Barack Obama Hussein Jr. (1961 - Current) The 44th President of the United States, launched himself into the history books as the first black President. From his early life, few people would have foreseen his future leadership and vision; however, his early life helped shape his political career.

 

Barack Obama's Early Years

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at the Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. In Swahili, his name "Barack" means "one who is blessed." He was the first President to be born in the State of Hawaii.

He was born to Stanley (Ann) Dunham, an American, and Barack Obama, Sr. , from Kenya.

 

Obama's Mother and Family Background

Stanley Ann Dunham was born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on November 29, 1942. She was named after her father, Stanley, but at 18, she began going by her middle name, Ann.

In 1960, when she turned 18 and had graduated from high school, Ann and her parents moved to Hawaii because her parents wanted to pursue business ventures in the new state that had just been admitted to the Union.

Ann started taking classes at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. She met Barack Obama, Sr. when both of them had enrolled in a course teaching the Russian language, and they started dating. Barack Sr. was the first African student ever enrolled in the university.

They married in Maui on February 2, 1961, in spite of arguments from Ann's parents, and Barack Jr. was born six months later. Ann took Barack Jr. with her to attend the University of Washington in Seattle, where they remained for a year.

Unfortunately, young Barack Jr. would see his father very little throughout his childhood. While Barack Jr. and his mother were in Seattle, Barack Sr. finished his undergraduate studies and went on to attend graduate school at Harvard on the east coast to study economics.

Barack Sr. only visited his son once, in 1971 when Barack Jr. was 10 years old. Unfortunately, the death of Barack Sr. in a car accident in 1982 precluded the possibility that he and Barack Jr. would ever spend more time together as father and son.

Obama’s mother returned to Hawaii to raise her young son and return to college. Her parents helped take care of Barack Jr. as she attended school in Hawaii. In 1962, Ann met Lolo Soetoro, a foreign exchange student from Indonesia, at the University of Hawaii. Two years later, she filed for divorce from Barack Sr. when her son was only three years old. In March 1965, she married Lolo who had applied for, and received, one final extension on his visa. He returned to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1966, followed by Ann and Barack Jr. in 1967.

Barack attended local schools from ages 6 through 10, both public and private Catholic school.

On August 15, 1970, Maya Soetoro was born, and the next year, Ann sent 10-year old Barack to live with her parents in Hawaii, where he attended fifth grade through high school.

In 1972, Ann and Maya joined Barack in Hawaii while Ann was an anthropology graduate student at the University of Hawaii. In 1975 Ann returned to Indonesia to work on her Ph.D. doing field work, and Barack continued to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents. In 1980, Ann divorced Lolo.

In 1992, Ann earned her Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Hawaii. Her doctoral thesis was titled, "Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving and Thriving Against All Odds."

In 1995, Ann returned to Hawaii, was diagnosed with ovarian and uterine cancer, and died on November 7, 1995, at 52 years of age.

 

Natural Born Citizen Controversy

Ever since it was revealed that Barack Obama Jr. had lived outside the United States as a youngster, there was been much speculation that he is not an American citizen. In fact, during the campaigns for presidency, there were many opponents trying to discredit Obama’s nationality and concerns about his citizenship in an effort to have him disqualified as a candidate for the American presidency.

• Some people asserted that Hawaii was not actually a state when he was born.

• His father’s nationality was Kenyan and there is speculation that Obama was born in Kenya.

• Some maintain that his mother was too young for him to have been considered a “natural-born” citizen when he was born.

• Some doubt Obama’s nationality because of his multicultural background and a youth spent outside the United States.

• Because his birth certificate had not been made available to the general public, some believed that Barack Obama Jr. was born in Africa, not in the United States.

In 2008 Barack Obama publically presented his Certificate of Live Birth which details his official birthplace as Hawaii. Given the fact that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1961, nearly two years after it became a state, Barack Obama is an American citizen.

Although some people continue to say that Barack Obama was born elsewhere, his birth certificate and the birth announcement published in a newspaper in Honolulu reflect that he is indeed, and always has been, a natural-born American citizen.

 

Education and Employment

Barack Obama held many jobs and positions throughout his life prior to entering politics:

• Student

• Teacher

• Community Organizer

• Civil Rights Attorney

• Author

 

Student

In 1979, Obama began attending Occidental College in Los Angeles. It was here that in 1981 he first made his appearance in the public eye giving a speech, stating that his college should not invest in South Africa and, instead, should support the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa. In 1981 he transferred to Columbia University in New York City. He majored in political science.

His biography continues with his graduation from Columbia University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983, after which he took a five-year break from school to work as a market researcher and then as a community organizer.

In 1988, he returned to school, attended Harvard Law School and received his law degree in 1991 with a magna cum laude.

 

Teacher

After his 1991 graduation from Harvard Law School, Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

 

Community Organizer

From April to October 1992, while teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, Obama directed Illinois' Project Vote, a voter registration campaign, directing a team of volunteers who registered 150,000 previously unregistered African American in Illinois.

In 1993, while still teaching, Obama went to work as director of the Developing Communities Project, a community organization comprised of eight Catholic parishes on Chicago's south side.

As a community organizer he set up job training programs, tenant rights organizations and was an instructor in community organization for a private organizing institute.

 

Civil Rights Attorney

In 1993 Obama joined a law firm in Chicago that specialized in civil rights litigation, first as an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996 and then of counsel for eight years until 2004.

 

Author

Obama's selection as the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review gained a publisher's attention and he was asked to write a book on race relations, which was published in 1995 as his autobiography Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance which details the joys, frustrations, and regrets of his days as a high schooler in Honolulu.

Other books written by Obama include:

• The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

• Of Thee, I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters

• Change We Can Believe In Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise

 

Political Life

In 1996, five years after graduating from Harvard Law School, Obama entered the public domain as a political figure. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois Senate representing Chicago's south side neighborhoods. During his tenure in the Illinois Senate Obama sponsored and participated in and provided bipartisan support for many laws of ethics, healthcare, childcare, payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending.

Obama campaigned for the United States Senate starting in 2002 by raising funds and developing his platform. He spoke against the war and quickly became well-known in the Democratic Party, gaining national exposure in July 2004 when he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National convention.

In November 2004 he was elected to the United States Senate with 70% of the vote. He resigned from the Illinois Senate and was sworn in as a Senator on January 3, 2005.

Obama became the only black member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a non-partisan group of African American Senators and Representatives which focuses on the economic, health and social issues of the African American.

While in the Senate, Obama sponsored legislation on nuclear weapons threat reduction, relief for the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as a Federal funding act which established the Federal spending website USAspending.gov.

On February 10, 2007, Obama announced that he would be running for President of the United States. He campaigned against several Democratic candidates including Hillary Rodham Clinton. He received the presidential nomination in the Democratic Party primary election. He then engaged in the general election campaign and defeated Republican John McCain in November 2008.

He was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. When he was sworn into office, he was only 47 years old, making him the fifth youngest president in the history of the United States.

He was reelected in November 2012 after defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney and sworn in for his second term on January 20, 2013.

 

Family Life

Barack and Michelle LaVaughn Robinson met at the Sidney Austin law firm where they worked together. They were wed on October 3, 1992. The couple have two daughters. Malia Ann was born on July 4, 1998, and Natasha (Sasha) was born on June 10, 2001.

Mrs. Obama's mother, Marian Shields Robinson, resides in the White House with the family in order to assist with raising the Obama's two daughters.

 

Michelle Obama

Many of us know that the wives of presidents tend to become legacies in and of themselves. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama has become known for both her determined, faithful, and intelligent demeanor, as well as her work to combat obesity and her support of military families.

The current First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama, has her own life and a history that is just as interesting as her husband's:

• She was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964.

• She is the youngest child and only daughter of her parents Fraser Robinson III and Marian Shields.

• She has an older brother named Craig Robinson who is the men's basketball coach at Oregon State University.

• She was raised on the south side of Chicago in what she describes as a "traditional" home where her mother was a homemaker until Mrs. Obama entered high school and her father worked outside the home as a city water plant employee.

• Education played a significant part in Mrs. Obama's life. She was always a very studious child, and was very academically gifted.

• She and her brother skipped the second grade.

• Michelle Obama attended Whitney Young High School which was Chicago's first magnet high school.

• While in high school, she was on the honor roll all four years and was a member of the National Honor Society.

• She followed in her brother's footsteps and attended Princeton University majoring in sociology and graduating cum laude. 

• Michelle Obama received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Harvard Law School in 1992.

• She worked for several years in private law practice and in public law as part of the social service arm of the Chicago city offices.

• Prior to becoming the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama worked as Vice President for Community and External Affairs at University of Chicago Hospital.

• She was a salaried member of the board of directors for TreeHouse Foods.

 

Public Image of Michelle Obama

The First Lady Michelle Obama was thrust into the spotlight during her husband's campaign for the presidency. The media attention that she has received has been both positive and negative:

• Some people felt that Mrs. Obama had a very hard image at the beginning of the campaign.

• Mrs. Obama admitted that she was not particularly fond of political campaigning in the beginning. However, as time has passed she has committed a significant amount of time and dedication to supporting her husband throughout the campaign and into his current presidency.

• Michelle Obama has become quite the fashion icon. She has been rated top dressed by a number of popular fashion magazines such as Vanity Fair.

• Although her fashion sense often receives a significant amount of exposure, Mrs. Obama is also very involved in activism. While First Lady she spearheaded a movement called "Let's Move" which focused on reducing childhood obesity.  

 

Religion

Neither of Barack Obama's parents were religious, and in fact, his father was an atheist. However, he was baptized as a Christian in 1988. He has made several public comments about his religious views and attended the United Church of Christ while living in Chicago.

While President he attended the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David. This church has been a place where many presidents have worshipped, particularly due to security concerns about attending their home churches.

 

Personal Interests

• Obama has said that when he was younger, he tried both marijuana and cocaine.

• Obama has smoked cigarettes, although he reportedly quit in 2010.

• Scrabble and poker are two of his favorite games to play.

• He collects Spider Man comic books.

• He enjoys reading the Harry Potter series to his daughter.

• His favorite book is Moby Dick, which was written by Herman Melville.

• Pablo Picasso is his favorite artist.

• He loves to cook chili.

• He is left handed. He is the sixth post-war President to be left handed.

• While he was living in Indonesia as a child, he ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper and he had a pet ape.

• He has a couple of good luck charms that he carries with him. One is a Madonna and Christ child statue, and the other is a bracelet that belongs to a soldier who is in Iraq.

• He keeps a wooden hand holding an egg on his desk. This is a Kenyan symbol which reminds people of the fragility of life.

• He does not drink coffee and he does not drink alcohol frequently.

 

Accomplishments

 

Political Accomplishments

Some of his accomplishments while President have included:

• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

• Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010

• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

• Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010

• Budget Control Act of 2011

• American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012

• First sitting president to support same sex marriage

• Ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War

• Ordered the military operation that ended in the death of Osama bin Laden

 

Personal Accomplishments

• At his high school, people called him "O'Bomber" because of his ability to play basketball very well.

• Obama was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

• Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Spoken Word Recording.

• He can speak Spanish.

• Obama can bench press 200 pounds.

• He is the 44th President of the United States of America.

 

Nobel Peace Prize

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009 for his "extraordinary efforts" at international diplomacy and foreign policy, especially with the Muslin world.

There were over 200 nominations for the award; however, the five appointed members of the Norwegian Parliament voted unanimously for awarding the prize to Obama. The award is given to the individual who:

"shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

The committee said that they were particularly impressed with Obama's efforts to curb climate change, his support for preventing nuclear proliferation and his use of international bodies such as the United Nation to implement policy goals.

In his December 2009 acceptance speech, Obama made three key points:

• Regimes must adhere to standards - "Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must exact a real price."

• Peace requires human rights - "...we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time."

• Societies need economic security and opportunity - "development rarely takes root without security...security does not exist where human beings do not have enough food, or clean water or the medicine they need to survive...it does not exist where children cannot aspire to a decent education or a job what supports a family.

 

Quotes from Barack Obama

 

On Change

• If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.

• Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

 

On Values and Justice

• If we aren’t willing to pay a price for our values, if we aren’t willing to make some sacrifices in order to realize them, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all. - from Audacity of Hope

• For all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.

On Politics

• What Washington needs is adult supervision.

• We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it’s easy, but when it is hard.

On the Economy

• I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody.

• With the changing economy, no one has lifetime employment. But community colleges provide lifetime employability.

On Education

• In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a pre-requisite.

• The best anti-poverty program is a world-class education.

• I think perhaps education doesn’t do us much good unless it is mixed with sweat. From Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance