DNA Is Said to Solve a Mystery of Warren Harding’s Love Life

[Wild Bill]

More interesting was the fact that Harding had no African blood in him. For years he was considered a "Black" president by friends and opponents. He always gracefully dodged the question, with the statement that somebody back there may have "jumped the fence" but he did not know who. A black commentator of the era, Joel Augustus Rogers, who drew a sort of Ripley's Believe it or Not version of Black History entitled Your History, for various newspapers for decades, claimed him to be a light black or mulatto who passed for white. Rogers also claimed the same for Presidents Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin (South Carolina offered to put him up for auction to see how much he would fetch), and swarthy US Senator Daniel "Black Dan" Webster.

In the case of Lincoln, RKO Pictures held a contest in 1940 for whoever looked the most like Old Abe for its upcoming movie, Abe Lincoln in Illinois from thousands of photos submitted. Thomas Bomar won, hands down, until it was discovered that Bomar was black. The gala presentation was cancelled and Bomar was awarded the prize behind the scenes, so to speak, in a hush-hush ceremony.

There is more, but those interests might consult Ronald D. Smith and William L. Richter, Fascinating People and Astounding Event From American History (ABC-Clio, 1993)