The AFRICAN-AMERICAN INSTITUTE - with funds from the Rockefeller Brothers Trust, brought foreign students to the US from the EARLY FIFTIES - from all over the world, many from Africa and THE DUTCH EAST INDIES/INDONESIA.
In their 1976 Newsletter, Under International Advisory Council:
Betty Shabazz
Associate Professor. Public Health.
Medgar Euers College, City University of New York
Taieb Slim Tunisian Ambassador to Canada
Edward S. Spriggs Board Member. North American Zone,
Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture
Louis Stokes Member of Congress
Percy E. Sutton President of the Borough of Manhattan
Charles W. Whalen, Jr. Member of Congress
The only trouble is that this scholarship program ended in 1975:
http://www.aaionline.org/Programs/AfricanScholarshipProgramOfAmericanUniversities.aspx
Obama started college in 1979. Nice try, though.