Barack Hussein Obama II[a] (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president.
Barack Obama is the first Black president of the United States. Learn facts about him: his age, height, leadership legacy, quotes, family, and more.
Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, broke barriers as the first African-American president and implemented significant healthcare reforms during his tenure.
Obama was elected the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, prior to graduating magna cum laude in 1991. He returned to Chicago in 1992 and served as the Illinois Executive Director of PROJECT VOTE!.
In his memoir Dreams from My Father (1995), Obama describes the complexities of discovering his identity in adolescence. After two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he transferred to Columbia University, where he studied political science and international relations.
Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States—becoming the first African American to serve in that office—on January 20, 2009. The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama grew up in Hawaii.