Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 2-5-21

Black History
Barack Obama, 44th President Of The United States
Barack Obama became the first African American to hold the office of President of the United States. He was elected in 2008.
He was the son of a Kenyan economist, Barack Obama, Sr., and Stanley Ann Dun- ham, both students in Hon- olulu, Hawaii, where Barack was born on August 4, 1961. They later divorced, and Barack’s mother married a man from Indonesia, where he spent his early childhood. Be- fore fifth grade, he returned to Honolulu to live with his ma- ternal grandparents and at- tend Punahou School on scholarship.
After two years at Occiden- tal College in Los Angeles, he transferred to Columbia Uni- versity, where he studied polit- ical science and international relations. Following gradua- tion in 1983, Obama worked
in New York City, then became a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, coordi- nating with churches to im- prove housing conditions and set up job-training programs in a community hit hard by steel mill closures. In 1988, he went to Harvard Law School, where he attracted national at- tention as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Re- turning to Chicago, he joined a small law firm specializing in Civil Rights.
In 1992, Obama married Michelle Robinson, a lawyer who had also excelled at Harvard Law. Their daugh- ters, Malia and Sasha, were born in 1998 and 2001, re- spectively.
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and then to the U. S. Senate in 2004. At the Democratic Na-
BARACK OBAMA
tional Convention that sum- mer, he delivered a much ac- claimed keynote address. Some pundits instantly pro- nounced him a future presi- dent, but most did not expect it to happen for some time. Nevertheless, in 2008 he was elected over Arizona Senator
John McCain by 365 to 173 electoral votes.
As an incoming president, Obama faced many chal- lenges—an economic collapse, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continuing menace of terrorism. Inaugurated before an estimated crowd of 1.8 mil- lion people, Obama proposed unprecedented federal spend- ing to revive the economy and also hoped to renew America’s stature in the world. During his first term he signed three signature bills: an omnibus bill to stimulate the economy, leg- islation making health care more accessible and afford- able, and legislation reforming the nation’s financial institu- tions.
Obama also pressed for a fair pay act for women, finan- cial reform legislation, and ef- forts for consumer protection. In 2009, Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2012, he was re-elected over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 332 to 206 electoral votes. The Middle East remained a key foreign policy challenge.
Obama had overseen the killing of Osama bin Laden, but a new self-proclaimed Is- lamic State arose during a civil war in Syria and began inciting terrorist attacks.
Obama sought to manage a hostile Iran with a treaty that hindered its development of nuclear weapons. The Obama administration also adopted a climate change agreement signed by 195 nations to re- duce greenhouse gas emis- sions and slow global warming.
In the last year of his sec- ond term, Obama spoke at two events that clearly moved him—the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery, and the dedication of the National Mu- seum of African American History and Culture. “Our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting closer,” he said in Selma. “And that’s why we cel- ebrate,” he told those attend- ing the museum opening in Washington, “mindful that our work is not yet done.”
President Obama was re-elected to serve a second term in 2012.
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