Former President Barack Obama reunited with Jacob Philadelphia, the boy who touched his head in Peter Souza’s iconic “Hair Like Mine” photo.
“Is that Jacob? It’s Barack Obama. Do you remember me,” Obama asked 18-year-old Jacob in a video posted to his Instagram account on Friday.
The teen responded with a smile and said, “Yes, and you said your hair would be gray next time.”
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“And I was not lying,” Obama said, laughing while pointing at his head.
The two met in 2009 when then-National Security Council staffer Carlton Philadelphia took his wife and two sons to visit the Oval Office during a trip to the White House. When Philadelphia introduced his children to the former president, five-year-old Jacob asked Obama, “Is your hair like mine?”
Obama then bent down and told the young boy he could touch his hair. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’ve got,” Obama recalled Philadelphia saying.
Souza, who served as the White House photographer, captured the iconic moment in a photo that hung for years in the hall of the West Wing.
“I think this picture embodied one of the hopes that I’d had when I first started running for office,” Obama said.
“I remember telling Michelle and some of my staff, you know, I think that if I were to win, the day I was sworn into office, young people, particularly African American people, people of color, outsiders, folks who maybe didn’t always feel like they belonged, they’d look at themselves differently. To see a person who looked like them in the Oval Office. It would speak to Black kids and Latino kids and gay kids and young girls — how they could see the world open up for them.”
Jacob also reflected on the memorable moment, revealing that he initially thought Obama was his father’s boss and not the President of the United States.
“When I was younger, I just thought the president was just my dad’s boss. I didn’t know how powerful he was,” Philadelphia said in the video. “I was a little shy, and I kind of remember touching his hair and him towering over me. That was a pretty big highlight of my life.”
“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,” Philadelphia added.
The 18-year-old graduated from the International School of Uganda on Friday and planned to attend the University of Memphis and major in political science.
“I think the White House visit clearly inspired you, I hope,” Obama said in the video.
At the end of the conversation, Obama mentioned Jacob’s noticeable facial hair, saying, “Is that some facial hair you are growing there, some kind of a mustache?” before closing with, “It sounds like you are doing great.”
