Early life and career of Barack Obama

Barack Obama was born on August 4 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (1936–1982) (born in Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya District, Nyanza Province, Kenya, [http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/barack_obama.htm Ancestry of Barack Obama] ] of Luo ethnicity) and Ann Dunham (1942–1995) (born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas). [ [http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS234607+29-Jan-2008+BW20080129 Gov. Kathleen Sebelius Endorses Barack Obama - January 29, 2008 - Obama Press Office via businesswire via reuters.com] ] [cite news | title=Meet Barack | url=http://www.barackobama.com/about/ | work=BarackObama.com | accessdate=2008-01-04 cite news | title=Saving the World in His Spare Time | date=January 12 2008 | url=http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10498963&CFID=10486835&CFTOKEN=e3e42d3f4995ef60-DABCCCC1-B27C-BB00-0127FF9D64797FC4 | work=The Economist | accessdate=2008-02-02 See also: Obama (1995), Chapter 1.]

Education at a glance

Childhood through high school

Throughout his early years, Obama was known at home and at school as "Barry."cite news | first=Kirsten | last=Scharnberg | coauthors=Kim Barker | title=The Not-So-Simple Story of Barack Obama's Youth | date=March 25 2007 | url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070325obama-youth-story,0,5069625.story | work=Chicago Tribune | accessdate=2008-01-14 ] Obama's parents met while both were attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. [Obama (1995), pp. 9–10. For book excerpts, see cite news | title=Barack Obama: Creation of Tales|date=November 1 2004 | url=http://www.nationmedia.com/EastAfrican/01112004/Features/PA2-2212.html | work=East African | accessdate=2008-01-04] They separated when he was two years old and later divorced. [Obama (1995), pp. 125–126. See also: cite news | first=Tim | last=Jones | title=Obama's Mom: Not Just a Girl from Kansas | date=March 27 2007 | url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0703270151mar27,1,3372079.story?coll=chi-news-hed | work=Chicago Tribune | accessdate=2008-01-04] 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.cite news | first=Fox | last=Butterfield | title=First Black Elected to Head Harvard's Law Review | date=February 6 1990 | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DC1631F935A35751C0A966958260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FPeople%2FO%2FObama%2C%20Barack | work=New York Times | accessdate=2008-01-04 See also: cite news | first=Jodi | last=Kantor | title=In Law School, Obama Found Political Voice | date=January 28 2007 | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/us/politics/28obama.html | work=New York Times | accessdate=2008-01-04] cite news | first=Kevin | last=Merida | title=The Ghost of a Father | date=December 14 2007 | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/13/ST2007121301893.html | work=Washington Post | accessdate=2008-01-04 See also: cite news | first=Philip | last=Ochieng | title=From Home Squared to the US Senate: How Barack Obama Was Lost and Found | dateNovember 1 2004 | url=http://www.nationmedia.com/EastAfrican/01112004/Features/PA2-11.html | work=East African | accessdate=2008-01-04 Obama (1995), pp. 5–11 and 62–71. In August 2006, Obama flew his wife and two daughters from Chicago to join him in a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya. cite news | first=Nico | last=Gnecchi | title=Obama Receives Hero's Welcome at His Family's Ancestral Village in Kenya | date=August 27 2006 | url=http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-08/2006-08-27-voa17.cfm | work=Voice of America | accessdate=2008-01-04 See also: cite news | first=Ellis | last=Cose | title=Walking the World Stage | date=September 11 2006 | url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/45558 | work=Newsweek | accessdate=2008-01-04 cite news | first=Michela | last=Wrong | title=Africa: Kenya Glimpses a New Kind of Hero | date=September 11 2006 | url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200609110024 | work=New Statesman | accessdate=2008-01-04] His mother married another foreign student, Lolo Soetoro, and the family moved to Soetoro's home country of Indonesia in 1967. [Obama's stepfather and Ann Dunham divorced in the late 1970s, and he died of a liver ailment in 1987. cite news | first=Scott | last=Fornek | title=Lolo Soetoro | date=September 9 2007 | url=http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/familytree/545455,BSX-News-wotreegg09.stng | work=Chicago Sun-Times | accessdate=2008-01-04 They had one daughter together, Maya Soetoro, Obama's half-sister. On his father's side, Obama has two half-sisters and five surviving half-brothers. cite news | first=Michael | last=Sheridan | coauthors=Sarah Baxter | title=Secrets of Obama Family Unlocked | date=January 28 2007 | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1267352.ece | work=Sunday Times (UK) | accessdate=2008-01-04 See also: Obama (1995), Chapter 2 and Chapters 15–19 (Part 3: Kenya).] 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, where he received weekly lessons in that Christian faith.cite news | first=Kim | last=Barker | title=Obama Madrassa Myth Debunked | date=March 25 2007 | url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070325obama-islam-story,0,7180545.story | work=Chicago Tribune | accessdate=2008-01-04] [cite news |author=Staff writer |title=Obama debunks claim about Islamic school |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16813267/ |work=Associated Press |publisher=MSNBC |date=2007-01-25 |accessdate=2008-04-08 ] When his family moved to a new neighborhood, Menteng, cite news |first=Lucy|last=Williamson|title=Jakarta classmates recall 'Barry' Obama |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7350775.stm|work= BBC News |publisher= |date=2008-19-20 |accessdate=2008-04-20] he attended the secular, government-run SDN Menteng 1 school for his fourth year. [cite news | first=Kirsten | last=Scharnberg | coauthors=Kim Barker | title=The Not-So-Simple Story of Barack Obama's Youth | date=March 25 2007 | url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070325obama-youth-story,0,5069625.story | work=Chicago Tribune | accessdate=2008-01-04 cite news | first=Trish | last=Anderton | title=Obama's Jakarta Trail | date=June 2007 | url=http://www.thejakartapost.com/weekender/6reporter.asp | work=Jakarta Post |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070626112725/http://www.thejakartapost.com/weekender/6reporter.asp | archivedate=2007-06-26| accessdate=2008-01-04 For Obama's published accounts of his schooling in Indonesia, see: Obama (1995), p. 154, and Obama (2006), p. 274.] [Citing comments made by Indonesia's ambassador to the U.S., "Time" reported in December 2007 that Obama "still speaks passable Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia." cite news |first=Jay |last=Newton-Small |title=Obama's Foreign-Policy Problem |url=http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1695803,00.html |work=Time |date=December 18 2007 |accessdate=2008-01-03] Obama's stepfather was "not religious", and "never went to prayer services except for big communal events", according to Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.cite news |first=Paul |last=Watson |title=Islam an unknown factor in Obama bid |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.obama16mar16,0,5594729.story |work=Balitmore Sun |date =2007-03-16 | accessdate=2008-03-16] 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 while attending Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from the fifth grade until his graduation in 1979. [Obama writes: "For my grandparents, my admission into Punahou Academy heralded the start of something grand, an elevation in the family status that they took great pains to let everyone know." Obama (1995), Chapters 3 and 4. See also: cite news | first=Fred | last=Mann | title=Kansas Roots Show in Obama, Say Relatives | date=February 2 2008 | url=http://www.kansas.com/news/state/story/299520.html | work=Wichita Eagle | accessdate=2008-02-11] 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". [Obama (1995), Preface to the 2004 Edition, p. xi. See also: cite news | first=Julia | last=Suryakusuma | title=Obama for President... of Indonesia | date=November 29 2006 | work=Jakarta Post | url=http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20061129.F03 | accessdate=2008-01-04]

In the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's 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." [Obama (1995), pp. 9–10.] The book describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. [Obama (1995), Chapters 4 and 5. See also: cite news | first=Richard A | last=Serrano | title=Obama's Peers Didn't See His Angst | format=paid archive | date=March 11 2007 | url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1230439131.html?dids=1230439131:1230439131&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+11%2C+2007&author=Richard+A.+Serrano&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.20&desc=THE+NATION | work=Los Angeles Times | accessdate=2008-01-04] He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind". [cite news | title=Obama Gets Blunt with N.H. Students | date=November 21 2007 | publisher=Boston Globe | url=http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/21/obama_gets_blunt_with_nh_students/ | work=Associated Press | accessdate=2008-01-04 In "Dreams from My Father", Obama writes: "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it." Obama (1995), pp. 93–94. For analysis of the political impact of the quote and Obama's more recent admission that he smoked marijuana as a teenager ("When I was a kid, I inhaled."), see: cite news | first=Lois | last=Romano | title=Effect of Obama's Candor Remains to Be Seen | date=January 3 2007 | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010201359.html | work=Washington Post | accessdate=2008-01-04 cite news | first=Katharine Q | last=Seelye | title=Obama Offers More Variations From the Norm | date=October 24 2006 | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E2DB173FF937A15753C1A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink | work=New York Times | accessdate=2008-01-04] 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. [http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/16/warren.forum/] Obama has stated he has not used any illegal drugs since he was a teenager. [Schoenburg, Bernard. [http://www.mapinc.org/newsnorml/v03/n1786/a06.html "Frank Talk About Drug Use in Obama’s 'Open Book'"] , The State Journal-Register via the Media Awareness Project (2003-11-16). Retrieved 2008-08-23.]

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." [cite news | first=B. J | last=Reyes | title=Punahou Left Lasting Impression on Obama | date=February 8 2007 | url=http://starbulletin.com/2007/02/08/news/story02.html | work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin | accessdate=2008-01-04 "As a teenager, Obama went to parties and sometimes sought out gatherings on military bases or at the University of Hawaii that were mostly attended by blacks."]

College and living in New York City

Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. [cite web | title=Oxy Remembers "Barry" Obama '83 | date=January 29 2007 | url=http://www.oxy.edu/x2526.xml | publisher=Occidental College | accessdate=2008-04-13] He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. [cite news | url=http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/jan05/cover.php | title=Barack Obama '83 | work=Columbia College Today | author=Boss-Bicak, Shira | date=January 2005 | accessdate=2008-06-09] 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.cite book |author=Chassie, Karen (ed.) |year=2007 |title=Who's Who in America, 2008 |url=http://www.marquiswhoswho.com/products/WAprodinfo.asp |location=New Providence, NJ |publisher=Marquis Who's Who |isbn=9780837970110 |page=p. 3468 |accessdate=2008-06-06] [cite news | first=Janny | last=Scott | title=Obama's Account of New York Years Often Differs from What Others Say | date=October 30 2007 | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/us/politics/30obama.html | work=The New York Times | accessdate=2008-04-13 Obama (1995), pp. 133–140; Mendell (2007), pp. 62–63.]

Early years as a community organizer in Chicago

After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago and worked as a community organizer. "What really inspired me," Obama told Ryan Lizza, a writer for "The New Republic" in 2007, "was the civil rights movement. And if you asked me who my role model was at that time, it would probably be Bob Moses, the famous SNCC [ Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ] organizer. … Those were the folks I was really inspired by—the John Lewises, the Bob Moseses, the Fannie Lou Hamers, the Ella Bakers."cite news | first=Ryan | last=Lizza | title=The Agitator: Barack Obama's unlikely political education | format=alternate link | date=2007-03-19 | url=http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=a74fca23-f6ac-4736-9c78-f4163d4f25c7 | work =New Republic | accessdate=2008-07-16]

Before Obama came, the organization was made up of three white men (two of them Jewish), which was only working with Catholic parishes up to that point. Yet the black pastors looked on them with suspicion and sometimes disdain as outsiders. The organization wanted a young black man to help the group ally with black churches in the South Side. 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 Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. [cite news |author=Secter, Bob; McCormick, John |date=2007-03-30 |title=Portrait of a pragmatist |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703300121mar30,1,6651421,full.story |work=Chicago Tribune |page=1 |accessdate=2008-06-06 Obama (1995), pp. 140–295; Mendell (2007), pp. 63–83.] Around this time Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ, a predominantly black church on the southeast side. [ [http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/981141,obama053108.article Barack Obama quits Trinity United Church of Christ, June 1, 2008] ]

The job focused on helping poor blacks agitate with the city government to get benefits for their communities such as job banks and asbestos removal. The small organization taught him a style of organizing developed by Saul Alinsky, a radical, University of Chicago-trained social scientist. Alinsky's method centers on the idea of "agitation" — encouraging people to get angry enough about the horrible state of their lives in order to get them to take action. Alinsky had described the organizer's role as an effort to "rub raw the sores of discontent." According to Mike Kruglik, a fellow organizer at that time, Obama was the best student he had ever had in his 10 years of training organizers. In 2007, Ryan Lizza, a journalist writing for "The New Republic", described Kruglik's assessment of Obama: "He was a natural, the undisputed master of agitation, who could engage a room full of recruiting targets in a rapid-fire Socratic dialogue, nudging them to admit that they were not living up to their own standards. […] [H] e could be aggressive and confrontational. With probing, sometimes personal questions, he would pinpoint the source of pain in their lives, tearing down their egos just enough before dangling a carrot of hope that they could make things better."

Obama came to believe that although Alinsky's concentration on self-interest as a motivating factor is a "critical" insight, he told Lizza, "Alinsky understated the degree to which people's hopes and dreams and their ideals and their values were just as important in organizing as people's self-interest."

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. [cite news |author=Matchan, Linda |date=1990-02-15 |title=A Law Review breakthrough |url=http://search.boston.com/local/Search.do?s.sm.query=&s.author=Linda+Matchan&s.tab=globe&s.si%28simplesearchinput%29.sortBy=-articleprintpublicationdate&docType=&date=&s.startDate=1990-02-15&s.endDate=1990-02-15 |format=paid archive |work=The Boston Globe |page=29 |accessdate=2008-06-06 cite news |author=Corr, John |date=1990-02-27 |title=From mean streets to hallowed halls |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&p_theme=pi&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_trackval=PI&s_search_type=customized&s_dispstring=Author(John%20Corr)%20AND%20date(02/27/1990%20to%2002/27/1990)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=02/27/1990%20to%2002/27/1990)&p_field_advanced-0=Author&p_text_advanced-0=(John%20Corr)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes |format=paid archive |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |page=C01 |accessdate=2008-06-06] Obama was modest about the accomplishment of these years. " [F] or the most part I would say I wasn’t wildly successful," Obama said in a 2007 interview. "The victories that we achieved were extraordinarily modest: you know, getting a job-training site set up or getting an after-school program for young people put in place."Lizza, Ryan, [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lizza?printable=true "Making It: How Chicago Shaped Obama"] , "The New Yorker", July 21, 2008, retrieved July 16, 2008]

Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. [cite journal |author=Obama, Barack |month=August-September |year=1988 |title=Why organize? Problems and promise in the inner city |journal=Illinois Issues |volume=14 |issue=8–9 |pages=40–42 |accessdate=2008-06-06 reprinted in: cite book |year=1990 |pages=pp. 35–40 |author=Knoepfle, Peg (ed.) |title=After Alinsky: community organizing in Illinois |location=Springfield, IL |publisher=Sangamon State University |isbn=0962087335 |accessdate=2008-06-06 cite news |author=Tayler, Letta; Herbert, Keith |date=2008-03-02 |title=Obama forged path as Chicago community organizer |url=http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-usobam025598601mar02,0,7841545,full.story |work=Newsday |page=A06 |accessdate=2008-06-06] 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 Kenyan relatives for the first time. [Obama (1995), pp. 299–437.]

Harvard Law School

[
Harvard Law School library] Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988 and at the end of his first year was selected as an editor of the law review based on his grades and a writing competition.cite news |author=Levenson, Michael; Saltzman, Jonathan |date=2007-01-28 |title=At Harvard Law, a unifying voice |url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/28/at_harvard_law_a_unifying_voice/?page=full |work=The Boston Globe |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Kantor, Jodi |date=2007-01-28 |title=In law school, Obama found political voice |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/us/politics/28obama.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all |work=The New York Times |page=1 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Kodama, Marie C |date=2007-01-19 |title=Obama left mark on HLS |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516664 |work=The Harvard Crimson |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Mundy, Liza |title=A series of fortunate events |date=2007-08-12 |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/08/AR2007080802038_pf.html |work=The Washington Post |page=W10 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite journal |author=Heilemann, John |title=When they were young |date=October 22, 2007 |url=http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=When+They+Were+Young&expire=&urlID=24417790&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fnews%2Ffeatures%2F39321%2F&partnerID=73272 |journal=New York |volume=40 |issue=37 |pages=32–7, 132–3 |accessdate=2008-06-15 Mendell (2007), pp. 80–92.] In his second year 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. cite news |author=Butterfield, Fox |date=1990-02-06|title=First black elected to head Harvard's Law Review |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DC1631F935A35751C0A966958260 |work=The New York Times |page=A20 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Ybarra, Michael J |date=1990-02-07 |title=Activist in Chicago now heads Harvard Law Review |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/28797353.html?dids=28797353:28797353&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT |format=paid archive |work=Chicago Tribune |page=3 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Matchan, Linda |date=1990-02-15 |title=A Law Review breakthrough |url=http://search.boston.com/local/Search.do?s.sm.query=&s.author=Linda+Matchan&s.tab=globe&s.si%28simplesearchinput%29.sortBy=-articleprintpublicationdate&docType=&date=&s.startDate=1990-02-15&s.endDate=1990-02-15 |format=paid archive |work=The Boston Globe |page=29 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Corr, John |date=1990-02-27 |title=From mean streets to hallowed halls |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&p_theme=pi&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_trackval=PI&s_search_type=customized&s_dispstring=Author(John%20Corr)%20AND%20date(02/27/1990%20to%2002/27/1990)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=02/27/1990%20to%2002/27/1990)&p_field_advanced-0=Author&p_text_advanced-0=(John%20Corr)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes |format=paid archive |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |page=C01 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Drummond, Tammerlin |date=1990-03-12 |title=Barack Obama's Law; Harvard Law Review's first black president plans a life of public service |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/60017156.html?dids=60017156:60017156&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT |format=paid archive |work=Los Angeles Times |page=E1 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Pugh, Allison J. (Associated Press) |date=1990-04-18 |title=Law Review's first black president aims to help poor |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=MH&p_theme=realcities2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_site=miami&s_trackval=MH&s_dispstring=Title(Law%20Review's%20first%20black%20president%20aims%20to%20help%20poor)%20AND%20date(04/18/1990%20to%2004/18/1990)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=04/18/1990%20to%2004/18/1990)&p_field_advanced-0=title&p_text_advanced-0=(Law%20Review's%20first%20black%20president%20aims%20to%20help%20poor)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes |format=paid archive |work=The Miami Herald |page=C01 |accessdate=2008-06-15] Obama's election in February 1990 as the first black president of the "Harvard 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. [cite news |author=Aguilar, Louis |date=1990-07-11 |title=Survey: Law firms slow to add minority partners |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/28774085.html?dids=28774085:28774085&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT |format=paid archive |work=Chicago Tribune |page=1 (Business) |quote=Barack Obama, a summer associate at Hopkins & Sutter in Chicago |accessdate=2008-06-15] 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. "magna cum laude" from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago.

ettling 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. cite news |author=Scott, Janny |date=2008-05-18 |title=The story of Obama, written by Obama |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/politics/18memoirs.html?pagewanted=all |work=The New York Times |page=1 |accessdate=2008-06-15 Obama (1995), pp. xiii–xvii.] 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 Robinson in 1992cite news | first=Scott | last=Fornek | title=Michelle Obama: 'He Swept Me Off My Feet' | date=October 3 2007 | url=http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/585261,CST-NWS-wedding03.stng | work=Chicago Sun-Times | accessdate=2007-12-02] 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. cite news |author=Springen, Karen and Jonathan Darman |date=2007-01-29 |title=Ground Support |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/70165 |work=Newsweek | |accessdate=2008-07-25]

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, Sanita, 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), 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 registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading "Crain's Chicago Business" to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.cite book |author=White, Jesse (ed.) |year=2000 |title=Illinois Blue Book, 2000, Millennium ed. |url=http://www.sos.state.il.us/bb/toc.html |location=Springfield, IL |publisher=Illinois Secretary of State |oclc=43923973 |page=p. 83 |accessdate=2008-06-06] [cite journal |author=Anderson, Veronica |month=September 27-October 3, |year=1993 |title=40 under Forty: Barack Obama, Director, Illinois Project Vote |journal=Crain's Chicago Business |volume=16 |issue=39 |accessdate=2008-06-06 |pages=43] cite news |author=Reynolds, Gretchen |date=1993-01-01 |title=Vote of Confidence |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/ |work=Chicago Magazine | |accessdate=2008-07-25] Slevin, Peter, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/12/AR2007111201945_pf.html "For Obama, a Handsome Payoff in Political Gambles: Presidential Hopeful Has Friends, Successes and Precious Few Battle Scars"] , article, "The Washington Post", November 13, 2007, page A3, retrieved July 18, 2008] 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, 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). [cite web |author=University of Chicago Law School |date=2008-03-27 |title=Statement regarding Barack Obama |publisher=University of Chicago Law School |url=http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html |accessdate=2008-06-10 cite web |author=Miller, Joe |date=2008-03-28 |title=Was Barack Obama really a constitutional law professor?|publisher=FactCheck.org |url=http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html |accessdate=2008-06-10 cite web |author=Holan, Angie Drobnic |date=2008-03-07 |title=Obama's 20 years of experience |url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/mar/07/obamas-20-years-experience |publisher=PolitiFact.com |accessdate=2008-06-10] 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. [cite web |author=Jodi Cantor |date=2008-07-30 |title=Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart |publisher=New York Times |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |accessdate=2008-09-10]

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. [cite news |author=Robinson, Mike (Associated Press) |date=2007-02-10 |title=Obama got start in civil rights practice |url=http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/20/obama_got_start_in_civil_rights_practice |work=The Boston Globe |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author=Pallasch, Abdon M |date=2007-12-17 |title=As lawyer, Obama was strong, silent type; He was 'smart, innovative, relentless,' and he mostly let other lawyers do the talking |url=http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/700499,CST-NWS-Obama-law17.article |work=Chicago Sun-Times |page=4 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author= |date=1993-06-27 |title=People |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/24302659.html?dids=24302659:24302659&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT |format=paid archive |work=Chicago Tribune |page=9 (Business) |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite news |author= |date=1993-07-05 |title=Business appointments |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CSTB&p_theme=cstb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=(Business%20appointments)%20AND%20date(7/5/1993%20to%207/5/1993)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=7/5/1993%20to%207/5/1993)&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(Business%20appointments)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no |format=paid archive |work=Chicago-Sun-Times |page=40 |accessdate=2008-06-15 cite web |author=Miner, Barnhill & Galland |year=2008 |title=About Us |url=http://www.lawmbg.com/index.cfm/PageID/2711 |publisher=Miner, Barnhill & Galland - Chicago, Illinois |accessdate=2008-06-15 Obama (1995), pp. 438–439, Mendell (2007), pp. 104–106.] 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.Becker, Jo and Drew, Christopher, [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11chicago.html?_r=1&sq=ACORN%20Chicago%20Obama&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin "Pragmatic politics, forged on the South Side"] , "The New York Times", May 11, 2008, retrieved July 16, 2008]

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. [cite web |author=Public Allies |year=2008 |title=Fact Sheet on Public Allies' History with Senator Barack and Michelle Obama |url=http://www.publicallies.org/site/c.liKUL3PNLvF/b.3960231/ |publisher=Public Allies |accessdate=2008-06-06] 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 candidacy for a seat in the Illinois state Senate.

See also

* Family of Barack Obama

References

External links

* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16456639/ MSNBC slideshow] from childhood to party leader
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/22/AR2008082201679.html?hpid=topnews Family biography of Obama from "The Washington Post"]