I'm not saying that he 'could not' have been, I'm saying that it was unlikely. These are the reasons: His first and last names were very 'American', He was born in the 1880s, and he was very fair skinned. There was very little immigration from Africa at that time. It turns out that he (and his parents, grandparents and ggparents etc) was born in Arkansas. I think this was his response to African pride brought on by the heroic efforts of Marcus Garvey. And of course there are exceptions to everything. I would not be shocked to find someone who fit his description that actually emigrated from Africa, but I would say to be cautious.