African-American upper class

When enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries, there began to be mixed-race children of African and European descent in the Americas. Then called "mulattoes," they were sometimes not enslaved by their white slave-holding fathers and comprised a large part of the free black population in the South.[8] In addition, numbers of Africans escaped to freedom during the American Revolution. Others were manumitted by their enslavers. The free black community in the US had therefore increased considerably by 1800, and although most of them were very poor, some were able to own farmland or to learn mechanical or artistic trades.[8]

Some people escaped slavery and served in the American Civil War (1861–1865) for the Union and after the war, an extremely small number of freed people along the Georgia coast received 40 acres (160,000 m²) and a mule, which contributed to land ownership among blacks following the emancipation of slaves.

Following the outbreak of the Civil War, abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass claimed that enlisting Black soldiers would strengthen the North in winning the war and would be a significant step forward in the fight for equal rights: "Once let the Black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S.; let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket," Douglass said, "and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." This is just what President Lincoln feared: He was concerned that arming African Americans, particularly former or escaped slaves, might lead to the loyal border states declaring independence. As a result, the Union's chances of winning the war would be slim to none.[9]

Other former slaves, often mixed-race former house slaves who shared ancestry with their onetime owners and had acquired marketable skills such as cooking and tailoring, worked in domestic fields or were able to open small businesses such as restaurants and catering firms. Some free blacks in the North also founded small businesses and even newspapers.[10] They were able to get a head-start on the blacks who were essentially still enslaved by their lack of access to wealth accumulation, particularly when it came to owning their own land.[11]

During the American Civil War in the 1860s, organizations like the American Missionary Association, which had sponsored elementary schools for Southern blacks, established some of the first historically black colleges and universities. These include Fisk University, founded in 1866; Hampton University, and Tuskegee University.[12] Those who attended these schools, as well as such other black colleges as Howard University, Morehouse College and Spelman College, were able to acquire skills and academic knowledge that put them in a distinctly different class.[13] Cheyney University, Lincoln University, PA founded in 1854, and Wilberforce University founded in 1856, were the only black colleges operational prior to the American Civil War; these schools were located in the North. However, there had been a few predominantly white colleges, such as Oberlin College in Ohio and Berea College in Kentucky, that had accepted black students even before the war, and their black graduates had been given a head start on economic stability.

Since the founding of the historically black schools, often attended originally by the children of skilled former slaves who had been able to establish businesses or farms in the post-war period, several generations of many families have often become alumni of Talladega, Spelman, Morehouse, Howard, Fisk, Tuskegee, Dillard, Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), and Hampton. While today there are well over one hundred historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the US, these early institutions have consistently been the favorites for upper-class blacks.[14] In particular, Spelman College, Howard University, and Morehouse College, have historically been heavily favored by the Black intelligentsia due to their selectivity, academic rigor, name recognition, networking opportunities, location, and black cultural enrichment.

However, since integration, many children of the black upper class have attended predominantly non-black colleges and universities.[15] "In the first time period covered by the scholars, black colleges were attracting significant numbers of students from professional, middle-class black families. [These people] are now the students who are cherry-picked by highly selective, prestigious institutions that weren't looking for them in the 1970s", said Michael L. Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund.[15]

A small number of free blacks during the 19th century were also admitted into private, predominately white institutions such as Harvard and Amherst.[14]

In 1904 Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, also known as "The Boulè," was established as the first Greek-letter fraternity for African Americans, admitting only African-American men who were college graduates, had gained considerable achievement within their chosen industries, and measured as having good character. The fraternity is not present as an undergraduate fraternity. Within a decade, African American undergraduate college students established fraternities and sororities as small, selective social groups that later developed an emphasis on scholarship and social activism. Occasionally, alumni members of an undergraduate fraternity are invited to join Sigma Pi Phi as mid-career adults.[16]

Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell University in 1906 was established as the first African-American intercollegiate fraternity. Today there are a total of nine historically black sororities and fraternities that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council, sometimes referred to as the "Divine Nine." These include Alpha Phi Alpha (1906), Alpha Kappa Alpha (1908), Kappa Alpha Psi (1911), Omega Psi Phi (1911), Delta Sigma Theta (1913), Phi Beta Sigma (1914), Zeta Phi Beta (1920), Sigma Gamma Rho (1922), and Iota Phi Theta (1963).

Some argue that historically black Greek organizations differ from those that are traditionally all-white, because of their importance to blacks long after they have left their respective colleges and universities.[17] Graham said in his book Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class that these sororities and fraternities "are a lasting identity, a circle of lifetime friends, a base for future political and civic activism".[17]

Over the years, the black upper class has also founded numerous other organizations that allow them to socialize, build networks and get involved in communities.

According to a 2007 estimate, 80 percent of upper-class blacks own their own homes.[34] This is compared to 66 percent of those earning more than $50,000 and 52 percent of those who earn between $30,000 and $49,999 in income.[34]

The following are a few black business districts, areas, and cities that swelled with success during the era of legal segregation, which also contributed to the rise of the African-American upper class.[35]

• U Street, NW in Washington, D.C.[36]
• Pennsylvania Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland[37]
• "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• "Sweet" Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia
• Harlem, New York
• South side of Chicago, Illinois
• Central Avenue, Los Angeles
• "The Deuce" in Richmond, Virginia
• Black Bottom in Detroit, Michigan (also called "Paradise Valley")
• "Black Wall Street" in Durham, North Carolina
• Indiana Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Riverside Terrace, Houston
• Black Doctors Row, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Five Points, in Denver, Colorado
• Black Business District, Walnut Street, Louisville, Kentucky[38][39]

Academic Donald Earl Collins has criticized members of the black middle- and upper-classes for having attitudes and values similar to their white counterparts.[40] Some in the black community have been very critical of the black upper class community, in particular after the release of Graham's book Our Kind of People.[19] Darren Walker of the Rockefeller Foundation says that the behaviors of the black upper classes exclude many from the privileges the group enjoys, arguing "one part of our community seems quite comfortable adopting the exclusive practices of the majority community that for many years kept us out."[40][19][41][42][43]

There are 7 African American billionaires in the United States.[44] Sports executive Michael Jordan and financier Robert F Smith are amongst them. The controversial rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, who is currently a multi-millionaire, was previously counted as one as well.[45]

• African-American middle class
• African Americans in Atlanta
• American upper class
• Black billionaires
• Black elite
• Black Ivy League
• Brown Paper Bag Test
• Historically black colleges and universities
• Negroland: A Memoir
• Social class in the United States
• The Talented Tenth

• Is There a Black Upper Class? New York Times, 1999