Barack Obama was born in Hawaii
on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in
a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own
father, who was a domestic servant to the British.
Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father
worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War
II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army.
Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they
studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing
Program, and moved west to Hawaii.
It was there, at the University of Hawaii, where Barack's parents met. His
mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship that
allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America.
Learn more about Barack's life, family, and accomplishments.
Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his
mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New
York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.
Remembering the values of empathy and service that his mother taught him,
Barack put law school and corporate life on hold after college and moved
to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a
church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor
neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment.
The group had some success, but Barack had come to realize that in order
to truly improve the lives of people in that community and other
communities, it would take not just a change at the local level, but a
change in our laws and in our politics.
He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became
the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon
after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and
teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for
the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he
became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to
the U.S. Senate.
It has been the rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama's life -
growing up in different places with people who had differing ideas - that
have animated his political journey. Amid the partisanship and bickering
of today's public debate, he still believes in the ability to unite people
around a politics of purpose - a politics that puts solving the challenges
of everyday Americans ahead of partisan calculation and political gain.
In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and
Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like
the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over
$100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed
through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of
inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law
enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and
confessions in all capital cases.
In the U.S. Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of a
globalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no
longer settles for the lowest common denominator. His first law was passed
with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by
allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of
their tax dollars are spent. He has also been the lead voice in
championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-style
corruption in Congress.
As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought
to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while
working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who
will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist
threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with
Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation
efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world. And
knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America's
addiction to oil, he's working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers,
businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater
use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars.
Whether it's the poverty exposed by Katrina, the genocide in Darfur, or
the role of faith in our politics, Barack Obama continues to speak out on
the issues that will define America in the 21st century. But above all his
accomplishments and experiences, he is most proud and grateful for his
family. His wife, Michelle, and his two daughters, Malia, 8, and Sasha, 5,
live on Chicago's South Side where they attend Trinity United Church of
Christ.
