Barack Obama: First African American President and Agent of Change

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. A former constitutional law professor, community organizer, and Illinois state senator, Obama's rise...

Barack Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate from Chicago's South Side in 1996, defeating his former mentor Alice Palmer in a disputed primary. The Illinois State Senate provided Obama with his first experience as an elected official and an opportunity to learn the practical arts...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare or the ACA, stands as Obama's signature legislative achievement. Signed into law on March 23, 2010, the ACA represented the most significant expansion of health care coverage since the creation of Medicare and...

Barack Obama came of age during the post-civil rights era, when the legal framework of American racism had been dismantled but its socioeconomic consequences persisted. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended legal segregation and guaranteed Black voting...

The most persistent and racially charged controversy of Obama's presidency was the "birther" conspiracy theory that claimed he was not born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president. Despite releasing his birth certificate from Hawaii in 2008 and the "long form"...