Orville W. Taylor

It might only seem important to the half dozen or so American citizens who are currently masquerading as Jamaican Members of Parliament on both sides of the House, but Barack Obama looks like he has a legitimate shot at becoming the sixth black president of the United States.

Yeah! Read on!

Last week was Super Tuesday, when delegates from 24 states voted to select presidential candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties in what are called primary elections, or 'primaries'. Never mind the fates of John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Those are Republican and in a different 'race'. On the other hand, Obama, the offspring of a black Kenyan and a white American woman, is caught up in two races. Under American rules, his African ancestry has pre-eminence in his racial identification and he is in a close contest with Hillary Clinton.

Clinton, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, who almost lost his presidency due to his oral sexual encounter with Monica Lewinsky, is in a 'head-to-head' battle for the second time in a decade. Of the 21 states contested by Democrats last week, Obama won 13, compared to Hillary's eight. However, based on the distribution of voters across the states, she came away with 584 delegates compared with 563 for Obama.

Obama ahead in popular vote

After earlier primaries, each had won two states. Now, Obama is ahead in the popular vote. Some pollsters suggest that he leads by four per cent. Nonetheless, he is behind in the national delegate count, trailing Clinton by some 100 delegates. It will still be a mammoth task for him to get elected because the Democratic Party has a set of super delegates who are party officials with votes that are not determined by the number of constituents that they represent. This undemocratic feature might very well bend the contest one way or another.

The truth is, the party that is now seen as the pro-black advocate has come a long way in having a black leading candidate. True, it was considered that Bill Clinton was a black front-runner even before becoming president, but he is not verified as such. This Democratic Party was anti-black in origin. Abraham Lincoln was Republican and it was his Vice-President, Democrat, Andrew Johnson, who initiated many of the racist policies that reversed his pro-black initiatives after 1865.

Ironically, the Republican Party was founded in direct response to the racist activities of the Ku Klux Klan and the Democrats, and it was not until the 1950s to 1960s that there was a change of course. Up to the era of John F Kennedy, well-known racist senator, Strom Thurmond, was a dogged, clenched-fist backer of the Democrats but he shifted along with the tide as the Democrats embraced the Civil Rights Movement.

Still, the prospect of a 'brother' becoming president in George Bush's America is so exciting it makes my mouth water. After all, it would not be such a bad idea on the grounds of pure justice. Call it payback. For centuries, we had white governors her we never had a white prime minister. No! No! Pappa Eddie is not white; he came from the Middle East.

However, as we cross our ten fingers, toes and even our eyes, the possibility of Obama making history is very real. At present, he is the only black senator in Congress and only the fifth in American history, the first being Hiram Revels in 1870, and the second, Blanche K. Bruce in 1874. Believe it or not, the racist policies initiated by President Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln's successor in 1865, kept African-Americans out of the Senate for a century. It was not until the election of Edward Brooke in 1967 that the trend was reversed. Before Obama, who entered the Senate in 2005, Carole Moseley-Braun was the lone black voice.

African ancestry

While Obama might clearly be the fifth black senator, he could, also, be the sixth president with traceable or suspected African ancestry. Despite the absence of his father, his ability to play the 'sexophone,' and 'gallism', Clinton is not known to be black. However, founding father of the American nation, Thomas Jefferson, was alleged by one of his political opponents during a 1796 presidential campaign to be "a mean-spirited son of a half-breed Indian squaw and a Virginia mulatto father". Jefferson had DNA-traced offspring with his slave, Sally Hemmings.

It is not difficult to accept that he could have been black because there were very few European women in the early colonies and half-breeds were often substitutes. Children of a white and mulatto parent often look pure white. Check Michael Manley!

According to Jamaican J.A. Rogers, who wrote large pieces about black history, Lincoln's mother was said to have admitted that he was the progeny of a black man. In support of this thesis, William Hendon, Lincoln's law partner in a book titled, The Hidden Lincoln, declared that his acknowledged father, Thomas Lincoln, did not die intestate, but could not have sired him because childhood mumps had left him sterile. It is uncertain if this has anything to do with Lincoln always being portrayed in a black jacket.

Warren Harding, president from 1921 to 1923, reportedly had said: "How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence?" He had been faced with the charge of being of impure blood.

Calvin Coolidge is also said to have admitted to possible mixed Indian heritage. However, Auset Bakhufus, in Six Black Presidents, observed that those alleged Indians were in fact diluted with black blood.

Let's pray and get some good Jamaican science for him and "mek we heal him in the Obama yard".

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at UWI, Mona.