President Barack Obama’s jam–packed rally on the Midway last Saturday night brought a familiar face back to the neighborhood, and gave the University community a close–up view of the president’s first outdoor event in Chicago since election night in 2008.
For the campus a cappella group The Ransom Notes, the night offered a once–in–a–lifetime chance to sing the national anthem for a crowd estimated at up to 35,000 people. The group, selected at random from among numerous campus singing ensembles, was “unbelievably excited” to take the stage before the president gave his speech, said third–year alto Amanda Jacobson.
“It was really wonderful, but it seemed like it went by kind of quick,” said Jacobson, who is studying biology and statistics in the College. “This was the pinnacle performance for our group, at least so far.”
Music, politics and good cheer reigned at the event, helped by a clear sky and pleasant fall temperatures in Hyde Park. The rapper Common, a South Side native, got people jumping in place with hits like “Go” and a free–form rap that paid homage to Obama, the poet Langston Hughes and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Many prominent Illinois Democrats came to campaign with the president in hopes of boosting their party’s chances in the Nov. 2 election. Speakers included Sen. Dick Durbin, Gov. Pat Quinn, who is running against Republican Bill Brady, and state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is locked in a close race against Republican Mark Kirk for the Senate seat that the president once held. Mayor Richard M. Daley started off the evening with a forceful speech, and local Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, who is running for Cook County Board President against Republican Roger Keats, urged the crowd to get out the vote.
President Obama sprinkled local references into his speech, noting that before deciding to run for president he had sought the advice of the late Rev. Bishop Brazier, former pastor of the nearby Apostolic Church of God, who died on Oct. 22. The president stressed the importance of ongoing Illinois races for the Senate and governorship.
The brief homecoming to Hyde Park served an immediate purpose for Obama’s political allies, said John Brehm, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. It also may have raised his team’s spirits.
“President Obama has had some rough outings in comparison to his more triumphant experiences of 2008, and to have a large crowd of people who remain hugely supportive of his cause has to have been of solace,” Brehm said.
Energizing young voters has been a difficult task this election, says Cathy Cohen, a professor of political science at the University. Cohen, author of “Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics,” recently wrote in the Washington Post that one challenge facing Obama and other politicians is that only 42 percent of black youth say they feel like “a full and equal citizen in this country with all the rights and protections that other people have.”
“For disconnected and alienated blacks and Latinos the question they contemplate during this election season is not who to vote for but why they should vote now or in the future,” Cohen wrote.
As the crowds left the Midway, many students chatted eagerly as they tried to grasp the sweep of the event they had witnessed. For many, it brought memories of the massive election night scene in Grant Park in 2008, but it was more personal seeing the president speak within sight of their campus.
For first–year College student Hannah Fullmer, the event epitomized what makes living in Chicago so exciting.
“The city itself is so amazing, and obviously in Chicago amazing things are going to happen, from concerts to political things, the whole spectrum,” Fullmer said.
Her friend Zahed Haseeb, a first–year who said he shook hands with the president and Common at the rally, said the 2008 election helped interest him in what the city had to offer. But he said the excitement of that election and Saturday’s rally went beyond their political context.
“Obviously the president is from here, and all of that’s nice, but Chicago itself is such a great city,” Haseeb said. “Very rarely do you get an opportunity to go to a world–class university in a world–class city.”
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
