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"Hawaii wasn't as strict about these things as some other states.

Not sure what you base that on. Can you provide some specific examples? As stated, the term "African" in this context is a 21st century PC label. I understand that whatever the mother said might have been good enough, but it is highly unlikely a mother in the early 1960s would have used the term. I spent many years on the African continent, and discovered that the general term "African" is the equivalent of referring to New Yorkers as simply "North Americans." In the early 1960s, a man from newly independent Kenya might proudly proclaim himself as Kikuyu, or Wakamba, or Samburu, but not "African." Call an Ethiopian an "African" and you'll receive a stern rebuke. Ethiopians do not perceive themselves as "Africans."

Not sure what you base that on. Can you provide some specific examples?

For one thing, they didn't have segregated facilities as some states still did in the early Sixties. Also, the federal racial classifications for affirmative action hadn't yet been imposed. In the 1940s and 1950s, "race" in Hawaii could be Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian, part-Hawaiian, Korean, Portuguese, Puerto Rican, Caucasian, Mixed, or "Local." It wouldn't be a stretch to include "African" in the mix.

In the early 1960s, a man from newly independent Kenya might proudly proclaim himself as Kikuyu, or Wakamba, or Samburu, but not "African."

But Luo or Kikuyu wouldn't have meant much in Hawaii in 1961. Neither did Kenyan, since the country didn't become independent for another two years. Kenya Colony had been established in 1920. Before that it was still British East Africa, and some people may still have known the colony by that name.

However an African thought of yourself in the village, that wasn't how he or she would appear to Westerners. Just you'd probably say that you were originally from America or Ohio, rather than from Shaker Heights if you were living in Tibet, it wouldn't make much sense to insist on Luo in Hawaii.

Say you were Obama's mother in 1961. You weren't going to bother with Luo, or Kikuyu, or Wakamba which would mean nothing to other Americans. "Arab" certainly didn't describe your child's father either. "Negro" or "colored" meant those people down South. You might sympathize with them, but you might not want to think of your child in that way, since the label would be a burden.

So best to think of your baby's father as "African," which after all, wasn't a label invented in recent years (like Afro-American or African-American), but a designation which went pretty far back in history to refer to inhabitants of that continent.

If the person filling out the form didn't object, that would stand. Bear in mind, that official government statistics and papers intended for the family and hospital didn't need to have the same information. The latter papers would be less strict about such things.

Of course, it's entirely possible that original certificate did read "Negro" and that it had been changed by someone since then. It's just that seeing "African" in that blank isn't in itself strong evidence that a change was made.