Brief biography of barack obama
Although the economy continued to improve in the United States, Obama faced challenges in other countries. President George W. Bush also sent troops to Iraq in , after rumors that the country was hiding dangerous weapons that the president wanted to find and destroy. Bush's decision to attack these countries was met with general support at first, but by the time Obama became president, public opinion had changed.
Some 7, American soldiers had died at this point, with an additional 50, more wounded. Many Americans wanted these wars to be over. His death during the raid was a blow to al Qaeda and gave some U. By the end of , Obama had withdrawn all combat troops from Iraq. But U. Despite wars overseas, Obama reached out to other nations in hopes of maintaining peace.
In , President Dwight D. Eisenhower cut ties with the island nation of Cuba because of its support for the communist Soviet Union now Russia. Obama tried to ease those tensions by re-opening an embassy there in He relocated to Chicago, Illinois, in when he accepted a job with the Developing Communities Project. After three years of community organizing, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School.
Obama was elected the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, prior to graduating magna cum laude in In , Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the thirteenth district. He also worked as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago from until , teaching three courses per year.
Biography of barack obama early life
Obama was elected to a second term in the Illinois State Senate in November In , Obama made his first run for the U. Congress when he sought the Democratic U. House seat in Illinois First District. Some pundits instantly pronounced him a future president, but most did not expect it to happen for some time.
As an incoming president, Obama faced many challenges—an economic collapse, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continuing menace of terrorism. Inaugurated before an estimated crowd of 1. Obama also pressed for a fair pay act for women, financial reform legislation, and efforts for consumer protection. In , Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
In , he was reelected over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by to electoral votes. The Middle East remained a key foreign policy challenge. Obama had overseen the killing of Osama bin Laden, but a new self-proclaimed Islamic State arose during a civil war in Syria and began inciting terrorist attacks. Obama sought to manage a hostile Iran with a treaty that hindered its development of nuclear weapons.
The Obama administration also adopted a climate change agreement signed by nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming. Dunham and Soetoro married on March 15, , on Molokai. They returned to Honolulu to live with her son as a family. She continued with her studies, earning a B. In , Obama and his mother moved to Jakarta known as Djakarta at the time to rejoin his stepfather.
Francis of Assisi Catholic School around the corner from their house for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade. Obama's mother met a transgender person named Evie who was known as Trudi at the time , at a cocktail party in Dunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home.
It did not take long before Evie was also caretaker for then eight-year-old "Barry", as Obama was often referred to as then, and his baby sister Maya. As a caretaker, she also spent time playing with Obama and bringing him to and from school, which she continued to do for about two years. In , Soetoro took a new job at higher pay in Union Oil Company 's government relations office.
By this time, he had picked up on some Indonesian in addition to his native English. In the summer of , Obama returned to Hawaii for an extended visit with his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham. His mother had also arranged an interview for possible admission to the Punahou School in Honolulu, one of the top private schools in the city.
In mid, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend Punahou School starting in fifth grade. It was the last time Obama would see his father.
This was followed by his mother visiting her son and parents in Honolulu from late to January In , Dunham returned to Hawaii, bringing along the young Maya, Obama's half-sister. Dunham started graduate study in anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. From sixth grade through eighth grade at Punahou, Obama lived with his mother and Maya.
Obama's mother completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii for an M. In his 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 , came mainly through family stories and photographs. At the Saddleback Civil Presidential Forum, Barack Obama identified his high-school drug use as his greatest moral failure.
Some of his fellow students attending 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.
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in , where he studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City , where he majored in political science with a speciality in international relations [ 51 ] [ 52 ] and in English literature.
After four years living in New York, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer. Obama entered Harvard Law School in late In an interview with Ebony in , 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 get people 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.
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.
Minow was a managing partner.
Rainer bergmann biography of barack obama
Minow later would introduce Obama to some of Chicago's top business leaders. The publicity from his election as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and advance to write a book about race relations. 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 He married Michelle in [ 69 ] 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. 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 Jackson , later the godmother of the Obamas' first child. Michelle herself had worked as an aide to Mayor Richard M. 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. Obama directed Illinois Project Vote from April to October , a voter registration drive, officially nonpartisan, that helped Carol Moseley Braun become the first black woman ever elected to the Senate.
Rainer bergmann biography of barack obama full
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. Daley , and John W. Rogers Jr. Barack was off to the side and only the people who were close to it knew he had done all the work. Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years — , and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years — 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.
Miner, who met with Obama to recruit him before Obama's 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. The 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, billable hours. Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in , resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early Contents move to sidebar hide.
Rainer bergmann biography of barack obama president
Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Barack Obama. Honolulu , Hawaii, U. Childhood years [ edit ]. This article is part of a series about. Illinois State Senator and U. Senator from Illinois.
Biography of barack obama president: Barack Obama undoubtedly possesses one of the most complicated - and fascinating - backgrounds of any former president of the United States. Born to a father he hardly knew and to a mother he almost never saw, Obama's path to the White House is one of the most remarkable and unlikely of any I've seen..
Senate tenure election sponsored bills. Presidency timeline Transition Inaugurations first second Trips international Efforts to impeach Presidential library. Presidential campaigns. Parents' background and meeting [ edit ]. Main article: Family of Barack Obama. Indonesia [ edit ]. Return to Hawaii [ edit ]. Education summary [ edit ].
Adult life [ edit ]. College years [ edit ]. Early career in Chicago [ edit ]. Law School [ edit ]. Settling down in Chicago [ edit ]. Project Vote [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. Chiyome Fukino" PDF. Archived PDF from the original on March 6, Retrieved December 5, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Archived from the original PDF on February 22, Retrieved July 21, Archived from the original on July 1, The Washington Post.
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