Barack and Michelle Obama: Biography of the Ultimate Power Couple

By Matthew Wesley

Barack and Michelle Obama. Two of the most influential and beloved people alive. Being the first African American president of the United States, and serving two full terms in office, the impact Barack and Michelle have had on America – and the world at large – will follow us long into the future.

 

Now, you'll get a glimpse into the incredible lives of these two enormously influential people. From their humble beginnings and family origins to Barack's first brush with politics, discover how their careers began, their school and college years, and the unsuspecting events which brought these two together.

 

Not only that, but containing a detailed account of Barack's first 100 days in office, along with an overview of his political campaign and two terms, this book also reveals the ups and downs of his career, the scandal that rocked his early campaign, and how these things shaped him as a person. Packed with quotes from the couple themselves, this powerful biography delves deep into Barack and Michelle's lives before and after the presidency, and is a testament to their achievements and the immeasurable impact they've had on the world.

 

From launching a presidential bid in the midst of the 2008 crash to how his message of hope and change resonated with millions, buy now to discover how this couple shaped America, and the legacy they left which will follow us for centuries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matthew Wesley
• Release date: Jun 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393388661

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Barack and Michelle Obama: Biography of the Ultimate Power Couple  

By Matthew Wesley

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: Barack Obama - Early Life, Family, and Education

Hometown and Nationality

Parents

Chapter Two: Michelle Obama- Early Life, Family, and Education

Parents

Childhood

Chapter Three: How They Met

Chapter Four: Starting a Family

Having Malia

Having Sasha

Chapter Five: The Start of Politics

Barack’s Political Career: Where It All Started

Running For Congress

Chapter Six: Journey to the Presidency

Barack vs Hillary in the party primaries.

Democratic Party vs Republican Party in the General Election

Chapter Seven: Being in the White House

The First 100 Days

The First Term

Chapter Eight: Life after Presidency

Interesting facts you didn't know about Michelle and Barack Obama

Quotes

Quotes from Barack Obama

Quotes from Michelle Obama

References

Introduction

Every successful life has a story, and that success cannot evolve without certain key events taking place. These events can either make or break a person’s journey - they are the building blocks for the foundation and the structure of a successful life. The lives of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, and First Lady  Michelle Obama, like every other success story, had hurdles and potholes, smooth roads and fun times, and of course a plethora of emotional moments. 

Sometimes it can seem like they are super humans who have not gone through what normal humans go through to attain a level of success. But, like everybody else, they are humans who decided to hold their lives in their hands and ensure something good came out of them. Barack, as a young boy, dreamed of becoming president and he worked hard to achieve this goal. Michelle, as a young girl, just wanted to fulfill her purpose and make an impact as significant as possible. Little did she know that greatness awaited her.

It is not news that the Obamas are one of the most beloved presidential families that America has ever had. Although the reason for this is obvious, we must look to the impact of their upbringing, which cannot be overlooked.  Reading about these events and incidents that most never knew happened in the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama, especially their childhood days, will inspire readers to strive for and achieve what they have always wanted to achieve. It will also help us understand and see beyond the man on TV and the woman in the news. This is their story. This is how they became who they are - the Obamas.

Chapter One: Barack Obama - Early Life, Family, and Education

Before he was the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama was once a little boy called Barack who had inspirational family members that drove him to set standards and goals for himself even as a child. He had a dream to become the United States’ first black president, and he kept living with that dream until the very day it became reality.

Barack Hussein Obama, the first African American to become the President of the United States, is a collective politician and an activist. This is a biography of the early life of Barack Obama, his parents Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, the events surrounding the birth of Barack, his early childhood education, the people he calls family, and how his journey to the White House started.

Hometown and Nationality

Despite the unfounded controversy, Barack Hussein Obama is a natural-born citizen of the United States. He became a citizen automatically following his birth on August 4th, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii.  He has always identified himself as an African American. Barack’s father, Barack Sr., was a Kenyan immigrant, while his mother was from Wichita, Kansas.

A lot of controversies came in the presidential years concerning the real nationality of Barack Obama. Many said he was and is still a Kenyan citizen, while the others said he is American. The group of people who opposed his nationality were termed birthers. These controversies came up at the time Barack was in the running to become president.

The big question many had was: does Barack Obama have a dual citizenship? The answer to this question is a firm no. He is not a citizen of Kenya. Although he was at the time of his birth, he lost their citizenship identification when he was 23. When Barack was born, Kenya was still a British colony, known as United Kingdom colony (UKC). There had been a British Nationality Act of 1948, which stated that any person born at the time the act was enacted shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies, and if the person had a father who was a citizen, that person automatically became a citizen as well. This made Barack a dual citizen of Hawaii and the United Kingdom and colonies. On December 12th, 1963, Kenya got its independence from the United Kingdom, and new acts were enacted conferring citizenship on anyone born in Kenya from the 12th of December and those born outside Kenya whose parents were citizens of Kenya. This act automatically made Obama Sr. a Kenyan citizen alongside his son Barack.

Kenya supports dual citizenship for children until they are 23, at which time they will have to choose between the other country and Kenya. This was the case for Barack, and he did not renounce his citizenship with America when they filed a notice concerning his dual citizenship. He did not swear an oath of allegiance to Kenya at the time, and in August 1984, his citizenship with Kenya was up.

Parents

Barack’s father's name is also Barack Hussein Obama. He was born on  June 18th, 1936, in Rachuonyo District, Nyang'oma Kogelo in Kenya. He was raised in the village of Siaya District. He was a young, vibrant man who loved traveling around the world. He was a Roman Catholic who later converted to Islam and took the name Hussein.

At the age of 6 he attended a Christian missionary school, and his primary education was at Gendia primary school. When his family moved, he changed his school to Ng'iya intermediate school. In 1950 he upgraded his educational level and got into the Anglican Maseno National School. After his graduation, he married Kezia in 1954 before leaving for the United States.

In 1959, as a result of his accomplishments, he received a scholarship to study economics at the University of Hawaii through a program that was organized to sponsor outstanding Kenyan students to study in the western part of the world. Some financial supporters also raised money for his travel expenses to the United States when he got this scholarship because he was a very bright student.

Barack Sr. was the first African American student in the University of Hawaii and was an outstanding student.  He graduated in 1962 and moved on to Harvard University for his doctorate degree in economics. After his education, he returned to Kenya in 1964 and was employed to serve as an economist in the ministry of transport.

As a successful economist in Kenya’s Ministry of Transportation, he was promoted to the office of a senior economic analyst in Kenya’s Ministry of Finance. At the prime of his success, Barack had some misunderstandings with the Kenyan president at the time, Joma Kenyatta. This incident affected his career and cost him his job after the government placing him on its blacklist. Due to his joblessness, poverty, and a shattered career, Barack became an alcoholic. He had a relationship just before his death with Jael Otieno in 1982, who gave birth to his last son named George Obama. Barack Sr. lived until 1982, when he was killed in a car accident in Nairobi. He was laid to rest in his village, Nyang'oma Kogelo, Siaya District.

Barack’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born on November 29, 1942 in Wichita Kansas. She was the only child of Madelyn Lee Payne and Stanley Armour Dunham. Her family moved around quite a bit. They went from California to Ponca City, from Ponca City to Oklahoma, from Oklahoma to Vernon, Texas, and finally to Eldorado, Kansas. A few years later, the family moved to Seattle, Washington, where Ann attended Nathan Eckstein Junior High School. A year after, Ann and her parents moved to Mercer Island, where she attended Mercer Island Junior High School. In the year 1960, Ann graduated from high school and relocated with her family to Honolulu in Hawaii, where she enrolled in the University of Hawaii at Mãnoa.

She received a bachelor’s degree in 1967, M.A in 1974, and a PhD in 1992, all in anthropology, from the University of Hawaii. Her specialty was in economic anthropology. She was also very interested in craftsmanship and weaving, and her wish was to help underdeveloped countries. She was recognized for working with the largest microfinance bank in the world, Bank Rakyat, in Indonesia. She suffered from uterine cancer which spread to her ovaries, and she died on November 7 1995. 

The birth of Barack Obama

Barack Obama's parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. They met in 1960 in a Russian language class and started dating shortly after. Less than a year later, they were married on February 2nd, 1961 on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Afterwards, Stanley Ann Dunham changed her name to Stanley Ann Obama.  At the time of the wedding, she was pregnant with Barack Obama Jr.

Barack Obama Jr. was born at the Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ann was only 18 at the time of Barack's birth, while her husband was 23. Their marriage was a bit secretive, as their parents did not approve of it. The name Barack means one who is blessed. This name is seen to have had a great impact on the life of Barack Obama.

After Barack’s birth, his father continued with his education at the University of Hawaii, as he was more interested in furthering his education. Ann left for Seattle, Washington with her new baby boy Barack. She started attending classes at the University of Washington from the month of September in the year Barack was born until June of 1962. She lived like a single mother during this time, staying at the Capitol Hill in Seattle where she rented an apartment and took care of herself and her little boy. In 1962, Barack's father graduated from the University of Hawaii and went on to pursue his doctorate degree at Harvard University in Massachusetts, despite the fact that he was given a scholarship after his graduation from the University of Hawaii to study in New York City. He wanted to study at Harvard due to the prestige that comes with the name.

In the early months of 1963, Ann returned to Honolulu, Hawaii with her son Barack to continue her undergraduate program. Her parents took care of little Barack during this time. This was the way of things until 1964, when Ann filed for a divorce. Obama Sr. didn't show any form of objection to this divorce. He returned to Kenya after graduating from Harvard University with an M.A in economics after he stopped pursuing his doctorate degree in 1964 and was given an M.A in 1965 instead. Little Barack was 2 years old at the time his mother filed for divorce.

Barack's siblings /other marriages of his parents

The first marriage of Barack Sr. was to Kezia Aoko in 1954. She gave birth to 2 children, Abongo (Roy) Obama, and Auma Obama.

When Barack Sr. married Ann, his second wife, he didn't let her know about his previous marriage with Kezia, but she discovered in the long run. After his second marriage to and subsequent divorce from Ann, he met his third wife, Ruth Baker, before leaving for Kenya. She was a 27 year old Jewish-American and the daughter of a wealthy man from Lithuania who migrated to the United States. They started dating and eventually tied the knot on December 24th, 1964. After their wedding, Ruth joined him on his journey back to Kenya. They gave birth to 2 children during their marriage, Mark Okoth and David Opiyo Obama in the year 1965 and 1968, respectively. They got divorced in 1973 and went their separate ways.

Barack's mother, Ann got married again to an international student named Lolo Soetoro, whom she met at the East-West center. He came to Honolulu to study geography at the University. After studying for 2 years, he graduated and got married to Ann in 1965 before returning to Indonesia the following year. When Ann graduated, she moved to Indonesia to stay with her husband. Barack was 6 at this time. Lolo was a low paid surveyor before he got a job working for an oil company, while Ann had a job at the bank of Hawaii and kept on pushing forward with more promotions to the top.

She gave birth to a daughter, Maya Kassandra, in Indonesia on August 15th, 1970. Lolo and Ann later got divorced in November 1980.

Barack also has 2 other half-siblings, Abo and Bernard Obama, from his biological father when Barack Sr. reunited with his first wife, Kezia. They were born in 1968 and 1970, respectively.

The last of Barack's siblings was George Onyango Obama, who was born in 1982 by Jael Otinyo, a Kenyan woman whom Barack Sr. had a relationship with right before his death.

Youthful Life and Early Education

For the growing and youthful Obama, life was an everyday struggle aimed at overcoming the challenges of society and the circumstances that affected his desire to become a person of change and influence. Like everybody, his upbringing and family - as regards to societal and racial class - had a major impact on his youthful mindset and