Blog Assignment #18: Obama

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Obama's parents separated two years later, and a little while after, they divorced. Barack's dad went on to Harvard to achieve his Ph.D., and then returned to Kenya in 1965. Barack's father, Barack Sr., then remarried and had another child, a little girl. In 1966, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. His mother and sister later reunited with them.


While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in Punahou Academy, graduating with academic honors in 1979. Being one of the only black students, Obama became aware of racism and what it meant to be African-American. He later described how he struggled to make peace with social perceptions of his mixed race with his self. "I began to notice there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog...and that Santa was a white man," he said. "I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking the way I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me."

After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science. After working in business for two years, Obama moved to Chicago . There, he worked on the South Side as a community organizer for low-income residents in the lesser communities.

Obama returned from Kenya with a sense of renewal, entering Harvard Law School in 1988. The next year, he met Michelle Robinson, an associate at Sidley & Austin law firm in Chicago. She was assigned to be Obama's adviser during a summer internship at the firm, and soon the couple began dating. In February 1990, Obama was elected the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.

In February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and then-U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton. On June 3, 2008, however, Obama became the presumptive nominee for the Democratic party, and Senator Clinton delivered her full support to Obama for the duration of his campaign. On November 4th, 2008, Barack Obama defeated Republican presidential nominee John McCain for the position of U.S. President by a few percentage. On January 20, 2009, Obama became the 44th president of the United States—and the first African-American to hold this office.