Obama's tutu a Hawaii banking female pioneer

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Obama's tutu a Hawaii banking female pioneer

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

The white grandmother of Barack Obama blazed a trail for women in Honolulu's banking circles in the 1960s and 1970s as her grandson grew up surrounded by racial insensitivity.
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While Obama's views on race relations in America were being shaped, his maternal grandmother — Madelyn Dunham, now 85 — received a series of promotions at Hawai'i's top bank. And in December 1970, she was named one of the first two female vice presidents at Bank of Hawaii.

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Dunham's views on race were highlighted in a March 18 speech that the Democratic presidential contender gave in Philadelphia designed to both denounce and defend his former, controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

In his speech, Obama linked Wright and Dunham when he said, "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

http://honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/NEWS01/803300356/1001

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1. Kick.

[Cha]

2. Bravo for Madelyn Dunham!

It would be interesting to hear from her on what she thought of Obama's speech, "A More Perfect Union" on race in this country.

So how did Obama's mom and family get to Hawai'i from Kansas?

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3. Via the Seattle area and his grandfathers work in furniture sales.

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4. Kick.