He first entered public office as a state senator in 1997. Returning to Chicago, Obama worked in a civil rights law firm and as a lecturer at the University of Chicago. During the 1990-1991 academic year, he was president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, the first African American elected to the position. In 1988, he enrolled at Harvard Law School. Obama then moved to Chicago, Illinois, and began working as a community organizer, helping low-income residents improve their public housing conditions. After attending school in Hawaii, Obama moved to the mainland for college-first attending Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, and then graduating from Columbia University in New York City. His mother, a white American from Kansas, and his father, a black Kenyan studying in the United States, met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama emerged as an unlikely candidate during the 2008 presidential campaign.
He was the first African American President in U.S. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.
