Race tabulations in Hawaii–1961

Much discussion has taken place over the penciled notations found on birth certificates in Hawaii from 1961. Here’s an example from President Obama’s birth certificate showing a “9” at the right representing “African.”

Excerpt from Obama's birth certificate

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Cold Case Posse devoted a significant part of their second news conference towards making an argument that the code “9” shown on the President’s certificate was inconsistent with the text entry of “African.” The posse made a number of false claims, one of which was that the penciled notation was part of a Hawaii state process of tabulating data for the Federal government—actually the Federal government did the tabulations themselves from microfilmed certificate copies provided by the states that year1. The second false claim was the the table shown following, captured from a Cold Case Posse video presentation, was the Federal table used in 1961—actually it was from 1968 and different from the 1960-61 table.

1968 Race Code Table

The Cold Case Posse’s misrepresentations are covered in more detail in my article: “Code ‘9’: the Cold Case Posse’s big lie.”

Examination of a few Hawaiian birth certificates from 1961 proved that the penciled codes are not only inconsistent with the Cold Case Posse’s codes, but also with the real Federal codes used in 1961 (where code “9” represents “Other nonwhite’)—Hawaii used their own codes. The question of interest for researchers of Hawaiian birth certificate lore is: what are the race codes?

From various known certificates, I pieced together what we knew about the race coding and published that in my article: “1961 Hawaii Race codes: disclosed!” The result of that exercise was the following:

Race Code
Caucasian/White 1
Hawaiian 2
Part Hawaiian 3
Negro 9

Today I obtained from the Hawaii State Library pages from the Hawaii Department of Health Annual Report Statistical Supplement for 1961 that show the birth tabulations by race of father. Here’s the table (click image to enlarge):

The racial values listed in the order presented in the table are:

  • Caucasian
  • Hawaiian
  • Part Hawaiian
  • Chinese
  • Filipino
  • Japanese
  • Puerto Rican
  • Korean
  • Other race
  • Not specified

One immediately observes that the codes from the Zullo table could not have been used to create the Department of Health statistics for 1961 because the categories are different, not to mention the codes themselves.

Note that race codes “1,” “2” and “3” found on actual certificates correspond exactly with the first, second and third entries in the tabulation, and that code “9” for “African” on the Obama certificate matches the 9th entry (“Other race”). Another certificate published by Lord Monckton showed code “9” used for “Negro.” Based on the information available, I think it nearly certain that the race codes used to classify birth certificates by the Hawaii Department of Health in 1961 are 1-9 in the order that their tabulations were published in the preceding table. (“African” and “Negro” would fall into the same category.) For convenience, I’ll put it together :

Race Code
Caucasian 1
Hawaiian 2
Part Hawaiian 3
Chinese 4
Filipino 5
Japanese 6
Puerto Rican 7
Korean 8
Other race 9

The preceding table has been assigned OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.37476.9000.7.0.1.2.2.

This obscure bit of information is just one more indication of the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate.


1The Federal tabulations only coded even-numbered certificates, and the final totals were multiplied by 2. President Obama’s certificate was odd-numbered, and so not actually coded by the Federal government. (See Vital Statistics of the United States 1961 – Volume 1 – Natality pages 227 and 232.)

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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41 Responses to Race tabulations in Hawaii–1961

  1. Daniel says:

    Sorry Doc, but you’re wrong because FREEDOM!!!

  2. john says:

    I guess “Kenyan” could be coded for other nonwhite as well. We know that INS classified Obama Sr. as such at the University of Hawaii. Of course the race of “African” would be inconsistent to what Obama Sr. identified himself as at the University of Hawaii (Obama apparently told the INS people there he was Kenya(To mean Kenyan) and they put that down on the document.

  3. Publius says:

    I cross-checked the codes on nbc’s collection of certificates. It’s clear that 1 is Caucasian. J’s certificate, in which both parents are part Hawaiian, are labeled 3’s.

    Where did you find a Hawaiian?

    In any event — Congratulations, Doc. Looks to me like you’ve cracked the Hawaii race codes. Outstanding work.

    This has been a huge week.

    First the release of J’s full birth certificate, showing once again that Corsi and his co-conspirator(s) on the Cold Case Posse scam are lying sacks of scum.

    Then the info on the Hawaii race codes, showing once again… that Corsi and his co-conspirator(s) on the Cold Case Posse scam are lying sacks of scum.

    By the way, I also looked at the recent “questioned” birth certificate. That one looks to me like it’s been fake-edited to cross out “Colored” and put “Negro” — “Negro” is in a different sized font.

    It also looks like it has a “9” by it.

  4. Joey says:

    john:
    I guess “Kenyan” could be coded for other nonwhite as well.We know that INS classified Obama Sr. as such at the University of Hawaii.Of course the race of “African” would be inconsistent to what Obama Sr. identified himself as at the University of Hawaii (Obama apparently told the INS people there he was Kenya(To mean Kenyan) and they put that down on the document.

    As long as Kenya is still on the African continent, there is no inconsistency. Obama Senior referred to his racial identity as “African” and his ethnic identity as “Kenyan.”
    That’s no different from being “White” and “American” on different forms. A person is allowed to be African AND Kenyan or White and American.

  5. foreigner=gsgs says:

    very good !
    it’s a mystery why Japanese is so much down the list, when they were the strongest population
    in Hawaii. “revenge” for Pearl Harbour ? How was it in 1940 ? Hawaii published their own statistics
    before 1959, so it should be easier to find

  6. foreigner=gsgs says:

    presumably they had the same race-code for deaths and maybe the same ordering
    for (some of their) population tables.
    You take the results from the 1960 census, add the births, substract the deaths,
    so you have yearly population tables

  7. nbc says:

    Of course the race of “African” would be inconsistent to what Obama Sr. identified himself as at the University of Hawaii (Obama apparently told the INS people there he was Kenya(To mean Kenyan) and they put that down on the document.

    What page? I see, the finger print page. Most likely filled out by those taking the finger prints. Obama signed it but you are speculating…

  8. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:

    john:
    I guess “Kenyan” could be coded for other nonwhite as well.We know that INS classified Obama Sr. as such at the University of Hawaii.Of course the race of “African” would be inconsistent to what Obama Sr. identified himself as at the University of Hawaii (Obama apparently told the INS people there he was Kenya(To mean Kenyan) and they put that down on the document.

    Do you ever tire of being wrong? I’m not a proponent of eugenics, per say, but for the good of the human gene pool, people like you need to be sterilized.

  9. nbc says:

    The instructions to fill out refer to ‘applicant name’ and ‘your agency’s information’, suggesting that these cards are prepared and filled out by others than the applicant

  10. Off Topic says:

    zullo proves nothing; he claims its forged
    dr confabulous and nbc prove nothing; they claim it’s not forged
    obama hides the originals
    and has shown he’s a liar.
    so everybody suspects he’s lying and hiding something.

    rightly so, right?

  11. Slartibartfast says:

    Off Topic proves something: his own ignorance.

    Off Topic:
    zullo proves nothing; he claims its forged
    dr confabulous and nbc prove nothing; they claim it’s not forged
    obama hides the originals
    and has shown he’s a liar.
    so everybody suspects he’s lying and hiding something.

    rightly so, right?

  12. RanTalbott says:

    Off Topic: rightly so, right?

    Wrong. False premises lead to false conclusions.

  13. nbc says:

    Off Topic: dr confabulous and nbc prove nothing; they claim it’s not forged

    Ah, but we have proven that a simple xerox flow can create all these PDF artifacts. Thus we have done far more that the appeal to ignorance chosen by Zullo and friends.

    And Obama does not hide his originals, they are in the possession of a third party.

    Perhaps getting your facts right may help? But facts may not be what you are after? Right?

  14. The Magic M says:

    Off Topic: obama hides the originals
    and has shown he’s a liar.
    so everybody suspects he’s lying and hiding something.

    rightly so, right?

    Replace “Obama” with “GWB” and tell me why you never asked the latter to show you his BC. Same situation, righty-right, innit?

  15. Dr Kenneth Noisewater says:

    Doc how does the Monkton/Gillar certificate match up with the new codes?

  16. The code for father’s race is not all that legible. It could be “9” visually, and should be “9” according to my new research. The mother’s race is 2 – Hawaiian in line with previously known values.

    Dr Kenneth Noisewater: Doc how does the Monkton/Gillar certificate match up with the new codes?

  17. After the first three, the next 4 are alphabetical:

    Chinese
    Filipino
    Japanese
    Puerto Rican

    Next time I’m in Hawaii, I could look up older reports and perhaps get an idea about the evolution of the categories.

    foreigner=gsgs: it’s a mystery why Japanese is so much down the list, when they were the strongest population

  18. Obama Sr. signed the form saying “Kenyan” and Ann Dunham signed the form that says “African.” Taking the data on face value, one might reasonably conclude that the information came from two different sources, and that is why the values are different. The same observation explains the father’s age anomaly.

    john: I guess “Kenyan” could be coded for other nonwhite as well. We know that INS classified Obama Sr. as such at the University of Hawaii. Of course the race of “African” would be inconsistent to what Obama Sr. identified himself as at the University of Hawaii (Obama apparently told the INS people there he was Kenya(To mean Kenyan) and they put that down on the document.

  19. JPotter says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: Next time I’m in Hawaii, I could look up older reports and perhaps get an idea about the evolution of the categories.

    The list reflects the demographic history of Hawaii from annexation to statehood, filtered through an Amerocentric-bias of the territorial gov’t. That would be my starting hypothesis, anyway.

    All the silly haole birthers from the mainland will never be able to wrap their head around the necessity of statistical classifications reflecting the universe they are applied to; i.e., why African/Negro/Black would be relegated to “other” in Hawaii. After all, it’s a major classification in their black and white worlds, how could it possibly be any different anywhere else?

  20. It’s on the Monckton/Taitz certificate, but previously I had found a certificate at Ancestry.com for a Hawaiian parent, a detail of which I showed in the article:

    http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2012/07/1961-hawaii-race-codes-disclosed/

    Publius: Where did you find a Hawaiian?

  21. Curious George says:

    Excellent work,Doc!

  22. gorefan says:

    Could the inclusion of “Puerto Rican” as a separate category explain why on the Monckton BC the term Colored was struck out?

  23. Rickey says:

    gorefan:
    Could the inclusion of “Puerto Rican” as a separate category explain why on the Monckton BC the term Colored was struck out?

    There has been an assumption, I think, that the term “colored” was stricken out by DOH. However, that assumption may not be correct. I have a friend whose birth father deserted the family when my friend was less than one year old. His mother got a divorce and remarried. After she remarried, she struck out my friend’s last name on his birth certificate and typed in the last name of her new husband, and my friend has gone by the surname ever since. This caused my friend problems years later when he applied for a passport.

    It may be that the father changed it from “colored” to “negro” after the birth certificate was issued.

  24. Rickey says:

    JPotter: The list reflects the demographic history of Hawaii from annexation to statehood, filtered through an Amerocentric-bias of the territorial gov’t. That would be my starting hypothesis, anyway.

    All the silly haole birthers from the mainland will never be able to wrap their head around the necessity of statistical classifications reflecting the universe they are applied to; i.e., why African/Negro/Black would be relegated to “other” in Hawaii. After all, it’s a major classification in their black and white worlds, how could it possibly be any different anywhere else?

    That makes sense. I was in Honolulu on four separate occasions in 1969 and 1970, and almost every black person I saw was in the military.

    In 1960 there were only 4,943 blacks in Hawaii – less than 1% of the state’s population. As recently as 1990 blacks made up only 2.5% of Hawaii’s population, whereas Hispanics made up 7.3% of the population in 1990.

    http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/tab26.pdf

  25. Rickey says:

    Off Topic:

    obama hides the originals

    Is it possible that you do not realize that Obama does not own or have custody of the “originals,” so he can’t possibly be hiding them? Nah, you must know that. You’re just another obtuse, uninformed birther.

  26. foreigner=gsgs says:

    looks alphabetic, also in other lists, with the exception of Hawaiian and Part Hawaiian.
    Puerto Rican was usually a subgroup of Caucasian.
    Filipino is often at the end, maybe Pilipino or Philippines
    Korean was other, then inserted again
    Hawn as 2nd after Caucasian is the biggest mystery then.
    Maybe Puerto Rican and other Caucasian were subsumed
    and left 2,3 vacant

  27. Joey says:

    Rickey: That makes sense. I was in Honolulu on four separate occasions in 1969 and 1970, and almost every black person I saw was in the military.

    In 1960 there were only 4,943 blacks in Hawaii – less than 1% of the state’s population. As recently as 1990 blacks made up only 2.5% of Hawaii’s population, whereas Hispanics made up 7.3% of the population in 1990.

    http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/tab26.pdf

    In 2012, the Hawaii Demographic breakdown by race was:
    26% white alone
    2% black
    0.4% American Indian/Alaskan Native
    38% Asian alone
    10% Native Hawaiian/ Other Pacific Islander
    23% Two or More Races
    9.5% Hispanic/Latino
    22% White alone and not Hispanic/Latino

    http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/15000.html

  28. Keith says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: Next time I’m in Hawaii, I could look up older reports and perhaps get an idea about the evolution of the categories.

    I imagine you could sell that to “She who needs to be obeyed” if you explained that she is getting a nice Hawai’ian holiday out of the deal.

  29. Rickey says:

    foreigner=gsgs:

    Puerto Rican was usually a subgroup of Caucasian.

    In 1950 20% of Puerto Ricans were black. Have you ever heard of Roberto Clemente?

  30. Paper says:

    Not according to West Side Story.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story

    foreigner=gsgs:

    Puerto Rican was usually a subgroup of Caucasian….

  31. American Mzungu says:

    Doc: Based on the information available, I think it highly likely that the race codes used to classify birth certificates by the Hawaii Department of Health in 1961 are 1-9 in the order that their tabulations were published in the preceding table. (“African” and “Negro” would fall into the same category.)

    If so, there would be no incentive for the Hawaiian officials to correct “African” to “Negro” to conform to some established categories to facilitate coding.

  32. That’s certainly true. And it also points out that for classification purposes, there was no reason to cross out “Colored” and write “Negro.”

    American Mzungu: If so, there would be no incentive for the Hawaiian officials to correct “African” to “Negro” to conform to some established categories to facilitate coding.

  33. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    That’s certainly true. And it also points out that for classification purposes, there was no reason to cross out “Colored” and write “Negro.”

    As I mentioned earlier, it is possible – and may even be likely – that crossing out “Colored” and replacing it with “Negro” was not even done by DOH.

  34. I don’t have a good argument to decide who changed it or when. Your suggestion is certainly plausible.

    Rickey: As I mentioned earlier, it is possible – and may even be likely – that crossing out “Colored” and replacing it with “Negro” was not even done by DOH.

  35. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I don’t have a good argument to decide who changed it or when. Your suggestion is certainly plausible.

    Somebody corrected the spelling of the mother’s birth location as well, and that correction also was made with a different typewriter than the one that was used elsewhere on the birth certificate. The mother was born in Waihee, a tiny town on Maui. The clerk who prepared the certificate typed is as “Wahiee.” So few people lived in Waihee that it wouldn’t be surprising if a clerk in Honolulu didn’t know the correct spelling.

    The father, being from Virginia, may have disliked the term “Colored.” The fact that neither change was initialed makes me believe that they were probably made by the parents.

  36. foreigner=gsgs says:

    why then the pencil-2
    maybe the number was even
    colored could be ambiguous in Hawaii , yellow,brown,black
    So they changed it for MD and put their mark in it ?!

  37. American Mzungu says:

    foreigner=gsgs: why then the pencil-2
    maybe the number was even
    colored could be ambiguous in Hawaii , yellow,brown,black
    So they changed it for MD and put their mark in it ?!

    I don’t have any idea what or whom you are attempting to respond to. Please use the quote function for the various points you are addressing.

  38. Paper says:

    8,080 colored pencils chronicle university of minnesota’s history

    http://www.designboom.com/art/8080-colored-pencils-chronicle-the-university-of-minnesotas-history-11-24-2013/

    foreigner=gsgs:
    why then the pencil-2
    maybe the number was even
    colored could be ambiguous in Hawaii , yellow,brown,black
    So they changed it for MD and put their mark in it ?!

  39. ARTHUR J HYATT says:

    African is NOT a race

  40. If you’re from Kenya, “African” was an official category on the Census forms back in the 1960s (and may still be for all I know). In the United States, Race on a birth certificate is whatever the the parent considers themself to be. So if someone considers themself to be African, then African is a race for the purposes of a birth certificate (and for that matter any US federal form that collects the information). There is no scientifically defined thing as “Race.”

  41. “African” was listed as a race on the Titanic manifest so that designation has been around for a long time.
    https://rcradioblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/birther-claim-about-obamas-fathers-race-goes-down-with-the-titanic/

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