Earliest chance for a non-white American first lady

So, as it says on the tin. What's the first chance for a non-white woman to become a First Lady? The earliest chance I can think of would be if Martin Van Buren died in office, his veep, Richard Johnson had a African-American wife.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Jefferson acknowledges his relationship/children with Sally Hemmings and marries her, much to the scandal of the early Republic.
 
Jefferson acknowledges his relationship/children with Sally Hemmings and marries her, much to the scandal of the early Republic.

That would be interesting in itself.
Would Jefferson be a viable presidential candidate if he does so before election? Could he be elected after that, and what effects would this have?
Conversely, what would happen if he does so while in office? Could he be forced to resign (I suppose this is unlikely, but still...) ? Not re-elected if he acknolwedges the relationship in his first term? And what consequences would it have in general?
I think this is worth exploring...
 
I'd like to know this too. I plan to have a TL in which the soldier of fortune Frederick Townsend Ward survives his time as a general during the Taiping Rebellion and then moves back to America to become POTUS in 1896. The thing is that he married a chinese women while in China. She died soon after he was killed in battle in OTL but that can be butterflied away. My problem is that I'm not sure if the American public would approve of electing a POTUS with a non-white first lady let alone a foreign born one.
 
So, as it says on the tin. What's the first chance for a non-white woman to become a First Lady? The earliest chance I can think of would be if Martin Van Buren died in office, his veep, Richard Johnson had a African-American wife.

An "Indian Princess" would be viable at any time, if she were acculturated. If Martha dies and George Washington remarries someone suitable, the first non-white First Lady could be the first First Lady.
 
So, as it says on the tin. What's the first chance for a non-white woman to become a First Lady? The earliest chance I can think of would be if Martin Van Buren died in office, his veep, Richard Johnson had a African-American wife.

Well she was 7/8ths European. But yeah I suppose there's that.
 
So, as it says on the tin. What's the first chance for a non-white woman to become a First Lady? The earliest chance I can think of would be if Martin Van Buren died in office, his veep, Richard Johnson had a African-American wife.

I think his wife died before he was VP though.

I'm also pretty sure he never actually freed her.

(Though to be fair, calling her "African-American" when she was 7/8ths white is a bit much)
 
I think his wife died before he was VP though.

I'm also pretty sure he never actually freed her.

(Though to be fair, calling her "African-American" when she was 7/8ths white is a bit much
)

Race is all about perception, not genetic reality.
 

Delta Force

Banned
Indeed but in this case we have to worry about the perceptions of race held by 19th centuary Americans in order to answer the posters question.

She would be considered African American just like Homer Plessy (who was also 7/8 white).
 
She would indeed. It didn't matter how 'white' you looked, you could look like a viking, but if you had one drop of black blood, you were considered to be black. Ridiculous, but there it was.
If Van Buren had died in office, then she becomes first lady by default. There would certainly be some grumbling, especially in the south, but nothing that would derail the presidency.
She would be considered African American just like Homer Plessy (who was also 7/8 white).
 
I'd like to know this too. I plan to have a TL in which the soldier of fortune Frederick Townsend Ward survives his time as a general during the Taiping Rebellion and then moves back to America to become POTUS in 1896. The thing is that he married a chinese women while in China. She died soon after he was killed in battle in OTL but that can be butterflied away. My problem is that I'm not sure if the American public would approve of electing a POTUS with a non-white first lady let alone a foreign born one.

Given she's not black, that might not upset a lot of people the way a black one would.

I don't agree with MEJ (a former board member who was a bisexual black militant who hated Christianity) often, but I will agree that anti-black racism is much stronger than anti-anyone-else racism.

The first Chinese were welcomed to California (the then-governor talked about how wonderfully diverse the Golden State was or something like that), but then they started seriously competing with whites and people got pissed off.
 
She would indeed. It didn't matter how 'white' you looked, you could look like a viking, but if you had one drop of black blood, you were considered to be black. Ridiculous, but there it was.
If Van Buren had died in office, then she becomes first lady by default. There would certainly be some grumbling, especially in the south, but nothing that would derail the presidency.

Well, not exactly. After all, her children were eventually accepted as white.
 
considering its taken over two hundred years for them to accept a non white as president itself, id imagine this would be more doable but still post 1960's-70's
 
Not exactly a nitpick, but the OP asked for the first non-white first lady, not the first non-white president's wife. Although a First Lady is usually the president's wife she's not always - daughters or sisters of presidents have held the job at various times, especially when POTUS has been unmarried or a widower. The First Lady really only has to be whoever the president chooses to act as hostess at official functions at the White House. I don't know if this helps widen the pool at all?
 
How about Dolly Curtis. If something had happened to Hoover, she would be the one. As the previous poster said, his half-sister would count.
 

scholar

Banned
A bachelor presidenty/widowed president attains office, marries someone-anyone- who happens to not be white.

If we consider Latino not to be white, then it becomes ridiculously easy. Believe it or not early United States loved the Spanish, a bit less than either the French or the British, but the Spanish assisted America in the war of independence [taking Florida for their troubles] and their popularity didn't wane with the French's. Even with troubles over Florida. It took a while for the United States to sour to Spain.
 
A bachelor presidenty/widowed president attains office, marries someone-anyone- who happens to not be white.

If we consider Latino not to be white, then it becomes ridiculously easy. Believe it or not early United States loved the Spanish, a bit less than either the French or the British, but the Spanish assisted America in the war of independence [taking Florida for their troubles] and their popularity didn't wane with the French's. Even with troubles over Florida. It took a while for the United States to sour to Spain.

Pardon me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't the term Latino only refer to Latin Americans?
 

scholar

Banned
Pardon me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't the term Latino only refer to Latin Americans?
Pardon me if I'm not mistaken, but does Spain rule over the entirety of Latin America at this time and most of the people being regarded as Spaniards? Latino is a relatively modern invention used to create an artificial difference between northern/western Europeans and southwestern Europeans [back when everyone was obsessed with cataloging races to the point where each sub division of a nation had one, often substituting nationalism for it]. Depending on who you talk to Spain and Portugal is included alongside Cuba and Brazil, or not.

Hell, around the first time it appeared Latino included all of the Romance Nations, including France. :eek:
 
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