BI: How would you assess the impact of having been a community organizer on choosing politics as a career, and specifically on making a predominantly Black urban community your political base?
BO: I became a community organizer as a direct result of my work and study in college. I was greatly inspired by the civil rights movement. I majored in political science, and really appreciated the courage and commitment of ordinary people in the civil rights movement to do extraordinary things. My coming to Chicago, I think, opened up my potential — I consider (the experience) an extension of my college education because a lot of the things that I had read about in books I had to try to implement. It wasn't always as easy as I thought, but it also confirmed my belief in the need to give everyday folks a handle on their own destiny. And all my work since that time has been shaped by the values that were forged during those years as a community organizer.
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