President Obama walking with My Brother’s Keeper mentees on the South Lawn of the White House in October 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Tables in two conference rooms, separated by a spit-shined corridor in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, held an array of posters and literature promoting educational and social programs with a proven record.
But nowhere was there a table promoting President Obama’s legacy.
Yet the sense of legacy was all around.
Though it doesn’t get as much attention as the Affordable Care Act or hits and misses on the foreign affairs front, the president’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative will be an important pillar in the way he is remembered.
That’s the plan.
Obama started My Brother’s Keeper “because what we want to do is help more young people, especially kids of color, get mentorships and the resources and the guidance they need to succeed,” he told students at Washington’s Benjamin Banneker Academic High School on Monday. “And I’m going to stay involved with that even after I’m done being president.”
My Brother’s Keeper is one of the programs that has at least the potential to appeal to Democrats and Republicans. It promotes and facilitates programs already doing good work, provides technical assistance, while raising their profile and their fundraising capabilities.
And it cost the government very little.