He was the first black president of Harvard Law Review

Obama was elected as the Harvard Law Review's first African-American president in 1990. The New York Times spoke with him regarding his new position. Obama claimed that although some black kids are qualified for the position, they have no chance of getting it.

Obama enrolled at Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988 despite receiving a full scholarship to Northwestern University's law school and residing in neighboring Somerville, Massachusetts. He was chosen to serve as the Harvard Law Review's editor after his first year, its president in his second year, and Laurence Tribe's research assistant for two years when he was a student at Harvard. He went back to Chicago for the summer, working as a summer associate at Hopkins & Sutter in 1990 and Sidley Austin in 1989 the receipt a Harvard Law School degree in 1989.

Obama's selection as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review attracted national media attention, and it also prompted the Harvard Law School to print and promote a book on racial relations became a personal memoir. Midway through 1995, the manuscript was released as Dreams from My Father.