Extra credit

Barack Obama married the former Michelle Robinson in 1992. They have two daughters: Malia (b. 1998) and Sasha (b. 2001) Barack Obamas father, also named Barack Obama, was black; his mother, Ann Dunham, was white. Obamas grandmother, Madelyn Dunham (nicknamed Toot), died the day before Obama was elected in 2008 Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles before completing his undergraduate degree at Columbia Obamas Senate website described him as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review and the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate. The previous African American senators elected by popular vote were Edward Brooke (1967 79, from Massachusetts) and Carol Moseley Braun (1993 99, from Illinois). Two other African Americans were chosen by state senates to become U.S. Senators: Hiram Revels (1870 71, from Mississippi) and Blanche Bruce (1875 81, also from Mississippi) His 2008 Grammy for The Audacity of Hope beat books by two former presidents: Bill Clintons Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World and Jimmy Carters Sunday Mornings in Plains: Bringing Peace to a Changing World.