When Barry Became Barack

Wahid Hamid, a good friend at Oxy who attended Obama's wedding years later, says that even before he became Barack, most friends simply called him "Obama." "It wasn't surprising to me that he decided to embrace that identity because 'Barry' could be perceived as trying to run away from something and trying to fit in, rather than embracing his own identity and, in many ways, kind of opening himself to who he is." For Wahid, an immigrant from Pakistan also trying to find his way in America (he is now a corporate executive in New York), the name Barack was perfectly natural and "somewhat refreshing."

Obama struck Moore as a person who could glide in and out of any social circle on campus. This was the thing about being of "mixed race," Moore says. "You have the benefit of knowing both cultures firsthand and it opens your eyes." Moore said that even though he was older than Obama, he was often worrying and struggling to succeed during that time in his life. Obama always seemed relaxed and well prepared.

He cites as an example Obama's speech during a rally of the Black Student Alliance and other groups concerning divestment from South Africa. The rally was staged near the president's office. In Moore's mind, the students were running a risk doing this. They could get in trouble, or even expelled. He was nervous and jittery, in part because he was also speaking at the event. Then he saw Obama take the stage. He seemed so calm. People slowed down to listen. "He had this booming voice," Moore says. "It helped that people knew who he was [because he was popular on campus], but he also had this commanding presence." Moore says he was reminded of that moment when Obama gave his breakout speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. "I remember calling friends, saying, 'Are you watching this? That's our boy from school'."

Obama says in his autobiography that the school speech on South Africa was an important moment, but also a confusing one. He was enthralled by the power of his own words—"to hear my voice bouncing off the crowd and returning back to me in applause." Yet he also felt foolish, that the whole demonstration was a farce—more about him than about South Africa. He succumbed to self-pity, and a friend admonished him for it. He still wasn't sure who he was, or who he was supposed to be.

Yet Obama honed his sense of right and wrong at Occidental. "He hung out with the young men and women who were most serious about issues of social justice," recalls Prof. Roger Boesche, who taught Obama two political-science courses and knew him as Barry at the time. Obama also wasn't afraid to stand up for himself, and perhaps had a righteous streak. In one instance, he politely confronted his professor over lunch at a local sandwich shop called The Cooler. "He'd gotten a grade he was disappointed in," Boesche recalls. "I told him he was really smart, but he wasn't working hard enough." Other students might have backed off at that point. But not Obama. He politely told Boesche he should have gotten a better grade. Even today, Obama recalls the demeaning mark. He told journalist David Mendell, author of a recent book called "Obama, From Promise to Power," that he "was pissed" about it because he thought he was being graded "on a different curve." Boesche still insists he gave him the grade he deserved.

Occidental—like Hawaii before—became too small for Obama. "I think the Oxy environment and L.A. in general seemed not to be enough for him," Moore says. He remembered asking Obama when he was a sophomore what he planned to do the following year, since many upper-class friends of Obama's were graduating. Obama told him he was planning to transfer to Columbia University. "I remember trying to convince him to stay at Oxy," Moore says. But Obama had made up his mind that he wanted to move to a more urban, intense and polyglot place. "He said something to the effect that he needed a bigger and more stimulating environment intellectually."