Write a 600-800 word essay about your favorite African American contributor to society. Be sure to include why you feel this person is most valuable, and be sure to name all or most of their accomplishments and how exactly it affected society.

Barack Obama : A Legend in the Making

Barack Obama is the Illinois State Senator where he served for seven years . He is currently a candidate for the 2008 presidential race alongside Hilary Clinton and John McCain . At least half a dozen African-Americans have preceded Obama as candidates to be America 's first black president , from Jesse Jackson to Virginia 's Douglas Wilder But has arrived at what seems to be such an opportune time with such broad appeal ( Graff , 2006

Born on August 4 , 1961 , and named as Barrack Hussein Obama , Jr

. by his parents who were a Kenya-born Harvard-educated economist and a Caucasian anthropologist (White , 2008 . At the age of two , his parents were divorced and when his mother married an Indonesian man , the family moved to Jakarta . Although his father and step-father were Muslim , Obama chose to be a Christian wherein he attended secular and Catholic schools rather than a madrassa . He then moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend school . He went on to study political science at Columbia University in New York , and then moved to Chicago where he spent three years as a community organizer ( Pro : Barack Obama 2008

In 1988 he left to attend Harvard Law School , where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review . After Harvard Obama returned to Chicago to practice civil rights law , representing victims of housing and employment discrimination (Ibid

With his upbringing and educational background , Obama have made a name in the political arena . His charisma , personality and presence have made him a notable African-American politician . Part of what sets Obama apart in the Senate is his relative youth . He is one of the first senators born in the 1960s , in a chamber dominated by greatest-generation colleagues , Obama is more likely to find peers on his staff than on the Senate floor . He has cordial but not close relations with party elders He prefers to discuss issues in his own words , and reframing s as he goes . The senator 's highest-pro ventures have been bipartisan including a tutelage in nuclear nonproliferation that took Obama to Eastern Europe and Russia . It was an effort to bring transparency to government and a push for immigration reform . Obama is also known for his initiative in raising e the threat of avian flu on the Senate floor and has spoken out for victims of Hurricane Katrina , pushed for alternative-energy development , and championed improved veterans benefits ( Graff , 2006

Obama 's biggest accomplishments as a freshman senator have taken place outside the Capitol . His Call to Renewal ' speech at Washington DC 's National City Christian Church was perhaps the most important dissection of the political world and the role of faith made by any Democratic politician in a generation . He argued that faith was an important part of the American reform tradition but Americans must remember that it was the most religious founders who insisted on the separation of church and state so people could not...