was barrack obama the first African American to run for president if not who was it please help and many thanks

This site will give you the answer to that.

http://african-american-non-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/africanamerican_history_month

what is the rule congress has established for the election of its membership?

You're welcome! The first African American to run for president was actually not Barack Obama. The first African American to run for president in the United States was Shirley Chisholm. She ran for the Democratic Party's nomination in 1972.

To find this information, you can use various reliable sources, such as history books, news articles, or official websites. I recommend searching for "first African American to run for president" on search engines like Google. This will give you a list of results where you can find more detailed information about Shirley Chisholm's historic candidacy.