<P> During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, a controversy arose about Ayers' contacts with then - candidate Barack Obama, a matter that had been public knowledge in Chicago for years . After being raised by the American and British press the connection was picked up by conservative blogs and newspapers in the United States . The matter was raised in a campaign debate by moderator George Stephanopoulos, and later became an issue for the John McCain presidential campaign . Investigations by The New York Times, CNN, and other news organizations concluded that Obama does not have a close relationship with Ayers . </P> <P> In an op - ed piece after the election, Ayers denied any close association with Obama, and criticized the Republican campaign for its use of guilt by association tactics . </P> <P> Ayers is married to Bernardine Dohrn, a fellow former leader of the Weather Underground . They have two adult children (including Zayd, who was featured in the book A Hope in the Unseen as the college friend of the main character Cedric Jennings) and shared legal guardianship of Chesa Boudin, son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert . Boudin and Gilbert were former Weather Underground members who later joined the May 19 Communist Organization and were convicted of felony murder for their roles in that group's Brinks robbery . Chesa Boudin went on to win a Rhodes scholarship . Ayers and Dohrn currently live in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago . </P> <Ul> <Li> Education: An American Problem . Bill Ayers, Radical Education Project, 1968, ASIN B0007H31HU OCLC 33088998 </Li> <Li> Hot town: Summer in the City: I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more, Bill Ayers, Students for a Democratic Society, 1969, ASIN B0007I3CMI </Li> <Li> Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, Billy Ayers, Celia Sojourn, Communications Co., 1974, ASIN B000GF2KVQ OCLC 1177495 </Li> <Li> The Good Preschool Teacher: Six Teachers Reflect on Their Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 2946 - 5 </Li> <Li> To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1993, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 3262 - 5 * </Li> <Li> To Become a Teacher: Making a Difference in Children's Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1995, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 3455 - 1 </Li> <Li> City Kids, City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row, William Ayers (Editor) and Patricia Ford (Editor), The New Press, 1996, ISBN 978 - 1 - 56584 - 328 - 8 </Li> <Li> A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 1997, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8070 - 4402 - 5 </Li> <Li> A Light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation, Maxine Greene (Editor), William Ayers (Editor), Janet L. Miller (Editor), Teachers College Press, 1998, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 3721 - 7 </Li> <Li> Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader, William Ayers (Editor), Jean Ann Hunt (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), 1998, ISBN 978 - 1 - 56584 - 420 - 9 </Li> <Li> Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experience, William H. Schubert (Editor) and William C. Ayers (Editor), Educator's International Press, 1999, ISBN 978 - 1 - 891928 - 03 - 1 </Li> <Li> Teaching from the Inside Out: The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching and Living, Sue Sommers (Author), William Ayers (Foreword), Authority Press, 2000, ISBN 978 - 1 - 929059 - 02 - 7 </Li> <Li> A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2000, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 3963 - 1 </Li> <Li> Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment, William Ayers (Editor), Rick Ayers (Editor), Bernardine Dohrn (Editor), Jesse L. Jackson (Author), The New Press, 2001, ISBN 978 - 1 - 56584 - 666 - 1 </Li> <Li> A School of Our Own: Parents, Power, and Community at the East Harlem Block Schools, Tom Roderick (Author), William Ayers (Author), Teachers College Press, 2001, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 4157 - 3 Only the forward is written by Ayers . </Li> <Li> Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Cynthia Stokes Brown (Author), William Ayers (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), Teachers College Press, 2002, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 4204 - 4 </Li> <Li> On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2003, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 4400 - 0 </Li> <Li> Fugitive Days: A Memoir, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2001, ISBN 0 - 8070 - 7124 - 2 (Penguin, 2003, ISBN 978 - 0 - 14 - 200255 - 1) </Li> <Li> Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2004, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 4461 - 1 </Li> <Li> Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8070 - 3269 - 5 </Li> <Li> Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970 - 1974, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, Seven Stories Press, 2006, ISBN 978 - 1 - 58322 - 726 - 8 . </Li> <Li> Handbook of Social Justice in Education, William C. Ayers, Routledge, June 2008, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8058 - 5927 - 0 </Li> <Li> City Kids, City Schools: More Reports from the Front Row, Ruby Dee (Foreword), Jeff Chang (Afterword), William Ayers (Editor), Billings, Gloria Ladson (Editor), Gregory Michie (Editor), Pedro Noguera (Editor), The New Press, August 2008, ISBN 978 - 1 - 59558 - 338 - 3 </Li> <Li> To Teach: the journey, in comics, William Ayers and Ryan Alexander - Tanner, Jonathan Kozol (Foreword), Teachers College Press, 2010, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8077 - 5062 - 9 This is a graphic novel based on Ayers' To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher . It is not written by him . </Li> <Li> Public Enemy . Confessions of an American Dissident, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2013, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8070 - 3276 - 3 </Li> <Li> Demand The Impossible: A Radical Manifesto, William Ayers, Haymarket Books, 2016, ISBN 978 - 1 - 60846 - 670 - 2 </Li> <Li> "You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!": And 18 Other Myths about Teachers, Teachers Unions, and Public Education, William Ayers, Crystal Laura, Rick Ayers, Beacon Press, 2018, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8070 - 3666 - 2 </Li> </Ul>

Politico has published a piece from some university of chicago law professor