President Barack Obama's Biography

Barack Obama

By. Reza Firmansyah

Their Biographies - Barack Obama (born August 4, 1961 -) is the 44th President of the United States of America. He was elected President on November 4, 2008, as a Democrat. His Vice-President running mate was Joseph Biden. Barack Obama is the first African-American president of the USA.

Obama was born in Hawaii. His father, also called Barack Obama, was a college student from Kogelo, a village in western Kenya, a country in Africa. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

They met when they were both students at the University of Hawaii. His parents divorced in 1964, and his mother and maternal grandparents raised Barack. In 1967, Obama's mother married Lolo Soetoro, and moved the family to Indonesia. His half sister, Maya Soetoro, was born on Aug. 15, 1970. In 1971, Obama moved back to Hawaii to go to school, living with his grandparents. That year, Obama's father visited him in Hawaii; Barack would never see his father again.

After graduating high school in 1979, Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. After two years, Obama transferred to Columbia University (in New York, New York), graduating in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in Political Science. His father had died the previous year (1982) in a car accident in Nairobi, Kenya.
In 1985, Obama moved to Chicago, Illinois, and worked as a community organizer, helping people improve their lives and become voters. In 1987, Obama travelled to Kenya, visiting his father's home town and meeting many of his relatives.

The next year, 1988, Obama enrolled at Harvard Law school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was elected the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review (a very prestigious magazine about law, edited by Harvard law students) in 1990, and graduated in 1991.

After graduating from law school, Obama moved back to Chicago, got married and entered politics. Michelle Robinson (an attorney) and Obama married in 1992; they have two daughters, Malia and Sasha. Obama's mother died of cancer in 1995. Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago from 1992 until 2004. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, 1998, and 2002 (he lost a primary election for Congress in 2000).

Obama was elected to the US Senate in 2004 (Dem-IL). Obama has written two books, Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006).
In the summer of 2008, Obama became the first African-American to be the presidential candidate of a major political party (the Democrats). On November 4, 2008, Obama won the general election, defeating John McCain (a Republican) to become the 44th President of the United States. His presidential inauguration was on January 20, 2009. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, 2009.