It’s not easy to access photos of
famous black people from centuries ago, but on top of that, many individuals
who looked ethnically ambiguous during the time of segregation would not lay
claim to their black roots. For these and other reasons, there are plenty of
people of note throughout history—even today—who, much to the public’s surprise
and sometimes their own, are part black. Here’s a list from HowStuffWorks of
famous people you might not have known were black.
General
Alexandre Dumas
Dumas is one of the unsung heroes of
the French Revolution. He was born in what today is Haiti to a white
aristocratic father, and a black slave mother. Dumas’ father took him to France
to spend his childhood, where those of mixed race had more opportunities. In
France, Dumas entered the military academy and eventually became a general. He
went on to lead over 50,000 soldiers, allegedly single-handedly captured 13
prisoners, and fought in the French campaign to conquer Egypt. In the 1790s,
Dumas was captured by Napoleon’s followers and thrown into a dungeon, where he
was left for two years. He was eventually released, but that was the end of his
military career. However, his exciting career inspired the novel, “The Count of
Monte Cristo,” written by his son Alexandre, who also wrote “The Three
Musketeers.”
Anatole
Broyard
Anatole spent most of his adult life
hiding his roots, but he was in fact born to light-skinned black parents, and
raised in a predominantly black Brooklyn neighborhood. Broyard succeeded in
joining the segregated Army as a white man and after leaving the Army, he
opened a bookstore in New York City, eventually becoming a copywriter at an ad
agency. Broyard landed himself a job as a book reviewer for The New York Times,
all the while living as a “white man,” even to his wife and children. In 1990,
Broyard died of prostate cancer but his daughter wrote a book exploring his
identity issues: “One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life—A Story of Race and Family
Secrets.”
Malcolm
Gladwell
Best-selling author of “The Tipping
Point,” “Blink,” “Outliers,” and “What the Dog Saw,” Malcolm Gladwell was born
to a Jamaican mother and British father. Gladwell took no issue with his mixed
heritage and in fact, found it to be great material for his writing. In his New
Yorker stroy, “Black Like Them,” Gladwell extrapolated on the differences
between American blacks and West Indians, making observations about his own
family and upbringing including discrimination among his dark- and
light-skinned ancestors.
Carol
Channing
Carol Channing was already making a
splash on Broadway in productions like “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Hello
Dolly” when she discovered that her father was a light-skinned black man.
Channing did not dwell on race issues, but went on to be a great gay rights
activist. She rarely spoke during her life – or in her memoir “Just Lucky
I Guess,” - about being of mixed race. However she did recall a time her
mother warned her in an argument that her own children might come out black.
Channing allegedly said she hoped they would.
Pete
Wentz
The former member of American
rock band Fall Out Boy was known for his signature look of stick-straight
hair. It was only after his band dissolved that he began to let his natural
hair show, and that hair was tight curls. This prompted rumors that Wentz might
have black ancestors, and the rumors turned out to be true. Wentz’s family on
his mother’s side is from Jamaica.
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