Barack Obama, Sr.

Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., (/ˈbærək huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; 18 June 1936 − 24 November 1982) was a Kenyan senior governmental economist and the father of U.S. President Barack Obama. He is a central figure of his son's memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995). Obama married in 1954 and had two children with his first wife, Kezia. He was selected for a special program to attend college in the United States, where he went to the University of Hawaii. There, Obama met Stanley Ann Dunham, whom he married in 1961 and her first son Barack II, named after him. She divorced him three years later. The elder Obama later went to Harvard University for graduate school, where he earned an M.A. in economics, and returned to Kenya in 1964.

Later that year, Obama married Ruth Beatrice Baker, a Jewish American woman whom he met in Massachusetts. They had two sons together before separating in 1971 and divorcing in 1973. Obama first worked for an oil company, before beginning work as an economist with the Kenyan Ministry of Transport. He gained a promotion to senior economic analyst in the Ministry of Finance. Among a cadre of young Kenyan men educated in the West in a program supported by Tom Mboya, Obama had conflicts with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, which adversely affected his career. He was fired and blacklisted in Kenya, finding it nearly impossible to get a job. Obama caused three serious car accidents during his final years, the last of which claimed his life in 1982.

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (US ⁱ/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician serving as the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Given name

A given name (also known as a personal name, first name, forename, or Christian name) is a part of a person's full nomenclature. It identifies a specific person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The term given name refers to the fact that the name is bestowed upon, or given to a child, usually by its parents, at or near the time of birth. This contrasts with a surname (also known as a family name, last name, or gentile name), which is normally inherited, and shared with other members of the child's immediate family.

Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is more commonly used, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idioms "on a first-name basis" and "being on first-name terms" allude to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.

Relationship to other names

Family of Barack Obama

The family of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America, is made up of people of Kenyan (Luo), English, African-American and Irish, French, Scottish, English, Welsh, German and Swiss ancestry that has been traced back 1,400 by Ancestry.com, who are known through Obama's writings and other reports. His immediate family is the First Family of the United States. The Obamas are the 1st First Family to be of African descent.

Immediate family

Michelle Obama

Malia Obama and Sasha Obama

Marian Robinson

Maternal relations

Barack Obama was raised by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, called Ann, and grandparents Madelyn and Stanley Dunham. He often referred to his family during his candidacy and term as President. Obama's maternal heritage consists mostly of English ancestry, with much smaller amounts of German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, and French ancestry.

Ann Dunham

Stanley Armour Dunham

Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham

Charles Thomas Payne

Ralph Dunham

Margaret Arlene Payne