Obama, others recall Charles Ogletree’s lasting influence
Though Charles Ogletree was just shy of nine years older than Barack Obama, he quickly became a mentor when the future president arrived as a student at Harvard Law School in 1988.
“Charles’s reputation preceded him at Harvard Law School. On campus, people would always talk about this Professor Ogletree and how supportive and encouraging he was,” Obama recalled in a statement issued Saturday, the day after Ogletree died at 70, seven years after revealing that he had Alzheimer’s disease.
A powerful voice in courtrooms and classrooms for racial justice, Ogletree began teaching at the law school in the mid1980s, a few years before Obama started taking classes there.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama — she was Michelle Robinson then — were among scores of Harvard Law students Ogletree guided and encouraged during his many years at the school.
Through his work as a lawyer and professor, Ogletree’s legacy reached beyond the school’s Cambridge classrooms. He counseled Anita Hill when she appeared before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, during US Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings. In addition, Ogletree counted among his law clients rap artist Tupac Shakur and former agriculture secretary Mike Espy.
After meeting Barack Obama, Ogletree soon became a father figure as well as a mentor. “We aren’t that much different in age, but here was someone he could talk or meet with,” Ogletree recalled in a 2009 Globe interview.
“Those conversations weren’t just about what he wanted to do as a young lawyer,” Ogletree said of his talks with Obama, “but that he, like many students, wanted to do something meaningful.”
Ogletree became a lasting friend to the president and his wife, Michelle Obama, whom he also had mentored at Harvard Law School.
In his statement Saturday, Obama reminisced about how Ogletree “took time on weekends to run something called ‘Saturday School’ for Black students who didn’t necessarily have the support systems at home to get them through the difficult first years of law school.”
Saturday School soon “became so popular that students of every background began showing up to hear Charles explain things in a way they could understand,” the former president said. “It was an example of the kind of person Charles has always been: unfailingly helpful, and driven by a genuine concern for others.”
Obama was one of many who shared recollections on social media and elsewhere about Ogletree, who was known to friends by the nickname Tree.
“You cannot imagine the influence Tree had on a generation (or three) of lawyers committed to fighting for justice,” Sherrilyn Ifill, former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“His voice had an R&B timbre and his mind was so supple and sharp,” Ifill added. “I loved listening to him argue.”
In an X post, Cornell William Brooks, the Hauser professor of the practice of nonprofit organizations at the Harvard Kennedy School, wrote that it “is exceedingly difficult to overstate the stature of legal giant Prof. Charles Ogletree in the minds & hearts of multitudes of lawyers.”
Ogletree “represented an excellence of practice, pedagogy, & justice. For many, he inspired visions of what we might become,” wrote Brooks, who also is professor of the practice of public leadership and social justice at the Kennedy School and a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School.
Christina Swarns, executive director of the Innocence Project, posted on X that “Tree was brilliant and an absolute warrior for justice. He was also incredibly kind, generous with his time, and a mentor to many, including me.”
And Janai Nelson, the current president and directorcounsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote that “‘Tree,’ his friends say, could not have been more aptly nicknamed: He stood tall, offering protection and cover, and he was a force of nature who will continue to bear fruit for generations to come.”
In his statement Saturday, Obama said that “Michelle and I are heartbroken to hear about the passing of our friend and mentor Charles Ogletree,” adding that their thoughts were with Ogletree’s wife, Pamela, the rest of the family, “and everyone who knew and loved this remarkable man.”
In the 2009 Globe interview, two months after Obama was elected, Ogletree said that “there’s something special about trying to prepare for calling Barack ‘Mr. President.’ ” And he predicted that his former student might object to such formality.
“He’s going to say, ‘Come on, ‘Tree,’ ” Ogletree said. “The point will be, ‘Don’t go so upscale on me.’ ”
‘He stood tall, offering protection and cover, and he was a force of nature.’ JANAI NELSON, NAACP Legal Defense Fund president and director-counsel, on Charles Ogletree, known to his friends as ‘Tree’