Early life and career of Barack Obama

Barack Obama, the

current [[President of the

United States]], was born on

August 4, 1961 in either

Honolulu,

in the state of Hawaii, or

somewhere in Kenya. The

refusal of Obama to release his

long-form birth certificate,

which would contain verifiable

details such as the hospital's

name and the attending

physician's name, has left his

place of birth and therefore his

constitutional eligibility as

president, still yet

unconfirmed. He was born to

Barack Obama, Sr.

(1936–1982) (born in

Nyang’oma Kogelo, [[Siaya

District]], [[Nyanza

Province]],

Kenya Colony,

British Empire), and [[Ann

Dunham]] (1942–1995) (born

in Fort Leavenworth,

Kansas). On his

mother's side he has a half-

sister; on his father's side,

Obama has two half-sisters and

five surviving half-

brothers.

{{BarackObamaSegmentsUnderInfoBo x}}

Education at a glance

== Childhood through high

school== [[File:BarackObamaCertificationO

fLiveBirthHawaii.jpg|thumb|right

|150px|Birth certificate.]] [[File:Ann Dunham with father

and children

(enhanced).jpg|thumb|right|Rig

ht-to-left: Barack Obama

and Maya Soetoro with their mother

Ann Dunham and grandfather

[[Madelyn and Stanley

Dunham|Stanley Dunham]] in

Hawaii (early 1970s)]]

Barack Obama's parents met in a

basic Russian language

course while both were attending

the [[University of Hawaii at

Manoa]], where Obama's father

was enrolled as a

foreign student.

Obama was born either somewhere

in Kenya, or possibly in

Honolulu, Hawaii at

either the Queen's Medical

Center

[http://www.theobamafile.com/_im

ages/UPIFirstSaid.bmp] or the

[[Kapi'olani Medical Center for

Women & Children]] (reports are

conflicting and no confirmation

yet exists) with his arrival in

Hawaii being announced in

The Honolulu Advertiser

and the [[Honolulu Star-

Bulletin]].

Old friends in [[Mercer Island,

Washington]] recall his mother

visiting them with her new baby

later on that summer. She

subsequently enrolled at the

University of Washington,

and lived in the [[Capitol Hill,

Seattle|Capitol Hill]]

neighborhood of Seattle as a

single mother with her son. She and her son left

Seattle in the summer of 1962

and she re-enrolled at the

University of Hawaii at Manoa.

His parents divorced in January

1964. After the separation,

he, his mother and his

grandparents moved into a

single-story home in the

Manoa district. His

father received a Masters degree

in Economics from [[Harvard

University]], then returned to

Kenya, where he became a finance

minister before dying in an

automobile accident in 1982.

Throughout his early years,

Obama was known at home and at

school as "Barry."

He attended kindergarten at

Noelani Elementary School,

near his home.

While still resident in Manoa,

Dunham married Indonesian

student Lolo Soetoro who was

attending the University of

Hawaii. When

Suharto, a military leader

in Soetoro's home country,

[[Transition to the New

Order|came to power]] in 1967,

all students studying abroad

were recalled and the family

moved to Indonesia. During

his time in Indonesia, Obama

attended local schools in

Jakarta, from ages 6 to 10,

where classes were taught in the

Indonesian language. He

first attended St. Francis

Assisi Catholic school for

almost three years.

When his family moved to a new

neighborhood, Menteng, he attended the

secular, government-run

[[State Elementary School

Menteng 01|SDN Menteng 1]]

school for his fourth year. Obama was a [[Cub

Scout]] while living in

Indonesia. Obama's stepfather

was "not religious", and "never

went to prayer services except

for big communal events",

according to Obama's half-

sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. When Obama was in

third grade he wrote an essay

saying that he wanted to become

president. His teacher later

told the Chicago Tribune

that she was not sure what

country he wanted to become

president of but that he said

that his reason for becoming

president was that he wanted to

make everybody happy.

Obama returned to Honolulu to

live with his maternal

grandparents at the [[Punahou

Circle apartments]] on South

Beretania Street, Honolulu,

while attending [[Punahou

School]], a private college

preparatory school, from the

fifth grade until his graduation

in 1979.

Obama's mother, Ann, died of

ovarian cancer and [[uterine

cancer]] a few months after the

publication of his 1995

memoir, [[Dreams from My

Father]].

[[File:Barack Obama Sr

Jr.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Obama

(right) with [[Barack Obama,

Sr.|his father]] in Hawaii. ca.

1971]] In the memoir, Obama describes

his experiences growing up in

his mother's [[American middle

class|middle class]] family. His

knowledge about his African

father, who returned once for a

brief visit in 1971, came mainly

through family stories and

photographs.

Of his early childhood, Obama

writes: "That my father looked

nothing like the people around

me — that he was black as

pitch, my mother white as milk

— barely registered in my

mind." The book describes his

struggles as a young adult to

reconcile social perceptions of

his multiracial

heritage. He

wrote that he used [[alcoholic

beverage|alcohol]], [[cannabis

(drug)|marijuana]], and

cocaine during his teenage

years to "push questions of who

I was out of my mind". Obama has said that

it was a seriously misguided

mistake. At the Saddleback Civil

Presidential Forum Barack Obama

identified his high-school drug

use as his greatest moral

failure. Obama has stated he has

not used any illegal drugs since

he was a

teenager.

Some of his fellow students at

Punahou School later told the

Honolulu Star-Bulletin

that Obama was mature for his

age as a high school student and

that he sometimes attended

parties and other events in

order to associate with

African American college

students and military service

people. Reflecting later on his

formative years in Honolulu,

Obama wrote: "The opportunity

that Hawaii offered — to

experience a variety of cultures

in a climate of mutual respect

— became an integral part

of my world view, and a basis

for the values that I hold most

dear."

==College and living in New York

City== Following high school, Obama

moved to [[Los Angeles,

California|Los Angeles]], where

he studied at [[Occidental

College]] for two years. He

then transferred to [[Columbia

College of Columbia

University|Columbia College]] in

New York City, where he majored

in political science with a

specialization in

[[international

relations]]. In

1982, Obama's father, [[Barack

Obama, Sr.]], died in Kenya.

Obama graduated with a

B.A. from

Columbia in 1983, then worked at

[[Business International

Corporation]] and [[New York

Public Interest Research

Group]].

==Early years as a community

organizer in Chicago==

After four years in New York

City, Obama moved to Chicago

to work as a [[community

organizing|community

organizer]]. He worked for three

years from June 1985 to May 1988

as director of the Developing

Communities Project (DCP), a

church-based community

organization originally

comprising eight [[Roman

Catholic Church|Catholic]]

parishes in Greater Roseland

(Roseland,

West Pullman, and [[Riverdale,

Chicago|Riverdale]]) on

Chicago's far [[South Side

(Chicago)|South Side]]. During his three

years as the DCP's director, its

staff grew from 1 to 13 and its

annual budget grew from $70,000

to $400,000, with

accomplishments including

helping set up a job training

program, a college preparatory

tutoring program, and a tenants'

rights organization in [[Altgeld

Gardens, Chicago|Altgeld

Gardens]].

Obama also worked as a

consultant and instructor for

the Gamaliel Foundation, a

community organizing

institute. In mid-1988, he

traveled for the first time to

Europe for three weeks then

Kenya for five weeks where he

met many of his [[Family of

Barack Obama#Extended family -

paternal relations|Kenyan

relatives]] for the first

time.

Harvard Law School

[[File:hls langdell

hall.jpeg|thumb|right|Langdell

Hall, home of the [[Harvard Law

School]] library]] Obama entered [[Harvard Law

School]] in late 1988. In an

interview with [[Ebony

magazine|Ebony]] in 1990, he

stated that he saw a degree in

law as a vehicle to facilitate

better community organization

and activism: "The idea was not

only to learn how to hope and

dream about different

possibilities, but to know how

the tax structure affects what

kind of housing gets built

where." At the end of his first

year he was selected as an

editor of the [[Harvard Law

Review]] based on his grades

and a writing competition. In

February 1990, his second year

at Harvard, he was elected

president of the law review, a

full-time volunteer position

functioning as editor-in-chief

and supervising the law review's

staff of 80 editors. Obama's election as

the first black president of the

law review was widely reported

and followed by several long,

detailed profiles. He got

himself elected by convincing a

crucial swing bloc of

conservatives that he would

protect their self-interests if

they supported him. Building up

that trust was done with the

same kind of long listening

sessions he had used in the poor

neighborhoods of South Side,

Chicago. Richard Epstein,

who later taught at the

University of Chicago Law School

when Obama later taught there,

said Obama was elected editor

"because people on the other

side believed he would give them

a fair shake."

While in law school he worked as

an associate at the law firms of

Sidley & Austin in 1989, where he met

his wife, Michelle, and where

Newton N. Minow was a

managing partner. Minow later

would introduce Obama to some of

Chicago's top business

leaders. In the summer of 1990

he worked at [[Hopkins &

Sutter]].

Also during his law school

years, Obama spent eight days in

Los Angeles taking a national

training course on Alinsky

methods of organizing. He graduated with a

J.D. [[Latin

honors|magna cum laude]]

from Harvard in 1991 and

returned to Chicago.

Settling down in Chicago

The publicity from his election

as the first black president of

the Harvard Law Review led

to a contract and advance to

write a book about race

relations. In

an effort to recruit him to

their faculty, the [[University

of Chicago Law School]] provided

Obama with a fellowship and an

office to work on his book. He

originally planned to finish the

book in one year, but it took

much longer as the book evolved

into a personal memoir. In order

to work without interruptions,

Obama and his wife, Michelle,

traveled to Bali where he

wrote for several months. The

manuscript was finally published

as Dreams from My Father

in mid-1995.

He married [[Michelle

Obama|Michelle Robinson]] in

1992 and settled down with

her in Hyde Park, a liberal, integrated,

middle-class Chicago

neighborhood with a history of

electing reform-minded

politicians independent of the

Daley political machine. The couple's

first daughter, Malia Ann, was

born in 1998; their second,

Natasha (known as Sasha), in

2001.

One effect of the marriage was

to bring Obama closer to other

politically influential

Chicagoans. One of Michelle's

best friends was [[Jesse

Jackson]]'s daughter, Santita,

later the godmother of the

Obamas' first child. Michelle

herself had worked as an aide to

Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Marty Nesbitt, a young,

successful black businessman

(who played basketball with

Michelle's brother, [[Craig

Robinson (basketball coach)

|Craig Robinson]]), became

Obama's best friend and

introduced him to other African

-American business people.

Before the marriage, according

to Craig, Obama talked about his

political ambitions, even saying

that he might run for president

someday.

Project Vote

Obama directed Illinois

Project Vote from April to

October 1992, a voter

registration drive, officially

nonpartisan, that helped [[Carol

Moseley Braun]] become the first

black woman ever elected to the

Senate. He

headed up a staff of 10 and 700

volunteers that achieved its

goal of 400,000 registered

African Americans in the state,

leading Crain's Chicago

Business to name Obama to its

1993 list of "40 under Forty"

powers to be. Although fundraising

was not required for the

position when Obama was

recruited for the job, he

started an active campaign to

raise money for the project.

According to Sandy Newman, who

founded Project Vote, Obama

"raised more money than any of

our state directors had ever

done. He did a great job of

enlisting a broad spectrum of

organizations and people,

including many who did not get

along well with one

another."

The fundraising brought Obama

into contact with the wealthy,

liberal elite of Chicago, some

of whom became supporters in his

future political career. Through

one of them he met [[David

Axelrod (political consultant)

|David Axelrod]], who later

headed Obama's campaign for

president. The

fundraising committee was

chaired by John Schmidt, a white

former chief of staff to Mayor

Richard M. Daley, and John W.

Rogers Jr., a young black money

manager and founder of Ariel

Capital Management. Obama also met much

of the city's black political

leadership, although he didn't

always get along with the older

politicians, with friction

sometimes developing over

Obama's reluctance to spend

money and his insistence on

results. "He

really did it, and he let other

people take all the credit",

Schmidt later said. "The people

standing up at the press

conferences were [[Jesse

Jackson]] and Bobby Rush and

I don't know who else. Barack

was off to the side and only the

people who were close to it knew

he had done all the work."

Career 1992–1996

Obama taught [[constitutional

law]] at the [[University of

Chicago Law School]] for twelve

years, as a Lecturer for four

years (1992–1996), and as a

Senior Lecturer for eight years

(1996–2004).

During this time he taught

courses in due process and equal

protection, voting rights, and

racism and law. He published no

legal scholarship, and turned

down tenured positions, but

served eight years in the

Illinois Senate during his

twelve years at the

university.

In 1993 Obama joined Davis,

Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12

-attorney law firm specializing

in civil rights litigation and

neighborhood economic

development, where he was an

associate for three years from

1993 to 1996, then [[of

counsel]] from 1996 to 2004,

with his law license becoming

inactive in 2002. The

firm was well-known among

influential Chicago liberals and

leaders of the black community,

and the firm's Judson H. Miner,

who met with Obama to recruit

him before Obama's 1991

graduation from law school, had

been counsel to former Chicago

Mayor Harold Washington,

although the law firm often

clashed with the administration

of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

The 29-year-old law student made

it clear in his initial

interview with Miner that he was

more interested in joining the

firm to learn about Chicago

politics than to practice

law.

During the four years Obama

worked as a full time lawyer at

the firm, he was involved in 30

cases and accrued 3,723 billable

hours.

Obama was a founding member of

the board of directors of

Public Allies in 1992,

resigning before his wife,

Michelle, became the founding

executive director of Public

Allies Chicago in early

1993.

He served on the board of

directors of the [[Woods Fund of

Chicago]], which in 1985 had

been the first foundation to

fund Obama's DCP, from 1993–

2002, and served on the board of

directors of The [[Joyce

Foundation]] from 1994–2002.

Membership on the Joyce and Wood

foundation boards, which gave

out tens of millions of dollars

to various local organizations

while Obama was a member, helped

Obama get to know and be known

by influential liberal groups

and cultivate a network of

community activists that later

supported his political

career. Obama

served on the board of directors

of the [[Chicago Annenberg

Challenge]] from 1995–2002, as

founding president and chairman

of the board of directors from

1995–1999. He also served on the

board of directors of the

[[Chicago Lawyers' Committee for

Civil Rights Under Law]], the

[[Center for Neighborhood

Technology]], and the Lugenia

Burns Hope Center.

In 1995, Obama's mother, [[Ann

Dunham]], died. In that year

Obama also announced his

[[Illinois Senate career of

Barack Obama|candidacy for a

seat in the Illinois state

Senate]] and attended [[Louis

Farrakhan|Louis Farrakhan's]]

Million Man March in

Washington, DC.

See also

• Family of Barack Obama

External links

[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/164

56639/ MSNBC slideshow] from

childhood to party leader

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/w

p-

dyn/content/article/2008/08/22/A

R2008082201679.html?hpid=topnews

Family biography of Obama from

The Washington Post]

[[Category:Early lives by

individual]]