Chapter 2
Obama met Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, a lawyer and native of Chicago's South Side who was assigned to guide him through his first internship during law school. After graduating, he made the decision not to be a law clerk but instead to return to Chicago and continue his work as a community organizer while working at a civil rights law firm. He then married Michelle. They both found jobs that used their law experience and began living a fulfilling community life. The opportunity to run for a seat in the Illinois State Senate arose, and Obama decided to take it, in spite of his mother's worsening uterine cancer. He collected signatures to get on the ballot and made the difficult decision to use a state rule to prevent the position's current Democratic occupant from running again.
Obama's mother died during his campaign, and he was unable to get back to Hawaii in time to say goodbye. Obama served as state senator for eight years. He often found his work frustrating because he believed his fellow lawmakers made decisions based on their political advantage rather than on morality. During this time, his daughter Malia was born. Michelle felt that Obama often fell short in his family duties, leading to arguments. Obama decided to run for United States Congress but lost in a landslide.
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A Promised Land
Non-FictionA riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making-from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his im...
