When it comes to reviewing Barack Obama's biography, the first thing that comes to mind is that Barack Obama sat in the White House, overcoming many adversities that a man could go through to become the President of the United States. If you think about it, the statement will not be exaggerated.
He had no money, no family influence, no social dominance, not even a hundred percent American. In addition to this, Obama has proved that only wisdom, indomitable will and honesty can bring him to the seat of supreme power and honor.
He was not even born with a golden spoon in his mouth like the current US President Donald Trump, his own earned money was much less for running a presidential campaign. Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, his father is not a former president of the United States. He had no kinship with either the Kennedy or Clinton families. The story of Barack Obama's victory in the White House, the son of a Kenyan Muslim father who suffered from economic hardship and deprivation in a white-majority society from an early age, therefore defeats the myth.
Even after being elected president, he has had to deal with an unstable world left behind by his predecessor, an economically and politically weakened country. But how did Obama make this impossible step by step only with his own talent, willpower and honesty? Let's take inspiration from Obama's biography.
Barack Obama's life story at a glance:
Born in 1961 in Honolulu, USA to a black Kenyan father and a white American mother, Barack Obama (Jr.) was elected president of the Harvard Law Review while studying at Harvard University. Barack Obama entered the White House as the first black president in the history of the United States, after being elected the 44th American president in the state of Illinois and then in the 2008 national election.
Birth and childhood:
The introduction said that Barack Obama's life story is actually a great movie story. That story begins shortly after birth. The twists and turns of the story have all the dramatic twists and all the emotional scenes that bring tears to the eyes. The story of Obama's parents is no less varied.
His mother, Anne Dunham, was born in a military camp in Kansas during World War II. After a horrific attack by Japanese troops on Pearl Harbor, Anne's father Stanley Dunham joined the army and left to fight in Europe.
Anne's mother, Madeleine, worked in a bomb factory. After the war, Ann’s parents ‘G.I. Bill ’(American government agency for the rehabilitation and training of veterans) and bought a house with the help of the government rehabilitation project. After living here and there for a short time, Obama's grandparents finally settled in Hawaii.
Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., was from the Luo tribe in Kenya's Nyanja province. He spent his childhood and adolescence grazing goats and sheep in the desert on his way to Africa. At one point, he received a scholarship and moved to Hawaii, USA, to fulfill his college dream.
While studying at the University of Hawaii, Obama Sr. met his classmate, the beautiful white American Ann Dunham. Ann and Barack Obama Sr. were married on February 2, 1971, and six months later, Barack Obama was born on August 4 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
His father did not have the opportunity to have any kind of relationship with the child Obama. Before Obama left home, his father moved to Massachusetts to pursue a PhD at Harvard. A few months later, Ann and Obama Sr. parted ways socially, and in March 1974, they formally divorced. Obama Jr. was only 2 years old then. Shortly after the breakup, Obama Sr. returned to his home country of Kenya.
In 1965, Ann Dunham married Lolo Soitoro, an Indonesian student at the University of Hawaii. Within a year of that marriage, he left the United States with his family to live in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. That's where Obama's half-sister, Maya Soitoro, was born in 1970. Within a year of this, due to some incidents, An Dunham became concerned about his son's education and safety in Indonesia. Barak, 10, was sent to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. Ann later returned to Hawaii with her daughter Maya.
Father's grief:
Dad's absence from life was painful enough for Obama. Obama only saw his father once after his parents' separation, when Obama Sr. came to Hawaii for a very short time in 1981.
Obama's remarks about his father - "My father left heaven voluntarily, and my mother or grandparents (my mind) could not forget the pain by saying something. None of them could explain to me what my life would have been like if my father had been in my life. ”
Ten years after returning to Hawaii, a major setback came in 1961 in the life of Obama Sr. He lost both his legs in a horrific road accident and became dependent on a wheelchair. His job also went away. The following year he was involved in a road accident again, this time he could not survive. Obama Sr. died on November 24, 1982. His son was then 21 years old.
Education:
While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled at the famous Poonahu Academy in Hawaii. Gain praise as a good student as well as a good basketball player.
[Obama, a high school student at the basketball court]
In 1979, he passed the academy with great results. As one of only three black students to study at the academy, he became aware of racism and understood very well what it meant to be an African American.
He later described in his writings how difficult it was for him to adapt his identity to his multinational identity. He wrote - "I noticed there was no one like me in the Christmas catalog… and Santa Claus was a white man."
"I (one day) went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror in a fully conscious state and looked better at the image I saw every day. I was thinking, maybe there is a problem inside me."
obama with grand parents
[Obama with grandparents on high school day]
After graduating from high school, Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then moved to Columbia University in New York, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1983.
After working in the business world for two years, he moved to Chicago, where he worked as a social worker for low-income people.
Law Career & Family:
Barack Obama became a member of the Trinity Church "not growing up in a religious environment" at the beginning of his legal career. At that time he also met his Kenyan relatives and went to see the graves of his father and grandfather. In this context, Obama wrote -
"I sat between the two graves and cried for a long time. I was thinking about my American life, where life is divided into white and black. The deprivation I experienced as a child, the frustration I felt in Chicago, and the hope - it's all connected to these two pieces of land in the distance of the ocean. "
Returning from Kenya with a new attitude, Obama enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1986. The following year, he met Lawrence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law. Tribe was so impressed with Obama after talking to him that Tribe unanimously agreed to Obama's request to join his team as a research assistant.
In a 2012 interview with Frontline, Tribe said of Obama: "The better he (Obama) did at Harvard Law School, the more people became fascinated with him. It was becoming clear that he would get what he wanted. But it was also clear that he wanted to work for the people, to change the state of society. ”
In the same year that Tribe joined the party, Obama joined the Chicago Law Firm of Sidley Austin as an assistant, and a young lawyer named Michelle Robinson was hired as his adviser. In a short time, they fell in love with each other.
In February 1990, Obama became the first African American to be elected editor of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated with a law degree from Harvard in 1991 with a record of good results.
After leaving Harvard, Obama returned to Chicago and began working as a human rights lawyer. He also began teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago as a part-time teacher.
There he was promoted from lecturer to professor at one time. He taught at the University of Chicago from 1992 to 2004. During Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign, he was directly involved in the voter registration process.
On October 3 of that same year, Obama married Michelle Robinson, and moved to Kenwood, south of Chicago. Their first daughter, Malia, was born in 1997, and Sasha in 2001.
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