First Black President

[Baker, John]

        The "first black president" comment seems to come from a 1997 Chris
Rock routine used in his stand-up comedy show.  The June 4, 1997, issue of
the Sacramento Observer quotes him as saying "It's almost like we have a
Black president."  The Express-News article referenced below implies that a
version of this routine may have been used in 1996, but the article is
unclear.  The episode on the Today Show is referred to in the August 20,
1998, New York Daily News, apparently some time after Rock started using the
phrase onstage.  Toni Morrison used the phrase in the October 5, 1998, issue
of The New Yorker, which was quoted in The Wall Street Journal on September
30, 1998 (i.e., a day or two after it was actually published in The New
Yorker).

John Baker


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grant Barrett [SMTP:gbarrett at MONICKELS.COM]
> Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2001 9:36 AM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: First Black President
>
> On samedi 17 février 2001 13:38, Grant Barrett <gbarrett at MONICKELS.COM>
> wrote:
> >I keep reading that Toni Morrison is the one that said Bill Clinton was
> the
> nation's
> >first black president, but I could've swore it was Chris Rock. Can anyone
> shed some
> >light on this?
>
> To respond to my own question:  Lexis-Nexis and Dow Jones search for
> "first black
> president" or "first African-American president" turns up this as the
> earliest for
> Chris Rock:
>
> The Gazette (Montreal)
> July 18, 1998, Saturday, FINAL EDITION
> SECTION: ART & ENTERTAINMENT; DOUG CAMILLI; Pg. D5
> HEADLINE: Madonna cool to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof role
>
> The "first black president" comment appears to spring from a controversial
> Today
> Show appearance which was shown live on the west coast, but cut from the
> tape-delayed
> west coast broadcast. An article in the 07/04/1997 San Antonio
> Express-News mentions a
> comedy routine about the first black president but does not specifically
> mention
> Clinton as such.
>
> For Toni Morrison the earliest I find is:
>
> WALL STREET JOURNAL October 8, 1998, Thursday which refers to a September
> 30 column
> in the same paper in which Morrision makes the comment.
>
> These results are by no means conclusive but they are suggestive.
>
> --
> Grant Barrett
> New York loves you back.
> http://www.worldnewyork.org/