[1][2] The group includes highly paid white-collar professionals such as academics, engineers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, politicians, business executives, venture capitalists, CEOs, celebrities, entertainers, entrepreneurs and heirs.
Many of these traditions, which have persisted for several generations, are discussed in Lawrence Otis Graham's 2000 book, Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class.
Scholarship on this class from a sociological perspective is generally traced to E. Franklin Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie (first edition in English in 1957 translated from the 1955 French original).
[3] Majority black high income neighborhoods are also found in the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston,[4] Miami, Charlotte, San Antonio,[5] Dallas, and Atlanta metropolitan areas.
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.
[citation needed] 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.
[10] Children of skilled former slaves who had been able to establish businesses or farms in the post-war period, often became alumni of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
HBCUs played a vital role in promoting social mobility and increasing wealth for Black Americans, enabling them to pursue more lucrative careers as skilled professionals, including doctors, lawyers, educators, nurses, engineers, scientists, mathematicians, accountants, and more.
[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.
[14] 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".
Membership is by invitation only and, even then, not guaranteed due to the extensive candidate selection process, which may last a year or longer and may include a vote by existing members.
It advocates on behalf of black women and girls, as well as promotes leadership development and gender equity in health, education, and economic empowerment.
Membership to the National Smart Set is by invitation and the organization seeks to contain its size to ensure that members develop and nurture nation-wide bonds and relationships.
Tots and Teens holds a variety of activities for youth and parents such as ski trips, debutante cotillions, volunteer projects, and cultural events.
[citation needed] Twigs, Incorporated was founded by Clara J. Bostic in Yeadon (Philadelphia) in 1948 as "an association whose objective is to encourage and foster mental, physical, social and cultural development of the children who are members."
Twigs has sponsored an annual scholarship competition through its chapters for community youth graduating from high school and continuing their education at four-year institutions.
[31] 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.
[32] Academic Donald Earl Collins has criticized members of the black middle- and upper-classes for having attitudes and values similar to their white counterparts.