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Barack Obama (1961)

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Meet Barack Obama

Career

1990s: Practiced civil rights law and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.

1997-2005: Illinois state senator, representing the 13th District.

2000: Ran for a U.S. House seat but lost primary to former Black Panther Bobby Rush.

July 27, 2004: Delivered keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

November 2004: Won the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, defeating Alan Keyes. It was the first time in history a Senate general election race was between two African-American candidates.

Other Facts

He is author of "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" (1995); "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" (2006) and "It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina" (2006).

Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for best spoken album for his reading of "Dreams From My Father." In his 1995 autobiography, Obama confessed to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine as a teenager.

In 2006, he toured five African countries, including a visit to Nyangoma-Kogelo, Kenya, his late father's hometown.

He was the first African American to be president of the Harvard Law Review.

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