Five You Should Know: President Barack Obama
Photo: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Julia J. Norrell in memory of Lindy Boggs. © Mariana Cook. Permission required for use.
Celebrate Presidents’ Day with five little-known facts about President Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States of America.
1. Pres. Obama was the first African American elected as president of Harvard’s Law Review.
The Harvard Law Review was founded in 1887 and is considered one of the country’s most prestigious legal journals. Law Review journals are an important aspect of law schools. Not only does it allow students to improve their research and writing, but it offers scholars and judges fresh research to new legal arguments. In 1990, Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the law review, at 28 years old. The position is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School.
2. Pres. Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago’s Law School.
Barack Obama was a professor at University of Chicago’s Law School from 1992 until his election to the US Senate in 2004. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996 and a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004. As Senior Lecturer, he taught three courses per year. He was invited to join the faculty in a full time- tenure track position several times during his 12 years as a professor, but he declined. Each of the Law School’s Senior Lecturers, Obama included, had high-demand careers in politics or public service, which made teaching full time difficult.
Photo: Banner from the 2008 Obama campaign headquarters in Columbia, Missouri, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Gift of the Mid Missouri Campaign Field Office, Columbia, MO.
3. Upon his election, Obama was only the fifth African American U.S. Senator.
To date, only nine African Americans have served in the U.S. Senate; but when he was elected in 2004, Pres Obama was only the fifth. The following African Americans have been elected to the US Senate:
Hiram Revels, Mississippi, 1870
Blance K. Bruce, Mississippi, 1874
Edward Brooke, Massachusetts, 1967
Carol Moseley Braun, Illinois, 1992
Barack Obama, Illinois, 2004
Roland W Burris, Illinois, 2008
Tim Scott, South Carolina, 2013
William “Mo” Cowan, Massachusetts, 2013
Cory Booker, New Jersey, 2013
Photo: Portrait of Barack Obama, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
4. Pres. Obama has authored New York Times Bestseller books.
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance was published in 1995 and reissued in 2004. In this book, he tells the story of his struggle to find his identity as the son of a black African father and white American mother. He opens up about his personal background and how it formed his character. The Audacity of Hope was published in 2006 and was influenced by his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address. Within the first month of its release, the Audacity of Hope sold about 860,000 copies. In 2010, he released a children’s book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters, that mentions thirteen groundbreaking Americans. Illustrated by Loren Long, the book introduces the contributions of Georgia O’Keefe, Jackie Robinson, and George Washington.
Photo: Handpainted banner for Obama presidential campaign, Collection of the SmithsonianNational Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Elizabeth Hess.
5. Pres. Obama’s First Inaugural Ceremony in 2009 was record breaking.
According to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Pres. Obama’s first inaugural ceremonies included these facts, firsts, or precedents:
Largest attendance of any event in the history of Washington, DC
Largest attendance of any Presidential Inauguration in U.S. history
First African American to hold the office of President of the United States
First citizen born in Hawaii to hold the office
Highest viewership ever of the swearing-in ceremonies on the Internet
First woman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, to emcee the ceremony
First inaugural webcast to include captioning
First swearing-in ceremony to include an audio description
By Shannon C., Social Media Volunteer, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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