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Barack Obama (1962- ) is a Democratic politician from Chicago, Illinois. A state legislator, Obama is currently running for the United States Senate from the State of Illinois, which would be the highest elected office he would hold thus far. If successful, Obama would be only the third African-American senator since Reconstruction. His early opponent was businessman and educator Jack Ryan. Ryan withdrew from the race as a result of a California court ruling opening files related to his 1999 divorce from actress Jeri Ryan.
Early Years
Barack Obama was born at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i on the island of O'ahu to Barack Obama, Sr. of Kenya and S. Ann Dunham of Kansas. Both his parents were students at the East-West Center at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. At the age of two, the couple were divorced and Obama's mother re-married to another East-West Center student from Indonesia. The family moved to Indonesia for a couple of years but Obama returned to Hawai'i to be raised by his grandmother on Beretania Street in downtown Honolulu. He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School at got his first job at Baskin-Robbins on the corner of King and Punahou Streets. He graduated from Punahou School with honors.
College Education
Upon graduation, Obama went on to study at Columbia College in New York City majoring in political science. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois and took up community organizing. He left Chicago briefly to study law at Harvard University where he made history, becoming the first African-American editor of the internationally recognized publication Harvard Law Review. Obama returned to his adopted hometown of Chicago in 1992 and was quick to organize an aggressive voter registration effort claiming to have registered over 100,000 voters. His talents gained him a seat at a local civil rights law firm and became a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
Political Life
In 1997, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the south side of Chicago. He was generally regarded as a liberal during his tenure in the state legislature, helping to author a state earned income tax credit providing benefits to the poor.
Resources
- Barack Obama Campaign Website
- Barack Obama Illinois State Senate Biography
- Barack Obama Illinois State Senate Website
- Barack Obama from the Open Directory Project