Backgrounder: U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama

Source: Xinhua | 08-29-2008 16:27

DENVER, the United States, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- After 19 months of campaigning, U.S. Illinois Senator Barack Obama officially became the Democratic presidential nominee on Thursday night as the national convention ended in Denver, Colorado.

Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, a student from Kenya, and his mother, a white woman from Kansas, knew each other when studying in the Hawaii University.

Because his father chose to return to his homeland after graduation, Obama was raised up by his single mother. At the age of 10, he went to Indonesia with his mother and step-father, and spent four years there.

Two years after graduation from the University of Columbia in 1983, he moved to Chicago as a community worker. In 1991, he was admitted to the Law College of Harvard and became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, a prominent publication.

With a law doctorate, Obama returned to Chicago and joined the bar. Meanwhile, he was also a Constitution professor in the Law College of the Chicago University.