I'm the hero of the story

Photo: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Julia J. Norrell in memory of Lindy Boggs. © Mariana Cook. Permission required for use.

Celebrate Presidents’ Day with five little-known facts about President Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States of America.

1. Pres. Obama was the first African American elected as president of Harvard’s Law Review.

The Harvard Law Review was founded in 1887 and is considered one of the country’s most prestigious legal journals. Law Review journals are an important aspect of law schools. Not only  does it allow students to improve their research and writing, but it offers scholars and judges fresh research to new legal arguments. In 1990, Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the law review, at 28 years old. The position is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School.

2. Pres. Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago’s Law School.

Barack Obama was a professor at University of Chicago’s Law School from 1992 until his election to the US Senate in 2004. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996 and a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004. As Senior Lecturer, he taught three courses per year. He was invited to join the faculty in a full time- tenure track position several times during his 12 years as a professor, but he declined. Each of the Law School’s Senior Lecturers, Obama included, had high-demand careers in politics or public service, which made teaching full time difficult.

Photo: Banner from the 2008 Obama campaign headquarters in Columbia, Missouri, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Gift of the Mid­ Missouri Campaign Field Office, Columbia, MO.

3. Upon his election, Obama was only the fifth African American U.S. Senator.

To date, only nine African Americans have served in the U.S. Senate; but when he was elected in 2004, Pres Obama was only the fifth. The following African Americans have been elected to the US Senate:

Hiram Revels, Mississippi, 1870

Blance K. Bruce, Mississippi, 1874

Edward Brooke, Massachusetts, 1967

Carol Moseley Braun, Illinois, 1992

Barack Obama, Illinois, 2004

Roland W Burris, Illinois, 2008

Tim Scott, South Carolina, 2013

William “Mo” Cowan, Massachusetts, 2013

Cory Booker, New Jersey, 2013

Photo: Portrait of Barack Obama, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

4. Pres. Obama has authored New York Times Bestseller books.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance was published in 1995 and reissued in 2004. In this book, he tells the story of his struggle to find his identity as the son of a black African father and white American mother. He opens up about his personal background and how it formed his character. The Audacity of Hope was published in 2006 and was influenced by his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address. Within the first month of its release, the Audacity of Hope sold about 860,000 copies. In 2010, he released a children’s book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters, that mentions thirteen groundbreaking Americans. Illustrated by Loren Long, the book introduces the contributions of Georgia O’Keefe, Jackie Robinson, and George Washington.

Photo: Hand­painted banner for Obama presidential campaign, Collection of the SmithsonianNational Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Elizabeth Hess.

5. Pres. Obama’s First Inaugural Ceremony in 2009 was record breaking.

According to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Pres. Obama’s first inaugural ceremonies included these facts, firsts, or precedents:

Largest attendance of any event in the history of Washington, DC

Largest attendance of any Presidential Inauguration in U.S. history

First African American to hold the office of President of the United States

First citizen born in Hawaii to hold the office

Highest viewership ever of the swearing-in ceremonies on the Internet

First woman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, to emcee the ceremony

First inaugural webcast to include captioning

First swearing-in ceremony to include an audio description

The Daily Show, January 14, 2016

Photo: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Ernest C. Withers, Courtesy of the Withers Family Trust, © Ernest C. Withers Trust.

“This is not a black holiday; it is a people’s holiday.” Coretta Scott King

On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law. After more than fifteen years of lobbying, King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, achieved her dream. The first official holiday was observed on the third Monday of January in 1986.

Today, the national holiday is traditionally celebrated by a day of service in your local community. 

Check out this list for events in your area: http://mlkday.gov/serve/index.php

Martin Luther King Jr. stands in front of a bus at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott. Montgomery, Alabama December 26, 1956. (Photo Credit: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Martin Luther King Jr is arrested by two white police officers in Montgomery Alabama on September 4, 1958. (Photo Credit: Bettman/Corbis)

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. sits in a jail cell at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama. October 1967. (Photo Credit: Bettman/Corbis)

Dr. King (left) and Stokely Carmichael (right) walk together during the March Against Fear in Mississippi June, 1966. (Photo Credit: Flip Schulke/Corbis )

Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta, lead a five-day march to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery in 1965. (Photo Credit: Bettman/Corbis)

Martin Luther King leading march from Selma to Montgomery to protest lack of voting rights for African Americans. Beside King is John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy. March 1965. (Steve Schapiro/Corbis)