Saturday, March 28, 2015

Barack Obama: Early Life and Career. Note for a lecture, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United"

From Wikipedia

Early life and career

Main articles: Family of Barack Obama and Early life and career of Barack Obama
Obama was born on August 4, 1961,[1] at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][3][4] and would become the first President to have been born in Hawaii.[5] His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry.[6] His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.[7][8] The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961,[9][10] and separated when, in late August 1961, Obama's mother moved with their newborn son to attend the University of Washington in Seattle for one year. In the meantime, Obama, Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962, then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship. Obama's parents divorced in March 1964.[11] Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971.[12] He died in an automobile accident in 1982 when his son was 21 years old.[13]
In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of Hawaii, and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15, 1965.[14] After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen months later by his wife and stepson in 1967, with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta, then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central Jakarta.[15] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and Besuki Public School for one and a half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert School homeschooling by his mother.[16]
A young boy (preteen), a younger girl (toddler), a woman (about age thirty) and a man (in his mid-fifties) sit on a lawn wearing contemporary c.-1970 attire. The adults wear sunglasses and the boy wears sandals.
Obama with his half-sisterMaya Soetoro-Ng, mother Ann Dunham and grandfather Stanley Dunham, in Honolulu, Hawaii
Obama returned to Honolulu in 1971 to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.[17] Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.[18] Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 so his mother could begin anthropology field work.[19] His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a PhD in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment for ovarian cancer and uterine cancer.[20]
Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[8] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[21] Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."[22] Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind".[23] Obama was also a member of the "choom gang", a self-named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.[24][25]
After high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, Obama made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to participate in the disinvestment from South Africa in response to that nation's policy of apartheid.[26] In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and half-sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.[26] Later in 1981, he transferred as a junior to Columbia College, Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations[27] and lived off-campus on West 109th Street.[28]He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983 and worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,[29]then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[30][31] In 1985, Obama was among the leaders of May Day efforts to bring attention to the New York City Subway system, which was in a bad condition at the time. Obama traveled to several subway stations to get people to sign letters addressed to local officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and was photographed at the City College subway station holding a sign protesting the system's condition.[32]

Community organizer and Harvard Law School

Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project, a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[31][33] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[34] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[35] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.[36][37] He returned to Kenya in 1992 with his fiancée Michelle and his half-sister Auma.[36][38] He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.[39]
Obama entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Reviewat the end of his first year,[40] president of the journal in his second year,[34][41] and research assistant to the constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe while at Harvard for two years.[42] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[43] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude[44] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[40]Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[34][41]and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,[45] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[45]

Notes

  1. Jump up^ "President Barack Obama". Washington, D.C.: The White House. 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
  2. Jump up^ "Certificate of Live Birth: Barack Hussein Obama II, August 4, 1961, 7:24 pm, Honolulu". Department of Health, State of Hawaii. The White House. April 27, 2011. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. RetrievedApril 27, 2011.
  3. Jump up^ Maraniss, David (August 24, 2008). "Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible". The Washington Post. p. A22. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  4. Jump up^ Nakaso, Dan (December 22, 2008). "Twin sisters, Obama on parallel paths for years". The Honolulu Advertiser. p. B1. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  5. Jump up^ Rudin, Ken (December 23, 2009). "Today's Junkie segment on TOTN: a political review Of 2009". Talk of the Nation (Political Junkie blog). NPR. Retrieved April 18, 2010. We began with the historic inauguration on January 20—yes, the first president ever born in Hawaii
  6. Jump up^ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 12.
  7. Jump up^ Jones, Tim (March 27, 2007). "Barack Obama: Mother not just a girl from Kansas; Stanley Ann Dunham shaped a future senator". Chicago Tribune. p. 1 (Tempo).
  8. ^ Jump up to:a b Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 9–10.
    • Scott (2011), pp. 80–86.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 115–118.
    • Maraniss (2012), p. 154–160.
  9. Jump up^ Ripley, Amanda (April 9, 2008). "The story of Barack Obama's mother". Time (New York). Retrieved April 9,2007.
  10. Jump up^ Scott (2011), p. 86.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 125–127.
    • Maraniss (2012), p. 160–163.
  11. Jump up^ Scott (2011), pp. 87–93.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 115–118, 125–127, 133–161.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 170–183, 188–189.
  12. Jump up^ Scott (2011), pp. 142–144.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 161–177, 227–230.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 190–194, 201–209, 227–230.
  13. Jump up^ Ochieng, Philip (November 1, 2004). "From home squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and found". The EastAfrican (Nairobi). Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
    • Merida, Kevin (December 14, 2007). "The ghost of a father". The Washington Post. p. A12. Retrieved June 25,2008.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 251–255.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 411–417.
  14. Jump up^ Scott (2011), pp. 97–103.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 195–201, 225–230.
  15. Jump up^ Maraniss (2012), pp. 195–201, 209–223, 230–244.
  16. Jump up^ Maraniss (2012), pp. 216, 221, 230, 234–244.
  17. Jump up^ Serafin, Peter (March 21, 2004). "Punahou grad stirs up Illinois politics". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. RetrievedMarch 20, 2008.
    • Scott, Janny (March 14, 2008). "A free-spirited wanderer who set Obama's path". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 3 and 4.
    • Scott (2012), pp. 131–134.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 264–269.
  18. Jump up^ Scott (2011), pp. 139–157.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 279–281.
  19. Jump up^ Scott (2011), pp. 157–194.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 279–281, 324–326.
  20. Jump up^ Scott (2011), pp. 214, 294, 317–346.
  21. Jump up^ Serrano, Richard A. (March 11, 2007). "Obama's peers didn't see his angst". Los Angeles Times. p. A20. RetrievedMarch 13, 2007.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 4 and 5.
  22. Jump up^ Reyes, B.J. (February 8, 2007). "Punahou left lasting impression on Obama". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. RetrievedFebruary 10, 2007. As a teenager, Obama went to parties and sometimes sought out gatherings on military bases or at the University of Hawaii that were mostly attended by blacks.
  23. Jump up^ Elliott, Philip (November 21, 2007). "Obama gets blunt with N.H. students". Boston Globe. Associated Press. p. 8A. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  24. Jump up^ Karl, Jonathan (May 25, 2012). "Obama and his pot-smoking "choom gang"". ABC News. Retrieved May 25,2012.
  25. Jump up^ "FRONTLINE The Choice 2012". PBS. October 9, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  26. ^ Jump up to:a b Gordon, Larry (January 29, 2007). "Occidental recalls 'Barry' Obama". Los Angeles Times. p. B1. Archived from the original on May 24, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  27. Jump up^ Boss-Bicak, Shira (January 2005). "Barack Obama '83". Columbia College Today. ISSN 0572-7820. RetrievedOctober 1, 2006.
  28. Jump up^ "The Approval Matrix". New York. 27 August 2012.
  29. Jump up^ Obama, Barack (1998). "Curriculum vitae". The University of Chicago Law School. Archived from the originalon May 9, 2001. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
  30. Jump up^ Scott, Janny (July 30, 2007). "Obama's account of New York often differs from what others say". The New York Times. p. B1. Retrieved July 31, 2007.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 133–140.
    • Mendell (2007), pp. 62–63.
  31. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Chassie, Karen, ed. (2007). Who's Who in America, 2008. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who. p. 3468.ISBN 978-0-8379-7011-0.
  32. Jump up^ Fink, Jason (November 9, 2008). "Obama stood out, even during brief 1985 NYPIRG job". Newsday.
  33. Jump up^ Lizza, Ryan (March 19, 2007). "The agitator: Barack Obama's unlikely political education". The New Republic236 (12): 22–26, 28–29. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved August 21, 2007.
    • Secter, Bob; McCormick, John (March 30, 2007). "Portrait of a pragmatist". Chicago Tribune. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 14, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 140–295.
    • Mendell (2007), pp. 63–83.
  34. ^ Jump up to:a b c Matchan, Linda (February 15, 1990). "A Law Review breakthrough". Boston Globe. p. 29. Retrieved June 15,2008.
  35. Jump up^ Obama, Barack (August–September 1988). "Why organize? Problems and promise in the inner city". Illinois Issues14 (8–9): 40–42. ISSN 0738-9663. reprinted in:
    Knoepfle, Peg, ed. (1990). After Alinsky: community organizing in Illinois. Springfield, IL: Sangamon State University. pp. 35–40. ISBN 0-9620873-3-5. He has also been a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, an organizing institute working throughout the Midwest.
  36. ^ Jump up to:a b Obama, Auma (2012). And then life happens: a memoir. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 189–208, 212–216.ISBN 978-1-250-01005-6.
  37. Jump up^ Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 299–437.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 564–570.
  38. Jump up^ Mundy, Liza (2008). Michelle: a biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-4165-9943-2.
    • Maraniss (2012), p. 564.
  39. Jump up^ Gnecchi, Nico (February 27, 2006). "Obama receives hero's welcome at his family's ancestral village in Kenya". Voice of America. Archived from the original on March 21, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
  40. ^ Jump up to:a b Levenson, Michael; Saltzman, Jonathan (January 28, 2007). "At Harvard Law, a unifying voice". Boston Globe. p. 1A. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
  41. ^ Jump up to:a b Butterfield, Fox (February 6, 1990). "First black elected to head Harvard's Law Review". The New York Times. p. A20. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
  42. Jump up^ Video on YouTube
  43. Jump up^ Aguilar, Louis (July 11, 1990). "Survey: Law firms slow to add minority partners". Chicago Tribune. p. 1 (Business). Retrieved June 15, 2008.
  44. Jump up^ Adams, Richard (May 9, 2007). "Barack Obama". The Guardian (London). Archived from the original on October 13, 2008. Retrieved October 26, 2008.
  45. ^ Jump up to:a b c Scott, Janny (May 18, 2008). "The story of Obama, written by Obama". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), pp. xiii–xvii.


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