'Black Presidents': 6 United States Commanders In Chief Before Obama

6 'Black Presidents' Before Barack Obama
US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with the Presidents Commission on Election Administration in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with the Presidents Commission on Election Administration in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Barack Obama is widely known as the United States' first black president. But is he really the country's first African-American commander-in-chief?

Of course author Toni Morrison famously declared that former president Bill Clinton was really the nation's first black head of state, however, rumor has it there are six other former presidents who had African-American ancestry.

Several scholars have discussed the genealogy of these presidents in the past, and the debate was reignited after Obama was elected in 2008.

Check out the slideshow below for a list of former heads of state who allegedly were descendants of African-Americans.

Thomas Jefferson

'Black Presidents'

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