This story was a major motivational factor in my life. I can still "tear up" remembering that final drawing when I was in sixth grade. I have worked in radio for more than 30 years and have mentioned that story many times but have never heard anyone else mention it. As the product of working class parents in the northeast, who were fairly neutral on race matters, "Pettigrew for President" was my first real moment to really think about matters of race. Co-incidently, I graduated from college in 1976. I would love to find a copy of the "Pettigrew for President" story again!

Sent by Dan Gonder | 7:00 PM ET | 02-04-2008

I, too, would enjoy being able to read
this comic again. Thanks mom for
throwing them out. But this particular story was decades ahead of
its time. For one vivid memory that I
have about this weekly series was that
it was not until the final episode
that you found out that Tim Pettigrew
was black. In fact, I remember, after
that revelation, that I went back
through the earlier episodes and
discovered that they had never shown
him as anything but a silhouette and
that it was never mentioned that he
was black. So, when they did, finally,
disclose his race, you found yourself
asking whether or not, now that you
knew it, if it mattered. And that was
a powerful lesson to convey to a 10
year old kid in those times.

Sent by Paul Sherman | 3:26 PM ET | 02-13-2008

On the day after the Wisconsin primary, I am thinking about Timothy Pettigrew and remembering my awe, looking at those last panels. "Of course," I thought. I was 13 and my eyes were opened.

It had been almost exactly a year since we all sat in front of our black and white television sets and witnessed Bull Connor's police dogs and fire hoses.

Sent by Chuck Szmanda | 8:00 AM ET | 02-20-2008

See the blog at this link:
http://generationexploitation.blogspot.com/2006/07/comic-books-and-catholic-church-or-hey.html for interesting commentary on this same subject.

Early last year something about the Obama candidacy stirred a long dormant memory from my parochial school days (1960-1967)in Birmingham, Alabama. I thought I recalled a storyline in Treasure Chest about a black president, but as this story confirms, it was a governor. My internet search at that time turned up the website above, so I posted to see if anyone else recalled this story. As work demands will have it, I failed to return to the site until yesterday when I again wanted to research this. A more in-depth search turned up the archives at Catholic University (CUA). A thorough search of the many years (1946-1963)issues they have archived did not turn up what I was searching for, so I e-mailed them last night. They jumped on this challenge, and found the story this morning in some issues they have not yet catalogued digitally due to copyright concerns. They are still researching, but NPR may be able to actually view the info at CUA. I told them this would make great fodder for Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter who could point to the Catholic church as attempting to rig an election through brainwashing 40 years ago. Shades of The Manchurian Candidate?

Sent by Larry Davenport | 2:08 PM ET | 02-20-2008

After hearing this report I dug through some old comics and found the series. Pettigrew was featured in ten issues, but always in silhouette, or his face obscured. You got the sense they were just trying to keep from showing his face, so that he could be an everyman -- which made it all the more effective when you finally saw him clearly. But you did see and hear him speak (or see him speak with word balloons, anyway). Very interesting piece when you look at it because it depicts him fighting for his party's nomination and along the way you learn about primaries, caucuses, etc. There are cliffhangers at the end of each episode as he nearly falls prey to opponents. Some of it is kind of corny and some is kind of prescient -- like one episode in which Pettigrew, a former officer in Vietnam -- nearly gets swift-boated by his opponent. He saves the day by pointing out that his accusers are men with shameful military records of their own and political motivations. If only John Kerry had bothered to read these old comics in 2004.

Sent by c.r.u. | 10:06 PM ET | 02-25-2008

I read those Treasure Chest issues as they came out and every few years I've recalled that revelation that the candidate was black, and I wondered when there would ever be a serious black candidate. I remembered the silhouette figure as heavier - and thought of Colin Powell.

Reading the issues as they came out, my experience was much different than someone now reading this story - (also, I was 10 years old). After the first expose to the silhouette, I never wondered what the candidate looked like (except I assumed it was a male). The details about the nomination race totally absorbed me (don't wear a white shirt on 1960s tv, it's too bright!). I remember an eagerness to read the conclusion but I had no interest in seeing what he looked like - I just wanted to see that things can out right.
When it was revealed that he was black, I calmly thought of it as a clever surprise that smoothly sequed into that final panel narrative. Like Chuck Szmanda, it was an "of course' moment for me.

I can probably remember about ten things from Treasure Chest, but that series was the topmost.

Sent by Brian Mahoney | 1:26 AM ET | 02-29-2008

I read Treasure Chest as a young black child in Resurrection Grammar School in Harlem. I could not have been more surprised and pleased when the candidate literally emerged from the shadows as a fellow citizen of color. I was so pleased and proud of my Church and my country. And yes, I too tear up recalling it to this very day. Thank you for reminding me of the best we have in each of us.

Sent by Bill Kuntz | 12:44 PM ET | 03-14-2008