On film, US black presidents abound (Feature)

By Andy Goldberg Nov 2, 2008, 1:56 GMT

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama addresses the crowd in Pueblo, Colorado, USA, 01 November 2008. EPA/RICK GIASE

Los Angeles - Barack Obama is hoping to become the first African American president of the United States in Tuesday's election, but plenty of black actors have blazed a path for him - at least in the alternative reality of Hollywood.

Fans of the hit thriller 24 can no doubt recall the ever-cool and assuring presence of President David Palmer, who was played by Dennis Haysbert.

But probably far fewer remember that Sammy Davis Jr also played a child who becomes president in the 1933 satire Rufus Jones for President.

Watching that would probably do little to assure voters that an African American is worthy of the country's highest office. Davis Jr was only nine at the time and the 21-minute movie is packed with cringe-worthy stereotypes. The child-president is most often seen eating chicken and watermelon, playing dice and buying votes with pork chops.

A clip from the movie is currently making the rounds on YouTube, prompting some incredulous comments from viewers about the talents of its young star and the current political situation. 'Amazing commentary on how far we've come as Americans,' said one viewer.

If Haysbert's Palmer gave a reassuring view of a black man in the White House, other black presidents have had more in common with Rufus Jones.

Comedians like Chris Rock and Richard Pryor have often belittled the idea of having a black man as president. In one skit, Pryor played a president who wanted to install a member of the Black Panthers as director of the FBI, and almost punches a man who inadvertently insults his mother.

In the 2003 film Head of State, Mays Gilliam is a former community organizer who dresses in baggy jeans, talks in hip hop slang and hires various individuals such as a KKK member to endorse his opponent.

More ominously for Obama, Danny Glover will play a black president in the apocalyptic movie 2012. The upcoming film by Independence Day director Roland Emmerich has a black president elected in 2008, whose misfortune it is to be ruling just as the Mayan prophecy about the end of time comes to pass four years later.

If Obama were looking for a role model in Hollywood, he could find one in James Earl Jones, who makes a convincing leader in the 1972 film, The Man, when he gets the world's most powerful job after the entire cabinet perishes in a series of freak accidents.

Another inspiration is Morgan Freeman in the 1998 Deep Impact, as he calms the nation and saves the planet from a hurtling asteroid. His feats in that film earned him second place in a poll of America's favourite movie presidents, trailing only Harrison Ford in the movie Air Force One.

'It seems everybody is looking for a commander-in-chief who can come in and take command,' said Scott Robson, editor-in-chief of Moviephone, which conducted the poll mid-October. 'Our readers voted with their hearts at a time when you have the economy going down the tubes, but in an ideal world it would be great to have a president who can kick some ass.'