Rhimes producer Shondaland is behind Netflix’s new drama hit, “Bridgerton,” which includes black-and-white members of early 19th-century British high society.
The series was created by its showrunner Chris Van Dusen and is based on a Regency novel by Julia Quinn. On the show, Queen Charlotte of Britain’s real life is portrayed as a black woman by actress Golda Rosheuvel.
Many have long believed that the queen, who was married to King George III and is an ancestor of the current Queen Elizabeth, had African ancestry based in part on her images.
However, there are others who dispute this claim.
“Many historians believe he had some African background,” he said. “It’s a hotly debated point and we can’t do DNA testing on it, so I don’t think there’s a definitive answer.”
Queen Charlotte is just one of many in history who has debated her racial identity.
Here are a few more:
Ludwig van Beethoven
The writer reported that the theory was presented in 1907 by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was mixed and said he saw a similarity between his characteristics and Beethoven’s similarities.
It’s an idea Clark says survived the years and was picked up by black activists Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X.
“Was Beethoven black? The evidence is sparse and inconclusive,” Clark wrote.
“The case is based on two possibilities: that Beethoven’s Flemish ancestors married Spanish” blackamoors “of African descent, or that Beethoven’s mother had an affair. But the truth that Carmichael and Malcolm X sought were not scientists. . ” Beethoven was black “it was a great metaphor designed to unsettle and shake certainty.”
J. Edgar Hoover
The first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was known for the work he did to undermine the civil rights movement and its leaders.
The story quoted Millie McGhee, author of “Secrets Uncovered, J. Edgar Hoover – Passing For White?” an African-American woman who remembered being told she was related to Hoover when she was growing up in McComb, Mississippi.
McGhee said his subsequent research found they were indeed familiar.
“Because of Edgar’s anti-black story, I’m not proud of this lineage, but the story has to be based on the truth,” he said.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
Was Jackie Kennedy the first black lady?
This theory seems to derive from the investigation of his ancestry.
The piece notes that “When First Lady Jackie Kennedy visited England in 1961, society photographer Cecil Beaton met her at a dinner party. In her diary she commented that she looked” negro. “
Some historians have also pointed out that his father, Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III, was called “Black Jack,” which they attributed to his brown skin.
Clark Gable
Gable was known as the tall, dark, handsome “king of Hollywood.”
It has long been rumored that he had black and Native American heritage, which no one has ever thoroughly documented.
But he was known for his early African-American civil rights defenders.
“He looked at me, read the signs, and pooped like a sailor,” Bluett recalled.
Gable, who was the star of the film, addressed the director and the owner and demanded that the signs be removed or else the hundreds of black extras from the set come out that day.
Bluett said the signs were removed.