Cindi katz biography of barack obama

They married on the Hawaiian island of Maui on February 2, Soon after their son's birth, while Obama's father continued his education at the University of Hawaii, Ann Dunham took the infant to Seattle, Washington , where she took classes at the University of Washington from September to June She and her son lived in an apartment in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Ann Dunham returned with her son to Honolulu and in January resumed her undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii. Dunham and Soetoro married on March 15, , on Molokai. They returned to Honolulu to live with her son as a family. She continued with her studies, earning a B. In , Obama and his mother moved to Jakarta known as Djakarta at the time to rejoin his stepfather.

Francis of Assisi Catholic School around the corner from their house for 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade. Obama's mother met a transgender person named Evie who was known as Trudi at the time , at a cocktail party in Dunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home. It did not take long before Evie was also caretaker for then eight-year-old "Barry", as Obama was often referred to as then, and his baby sister Maya.

As a caretaker, she also spent time playing with Obama and bringing him to and from school, which she continued to do for about two years. In , Soetoro took a new job at higher pay in Union Oil Company 's government relations office. By this time, he had picked up on some Indonesian in addition to his native English. In the summer of , Obama returned to Hawaii for an extended visit with his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham.

His mother had also arranged an interview for possible admission to the Punahou School in Honolulu, one of the top private schools in the city. In mid, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend Punahou School starting in fifth grade. It was the last time Obama would see his father. This was followed by his mother visiting her son and parents in Honolulu from late to January In , Dunham returned to Hawaii, bringing along the young Maya, Obama's half-sister.

Dunham started graduate study in anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. From sixth grade through eighth grade at Punahou, Obama lived with his mother and Maya. Obama's mother completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii for an M. In his memoir Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's middle class family. His knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in , came mainly through family stories and photographs.

At the Saddleback Civil Presidential Forum, Barack Obama identified his high-school drug use as his greatest moral failure. Some of his fellow students attending Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was mature for his age as a high school student and that he sometimes attended parties and other events in order to associate with African American college students and military service people.

Reflecting later on his formative 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. Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in , where he studied at Occidental College for two years.

He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City , where he majored in political science with a speciality in international relations [ 51 ] [ 52 ] and in English literature. After four years living in New York, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer. Obama entered Harvard Law School in late In an interview with Ebony in , he stated that he saw a degree in law as a vehicle to facilitate better community organization and activism: "The idea was not only to get people to learn how to hope and dream about different possibilities, but to know how the tax structure affects what kind of housing gets built where.

Building up that trust was done with the same kind of long listening sessions he had used in the poor neighborhoods of South Side, Chicago. Richard Epstein , who later taught at the University of Chicago Law School when Obama later taught there, said Obama was elected editor "because people on the other side believed he would give them a fair shake.

Minow was a managing partner. Minow later would introduce Obama to some of Chicago's top business leaders. The publicity from his election as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and advance to write a book about race relations. In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months.

The manuscript was finally published as Dreams from My Father in mid He married Michelle in [ 69 ] and settled down with her in Hyde Park , a liberal, integrated, middle-class Chicago neighborhood with a history of electing reform-minded politicians independent of the Daley political machine. One effect of the marriage was to bring Obama closer to other politically influential Chicagoans.

One of Michelle's best friends was Jesse Jackson 's daughter, Santita Jackson , later the godmother of the Obamas' first child. Michelle herself had worked as an aide to Mayor Richard M. Marty Nesbitt, a young, successful black businessman who played basketball with Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson , became Obama's best friend and introduced him to other African-American business people.

Before the marriage, according to Craig, Obama talked about his political ambitions, even saying that he might run for president someday. Obama directed Illinois Project Vote from April to October , a voter registration drive, officially nonpartisan, that helped Carol Moseley Braun become the first black woman ever elected to the Senate.

According to Sandy Newman, who founded Project Vote, Obama "raised more money than any of our state directors had ever done. He did a great job of enlisting a broad spectrum of organizations and people, including many who did not get along well with one another. The fundraising brought Obama into contact with the wealthy, liberal elite of Chicago, some of whom became supporters in his future political career.

Through one of them he met David Axelrod , who later headed Obama's campaign for president. Daley , and John W. Rogers Jr. Barack was off to the side and only the people who were close to it knew he had done all the work. Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years — , and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years — He published no legal scholarship, and turned down tenured positions, but served eight years in the Illinois Senate during his twelve years at the university.

Miner, who met with Obama to recruit him before Obama's graduation from law school, had been counsel to former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington , although the law firm often clashed with the administration of Mayor Richard M. The year-old law student made it clear in his initial interview with Miner that he was more interested in joining the firm to learn about Chicago politics than to practice law.

During the four years Obama worked as a full-time lawyer at the firm, he was involved in 30 cases and accrued 3, billable hours. Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in , resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Barack Obama. Honolulu , Hawaii, U. Childhood years [ edit ]. This article is part of a series about. Illinois State Senator and U. Senator from Illinois. Senate tenure election sponsored bills. Presidency timeline Transition Inaugurations first second Trips international Efforts to impeach Presidential library.

Presidential campaigns. Parents' background and meeting [ edit ]. Main article: Family of Barack Obama. Indonesia [ edit ]. Return to Hawaii [ edit ]. Education summary [ edit ]. Adult life [ edit ].

Cindi katz biography of barack obama

College years [ edit ]. Early career in Chicago [ edit ]. Law School [ edit ]. Settling down in Chicago [ edit ]. Project Vote [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. Chiyome Fukino" PDF. Archived PDF from the original on March 6, Retrieved December 5, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Archived from the original PDF on February 22, Retrieved July 21, Because his presidency ended so recently, and due to his young age, it could be three decades or more before the definitive biography of Obama is written.

To wrap up this six-year journey through the best biographies of the presidents I read three books on Barack H. Unfortunately, the degree of satisfaction a reader achieves by patiently navigating its ten chapters is inadequate compensation for the persistently tedious experience. Garrow makes no discernible effort to separate mundane details from consequential facts and there are few, if any, overarching themes or theses.

Individual moments of merit are numerous, but are overshadowed by long stretches which seem aimless or inconsequential. As a reference on his pre-presidency this book is, in some ways, commendable. But as a presidential biography it proves a mind-numbing exercise in patience and pointless perseverance — 2 stars Full review here. It also ends somewhat abruptly — just as Obama is leaving Chicago to attend Harvard Law and well before the start of his political career.

But it is extremely well-researched, quite well written and, in the end, paints a compelling portrait of the 44th president as he approaches the end of his third decade of life. February 17, at pm. Steve said:. February 18, at pm. Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously.

When he took office at age 47, Obama inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the lowest-ever international favorability rating for the United States. They are serious, and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.

Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking equal pay. Housing and credit markets were put on life support, with a market-based plan to buy U. The government made loans to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall Street. Obama cut taxes for working families, small businesses, and first-time home buyers.

He reached out to improve relations with Europe, China, and Russia and to open dialogue with Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. He lobbied allies to support a global economic stimulus package. He committed an additional 21, troops to Afghanistan and set an August date for withdrawal of nearly all U. Obama was an early opponent of President George W.

In more dramatic incidents, Obama ordered an attack on pirates off the coast of Somalia and prepared the nation for a swine flu outbreak. He signed an executive order banning excessive interrogation techniques and ordered the closing of the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year—a deadline that ultimately would not be met.

Obama signed his signature health care reform plan, the Affordable Care Act, into law in March The new law prohibited the denial of coverage based on preexisting conditions, allowed citizens under 26 years old to be insured under parental plans, provided for free health screenings for certain citizens, and expanded insurance coverage and access to medical care to millions of Americans.

In October , a dispute over the federal budget and Republican desires to defund or derail the Affordable Care Act caused a day shutdown of the federal government. The rollout of the reforms were initially bumpy. October saw the failed launch of HealthCare. Extra technical support was brought in to work on the troubled website, which was plagued with glitches for weeks.

The health care law was also blamed for some Americans losing their existing insurance policies, despite repeated assurances from Obama that such cancellations would not occur. The legislation has faced numerous challenges in court and wound up at the U. Supreme Court three times. In the summer of , the Supreme Court upheld part of the Act regarding health care tax subsidies.

Without these tax credits, buying medical insurance might have become too costly for millions of people. The latest Supreme Court decision about the Affordable Care Act began in when Congressional Republicans dropped the individual mandate tax penalty to zero. Texas and 17 other Republican states quickly sued to strike down the Affordable Care Act, mainly based on their opposition to its individual mandate.

A Texas federal judge ruled in favor of the suit, saying that because there was no longer a tax, the law was unconstitutional. The case was sent to an appeals court. A final ruling came in June when the U. Supreme Court voted , , to uphold the Affordable Care Act on the grounds that the objecting states were not required to pay anything under the mandate provision and thus had no standing to bring the challenge to court.

As of January , nearly On May 2, an elite team of U. There were no American casualties, and the team was able to collect invaluable intelligence about the workings of al-Qaeda. Armed Forces. He became the first president to voice support for same-sex marriage in May As he did in , during his campaign for a second presidential term, Obama focused on grassroots initiatives.

Representative Paul Ryan. On November 6, , Obama won a second term as president, capturing more than 60 percent of the Electoral College. Obama officially began his second term on January 21, , when U. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. In his second inaugural address, Obama called the nation to action on such issues as climate change, health care, the federal deficit, and marriage equality.

Obama stated that the program had helped stop roughly 50 threats. However, the president suffered a significant drop in his approval ratings, to 45 percent, partially due to the revelations. In August , Obama ordered the first airstrikes against the Islamic State on targets in Syria, though the president pledged to keep combat troops out of the conflict.

Several Arab countries joined the airstrikes against the extremist group. However, U. She is known for her work on social reproduction and everyday life, research on children's geographies, her intervention on "minor theory", and the notion of counter-topography, which is a means of recognizing the historical and geographical specificities of particular places while inferring their analytic connections to specific material social practices.

Her work on social reproduction, everyday life, children and the environment, contemporary childhood, political ecology , social theory and the politics of knowledge has been published in edited collections and in journals such as Environment and Planning D: Society and Space , Social Text , Signs , Feminist Studies , Annals of the Association of American Geographers , Social Justice , Gender, Place, and Culture , Cultural Geographies , Antipode , and Public Culture.

This award is given to the most-improved journal that has launched an overall effort of revitalization or transformation within the previous three years. Miller from to She was an editor of Children's Environments Quarterly, the inaugural book review editor of Gender, Place, and Culture, and a founding editor of Journal of Social and Cultural Geography.

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