Barack Obama Presidency oral history collection, bulk 2020-2023
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Collection context
- Extent:
- 469 items
- Language:
- English
- Scope and content:
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The Obama Presidency oral history collection contains over 450 oral history interviews and roughly 1100 hours of audio and video with government officials, politicians, activists, organizers, and ordinary people, which together form the official oral history of the Obama presidency.
This project was led by Incite at Columbia University, which houses the Columbia Center for Oral History Research (CCOHR), with support from the Obama Foundation. Columbia also partnered with scholars from the University of Hawai'i, who conducted interviews surrounding President Obama's early life in Hawai'i, and the University of Chicago, who focused on President Obama's and First Lady Michelle Obama's years in Chicago.
The purpose of this project was to create a historical archive of the Obama presidency. In contrast with other, more traditional presidential oral history projects, this project aimed to incorporate not only the voices of high-level decision makers with the administration, but also the stories of everyday "ordinary" people to analyze the overall impact of the presidency on the country. This study sought to decenter the presidency itself, and focus on the people and experiences who exist in orbit of the presidency: those that work in the administration and those who are impacted by the administration. A portion of the study is also focused on First Lady Michelle Obama's work as well as the work of her staff in the East Wing of the White House.
Research for the project started in 2019, three years after the end of Obama's second term. The vast majority of interviews were conducted remotely via video conference due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Interviewing concluded in May 2023. The project had a full-time research team of historians, sociologists, political scientists, and journalists, as well as an advisory board of scholars in history, journalism, political science, sociology, and public health.
- Biographical / historical:
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Barack Obama, born August 4, 1961, is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017, the first Black American to hold this office. Prior to being elected president, Obama served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008, as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. Prior to his work in government, President Obama was a civil rights lawyer, university lecturer, and community organizer in Chicago, Illinois.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, he graduated with a B.A. in political science from Columbia University in 1983 and later worked as a community organizer in Chicago. In 1988, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review. He became a civil rights attorney and taught at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.
Throughout his eight years in the oval office, President Obama oversaw major changes in the landscape of America. Major legislation that was passed during his presidency includes the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Affordable Care Act, also known as as "the ACA'' or "Obamacare", the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (which established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Tax Relief, and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
Other major events during the Obama presidency include the appointment of two Supreme Court judges (Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan), an operation that resulted in the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal), an attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi in 2012, a mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 26 people including 20 young children, a substantial increase in the use of drone strikes, and the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba. Many new political and social movements rose in prominence, including the Tea Party movement within the Republican party, and the Black Lives Matter movement, in response to several murders of several unarmed Black people at the hands of the police around the country.
He is the author of three books, Dreams From My Father, The Audacity of Hope, and A Promised Land, and is the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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All interviews are fully open online, with the exception of Philip Schiliro (closed until 2030) and Mohamedou Ould Slahi (closed until June 1, 2030), and Oprah Winfrey, which can be viewed a locked-down laptop at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library reading room at Columbia University.
- Location of this collection:
- Contact:
- oralhist@library.columbia.edu