Religious affiliations of Presidents of the United States body. Protestants predominate, with Episcopalians and Presbyterians being the most prevalent. There have been four Nontrinitarian presidents, and a single Roman Catholic president (John F. Kennedy). No president thus far has been openly an atheist. However, it has been acknowledged that two US Presidents—Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Johnson—had no religious affiliation. Most presidents have been formal members of a particular church or religious body, and a specific affiliation can be assigned to every president from James A. Garfield on. For many earlier presidents, however, formal church membership was forestalled until they left office; and in several cases a president never
African-American heritage of presidents of the United States through use of the compound surname Tangiers Smith ever since. African-American heritage of presidents of the United States The African-American heritage of United States presidents relates mostly to questions and claims made by amateur historians as to whether five presidents of the United States who were accepted as white also had significant recent African ancestry. There is no disagreement that President Barack Obama (2009–2017) had a Kenyan father and an American mother of mostly European ancestry (she and Obama are thought also to be descended from the African indentured servant known in colonial records as John Punch). The academic consensus