President Obama

44th president of the United States

Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United Stateselected in November 2008 and holding office for two terms. 

He was born in Hawaiʻi on August 41961to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenyaand raised with the help of his grandparents. 

Soon after graduating from Columbia University in New York CityObama moved to the South Side of Chicagowhere he became a community organizercoordinating with churches to improve housing conditions and set up job-training programs in a community hit hard by steel mill closures. 

After nearly three yearshe attended Harvard Law Schoolwhere he attracted national attention as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review . Returning to Chicagohe became a civil rights attorney and married Michelle Robinson in 1992. Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996and then to the United States Senate in 2004. 

When he was elected president in 2008he became the first African American to hold the officeand was inaugurated during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In officehe oversaw eight years of progresstaking action to rescue the American economygrow the middle classpass the Affordable Care Actwind down two warsand refocus American diplomatic leadership around the world. He left office having overseen the longest job stretch of American job creation ever and led the creation of the Paris Agreementthe most ambitious global climate agreement in history.  In 2009Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

In his post-presidencyPresident Obama has dedicated his efforts to supporting the next generation of leaders. The Obama Foundation is bringing that vision to life through programs for emerging leaders across continentsand the Foundation’s mission to inspireempowerand connect people to change their world. That legacy will carry on through the Obama Presidential Centercurrently under construction on Chicago’s South Side.