Obama's Inagural Full Speech, January 20th | Part 1

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GiveNoRights
January 20, 2009

Barack Obama, born in 1961, the first African American to be elected president of the United States. Obama was elected president in the November 2008 elections after securing the nomination of the Democratic Party and becoming the first African American to head the ticket of a major party. A member of the United States Senate from Illinois, Obama and his vice-presidential running mate, U.S. senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, defeated the Republican Party ticket of Senator John McCain of Arizona and his vice-presidential running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Obama fashioned a coalition of whites, blacks, and Hispanics, and won support in all regions of the country, especially among young and first-time voters. For many observers, Obamas election was a transformative event in U.S. history, fulfilling the promise of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and signaling a new era in U.S. race relations.

Obama studied for two years at Occidental College in California before transferring to Columbia University in New York City. Obama completed his undergraduate studies in political science in 1983. He then moved to Chicago to take a job as director of a community development program on the citys far South Side, a predominantly African American area. His work with the nonprofit, church-based program involved helping residents of poor neighborhoods, including the Altgeld Gardens public-housing project, cope with lost jobs from a wave of factory closings.

After three years of grassroots community activism, Obama went to Harvard Law School. In 1990 his peers elected him president (editor in chief) of the Harvard Law Review, making him the first African American to fill the prestigious position. Obama graduated magna cum laude in 1991.

After earning his law degree, Obama passed up promising job possibilities to return to Chicago. There he practiced civil-rights law, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination. He also served as general counsel to social service agencies, promoted efforts to replace dilapidated public housing, and worked on voting rights litigation. In 1992 Obama led Illinois Project Vote, a registration drive that put 150,000 new voters on the rolls, helping Democratic nominee Bill Clinton carry Illinois in the presidential election that year.

In 1993 Obama also began teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. He declined a tenure-track post, knowing he wanted to pursue a career in politics, and instead became a senior lecturer.

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Obama's Inagural Full Speech, January 20th | Part 1

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