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In the American South, during the era of segregation, laws in many states mandat

ed that a person who was at least one-sixteenth black (i.e. had a great-great gr
andfather or grandmother who was black) or some other tiny amount of black blood
was considered black and therefore subject to the discriminatory laws that whit
es were not. This was informally known as the "one drop" rule [source: Davis]. L
ight-skinned African-Americans in the past might have determined whether it made
more "sense" to embrace their black heritage, Jim Crow laws and all, or to try
and "pass" for white for more economic opportunities but at the cost of cutting
themselves off from family and culture.
Today with the segregation laws scrapped, the choices are more nuanced. Where a
person is raised, or who raised her might determine which ethnic group she ident
ifies with. Or she may feel she shouldn't have to pick one group over the other.
While it hasn't always been in vogue to claim all the branches of one's family t
ree, embracing a multicultural past is becoming increasingly common. Take Hollyw
ood, for example. Gone are the days of film stars escaping outdated perceptions
by denying their ethnicity. Many of today's celebrities are racially ambiguous,
from Mariah Carey to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Today, we're sharing the stories
of 10 people (past and present) you may not have known were black. Let's start
with an illustrious French family.
Napoleon Bonaparte.....
Napoleon Bonaparte was a well-known figure who rose to power during the French R
evolution. But Bonaparte was not its only hero. Meet Gen. Alexandre Dumas.
Dumas was born in what is now Haiti to a white father who was a member of the ar
istocracy and a black mother who was enslaved. Although Dumas kept his mother's
familial name, his father raised him in France, which guaranteed opportunities t
o people of mixed race. There, Dumas completed his education and entered the mil
itary, where he became a master of strategy and sword. Dumas rose to the rank of
general, led more than 50,000 soldiers and earned a reputation for action. He r
eportedly captured 13 soldiers singlehandedly, rode into enemy territory to impr
ison 16 more and led his men up icy cliffs in the dark to surprise opposing forc
es [source: Taylor].
Although Dumas continued his military career in the subsequent French campaign t
o conquer Egypt, he attracted the ire of his chief rival, the up-and-coming Bona
parte. Whether Bonaparte, a diminutive man, was jealous of Dumas' height, charis
ma or infantry skills is impossible to say. One thing is for certain, though: Th
e competition (even if only in Napoleon's own mind) would be Dumas' undoing.
In the late 1790s, when Dumas found himself washed onto Italian shores because o
f an alarmingly leaky vessel, Napoleon's followers tossed Dumas into a dungeon.
There he languished for two years as he suspected the prison physician of poison
ing him. Although Dumas was eventually released, his military career was over. S
tories of his exploits, however, inspired "The Count of Monte Cristo," a novel w
ritten by his son Alexandre, who also wrote "The Three Musketeers" [source: Damr
osch].
Anatole Broyard....
Anatole Broyard was born in New Orleans in 1920 to light-skinned black parents,
spent much of his childhood in a predominantly black Brooklyn neighborhood and t
hen crafted a carefully constructed image devoid of his ethnic heritage.
Broyard's light skin allowed him to join the segregated Army as a white man, whe
re he led a battalion of black soldiers. Upon his discharge from the military, h
e opened a bookstore in New York City's Greenwich Village, ensconced himself in
the literary landscape and eventually became a copywriter at an advertising firm
. Although he wrote a few short stories that were met with critical acclaim, Bro
yard initially struggled to complete a full-length work. The attention, however,
helped him secure a job as a book reviewer with The New York Times in the early
1970s, a position he held for more than a decade.
During this time, he became one of the most influential literary critics in the
U.S. And, despite rumors to the contrary, continued to live as a white man. Broy
ard's wife and children did not know he had been born black, nor did his colleag
ues or friends.
Broyard, who died of prostate cancer in 1990, never revealed the reasons for his
ruse. Likely, the limited opportunities for blacks in the 1940s had something t
o do with his original decision. But many who knew him also believed Broyard wan
ted to live as a white man because he wanted to escape the expectations of race.
He wanted to be known, not for being a "black writer," but a writer, period. Ev
en his memoir, "Kafka Was The Rage," did not reveal his race [source: Gates].
"One could concede that the passing of Anatole Broyard involved dishonesty; but
is it so very clear that the dishonesty was mostly Broyard's?" wrote scholar Hen
ry Louis Gates. "To pass is to sin against authenticity, and 'authenticity' is a
mong the founding lies of the modern age."
In 2007, his daughter Bliss published a book about her father titled "One Drop:
My Father's Hidden Life -- A Story of Race and Family Secrets."
plenty of questions -- especially from the black community -- about why she shou
ld be the one to tackle the premise.
Turns out, O'Brien is black, too. She is the daughter of a black Latina mother a
nd a white Australian father; she grew up in a primarily white neighborhood with
parents who insisted she identify as black. As a mixed-race, first-generation A
merican, O'Brien became a broadcast journalist and found herself fighting for eq
ual coverage for people of color [source: O'Brien].
"At screenings for 'Black in America' I've heard people say, 'Well you know I ne
ver thought you were black until you did [pieces on Hurricane] Katrina and then
I thought you were black.' And I'd say, 'That's so fascinating. What was it that
made you think I was black?'" said O'Brien in an interview to promote "Who is B
lack in America?", her latest installment in the documentary series.
"And then someone else would say, 'Yeah, but she's married to a white man.' And
I'm like 'OK, so does that make me less black and how in your mind does that mat
h work?'"
In the end, O'Brien (who's also produced documentaries for CNN on being Latino i
n America) relied on a lesson learned in her childhood: "My parents taught me ve
ry early that how other people perceive me really was not my problem or my respo
nsibility. It was much more based on how I perceived me" [source: O'Brien].
An engraving of Queen Charlotte of England, wife of King George III.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Queen Charlotte
In the 18th century, a painting of Queen Charlotte -- wife of the British King G
eorge III -- sparked a flurry of debate because her facial features seemed more
in keeping with someone of African heritage. And with good reason: It seems that
Queen Charlotte was descended from a branch of a Portuguese royal family who tr
aced their ancestry to a 13th-century ruler named Alfonso III and his lover Madr
agana, who was "a Moor" ( an old term for someone of African or Arabic descent)
[source: Jeffries].
Some historians cast doubt on this theory but scholar Mario de Valdes y Cocom no
tes that the queen's personal physician said she had a "true mulatto face." Furt
her, the royal family spelled out its link to African ancestors in a published r
eport released before Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953, in conjunction wi
th her position as head of the Commonwealth [source: Cocom].
If correct, the royal link to black heritage would mean that Queen Charlotte's g
randdaughter, Queen Victoria, was of mixed race. The same goes for her still-liv
ing descendants, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Prince William, and any fut
ure heirs.
Medicis
An exploration of the Italian Renaissance wouldn't be complete without talking a
bout the powerful banking and political family the Medicis. And Alessandro de Me
dici, the first Duke of Florence, supported some of the era's leading artists. I
n fact, he is one of only two Medici princes to be buried in a tomb designed by
Michelangelo.
You could say Medici was the first black ruler in Italy, in fact the first black
head of state in the Western world, though his African heritage was rarely talk
ed about. He was born in 1510 to a black servant and a white 17-year-old named G
iulio de Medici, who would later become Pope Clement VII. Upon his election to p
ope, Clement VII had to relinquish his position as Duke of Florence and appointe
d his son instead.
But the teenage Medici faced a changing political climate. Emperor Charles V sac
ked Rome in 1527, and Florentines took advantage of the turmoil to establish a m
ore democratic form of government. Medici fled his hometown. He returned when te
nsions eased two years later and was again appointed by the Emperor Charles V, w
ho offered his own daughter also born out of wedlock -- as Medici's wife. Despit
e the family ties, Medici was killed by a cousin shortly after he married in 153
7 [source: African American Registry].
Since the Middle Ages, France had been divided into a three-class system. The cl
ergy made up the first class, the nobility made up the second and the peasantry
the third. There was no room for social climbing: Kings gave birth to kings, pau
pers gave birth to paupers. For centuries, the Old Regime held all the power in
France. The nobility and clergy represented only 3 percent of the French populat
ion, but their minds conceived of the policies that governed the entire country
[source: History Channel]. This system was rigid and uncompromising, but no one
paused to consider -- or dared to say -- that it was unfair.
By the 18th century, the Enlightenment was dawning. Philosophers like Voltaire a
nd Jean-Jacques Rousseau advocated for equality and reason. They asked why peopl
e put their faith in political and religious leaders who disregarded their needs
. In salons, the wealthy members of Parisian society debated these issues. Their
eyes were on the American colonies, where the Americans had gone to war to clai
m their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Meanwhile, Thomas
Jefferson, who'd described these principles in the Declaration of Independence,
had also declared that if France's queen Marie Antoinette had been shut up in a
convent, France could have avoided the revolution [source: Smithsonian].) While
the French nobles pondered the unfairness of the universe, peasants went hungry
in the streets of Paris and in the outlying provinces.
One of the medieval precedents that persisted in the 18th century was brutal exe
cution. Criminals were burned, drowned, tortured and maimed -- all under the con
senting eyes of the Old Regime. However, the French nobility were entitled to ex
ecution by decapitation. While it seems a particularly grisly way to die, decapi
tation is relatively swift and straightforward, a real gentleman's death. When D
r. Joseph Ignace Guillotin joined France's Constituent Assembly in 1789, he prop
osed that all capital criminals sentenced to death be decapitated [source: Hibbe
rt]. Guillotin advocated for the creation of a decapitation device like the ones
used in England, Germany, Italy and Scotland. The device was prototyped in Germ
any by the secretary of the Academy of Surgeons, who ensured that it was humane.
By 1791, after a trial period during which the device sliced through countless
cadavers, it was appointed France's national death-sentence machine. It was call
ed the guillotine.
The guillotine was just a small part of an enlightened equal rights movement swe
eping through France. While Guillotin advocated for equality in death, the Frenc
h people were fighting for equality in life. And ironically enough, the guilloti
ne would be misappropriated in this struggle. It became a tool of terrorism in t
he French Revolution as the undiscerning blade silenced nobles, radicals and ord
inary citizens.
It's a question for the ages: What could turn a group of loyal subjects into a b
loodthirsty mob? The movement that began as a reformation steadily devolved -- o
r evolved, depending on whom you ask -- into a full-fledged revolution. The Fren
ch Revolution lasted for 10 years, from 1789 to 1799. But trouble began brewing
in France years before dissident political factions went on witch hunts for coun
ter-revolutionaries.
So did the revolution actually accomplish anything it set out to? Was it just ab
out brotherhood and bread, or were there darker forces at work? The events of th
e French Revolution and the motley crew of characters responsible for them are a
s varied, complicated and painstakingly interwoven as a juicy soap opera plotlin
e. We'll begin at the seat of power, in Versailles.
Once Upon a Time at Versailles: Before the French Revolution
The Palace of Versailles, in all its gilded architectural glory, was completed b
y 1682. Louis XIV had taken it upon himself to relocate the French monarchy 12 m
iles (19 km) from the squalor of Paris.
If Louis XIV's reign had been distinguished by extravagance, Louis XV's was char
acterized by carelessness. Louis XV was a perfect example of the Old Regime's dy
sfunction. He preferred to satisfy his mistresses (notably Madame de Pompadour a
nd Madame du Barry) rather than his kingdom. But he did pull himself away from t
he boudoir long enough to get France into some serious financial scrapes. Under
his reign, France was involved in the War of Polish Succession (1733-38), the Wa
r of Austrian Succession (1740-48) and the Seven Years' War (1756-63). France lo
st valuable land during these battles, and the Seven Years' War nearly drained t
he treasury.
At Versailles, it was easy to forget about the French people -- and also pretty
convenient for a despised king like Louis XV. The people couldn't be ignored, th
ough. For many years, diseases like the plague had kept the peasant population i
n check. Now, the population was booming and clamored for sustenance [source: Do
yle].
When Louis XV died in 1774, the crown went to Louis Auguste, who famously intone
d, "Protect us, Lord, for we are too young to reign." No one had much confidence
in Louis XVI's ability to lead France, much less pull it out of debt. His young
wife, Marie Antoinette, only compounded his troubles. Marie Antoinette had been
married off to Louis to cement the relationship between the Austrian Hapsburgs
and the French Bourbons. They were teenagers when they wed, but already shy Loui
s and tentative Marie Antoinette were under pressure to create the next heir to
the throne. The couple floundered in the bedroom for nearly seven years before p
roducing a child -- and their first was a girl.
Young Marie Antoinette, blissfully oblivious to the fate that awaits her
Imagno/Getty Images
When she wasn't reproducing, Marie Antoinette was spending. Her reputation as Ma
dame Deficit was well-deserved: She amused herself by ordering hundreds of gowns
, trying out elaborate hairstyles and hosting lavish parties at her private retr
eat, Petit Trianon, on Versailles' expansive grounds. Marie Antoinette had a yea
rly wardrobe allowance of $3.6 million, but she easily surpassed that by orderin
g dresses trimmed with silver and gold and dripping with precious jewels -- even
diamonds [source: Thomas]. Her focus was on pleasing the courtiers and her new
family, and she may very well have been ignorant of the conditions in Paris. Aft
er a brief excursion to the city in 1773, she wrote to her mother, "What was rea
lly affecting was the tenderness and earnestness of the poor people, who, in spi
te of the taxes with which they are overwhelmed, were transported with joy at se
eing us" [source: Modern History Sourcebook].
The third class was fully aware of its spendthrift queen, though. Pamphlets circ
ulated with lewd cartoons of the queen at court orgies and with her eccentric st
ylist sweeping up her hair into impossibly high bouffants. It wasn't just her ex
travagance on display -- her lack of reproductive success was, too. Where was th
e male heir, the people wondered. Louis couldn't govern the bedroom; could he go
vern France?
Emasculated by this negative publicity and still smarting from criticisms at cou
rt, Louis exacted military vengeance. He pledged 2,000 million livres to the Ame
rican Revolutionary War; for that massive sum, he could've fed and sheltered 7 m
illion of his own people for a year [source: History Channel]. This mistake woul
dn't be his last, however. And the French would see to it that he was duly punis
hed.

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