American Black Upper Class

American Black Upper Class

The Black American Upper Class consists of African American professionals in fields such as law, medicine, business and entertainment that have incomes that amount to $100,000 or more. This class, sometimes referred to as the black upper-middle-class or The black elite, represents less than 1 percent of the total black population in the United States. This group of African Americans has a history of organizations and activities that distinguish it from other classes within the black community as well as from the white upper class. 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).

Read more about American Black Upper Class:  Historical Background, History of College Education, Greek Organizations, Social and Family Organizations, Home Ownership Rates, Famous Black Business Districts During Segregation

Famous quotes containing the words upper class, american, black, upper and/or class:

    “The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”
    —Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    “The Afro-American experience is the only real culture that America has. Basically, every American tries to walk, talk, dress and behave like African Americans.”
    —Hugh Masakela (b. 1939)

    “... the black woman can never forget—however lukewarm the party may to-day appear—that it was a Republican president who struck the manacles from her own wrists and gave the possibilities of manhood to her helpless little ones; and to her mind the Democratic Negro is a traitor and a time-server.”
    —Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)

    “Like many of the Upper Class He liked the Sound of Broken Glass.”
    —Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953)

    “One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.”
    —Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)