The 44th President of the U.S.A Barak H.Obama The 44th President of the U.S.A

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Harvard-educated economist Barack Obama, Sr. and S. Ann Dunham, of Kansas. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father eventually returned to Kenya, and he saw his son only once more before his death in 1982. Ann Obama married another East-West Center student from Indonesia. There lived Obama for a time before returning to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. 2

He later moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983. Barack put law school on hold after college and moved to Chicago, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group that was dedicated to improving living conditions in poor neighborhoods. When Barack applied to Harvard Law School, he did not even indicate his race on his Harvard application.

Barack earned his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He then returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. His advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years beginning in 1996. While in the Illinois State Senate, Barack served as chairman of the Public Health and Welfare Committee.

In 2004, well into his U.S. Senate campaign, Barack wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, and became a rising star in U.S. politics. A few months later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate with a landslide 70% of the vote. Barack formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election in Springfield, Illinois on February 10, 2007.

Barack is also an accomplished author Barack is also an accomplished author. His 1995 book, Dreams from My Father, is a memoir of his youth and early career. The audio book edition earned Barack the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

In December 2004, Barack signed a contract to write three more books In December 2004, Barack signed a contract to write three more books. The first, The Audacity of Hope, was published in October 2006. This remained at or near the top of the New York Times Best Seller list since its publication.

The second book will be a children's book to be co-written with his wife Michelle and their two daughters, with profits going to charity. The content of the third book has yet to be announced. In August 2008, Barack was nominated by the Democratic party as their candidate to be President of the United States. Barack selected long-time and well-respected U.S. Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

Obama’s Speech