Honolulu, Hawaii was the birth place of President Barack Obama on August 4, 1961. His father was from Kenya and his mother was American. His childhood and school days were primarily spent in Honolulu with the exception of the four years his family lived in Indonesia.
He started his college career at Columbia College and after 2 years transferred to Columbia University where he studied Political Science with a concentration in international relations. After graduating from Columbia University in 1983 he spent one year working for the Business International Corporation. In 1985, Barack Obama pulled up roots and moved to Chicago, Illinois to accept a position as director for a non-profit project assisting local churches in organizing a job training program for the city.
In 1988 he entered Harvard Law School to become a Civil Attorney and during his time there he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review after 104 years of the school's history. President Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude in 1991 with a JD degree. He went to Chicago Illinois where he spent time directing a voter registration drive and afterwards joined the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996. His specialty as a Civil Attorney was representing claims of discrimination and voting rights. He also defended community organizers in his hometown of Chicago Illinois. President Barack Obama served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004.
After practicing law as a Civil Attorney he accepted a position at the University Of Chicago Law School from 1993 until he was elected as a U.S. Senator in 2004. President Obama was the fifth African American to become a Senator in U.S. history. During his appointment as U.S. Senator he was the only African American to be serving in Senate at the time.
Apart from running his campaign election, Barack Obama has written two best sellers.
- ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance'', it was first published after law school and before entering politics in 1995. It was published again in 2004 and in 2006 the audio book edition earned President Barack Obama the 2006 Grammy Award for the Best Spoken Word Album.
This book was Barack Obama's memoirs and they retell his experiences growing up in an American middle class family without a father. His mother and father divorced when he was only 2 years old so all he learned about his father was from handed down stories and pictures in a photo album. Obama was aware that his father was a dark man and his mother was as ''white as milk''. His father looked nothing like his mother's family. Obama fought internally to deal with his multi-racial mother and father. He tried to accept the social perceptions about his birth to a multi-racial couple. He was not initially successful in the reconciliation and spent time mulling over the questions of ''Who am I?''
2. ''The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream'', hit the market in 2006.
In conclusion this young Civil Attorney turned President has impacted the history of the United States. President Barack Obama has been graciously received internationally and made a quick step to begin an economic turn around to the slumping US economy.
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