The Barack Obama Senior Harvard Story: Difference between revisions

A subsequent INS memo dated June 8, 1964, also from McKeon, describes Harvard's response to Obama Sr.'s application for a visa extension: "They weren't very impressed with him and asked for us to hold up action on his application until they decided what action they could take in order to get rid of him. They were apparently having difficulty with his financial arrangements and couldn't seem to figure out how many wives he had." The memo recommends denying the extension, placing him under docket control, and giving him until July 8, 1964, to depart, attaching a copy of Harvard's May 27, 1964, letter advising him to terminate his stay and return to Kenya to carry on his research and write his thesis.

Harvard's international office informed him he had three weeks to leave the country. He departed in July 1964 without completing his PhD, though the university later cited a lack of funds as the official reason for his exit.

Obama Sr. was awarded a terminal master's degree from Harvard in 1965. The PhD rejection, attributed in part to the university's discomfort with his concurrent marriages, derailed his academic and professional trajectory. Upon returning to Kenya, he struggled to secure high-level positions, working in lower roles until his death in a car accident in 1982. His unfinished thesis was reportedly stolen in 1964, and he never earned the doctorate despite later claims to the contrary. Journalist Sally Jacobs, who obtained his INS files via FOIA in 2009, detailed this story in her book ''"The Other Barack"''<ref>https://www.sallyhjacobs.com/the-other-barack</ref> and a Boston Globe article<ref>https://archive.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/04/29/elder_obama_denied_harvard_phd/</ref>.

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