Word: gunn
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...next thing he knew, Gunn was halfway through the book and had missed his flight back to South Carolina. He recognized in Obama's writing the same ideas about power and justice that had infused his own community-organizing. And he heard the voice of a man who was confident about his beliefs. By the time he had finished the book and arrived home, Gunn knew two things: "This dude has got to run for President--and I have to help...
...time when half the Democratic world seemed to be trying to get onto Obama's not-yet-official campaign, Gunn found that his calls to the Senator's offices went unreturned. Finally, he placed one more call to Chicago and laid it on the line. "I may not know a whole lot about politics, but I know a lot about South Carolina," he remembers saying in his message. "If you want to run for President and South Carolina's going to be an early-primary state, you need to have me involved...
...next day, a voice-mail message from Obama himself was waiting on his phone. The two met in Washington a few weeks later, and Gunn became his state's political director. Using his organizing skills and contacts, Gunn set about building a grass-roots movement that empowered volunteers. When they learned that many black voters didn't realize Obama was African American, the campaign developed a seven-minute dvd about Obama's life that supporters could play in their living rooms for friends and neighbors. "We told them it belonged to them," Gunn says, "that Barack's success would depend...
...came the stumble in New Hampshire that allowed Hillary Clinton back into the race. South Carolina was the first contest in a state with a sizable black population--and on that day, African Americans gave him more than 8 in every 10 of their votes. "It all started here," Gunn said with a smile, leaning back in his chair in the lobby of a downtown Columbia hotel. "The process may have started in Iowa. But if we didn't do what we did in the exact way that we did it, I daresay we may have had a different outcome...
...African Americans in South Carolina, the tale of how they helped Obama win the nomination has already become the stuff of legend. James Clyburn, Gunn's Congressman and a fellow delegate, is a veteran of the civil rights movement who never thought he'd see a black presidential nominee in his lifetime. But while he's proud of Obama, he's also proud of his generation for making Obama possible. "We were standing on shoulders," Clyburn says. "We had a responsibility to develop strong shoulders for someone else to stand...