Illinois Sen. Barack Hussein Obama shifted to accepting the mantle of becoming the nation's first African-American president. He had taken positions involving national, political, economic, and social issues - and emphasizing the withdrawal of the American troops from Iraq, increasing energy independence, decreasing the influence of lobbyists, and promoting universal health care as the top national priorities.   Senator Joseph Biden, his vice-presidential running mate, also has made history by becoming the first Roman Catholic to be elected Vice-President.    

President Obama is married to the phenomenal Michelle Robinson Obama. The Obamas have two lovely daughters - 10-year-old Malia and seven-year-old Sasha. The girls have become America's sweethearts.   At the recent inaugural brunch, hosted by the AACS Omni Committee, former AACS President Vikki Taylor said, "America has brought itself into mercy, an opportunity for diversion from a self-destructive path by choosing Barack Obama. Now that we have seen, we can embrace the faith of our ancestors. We can continue the journey - this struggle - knowing that it can take us where we have always hoped and need to go."  

Nonetheless, Democratic Executive Committee Treasurer Melba McCarty said, "I share the pride we African-Americans have in the election of President Obama, a man who embodies qualities and leadership that can transform our country. However, the reality is he is just one man, and we must all remain politically engaged for the true substantive change that he promotes to become a reality."   

The baby boy named Barack went by the nickname Barry, having been born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961, to Barack, Sr., of Alego, Kenya Colony, and the former Stanley Ann Dunham of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In his memoir, "Dreams From My Father," President Obama wrote, "At the time of his death (in an auto accident), my father remained a myth to me...He had left Hawaii back in 1963 when I was only two-years-old, so that as a child I knew him only through the stories that my mother and grandparents told."   

His parents met as students at the University of Honolulu while his father was on scholarship and later would win another scholarship to study at Harvard for his Ph.D. The couple divorced when young Barack was four-years-old. His mother remarried another foreign student, who this time was born in Indonesia. It was there that the story is told of his mother drilling Barack on school work early before leaving for work. Classes were taught in the Indonesian language in Catholic school and then a secular, government school. Barack wrote an essay in the third grade of becoming president. His teacher later told the "Chicago Tribune" that she was not sure which country he wanted to become president of. He has a sister, Maya, who was born of the union of his mother's second marriage, in addition to seven surviving siblings in Africa.   

Indonesia's poverty and corruption became clear as Barack questioned his mother about the country and how they were able to afford a better house. She used every opportunity to shape his values for a return to America. She bought books on the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, gospel giant Mahalia Jackson's records, and had Barack read "Life Magazine" while waiting for her at her job. The material gave him ideas concerning the treatment of people of color in his homeland.   Identity issues surfaced many times as puberty, peer pressures centering on race, as well as life without a father, forced him to reconcile matters. 

As he grew taller, seeking answers at age 15, he found basketball an answer to some of life's many questions. Since the age of 10, Barack had been living in Hawaii with his grandparents, Toot and Gramps Dunham. It was there that he attended Punahou, a Hawaiian prep school made possible by his grandfather's boss, a former graduate.   An older kid moved to the neighborhood, giving Barack a Black male friend with whom he could puzzle through that phase. At the crossroads of his life, he decided he would not waste his intellectual gifts. The pair discussed the aspects of what goes into learning how to be a Black male in America. It was then that he turned to the writings of his elders - James Baldwin, RalphEllison, W. E. B. Dubois, and Malcolm X.   

Barack settled on attending Occidental College in Los Angeles, transferring in two years to Columbia University, where he became a political science major, having a focus on international relations, as well as earning a B.A. degree. Barack began working in Chicago as a community organizer, prior to earning his law degree at Harvard Law School. He was the first African-American president of the "Harvard Law Review" even though the publication had a 104-year history. Barack graduated magna cum laude in 1991 from Harvard with a J.D. degree. His mother passed away from ovarian and uterine cancer in 1995, a few months after his memoir was published.   

He served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 and, in 2005, became the junior United States Senator from Illinois. In Springfield, Illinois, during February 2007, he announced his candidacy for the presidency, and secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination in June 2008. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his remaining opponent in the quest for the nomination, conceded defeat and urged her supporters to back Obama. His Democratic National Convention acceptance speech was a crowning achievement. He became the first African-American in history to run on a major party ticket. Senator John McCain was the Republican opponent. Moreover, it was November 4, 2008, that Barack Hussein Obama won the election, making him the first African-American elected President of the United States. 

In addition to all of his accolades, we bear witness that at the Inaugural Ball, celebrating his victory, President Barack Obama could DANCE!  The members of the AACS are awe-inspired to salute the Commander-in-Chief, President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States!