CHICAGO — At a tumultuous meeting of anti-Vietnam War militants at the Chicago Coliseum in 1969, Bill Ayers helped found the radical Weathermen, launching a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and United States Capitol.
Knoblock, via Associated Press
William Ayers, left, in 1980 with his wife, Bernardine Dohrn.
Todd Buchanan for The New York Times, 2001
Bill Ayers is now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His wife, Bernardine Dohrn, teaches at Northwestern University.
Twenty-six years later, at a lunchtime meeting about school reform in a Chicago skyscraper, Barack Obamamet Mr. Ayers, by then an education professor. Their paths have crossed sporadically since then, at a coffee Mr. Ayers hosted for Mr. Obama’s first run for office, on the schools project and a charitable board, and in casual encounters as Hyde Park neighbors.
Their relationship has become a touchstone for opponents of Mr. Obama, the Democratic senator, in his bid for the presidency. Video clips on YouTube, including a new advertisement that was broadcast on Friday, juxtapose Mr. Obama’s face with the young Mr. Ayers or grainy shots of the bombings.
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