OBAMA, Barack, A Senator from Illinois and 44th President of the United States; born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961; obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii; continued education at Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif.; received a B.A. in 1983 from Columbia University, New York City; worked as a community organizer in Chicago, Ill.; studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1991; lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago; member, Illinois State senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004, and served from January 3, 2005, to November 16, 2008, when he resigned from office, having been elected president; elected as the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009; reelected in 2012 and served until January 20, 2017.
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In 2004, Barack Obama won election to the U.S. Senate from Illinois, making him only the fifth Black Senator in American history. Four years later, Obama was elected President of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. Over the course of his career, Obama challenged Americans to participate in what he called “the audacity of hope.” “I’m not talking about blind optimism here,” he said during a primetime speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. “I’m talking about something more substantial. . . . . Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. . . . A belief that there are better days ahead.”1
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961, the son of Barack Obama Sr., an economist, and Ann Dunham Obama, an anthropologist. Obama’s parents divorced when he was young, and his mother later married Lolo Soetoro, who worked for an oil company. Obama lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, with his mother and stepfather before returning to live with his grandparents in Hawaii, where he attended high school at the Punahou Academy. From 1979 to 1981, Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, before completing a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations at Columbia University in New York City in 1983. Two years later, Obama moved to Chicago to work for a grassroots community organizing group that sought to improve housing conditions in impoverished neighborhoods. He attended Harvard Law School, where he served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review before earning a law degree in 1991. In 1992, he married Michelle Robinson, who was an attorney at a Chicago law firm; the couple have two daughters: Malia and Sasha.2
After law school, Obama moved back to Chicago and entered local politics as a community activist on the city’s South Side. He practiced civil rights law and lectured at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1996, he won a seat in the Illinois state senate, where he pushed through a state earned income tax credit and an expansion of child care funding. In 2000, he unsuccessfully challenged fourterm incumbent U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush in the Democratic primary for a seat in the House representing most of the South Side of Chicago.3
In January 2003, Obama declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Peter G. Fitzgerald of Illinois. Only months later, in April, Fitzgerald announced that he planned to retire at the end of the Congress and would not stand for re-election in 2004. Obama subsequently faced a crowded field of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the open Senate seat. Obama won the primary with 53 percent of the vote, topping two frontrunners—state comptroller Daniel Hynes and wealthy securities trader Blair Hull. After securing the nomination, Obama emerged as a national figure in the summer of 2004, delivering a rousing keynote address on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in which he celebrated America’s diversity and championed the country’s founding principle “E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.” “It is that fundamental belief,” he said, “I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.” On Election Day, Obama defeated Republican Alan Keyes with 70 percent of the vote.4
When Obama took his seat at the start of the 109th Congress (2005–2007), he received assignments to three committees: Foreign Relations; Environment and Public Works; and Veterans’ Affairs. In the 110th Congress (2007– 2009), Obama left Environment and Public Works and gained two additional committee posts: Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. During the 110th Congress he chaired the Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on European Affairs and oversaw confirmation hearings of United States ambassadors to European countries.5
In the 109th Congress, Obama teamed up with Senator Richard Green Lugar of Indiana, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, on a new nonproliferation effort. During a congressional visit to Ukraine, the pair documented weapons caches—including land mines, artillery shells, and shoulder-launch missiles—stored in industrial complexes. “Loose stocks of small arms and other weapons also help fuel civil wars in Africa and elsewhere,” Obama and Lugar wrote in the Washington Post, “and, as we have seen repeatedly, provide ammunition for those who attack peacekeepers and aid workers seeking to stabilize and rebuild war-torn societies.” Their joint measure, the Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act—known as the Lugar−Obama initiative—designated annual State Department funds to countries that decreased stockpiles of those types of weapons. The initiative was included in the Department of State Authorities Act and signed into law on January 11, 2007.6
Obama also sought federal aid to address deadly conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Beginning in 1998, more than 4 million people had died as the nation endured violence among warring militia groups. In late 2005, Obama introduced the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, which designated $52 million in 2006 and 2007 for humanitarian relief, security, and support for democratic elections. After being approved by the Senate and House, President George W. Bush signed it into law on December 22, 2006. The bill identified “the high prevalence of sexual abuse and violence” as an immediate threat to women and children in the country, and Obama urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for systematic rape and torture during the conflict.7
In 2007, Obama introduced legislation to prohibit federal agencies from selling government reserves of mercury. The Department of Energy possessed large quantities of the toxic heavy metal, leftover from hydrogen bomb manufacturing techniques that had been obsolete since the 1960s. Mercury was frequently used to mine gold in other parts of the world, and U.S. officials considered selling the stockpiles to countries that lacked environmental regulations governing its use. Prohibiting such sales and limiting the potential for pollution “means less microscopic mercury on one’s dinner plate, less mercury in our kids’ tuna fish sandwiches, and less mercury in the air we breathe,” Obama said when he introduced the bill. “A small act of international leadership by the United States government could have far reaching benefits for the health of our kids, as well as millions of low-income hardworking artisanal gold miners whom we will never meet.” President Bush signed the bill into law on October 14, 2008.8
In 2008, Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination. On November 4, 2008, he was elected President of the United States, defeating the Republican nominee, Arizona Senator John Sidney McCain III, with 53 percent of the popular vote and with 365 electoral college votes. He became the nation’s first Black President. Obama resigned from the Senate on November 16, 2008. In 2012, he was re-elected to a second term as President over Republican challenger Willard Mitt Romney with 51 percent of the popular vote and 332 Electoral College votes.19
Obama’s presidency opened amid the worst financial crisis in a generation. For much of his first term, Obama focused on the nation’s economic recovery, while also working to promote equality and initiate a major health care reform. The first piece of legislation Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Lilly Ledbetter, a manager at a tire manufacturing company, had been paid less than her male colleagues in the same position. After winning a lawsuit against her employer, an appeals court determined that the statute of limitations had passed. Ledbetter challenged the decision all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that employees could not challenge pay discrimination 180 days after the employer made the original pay adjustment. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law on January 29, 2009, amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and allowed the 180-day period to reset after each paycheck rather than the initial decision.10
The next month, on February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to address the economic damage caused by the 2008 Great Recession. The law designated nearly $800 billion in funding to government and private agencies, states, and individuals. The bill passed Congress largely on party lines: no Republicans in the House voted for it and only three Republicans supported it in the Senate.11
On March 23, 2010, Obama enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the ACA or Obamacare, one of the administration’s major legislative efforts. The act reformed the United States health care system and required all citizens to have health insurance. It created new tax policies for medical and pharmaceutical companies and provided federal funding for states to expand Medicaid coverage.12
In December 2010, Obama repealed the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy enacted by the William J. Clinton administration in 1994. The policy barred openly gay and bisexual men and women from serving in the military, claiming they would present an “unacceptable risk” to the efficiency of the armed services, and prohibited service members from discussing their sexuality and military officials from asking. The repeal of the discriminatory policy opened access to veterans benefits to thousands of troops who had been dismissed under the law with an “other than honorable discharge” classification. After the policy’s repeal, sexuality was no longer a legal barrier to serving in the military.13
On national security and foreign policy, Obama supervised the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, directing a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2009, and also oversaw the operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the extremist group responsible for the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. In 2015, Obama forged a nuclear agreement with Iran, which lifted some global sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.14
Obama led the nation in grieving after several mass shootings during his presidency. In an effort to reform the nation’s gun laws, the administration proposed expanding background checks, banning military-grade assault weapons, and funding for both gun violence research and mental health training. All major measures brought before Congress failed in the U.S. Senate.15
Obama nominated two Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice Sonia Sotomayor took her seat on August 8, 2009, followed by Justice Elena Kagan on August 7, 2010. The President attempted to nominate Merrick Garland to the Court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, but the Republican-led Senate blocked his efforts. The seat remained vacant until 2017.16
Obama’s presidency ended on January 20, 2017, with the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. He continued to support the Democratic Party in his post-presidential career by campaigning for candidates in the 2018 mid-term elections, endorsing voting rights legislation in Congress, and calling for statehood for Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.17
1“Barack Obama’s Remarks to the Democratic National Convention,” 27 July 2004, New York Times: n.p.
2Paul Watson, “As a Child, Obama Crossed a Cultural Divide in Indonesia,” 15 March 2007, Los Angeles Times: A1; Jeff Zeleny, “Obama Pays Tribute to His Grandmother After She Dies,” 4 November 2008, New York Times: A22; Serge Kovaleski, “Obama’s Organizing Years, Guiding Others and Finding Himself,” 7 July 2008, New York Times: A1; William Finnegan, “The Candidate: How the Son of a Kenyan Economist Became an Illinois Everyman,” 31 May 2004, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/31/ the-candidate-5; The White House, “Barack Obama: The 44th President of the United States,” accessed 21 April 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/ about-the-white-house/presidents/barack-obama/; Politics in America, 2008 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 2007): 322–323.
3“In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” 30 July 2007, New York Times: n.p.; Finnegan, “The Candidate: How the Son of a Kenyan Economist Became an Illinois Everyman.”
4Chinta Strausberg, “Obama to Challenge Sen. Fitzgerald,” 22 January 2003, Chicago Defender: 5; Finnegan, “The Candidate: How the Son of a Kenyan Economist Became an Illinois Everyman”; “Barack Obama’s Remarks to the Democratic National Convention”; Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present".
5Michael R. Gordon, “A Democratic Leader on Foreign Policy, in Iraq and, Earlier, the Balkans,” 24 August 2008, New York Times: 20.
6Jeff Zeleny, “Obama-Lugar Proposal Targets Stockpiles of Conventional Weapons,” 2 November 2005, Chicago Tribune: 1; Richard G. Lugar and Barack Obama, “Junkyard Dogs of War,” 3 December 2005, Washington Post: A23; Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act, S. 2566, 109th Cong. (2006); Department of State Authorities Act, Public Law 109-472, 120 Stat. 3554 (2007).
7Bruce Finley, “Despair, Brutality in Congo,” 25 December 2005, Denver Post: A12; “Humanitarian Groups Celebrate Crucial Funding for War-Torn Congo,” 13 December 2006, PR Newswire; Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, Public Law 109-456, 120 Stat. 3384 (2006); “Obama Asks Rice to Address Violence Against Women in the Congo,” official website of Senator Barack Obama, press release, 11 October 2007, https://web.archive.org/web/20071012012343/ http://obama.senate.gov/press/071011-obama_asks_rice/.
8Michael Hawthorne, “U.S. Won’t Sell Huge Stockpile of Mercury,” 3 January 2007, Chicago Tribune: 1; Congressional Record, Senate, 110th Cong., 1st sess. (15 March 2007): 6552; Mercury Export Ban Act, Public Law 110-414, 122 Stat. 4341 (2008).
9Al Kamen, “Meet the Folks Who Had Obama’s Numbers,” 8 December 2008, Washington Post: A17; National Archives and Records Administration, “2008 Electoral College Results,” last reviewed 11 January 2021, https:// www.archives.gov/electoral-college/2008; “Obama Hits the Road to Rally Support for His Tax Plan,” 30 November 2021, New York Times: n.p.; National Archives and Records Administration, “2012 Electoral College Results,” last reviewed 16 December 2019, https://www.archives.gov/electoralcollege/ 2012.
10Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Public Law 111-2, 123 Stat. 5 (2009); National Women’s Law Center, “The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 Fact Sheet,” February 2009, https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/lilly_ledbetter_ fair_pay_act_of_2009_01.07.2013.pdf.
11American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Public Law 111-5, 123 Stat. 115 (2009); Clinton T. Brass et al., “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5): Summary and Legislative History,” Report R40537, 20 April 2009, Congressional Research Service: 1; David Rogers, “Senate Passes $787 Billion Stimulus Bill,” 13 February 2009, Politico, https://www.politico. com/story/2009/02/senate-passes-787-billion-stimulus-bill-018837.
12Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010); Tracy Jan, “Focus Shifts to Implementing, Not Repealing, Health Care Law,” 8 November 2012, Boston Globe: n.p.
13Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act, Public Law 111-321, 124 Stat. 3515 (2010); Jody Feder, “ ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’: A Legal Analysis,” Report R40795, 6 August 2013, Congressional Research Service: 1; Jonathan Franklin, “LGBTQ Vets Discharged under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Have New Chance for Full Benefits,” 21 September 2021, NPR, https://www.npr. org/2021/09/21/1039337461/lgbtq-vets-discharged-under-dont-ask-dont-tell- have-new-chance-for-full-benefits.
14Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Helene Cooper, “Obama Speeds Troops and Vows to Start Pullout in 2011,” 2 December 2009, New York Times: A1; Nicholas Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden,” 1 August 2011, New Yorker, https://www. newyorker.com/magazine/2011/08/08/getting-bin-laden; Paul K. Kerr, Kenneth Katzman, “Iran Nuclear Agreement and U.S. Exit,” Report 43333, 20 July 2018, Congressional Research Service: 1.
15The White House, “Now Is the Time: The President’s Plan to Protect Our Children and Our Communities by Reducing Gun Violence,” 16 January 2013, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_ is_the_time_full.pdf; Ed O’Keefe and Philip Rucker, “Gun-Control Overhaul is Defeated in Senate,” 17 April 2013, Washington Post: n.p.
16Supreme Court of the United States, “About the Court,” accessed 14 October 2021, https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx; Ron Elving, “What Happened with Merrick Garland in 2016 and Why It Matters Now,” 29 June 2018, NPR, https://www.npr.org/2018/06/29/624467256/what-happened-with-merrick-garland-in-2016-and-why-it-matters-now.
17Dan Zak, “Obama at 60,” 9 August 2021, Washington Post: n.p.
Obama, Barack. A Promised Land. New York: Crown, 2020.
___. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006.
___. Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Times Books, 1995. Reprint 2004.
Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008.
