Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at the Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr., a Black Kenyan of Nyangoma Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a White American from Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student They separated when he was two years old and later divorced. Obama's father returned to Kenya and saw him only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. After her divorce, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, and the family moved to Soetoro's home country of Indonesia in 1967, where Obama attended local schools in Jakarta until he was ten years old. He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from high school in 1979. Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for several years and then back to Indonesia for her fieldwork. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.
Following high school, Barack Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years.[10] He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations.[11] Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983, then worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.
After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks then Kenya for five weeks where he met many of his Kenyan relatives for the first time.
Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988 and at the end of his first year was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review based on his grades and a writing competition. In his second year he was elected president of the Law Review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors. Obama's election in February 1990 as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review was widely reported and followed by several long, detailed profiles. He graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago where he had worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.
The publicity from his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and advance to write a book about race relations. In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. He originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir. In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months. The manuscript was finally published as Dreams from My Father in mid-1995.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Manuel Zelaya: Iâm Not Afraid to Return - Ahora.cu Honduran constitutional president Manuel Zelaya said on Thursday that he is not afraid to return to his country. âI have always acted according to my principles and I am ready to die for them,â he stressed. Zelaya reiterated his intention of ... Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:48:00 GMT
Inauguration Donors - Opensecrets.org Like his presidential campaign, the festivities surrounding Barack Obama's swearing-in as the nation's 44th president are being financed by private donations, a practice that goes back many administrations. What changes from president to president is ... Publ.Date : Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:54:00 GMT
The First 100 Days - Time The President greets enthusiastic supporters in Warm Springs, Ga., on Dec. 1, 1933. March 4, 1933, was perhaps the Great Depression's darkest hour. The stock market had plunged 85% from its high in 1929, and nearly one-fourth of the workforce was ... Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:02:00 GMT
Defense Dept. Works To Find Loopholes In âDonât Ask, Don't Tellâ - Tothecenter.com Amid recent rumblings that the Obama administration might go back on its promise to repeal the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated Tuesday that he is working on relaxing the law, as an interim measure ... Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:19:00 GMT
The Art of Fireworks - Time The Grucci family of Long Island, N.Y. calls itself "America's first family of fireworks" â and has a solid claim to that title. Since the business began in 1850, Fireworks by Grucci has launched some of the nation's most spectacular pyrotechnic ... Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:41:00 GMT
Going Straight To Denver - News Talk650 United Airlines will be flying two daily direct flights from the Queen city. To celebrate the inauguration, Canada's Consul General to Denver, Dale Eisler, flew up from Denver. He says it will open up many possibilities to the city. "I think it opens ... Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:32:00 GMT
Security Changes For 4th on the Mall - Myfoxdc.com WASHINGTON, D.C. - Hundreds of thousands of people will head to the National Mall on Saturday to celebrate Independence Day, and you can expect to see some changes when it comes to security this year. There were lessons learned from President Obama's ... Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:17:00 GMT
Barack Obama's inauguration - Hampton Roads Daily Press Activities surrounding the inauguration will stretch over four days and will start with a welcome event for the public and end with a prayer service, officials with the Presidential Inaugural Committee said Wednesday. Here is the basic schedule ... Publ.Date : Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:26:00 GMT
Montessori system develops brain better: Expert - Indian Express A recent research has linked activity-based learning with natural growth of brain and it has concluded that the traditional methods of learning makes brain passive. This was said by Ann Balasuriya, director of Montessori Teacher Training Institute ... Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:09:00 GMT
Mimic the Inauguration with New Facebook Offering - WebProNews Facebook launched the Live Stream Box today, which is a feature that lets website owners and developers enable Facebook users to connect, share, and post updates in real-time as they witness events online. Think CNN's Facebook integration from the ... Publ.Date : Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:59:00 GMT
