research paper about barack obama

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Barack Obama

By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 19, 2022 | Original: November 9, 2009

Barack Obama , the 44th president of the United States and the first African American president, was elected over Senator John McCain of Arizona on November 4, 2008. Obama, a former senator from Illinois whose campaign’s slogan was “Change we can believe in” and “Yes we can,” was subsequently elected to a second term over Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. 

A winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Obama’s presidency was marked by the landmark passage of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare”; the killing of Osama bin Laden by Seal Team Six; the Iran Nuclear Deal and the legalization of gay marriage by the Supreme Court.

Barack Obama’s Early Life

Obama’s father, also named Barack Hussein Obama, grew up in a small village in Nyanza Province, Kenya, as a member of the Luo ethnicity. He won a scholarship to study economics at the University of Hawaii, where he met and married Ann Dunham, a white woman from Wichita, Kansas , whose father had worked on oil rigs during the Great Depression and fought with the U.S. Army in World War II before moving his family to Hawaii in 1959. Barack and Ann’s son, Barack Hussein Obama Jr., was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961.

Did you know? Not only was Obama the first African American president, he was also the first to be born outside the continental United States. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

Obama’s parents later separated, and Barack Sr. went back to Kenya. He would see his son only once more before dying in a car accident in 1982. Ann remarried in 1965. She and her new husband, an Indonesian man named Lolo Soetoro, moved with her young son to Jakarta in the late 1960s, where Ann worked at the U.S. embassy. Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born in Jakarta in 1970.

Barack Obama’s Education

At age 10, Obama returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. He attended the Punahou School, an elite private school where, as he wrote in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father , he first began to understand the tensions inherent in his mixed racial background. After two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, from which he graduated in 1983 with a degree in political science.

He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991. While at Harvard, he became the first Black editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

Barack Obama, Community Organizer and Attorney

After a two-year stint working in corporate research and at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago , where he took a job as a community organizer with a church-based group, the Developing Communities Project. For the next several years, he worked with low-income residents in Chicago’s Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the city’s largely Black South Side. Obama would later call the experience “the best education I ever got, better than anything I got at Harvard Law School,” the prestigious institution he entered in 1988.

Obama met his future wife—Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, a fellow Harvard Law School grad—while working as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin. He married Michelle Obama at the Trinity United Church of Christ on October 3, 1992.

Obama went on to teach at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2003.

Senator Barack Obama

In 1996, Obama officially launched his own political career, winning election to the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat from the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park. Despite tight Republican control during his years in the state senate, Obama was able to build support among both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics and health care reform. He helped create a state earned-income tax credit that benefited the working poor, promoted subsidies for early childhood education programs and worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

Re-elected in 1998 and again in 2002, Obama also ran unsuccessfully in the 2000 Democratic primary for the U. S. House of Representatives seat held by the popular four-term incumbent Bobby Rush. As a state senator, Obama notably went on record as an early opponent of President George W. Bush’s push to war with Iraq . 

During a rally at Chicago’s Federal Plaza in October 2002, he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq: “I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars…I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U. S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.”

The Obama Years: A Nine-Part Oral History

The former president and 24 other members of his administration weigh in on their proudest moments, their regrets and the belief that they left it all on the field.

Barack Obama’s Speech At the 2004 Democratic National Convention

When Republican Peter Fitzgerald announced that he would vacate his U.S. Senate seat in 2004 after only one term, Obama decided to run. He won 52 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, defeating both multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes. After his original Republican opponent in the general election, Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race, the former presidential candidate Alan Keyes stepped in. That July, Obama gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, shooting to national prominence with his eloquent call for unity among “red” (Republican) and “blue” (Democratic) states. It put the relatively unknown, young senator in the national spotlight.

 In November 2004, Illinois delivered 70 percent of its votes to Obama (versus Keyes’ 27 percent), sending him to Washington as only the third African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction .

During his tenure, Obama notably focused on issues of nuclear non-proliferation and the health threat posed by avian flu. With Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma , he created a website that tracks all federal spending, aimed at rebuilding citizens’ trust in government. He partnered with another Republican, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana , on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. In August 2006, Obama traveled to Kenya, where thousands of people lined the streets to welcome him. He published his second book, The Audacity of Hope , in October 2006.

2008 Presidential Campaign

On February 10, 2007, Obama formally announced his candidacy for president of the United States. A victory in the Iowa primary made him a viable challenger to the early frontrunner, the former first lady and current New York Senator Hillary Clinton , whom he outlasted in a grueling primary campaign to claim the Democratic nomination in early June 2008. 

Obama chose Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running mate. Biden had been a U.S. senator from Delaware since 1972, was a one-time Democratic candidate for president and served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Obama’s opponent was long-time Arizona Senator John S. McCain , a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war who chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. If elected, Palin would have been the nation’s first-ever female vice-president.

As in the primaries, Obama’s campaign worked to build support at the grassroots level and used what supporters saw as the candidate’s natural charisma, unusual life story and inspiring message of hope and change to draw impressive crowds to Obama’s public appearances, both in the U.S. and on a campaign trip abroad. They worked to bring new voters—many of them young or Black, both demographics they believed favored Obama—to become involved in the election.

A crushing financial crisis in the months leading up to the election shifted the nation’s focus to economic issues, and both Obama and McCain worked to show they had the best plan for economic improvement. With several weeks remaining, most polls showed Obama as the frontrunner. Sadly, Obama’s maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died after a battle with cancer on November 3, the day before voters went to the polls. She had been a tremendously influential force in her grandson’s life and had diligently followed his historic run for office from her home in Honolulu.

On November 4, lines at polling stations around the nation heralded a historic turnout and resulted in a Democratic victory, with Obama capturing some Republican strongholds ( Virginia , Indiana) and key battleground states ( Florida , Ohio ) that had been won by Republicans in recent elections. Taking the stage in Chicago’s Grant Park with his wife, Michelle, and their two young daughters, Malia Obama and Sasha Obama, he acknowledged the historic nature of his win while reflecting on the serious challenges that lay ahead. “The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

Barack Obama’s First Term as President

Barack Obama was sworn in as the first Black president of the United States on January 20, 2009. Obama’s inauguration set an attendance record, with 1.8 million people gathering in the cold to witness it. Obama was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. with the same Bible President Abraham Lincoln used at his first inaugural.

One of Obama’s first acts in office was the signing of The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which he signed just nine days into office, giving legal protection in the fight for equal pay for women. To address the financial crisis he inherited, he passed a stimulus bill, bailed out the struggling auto industry and Wall Street, and gave working families a tax cut.

In the foreign policy arena, Obama opened up talks with Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela and set a withdrawal date for American troops in Iraq. He was recognized with a 2009 Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” and for his “vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as universal healthcare or “ Obamacare .” Its goal was to give every American access to affordable healthcare by requiring everyone to have health insurance, but then providing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions (a group that was previously often denied coverage) and requiring health insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on providing actual medical services. 

On May 2, 2011,  Osama bin Laden , the mastermind of the September 11 Attacks , was captured and killed by Seal Team Six. No Americans were lost in the operation, which gathered evidence about Al-Qaeda .

Barack Obama’s Second Term as President

Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term in 2012, beating out Republican Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan. The 2014 midterm elections proved challenging, as Republicans gained a majority in both houses of Congress.

His second term was marked by several international events. In 2013, Obama came out strongly against the use of chemical weapons on civilians by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, avoiding a direct strike on Syria when al-Assad agreed to accept a Russian proposal that it relinquish its chemical weapons.

Perhaps the defining moment of his international diplomacy was his work on the Iran Nuclear Deal , which allowed inspectors into Iran to ensure it was under the pledged limit of enriched uranium in return for lifting economic sanctions. (Obama’s successor, Donald Trump , withdrew from the deal in 2018.)

Another defining moment of Obama’s presidency came when the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage on June 26, 2015. Obama remarked on that day: “We are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny .” 

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The Relationship between Racial Identity and Perceived Significance of the Election of President Barack Obama among African American Mothers

Marisa franco.

Department of Psychology, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland, USA

Mia Smith-Bynum

Department of Family Science, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland, USA

African American women’s racial identity is a major determinant for how they interpret the world around them, yet there is little research examining how specific aspects of racial identity are linked with attitudes about an event that has been highly significant for African-Americans: the election of President Barack Obama. The current study examined the relationship between African American mothers’ racial identity and their perceived significance of the election of President Barack Obama as an indicator of reduced systemic and actual racism for African Americans, using a sample of 110 African American mothers residing in a Northeastern metropolitan area. Results revealed that racial centrality and assimilation positively predicted perceived significance of President Obama’s election for diminishing racism. Implications and future directions are discussed.

The election of President Barack Obama is thought to have major implications for African Americans. At the time it occurred, some Americans viewed the election of the first African American president as signifying the end of racial inequality that has persisted for hundreds of years, allowing America to achieve a society that is “post-racial” ( Hero, Levy, & Radcliff, 2013 ). However, others argued that Obama’s election has little to no impact on realities of racism and discrimination aimed toward African Americans ( Doherty, 2013 ). With discourse surrounding Obama centering on the potential for his election to improve outcomes for African Americans, it seems particularly important to investigate whether African Americans, indeed, feel that his election signifies diminishing racial discrimination for their community and factors that might predict whether they may think so. One factor that may shed light on how African Americans interpreted the significance of this election is racial identity. Thus, the present study investigates the link between racial identity and perceived significance of the election of President Barack Obama as a signal of a reduction in racism towards the Black community.

We propose that racial identity might play a role in predicting whether African Americans perceived Obama’s election as racially significant. It may be particularly important to consider whether Obama’s election signified attenuated racism among African American mothers since the perceptions of the prevalence of prejudice among members of this demographic may carry a heavy psychological toll. African American mothers face the double jeopardy of being subject to racism, sexism, and also sexist racism in which the racism they experience is decidedly gendered, such as when Black women are assumed to take on the roll of the strong Black women, or the Black mammy ( Cole, 2009 ; Sesko & Biernat, 2009). Yet, also, they face the emotional burden of worrying about discrimination towards their children ( Brown-Manning, 2013 ; Bush, 2000 ). Black mothers report being in a constant state of fear regarding their sons’ safety due to racist social forces ( Brown-Manning, 2013 ). Indeed, addressing racism is so central to African American mothers’ parenting experiences that a large body of research exists on how they talk to their children about race and prepare them to deal with the discrimination they may face (see Hughes et al., 2006 for review). Thus, pervasive racism towards the Black community affects African American women directly, and also indirectly by affecting their kin, leaving layers of psychological vulnerability to the effects of systemic racism ( Peters & Massey, 1983 ). Because of the salience of racism for African American mothers, and the potential for the election of Obama to signify a reduction in racism, the current study focuses on whether African American mothers’ racial identity predicts their perception of the election of Obama as a significant indicator of a reduction in racism towards African Americans.

We adopt Harrell’s (2000) broad, multilevel theoretical definition of racism as the backdrop for framing perceptions of racism following Obama’s election because it encompasses systemic, structural, and symbolic forms of racism as well as actual race-based discriminatory acts aimed at African Americans and other people of color. Harrell defined racism as “[a] system of dominance, power, and privilege based on racial group designation; rooted in historical oppression of a group defined or perceived by dominant-group members as inferior, deviant, or undesirable” (p. 43), and is expressed through cultural and symbolic images of African Americans in the news media, entertainment, and literature and also, in American political discourse, policy, and practice. Harrell’s (2000) definition allows for an investigation of whether Obama’s election might signify decreased racism at a structural and symbolic level.

Because of the history of racism within America, many would argue that Obama’s position as leader of the world’s most powerful democracy has significant meaning for African Americans ( Marable, 2009 ). Moreover, African American mothers with specific racial identity attitudes may construe the influence of Obama’s election on racism in specific ways. To examine this, we focus on mothers’ racial centrality and ideology, two dimensions of the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI; 1998). We posit that these dimensions are relevant for assessing African American mothers’ perceptions of Obama’s election as a signal of a reduction in systemic and actual racism.

One dimension of racial identity, centrality, represents the degree to which individuals see the world through the lens of being African American and predicts many aspects of psychological functioning among African Americans (e.g., Burrow & Ong, 2010 ; Sellers & Shelton, 2003 ). Little research exists that directly addresses the relationship between racial centrality and perceived significance of Obama for mitigating racism, yet some preliminary suppositions are forwarded based on racial centrality literature. Identity theory posits that individuals make choices, in part, based on how these choices relate to social identities ( Bobo, 1983 ; Bobo & Charles, 2009 ). Accordingly, individuals whose race is central to their self-concept are more attuned to race in the processing of events, and would subsequently place more significance on race-related issues (Burrow, & Ong, 2011). Generally, because of the importance of race to their self-concept, individuals with high centrality perceive discriminatory events more frequently and find them more distressing ( Burrow & Ong, 2010 ; Sellers & Shelton, 2003 ). Thus, it follows that they may be more attuned to uplifting racial events and perceive them as having a significant positive impact as well. Thus, individuals with higher racial centrality may be more likely to interpret Obama’s election as significant for reducing racism.

Racial ideology can also offer insight into how African American mothers viewed Obama’s election. Ideology is defined as perspectives on how African Americans should act in order to advance their social position ( Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998 ). African Americans’ ideologies develop within the context of their experiences of oppression throughout American history ( Sellers et al., 1998 ). Ideologies influence the development of social relationships within and outside the race, as well as political and economic decisions ( Sellers et al., 1998 ). Because ideologies have relevance for perceptions of how African Americans may elevate their social position, it is thought to have relevance for whether Obama’s election signifies increased social capital amongst this group by way of diminished racism.

There are four dimensions of racial ideologies according to the MMRI: nationalist, assimilationist, oppressed minority, and humanist ideologies. Higher nationalism scores indicate an emphasis on the uniqueness of being African American and support for separatist Black institutions. Previous evidence indicated that individuals high in nationalism are less likely to support a leader of Biracial heritage ( Sullivan & Arbuthnot, 2009 ); specifically, they may view his heritage as making him an out-group member with no relevance for Black people. Contrastingly, high assimilation scores indicate an appreciation for the commonalities between African Americans and other groups, and as such, assimilation perspectives may be associated with likelihood of identifying with Obama’s racially inclusive political narrative and agenda, as he is representative of a mainstream institution, and is in a position to advance the African American community from within. High oppressed minority scores indicate an emphasis on the common plight between African Americans, other racial minorities, and other oppressed groups. Oppressed minority ideology may be related to viewing Obama’s election as significant because he is viewed as an ally of oppressed groups due to his political agenda and his status as a racial minority ( Augoustinos & De Garis, 2012 ). A humanist perspective emphasizes a common humanity that transcends racial difference in decisions about social relationships and politics. Research has indicated that individuals high in humanism tend to discount the importance of race, and racism, and, thus, they may be less attuned to structural or symbolic racism and the pervasiveness of racial discrimination, similar to colorblind perspectives ( Outten et al., 2010 ; Sellers & Shelton, 2003 ). As such, humanism may be related to views that Obama’s election indicates that American is moving towards a “post-racial society,” and that his election is a symbol that the U.S. has embraced humanism at a national scale.

In sum, the existing research points to several hypotheses regarding the relationship between Black mother’s racial identity and their perceived significance of President Obama’s 2008 election. First, we predicted that racial centrality would be positively associated with the perceived significance of Obama. With respect to the racial ideologies, it was predicted that assimilation, oppressed minority, and humanism perspectives would relate positively to the perceived significance of Obama’s election though the underlying rationale for each relationship differs for each ideology. It was predicted that nationalism would have the opposite relationship to the perceived significance of Obama’s election for diminishing symbolic and actual racism.

Participants

Participants were recruited through newspaper and magazine advertisements, and through the study’s Facebook page. Materials indicated selection criteria, how to enroll, and contact information. Participants contacted researchers via telephone or email. This study uses a subset of data collected as part of a larger study on parenting. A total of 110 African American mothers, residing in a Mid-Atlantic metropolitan area, participated in the study in 2010 and 2011. The average age was 44.2 ( SD = 6.55). There was a range of education levels: 6.4% completed some high school, 6.4% completed high school, 24.5% completed some college, 13.6% had an associate’s degree, 15.5% had a bachelors degree, 6.4% completed some graduate school, 15.5% had a master’s degree, 1.8% had a professional degree, and .9% had a doctoral degree. The median household income was $60,000 to $69,000. However, annual household income ranged from less than $5,000 to $100,000 or greater per year. Approximately one-third (31%) of the sample reported incomes of $100,000 or greater. Approximately 94% of the sample identified as African American, followed by 4% as Afro-Caribbean, and 2% as Biracial/Multiracial. Approximately 81% of the sample was employed. The sample was made up of women who were married (39%), never married (32%), divorced (21%), separated (3.6%), and widowed (3.6%).

A pair of trained research assistants completed two-hour home videos with African American mother-adolescent dyads, in which they were videotaped discussing a hypothetical instance of discrimination aimed at the adolescent. Each pair had at least one African American member and 86% of the team was African American. Following the video, participants completed paper-pencil copies of study measures. The study addressed several aspects of general parenting, racial socialization, racial identity, parent-child relationship quality as well as adolescent mental health. Additional details about the study method are reported elsewhere ( Smith-Bynum, Davis, Anderson, Franco, & English, in press ). These data draw on responses from the mothers in our sample. Families were compensated $50 for their participation.

Racial Identity

Racial identity was measured using selected subscales of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity-Revised (MIBI; for a full description, see Sellers et al., 1997 ): centrality (8 items), and nationalist (9), assimilationist (9), oppressed minority (9), and humanist (9) ideologies. Regarding ideologies, nationalism measures the degree to which an individual perceives being Black as unique and important. Assimilationist ideology measures the degree to which an individual perceives commonalities between African Americans and members of other racial groups. Oppressed minority refers to the degree to which individuals perceive commonalities between African Americans and other racial minority groups. Humanist refers to the degree to which an individual perceives commonalities between all humans and sees race as generally unimportant. Racial centrality measures the degree to which being Black is important to one’s self-concept. To score each of these subscales, values across subscale items were averaged, with scores ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ). Reliability estimates for each subscale presented by Sellers et al. (1997) and in the current sample were: centrality (.77 in original publication; .76 in current study), assimilation (.73; .71), nationalism (.79; .66), oppressed minority (.76; .69) and humanism (.70; .65). The validity of the measure is supported by expected relationships between levels of centrality, nationalism, and likelihood of taking a Black studies class. Also, assimilationist, humanist, and oppressed minority ideology scores were higher for Black students at predominately White institutions than for those at historically Black universities, whereas nationalism scores were lower ( Sellers et al., 1997 ).

Significance of President Obama as a symbol for reduced racism

Five items, created for the present study, were used to measure the degree to which participants perceived the election of President Barack Obama as a symbol of reduced structural and symbolic racism towards African Americans (α = .83). Example items are “The election of President Barack Obama will break down new racial barriers for African Americans in my lifetime,” “American society has a more positive view of Black Americans because of Barack Obama,” and “The election of President Obama will not change my life in a meaningful way (reverse scored)”. Responses were measured on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ). An average score was used in analyses. Factor loadings ranged from .67–.83.

Demographic Questionnaire

The demographic questionnaire assessed mother’s age, educational background, employment, income, marital history, and race/ethnicity.

Descriptive statistics and bivariate relationships among the variables are presented in Table 1 . On average, the sample reported high levels of centrality, assimilationist, and humanist beliefs, whereas oppressed minority and nationalist beliefs were centered around the midpoint of the scale. Participants perceived Obama’s presidency as highly significant for diminishing racism towards African-Americans. At the correlational level, higher rates of centrality and assimilationist ideology were related to increased likelihood of perceiving Obama’s election as significant for diminishing structural and actual racism.

Means, standard deviations, and correlations among key variables (N =110)

To examine relationships between racial identity and significance of Obama, a hierarchical regression was run (see Table 2 ). Control variables, mother’s age, income, and education, were entered as the first step to partial out the influence of these variables. The racial identity predictor variables, including racial centrality, assimilation, nationalism, oppressed minority, and humanist ideologies were entered together in the second step. With all variables entered, racial centrality and racial assimilationist ideology scores uniquely and positively predicted perceived significance of Obama’s election, whereas the other ideologies had no effect. Thus, there was partial support for our hypotheses regarding the predicted role of mothers’ racial identity variables for the perceived significance of President Obama’s election.

Summary of hierarchical regression analysis of racial identity as a predictor of significance of President Barack Obama (N = 110)

Findings indicated that, as identity theory predicts, centrality is associated with African American mothers perceiving President Obama’s election as significant for diminishing structural and symbolic racism aimed at the Black community ( Bobo, 1983 ). High centrality scores might have predicted perceptions of Obama’s election as significant because individuals high in centrality may generally perceive race related events as significant and impactful ( Burrow & Ong, 2010 ; Sellers & Shelton, 2003 ), as race is an important aspect of their identity. Additionally, higher assimilationist scores related to increased likelihood of perceiving Obama’s election as a signal of reduced racism towards African Americans. High assimilationist scores indicate a desire to integrate into mainstream society, and Obama’s presidency may signify the ultimate integration of African Americans into the mainstream, and subsequently, a symbol of diminished barriers of discrimination that obstruct integration.

Non-significant relationships with ideologies and significance of Obama might underlie complex reactions to Obama as a racial in-group or out-group member within the African American community. If Obama were perceived as an in-group member, one would expect that African Americans would evaluate his election as significant for signaling reduced racial prejudice for the Black community, as they may perceive his election as a way to ameliorate negative stereotypes of being African American; if Obama was perceived as an out-group member then African Americans might feel that his election has no relevance for racial discrimination within the Black community. There seems to be a lack of consensus over whether Obama is perceived as an in-group or out-group member, and research has not yet clearly determined how racial identity may influence his categorization as either ( Sinyangwe, 2012 ). Obama’s clear roots in the African American community, his mobilization of African American voters, and his casting as the “Black” candidate might credit his Black identity, of which his mixed race heritage and inclusive political agenda might serve to discredit ( Bobo & Charles, 2009 ). Thus, initial exploratory hypotheses that nationalism might contribute to perspectives of Obama as an out-group member, and oppressed minority ideologies might work in the opposite way, might warrant further investigation to better explain non-significant relationships. As for humanism, this ideology may contribute to beliefs that Obama’s race is not important in the first place, or that Black people no longer have any significant racial barriers to overcome, and thus, Obama’s election has a neutral impact.

The perceived significance of the election as a symbol for reduced symbolic and actual racism aimed at African Americans may have a number of implications on African American mothers’ lives. The psychological toll of weariness and vigilance for racial discrimination for themselves and their children may be somewhat allayed (Clark, Anderson, Clark & Williams, 1997; Outten et al., 2010 ). African American mothers high in centrality or assimilation who were foregoing opportunities and environments because they expected prejudice may be more open to pursuing these opportunities. However, perceiving Obama’s election as a significant indicator of reduced symbolic racism may also have negative implications. Perceiving Obama’s election as forecasting changes in the American racial system may make African American mothers lower their guard in environments that continue to be racially unsafe for them and their children ( Brown & Tracy, 2012 ; Neblett, Rivas-Drake, & Umaña-Taylor, 2012 ). Mothers high in centrality or assimilation may have been less vigilant about racially socializing their children to navigate racist social environments, leaving Black families more vulnerable and unprepared for discriminatory experiences ( Lesane-Brown, 2006 ; Neblett et al., 2012 ).

The current study possessed some limitations. The sample was cross-sectional and directionality cannot be addressed. The sample included higher household income for African American women, compared to national averages, perhaps because many participants inhabited dual income households ( Economic Policy Institute, 2011 ). Findings cannot be generalized to childless African American women, or those of a lower socio-economic status. Consistent with past research, the reliability of the MIBI was somewhat low ( Sellers et al., 1997 ; Smalls, White, Chavous & Sellers, 2007 ). The outcome measure of interest, significance of Obama for decreasing racism, did not go through an instrument development process, and thus, may possess issues of validity. An additional limitation is that the lag time between Obama’s election and the data collection may have left the election less salient in people’s minds or else, tertiary events, happening in the interim, may have influenced participants’ appraisal of Obama’s election.

Considering Obama’s gender, future research might address implications of Obama’s election for perceptions of racism amongst childless Black women and men or amongst Black fathers given their role in racial socialization ( McHale, Crouter, Kim, Davis, & Dotterer, 2006 ). Furthermore, it would be interesting to investigate how Black people’s racial identity predicts perceptions of other events impacting the community, such as recent publicizing of instances of police brutality towards Black boys ( Goff, Jackson, Di Leone, Culotta & DiTomasso, 2014 ). Future studies could further unravel the complicated reactions to Barack Obama within the African American community and discern the degree to which he is perceived as a racial in-group or out-group member. Additionally, it would be worthwhile to investigate how gendered racial identities might predict appraisal of Obama, as an intersectional approach might better reflect participants’ lived realities ( Cole, 2009 ; Gay & Tate, 1998 ).

Contributor Information

Marisa Franco, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland, USA.

Mia Smith-Bynum, Department of Family Science, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland, USA.

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The Leadership Style of Barack Obama: An Early Assessment

• Fred I. Greenstein

This article presents a highly distilled account of the formative experiences and political rise of Barack Obama. It draws on the sources that were available at the time of his inauguration. The article concludes by examining Obama's leadership qualities in the realms of public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. The article went into production one month after Obama entered the White House.

©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston

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Presidential Leadership, Then and Now: Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama

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Pietro s. nivola pietro s. nivola former brookings expert.

January 5, 2012

Every presidency develops a leadership style, which has bearing on presidential accomplishments. Historical comparisons shed light on the matter. The following paper compares Barack Obama and Woodrow Wilson in their respective early years.

The narratives of these two presidents share certain elements. Both men were progressive agents of change, who would try to adjust the balance of public and private power in society. Both men took office following back-to-back wave elections, resulting in clear Democratic congressional majorities. Both compiled impressive legislative scorecards. (In the rear-view mirror of history, Wilson’s legacy, which included achievements like establishing the Federal Reserve, would acquire indisputable legendary status.) Each president faced an economic crisis while pursuing his agenda.

For all the parallels, however, key contrasts stand out. President Wilson had more wind at his back since, albeit within important limits, the political climate was more receptive to reform during the Progressive era, and he confronted a less-solid opposition party in Congress. Also, parliamentary rules differed a century ago. Filibustering in the Senate was not the same as it is today. The electoral campaigns of the two presidents differed. And, Wilson was far more predisposed to govern through his party’s legislative majority, rather than bet on bipartisan agreements, and he managed relations with the legislature differently.

There may be lessons here. For instance, could it be that Wilsonian “party government”—however difficult in contemporary politics—still offers a serviceable model during periods of unified party control of the executive and legislative branches, one that at times befits the reality of today’s political polarization more than does a frustrating quest for post-partisanship?

A caveat: This essay does not purport to offer more than a partial, and tentative, comparative assessment. The bookends of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency have been in place for nearly a century, whereas Obama’s record remains very much a work in progress. Observations drawn at the mid-point of a president’s first term can be suggestive, but their limitations are evident. Much of what is observed now may well be overtaken by events. This paper only focuses on domestic issues, not the conduct of foreign policy. As we know, in Wilson’s case international setbacks were ultimately a principal source of his undoing. We have yet to see how world affairs will inform the rest of the Obama years.

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The Obama Presidential Library That Isn’t

By Jennifer Schuessler

• Feb. 20, 2019

The Obama Presidential Center promises to be a presidential library like no other.

The four-building, 19-acre “working center for citizenship,” set to be built in a public park on the South Side of Chicago, will include a 235-foot-high “museum tower,” a two-story event space, an athletic center, a recording studio, a winter garden, even a sledding hill.

But the center, which will cost an estimated $500 million, will also differ from the complexes built by Barack Obama’s predecessors in another way: It won’t actually be a presidential library.

In a break with precedent, there will be no research library on site, and none of Mr. Obama’s official presidential records. Instead, the Obama Foundation will pay to digitize the roughly 30 million pages of unclassified paper records from the administration so they can be made available online.

And the entire complex, including the museum chronicling Mr. Obama’s presidency, will be run by the foundation, a private nonprofit entity, rather than by the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency that administers the libraries and museums for all presidents going back to Herbert Hoover.

The plan was revealed, with little fanfare, in May 2017. Few details of the digitization were made public until Tuesday, when the foundation and the archives unexpectedly released a legal agreement outlining procedures for creating what is being billed as “first digital archives for the first digital president,” which they say will democratize access.

But as awareness of the plan has spread, some historians see a threat to future scholarship on the Obama administration — and to the presidential library system itself.

Without a dedicated repository, they argue, the rich constellations of related material found at the other libraries — papers donated by family members, cabinet members and aides, as well as pre-presidential and personal papers — could end up scattered, or even uncollected. And without help from specialized archivists, the promised digital democratization could just as easily turn into a hard-to-navigate data dump.

More broadly, there’s concern that the creation of a privately run presidential museum undermines the ideal of nonpartisan public history.

Timothy Naftali, the former director of the Richard Nixon library, where he is credited with overhauling museum exhibits to give a more honest accounting of Watergate, called the decision “a huge mistake.”

“It was astounding to me that a good presidency would do this,” Mr. Naftali said.

“It opens the door,” he added, “to a truly terrible Trump library.”

‘An Act of Faith’

The current system had its origins in 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt donated his papers to the federal government and began building a library to hold them near his home in Hyde Park, N.Y. (Before the Presidential Records Act of 1978, a president’s papers were considered his private property.)

“It seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith,” Roosevelt said at the opening in 1941 , standing on the porch of the modest Dutch colonial-style structure, which also housed a small display of artifacts.

The library, paid for with private funds, was donated to the National Archives. Since then, the federal system has grown to include all 13 presidents going back to Hoover, whose library was created retroactively.

Today, the museums may draw the crowds, but it’s in the research libraries where historians piece together a more accurate view of a presidency. White House records and other collections at the libraries have, for example, overturned the idea of Dwight D. Eisenhower as a genial, golf-playing figurehead, and revealed the depth of internal debate in Lyndon B. Johnson’s White House over the escalation of the Vietnam War.

“Presidential libraries have opened windows onto how our democracy worked — or failed — at the highest levels,” said Julian E. Zelizer, a historian at Princeton who has done research in eight libraries.

But “America’s pyramids,” as the historian Robert Caro has called them, have also been subject to withering criticism. Over time what were intended as impartial repositories have ballooned into grandiose shrines where former presidents and their foundations wield influence not only at the museums (whose exhibits they pay for) but even, some have charged, in the research reading rooms themselves.

Anthony Clark, the author of “The Last Campaign,” a recent book about presidential libraries, called the Obama Foundation’s break with the existing model “an unambiguous good for the American taxpayer.”

The National Archives “will not be saddled, as it is at the federal presidential libraries of Mr. Obama’s 13 immediate predecessors, with the expense and embarrassment of hosting troublingly politicized exhibits, speakers, events and educational programs,” he said.

Just how the Obama Foundation’s decision to opt out of the current system took shape remains unclear. In Jonathan Alter’s 2010 book “The Promise, ” the newly elected President Obama was quoted musing that maybe his future presidential library should be “an online library.”

The idea was certainly in tune with the increasingly digital nature of the presidential paper trail. In addition to millions of pages of paper, the Obama presidential records include some 300 million emails, as well as Snapchat posts, tweets and other born-digital records.

It is also in line with trends at the National Archives, which faces stagnant budgets and an exploding number of records to care for. The agency’s current strategic plan calls for digitizing all its holdings, which it estimates at amounting to some 12.5 billion pages.

Still, all indications initially pointed to a traditional Obama presidential library in Chicago. In late 2016, military convoys began shipping some 30 million pages of paper documents and 30,000 artifacts to a former furniture store in suburban Hoffman Estates, Ill.

In May 2017, when President Obama appeared in Chicago to unveil the design for the center, renderings included a 50,000-square-foot “Library Building.” But the research facility and archives most people had assumed would be inside it had disappeared.

The decision to break with the National Archives model “was not disclosed” at the unveiling, according to The Chicago Tribune . It was not noted in the foundation’s main news release describing the center, but was instead outlined in a separate, terse release .

Some observers are dismayed at what they see as the lack of transparency, and the slow trickle of information from both the foundation and the National Archives.

“They are creating a fog and confusing the public and the broader historical community about what this thing actually is,” Bob Clark, a former director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, said in an interview.

“Everybody is still calling it a presidential library, but it’s not,” said Mr. Clark, who published a highly critical article about the Obama decision in the journal The Public Historian. “It’s a museum and a headquarters for a foundation that is funding the National Archives’ goal of digitizing all its documents.”

The Digital Future, or ‘Bait and Switch’?

The decision to forgo an on-site partnership with the National Archives could be a problem for the center, which has yet to break ground. A lawsuit currently in federal court is challenging the legality of building it in a public park, calling the abrupt transformation of what had been pitched as a federal “presidential library” into a privately run center an “institutional bait and switch.” (On Tuesday, the judge denied the city’s motion to dismiss the suit and allowed it to proceed.)

Robbin Cohen, the executive director of the Obama Foundation, said in an interview that digitization had been part of the vision from the beginning. “The main goal,” she said, is making the Obama White House records “as accessible and available to the public as possible.”

She declined to be specific about when the decision to forgo a physical library altogether, and to opt out of any National Archives presence in Chicago at all, was made, saying it resulted from an “evolving discussion.”

Ms. Cohen emphasized that the center, while privately run, would have public partnerships. Under an agreement reached last May, it will include a 5,000-square-foot branch of the Chicago Public Library. (The center’s buildings will have an estimated 325,000 gross square feet.)

And it will work with the National Archives to borrow documents and artifacts for display in the museum, which is headed by Louise Bernard, a former director of exhibitions at the New York Public Library.

Ms. Cohen said that “financial requirements” — including a new law requiring that the foundation pay the National Archives 60 percent of the construction costs of federally run portions, as an endowment to cover future maintenance — were a factor. For previous libraries, the figure was only 20 percent.

But the decision, she said, was driven just as much by the logic of digitization. Under National Archives policy researchers are not given access to paper originals when electronic versions are available.

“Even if we were to build a physical library at the center, the records would still be largely accessed digitally,” she said.

As they are released, the documents will be available through both the National Archives Catalog and a dedicated Barack Obama Presidential Library website . As for research support, a spokeswoman for the National Archives said it would have “the same dedicated kinds of staff” for the Obama materials as it has at existing presidential libraries, but would not say where they would be located or provide further details.

Some scholars are alarmed by the decision. “The absence of a true Obama presidential library will have the effect of discouraging serious and potentially critical research into the Obama presidency,” said David Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and the author of “Rising Star,” a nearly 1,500-page biography of Mr. Obama.

Others take a cautiously sanguine view. Mr. Zelizer, the Princeton historian, said there was “enthusiasm for sure” about digital access, but uncertainty over whether the new model would improve or worsen the known frustrations of the current libraries, like huge backlogs in processing and protectiveness around politically sensitive documents .

Ultimately, some in the presidential library system say, the move to a digital model is the future, like it or not.

Meredith R. Evans, the director of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, wrote in a response to Mr. Clark’s article in The Public Historian that she, too, would have liked a physical federal presence at the Obama center, “for the purposes of objectivity” and “stewardship.”

But the realities of money and technology “cannot be denied.”

“Let’s give the digital a try,” she wrote, “before giving in to dismay.”

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of buildings planned for the Obama Presidential Center. It is four, not three.

How we handle corrections

Follow Jennifer Schuessler on Twitter: @jennyschuessler

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• Obama Ahead with Stronger Support, Better Image and Lead on Most Issues

Democrats Narrow Engagement Gap

Table of contents.

• Section 1: The Obama-Romney Matchup
• Section 2: Interest and Engagement
• Section 3: Views of the Candidates
• Section 4: Views of Vice Presidential Candidates, Candidate Spouses, Former Presidents
• About the Surveys

2012 Election Voter Preference Trends

Track voter preferences for Obama vs. Romney overall and by demographic group among registered voters.

At this stage in the campaign, Barack Obama is in a strong position compared with past victorious presidential candidates. With an eight-point lead over Mitt Romney among likely voters, Obama holds a bigger September lead than the last three candidates who went on to win in November, including Obama four years ago. In elections since 1988, only Bill Clinton, in 1992 and 1996, entered the fall with a larger advantage.

Not only does Obama enjoy a substantial lead in the horserace, he tops Romney on a number of key dimensions. His support is stronger than his rival’s, and is positive rather than negative. Mitt Romney’s backers are more ardent than they were pre-convention, but are still not as enthusiastic as Obama’s. Roughly half of Romney’s supporters say they are voting against Obama rather than for the Republican nominee. With the exception of Bill Clinton in 1992, candidates lacking mostly positive backing have lost in November.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted September 12-16, 2012 among 3,019 adults including 2,424 registered voters, finds that Obama continues to be the more likable candidate by a substantial margin; his favorability rating has risen to 55% from 50% in late July, with 42% now expressing an unfavorable view of him.

Romney’s favorability also has risen, from 37% in July to 45% currently. But more (50%) continue to view Romney unfavorably. No previous presidential candidate has been viewed more unfavorably than favorably at this point in a presidential campaign in Pew Research or Gallup September surveys going back to 1988.

Romney has gained no ground on Obama in being seen as more credible or more empathetic, and Obama now leads Romney by nearly three-to-one (66% to 23%) as the candidate who connects well with ordinary Americans – an even wider margin than in June.

With the exception of jobs and the deficit, on which voter opinion is about evenly divided, Obama leads Romney on most key issues, notably healthcare, Medicare, and abortion.

And the survey, conducted amid an outbreak of violence in the Middle East and shortly after the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, shows that Obama has a wide edge when it comes to foreign affairs and national security. Far more voters see Obama as a strong leader and as the candidate voters believe would use good judgment in a crisis. Voters also express more confidence in Obama than Romney to deal with foreign policy generally, as well as problems in the Middle East.

Obama also has a number of other advantages over his challenger. As has been the case for much of the past year, the Democratic Party is better regarded than the GOP by a significant margin; currently, 53% of voters view the Democratic Party favorably while 46% have a favorable opinion of the GOP. Michelle Obama remains extremely popular – 66% have a favorable opinion of the first lady. About as many voters (70%) view Bill Clinton favorably. Joe Biden’s favorable ratings remain mixed, but that also is the case for Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate. Both Biden and Ryan are among the least popular vice presidential candidates in recent history.

The new survey, which began a week after the Democratic convention ended, finds that Democratic engagement in the 2012 election has spiked, and the engagement gap evident earlier in the campaign has largely disappeared. Democratic voters are now as likely as Republicans to say they have given quite a lot of thought to the election and are following campaign news as closely. Democratic voters also are as committed to voting, and as certain of their vote, as are their GOP counterparts.

Consequently, Obama’s overall advantage – he leads 51% to 42% among registered voters – does not narrow significantly when looking only at those most likely to vote. Among 2,192 likely voters, Obama leads Romney, 51% to 43%.

Overall interest in the 2012 election is not as high as it was at this point in the 2008 campaign, with a similar decline among both Democrats and Republicans. But the dropoff in engagement is most noticeable among younger Americans. Just 48% of voters younger than 30 have given a lot of thought to the 2012 election, down from 65% at this point four years ago. The share of young people who say they are closely following election news is down by about half (from 35% to 18%).

By contrast, there has been no falloff in engagement among African American voters. Engagement among black voters, which was higher in September 2008 than in previous elections dating to 1992, remains just as high going into the final weeks of the 2012 campaign.

The nation’s economic situation continues to be Romney’s best friend in this campaign. While trailing on most issues, he runs about even with Obama as the candidate best able to improve the job situation, and there is little indication that voters are feeling better about economy. Just 12% rate national economic conditions as excellent or good. Just 25% say the economy is recovering, while a 46% plurality still thinks it will be a long time before it recovers.

Despite these gloomy opinions, the economy has not turned into a clear advantage for Romney. Almost the same number express confidence in Obama to do the right thing when it comes to fixing the economy (52%); as say the same about Romney (49%).

But the focus on economic issues may benefit Romney among swing voters. Roughly one-in-five voters (22%) are not fully committed to a candidate at this point in the race, and Romney leads Obama by significant margins among these voters as better able to improve the job situation and balance the budget deficit.

Confidence in Obama’s economic stewardship is down significantly since shortly before he took office, but has stabilized in recent years. In January 2009, just prior to his inauguration, fully 75% of voters said they had confidence in Obama to do the right things to fix the economy. After a controversial stimulus plan, heated debate over health care reform and persistently high unemployment, that percentage fell to 51% in December 2009. The current measure shows little change.

Other personal evaluations of Obama show a similar trajectory. The percentage of voters saying Obama makes them feel “hopeful” fell precipitously during the first year of his presidency (from 69% just after his election to 52% in March 2010), but has slipped no further in the three years since (50% in the current survey). Nearly two-thirds (64%) continue to describe Obama as “inspiring,” down from a high of 81% in the days after he was elected, but about the same as in early 2010 (59%).

The survey finds that overall patterns of voter support for Obama and Romney have changed little over the course of the campaign. Obama holds a 56% to 37% lead among women registered voters, but only runs about even among men (47% Romney, 46% Obama). Voters younger than 30 continue to support Obama by a wide margin (59% to 33%). Voters 30 to 49 favor Obama by a 52% to 41% margin; older voters are more evenly divided.

Romney draws broad support from white evangelical Protestants. Race and ethnicity remain key correlates of candidate support: 92% of black voters support Obama, as do 69% of Latinos, compared with 43% of white non-Hispanics. Among whites, Romney runs better among white men and white working class voters than among women and white college graduates.

These patterns broadly parallel racial divides in the 2008 vote. And in that regard, a special analysis of the survey finds that racially conservative attitudes play no greater role in opposition to Obama than they did in 2008.

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