President Barack Obama will have a unique place in American history forever because in 2008 he was elected the first African American president. He’s also the first president to be from Hawaii. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. During World War II, Barack’s grandfather served in the army in Europe and his grandmother worked at assembling bomber airplanes in the United States. After the war the family moved to Hawaii and Barack’s mother was a student at the University of Hawaii. There she met Barack’s father, a student from the country of Kenya in Africa. His father returned to Kenya and Barack saw him only one more time in 1971. Barack was raised by a single mother and his grandparents.
Barack’s mother then married a man from Indonesia and Barack lived for a time in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather. When Barack was 10 his mother decided he needed an American education and sent him to live with his grandparents in Hawaii. During his teen years, Barack struggled about deciding where he fit in society because he was bi-racial with a black father and a white mother. When Barack finished high school he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. Not satisfied, Barack took advantage of a college transfer program and moved to Columbia University in New York City. He received a degree in political science in 1983.
A short while after graduation, Barack moved to Chicago and took a job as a community organizer in a poor neighborhood of Chicago. By forming committees and groups of people, he helped residents of the housing projects to improve their lives. Barack decided to attend Harvard Law School in 1988. He graduated with honors in 1991. He returned to Chicago to work as a lawyer and handled civil rights law cases. He married Michelle Robinson in October, 1992 and they have two daughters.
In 1996 Barack was elected to be a state senator in Illinois. In 2000, Barack ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois and lost. In 2004, he ran for the U.S. Senate in Illinois and won 70% of the vote, a huge victory. Barack was only the third African American elected to the U.S. Senate since the slaves were freed after the Civil War.
In February, 2007 Barack announced that he was running for president and was seeking the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton was already seeking the Democratic nomination and most people thought that she would win the primary. No one thought Barack had a chance to win the nomination. After nearly 2 years of campaigning, Barack first became the Democratic nominee in the race for the presidency and then went on to win the presidential election of 2008.
President Obama has many qualities of a good leader. What are some leadership qualities you see in President Obama? Are there any leadership qualities you see in yourself? Tell us about them! We want to hear what you have to say, feel free to leave a comment!
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