page_title: Black elite
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Black elite / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: American tennis player Arthur Ashe at the 1975 World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.Nederlands: Original: ABN-wereldtennistoernooi in Rotterdam; Arthur Ashe in actie
context_page_description: The Black elite is any elite, either political or economic in nature, that is made up of people who identify as of Black African descent. In the Western World, it is typically distinct from—but nevertheless often overlaps with—other national elites, such as the United Kingdom's aristocracy and the United States' upper class.
context_section_description: 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.
  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% 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 sexually abuse 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 system 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.
caption: The tennis champion Arthur Ashe, also an AIDS activist. He became a member of the African-American upper class. His direct line of descent in the United States  could be traced to 1735.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:11:01 02:14:49", "Image ExifOffset": "172", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "310", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5536", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1249", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "828"}