Early Life
Barack Hussein Obama II was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. Fun fact, since he was born in Honolulu, this makes him the first and only president so far who was born outside the contiguous 48 states.
In 1979, Barack moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at Occidental College, although he later transferred to Columbia University, where he majored in political science. After getting his bachelor’s degree, he started working as a writer and financial researcher at the Business International Corporation.
Upon moving to Chicago, he started a job as the director of the Developing Communities Project, and in 1988 he enrolled at Harvard Law School.
Career
For 12 years, Barack Obama worked at the University of Chicago Law School, teaching constitutional law part-time. He worked as an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and he even served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago.
In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois Senate, where he promoted higher tax credits for low-income workers, increased subsidies for childcare, and even negotiated a reform of the welfare system.
It wasn’t until 2007 that Barack Obama announced his presidential campaign. In November 2008, Obama won the presidential race, defeating Republican opponent John McCain by a sizable margin, making Obama the first African American president of the United States.
His 8 years in office has allowed him to make a lot of changes. He cut taxes for working families, as well as for first-time homeowners and small businesses. He improved political relations with Europe and even Russia and helped legalize same-sex marriage in 2013.
Barack Obama’s done a lot, and he’s even won a Nobel Peace Prize. Although he’s done with his presidency, we can still expect much more from him.
In the News
The internet’s familiar with the Barack Obama-Joe Biden bromance, and there are rumors that Obama was set to endorse Biden’s run for the presidency. Those rumors were put to rest by Biden himself, as he claimed on 60 Minutes that he’s asked Obama not to endorse him.
If you want to learn more about Barack Obama, stay tuned with The Shade Room!
