BARACK OBAMA
-Democrat
Photo courtesy of: U.S. Senate
Biography
Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. is the junior senator from Illinois, in office since January 2005. Prior to that office, he was a member of the Illinois State Senate from the 13th district, from 1997 to 2004.
Quick Facts
Birthdate/place: Aug.4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii
Education: Columbia University, 1983 and Harvard Law School, 1991
Family: married to Michelle Robinson since 1992, two children: Natasha, born in 2001, and Malia Ann, born in 1999
Career
- After graduating from Columbia worked at Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Research Group. Moved to Chicago to take a job as a community organizer.
- In 1990, was the first black president to be elected to Harvard Law Review in its 104-year history.
- An associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases.
- Lectured on constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993, until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
- Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
- Elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 with 70 per cent of the vote.
- The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists Obama as the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history, the third to have been popularly elected and the only African American currently serving in the Senate. (Source: Wikipedia)
