Barack Obama

Barack Obama, U.S. Senator

* Born: 4 August 1961
* Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii
* Best Known As: U.S. Senator from Illinois, 2005-present

Barack Obama is a U.S. senator from Illinois and a Democratic candidate for president in the elections of 2008. Obama has spoken often of his multicultural background: his father was from Kenya, his mother from Kansas, and they met at the University of Hawaii. After his parents divorced and his father returned to Africa, Obama stayed with his mother and was raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. He earned an undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1983 and a law degree from Harvard in 1991. He then joined the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which specialized in civil rights legislation. He also lectured at the University of Chicago. He was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and then to the U.S. Senate in 2004, beating Republican candidate Alan Keyes. Obama shot to national fame after delivering the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic national convention. The speech established Obama as a rising star in the party. Obama announced in February of 2007 that he would be a Democratic candidate for president in 2008. He published the personal memoir Dreams from My Father in 1995, and published a second book, The Audacity of Hope, in 2006. The title of the latter book was also the title of his 2004 keynote speech.

Obama married the former Michelle Robinson in 1992. They have two daughters: Malia (b. 1999) and Sasha (b. 2001)... Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., was black; his mother, Ann Dunham, was white... Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles before completing his undergraduate degree at Columbia... Obama's Senate and campaign websites describe him as "the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review" and "the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate." The previous African-American senators elected by popular vote were Edward Brooke (1967-79, from Massachusetts) and Carol Moseley-Braun (1993-99, from Illinois). Two other African-Americans were chosen by state senates to become U.S. Senators: Hiram Revels (1870-71, from Mississippi) and Blanche Bruce (1875-81, also from Mississippi).