Hi I'm a moderator over at /r/presidents. It's a pretty small sub and probably not as active as it could be. Anyways, today a user posted a link that purports to explain how seven U.S. presidents other than Obama were black. A lot of these claims seem spurious--particularly about Andrew Jackson and Lincoln. Indeed, last year a post on this subreddit debunked one of them. But maybe there is some truth to the claims about Harding and Coolidge. I really don't know. I was wondering if anyone could help shed light on this matter.
I'm not particularly invested in whether they were black or not. I would like to settle the issue, however, given the somewhat extraordinary claim on a dubious-looking blog. Here's the post in question.
Questions like this are tricky, as we basically have to prove a negative - "how not black was Abe Lincoln?" That being said, there are several clear, obvious problems in this article.
The foremost problem is that virulent, endemic racism was part of the United States' political structure until at least the Civil War. At no point could black people vote in the United States before the Civil War. Certainly, no person considered to be black by society, or who considered themselves black, could have risne to high political office, or ANY political office.
Breaking this down by claim:
1 )John Hanson. The Continental Congress strenuously resisted allowing African-Americans to serve in their armies for years before it became an obvious military necessity. That body would not allow a black man to sit in their ranks. Also, we have contemporary portraits of him. He was not black.
It should also be noted that the President of Congress was more like the Speaker of the House than the modern President of the United States. He certainly did not have the authority to "order all foreign troops off American soil." Considering that the only foreign troops in-country that recognized Congress' authority were in the allied French army that laid siege to Yorktown that year, Hanson and the Congress he administered did NOT ask anyone to leave. This is nonsense.
Thomas Jefferson sat near the apex of Virginia plantation society, which led the charge in both defining whiteness and protecting slavery. We have many, many portraits of him. Virginia slaveowners would not let a black man lead them. Jefferson was not black.
Andrew Jackson's parents were fresh-off-the-boat Scots-Irish. We have portraits of him. He was not black.
Abraham Lincoln lived in Illinois at a time when African-Americans were barred from residing in the state. We have photographs of him. He was not black. Claims that he had African descent were clearly political caricatures attacking him for his anti-slavery stances.
Warren Harding threatened to beat the political opponent that was spreading rumors that he was of black descent. We have photographs of him. He was not black.
We have photographs of Calvin Coolidge. He was not black.
Dwight D. Eisenhower served in white units in the US Army, which was still segregated until the 1950s. We have photographs of Dwight Eisenhower. He was not black.
