“Nontraditional” is an apt description for Barack H. Obama, the first Black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

“The fact that I’m Black makes me nontraditional,” he said. “My background is not typical of most of the members of the law review.”

The Harvard Law Review was founded in 1887 and is considered one of the most prestigious legal publications in the nation. Its alumni frequently become political and business leaders. Articles published in the review often are cited in judicial opinions and legal briefs. Obama, 28, succeeds Peter Yu, the review’s first Chinese American president.

“The body of editors believed that Barack had the necessary leadership skills to bring together and direct the largely diverse body of very intelligent law students and guide the magazine,” Yu said.

Review presidents are elected annually by the publication’s law-student editors. Each February, they lock themselves in a meeting to choose their next leader. Such sessions can run as long as 16 hours.

As the first Black, Obama must have presented the editors with quite a challenge. At 28, the Hawaii-born, second-year law student is also older than most of his contemporaries. He was raised by his Kenyan father and American mother, primarily in Indonesia and Los Angeles.

“I’m nontraditional less in my training than in my focus, and my past and my future plans,” Obama said. “My background is more concrete and hands-on. Issues of public policy and the Black community are of major importance to me.”

Many of his contemporaries will graduate from Harvard and head for clerkships for U.S. Appeals Court judges and Supreme Court Justices. But after he graduates, Obama plans to polish his skills at a law firm for a few years before returning to the Black community, where he worked prior to enrolling in Boston’s Harvard Law School in 1988.

“When I got out of Columbia, I knew I was interested in working on a community level, rebuilding inner-cities in some capacity,” said Obama.