Before and after the election of Barack Obama as the first African Americanpresident of the United States in 2008, the idea of a black president has been explored by various writers in novels (including science fiction), movies and television, as well as other media. Numerous actors have portrayed a black president. Such portrayals have occurred in both serious works and comedies.
. . . African-American presidents of the United States in popular culture . . .
As writers and directors cast blacks as president in several memorable portrayals, depictions of fictional black presidents may have accustomed Americans to accept a black man as president.[1][2][3] Actor Dennis Haysbert who played a black president on the hit show 24, said the portrayal “may have opened the eyes, the minds and the hearts of people because the character was so well liked.”[4] The show also raised the issue of whether television series “like political trial ballons, can ready the populace for change.”[5][6][7]
After Barack Obama‘s election, the television show the Cosby Show was cited for what has been termed the “Huxtable effect” for the influence of its “warmhearted” portrayal, “free of street conflicts and ghetto stereotypes – that broke ground for its depiction of an upwardly mobile black family.” The show has even been cited by some observers as a factor in Obama’s victory.[8]
In 1964 Irving Wallace published The Man, a popular novel addressing the idea of a black president, named Douglas Dillman in the book. Recently a critic described it as a window into “Kennedy-era racial pathologies”, despite the author’s liberal attitude. It included the portrayal of attractive multiracial or “mulatto” women who could pass for white, as does the hero Dillman’s own light-skinned daughter.[9]The Man—which was made into a 1972 movie starring James Earl Jones as Dillman—noted factors against a black president being elected in America, and Dillman’s coming to power through an unlikely series of circumstances of succession.[1]
Other novels featuring a first black president include Philip K. Dick‘s The Crack in Space (1966), T. Ernesto Bethancourt’s young adult novel The Tomorrow Connection[10] (1984) and T.D. Walters’ self-published thriller The Race[11] (2007).
. . . African-American presidents of the United States in popular culture . . .