A State official fills out the COLB. They have racial terms to be used from the day to select from. I doubt that in the 60’s “African” was considered a “race.”
Actually it's filled out by a clerk at the hospital, but based on inputs, either verbal or written from a parent, usually but not always, the mother. After it was typed up by the clerk, it would be taken to the mother (or father) to sign, then to the doctor,to the hospital registrar for the final signature. Then, and only then, would it be sent to the state to be filed.
Yes, but they have to get some written information from the parents. The exact name of the child for instance. So there has to be a form that the parents fill out. We don't know exactly what was on that form in 1961 Hawaii.
They have racial terms to be used from the day to select from.
Perhaps. But we don't know exactly what was the list of racial terms in 1961 Hawaii. No doubt it was different from other states since Native Hawaiian was probably one of the major categories. Also we don't know if in certain special cases it was allowed to fill in a race that wasn't covered by the usual selections. Also we don't know if the parents were allowed to specify a race on the form they filled out, or whether the state official would ever use this specification. But we do know that if they were allowed to specify the father's race, that Obama Sr. would quite likely have written "African", because that fits in with the whole atmosphere he was coming from.
Also we do not know if the people filling out the COLB would have said: "Hey this guy is from Africa. He does not fit into the normal categories of white and black Americans. Maybe we should put him down as "African" rather than just "Negro" to make it clear that this is a special case. Of course the person filling out the COLB may or may not have seen Obama Sr. in person.
I doubt that in the 60’s “African” was considered a “race.”
I have already posted some links that show that it was considered a race by some people in the 1960s and earlier.