Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, Ann Dunham, came from Wichita, Kansas and met Obama’s father when she was attending college at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Obama’s father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., was goat-herder from Nyangoma-Kogelo, Kenya who had earned a scholarship to attend college in Hawaii. When Obama, Jr. was two years old, his father had the chance to study at Harvard, but couldn’t afford to move his family to Massachusetts. Afterward, he returned to Kenya to work as a government economist, and the Obamas divorced. Obama, Jr. had little contact with his father after that.

When Obama was six, his mother married an Indonesian, and the family moved to Jakarta. Barack’s half-sister, Maya, was born there. Barack lived in Jakarta for four years, spending two years at a Muslim school and two years at a Catholic school.

When he was ten, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to attend school, and to live with his grandparents. He graduated from Punahou School in 1979. He struggled during adolescence and admits to using marijuana and cocaine during high school.

After high school, Obama attended Occidental College and then Columbia College, where he received a degree in political science, specializing in international relations, in 1983. After working for a year, he went to Harvard Law School. While there, he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude in 1991.

After law school, Obama returned to Chicago and to work for a civil rights law firm. He met Michelle Robinson, also a Harvard lawyer, and they married in 1992. The Obama’s live in Chicago and have two daughters, Malia and Natasha. The Obamas attend Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Obama’s political career began in 1996, when he was elected to the Illinois State Senate, where he served until his 2004 election to the US Senate. He also ran for the Illinois House of Representatives in 2000, but was defeated by the incumbent, Bobby Rush. While running for the Senate in 2004, he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

Barack Obama has written two books, Dreams of My Father, and The Audacity of Hope. He is currently the 2nd most junior member of the US Senate, and the only black person serving. In addition to serving in the Senate, he continues to practice law and to teach Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School.