Barack Hussein Obama - the 44th President of the United States
Barack Obama: An Overview
Barack
Hussein Obama is the 44th President of the United States. Born in Hawaii to a white
American mother and Kenyan father, Obama makes a mark in history as the first African-American
to be elected as president. He was also one of the only five African-Americans in
the political history of the United States to be elected as Senator. Barack Obama
was sworn in to presidential office on January 20, 2009.
Who is Barack Obama?
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 to Ann Durham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas, and Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan of Luo ethnicity from Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama Sr. was a scholar at the University of Hawaii when he met Ann Durham who was also a student there. When Obama Jr was born, his parents where still students at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii.
When Obama Jr was two, his father left for Harvard to pursue PhD studies, then went to Kenya and served as an economist there. Though his father would constantly send him letters, Obama Jr would see him only once again when he was 10 years old. Obama Sr. died in a car accident in 1982.
Ann Durham, on the other hand, re-married. Lolo Soetero, her second husband, was also a student at the East-West Center. Lolo Soetero was from Indonesia and, in 1967, Ann, Lolo, and Barack located to Jakarta, Indonesia.
Four years later when he was 10, Barack Jr was sent back by his mother to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. Barack attended the prestigious Punahuo School, where he was more commonly known as Barry. It wasn’t until college that Barack would insist on his first name, Barack. At the Punahuo School, there were only three Black students; Barack Obama was one of them.
When he was little, Barack said he was race blind; he hardly noticed that his mother was white and his father was black and whatever social meanings or perceptions they bring. It was during his time at Punahuo that Barack Obama became aware of racism and his African-American heritage. In his memoir, Barack described how he struggled to reconcile his multi-racial heritage, and even used drugs and alcohol to escape from the questions plaguing him.
After high school, Barack moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at Occidental College. After two years, he transferred to Columbia University. In 1983, he graduated from Columbia with a degree in Political Science.
After graduation, Barack worked at Business International Corporation. After a year at Business International, he worked as community organizer for a church-based organization for three years. As director of the organization, he helped low-income South Side residents of Chicago deal with a wave of plant closings.
In 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School where he became the first African-American editor and president of the Harvard Law Review. During summer, he worked as an intern at a Chicago law firm. There, he met Michelle Robinson, and they began dating.
In 1988 also, he also made a trip to Alego, Kenya in order to meet his father’s family. By meeting his father’s family, Obama thought he would be able to understand better his own identity. After meeting his grandmother, half-brothers and half-sisters, nephews, half-uncles, and other relatives, Obama said in his memoir Dreams from My Father that he was able to see the struggles that his father had to go through. The trip also made realize that his pursuits are directly connected to his Kenyan relatives’ struggles.In 1991, Obama completed his juris doctor studies, magna cum laude.
After graduation, he practiced civil rights law in Chicago and worked on voting rights legislation. He took the fellowship offer of the University of Chicago and taught there for 12 years. He also got a “publishing contract and an advance to write a book about race relations.” In 1995, his first book, a memoir entitled Dreams from my Father was published.
Political career
In 1996, Obama ran for Illinois State Senate and won. In 1998, he ran again and was re-elected. Two years later, he ran for the US House of Representatives but lost to 4-term incumbent Bobby Bush. In 2004, he won the Democratic primary. During that year, he also delivered a well-received keynote speech at the National Democratic Convention in support of 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry. The rousing speech gave Obama a national attention.
After the convention, Obama returned to Illinois to continue his senate bid. Originally, his opponent was Jack Ryan, but Ryan withdrew from the race after his ex-wife made sexual abuse allegations. Alan Keyes was nominated to replace Jack Ryan. Obama defeated Keyes by a margin of 70%.
On February 10, 2007, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for presidency. After a tight battle with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee on June 3, 2008. On November 4, 2008, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain to become the 44th president of the United States.
The First Family
Barack Obama met Michelle Obama, also a graduate of Harvard Law School, while he worked as a summer associate at Sidney and Austin, a Chicago law firm. Married in 1992, they now have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
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