Earliest Period for a Black POTUS?

Basically, what is the earliest you can imagine a black man becoming President of the United States?

I recall a TL here once that had a black man becoming POTUS after being V.P. and the President being assassinated as early as the 1880's or so, which I thought was very interesting and, surprisingly, believable TBH.

I think once you get into the radio/TV era the chances decreases a lot as image becomes much more of an issue, but there were several black Congressmen elected after the Civil War and while it's hard to imagine any of them being elected President directly at the time, it's not out of the realm of possibility that one could have found himself selected as someone's running mate to attract the new black vote in the south and then becoming President due to assassination/death due to health issues.

I dunno, just something I was thinking about. When do you think is the earliest period a black man could have realistically become POTUS?
 
The vp Lincoln chose turns out to be a radical, large scale land redistrution and serious efforts to undo the damage of slavery.

At some stage a President (more likely a Republican) has a black Secretary of State and both President and VP die ( the S of S place in the line of succession came in the 1880s)

Imaginably you have President Frederick Douglass
 

Pangur

Donor
My guess would be a not that much earlier than it happened in reality. The way I reason it goes like this.


  • You have to 35 at a mininum
  • Having said that the trend for the last 100 plus years has been for presidents to be far bit older- 50`s - Obama is a bit different there- he was 46
  • To even get a crack at it sufficient time has to have passed so that the candidate has what can be seen as a normal upbring & education- 40 years - that length to get as many of the old guard out of power
  • The above point leads you to the Civil rights movement - say take 1968 as the end period of the mass movement 1968 plus 40 = 2008
 
I have difficult imagine black president earlier than 1980's and this is quiet difficult already. You need early POD if you want black president so early.
 
There was a lot of progress for African Americans in the period after the Civil War, which was subsequently set back by the turn of the 20th century. If you manage to prevent Jim Crow somehow, you could probably get a black president by the 1960s.
 
The vp Lincoln chose turns out to be a radical, large scale land redistrution and serious efforts to undo the damage of slavery.

At some stage a President (more likely a Republican) has a black Secretary of State and both President and VP die ( the S of S place in the line of succession came in the 1880s)

Imaginably you have President Frederick Douglass
Really, really unlikely.

There was no black cabinet officer of ANY rank until 1966, iOTL, at least according to Wiki
Robert C. Weaver became the first African-American to hold a Cabinet-level position when he was appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1966
, and even then they were HUD and Transport until Colin Powell.

Could a Radical Republican have appointed a Black as Secretary of the Interior, or something

OK. Lincoln's cabinet apparently had the following positions
Cabinet Members Under Lincoln

Secretary of State William H. Seward, 1861Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, 1861
William P. Fessenden, 1864
Hugh McCulloch, 1865Secretary of War Simon Cameron, 1861
Edwin M. Stanton, 1862Attorney General Edward Bates, 1861
James Speed, 1864Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, 1861
William Dennison, 1864Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, 1861Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith, 1861
John P. Usher, 1863

Read more: Cabinet Members Under Lincoln — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101218.html#ixzz1nOqcXL1Y

Now, SecState dealing with foreigners, a black man has to be right out.
War and Navy: Where would they get someone with the right qualifications?
And AG would be really inflammatory.

That leaves Postmaster General or Interior. I could see either of those going to someone of stature like Frederick Douglas - but any disaster where the Postmaster General succeeds to the presidency is likely one that's big enough that the US descends into Civil War again (possibly with different sides). ESPECIALLY if you try to impose a black man as president.
 
Hey, I figured out how to do multiple quotes! Just click that quote button on each post you want. it was so simple!:D

I have difficult imagine black president earlier than 1980's and this is quiet difficult already. You need early POD if you want black president so early.

Well, this *is* the pre-1900 board. I've been wonderingt hsi, too, with my book "Brotherhood and Baseball and the 1863 POD of a Union win at Chancellorsville which leads to a slower yet smoother move toward Civil Rights with no Jim crow. Still, I think it's be tricky without some seriously radical stuff; in mine the army's integrated just before WW I by President Underwood, there's some civil rights movement int he 1920s and a black man is appointed Secretary of the Interior to replace Harding after he dies (so0 obviously harding's appointment is a nod to the Ohio Gang by TTL's nominee), as the first black to head an executive deparment; there have been a number of African Americans intcongress and one in the Senate pretty much since the 1870s, though.

So, I picture the races fighting side by side in WW2 and then, given normal political careers, election maybe as early as 1960, more likely the '70s.

There was a lot of progress for African Americans in the period after the Civil War, which was subsequently set back by the turn of the 20th century. If you manage to prevent Jim Crow somehow, you could probably get a black president by the 1960s.

That's what I've figured - keepign the progress in Louisiana by not having the governor replaced (Hahn, IIRC, a man who was fairly progressive) is one key. there will be states that are more progressive than others, but the key is to hold the gains that were made in those states. Eventually a Virginia - which did have some gains - tilts the way of Louisiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina becasue it's further north than Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina, for instance.

I think the radio/TV thing depends; if a '20s Civil Rights movement has a few noted speakers who become well-respected enough, I think it can get people used to seeing blacks in a positive light in areas of leadership. ou're right that first the people need to and/or hear people who they feel could lead the nation, or at least could lead individual states. That's how I project thigns. (Till then, it's a handful of them in Washington and the integration of baseball fromt he start that keeps people thinking integration of some areas is possible.)

Once you get a generation that has fought for something together like a WW 2, I think that would hel a lot. Ed Brooke or, if it's a bit later, Douglas Wilder are good possibilities IMO (since my sports figures are all born after the POD later I figure politicians can be, too.)

Although part of me is wondering what Martin Luther King Senior would do in my TL:) Probably a bit too early to have him be President but the TLs that have had Teddy Roosevelt's dad in politics just made me think of that. More likely Mayor of Atlanta in 1962's election or something.
 
I think I've heard James Loewen say a rumor that baseball was integrated from the start, but some people changed their minds and segregated it. Any truth to that?
 
I think I've heard James Loewen say a rumor that baseball was integrated from the start, but some people changed their minds and segregated it. Any truth to that?
Any truth? yes. Much? no

Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first Major League black player. However, there was such a stink raised about it that they explicitly changed the rules, so there wasn't another until Jackie Robinson.

My son just did a report that included him, that's how I know.
 
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