In November 2008, Americans elected Barack Obama as their 44th president. He was the first African American to hold that office. He was president for two terms until 2016.
Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961. When he was 6, he moved to Indonesia, but returned to Hawaii a few years later to live with his grandparents and attend school.
Barack was an excellent student and a good basketball player. With the help of scholarships, he attended college in Los Angeles and New York City. After graduating in 1985, he moved to Chicago where he worked as a community organizer.
His work with tenants and with people who had lost their jobs led Barack to develop an interest in the law. He was accepted to Harvard Law School where he became the first African American to be editor of the Harvard Law Review.
After law school, Obama returned to Chicago where he did community legal work and got minorities registered to vote. In Chicago he met Michelle Robinson, who was also a lawyer. They married in 1992 and had two daughters - Malia and Sasha.
Obama’s political career began in 1996 when he was elected to the Illinois State Senate. He continued to fight for the poor and gained a reputation for being a good speaker. This talent served him well and helped him win a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004 and defeat Hillary Clinton in 2008 to become the Democratic candidate for president.
During his two terms President Obama passed health care reform and helped the country recover from the economic recession of 2008.
Barack Obama was determined to make a difference in the world. In his words, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
Source: worksheetsplus.com/BlackHistory/Obama.html Who Is Barack Obama?
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