Obama also provided a video to the school in which he congratulated the class of 2022, “especially Jacob. Obama’s team learned Jacob was about to graduate. “It’s very wonderful to see that in government because if I get to see another Black man be at the top, then at that pinnacle, then I want to follow that lead.” He told Obama he remembered touching his hair: “That was a pretty big highlight of my life,” Jacob said. Jacob told Obama when they video chatted that as a kid visiting the Oval Office, they just thought the president was his dad’s boss. Now they could see the world open up to them, ”Obama said. “It would speak to Black kids and Latino kids, gay kids, young girls.
Standing by the photo in his office, Obama said, “I think this picture embodied one of the hopes that I had when I first started running for the office.I remember telling Michelle and some of my staff, you know, I think that if I were to win, the day I was Sworn in the office, young people, particularly African American people, people of color, Outsiders, folks who maybe didn’t always feel like they belonged – they’d look at themselves differently, to see a person who looked like them in the Oval Office. Obama’s team released a video on Friday that includes his chat with Jacob in Uganda and the reflections that photo prompted. Obama reconnected with Jacob on May 19 on the occasion of his high school graduation from the International School of Uganda in Kampala. The Philadelphia family has lived Overseas for years in various postings, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda. Jacob’s father, Carlton Philadelphia, in 2009 was a National Security Council staffer who brought his family to meet Obama in the Oval Office on the occasion of leaving his White House job. Jacob is now 18, has lived abroad for years and is about to graduate from high school and attend the University of Memphis, where he wants to study political science.
While photos were often rotated in and out of the West Wing during Obama’s two terms, the picture of Obama bending down so Jacob could feel his hair was displayed for the rest of the Obama presidency.Ī copy of this famous Souza photo is in Obama’s office in Washington, DC, where he manages his various post-presidential enterprises. Obama sent Jacob a copy of the photo that he signed, “We’ve got the same haircut!” The ever-present White House photographer Pete Souza snapped the picture, and it was titled “Hair Like Mine,” since Obama and Jacob shared the same close-cropped haircut. Obama, the first Black president, leaned over so Jacob, then 5, could pat his head. One of the most iconic photos of the Obama presidency was taken in the Oval Office on May 8, 2009, when a Black youth – Jacob – son of a departing White House National Security staffer, asked him, “Is your hair like mine? “Īnd Obama recalled they got in reply, “Do you want to check and see?” WASHINGTON – At a time when all seems so Gloomy – Buffalo, Uvalde and more – here’s an upbeat story about how former President Barack Obama reconnected with Jacob Philadelphia.