Barack Obama Barack Obama was born to a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, who were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for Harvard, Barack and his mother stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where largely his grandparents brought him up. The family lived in a small apartment, his grandfather was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank, but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly but, though he traveled around the world on official business for Kenya, he visited only once, when Barack was ten. Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School. Eventually he ran as a Democrat for the State Senate seat from his district, which included both upscale Hyde Park and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side, and won. On October 18, 1992 Barack married his wife Michelle and they presently have two children. In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He is currently the U.S. Senator from Illinois. In 2006 Mr. Obama won a Grammy for Best Spoken Words for the CD version of his autobiography "Dreams From My Father". On "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" he revealed that President George W. Bush nicknamed him "Bama" and "Rock". On January 16, 2007, Obama announced that he had taken the first step toward becoming a candidate for the 2008 presidential election by forming an exploratory committee. On June 4, 2008, Obama secured enough delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee. On August 23, 2008, he announced that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware would be his running mate. Compiled by Renita K. Speight Updated by Kimberly Bellows Official Campaign Website for Barack Obama: www.barackobama.com
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