Early Years
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.
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.
The College Years
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.
Political Career
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 is 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, 9, and Sasha, 6,
live on Chicago's South Side where they attend Trinity
United Church of Christ.
Watch Barack's speech on race in America and
building a more perfect union.
