Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (born August 4, 1961) is a U.S. Senator from Illinois. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He received international media coverage for his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, delivered while he was still an Illinois state senator.

College and career

Upon finishing high school, Obama studied for two years at Occidental College in California, before transferring to Columbia University. There he majored in political science, with a specialization in international relations. Upon graduation, he worked for a year at newsletter publisher Business International (now part of The Economist Group), and then moved to Chicago, where he took up community organizing in the Altgeld Gardens housing project on the city's South Side. It was during his time spent here that Obama converted to Christianity (from being formerly secular) and joined the Trinity United Church of Christ.

Related Topics:
High school - Occidental College - Columbia University - The Economist Group - Community organizing - Housing project - South Side - Christianity - Trinity United Church of Christ

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He left Chicago for three years to study law at Harvard University, where he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated Magna Cum Laude. While working one summer at a corporate law firm in 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson, whom he married in 1992. Robinson is also a graduate of Harvard Law.

Related Topics:
Harvard University - Harvard Law Review - Magna Cum Laude - 1992

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While in Chicago as a community organizer once again, Obama organized an aggressive voter registration effort that aided in the election of President Bill Clinton and Senator Carol Moseley Braun. The campaign registered over 100,000 voters. Soon after, his talents earned him a position at a local civil rights law firm, and he became a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago, where he served as a professor until his election to the U.S. Senate.

Related Topics:
Voter registration - Bill Clinton - Carol Moseley Braun - Civil rights - University of Chicago

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