Barack Obama

Barack H. Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry, to Barack H. Obama Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham.⁠[1]

His father was an economist from Kenya and his mother an American from KansasKansasKansas is a state of the United States bordered by Nebraska to the north, Missouri to the east, Oklahoma to the south, and Colorado to the west; its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita. It was admitted to the Union on January 29, 1861, as the 34th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,937,880.Open the full entry; the two met as students at the University of Hawaii.⁠[2][3]

His parents divorced when he was 2, and he was raised by his mother and his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham. His mother later married Lolo Soetoro, and his sister Maya was born in 1970.⁠[1]

In 1967 he moved with his family to Indonesia, where he attended local schools while taking U.S. correspondence courses; he went to both Catholic and Muslim schools.⁠[1][2]

In 1971 he returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and entered Punahou School on a scholarship, staying from fifth grade through high school; he played varsity basketball there and graduated in 1979.⁠[1][2][3]

He spent two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles and then transferred to Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University, formally Columbia University in the City of New York, is a private research university in New York City and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1754 by royal charter from King George II as King's College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York State and the fifth oldest in the United States. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 and adopted the university name and moved to Manhattan's Morningside Heights in 1896. It has 17 schools and four affiliated colleges, with 35,978 students enrolled in fall 2025. Legal scholar Jennifer L. Mnookin became president on July 1, 2026.Open the full entry in New York City, where he studied political science and international relations, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1983.⁠[1][3]

After graduating he worked briefly as an analyst at Business International Corporation in New York City.⁠[1]

In 1985 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, to work for the church-funded Developing Communities Project, of which he eventually became director, and spent three years as a community organizer in low-income neighborhoods on the city’s South Side. One of his main assignments was organizing residents of Altgeld Gardens to press city hall over conditions in public housing.⁠[1][2]

In 1988 he enrolled at Harvard Law School, part of Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry. As a summer associate at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin he was mentored by Michelle Robinson, his future wife.⁠[2][1]

He was elected president of the Harvard Law Review for 1990–1991, the first African American to hold the post, and graduated magna cum laude in 1991 with a J.D.⁠[2][1][4]

In 1992 he returned to Chicago and served as Illinois executive director of Project Vote, running a voter registration drive for that year’s election. On October 3 of that year he and Michelle Robinson were married at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.⁠[1][2][4]

In 1993 he became an associate at the law firm Miner, Barnhill and Galland, where he worked largely on voting rights cases. From 1996 to 2004 he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago, teaching three courses a year.⁠[1][1][2]

In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the 13th district; he was reelected in November 1998 and won the seat again in 2002.⁠[1][5]

In the state senate he served as Democratic spokesperson for the Public Health and Welfare Committee and co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, and sat on the Judiciary and Revenue committees.⁠[1]

While Republicans controlled the chamber he secured passage of campaign finance reform and crime legislation; after Democrats won control of the chamber in 2002 he passed nearly 300 bills.⁠[2]

In 2000 he made his first run for Congress, challenging the incumbent, Representative Bobby Rush, in the Democratic primary for Illinois’s First Congressional District, and lost by a margin of more than two to one.⁠[1][2]

In October 2002 he spoke at an antiwar rally in Chicago against going to war in Iraq, saying: “What I am opposed to is a dumb war.”⁠[2]

In July 2004 he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry, which made him a national figure.⁠[1][5]

In November 2004 he was elected U.S. senator from Illinois, defeating the Republican candidate, Alan Keyes; the Republican incumbent, Peter Fitzgerald, had not sought reelection. It was the first U.S. Senate race in which the two leading candidates were both African American.⁠[1][2][6]

In August 2006 he traveled to Kenya, his father’s home country, a trip that drew international media attention.⁠[6]

On February 10, 2007, he formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865). Born to a frontier farming family in Kentucky, he had less than a year of formal schooling, taught himself law, and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the presidency as the Republican candidate in 1860. During the Civil War he preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery through Congress. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the next day.Open the full entry had delivered his “House Divided” speech in 1858.⁠[1][7][6]

On January 3, 2008, he won the IowaIowaIowa is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Des Moines. It was admitted to the Union on December 28, 1846, as the 29th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,190,369.Open the full entry caucuses; five days later Hillary Clinton won the New HampshireNew HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by Quebec, Canada, to the north, Vermont across the Connecticut River to the west, Massachusetts to the south, and Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east; its capital is Concord. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on June 21, 1788, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,377,529.Open the full entry primary; and on January 26 he won the South CarolinaSouth CarolinaSouth Carolina (officially the State of South Carolina) is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Ocean bordering Georgia and North Carolina; its capital is Columbia and its most populous city is Charleston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788, the eighth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,118,425.Open the full entry primary.⁠[7]

On “Super Tuesday,” February 5, he won more than a dozen states, while Clinton took CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry and New York. After the MontanaMontanaMontana is a state in the northwestern United States, with the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Great Plains in the east; its capital is Helena and its largest city is Billings. Montana became the 41st U.S. state on November 8, 1889, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 1,084,225 residents.Open the full entry and South DakotaSouth DakotaSouth Dakota is a U.S. state bordered by North Dakota to the north, Minnesota and Iowa to the east, Nebraska to the south, and Wyoming and Montana to the west. Its capital is Pierre and its largest city is Sioux Falls. It was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, as the 40th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 886,667 residents.Open the full entry primaries on June 3, his pledged delegates passed the number needed for the nomination; Clinton withdrew on June 7.⁠[6][7]

In late August he chose Senator Joe BidenJoe BidenJoe Biden (born 1942) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. He was previously a U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009 and the 47th vice president, under Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2017.Open the full entry of Delaware as his running mate. On August 28 he accepted the Democratic nomination in Denver, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state classified as one of the Mountain states, with Denver as its capital. It was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876, as the 38th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,773,714.Open the full entry, the first African American nominated for president by a major party.⁠[7][1][6]

In the presidential election of November 4, 2008, Barack Obama and Joe Biden received 365 electoral votes to 173 for the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin; there were 538 electoral votes in all, with 270 needed to win.⁠[8][1]

He resigned his seat in the U.S. Senate on November 16, 2008.⁠[1]

In the summer of 2008 he had already asked John Podesta to prepare for a transition; two days after the election he announced that Representative Rahm Emanuel of Chicago would be his White House chief of staff.⁠[9]

On January 20, 2009, he was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. When he took office the economy was officially in recession and U.S. forces were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.⁠[1][10][11]

He appointed Hillary Rodham Clinton secretary of state, Timothy Geithner secretary of the treasury and Eric Holder attorney general, and asked Robert Gates, secretary of defense under George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge W. Bush (born 1946) is an American politician and Republican who worked in the energy business and was a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team before becoming the 46th governor of Texas in 1995 and serving as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.Open the full entry, to stay on.⁠[9]

On January 22 he ordered the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay closed within a year and signed an executive order banning excessive interrogation techniques; the deadline for closing the facility was later missed.⁠[12][6]

On January 29 he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first piece of legislation he signed into law.⁠[12][1]

On February 17, 2009, he signed the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, about one-third of which went to grants to state governments and about one-third to middle-class tax cuts; no House Republican and only three Republican senators voted for it.⁠[9][12]

From the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), set up to rescue the major banks, he directed $60 billion to General MotorsGeneral MotorsGeneral Motors Company is a Detroit-based American automaker selling Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles; the current company was incorporated in Delaware in 2009.Open the full entry, Chrysler and their suppliers, in addition to $20 billion that George W. Bush had authorized for the same purpose.⁠[9]

During his presidency a net 11.3 million jobs were created, the unemployment rate fell from 10 percent to less than 5 percent, and the annual federal budget deficit fell from more than $1.4 trillion to less than $600 billion.⁠[9]

On April 5, 2009, he gave a speech on nuclear nonproliferation in Prague; on June 4 he addressed the Muslim world in a speech in Cairo; and on July 11 he spoke to the Parliament of Ghana in Accra.⁠[12]

On October 9, 2009, Thorbjørn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced that the 2009 Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is an international award established under the will of Alfred Nobel, comprising five prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, awarded since 1901; its funds are managed by the Nobel Foundation, whose Board is based in Stockholm. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, established in 1968, is not a Nobel Prize.Open the full entry for peace (the Nobel Peace Prize) had been awarded to him “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”⁠[13][14]

He accepted the prize on December 10, becoming the fourth U.S. president to receive it.⁠[12][3]

After Justice David Souter retired in 2009, he nominated Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominee, to the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court of the U.S. federal judiciary. Established under the Constitution and the Judiciary Act of 1789, it has consisted since 1869 of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices and sits in Washington, D.C.Open the full entry; the Senate confirmed her on August 6, 2009, by a vote of 68 to 31.⁠[9][12]

Justice John Paul Stevens retired in 2010, and his nominee, Elena Kagan, was confirmed by the Senate on August 5, 2010, by a vote of 63 to 37.⁠[9][12]

Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016. On March 16 he nominated Merrick GarlandMerrick GarlandMerrick Garland (born 1952) is an American lawyer and judge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021 and as the 86th Attorney General of the United States from 2021 to 2025.Open the full entry, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to succeed him; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held that the vacancy should be left for a new president to fill, and the Senate did not consider the nomination.⁠[9][12]

By 2016, Democratic appointees outnumbered Republican appointees on the federal appellate courts by 94 to 76, with 10 vacancies; he had chosen 54 of those judges.⁠[9]

In February 2009 he announced a plan to bring U.S. troop levels in Iraq down from 160,000 to 50,000 by August 2010, with the remaining troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2011. On October 21, 2011, he announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.⁠[11][12]

Early in his presidency he approved sending an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan, raising the U.S. presence there to about 60,000. In June 2009 he appointed a new military commander, General Stanley McChrystal, who asked for further reinforcements.⁠[11]

On December 1, 2009, in a speech at West Point, he announced that he had approved a short-term surge of 33,000 troops, with the proviso that U.S. forces begin to withdraw from Afghanistan in July 2011. He later dismissed McChrystal and replaced him with General David Petraeus.⁠[11][12]

The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan peaked at 97,000 in 2011; on June 22, 2011, he announced the planned drawdown, and by 2015 the force had declined to about 12,000.⁠[11][12]

On September 9, 2009, he gave a prime-time address to Congress on health care reform. On March 23, 2010, he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called the Affordable Care Act); one week later he signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act.⁠[9][12]

The law included a Patient’s Bill of Rights to end discrimination by insurance companies on the basis of pre-existing conditions.⁠[1]

On June 28, 2012, in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court upheld the law’s individual mandate by 5 to 4, while a seven-justice majority overturned the requirement that states expand their Medicaid coverage; on June 25, 2015, in King v. Burwell, the Court upheld the law’s tax-subsidy provisions by 6 to 3.⁠[9][12][12]

The insurance marketplace website healthcare.gov was launched on October 1, 2013. The Miller Center’s essay judges that the law reduced the share of adults without health coverage from 18 percent to 11 percent. In January 2016 he vetoed the first repeal bill that Congress sent him.⁠[12][9]

On July 21, 2010, he signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which created a new federal agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.⁠[12][9]

Other laws he signed in the first two years of his term included the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (October 28, 2009), the Fair Sentencing Act (August 3, 2010) and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (December 13, 2010).⁠[12][12]

In the 2010 midterm elections Republicans gained 63 seats in the House, giving them a 242–193 majority in the 112th Congress, and 6 seats in the Senate, reducing the Democratic majority from 59–41 to 53–47.⁠[7]

In the lame-duck session after the elections he agreed to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, which were due to expire on December 31, 2010, in exchange for extended unemployment benefits and a one-year reduction in Social Security taxes; the resulting Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act was signed on December 17.⁠[7][12]

On December 18 the Senate passed the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. On December 22 the Senate approved, by 71 votes to 26, the New START treaty signed by the United States and Russia, which limited the two countries’ strategic arms over seven years through inspections and verification.⁠[12][7][1]

On March 19, 2011, the NATONATONATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an alliance founded on the North Atlantic Treaty signed in 1949, with collective defence as its core principle. Its political and administrative centre is in Brussels, Belgium.Open the full entry-led intervention in Libya began; the White House joined with NATO to help Libyan rebels end the rule of Muammar el-Qaddafi. His administration argued that the War Powers Resolution did not apply to the operation because a state of “hostilities” did not exist.⁠[12][11]

On May 2, 2011, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in a raid carried out with no American casualties; Obama announced the operation to the nation.⁠[11][1][12]

On September 11, 2012, the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked, and four American officials were killed.⁠[12][11]

In 2011 he negotiated with House Speaker John Boehner over a deficit-reduction plan that would have imposed $800 billion in tax increases and $3.2 trillion in spending reductions over ten years. After a group of senators put forward a plan with $1.2 trillion in tax increases, he asked for $400 billion more in taxes, and the talks ended without a deal.⁠[9]

On August 2, 2011, he signed the Budget Control Act. The “super committee” created under it, charged with identifying $1.2 trillion in tax increases or spending cuts, failed to agree, which triggered automatic reductions; $85 billion in across-the-board cuts took effect on March 1, 2013.⁠[12][9][12]

In early January 2013 the American Taxpayer Relief Act became law, raising the top marginal income tax rate on incomes above $450,000 from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.⁠[12][7]

From October 1, 2013, the federal government shut down for two weeks when Congress and the president could not agree on a budget.⁠[12][9]

On June 15, 2012, his administration issued the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.⁠[12]

On June 27, 2013, the Senate passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act by a vote of 68 to 32, but the bill died in the House.⁠[12][9]

On November 20, 2014, he announced executive action to protect the parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents (DAPA). In February 2015 a federal district judge stayed the policy in TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry v. United States; on June 23, 2016, the Supreme Court deadlocked 4 to 4 on appeal, leaving the policy blocked, while DACA remained in effect.⁠[12][9][12]

On April 4, 2011, he announced his candidacy for reelection. On May 9, 2012, he announced his support for same-sex marriage. The Democratic National Convention met in Charlotte, North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state in the South Atlantic region of the United States; its capital is Raleigh and its largest city is Charlotte. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on November 21, 1789, becoming the 12th state, and its population in the 2020 census was 10,439,388.Open the full entry, in September 2012, and Joe Biden was again his running mate.⁠[12][12][7]

In the election of November 6, 2012, Obama and Biden received 332 electoral votes to 206 for the Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.⁠[15][12]

After the election Republicans kept control of the House, 234 to 201, while Democrats gained two Senate seats for a majority of 55 to 45.⁠[7]

In the second term John F. Kerry replaced Hillary Clinton as secretary of state; Chuck Hagel replaced Leon Panetta as secretary of defense in 2013 and was followed by Ashton Carter; Loretta Lynch replaced Eric Holder as attorney general; and Denis McDonough served as White House chief of staff.⁠[9]

On December 14, 2012, a gunman shot and killed twenty schoolchildren and six teachers and staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gun control and immigration reform legislation he pursued in his second term was not enacted; he later used executive action to require background checks for purchasers of guns at gun shows.⁠[9][10][9]

On June 25, 2013, he released the Climate Action Plan. On August 3, 2015, his administration released the Clean Power Plan for power-plant emissions; on February 9, 2016, the Supreme Court blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of power-plant emissions.⁠[12][12][12]

On November 11, 2014, the United States and China announced a climate agreement under which both agreed to reduce carbon emissions substantially. That agreement laid the foundation for the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 under the Charter of the United Nations. It has 193 Member States, and its headquarters are in New York City.Open the full entry Climate Change Conference of 2015, held in Paris from November 30, 2015, which adopted a climate agreement signed by 195 nations.⁠[12][11][12][3]

He vetoed a bill passed by Congress to authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline; on November 6, 2015, his administration rejected the pipeline project.⁠[9][12]

On August 20, 2012, he set a “red line” on Syria’s chemical weapons. After the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians, he did not order missile strikes but referred the question of military action to Congress; he then accepted an offer from the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, to persuade Syria to give up its chemical weapons. On September 10, 2013, he addressed the nation on Syria from the White House.⁠[12][11][1]

On September 10, 2014, he announced a plan to “degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL”; two weeks later he ordered air strikes on dozens of ISIS targets in Syria and addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. By 2016 the number of U.S. troops in Iraq helping to fight ISIS had risen to more than 5,000, and his administration had conducted more than 10,000 air strikes against the organization; the administration held that the 2001 congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force covered the campaign.⁠[11]

Beginning on February 20, 2014, Russia moved to annex Crimea; the United States and European nations imposed economic sanctions on Russia.⁠[12][11]

In December 2014 he announced the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba; the U.S. Embassy in Havana reopened in July 2015; and on March 20, 2016, he arrived in Havana, the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in 90 years.⁠[11][1][12]

After his second term began, he and the leaders of five other nations opened negotiations with Iran, which in 2015 produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), designed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons; under the agreement Iran surrendered 97 percent of its enriched uranium. The agreement came into effect on January 16, 2016.⁠[11][1][12]

He negotiated a multinational trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was signed on February 4, 2016, but was never presented to Congress.⁠[11][12]

The Twenty-second Amendment barred him from seeking a third term. In 2016 he campaigned for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton; on November 8 the Republican nominee, Donald TrumpDonald TrumpDonald Trump (born 1946) is an American politician and businessman, a Republican who ran the real estate company the Trump Organization and starred in the television series The Apprentice. He served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and has been the 47th president since 2025.Open the full entry, won the presidential election, and two days later he met with Trump at the White House.⁠[7][12]

On December 13, 2016, he signed the 21st Century Cures Act.⁠[12]

In eight years he vetoed twelve bills passed by Congress, and Congress overrode only one of the vetoes, on a 2016 measure allowing victims of terrorist acts to sue; he issued 212 pardons and commuted 1,715 sentences.⁠[9]

His second term ended on January 20, 2017, when he left office at the age of 55.⁠[10][1]

After leaving office he continued to live in Washington, D.C., the first president since Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was an American scholar and politician who served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey and was the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, leading the country through World War I and proposing the League of Nations.Open the full entry to remain in the capital after the end of his term.⁠[16]

The Obama Foundation was founded in January 2014. Also in 2014 he founded the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance to provide opportunities for boys and young men of color; after leaving office he also supported the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, led by former attorney general Eric Holder.⁠[16]

In 2017 he received the Profile in Courage Award, named for John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. The youngest person elected president and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office, he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.Open the full entry.⁠[6]

At the end of July 2020 he delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Congressman John LewisJohn Lewis (civil rights leader)John Lewis (1940–2020) was an American civil rights leader and politician. He chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966, led the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, representing Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District for more than thirty years.Open the full entry. After Joe Biden became the Democratic Party’s official presidential nominee in August of that year, he made numerous campaign appearances on Biden’s behalf.⁠[16]

In May 2015 it was formally announced that the Obama Presidential Center would be built in Chicago, and the Obama Foundation chose Jackson Park as its site. Ground was broken on September 28, 2021, with Obama in attendance.⁠[17][16]

In March 2026 the Obama Foundation announced that the center would open on June 19. An opening ceremony was held on June 18, at which Barack Obama and Michelle Obama both spoke, and the center opened to the public on June 19.⁠[18][19]

The 20-acre campus includes a 225-foot museum tower, a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, a basketball court and an interactive replica of the Oval Office.⁠[18]

The Barack Obama Presidential Library is administered by the National Archives and Records AdministrationNational Archives and Records AdministrationThe National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government whose mission is to provide public access to the federal government records in its custody and control. It was established in 1934 and has borne its present name since 1985.Open the full entry; it is the 14th presidential library the agency administers and the first that is fully digital: an estimated 95 percent of the administration’s presidential records were born digital, alongside about 30 million pages of unclassified paper presidential records. The records have been subject to Freedom of Information Act requests since January 20, 2022.⁠[20]

The Obama Presidential Center is a privately operated, non-federal organization run by the Obama Foundation; the presidential library partners with the center to display records and artifacts from the Obama presidency as part of the center’s museum.⁠[20]

His wife, Michelle Obama, was born on January 17, 1964; she graduated from Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry in 1985, received her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1988, then practiced at Sidley & Austin, and later worked for the City of Chicago’s planning department, Public Allies, and the University of Chicago and its hospitals.⁠[21]

The couple have two daughters: Malia Ann, born in 1998, and Natasha, known as Sasha, born in 2001.⁠[2][10]

As first lady, Michelle Obama launched Let’s Move!, aimed at childhood obesity; Joining Forces (2011, with Jill Biden), in support of service members and their families; and the Reach Higher and Let Girls Learn initiatives.⁠[21]

After his election as president of the Harvard Law Review, Random House contracted with him for a book on race relations, which became Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, published in the summer of 1995.⁠[2][1]

His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, appeared in October 2006; the phrase “the audacity of hope” in its title had figured in his 2004 convention address.⁠[1][2]

He later published Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters (2010) and the memoir A Promised Land (2020); the latter appeared shortly after the November 2020 election as the first of two planned volumes.⁠[1][16]

Barack Obama Presidential Library: Official website: https://www.obamalibrary.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[22]