President Barack Hussein Obama II is the first President with dark colored skin to be elected as President of the United States of America. He was a junior Senator from the State of Illinois from January 3, 2005 until his resigned in November 16, 2008, after he got elected to the presidency.
Barack Obama's Parents
Barack Obama's parents met in 1960 while they were both studying at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. At that time, Obama's father was already married to a Kenyan woman named Kezia Obama. His mother was not aware of this relationship.
Obama's mother was a white American named Stanley Ann Dunham, who hailed from Wichita, Kansas. According to Obama, she was a non practicing Protestant Christian who called herself an atheist. Obama's grandparents from his mother's side were non practicing Methodist and Baptist Protestant Christians of English and Irish descent. During her later career, she worked as an anthropologist doing social welfare work.
Barack Obama's father was a black African named Barack Obama, Sr. who worked as a goatherd in Nyanza Province in Kenya. According to Barack Obama, his father was raised a Muslim who later became an atheist.
Barack Obama's parents married each other on February 2, 1961 and Barack Obama was born six months later on August 4th, 1961 at a medical center on the island of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Barack Obama's Religion
According to Obama, he was not taught much about religion when he was a child. Barack Obama's religious views began to develop only when he became an adult and were influenced by the views of his Christian grandparents who raised him. This is picture of Obama with his grandparents when he graduated from high school.
Today, Barack Obama's religion is Protestant Christianity. He was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ at the age of 27 in 1988. Since then, Obama has been an active member of that Church.
Barack Obama's Kenyan Family
Barack Obama's parents separated when Obama was two years old and divorced in 1964. His father went to Harward. There he met an American teacher called Ruth, whom he took to Kenya and married. Their marriage ended in divorce. Then Obama's father returned to his first wife in Kenya, a local Muslim woman called Kezia Obama. She has four children - one daughter called Auma and three sons. One of her sons, Roy studied in a Madrasa.
In total, Barack Obama's father had seven other children of which six are still alive. In Kenya, he worked as a government geologist. He met his son only once, before he died in a car accident in 1982, when Obama was 21 years old. In the picture, bottom row from left is half sister Auma, Kezia and step grandmother Sarah. Roy is the guy standing behind with the unknown woman in his arms. Obama's step mother Kezia currently lives in Britain.
Barack Obama's Indonesian Family
After divorcing Barack Obama's father, Obama's mother Ann Dunham married an Indonesian foreign student Lolo Soetoro, who was studying at a college in Hawaii. He was also a Muslim. In 1967, they moved to Indonesia.
They had a daughter named Maya Soetoro-Ng, who was Barack Obama's half sister. In Indonesia, Obama attended local schools in Jakarta such as Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School. Here he picked up the Indonesian language. His mother lived mostly in Indonesia, visiting Hawaii only for five years from 1971 - 1977. She divorced Soetoro in 1980. Later Soetoro married Erna Kustina, with whom he had two children - Yusuf and Ruhayu, who were both Muslim. Soetoro died in 1987 due to a liver ailment while Ann Dunham, Obama's mother died of ovarian cancer in 1995, when she returned to Hawaii.
Barack Obama's Grandparents
When Barack Obama was 10 years old, he returned to Honolulu and began to live with his white Christian maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Armour Dunham. They were non practicing Methodist and Baptist Protestant Christians of English and Irish descent.
His grandfather had joined the US Army during the Second World War while Obama's grandmother worked at the Boeing factory in thier hometown of Wichita, Kansas. After the war, Obama's grandfather worked as a furniture salesman while his grandmother was vice president of a bank.Stanley died in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1992. His grandmother Madelyn passed away on November 2nd, 2008, just before Barack Obama won the presidential election.
Barack Obama's Education
The young Barack was known to use alcohol, marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years. During this time, he was known as Barry to his friends.
After finishing high school in 1979, Barack Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and International Relations) in 1983. He shifted to Chicago and began working as a Director in a church based NGO called Development Communities Project. In 1988, Obama joined the Harvard Law School. In the summer of 1989, he worked as a summer associate at the law firm of Sidley and Austin.
Barack Obama's Marriage
It was here, at the Sidley and Austin law firm that Obama met his future wife - Michelle Robinson. Michelle Obama was born on January 17th, 1964 and was brought up in Chicago, Illinois. She was a Christian who belonged to the same Church as Obama. Her father Frazer Robinson worked at the city water plant while her mother Marian Shields Robinson was a secretary at Spiegels Catalog Store. Michelle Obama lived in a normal two parent family with her younger brother Craig. Both siblings did well at school and completed college.
At the law firm, Michelle Robinson was assigned for three months as Barack Obama's advisor. After three months they began dating and finally got engaged in 1991. Michelle and Barack Obama were married on October 3, 1992 by Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first marriage for both of them.
Barack Obama's, first daughter, Malia Ann, was born seven years later in 1998. In 2001, a second daughter, Natasha also known as Sasha were born to the couple.
Barack Obama's BookBarack Obama later got a fellowship and a publishing contract from the University of Chicago Law School to write a book about race relations. He travelled to Bali with his wife Michelle to complete writing this book. Obama's autobiography book was published in 1995 and was titled, 'Dreams From My Father'.
President Barack Obama
When he returned to Chicago, Barack Obama began working as a Professor at the University of Chicago Law School, teaching constitutional law for twelve years. He later got elected to the Senate in the State of Illnois before winning the Presidential Election in 2008.
