Franklin Delano Roosevelt, African American

Franklin Roosevelt had a ggggg Grandfather, Henry Smith, that was born in Tangiers. Tangiers is a city in Morocco, a county on the North African coast. That makes Mr. Roosevelt just as much an African American as any other person who has ancestors born in African that came to America hundreds of years ago, no matter the skin color of the descendant.

African American has come to mean a black person in America. But it really means a person in America that had ancestors in the past that were born in Africa. In that context, Roosevelt was an African American.

The Source:
http://www.wargs.com/political/2008.html

If Barack Obama becomes President of the United States, he would not be the first US President with African-born ancestors.

Tangier (or Tangiers) is a city in what is now northern Morocco, on the North African coast, on the western side of the Strait of Gibraltar. From 1471 Tangier was held by the Portugese, who gave it to England in 1661 as part of the dowry (believe it or not) of Catherine de Braganza. A number of English persons then moved to Tangier, including William Staines, one of the first Aldermen of Tangier and later its Mayor. One of Staines's nephews, William Smith, joined him there, and in 1675 William Smith married, in Tangier, Martha Tunstall, who was also from England. The first six children of William and Martha were born in Tangier.

In 1679, the Moroccan Sultan instituted a blockade of Tangier, which eventually led to the English leaving. William Smith, by now a Colonel, was the last Mayor of Tangier, from 1682 to the departure in October 1683.

Col. Smith and his family returned to London, and then sailed to Long Island, New York, where his land holdings (still [2006] owned by his descendants) were erected into the Manor of St. George. Because of his tenure in Tangier, Col. Smith was called "Tangier Smith", and his descendants were (and still are) called the "Tangier Smiths".

Henry Smith, son of Col. William and Martha (Tunstall) Smith and born at Tangier on 19 Jan. 1678/9, succeeded his father as Lord of the Manor of St. George. His granddaughter Rebecca Smith married John Aspinwall, their granddaughter Mary Rebecca Aspinwall married Isaac Roosevelt, and their grandson was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In other words, FDR had an African-born great-great-great-great-grandfather. See Smith and Hoff, The Tangier Smith Family [1978] for further details.