The Story Behind the Real Black Aristocracy of the Gilded Age

Money alone didn’t grant access to the upper echelons of Black society. In addition to having “character” and “respectability,” the Black elite emphasized both education and hard work as core values, according to Peterson.

“Since Blacks came to this country, education has always been number one,” Peterson told Business Insider. “There is a belief that if you had ambition, you could do anything you wanted. And ambition started with education.”

On February 25, 1837, Quaker philanthropist Richard Humphreys founded the first HBCU in the country, the African Institute — now Cheyney University — in Pennsylvania. The majority of HBCUs originated from 1865 to 1900, the period following the Emancipation Proclamation.

Education was key to unlocking the skills to become a doctor or pharmacist, and also led to a flourishing of interests in humanities and the arts, according to Peterson. Scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois advocated for the need for an educated class.

“The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men,” Du Bois wrote in his essay, ‘Talented Tenth.”