Barack Obama

As Obama details in his memoir, he was born in 1961 to a white American mother and a Black Kenyan father. His parents separated when he was a toddler, and he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. After graduating from Columbia University, Obama worked in finance for several years before becoming a community organizer in Chicago. Following his first trip to Kenya in the late 1980s, Obama studied law at Harvard, eventually being selected as an editor to the Harvard Law Review. Obama met and married his wife, Michelle Obama, while working at a Chicago law firm. A few years later, Obama was offered an advance to write what eventually became 1995’s Dreams from My Father. Starting in 1997, Obama served in the Illinois legislature for seven years and as a U.S. senator for three. He was then elected as the first Black president of the U.S. in 2008, serving two terms in office. During his presidency, Obama oversaw the creation of the Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance coverage to more Americans. He also supported the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges (legalizing gay marriage), and some credit him with pulling the country out of the Great Recession. Since the end of his second term as president in 2017, Obama has dedicated his efforts to his organization, the Obama Foundation, which provides scholarships and other opportunities to young Black people. He also oversees plans for his presidential library, which is planned for Chicago.