micheleobama.jpg

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Charles+Ogletree+michelle+obama&view=detail&id=B4F161BE38BCB957EC2969CC27E55D0D3D73A2A2&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR

If anyone asked Professor Charles Ogletree Jr. 20 years ago which member of the Obama family would wind up in national politics, he would have picked Michelle.

Ogletree first met Michelle Obama ’88 in the fall of 1985 when both arrived at Harvard Law School for the first time, she as a student and he as a visiting professor. As a student in his trial advocacy workshop, Ogletree says her commitment to public service was already clear.

“She made a commitment to her father, who did not go to college, that she would pursue her talents to help her community,” says Ogletree.

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HT: Weaselzippers

The home of Professor Charles Ogletree, a friend and former law school professor of President Barack Obama, is visible during a social event with the president in attendance in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011.

[maggief]

[thouworm]

From your post:

“He edited a campus Black Panther newspaper called The Real News and traveled to Africa and Cuba as part of student activist groups.

Ogletree’s first intensive experience in the courtroom sparked his intent to pursue trial law as a career. He attended nearly every day of the trial of Black Power activist and Communist Angela Davis. “
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Protecting former Panthers

On December 8 2005, former Black Panther Party members, John L. Bowman, Hank Jones and Ray Boudreaux held a meeting at the Washington, DC office of Trans-Africa Forum. They were complaining about re-newed police investigations of a 1971 police killing in San Francisco that they had been accused of.

They had been indicted at the time by a grand jury, but were released when the court rendered a decision stating the methods used to obtain information were illegal.

The former Panthers were flanked by Danny Glover, “reparations” activist Ron Daniels, Democratic Socialists of America member Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Charles Ogletree.

Charles Ogletree, said that the community should protect the rights of the former Panthers with their lives[8].

“These gentlemen, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones and others have been victims of the most vicious forms of American terrorism and torture...It takes a village to protect its elders. We tell them today, through our presence here and through our commitment that we will provide a protective blanket over them. They will not come in this village and take these elders, except over our dead bodies.”

http://www.keywiki.org/index.php/Charles_Ogletree