Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he made history as the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He later served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois before winning the presidency.