Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He was the first African-American to be elected President.
Early Life
Barack Hussein Obama II, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961 to parents, Barack Sr., a Kenyan economist and Stanley Ann Dunham. Obama’s parents divorced and his mother remarried a man from Indonesia. Obama spent his early childhood living in Indonesia. In 1971, he returned to Honolulu, lived with his maternal grandparents and attended the Punahou School on scholarship.
Obama attended Occidental College for two years before transferring to Columbia University. At Columbia, he studied political science and international relations. Following graduation in 1983, he worked as an analyst at the Business International Corporation in New York.
In 1985, Obama relocated to Chicago to work as a community organizer for the Developing Communities Project. In 1988, he attended Harvard Law School where he was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. His bestselling book, Dreams from My Father, was the story of his search for his biracial identity.
Early Career
After law school, Obama returned to Chicago and joined Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland as an associate specializing in civil rights cases. He taught at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois State Senate for the thirteenth district.
At the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Obama gained nationwide attention when he delivered the keynote speech. Later that year, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Before his term ended, he announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election.
He fought an intense primary campaign against former Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. He won the general election against Arizona Senator, John McCain. Obama later named Clinton as his Secretary of State.
Presidency
During the 2008 campaign, a financial crisis threatened the world economy. In February 2009, Obama signed an economic stimulus package and spent significant time combating a recession, including a rescue of General Motors.
American troops were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama authorized the military operation in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 tragedy. In 2016, he was the first sitting president to visit Cuba in almost 90 years. An agreement was reached with Iran to limit its nuclear program.
Obama’s presidency is remembered for passage of the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare”, which extended healthcare to millions of uninsured Americans.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee selected Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
After Obama left office in January 2017, he remained active in Democratic politics.
