{"history":[{"id":"30af4d1c-771e-48b2-bbd1-e0de48b6cfae","wordChanged":"[Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama)","newWord":":::summary\n![Obama in c. 1998](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Obamamiltondavis1///%28cropped%29.jpg)\n**Name:** Barack Obama \n**Image Size:** 170px \n**Birth Name:** Barack Hussein Obama II \n**Birth Date:** August 4, 1961 \n**Birth Place:** [Honolulu](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu), Hawaii, U.S. \n**Education:** [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) ([BA](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts)) [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) ([JD](https://bliptext.com/articles/juris-doctor)) \n**Occupation:** Politician · lawyer \n**Years Active:** 1979–present \n:::\n\n# \nprism, the [44th president of the United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-presidents-of-the-united-states-of-america), was born on August 4, 1961, in [Honolulu, Hawaii](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu) to [Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama), Sr. (1936–1982) (born in Oriang' Kogelo of [Rachuonyo North District](https://bliptext.com/articles/rachuonyo-district), [Kenya](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-kenya)) and [Stanley Ann Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/ann-dunham), known as Ann (1942–1995) (born in [Wichita, Kansas](https://bliptext.com/articles/wichita-kansas), United States).\nObama spent most of his childhood years in Honolulu, where his mother attended the [University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-hawai-i-at-m-noa).\nObama had a close relationship with his maternal grandparents.\nIn 1965, his mother remarried to [Lolo Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/lolo-soetoro) from [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia).\nTwo years later, Dunham took Obama with her to Indonesia to reunite him with his stepfather.\nIn 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to attend [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school), from which he graduated in 1979.\nAs a young adult, Obama moved to the [contiguous United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/contiguous-united-states), where he was educated at [Occidental College](https://bliptext.com/articles/occidental-college), [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university), and [Harvard Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-school).\nIn [Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago), Obama worked at various times as a community organizer, lawyer, lecturer and senior Lecturer of constitutional law at the University of [Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago) Law School in the [city's South Side](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-side-chicago), and later published his memoir [Dreams from My Father](https://bliptext.com/articles/dreams-from-my-father) before beginning his political career in 1997 as a member of the [Illinois Senate](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-senate).\n\n# Childhood years\n# [Obama's long form birth certificate | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/President///Barack///Obama%27s///long///form///birth///certificate.jpg]\n\n## Parents' background and meeting\n[Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama)'s parents met in 1960 while they were students at the [University of Hawaii at Manoa](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-hawaii-at-manoa).\nObama's father, [Barack Obama, Sr.](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama-sr), the university's first [foreign student](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-student) from an African nation, hailed from Oriang' Kogelo, [Rachuonyo North District](https://bliptext.com/articles/rachuonyo-district), in the [Nyanza Province](https://bliptext.com/articles/nyanza-province) of western [Kenya](https://bliptext.com/articles/kenya).\nObama's mother, [Stanley Ann Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanley-ann-dunham), known as Ann, had been born in [Wichita](https://bliptext.com/articles/wichita-kansas).\nThey married on the Hawaiian island of [Maui](https://bliptext.com/articles/maui) on February 2, 1961.\nBarack Hussein Obama II, born in [Honolulu](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu) on August 4, 1961, at the old Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital at 1611 Bingham Street (a predecessor of the [Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children](https://bliptext.com/articles/kapi-olani-medical-center-for-women-and-children) at 1319 Punahou Street), was named for his father.\n[The Honolulu Advertiser](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-honolulu-advertiser) and the [Honolulu Star-Bulletin](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu-star-bulletin) announced the birth.\nSoon after their son's birth, while Obama's father continued his education at the University of Hawaii, Ann Dunham took the infant to [Seattle, Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/seattle-washington), where she took classes at the [University of Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-washington) from September 1961 to June 1962.\nShe and her son lived in an apartment in the [Capitol Hill](https://bliptext.com/articles/capitol-hill-seattle) neighborhood.\nAfter graduating from the University of Hawaii with a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics), Obama, Sr. left the state in June 1962, moving to [Cambridge, Massachusetts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cambridge-massachusetts) for graduate study in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics) at [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) that Autumn.\nAnn Dunham returned with her son to Honolulu and in January 1963 resumed her undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii.\nIn January 1964, Dunham filed for divorce, which was not contested.\nBarack Obama, Sr. later graduated from Harvard University with an [A.M.](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics) and in 1965 returned to Kenya.\nDuring her first year back at the University of Hawaii, Dunham met [Lolo Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/lolo-soetoro).\nHe was one year into his American experience, after two semesters on the Manoa campus and a summer on the mainland at [Northwestern](https://bliptext.com/articles/northwestern-university) and the [University of Wisconsin](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-wisconsin), when he encountered Dunham, then an undergraduate interested in anthropology.\nA surveyor from [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia), he had come to Honolulu in September 1962 on an [East–West Center](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-west-center) grant to study at the University of Hawaii.\nHe earned a [M.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) in [geography](https://bliptext.com/articles/geography) in June 1964.\nDunham and Soetoro married on March 15, 1965, on [Molokai](https://bliptext.com/articles/molokai).\nThey returned to Honolulu to live with her son as a family.\nAfter two one-year extensions of his [J-1 visa](https://bliptext.com/articles/j-1-visa), Soetoro returned to Indonesia on June 20, 1966.\nDunham and her son moved in with her parents at their house.\nShe continued with her studies, earning a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) in [anthropology](https://bliptext.com/articles/anthropology) in August 1967, while her son attended kindergarten in 1966–1967 at Noelani Elementary School.\n\n## Indonesia\nIn 1967, Obama and his mother moved to [Jakarta](https://bliptext.com/articles/jakarta) (known as Djakarta at the time) to rejoin his stepfather.\nThe family initially lived in a newly built neighborhood in the Menteng Dalam [administrative village](https://bliptext.com/articles/administrative-village-indonesia) of the [Tebet](https://bliptext.com/articles/tebet-south-jakarta) [subdistrict](https://bliptext.com/articles/subdistricts-of-jakarta) in [South Jakarta](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-jakarta) for two and a half years, while Soetoro worked on a topographic survey for the Indonesian government. Note: They lived in a rented house at 16 Kyai Haji Ramli Txsdyt56yengah Street\nFrom January 1968 to December 1969, Obama's mother taught English and served as an assistant director of the U.S. government-subsidized Indonesia-America Friendship Institute, while Obama attended the [Indonesian-language](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesian-language) Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St. Francis of Assisi) [Catholic School](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-school) around the corner from their house for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade.\nObama's mother met a [transgender](https://bliptext.com/articles/transgender) person named Evie (who was known as Trudi at the time), at a cocktail party in 1969.\nDunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home.\nIt 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.\nAs 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.\nIn 1970, Soetoro took a new job at higher pay in [Union Oil Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/unocal-corporation)'s government relations office.\nFrom January 1970 to August 1972, Obama's mother taught English and was a department head and a director of the Institute of Management Education and Development.\nObama attended the Indonesian-language government-run [Besuki School](https://bliptext.com/articles/state-elementary-school-menteng-01), one-and-half miles east in the exclusive [Menteng administrative village](https://bliptext.com/articles/menteng), for part of 3rd grade and for 4th grade.\nBy this time, he had picked up on some Indonesian in addition to his native English.\nHe also joined the [Cub Scouts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cub-scout).\nIn the summer of 1970, Obama returned to Hawaii for an extended visit with his maternal grandparents, [Stanley](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanley-armour-dunham) and [Madelyn Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/madelyn-dunham).\nHis mother had also arranged an interview for possible admission to the [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school) in Honolulu, one of the top private schools in the city.\nOn August 15, 1970, Dunham and Soetoro celebrated the birth of their daughter, [Maya Kassandra Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/maya-soetoro-ng).\n# [Barack Obama's school record in St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School. Obama was enrolled as \"Barry Soetoro\" (no. 1), and was wrongly recorded as an Indonesian citizen (no. 3) and a Muslim (no. 4). | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Barry///Soetoro///school///record.jpg]\n\n## Return to Hawaii\nIn mid-1971, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school) starting in fifth grade.\nIn December 1971, Obama was visited for a month by his father, Barack Obama Sr., from Kenya.\nIt was the last time Obama would see his father.\nThis was followed by his mother visiting her son and parents in Honolulu from late 1971 to January 1972.\nIn 1972, Dunham returned to Hawaii, bringing along the young Maya, Obama's half-sister.\nDunham started graduate study in anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.\nFrom sixth grade through eighth grade at Punahou, Obama lived with his mother and Maya.\nObama's mother completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii for an M.A. in anthropology in December 1974.\nAfter three years in Hawaii, she and Maya returned to Jakarta in August 1975, where Dunham completed her contract with the Institute of Management Education and Development and started anthropological fieldwork.\nObama chose to stay with his grandparents in Honolulu to continue his studies at Punahou School for his high school years.\nIn his memoir Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's [middle class](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-middle-class) family.\nHis knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in 1971, came mainly through family stories and photographs.\nSee also:\nObama (1995), pp. 5–11, 62–71.\nIn 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/kisumu) in rural western Kenya.\nSee also:\nOf 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.\"\nThe book describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his [multiracial](https://bliptext.com/articles/multiracial) heritage.\nHe wrote that he used [alcohol](https://bliptext.com/articles/alcoholic-beverage), [marijuana](https://bliptext.com/articles/cannabis-drug), and [cocaine](https://bliptext.com/articles/cocaine) during his teenage years to \"push questions of who I was out of my mind\".\nObama was also a member of the \"choom gang\", a self-named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.\nObama has said that it was a serious mistake.\nAt the Saddleback Civil Presidential Forum, Barack Obama identified his high-school drug use as his greatest moral failure.\nObama has stated he has not used any illegal drugs since he was a teenager.\nSome of his fellow students attending Punahou School later told the [Honolulu Star-Bulletin](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/african-american) college students and military service people.\nReflecting 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.\"\n\n# Education summary\n\n# Adult life\n\n## College years\nFollowing high school, Obama moved to [Los Angeles](https://bliptext.com/articles/los-angeles) in 1979, where he studied at [Occidental College](https://bliptext.com/articles/occidental-college) for two years.\nObama (1995, 2004), pp. 92–112.\nMendell (2007), pp. 55–62.\nRemnick (2010), pp. 98–112.\nOn February 18, 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental's [divestment](https://bliptext.com/articles/disinvestment-from-south-africa) from South Africa.\nIn the summer of 1981, Obama traveled to Jakarta to visit his mother and half-sister Maya, and visited the families of Occidental College friends in [Hyderabad (India)](https://bliptext.com/articles/hyderabad-india) and [Karachi (Pakistan)](https://bliptext.com/articles/karachi-pakistan) for three weeks.\nHe then transferred to [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) in [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city), where he majored in [political science](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-science) with a speciality in [international relations](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-relations) and in [English literature](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-literature).\nObama lived off campus in a modest rented apartment at 142 West 109th Street.\nHe graduated with a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) from Columbia in 1983, then worked at [Business International Corporation](https://bliptext.com/articles/business-international-corporation) and [New York Public Interest Research Group](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-public-interest-research-group).\n\n## Early career in Chicago\nAfter four years living in New York, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a [community organizer](https://bliptext.com/articles/community-organizing).\nHe worked for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the [Developing Communities Project](https://bliptext.com/articles/developing-communities-project) (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight [Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-catholic-church) parishes in Greater [Roseland](https://bliptext.com/articles/roseland-chicago) ([Roseland](https://bliptext.com/articles/roseland-chicago), [West Pullman](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-pullman-chicago), and [Riverdale](https://bliptext.com/articles/riverdale-chicago)) on Chicago's far [South Side](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-side-chicago).\nDuring 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/altgeld-gardens-chicago).\nObama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the [Gamaliel Foundation](https://bliptext.com/articles/gamaliel-foundation), a community organizing institute.\nIn the summer of 1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks then to Kenya for five weeks where he met many of [his paternal relatives](https://bliptext.com/articles/family-of-barack-obama) for the first time.\n\n## Law School\nObama entered [Harvard Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-school) in late 1988.\nIn an interview with [Ebony](https://bliptext.com/articles/ebony-magazine) 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 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.\"\nAt the end of his first year he was selected as an editor of the [Harvard Law Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-review) based on his grades and a writing competition. Mendell (2007), pp. 80–92.\nIn 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.\nHe got himself elected by convincing a crucial swing bloc of conservatives that he would protect their interests if they supported him.\nBuilding up that trust was done with the same kind of long listening sessions he had used in the poor neighborhoods of South Side, Chicago.\n[Richard Epstein](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-allen-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.\"\nWhile in law school he worked as an associate at the law firm [Sidley & Austin](https://bliptext.com/articles/sidley-austin) in 1989, where he met his future wife, [Michelle LaVaughn Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/michelle-obama), and where [Newton N. Minow](https://bliptext.com/articles/newton-n-minow) was a managing partner.\nMinow later would introduce Obama to some of Chicago's top business leaders.\nIn the summer of 1990 he worked at [Hopkins & Sutter](https://bliptext.com/articles/hopkins-sutter).\nAlso during his law school years, Obama spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course on Alinsky methods of organizing.\nHe graduated with a [J.D.](https://bliptext.com/articles/juris-doctor) [magna cum laude](https://bliptext.com/articles/magna-cum-laude) from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago.\n# [Langdell Hall, home of the Harvard Law School library | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/hls///langdell///hall.jpeg]\n\n## Settling down in Chicago\nThe 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.\nIn an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the [University of Chicago Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-chicago-law-school) provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book.\nHe originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir.\nIn order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to [Bali](https://bliptext.com/articles/bali) where he wrote for several months.\nThe manuscript was finally published as [Dreams from My Father](https://bliptext.com/articles/dreams-from-my-father) in mid-1995.\nHe married Michelle in 1992 and settled down with her in [Hyde Park](https://bliptext.com/articles/hyde-park-chicago), a liberal, integrated, middle-class Chicago neighborhood with a history of electing reform-minded politicians independent of the Daley political machine.\nThe couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998; their second, Natasha (known as Sasha), in 2001.\nOne effect of the marriage was to bring Obama closer to other politically influential Chicagoans.\nOne of Michelle's best friends was [Jesse Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesse-jackson)'s daughter, [Santita Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/santita-jackson), later the godmother of the Obamas' first child.\nMichelle herself had worked as an aide to Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley).\nMarty Nesbitt, a young, successful black businessman (who played basketball with Michelle's brother, [Craig Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/craig-robinson-basketball-coach)), became Obama's best friend and introduced him to other African-American business people.\nBefore the marriage, according to Craig, Obama talked about his political ambitions, even saying that he might run for president someday.\n\n## Project Vote\nObama directed Illinois [Project Vote](https://bliptext.com/articles/project-vote) from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive, officially nonpartisan, that helped [Carol Moseley Braun](https://bliptext.com/articles/carol-moseley-braun) become the first black woman ever elected to the Senate.\nHe 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.\nAlthough 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.\nAccording 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.\"\nThe fundraising brought Obama into contact with the wealthy, liberal elite of Chicago, some of whom became supporters in his future political career.\nThrough one of them he met [David Axelrod](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-axelrod-political-consultant), who later headed Obama's campaign for president.\nThe fundraising committee was chaired by John Schmidt, a former chief of staff to Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley), and John W. Rogers Jr., a young black money manager and founder of Ariel Capital Management.\nObama 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.\n\"He really did it, and he let other people take all the credit\", Schmidt later said.\n\"The people standing up at the press conferences were [Jesse Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesse-jackson) and [Bobby Rush](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\"\n\n## 1992–1996\nObama taught [constitutional law](https://bliptext.com/articles/constitutional-law) at the [University of Chicago Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/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).\nDuring this time he taught courses in due process and equal protection, voting rights, and racism and law.\nHe published no legal scholarship, and turned down tenured positions, but served eight years in the Illinois Senate during his twelve years at the university.\nIn 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/of-counsel) from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2007.\n\n[http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-obama-chicago-htmlstory,0,506256.htmlstory 9.\nLawyering.\nThe law offices of Miner Barnhill & Galland] Obama joined this tiny, liberal and politically powerful firm of about a dozen lawyers, specializing in civil rights cases and then known as Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland.\nObama (1995, 2004), pp. 438–439.\nMendell (2007), pp. 104–106.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/harold-washington), although the law firm often clashed with the administration of Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley).\nThe 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.\nDuring 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.\nObama was listed as counsel on four cases before the [United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-court-of-appeals-for-the-seventh-circuit).\nTwo of these cases involved [ACORN](https://bliptext.com/articles/association-of-community-organizations-for-reform-now) suing Governor [Jim Edgar](https://bliptext.com/articles/jim-edgar) under the new [Motor Voter Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/motor-voter-act), one involved a voter suing Mayor Daley under the [Voting Rights Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/voting-rights-act), and one involved, in the only case Obama orally argued, a [whistleblowing](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistleblowing) stockbroker suing his former employer.\nAll of these appeals were resolved in favor of Obama's clients, with all the opinions authored by Obama's University of Chicago colleague Chief Judge [Richard Posner](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-posner).\nObama was a founding member of the board of directors of [Public Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/public-allies) in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of [Public Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/public-allies) Chicago in early 1993.\nHe served on the board of directors of the [Woods Fund of Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/woods-fund-of-chicago), which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, from 1993 to 2002, and served on the board of directors of The [Joyce Foundation](https://bliptext.com/articles/joyce-foundation) from 1994 to 2002.\nMembership 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.\nObama served on the board of directors of the [Chicago Annenberg Challenge](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-annenberg-challenge) from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.\nHe also served on the board of directors of the [Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-lawyers-committee-for-civil-rights-under-law), the [Center for Neighborhood Technology](https://bliptext.com/articles/center-for-neighborhood-technology), and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.\nIn 1995, Obama also announced his [candidacy for a seat in the Illinois state Senate](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-senate-career-of-barack-obama) and attended [Louis Farrakhan's](https://bliptext.com/articles/louis-farrakhan) [Million Man March](https://bliptext.com/articles/million-man-march) in [Washington, DC](https://bliptext.com/articles/washington-dc).","wordIndex":1,"createdAt":"2025-03-01T10:20:17.577Z","user":{"id":"nweY3b1jDKtYPs52M7yuVaKOP7ya20pR","name":"prismabloom","image":"https://cdn.discordapp.com/avatars/452527709319593994/7c5eb7bd4ca48b35d2f18b615626190d.png"}}],"article":{"id":"ad78a4ea-2f3b-4730-b1c1-c4a1341748f2","title":"Early life and career of Barack Obama","slug":"early-life-and-career-of-barack-obama","content":":::summary\n![Obama in c. 1998](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Obamamiltondavis1///%28cropped%29.jpg)\n**Name:** Barack Obama \n**Image Size:** 170px \n**Birth Name:** Barack Hussein Obama II \n**Birth Date:** August 4, 1961 \n**Birth Place:** [Honolulu](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu), Hawaii, U.S. \n**Education:** [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) ([BA](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts)) [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) ([JD](https://bliptext.com/articles/juris-doctor)) \n**Occupation:** Politician · lawyer \n**Years Active:** 1979–present \n:::\n\n# \nprism, the [44th president of the United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-presidents-of-the-united-states-of-america), was born on August 4, 1961, in [Honolulu, Hawaii](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu) to [Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama), Sr. (1936–1982) (born in Oriang' Kogelo of [Rachuonyo North District](https://bliptext.com/articles/rachuonyo-district), [Kenya](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-kenya)) and [Stanley Ann Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/ann-dunham), known as Ann (1942–1995) (born in [Wichita, Kansas](https://bliptext.com/articles/wichita-kansas), United States).\nObama spent most of his childhood years in Honolulu, where his mother attended the [University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-hawai-i-at-m-noa).\nObama had a close relationship with his maternal grandparents.\nIn 1965, his mother remarried to [Lolo Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/lolo-soetoro) from [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia).\nTwo years later, Dunham took Obama with her to Indonesia to reunite him with his stepfather.\nIn 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to attend [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school), from which he graduated in 1979.\nAs a young adult, Obama moved to the [contiguous United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/contiguous-united-states), where he was educated at [Occidental College](https://bliptext.com/articles/occidental-college), [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university), and [Harvard Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-school).\nIn [Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago), Obama worked at various times as a community organizer, lawyer, lecturer and senior Lecturer of constitutional law at the University of [Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago) Law School in the [city's South Side](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-side-chicago), and later published his memoir [Dreams from My Father](https://bliptext.com/articles/dreams-from-my-father) before beginning his political career in 1997 as a member of the [Illinois Senate](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-senate).\n\n# Childhood years\n# [Obama's long form birth certificate | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/President///Barack///Obama%27s///long///form///birth///certificate.jpg]\n\n## Parents' background and meeting\n[Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama)'s parents met in 1960 while they were students at the [University of Hawaii at Manoa](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-hawaii-at-manoa).\nObama's father, [Barack Obama, Sr.](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama-sr), the university's first [foreign student](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-student) from an African nation, hailed from Oriang' Kogelo, [Rachuonyo North District](https://bliptext.com/articles/rachuonyo-district), in the [Nyanza Province](https://bliptext.com/articles/nyanza-province) of western [Kenya](https://bliptext.com/articles/kenya).\nObama's mother, [Stanley Ann Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanley-ann-dunham), known as Ann, had been born in [Wichita](https://bliptext.com/articles/wichita-kansas).\nThey married on the Hawaiian island of [Maui](https://bliptext.com/articles/maui) on February 2, 1961.\nBarack Hussein Obama II, born in [Honolulu](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu) on August 4, 1961, at the old Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital at 1611 Bingham Street (a predecessor of the [Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children](https://bliptext.com/articles/kapi-olani-medical-center-for-women-and-children) at 1319 Punahou Street), was named for his father.\n[The Honolulu Advertiser](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-honolulu-advertiser) and the [Honolulu Star-Bulletin](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu-star-bulletin) announced the birth.\nSoon after their son's birth, while Obama's father continued his education at the University of Hawaii, Ann Dunham took the infant to [Seattle, Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/seattle-washington), where she took classes at the [University of Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-washington) from September 1961 to June 1962.\nShe and her son lived in an apartment in the [Capitol Hill](https://bliptext.com/articles/capitol-hill-seattle) neighborhood.\nAfter graduating from the University of Hawaii with a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics), Obama, Sr. left the state in June 1962, moving to [Cambridge, Massachusetts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cambridge-massachusetts) for graduate study in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics) at [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) that Autumn.\nAnn Dunham returned with her son to Honolulu and in January 1963 resumed her undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii.\nIn January 1964, Dunham filed for divorce, which was not contested.\nBarack Obama, Sr. later graduated from Harvard University with an [A.M.](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics) and in 1965 returned to Kenya.\nDuring her first year back at the University of Hawaii, Dunham met [Lolo Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/lolo-soetoro).\nHe was one year into his American experience, after two semesters on the Manoa campus and a summer on the mainland at [Northwestern](https://bliptext.com/articles/northwestern-university) and the [University of Wisconsin](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-wisconsin), when he encountered Dunham, then an undergraduate interested in anthropology.\nA surveyor from [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia), he had come to Honolulu in September 1962 on an [East–West Center](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-west-center) grant to study at the University of Hawaii.\nHe earned a [M.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) in [geography](https://bliptext.com/articles/geography) in June 1964.\nDunham and Soetoro married on March 15, 1965, on [Molokai](https://bliptext.com/articles/molokai).\nThey returned to Honolulu to live with her son as a family.\nAfter two one-year extensions of his [J-1 visa](https://bliptext.com/articles/j-1-visa), Soetoro returned to Indonesia on June 20, 1966.\nDunham and her son moved in with her parents at their house.\nShe continued with her studies, earning a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) in [anthropology](https://bliptext.com/articles/anthropology) in August 1967, while her son attended kindergarten in 1966–1967 at Noelani Elementary School.\n\n## Indonesia\nIn 1967, Obama and his mother moved to [Jakarta](https://bliptext.com/articles/jakarta) (known as Djakarta at the time) to rejoin his stepfather.\nThe family initially lived in a newly built neighborhood in the Menteng Dalam [administrative village](https://bliptext.com/articles/administrative-village-indonesia) of the [Tebet](https://bliptext.com/articles/tebet-south-jakarta) [subdistrict](https://bliptext.com/articles/subdistricts-of-jakarta) in [South Jakarta](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-jakarta) for two and a half years, while Soetoro worked on a topographic survey for the Indonesian government. Note: They lived in a rented house at 16 Kyai Haji Ramli Txsdyt56yengah Street\nFrom January 1968 to December 1969, Obama's mother taught English and served as an assistant director of the U.S. government-subsidized Indonesia-America Friendship Institute, while Obama attended the [Indonesian-language](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesian-language) Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St. Francis of Assisi) [Catholic School](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-school) around the corner from their house for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade.\nObama's mother met a [transgender](https://bliptext.com/articles/transgender) person named Evie (who was known as Trudi at the time), at a cocktail party in 1969.\nDunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home.\nIt 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.\nAs 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.\nIn 1970, Soetoro took a new job at higher pay in [Union Oil Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/unocal-corporation)'s government relations office.\nFrom January 1970 to August 1972, Obama's mother taught English and was a department head and a director of the Institute of Management Education and Development.\nObama attended the Indonesian-language government-run [Besuki School](https://bliptext.com/articles/state-elementary-school-menteng-01), one-and-half miles east in the exclusive [Menteng administrative village](https://bliptext.com/articles/menteng), for part of 3rd grade and for 4th grade.\nBy this time, he had picked up on some Indonesian in addition to his native English.\nHe also joined the [Cub Scouts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cub-scout).\nIn the summer of 1970, Obama returned to Hawaii for an extended visit with his maternal grandparents, [Stanley](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanley-armour-dunham) and [Madelyn Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/madelyn-dunham).\nHis mother had also arranged an interview for possible admission to the [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school) in Honolulu, one of the top private schools in the city.\nOn August 15, 1970, Dunham and Soetoro celebrated the birth of their daughter, [Maya Kassandra Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/maya-soetoro-ng).\n# [Barack Obama's school record in St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School. Obama was enrolled as \"Barry Soetoro\" (no. 1), and was wrongly recorded as an Indonesian citizen (no. 3) and a Muslim (no. 4). | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Barry///Soetoro///school///record.jpg]\n\n## Return to Hawaii\nIn mid-1971, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school) starting in fifth grade.\nIn December 1971, Obama was visited for a month by his father, Barack Obama Sr., from Kenya.\nIt was the last time Obama would see his father.\nThis was followed by his mother visiting her son and parents in Honolulu from late 1971 to January 1972.\nIn 1972, Dunham returned to Hawaii, bringing along the young Maya, Obama's half-sister.\nDunham started graduate study in anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.\nFrom sixth grade through eighth grade at Punahou, Obama lived with his mother and Maya.\nObama's mother completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii for an M.A. in anthropology in December 1974.\nAfter three years in Hawaii, she and Maya returned to Jakarta in August 1975, where Dunham completed her contract with the Institute of Management Education and Development and started anthropological fieldwork.\nObama chose to stay with his grandparents in Honolulu to continue his studies at Punahou School for his high school years.\nIn his memoir Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's [middle class](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-middle-class) family.\nHis knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in 1971, came mainly through family stories and photographs.\nSee also:\nObama (1995), pp. 5–11, 62–71.\nIn 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/kisumu) in rural western Kenya.\nSee also:\nOf 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.\"\nThe book describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his [multiracial](https://bliptext.com/articles/multiracial) heritage.\nHe wrote that he used [alcohol](https://bliptext.com/articles/alcoholic-beverage), [marijuana](https://bliptext.com/articles/cannabis-drug), and [cocaine](https://bliptext.com/articles/cocaine) during his teenage years to \"push questions of who I was out of my mind\".\nObama was also a member of the \"choom gang\", a self-named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.\nObama has said that it was a serious mistake.\nAt the Saddleback Civil Presidential Forum, Barack Obama identified his high-school drug use as his greatest moral failure.\nObama has stated he has not used any illegal drugs since he was a teenager.\nSome of his fellow students attending Punahou School later told the [Honolulu Star-Bulletin](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/african-american) college students and military service people.\nReflecting 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.\"\n\n# Education summary\n\n# Adult life\n\n## College years\nFollowing high school, Obama moved to [Los Angeles](https://bliptext.com/articles/los-angeles) in 1979, where he studied at [Occidental College](https://bliptext.com/articles/occidental-college) for two years.\nObama (1995, 2004), pp. 92–112.\nMendell (2007), pp. 55–62.\nRemnick (2010), pp. 98–112.\nOn February 18, 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental's [divestment](https://bliptext.com/articles/disinvestment-from-south-africa) from South Africa.\nIn the summer of 1981, Obama traveled to Jakarta to visit his mother and half-sister Maya, and visited the families of Occidental College friends in [Hyderabad (India)](https://bliptext.com/articles/hyderabad-india) and [Karachi (Pakistan)](https://bliptext.com/articles/karachi-pakistan) for three weeks.\nHe then transferred to [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) in [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city), where he majored in [political science](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-science) with a speciality in [international relations](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-relations) and in [English literature](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-literature).\nObama lived off campus in a modest rented apartment at 142 West 109th Street.\nHe graduated with a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) from Columbia in 1983, then worked at [Business International Corporation](https://bliptext.com/articles/business-international-corporation) and [New York Public Interest Research Group](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-public-interest-research-group).\n\n## Early career in Chicago\nAfter four years living in New York, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a [community organizer](https://bliptext.com/articles/community-organizing).\nHe worked for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the [Developing Communities Project](https://bliptext.com/articles/developing-communities-project) (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight [Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-catholic-church) parishes in Greater [Roseland](https://bliptext.com/articles/roseland-chicago) ([Roseland](https://bliptext.com/articles/roseland-chicago), [West Pullman](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-pullman-chicago), and [Riverdale](https://bliptext.com/articles/riverdale-chicago)) on Chicago's far [South Side](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-side-chicago).\nDuring 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/altgeld-gardens-chicago).\nObama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the [Gamaliel Foundation](https://bliptext.com/articles/gamaliel-foundation), a community organizing institute.\nIn the summer of 1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks then to Kenya for five weeks where he met many of [his paternal relatives](https://bliptext.com/articles/family-of-barack-obama) for the first time.\n\n## Law School\nObama entered [Harvard Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-school) in late 1988.\nIn an interview with [Ebony](https://bliptext.com/articles/ebony-magazine) 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 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.\"\nAt the end of his first year he was selected as an editor of the [Harvard Law Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-review) based on his grades and a writing competition. Mendell (2007), pp. 80–92.\nIn 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.\nHe got himself elected by convincing a crucial swing bloc of conservatives that he would protect their interests if they supported him.\nBuilding up that trust was done with the same kind of long listening sessions he had used in the poor neighborhoods of South Side, Chicago.\n[Richard Epstein](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-allen-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.\"\nWhile in law school he worked as an associate at the law firm [Sidley & Austin](https://bliptext.com/articles/sidley-austin) in 1989, where he met his future wife, [Michelle LaVaughn Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/michelle-obama), and where [Newton N. Minow](https://bliptext.com/articles/newton-n-minow) was a managing partner.\nMinow later would introduce Obama to some of Chicago's top business leaders.\nIn the summer of 1990 he worked at [Hopkins & Sutter](https://bliptext.com/articles/hopkins-sutter).\nAlso during his law school years, Obama spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course on Alinsky methods of organizing.\nHe graduated with a [J.D.](https://bliptext.com/articles/juris-doctor) [magna cum laude](https://bliptext.com/articles/magna-cum-laude) from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago.\n# [Langdell Hall, home of the Harvard Law School library | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/hls///langdell///hall.jpeg]\n\n## Settling down in Chicago\nThe 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.\nIn an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the [University of Chicago Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-chicago-law-school) provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book.\nHe originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir.\nIn order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to [Bali](https://bliptext.com/articles/bali) where he wrote for several months.\nThe manuscript was finally published as [Dreams from My Father](https://bliptext.com/articles/dreams-from-my-father) in mid-1995.\nHe married Michelle in 1992 and settled down with her in [Hyde Park](https://bliptext.com/articles/hyde-park-chicago), a liberal, integrated, middle-class Chicago neighborhood with a history of electing reform-minded politicians independent of the Daley political machine.\nThe couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998; their second, Natasha (known as Sasha), in 2001.\nOne effect of the marriage was to bring Obama closer to other politically influential Chicagoans.\nOne of Michelle's best friends was [Jesse Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesse-jackson)'s daughter, [Santita Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/santita-jackson), later the godmother of the Obamas' first child.\nMichelle herself had worked as an aide to Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley).\nMarty Nesbitt, a young, successful black businessman (who played basketball with Michelle's brother, [Craig Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/craig-robinson-basketball-coach)), became Obama's best friend and introduced him to other African-American business people.\nBefore the marriage, according to Craig, Obama talked about his political ambitions, even saying that he might run for president someday.\n\n## Project Vote\nObama directed Illinois [Project Vote](https://bliptext.com/articles/project-vote) from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive, officially nonpartisan, that helped [Carol Moseley Braun](https://bliptext.com/articles/carol-moseley-braun) become the first black woman ever elected to the Senate.\nHe 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.\nAlthough 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.\nAccording 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.\"\nThe fundraising brought Obama into contact with the wealthy, liberal elite of Chicago, some of whom became supporters in his future political career.\nThrough one of them he met [David Axelrod](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-axelrod-political-consultant), who later headed Obama's campaign for president.\nThe fundraising committee was chaired by John Schmidt, a former chief of staff to Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley), and John W. Rogers Jr., a young black money manager and founder of Ariel Capital Management.\nObama 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.\n\"He really did it, and he let other people take all the credit\", Schmidt later said.\n\"The people standing up at the press conferences were [Jesse Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesse-jackson) and [Bobby Rush](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\"\n\n## 1992–1996\nObama taught [constitutional law](https://bliptext.com/articles/constitutional-law) at the [University of Chicago Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/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).\nDuring this time he taught courses in due process and equal protection, voting rights, and racism and law.\nHe published no legal scholarship, and turned down tenured positions, but served eight years in the Illinois Senate during his twelve years at the university.\nIn 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/of-counsel) from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2007.\n\n[http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-obama-chicago-htmlstory,0,506256.htmlstory 9.\nLawyering.\nThe law offices of Miner Barnhill & Galland] Obama joined this tiny, liberal and politically powerful firm of about a dozen lawyers, specializing in civil rights cases and then known as Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland.\nObama (1995, 2004), pp. 438–439.\nMendell (2007), pp. 104–106.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/harold-washington), although the law firm often clashed with the administration of Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley).\nThe 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.\nDuring 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.\nObama was listed as counsel on four cases before the [United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-court-of-appeals-for-the-seventh-circuit).\nTwo of these cases involved [ACORN](https://bliptext.com/articles/association-of-community-organizations-for-reform-now) suing Governor [Jim Edgar](https://bliptext.com/articles/jim-edgar) under the new [Motor Voter Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/motor-voter-act), one involved a voter suing Mayor Daley under the [Voting Rights Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/voting-rights-act), and one involved, in the only case Obama orally argued, a [whistleblowing](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistleblowing) stockbroker suing his former employer.\nAll of these appeals were resolved in favor of Obama's clients, with all the opinions authored by Obama's University of Chicago colleague Chief Judge [Richard Posner](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-posner).\nObama was a founding member of the board of directors of [Public Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/public-allies) in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of [Public Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/public-allies) Chicago in early 1993.\nHe served on the board of directors of the [Woods Fund of Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/woods-fund-of-chicago), which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, from 1993 to 2002, and served on the board of directors of The [Joyce Foundation](https://bliptext.com/articles/joyce-foundation) from 1994 to 2002.\nMembership 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.\nObama served on the board of directors of the [Chicago Annenberg Challenge](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-annenberg-challenge) from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.\nHe also served on the board of directors of the [Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-lawyers-committee-for-civil-rights-under-law), the [Center for Neighborhood Technology](https://bliptext.com/articles/center-for-neighborhood-technology), and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.\nIn 1995, Obama also announced his [candidacy for a seat in the Illinois state Senate](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-senate-career-of-barack-obama) and attended [Louis Farrakhan's](https://bliptext.com/articles/louis-farrakhan) [Million Man March](https://bliptext.com/articles/million-man-march) in [Washington, DC](https://bliptext.com/articles/washington-dc).","current_revision":"30af4d1c-771e-48b2-bbd1-e0de48b6cfae","created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T10:28:45.379Z","updated_at":"2025-03-01T10:20:17.582Z","search_vector":"'barack':6 'career':4 'earli':1 'life':2 'obama':7","search_content":" \n \n**Name:** Barack Obama \n**Image Size:** 170px \n**Birth Name:** Barack Hussein Obama II \n**Birth Date:** August 4, 1961 \n**Birth Place:** [Honolulu](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu), Hawaii, U.S. \n**Education:** [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) ([BA](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts)) [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) ([JD](https://bliptext.com/articles/juris-doctor)) \n**Occupation:** Politician · lawyer \n**Years Active:** 1979–present \n \n\n# \n[Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama), the [44th president of the United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-presidents-of-the-united-states-of-america), was born on August 4, 1961, in [Honolulu, Hawaii](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu) to [Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama), Sr. (1936–1982) (born in Oriang' Kogelo of [Rachuonyo North District](https://bliptext.com/articles/rachuonyo-district), [Kenya](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-kenya)) and [Stanley Ann Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/ann-dunham), known as Ann (1942–1995) (born in [Wichita, Kansas](https://bliptext.com/articles/wichita-kansas), United States).\nObama spent most of his childhood years in Honolulu, where his mother attended the [University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-hawai-i-at-m-noa).\nObama had a close relationship with his maternal grandparents.\nIn 1965, his mother remarried to [Lolo Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/lolo-soetoro) from [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia).\nTwo years later, Dunham took Obama with her to Indonesia to reunite him with his stepfather.\nIn 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to attend [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school), from which he graduated in 1979.\nAs a young adult, Obama moved to the [contiguous United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/contiguous-united-states), where he was educated at [Occidental College](https://bliptext.com/articles/occidental-college), [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university), and [Harvard Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-school).\nIn [Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago), Obama worked at various times as a community organizer, lawyer, lecturer and senior Lecturer of constitutional law at the University of [Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago) Law School in the [city's South Side](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-side-chicago), and later published his memoir [Dreams from My Father](https://bliptext.com/articles/dreams-from-my-father) before beginning his political career in 1997 as a member of the [Illinois Senate](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-senate).\n\n# Childhood years\n# [Obama's long form birth certificate | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/President///Barack///Obama%27s///long///form///birth///certificate.jpg]\n\n## Parents' background and meeting\n[Barack Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama)'s parents met in 1960 while they were students at the [University of Hawaii at Manoa](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-hawaii-at-manoa).\nObama's father, [Barack Obama, Sr.](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama-sr), the university's first [foreign student](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-student) from an African nation, hailed from Oriang' Kogelo, [Rachuonyo North District](https://bliptext.com/articles/rachuonyo-district), in the [Nyanza Province](https://bliptext.com/articles/nyanza-province) of western [Kenya](https://bliptext.com/articles/kenya).\nObama's mother, [Stanley Ann Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanley-ann-dunham), known as Ann, had been born in [Wichita](https://bliptext.com/articles/wichita-kansas).\nThey married on the Hawaiian island of [Maui](https://bliptext.com/articles/maui) on February 2, 1961.\nBarack Hussein Obama II, born in [Honolulu](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu) on August 4, 1961, at the old Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital at 1611 Bingham Street (a predecessor of the [Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children](https://bliptext.com/articles/kapi-olani-medical-center-for-women-and-children) at 1319 Punahou Street), was named for his father.\n[The Honolulu Advertiser](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-honolulu-advertiser) and the [Honolulu Star-Bulletin](https://bliptext.com/articles/honolulu-star-bulletin) announced the birth.\nSoon after their son's birth, while Obama's father continued his education at the University of Hawaii, Ann Dunham took the infant to [Seattle, Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/seattle-washington), where she took classes at the [University of Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-washington) from September 1961 to June 1962.\nShe and her son lived in an apartment in the [Capitol Hill](https://bliptext.com/articles/capitol-hill-seattle) neighborhood.\nAfter graduating from the University of Hawaii with a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics), Obama, Sr. left the state in June 1962, moving to [Cambridge, Massachusetts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cambridge-massachusetts) for graduate study in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics) at [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) that Autumn.\nAnn Dunham returned with her son to Honolulu and in January 1963 resumed her undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii.\nIn January 1964, Dunham filed for divorce, which was not contested.\nBarack Obama, Sr. later graduated from Harvard University with an [A.M.](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) in [economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/economics) and in 1965 returned to Kenya.\nDuring her first year back at the University of Hawaii, Dunham met [Lolo Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/lolo-soetoro).\nHe was one year into his American experience, after two semesters on the Manoa campus and a summer on the mainland at [Northwestern](https://bliptext.com/articles/northwestern-university) and the [University of Wisconsin](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-wisconsin), when he encountered Dunham, then an undergraduate interested in anthropology.\nA surveyor from [Indonesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesia), he had come to Honolulu in September 1962 on an [East–West Center](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-west-center) grant to study at the University of Hawaii.\nHe earned a [M.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) in [geography](https://bliptext.com/articles/geography) in June 1964.\nDunham and Soetoro married on March 15, 1965, on [Molokai](https://bliptext.com/articles/molokai).\nThey returned to Honolulu to live with her son as a family.\nAfter two one-year extensions of his [J-1 visa](https://bliptext.com/articles/j-1-visa), Soetoro returned to Indonesia on June 20, 1966.\nDunham and her son moved in with her parents at their house.\nShe continued with her studies, earning a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) in [anthropology](https://bliptext.com/articles/anthropology) in August 1967, while her son attended kindergarten in 1966–1967 at Noelani Elementary School.\n\n## Indonesia\nIn 1967, Obama and his mother moved to [Jakarta](https://bliptext.com/articles/jakarta) (known as Djakarta at the time) to rejoin his stepfather.\nThe family initially lived in a newly built neighborhood in the Menteng Dalam [administrative village](https://bliptext.com/articles/administrative-village-indonesia) of the [Tebet](https://bliptext.com/articles/tebet-south-jakarta) [subdistrict](https://bliptext.com/articles/subdistricts-of-jakarta) in [South Jakarta](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-jakarta) for two and a half years, while Soetoro worked on a topographic survey for the Indonesian government. Note: They lived in a rented house at 16 Kyai Haji Ramli Txsdyt56yengah Street\nFrom January 1968 to December 1969, Obama's mother taught English and served as an assistant director of the U.S. government-subsidized Indonesia-America Friendship Institute, while Obama attended the [Indonesian-language](https://bliptext.com/articles/indonesian-language) Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St. Francis of Assisi) [Catholic School](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-school) around the corner from their house for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade.\nObama's mother met a [transgender](https://bliptext.com/articles/transgender) person named Evie (who was known as Trudi at the time), at a cocktail party in 1969.\nDunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home.\nIt 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.\nAs 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.\nIn 1970, Soetoro took a new job at higher pay in [Union Oil Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/unocal-corporation)'s government relations office.\nFrom January 1970 to August 1972, Obama's mother taught English and was a department head and a director of the Institute of Management Education and Development.\nObama attended the Indonesian-language government-run [Besuki School](https://bliptext.com/articles/state-elementary-school-menteng-01), one-and-half miles east in the exclusive [Menteng administrative village](https://bliptext.com/articles/menteng), for part of 3rd grade and for 4th grade.\nBy this time, he had picked up on some Indonesian in addition to his native English.\nHe also joined the [Cub Scouts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cub-scout).\nIn the summer of 1970, Obama returned to Hawaii for an extended visit with his maternal grandparents, [Stanley](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanley-armour-dunham) and [Madelyn Dunham](https://bliptext.com/articles/madelyn-dunham).\nHis mother had also arranged an interview for possible admission to the [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school) in Honolulu, one of the top private schools in the city.\nOn August 15, 1970, Dunham and Soetoro celebrated the birth of their daughter, [Maya Kassandra Soetoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/maya-soetoro-ng).\n# [Barack Obama's school record in St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School. Obama was enrolled as \"Barry Soetoro\" (no. 1), and was wrongly recorded as an Indonesian citizen (no. 3) and a Muslim (no. 4). | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Barry///Soetoro///school///record.jpg]\n\n## Return to Hawaii\nIn mid-1971, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend [Punahou School](https://bliptext.com/articles/punahou-school) starting in fifth grade.\nIn December 1971, Obama was visited for a month by his father, Barack Obama Sr., from Kenya.\nIt was the last time Obama would see his father.\nThis was followed by his mother visiting her son and parents in Honolulu from late 1971 to January 1972.\nIn 1972, Dunham returned to Hawaii, bringing along the young Maya, Obama's half-sister.\nDunham started graduate study in anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.\nFrom sixth grade through eighth grade at Punahou, Obama lived with his mother and Maya.\nObama's mother completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii for an M.A. in anthropology in December 1974.\nAfter three years in Hawaii, she and Maya returned to Jakarta in August 1975, where Dunham completed her contract with the Institute of Management Education and Development and started anthropological fieldwork.\nObama chose to stay with his grandparents in Honolulu to continue his studies at Punahou School for his high school years.\nIn his memoir Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's [middle class](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-middle-class) family.\nHis knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in 1971, came mainly through family stories and photographs. \nSee also:\nObama (1995), pp. 5–11, 62–71.\nIn 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/kisumu) in rural western Kenya.\nSee also:\nOf 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.\"\nThe book describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his [multiracial](https://bliptext.com/articles/multiracial) heritage.\nHe wrote that he used [alcohol](https://bliptext.com/articles/alcoholic-beverage), [marijuana](https://bliptext.com/articles/cannabis-drug), and [cocaine](https://bliptext.com/articles/cocaine) during his teenage years to \"push questions of who I was out of my mind\".\nObama was also a member of the \"choom gang\", a self-named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.\nObama has said that it was a serious mistake.\nAt the Saddleback Civil Presidential Forum, Barack Obama identified his high-school drug use as his greatest moral failure.\nObama has stated he has not used any illegal drugs since he was a teenager.\nSome of his fellow students attending Punahou School later told the [Honolulu Star-Bulletin](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/african-american) college students and military service people.\nReflecting 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.\"\n\n# Education summary\n\n# Adult life\n\n## College years\nFollowing high school, Obama moved to [Los Angeles](https://bliptext.com/articles/los-angeles) in 1979, where he studied at [Occidental College](https://bliptext.com/articles/occidental-college) for two years. \nObama (1995, 2004), pp. 92–112.\nMendell (2007), pp. 55–62.\nRemnick (2010), pp. 98–112.\nOn February 18, 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental's [divestment](https://bliptext.com/articles/disinvestment-from-south-africa) from South Africa.\nIn the summer of 1981, Obama traveled to Jakarta to visit his mother and half-sister Maya, and visited the families of Occidental College friends in [Hyderabad (India)](https://bliptext.com/articles/hyderabad-india) and [Karachi (Pakistan)](https://bliptext.com/articles/karachi-pakistan) for three weeks.\nHe then transferred to [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) in [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city), where he majored in [political science](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-science) with a speciality in [international relations](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-relations) and in [English literature](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-literature).\nObama lived off campus in a modest rented apartment at 142 West 109th Street.\nHe graduated with a [B.A.](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachelor-of-arts) from Columbia in 1983, then worked at [Business International Corporation](https://bliptext.com/articles/business-international-corporation) and [New York Public Interest Research Group](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-public-interest-research-group).\n\n## Early career in Chicago\nAfter four years living in New York, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a [community organizer](https://bliptext.com/articles/community-organizing).\nHe worked for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the [Developing Communities Project](https://bliptext.com/articles/developing-communities-project) (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight [Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-catholic-church) parishes in Greater [Roseland](https://bliptext.com/articles/roseland-chicago) ([Roseland](https://bliptext.com/articles/roseland-chicago), [West Pullman](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-pullman-chicago), and [Riverdale](https://bliptext.com/articles/riverdale-chicago)) on Chicago's far [South Side](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-side-chicago).\nDuring 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/altgeld-gardens-chicago).\nObama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the [Gamaliel Foundation](https://bliptext.com/articles/gamaliel-foundation), a community organizing institute.\nIn the summer of 1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks then to Kenya for five weeks where he met many of [his paternal relatives](https://bliptext.com/articles/family-of-barack-obama) for the first time.\n\n## Law School\nObama entered [Harvard Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-school) in late 1988.\nIn an interview with [Ebony](https://bliptext.com/articles/ebony-magazine) 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 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.\"\nAt the end of his first year he was selected as an editor of the [Harvard Law Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-law-review) based on his grades and a writing competition. Mendell (2007), pp. 80–92.\nIn 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.\nHe got himself elected by convincing a crucial swing bloc of conservatives that he would protect their interests if they supported him.\nBuilding up that trust was done with the same kind of long listening sessions he had used in the poor neighborhoods of South Side, Chicago.\n[Richard Epstein](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-allen-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.\"\nWhile in law school he worked as an associate at the law firm [Sidley & Austin](https://bliptext.com/articles/sidley-austin) in 1989, where he met his future wife, [Michelle LaVaughn Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/michelle-obama), and where [Newton N. Minow](https://bliptext.com/articles/newton-n-minow) was a managing partner.\nMinow later would introduce Obama to some of Chicago's top business leaders.\nIn the summer of 1990 he worked at [Hopkins & Sutter](https://bliptext.com/articles/hopkins-sutter).\nAlso during his law school years, Obama spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course on Alinsky methods of organizing.\nHe graduated with a [J.D.](https://bliptext.com/articles/juris-doctor) [magna cum laude](https://bliptext.com/articles/magna-cum-laude) from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago.\n# [Langdell Hall, home of the Harvard Law School library | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/hls///langdell///hall.jpeg]\n\n## Settling down in Chicago\nThe 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.\nIn an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the [University of Chicago Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-chicago-law-school) provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book.\nHe originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir.\nIn order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to [Bali](https://bliptext.com/articles/bali) where he wrote for several months.\nThe manuscript was finally published as [Dreams from My Father](https://bliptext.com/articles/dreams-from-my-father) in mid-1995.\nHe married Michelle in 1992 and settled down with her in [Hyde Park](https://bliptext.com/articles/hyde-park-chicago), a liberal, integrated, middle-class Chicago neighborhood with a history of electing reform-minded politicians independent of the Daley political machine.\nThe couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998; their second, Natasha (known as Sasha), in 2001.\nOne effect of the marriage was to bring Obama closer to other politically influential Chicagoans.\nOne of Michelle's best friends was [Jesse Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesse-jackson)'s daughter, [Santita Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/santita-jackson), later the godmother of the Obamas' first child.\nMichelle herself had worked as an aide to Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley).\nMarty Nesbitt, a young, successful black businessman (who played basketball with Michelle's brother, [Craig Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/craig-robinson-basketball-coach)), became Obama's best friend and introduced him to other African-American business people.\nBefore the marriage, according to Craig, Obama talked about his political ambitions, even saying that he might run for president someday.\n\n## Project Vote\nObama directed Illinois [Project Vote](https://bliptext.com/articles/project-vote) from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive, officially nonpartisan, that helped [Carol Moseley Braun](https://bliptext.com/articles/carol-moseley-braun) become the first black woman ever elected to the Senate.\nHe 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.\nAlthough 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.\nAccording 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.\"\nThe fundraising brought Obama into contact with the wealthy, liberal elite of Chicago, some of whom became supporters in his future political career.\nThrough one of them he met [David Axelrod](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-axelrod-political-consultant), who later headed Obama's campaign for president.\nThe fundraising committee was chaired by John Schmidt, a former chief of staff to Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley), and John W. Rogers Jr., a young black money manager and founder of Ariel Capital Management.\nObama 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.\n\"He really did it, and he let other people take all the credit\", Schmidt later said.\n\"The people standing up at the press conferences were [Jesse Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/jesse-jackson) and [Bobby Rush](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\"\n\n## 1992–1996\nObama taught [constitutional law](https://bliptext.com/articles/constitutional-law) at the [University of Chicago Law School](https://bliptext.com/articles/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).\nDuring this time he taught courses in due process and equal protection, voting rights, and racism and law.\nHe published no legal scholarship, and turned down tenured positions, but served eight years in the Illinois Senate during his twelve years at the university.\nIn 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/of-counsel) from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2007.\n \n[http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-obama-chicago-htmlstory,0,506256.htmlstory 9.\nLawyering.\nThe law offices of Miner Barnhill & Galland] Obama joined this tiny, liberal and politically powerful firm of about a dozen lawyers, specializing in civil rights cases and then known as Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland.\nObama (1995, 2004), pp. 438–439.\nMendell (2007), pp. 104–106.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/harold-washington), although the law firm often clashed with the administration of Mayor [Richard M. Daley](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-m-daley).\nThe 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.\nDuring 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.\nObama was listed as counsel on four cases before the [United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-court-of-appeals-for-the-seventh-circuit).\nTwo of these cases involved [ACORN](https://bliptext.com/articles/association-of-community-organizations-for-reform-now) suing Governor [Jim Edgar](https://bliptext.com/articles/jim-edgar) under the new [Motor Voter Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/motor-voter-act), one involved a voter suing Mayor Daley under the [Voting Rights Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/voting-rights-act), and one involved, in the only case Obama orally argued, a [whistleblowing](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistleblowing) stockbroker suing his former employer.\nAll of these appeals were resolved in favor of Obama's clients, with all the opinions authored by Obama's University of Chicago colleague Chief Judge [Richard Posner](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-posner).\nObama was a founding member of the board of directors of [Public Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/public-allies) in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of [Public Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/public-allies) Chicago in early 1993.\nHe served on the board of directors of the [Woods Fund of Chicago](https://bliptext.com/articles/woods-fund-of-chicago), which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, from 1993 to 2002, and served on the board of directors of The [Joyce Foundation](https://bliptext.com/articles/joyce-foundation) from 1994 to 2002.\nMembership 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.\nObama served on the board of directors of the [Chicago Annenberg Challenge](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-annenberg-challenge) from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.\nHe also served on the board of directors of the [Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-lawyers-committee-for-civil-rights-under-law), the [Center for Neighborhood Technology](https://bliptext.com/articles/center-for-neighborhood-technology), and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.\nIn 1995, Obama also announced his [candidacy for a seat in the Illinois state Senate](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-senate-career-of-barack-obama) and attended [Louis Farrakhan's](https://bliptext.com/articles/louis-farrakhan) [Million Man March](https://bliptext.com/articles/million-man-march) in [Washington, DC](https://bliptext.com/articles/washington-dc).","revisionCount":1},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

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