MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The young boy seen touching former President Barack Obama’s hair is now grown up and heading off to the University of Memphis.
Young Jacob Philadelphia was only 5 years old when his father Carlton, a Marine who served on the National Security Council, brought him and his older brother to the White House in 2009.
During his visit, Jacob asked Obama, “Is your hair like mine?” Obama leaned down and let Jacob touch the top of his hair.
The moment, captured by White House photographer Pete Souza, became one of the lasting images of Obama’s presidency. The former president says the photo hung on the walls of the West Wing for years.
Now, Jacob has graduated high school. Friday morning, Souza posted a video of Obama reconnecting with Jacob and congratulating him.
During the video, Jacob confirms that he plans to attend the University of Memphis to study political science. He says the White House visit inspired him.
Jacob says he didn’t realize how powerful Obama was because he saw the president as “just my dad’s boss.” He recalls being “slightly intimidated” during his visit because of how big the Oval Office was.
Jacob says the moment he touched Obama’s hair is a “pretty big highlight of my life.”
During the video, Obama and Jacob both speak on the importance of representation in the government.
“I think this picture embodied one of the hopes that I had when I started running for office,” Obama said.
Obama goes on to say that he recalls telling his wife Michelle Obama and some of his staff members that his potential win would inspire many young people, particularly people of color and “folks who maybe didn’t always feel like they belonged.”
“They’d look at themselves differently,” Obama said. “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. They could see the world open up for them.”
“It is very wonderful to see representation in the government,” Jacob says, “because if I get to see another Black man be at the top, be at that pinnacle, then I want to follow that lead.”