NEWSBarack Obama Catches Up With Boy Who Asked To Touch His Hair In 2009: 'I Couldn't Be More Proud Of Him'
May 27 2022, Published 1:23 p.m. ET
Barack Obama had a sweet reunion with Jacob Philadelphia, a young boy he met years ago when he was in the White House.
"Is that Jacob? It's Barack Obama. Do you remember me?" the politician asked the 18-year-old in a video posted on his official website.
"Yes, and you said your hair would be gray next time," the teenager replied.
"And I was not lying," Obama said.
In 2009, former National Security Council staffer Carlton Philadelphia brought along Jacob, who was 5 years old at the time, to meet the president. He simply asked Obama, "Is your hair like mine?" The dad-of-two then bent over so that Jacob could feel his hair for himself. "Go ahead, touch it," the president instructed.
Pete Souza, who was the White House photographer at the time, took the photo, which ended up going viral and was later named "Hair Like Mine."
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"The whole thing happened so quickly that I only have three pictures," the photographer told People. "I myself spoke to Jacob earlier this week and reminded him that the last picture was Jacob then touching his own hair."
Now, Jacob is graduating from the International School of Uganda.
"I was five years old when I met President Obama in the Oval Office," he said in the video clip. "I just thought the president was my dad's boss. I didn't know how powerful he was… I kinda remember him towering over me, and me touching his hair."
"If I get to see another Black man be at the top, at that pinnacle, then I want to follow that lead," he added.
"That was a pretty big highlight of my life," Jacob recalled. "It is very wonderful to see representation in the government because if I get to see another Black man be at the top, be at that pinnacle, then I want to follow that lead."
For his part, Obama added, "I think this picture embodied one of the hopes I had when I first started running for office. Folks who maybe always didn't feel like they belonged, they'd look at themselves differently."
"I couldn't be more proud of him," Obama concluded.
