24 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyDunham had far less social standing than Madelyn Dunham, who came from a somewhat better
family; this class divide between a worker and petty bougeoise caused tension during their
marriage. According to one account, Madelyn Dunham’s family had been slaveholders: “one of
Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who
were recorded in the 1850 Census in Nelson County, Kentucky. The same records show that one of
Obama’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.”
(Wikipedia) “When World War II came, Stanley enlisted in the Army. Madelyn became a Rosie-
the-Riveter at Boeing Co.’s B-29 production plant in Wichita. And Stanley Ann Dunham arrived in
late November 1942. (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) After the war, Stanley went to college
with the help of the G.I. Bill, and bought a house with a subsidized loan from the Federal Housing
Program. Stanley and Madelyn Dunham would eventually live in 13 different places.
Stanley Armour Dunham is described by Obama as something of a freethinker or bohemian,
presumably meaning that he dabbled in atheism, which was considered something radical in the
early 1960s. He inclined toward the Unitarian Universalist point of view of religious syncretism,
and was proud that his church was able to draw on the sacred texts of five great world religions.^4 He
was friendly with several Jews, Obama tells us, and liked to listen to Nat King Cole. (Dreams 17)
Grandfather Stanley was sympathetic to black issues and causes; Obama tells us that he had
suffered some insults himself because “he looked like a ‘wop.’” (Dreams 21) Later on, as we will
see, he took Barack Obama with him when he went to visit a group of black communists in Hawaii
around 1970. Stanley Dunham died in 1992.
MADELYN “TOOT” DUNHAM – GRANDMOTHER
Madelyn Dunham is called Tutu or Toot or Tut in Obama’s reminiscence and in other accounts;
this is the word for grandparent in the Hawaiian language. (Dreams 7) Interestingly, the Obama
campaign has refused to facilitate interviews by interested journalists with Madelyn Dunham: “the
Obama campaign declined to make Madelyn Dunham, 84, available.” (Chicago Tribune, March 27,
2007) For some reason, the Obama campaign has been very reluctant to allow Madelyn Dunham to
interact with the press. Do they think that a white grandmother would cause resentment among
blacks, or is there something that they are hiding? Madelyn Dunham is now well-known as the
grandmother whom Obama threw under the bus in his desperate maneuvering in the wake of the
explosion of the Jeremiah Wright “God damn America” scandal in mid-March 2008.
MOTHER: STANLEY ANN DUNHAM, PRO-COMMUNIST ANTHROPOLOGIST
Obama’s mother was unquestionably the greatest single influence on his formative years. Her
legal name was indeed Stanley Ann Dunham. She was named Stanley by her father because he had
wanted very much to have a son. This incongruous gesture recalls the predicament of “A Boy
Named Sue” in the humorous song by Johnny Cash. Obama makes some attempt in his
reminiscences to portray his mother as a bland Eisenhower-era middle American from Kansas, but
this once again represents typical disingenuous window-dressing. Obama’s attempt to spin his
mother into something she was not has even been noted in the normally deferential Chicago
Tribune account: ‘Implicit in [Obama’s portrayal of his mother] is this message: If you have any
lingering questions or doubts about the Hawaiian-born presidential candidate with a funny name,
just remember that Mom hails from America’s good earth. That’s the log cabin story, or his version
of Bill Clinton’s “Man from Hope.” That presentation, though, glosses over Stanley Ann Dunham’s
formative years, spent not on the Great Plains but more than 1,800 miles away on a small island in