Barack Obama, in full Barack Hussein Obama II, (born August 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.), 44th president of the United States (2009–17) and the first 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:African American to hold the office. Before winning the presidency, Obama represented Illinois in the 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:U.S. Senate (2005–08). He was the third African American to be elected to that body since the end of Reconstruction (1877). In 2009 he was awarded the 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Early life

Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a teenage goatherd in rural Kenya, won a scholarship to study in the United States, and eventually became a senior economist in the Kenyan government. Obama’s mother, 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:S. Ann Dunham, grew up in Kansas, Texas, and 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:Washington state before her family settled in Honolulu. In 1960 she and Barack Sr. met in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii and married less than a year later.

When Obama was age two, Barack Sr. left to study at Harvard University; shortly thereafter, in 1964, Ann and Barack Sr. divorced. (Obama saw his father only one more time, during a brief visit when Obama was 10.) Later Ann remarried, this time to another foreign student, Lolo Soetoro from 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:Indonesia, with whom she had a second child, Maya. Obama lived for several years in Jakarta with his half sister, mother, and stepfather. While there, Obama attended both a government-run school where he received some instruction in Islam and a Catholic private school where he took part in Christian schooling.

He returned to Hawaii in 1971 and lived in a modest apartment, sometimes with his grandparents and sometimes with his mother (she remained for a time in Indonesia, returned to Hawaii, and then went abroad again—partly to pursue work on a Ph.D.—before divorcing Soetoro in 1980). For a brief period his mother was aided by government food stamps, but the family mostly lived a middle-class existence. In 1979 Obama graduated from Punahou School, an elite college preparatory academy in Honolulu.

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Obama attended Occidental College in suburban 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:Los Angeles for two years and then transferred to 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:Columbia University in 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:New York City, where in 1983 he received a 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:bachelor’s degree in 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:political science. Influenced by professors who pushed him to take his studies more seriously, Obama experienced great growth during college and for a couple of years thereafter. He led a rather life and read works of 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:literature and 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:philosophy by 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:William Shakespeare, Friedrich Nietzsche, Toni Morrison, and others. After serving for a couple of years as a writer and editor for Business International Corp., a research, publishing, and consulting firm in 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:Manhattan, he took a position in 1985 as a organizer on Chicago’s largely impoverished Far South Side. He returned to school three years later and graduated magna cum laude in 1991 from 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:Harvard University’s law school, where he was the first African American to serve as 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:president of the Harvard Law Review. While a summer associate in 1989 at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin, Obama had met Chicago native Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer at the firm. The two married in 1992.

After receiving his law degree, Obama moved to Chicago and became active in the Democratic Party. He organized Project Vote, a drive that registered tens of thousands of African Americans on voting rolls and that is credited with helping Democrat Bill Clinton win Illinois and capture the presidency in 1992. The effort also helped make Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois state legislator, the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. During this period, Obama wrote his first book and saw it published. The memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995), is the story of Obama’s search for his biracial identity by tracing the lives of his now-deceased father and his extended family in Kenya. Obama lectured on 华南永昌配资_在线配资炒股:constitutional law at the University of Chicago and worked as an attorney on civil rights issues.