As usual the progressives go beyond being disgusting in their attempts to rewrite history along racial lines that help them achieve their objectives i.e. building public sentiment to get votes for Obama being the first black president when he is possibly the third (excluding Clinton whose black heritage is fairly dilute). Two articles with documentation follow: Clayton County Library System Good reads, current happening at CCLS and other musings The First Black President ??? Will it be Barak Obama, come the wee hours of November 4 and on a January morning in 2009? Or was it Bill Clinton, our forty-second President, so-called because of his policies favorable to and inclusive of African-Americans (as well as women and other minorities)? Or was it John Hanson, from 1781 – 1782, before George Washington? A patron posed a fascinating question to us the other morning: Was there, for one day, a black President of the United States? He said that his grandmother had read the claim in a textbook during her college years, and he wanted to verify it for himself. We performed a web search that yielded this information: Comedian Dick Gregory writes in his Global Watch column that a John Hanson served as president from November 5, 1781 – November 3, 1782, predating the presidency of George Washington by seven years. The article’s header states that Hanson was “A ‘Black’ Man, A Moor,” though it gives no evidence to Hanson’s color or origin. Other web search results point back to Gregory’s article, and no other verifying sources were immediately found. Then a search under Hanson’s name revealed that neither claim may be true. John Hanson was indeed a President of the U.S., but under the Articles of Confederation, which pre-dates our Constitution and the Executive Office as we know it. Also, he was the second president to serve under the Articles, though he was the first to serve a full one year term. Even in the whole scheme of things, he was the third president to preside over the Continental Congress of the U.S, and that was never an executive post with the powers and responsibilities of the office now. Though little is written about him from his time, nothing in the writings suggest that Hanson was black. Portraits of the period show him as a white man. A Wikipedia article on Hanson – that addresses myths about him and his term of service – states that the belief of his race is rooted in the fact that his grandfather was an indentured servant. There is possibly confusion between indentured servitude and chattel slavery: indentured servants were black or white, and worked for a number of years to earn their freedom; chattel slaves were always black, and had no option of freedom outside of escape. The article also states that Hanson may be confused with another John Hanson, a Liberian Senator during the 1850’s (pictured above with Obama and Clinton). Assisting the gentleman with his query is one of the things I enjoy about reference work: Searching and discovering information that helps our patrons as well as edifies me. I had heard that there were other presidents before George Washington, but know now of the nature of their presidency; and that maybe, one may have been of African decent, though not likely. The experience also underlines the importance of thorough research and backing information with verifiable and reputable sources, whether it’s a controversial claim like Gregory’s, or an average grade school report. The information that is transmitted impacts the knowledge of the hearer, as well as the reputation of the writer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have referenced two Wikipedia articles in this essay. Because its articles are written by people whose expertise in an article’s subject is questionable, many librarians — myself included — are wary of using Wikipedia as a sole source of information, and recommend using other resources to verify its information. The reader may want to research further the information in the Wikipedia articles, as well as Gregory’s article. Also consider this: Thought you would like to know that Lincoln was half black! Just for those people that keep insisting that Obama is the first black president! Home World Entertainment Sci/Tech Business Sports Health Opinion Most Popular Spoof News Home | Most Popular | Abraham Lincoln Was Half Black Historians Reveal Abraham Lincoln Was Half Black Historians Reveal By Joel Reamer 18/08/2008 23:00:00 Barack Obama is the new Abraham Lincoln WASHINGTON DC – USA – The sixteenth president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln has been discovered to have had a black father according to historians and scientists working for the Institute of Historical Science which is linked to Harvard university. Records dating to February 12, 1809 officially remark that Abraham Lincoln’s parents were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, however, there has been a new discovery which has put a new slant on the issue of parentage. Abraham Lincoln’s mother was having an affair with a black plantation worker and new DNA evidence suggests that she somehow tricked her husband into believing that Abraham was the couples child. Secret love letters unearthed in 2003 reveal that Lincoln’s mother was conducting a clandestine affair with a slave named Iemis from a Kentucky plantation. “We managed to attain DNA evidence from a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair which proves that he had a very strong African genetic link. His chromosome makeup is very specific to West African DNA patterns and this suggests that Abraham’s real father was indeed of African origin,” Dr. Alan Holdsworth, who is the chief Anthropologist on this project told National Geographic magazine. The Obama campaign team, on hearing of the wonderful news have already started production of a short film to be aired on all networks next week. Senator McCain’s campaign team are of course trying to refute the evidence collated by the scientific researchers as false and have demanded the team re-do the DNA analysis of Abraham Lincoln’s hair. “Now we know why he was so vehemently opposed to slavery. Lincoln’s father was a slave. His mother, a poor white farmer’s wife had slept with a black slave and somehow concealed this fact from her husband. It’s almost like something you would see on Jerry Springer or Maury,” a reporter from the Fox News Network said. With the prospect of another half black president on the way, America must come to terms with its past before it embraces its future.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:47:08 +0000
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