Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/America's first black president


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Clear consensus against keeping, not so clear consensus for deletion. But because there's no one alternative to deletion (merge, redirect...) that has gained traction, straight-up deletion is the most consensual outcome. People remain free to seek consensus to incorporate the material of this erstwhile dab page into other pages, or to recreate a redirect, which can be contested. The content of this dab page was: Barack Obama, The first Black president (Toni Morrison),  African heritage of presidents of the United States,  List of heads of state of Haiti,  African-American candidates for President of the United States,  African-American presidents of the United States in popular culture.  Sandstein  11:59, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

America's first black president

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

Should be removed under WP:NOPAGE. The page creation appears to have been a joke about Bill Clinton and the topic is better covered in the article African-American candidates for President of the United States. SiliconRed (he/him • talk) 15:01, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom. DrIdiot (talk) 15:05, 28 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Delete this is simply not needed. Amply covered in the Obama article. I'd almost hazard a guess that literally anyone on the planet knows who Obama is and what he did. Had there been 12 black presidents, I could see the need for the article. That's just not the case. Oaktree b (talk) 15:08, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * As nominator: Noting that the article topic is probably referring to a specific Toni Morrison quote which I've added to the article: A quote by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who called Bill Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas". I still think delete but maybe this sways opinions, plausibly the quote is a more compelling WP:PRIMARYTOPIC than the literal interpretation. SiliconRed (he/him • talk) 15:22, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Disambiguations-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 15:43, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I think that would have been an interesting tidbit in the before Obama era. No one is likely to remember that these days and search as a result. Oaktree b (talk) 20:03, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom.  Iamreallygoodatcheckerst@lk 16:22, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete Borderline ass-headed creation, especially the entry about Haiti which is a different country. –LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄ ) 16:44, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Politicians and United States of America. –LaundryPizza03</b> ( d  c̄ ) 16:45, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Redirect to African heritage of presidents of the United States. Plausible search term. While the heritage article doesn't use the phrase specifically, I think it would be obvious from reading the article that Obama was America's first black president and redirecting here is better than outright deletion. <b style="color:#034503">MB</b> 18:45, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom. and Oaktree b. A. Randomdude0000 (talk) 18:48, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Merge with similar disambiguation page Black president. --Woko Sapien (talk) 20:03, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Merge to Black president. I guess like many people, I got here via this Tweet from @depthsofwiki, an account which highlights amusing/surprising Wikipedia pages. The fact that the average person stumbling upon the page will not understand the need for it does not mean that there is no need for it. If not for depthsofwiki, few people would arrive at the page, and most who did so would need it, as follows. Contra 's nomination above, the Bill Clinton description was not a "joke"; it was a statement made sincerely by a famous African American public intellectual during the Clinton presidency, which was widely reported at the time and commented on subsequently. Contra, it is certainly plausible that someone could vaguely remember that fact and seek clarification of the details from Wikipedia, and we should not make it hard for them to find those details. (The Bill Clinton line was deleted from the DAB by  after the depthsofwiki Tweet and before Siliconred's nomination. Siliconred, after making this nomination, restored the Clinton line, and I have further edited it to conform to MOS:DAB.) By the same token, a reader may have heard one of the claims listed in African heritage of presidents of the United States. Contra , for many people "America" does not mean the US. Possibly "America's first black president" should redirect to Obama with a hatnote to "Black president" for other uses. jnestorius(talk) 20:53, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree with this reasoning & support the specific proposal to hat/redirect/merge. SiliconRed (he/him • talk) 21:43, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree on the proposal to redirect "America's first black president" to Obama with a hatnote to the "Black president" page. The term in question is a plausible search term and the "Black president" disambiguation is superior version to this one. The Meta Boi (talk) 23:47, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Anything other than keep as an independent disambiguation page. All of the above work. InvadingInvader (talk) 22:17, 29 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Delete for all the reasons given above. I'm not at all convinced that the Morrison quote is notable enough to deserve a standalone article. I don't even think this is a plausible search term. The fact that "America" is itself an ambiguous term means that there's not an obvious redirect target; the principle of least astonishment makes me think that a disambiguation page with quite an odd collection of pages is not useful either. WJ94 (talk) 12:49, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Comment. Looks like the page was already Redirected to Barack Obama, so I guess the discussion can simply be closed? (Or was the Redirect out of order?) Cielquiparle (talk) 10:24, 4 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I added the redirect, but did not close as I was involved in the discussion (though perhaps I should have waited for someone else to put in the redirect). SiliconRed (he/him • talk) 13:04, 4 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I have reverted the redirect - I think it would be best to let this AfD be closed properly before taking action. I for one would prefer the page to be deleted and not redirected, since the ambiguity of "America" (note the points about Haiti) means that just directing to Barack Obama is not appropriate. The consensus may be that a redirect is appropriate but I'd rather someone uninvolved make that call. WJ94 (talk) 09:06, 5 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Strong Delete: It is a joke about about a person. Contributor008 (talk) 17:42, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete per all above. Oppose redirect.4meter4 (talk) 05:23, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete and oppose redirect/merge. Useless page whether as a disambiguation or redirect as hardly anyone is going to search for this since the answer is obvious.  Someone tweeting about the page isn't justification to keep it nor is the Morrison quote really noteworthy enough to deserve more than the sentence it already has in Public image of Bill Clinton. Uhai (talk) 08:59, 6 October 2022 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. <b style="color:red">Please do not modify it.</b> Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.