Barack Obama
Obama in 2015, photo by Prphotos
Birth Name: Barack Hussein Obama II
Place of Birth: Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Date of Birth: August 4, 1961
Ethnicity:
*father – Luo Kenyan
*mother – English, small amounts of Scottish, Irish, German, Welsh, Swiss-German, French Huguenot, possibly remote African
Barack Obama is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 44th President of the United States, from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. He was elected to the position in 2008 and 2012. He was previously a Member of the Illinois Senate, from January 8, 1997 to November 4, 2004, and a U.S. Senator from Illinois, from January 3, 2005 to November 16, 2008. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2009. Barack Obama is the first person of significant African descent to have served as President of the United States. He is also the only person born in the 1960s to have won a major party’s presidential caucus and/or primary, and the only U.S. President born after the 1940s (thus far).
He was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2008 and 2012.
President Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. His father was black and his mother was white. His father, Barack Hussein Obama, a governmental economist, was born in Kanyadhiang Village, Rachuonyo, Kenya, and was a Kenyan of the Luo tribe. His mother, Stanley Ann (Dunham), an anthropologist, was born in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas, and had English, and small amounts (to varying degrees) of Scottish, Irish, German, Welsh, Swiss-German, and French Huguenot, ancestry. His father was a Muslim and his mother was from a family of non-practicing Baptists and Methodists. President Obama practices Protestant Christianity.
President Obama is married to lawyer and writer Michelle Obama (born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson). Their children are Malia Obama and Sasha Obama. He lived in Indonesia from six to ten years old.
President Obama is the second person of significant non-white ancestry to have been nominated for, and elected as, President or Vice President of the United Sates by a major party. Charles Curtis, whose mother was of considerable Native American ancestry, was the first, and served as Vice President from 1929 to 1933. Kamala Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, is the third; she began serving as Vice President of the United States in 2021, and is the Democratic Party’s nominee for President of the United States in 2024.
Genealogist William Addams Reitwiesner wrote President Obama’s ancestral lineage out as such, with approximate fractions:
*50% Luo Kenyan
*35.06% English
*4.69% Scottish
*3.91% Irish
*3.71% German
*1.56% Welsh
*0.98% Swiss
*0.1% French
President Obama’s paternal grandfather was Onyango (whose name was changed to Hussein Onyango Obama; the son of Obama and Nyaoke). Onyango was born in Alego. President Obama’s great-grandfather Obama was the son of Opiyo and Marrgorat.
President Obama’s paternal grandmother was Habiba/Habibah Akumu/Akkumu Nyanjango/Nyanjoga (the daughter of Njango/Njoga and Bwogi Otore). Habiba was born in Karabonda. Njoga was the son of Okela.
President Obama’s maternal grandfather was Stanley Armour Dunham (the son of Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham and Ruth Lucille Armour). Stanley was born in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas. Ralph was the son of Jacob William Dunham and Mary Anne/Ann Kearney, whose father was Irish. Ruth was the daughter of Harry Ellington Armour and Gabriella Lee “Gabie”/”Gabbie” Clark.
President Obama’s maternal grandmother was Madelyn Lee “Toot” Payne (the daughter of Rolla Charles “R. C.” Payne and Leona Belle McCurry). Madelyn was born in Peru, Chautauqua, Kansas. Rolla was the son of Charles Thomas Payne and Della L. Wolfley. Leona was the daughter of Thomas Creekmore McCurry and Margaret Belle Wright, who was born in Dry Fork, Carroll, Arkansas.
President Obama’s matrilineal line can be traced to Sarah Wade “Sally” Ray, who was born, c. 1793, in Virginia.
Aside from being the first person of African descent to serve as President of the United States, President Obama is the first person of African descent to be the presidential nominee of a major American party.
President Obama is the fourth black American to have won a caucus and/or primary for a major American political party’s presidential nomination, having won 29+ states in 2008, and 50+ states in 2012. The previous winners are:
*Walter E. Fauntroy (1972; Democratic; won Washington, D.C.)
*Shirley Chisholm (1972; Democratic; won 3 contests, including New Jersey)
*Jesse Jackson (Democratic; in 1984, he won 2+ states; in 1988, he won 9+ states)
President Obama has distant Irish ancestry, going back to his great-great-great-grandfather, Falmouth/Fulmoth Kearney, who arrived in the States in 1850, from Moneygall in Ireland. Research done by a team of genealogists has suggested that President Obama’s mother had remote African-American ancestry (in the 1600s), through possible descent from a slave named John Punch.
In page 13 of his autobiography, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, 1995, President Obama writes that a distant ancestor of his mother’s “had indeed been a full-blooded Cherokee” [Native American]. No Cherokee Native American ancestry has yet been verified/documented for President Obama.
President Obama has referred to his mother’s ancestors as “Scotch-Irish mostly,” though their ancestry was predominantly English, with a smaller amount of Scots-Irish.
One of President Obama’s maternal ancestors, his ninth great-grandfather, Richard Singletary, was born, c. 1599, in Surfleet, Lincolnshire, England, to Francis Singletary and Agnes Cook. Richard’s son, Jonathan Singletary (later Dunham), was born, c. 1639, in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony. President Obama’s Dunham line traces back to Jonathan.
Sources: Genealogies of President Obama – http://www.wargs.com
http://www.geni.com
http://familypedia.wikia.com
http://www.wikitree.com
http://famouskin.com
Genealogies of President Obama’s parents – http://www.findagrave.com
Article about President Obama’s Irish ancestry – http://living.oneindia.in
Article suggesting that President Obama’s mother had remote African-American ancestry – http://www.nytimes.com
You know what’s funny I’m teaching my niece who’s 3 about colors and shapes and she asked me why are white and black people called white and black and they don’t look white like the color white and black people are brown and light brown I don’t get it auntie. And I did not have an answer for her, which goes to show you, you can teach kids about race, that there are all mix of people and before you were born these names were invented and we don’t know why? And that whole if you have a little black in you, you have to put black down as your race started in this country I believe in the 70’s. And I got that from my American history 201 class. It was some congressman or senator that started with that.
thats so cute
Well your history book was wrong,it started far before that.Also it was started by a certain group over here that wanted to enforce the idea that they were better.Another thing a little bit of visible black blood is the reason they had to say they were black,otherwise they did and still do say they’re white.
I 100% agree with you Mid. You are so right. A mix person in this country , if they are mixed with black is called just black as if that’s the only race that they were born with. However, outside of this country it not being the only country in the world, a person that’s mixed with black and other races are called a mixed race. Some of you people need to get a passport and travel the world and you will see a world of mixed people that you will not be able to tell one race from another and it’s just common to them. Not being a big deal. One mixed individual that i love is Kimora Lee b/c she’s proud of both her mixed heritage. She don’t put one on a petistole over another. In South America there are chinese looking individuals with hard curly hair, there are very dark skinned individuals with long thick straight hair no perm. But over here if some of you see that the first thing you would say in the chinese looking girl must have a perm in and the dark skinned girl must be wearing a weave. Well outside of this country that is not so. You first think it’s that persons hair or look before assuming it must be fake. That’s why yesterday on Wendy Williams show I was so happy when Jessica Szhor said why do people ask what are you, when you look mix? Her first thought is I’m a human being first. Like I’m very mixed and I’ve never asked another person what they were mix w/, why? b/c I’ve always hated it and it was after moving to this country I first got it asked and is still being asked it today I’m 21 now. And 2nd b/c it’s none of my business what you’re mixed w/.
@Katherine
I so sick of reading this.If you hate this country rule of making someone like you black,Then buy a ticket to the country of your choice and go there.Oh but wait,they do it to,it’s just in reverse.Racism is alive and well in those other countries,Otherwise your wouldn’t hear phrases like (Pardo, wheat,Dirt Indian,mestizo,Coloured),because there wouldn’t be any need for them;they would just be people.I sick of people crying about being called black,don’t call me that,I hate being seen as black,your trying to put me in a box,you want me to deny my white parent.It’s a cultural heritage,if you don’t want to embrace it FINE.But please so piss’in and moaning about it,I can see being called black is a dirt word to you.However there are far worse things to be called(I’m sure when you read this,You’ll think of some to call me).Being called black doesn’t put you in a box,the only thing doing that is yourself.I’m bi-racial,but being called black doesn’t hurt me.Doesn’t stop me from loving my white mother.Also as much as everyone is moaning,it’s not black people holding you back,they didn’t start this over here,but they seem to be the focus for all the blame.Black are 40mill strong,but it’s the other 200mill that keeps you from being called what you want.Like I said you have hundreds names around the world for people like us.If everyone else was so fair and just around the world as you put it,the words wouldn’t be needed.Now your not paying attention on this site,because the same South American and European people your praising,are the same ones making those nasty comments about hair and skin on black people..Now as far as Kimora Lee,she’s one thing,however Jessica Szhor is full of crap.I heard her myself before she was outed,in a radio interview state that she was just Hungarian period,so she’s full of it .Now I’m from Los Angeles,and no one goes around asking what your mixed with,because it’s pretty common here.The area I live in is full of mixed blood people,and I have never once heard anyone utter those words.Now if being called black offends you so much,and you came from another country;maybe you should turn around and go back.
mistakes made:please stop piss’in
:is a dirty word
How are you so sure about this? Were you there when he was born? I read his Birth Certificate does in fact state that he’s born in Hawaii. And I don’t care what people say, if he was born in Africa then there’s no way he would be President! It just wouldn’t. But someone just HAS to find a way to not get over the fact that he’s our new Commander in Chief. GET OVER IT PEOPLE! http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/the-fact-and-fiction-on-birtherism-and-the-obama-birth-certficate?fb_comment=31387221
Coming to Ireland in May to visit his ancestral home in Moneygall.
isn’t Kenya-n means black (african)?
I’ve seen his father,trust me he’s black