The Idea of a Black President

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The Idea of a Black President
Wednesday, 16 January 2008


Mumia Abu-Jamal

So deeply rooted are assumptions of the "normality" of white rule in the United States, Americans of all races have trouble wrapping their minds around the very idea of a Black president. Which only goes to show that the 100 million-strong U.S. Neighbor to the south is, in an important sense, culturally and historically more advanced than the United States. Mexico chose an "African-Indian" president in 1829, nearly four decades before Black men in the U.S. Were granted the constitutional right to vote. Vicente Guerrero led the battle for independence from Spain and ended slavery in Mexico, the "George Washington and Abraham Lincoln" of his country. Yet, in the U.S., "178 years later, we still wonder if such a thing is possible."
The Idea of a Black President

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

This article originally appeared in Prison Radio.

"Mexico had a Black president some 173 years ago."





For much of the U.S. Populace, the very idea of a Black president is one so new, so novel, that it forces many people to think of it as if it is barely possible - as if it is the stuff of fiction, not fact. Fiction has indeed been the realm of this idea, as in movies and television series, actors have played the part; but that, of course, is on TV.

Of course, time will tell if that is more than imagination, but for millions of people who share this vast land space we call North America, the idea is neither new nor ground-breaking. That's because there are some 100 million people living in Mexico, and that country had a Black president, albeit briefly, some 173 years ago.

It was during their war for independence from Spain when a warrior emerged, a Black Indian named Vicente Guerrero. In his first battle, he was commissioned a captain. As the independence war raged on, many of the leading revolutionaries were either killed or captured. Guerrero fought on, leading some 2,000 men into the Sierra Madre mountains to continue the fight.

By 1821, the Mexicans were prevailing over the Spanish, and Guerrero was hailed as an incorruptible independence fighter. In 1829 he became president of Mexico, and as scholar William Loren Katz writes in his 1986 book, "Black Indians":

"He began a program of far-reaching reforms, abolishing the death penalty and starting construction of schools and libraries for the poor. He ended slavery in Mexico. Yet, because of his skin color, lack of education and country manner, he was held in contempt by the upper classes in Mexico City."

This president, who had, according to U.S. Historian M.H. Bancroft, "a gentleness and magnetism that inspired love among his adherents," was still "a triple-blooded outsider."

"Because of his skin color, lack of education and country manner, Guerrero was held in contempt by the upper classes."

Black historian J.A. Rogers summarized Guerrero's striking accomplishments by calling him "the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of Mexico" (page 48).

Guerrero, who in his youth was an illiterate mule driver, once bitten by the bug of Mexican independence, rose to the highest office in the land. He learned to read when he was about 40 and helped craft the Mexican Constitution, of which he wrote the following provision: "All inhabitants whether white, African or Indian, are qualified to hold office." He wrote this in 1824, over 30 years before the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision, which announced, emphatically, that "a Black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect," and that Black people weren't, and could never be, citizens of the United States.


In that era of revolution and social transformation, a Black man became president of the second largest country in North America. Today, 178 years later, we still wonder if such a thing is possible.

What does that say about the United States?

© Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal.

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