of the
Crow Nation,
James Beckwourth was the son of an
American planter and his enslaved African-American mistress. He is regarded as the most important Black
mountain man in the history of the
Old West. was one of the leading lights of the
Harlem Renaissance. His family, the Langstons, were prominent free blacks. , also an AIDS activist, became a member of the African-American upper class. His direct line of descent in the United States could be traced to 1735. In the
North of the United States, many educated Black people (taking advantage of their relative freedom) took part in
abolitionist and
suffragist activities. They also provided support to stations of the
Underground Railroad prior to the abolition of slavery. Later, during the
Reconstruction Era, a number of them took part in various professions and grew quite wealthy in places including
Brooklyn. In the
South, an elite started forming before the
American Civil War among free Black people who managed to acquire property. Of the free
people of color in
North Carolina in the censuses from 1790 to 1810, 80 percent can be traced to
African Americans free in
Virginia during the colonial period. Most were descended from unions between free white women and enslaved or free Africans or African Americans. Free Black people migrated into frontier Virginia and then to other states over several generations in the colonial period, as did many of their neighbors. Extensive research into colonial court records, wills and deeds has demonstrated that most of those free families came from relationships or marriages between white women, servant or free, and Black men, servant, free or slave. Such relationships were part of the more fluid relationships among the working class before the boundaries of
slavery hardened. During slavery times, white slaveholders and others were known to rape enslaved African women, fathering mixed-race children. There were also slaveholders who had caring relationships, common-law marriages, and legal marriages to enslaved Black women. They sometimes freed such women and their children. Some slaveholders did provide for their mixed-race children by ensuring they were educated; in the earliest periods, they might be apprenticed to a trade or craft. In some cases, fathers arranged to settle property on their "natural" children. Whatever property the father passed on to the child was important in helping that person get a start in life. These
mulattos in turn patterned their subsequent lives after "polite" white society. In some places, such as
New Orleans, this coalesced into what was known as
Plaçage. In the South, the free Black elite often took leadership roles within the church, Black schools, and community. Natural leaders rose up from many different classes. Some developed catering businesses or other services that enabled them to take advantage of their white contacts through family and other connections. The Black elite also enjoyed the benefits of living within the white neighborhoods, which further isolated them from the darker-skinned African Americans and which caused many of them to blame them for the downward shifts in life-style choices. Some lighter skinned Black people even
passed for white, and were assimilated into white society thereafter. The
Civil Rights Movement and
affirmative action brought about many changes for the Black elite. As the old elite died away, a
new Black elite emerged. Within its ranks are politicians, entrepreneurs, actors, singers, sports figures, and many more who are otherwise part of
America's wider upper-middle class. The political leaders
Barack Obama and
Kamala Harris are prominent members of this new elite. ==Other examples==