In 2008, our 44^th President Barak Obama was applauded and hailed as the country’s first African American elected to the White House. But history may not have been all that forthcoming about some of our forefathers and their race. President Obama is actually the 6^th black president according to one historian.

Author J.A. Rogers was a  leading black journalist and historian of his time.  Rogers challenged America on the issues of race and continues to do so through his books including the reprint of “The Five Negro Presidents According to what White People Said They Were”. Rogers based his findings on the one-drop rule– a decree used during slavery and segregation that defined a person as black, if one drop of African ancestry was in a person’s lineage.

Here are 4 Presidents We Didn’t Know Where Black:

Thomas Jefferson -Third President, founding father and author of the Declaration of Independence. Rogers’ book described Jefferson as “…son of a half-breed Indian squaw squired by a Virginia mulatto father.”

Andrew Jackson –Seventh President, founder of the Democratic Party under the campaign slogan “Let the people rule”. Rogers claims Jackson was the son of a white woman who had “intermarried with a Negro and that his eldest brother had been sold as a slave in Carolina”.

Abraham Lincoln -16^th President and considered one of the nation’s greatest presidents. Abolished slavery during the Civil War and was assassinated. In his campaign for Presidency, Lincoln was often referred to as a Negro by opponents and called “Abraham Africanus the First.” His law partner described Lincoln as having black, coarse hair and dark complexion. Rogers’ writes, “Lincoln was the illegitimate son of a Negro…”

Warren Harding – 29^th President’s term was riddled with scandal because of the dishonest and unqualified people he appointed to his cabinet. Rogers’ notes in his book, “Harding’s father is George Tryon Harding, obviously a mulatto; he has thick lips, rolling eyes, chocolate skin.”

Rogers claims there was a Fifth black President, but would not name him in his book due to lack of corroborating evidence. Rogers noted much of the information on the black Presidents was fairly common knowledge in their life time but was suppressed or images were doctored to make the Presidents look white.

So what do you think, convinced these Presidents were black? Or is Obama still the first Black President in your book?

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