Obama, Ayers, the Woods Fund, Lugenia Burns Hope Center and TUCC

At the end of her excellent examination of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)’s tenure with the Woods Fund, Jennifer Rubin concluded in a September 13, 2008, Pajamas Media article

… the monies doled out through the Woods Fund to these groups, including [Bill] Ayers own Annenberg Challenge, helped cement Obama’s political relationships and bond with key players in Chicago.

Among others, Rubin mentions the group Centers for New Horizons. Hold that thought.

Since the introduction of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the running mate for Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the matter of Palin’s experience versus that of Obama’s has become a big issue—or at least it has for Obama supporters.

In a totally nonsensical-bordering-on-stupid move, the Obama campaign has chosen to not only resurrect experience as a major campaign issue but it also believes that it is Republican vice presidential candidate Palin’s experience that must be held up for comparison to that of Democratic presidential candidate—and former “community organizer”—Obama.

As a result, a recent beefed-up Obama resume has practically gone viral, in whole or in parts, in comments sections everywhere on the internet.

RBO discovered this resume quite by accident. While continuing research on campaign contributors posted by the Illinois State Board of Elections for Friends of Obama in 1998, RBO came across the names of a prominent Chicago professional couple, Ayana and Sokoni Karanja. In 1998 they contributed $500 and went on to contribute to Obama’s first congressional campaign, Obama for Congress 2000, in 1999 and 2000 and to Obama’s senatorial campaign, Obama for Illinois, in 2003 and 2004.

This led to the discovery of a relationship between Sokoni T. Karanja (right), who founded and has served as president since 1971 of the nonprofit Centers for New Horizons (CNH), located in the Bronzeville area of Chicago, and Barack Obama.

Obama’s online resume states that he served for an unspecified time on the board of directors of Chicago’s Lugenia Burns Hope Center.

What RBO found, however, is that, in 1994, Karanja and Obama are said to have co-founded the Hope Center—a “leadership development and organizing institute for Bronzeville”—as an Illinois corporation. (Note: On its Form 990 federal tax reports, the Hope Center is described as “a school for leadership development, a testing ground for new ways to organize extremely low income communities.”)

Karanja writes in CNH’s history that the Hope Center, a subsidiary of the CNH, was launched in 1995. It may well not have been operational until then.

Grant records available for the Hope Center through GuideStar only cover tax years 1999 through 2004. Therefore, we can only rely on them to narrow the timeframe Obama may have served on the Hope Center’s board to between 1995 and 1998. His name does not appear as a director, or in any other capacity, on Form 990 federal tax reports for years 1999 through 2004.

Beginning in 2003, the Form 990 federal tax reports show Ayana Karanja as one of the Hope Center’s trustees. GuideStar shows her as a current trustee. Her husband, Sokoni Karanja, is always listed as president.

Woods Fund

Looking again at Obama’s online resume, we find that, as Rubin reported, in addition to serving on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge 1995 to 2002, and as founding president and chairman of the board 1995 to 1999, Obama had also served with Bill Ayers on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago 1993 to 2002.

This timeframe includes years in which the Woods Fund provided grant funds to the Hope Center. According to GuideStar, the Woods Fund provided $30,000 in 1999; $55,000 in 2000; and $45,000 in 2002, for a total of $130,000. Grant information was not cited for 2001 and has not been found for years 1994 to 1998. GuideStar also reports that in 2003 the Woods Fund awarded $45,000; the Woods Fund reports that it awarded $30,000 in 2006.

Although we don’t have figures for 1994 to 1998 and for 2001, if amounts granted were consistent for those six years, then we can add another $180,000 to $330,000 while Obama—and Ayers—served on the Woods Fund board.

Trinity United Church of Christ

Ayana Karanja, Ph.D., is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology and Director of the Black World Studies Department at Loyola University, Chicago, as well as a director on the board of African Women in America.

In 1978, she was a founding member (see p6) of the Committee on Church in Society at Trinity United Church of Christ.

When Obama joined TUCC in 1985, Dr. Karanja was already an established and active member.

Additionally, a July 2005 church bulletin shows Dr. Karanja serving as co-chair of TUCC’s Council For Black Studies. This clearly indicates Dr. Karanja had at least some input in TUCC’s Black Liberation Theology studies—the same BLT that Obama listened to from the lips of his former “spiritual” adviser, Rev. Jeremiah “God-Damn-AmeriKKKa” Wright.

Centers for New Horizons

Sokoni Karanja, while an Adlai Stevenson fellow at the University of Chicago in 1971, received funding for the Centers for New Horizons, which now “has 22 sites and serves over 2000 families, offers many services, including early childhood education, childcare, senior care, employment programs and leadership training.”

In December 1990, “community leader” Sokoni Karanja told Time magazine

“Integration never really made any sense for quality education. I’ve got four kids who never were bused. I would just go into schools and kick behinds to get higher standards.”