The Making of Barack Obama

March 25, 2007

The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth

The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong.

March 25, 2007

History of schooling distorted

When Barack Obama was a boy here, he studied for three years at a religious school and prayed four times a day.

April 4, 2007

Showing his bare knuckles

The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

May 3, 2007

Careful steps, looking ahead

Sen. Barack Obama calls himself a strong defender of abortion rights, and the presidential contender quickly condemned the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on a controversial late-term procedure. The decision, he feared, "will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman's right to choose."