The complexities of race in America could take several articles to untangle. To be Black in the U.S. has such an expansive meaning that traces back to Europeans deciding who got to be “white.” While some people, like the Italians and Irish, earned their way into “white-ness,” those with even a drop of Black in their heritage were relegated to the lower rungs of the racial ladder. And yes, the “one-drop rule” — which was a legal principle of racial classification that claimed if even one Black ancestor could be named, you were considered a Black person — has long been discarded by American culture. However, the remnants of Jim Crow and that social and racial structure still guide how we look at mixed people today.
Here are 19 celebrities and public figures who have Black roots that you may not have known about: