The Voice - Student Newspaper

Obama overcomes obstacles to become 44th President of U.S.

The American voters have voted in to the highest office in the Free World a man of two very different backgrounds: a mother who is a white American and a father who is a black Kenyan. This blending of two races has created the 44th President of the United States of America (USA).

Seen as an African American growing up in a country that saw blacks as no better than their dogs and as equals in every aspect of life depending on where you were at within the USA President Barack Obama Jr. was not raised in a life of financial wealth. He did have a mother who was a strong supporter of people's rights and the community along with his Grandfather who was in General George Patton's Army and his Grandmother who worked her way up from the a banks secretarial pool to its middle management.

He attended school in Jakarta for some years before coming back to Hawaii to attend school at Punahou Academy, in the fifth grade where he graduated with Honors; Obama was one of three black students at the school. "This is where Obama first became conscious of racism and what it meant to be an African–American." according to Biography.com.

During his teenage years Obama had personal demons that he dealt with, as many youth do.

Dealing with ones demons is a tough thing for anyone and it shows that the person has inner strength.

For college he chose Occidental College in Los Angeles where he stayed for only two years. Then transferred to Columbia University in New York, where he received a degree in Political Science.

He spent a little bit of time working for Business International Corporation and NYPIRG, respectfully. He then moved to Chicago where he worked with low-income people as a community organizer for Chicago's Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the Chicago's South Side.

In 1988 Obama started attending Harvard Law School where he met his wife Michelle L. Robinson and in 1990 he made history becoming the first African American to be elected editor of the Harvard Law Review, only to graduate magna cum laude in 1991.

Obama headed back to Chicago and joined the law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland; while teaching a law class at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1995 he published his autobiography Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

In 1996 he was elected to Illinois State Senate. Four years later he tried to unseat four term Bobby Rush for a seat on the U. S. House of Representatives seat.

He was early on against then President George W. Bush's decision to go to war against Iraq even though he felt that Iraq and its people would be better off without Saddam Hussein.

In 2004 he was elected to the U.S. Senate only to become the third African American to be elected since Reconstruction.

In 2007 he announced his decision to run for the Presidency of the United States of America and in 2009 on January 20th he was inaugurated as this country's first African American President.

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