 Where did Lawrence Otis Graham get the idea for Our Kind of People 800: A Registry of the 800 Richest & Most Socially Elite Blacks in America?
By Lawrence Otis Graham A few months ago, when I announced that I was beginning research on my 14th book, Our Kind of People 800: A Registry of the 800 Richest & Most Socially Elite Blacks in America, there was a dual response to this unusual project. On one hand, I was criticized by a small group of journalists in Atlanta and Philadelphia, who suggested that such a book was elitist and divisive and that I should highlight black crime or poverty rather than black success.
But the greater response that came from all corners of the country was one of curiosity. Blacks and whites were intrigued when I revealed that the United States now has more than one million African-Americans with law degrees, master’s degrees, medical degrees, doctorates, and MBAs. These individuals were eager to hear about the fast-growing number of black millionaires, corporate CEOs, and hedge fund executives. They were extremely interested in learning how select groups like Jack and Jill, the Links, and the Boulé (three organizations that my own family holds dear) have played an important role in creating black networks and how certain families were merging with others to build unprecedented dynasties in our community. While there has been a social register since 1886 that has profiled the wealthiest white families, this would be the first registry to solely profile affluent blacks.
Interestingly, the most common question I’ve received since I began my 42-city (still ongoing) tour to identify these black Fortune 500 executives, investment bankers, third-generation business owners, physicians, attorneys, socialites, and philanthropists was quite simple: Where did I get the idea? It was a cool, late Saturday afternoon in May 2005 as the wedding guests poured out of St. Thomas Church onto Fifth Avenue. The five-lane thoroughfare in front of the old limestone building was blocked by a phalanx of black limousines—all headed south into downtown traffic on the one-way street.
“But isn’t the University Club just a block uptown, in the other direction?” asked one of the formally attired guests on the church steps as his wife tried to signal to the driver of their black Mercedes.
“I don’t care how close it is,” his wife responded, waving her crystal-beaded bag at their driver. “You certainly don’t think I’m showing up at that reception on foot, do you?”
The husband glanced down at his wife’s Manolo Blahnik heels, but he knew it wasn’t really about the shoes. While New Yorkers are alleged to walk everywhere and anywhere, the rules change dramatically when the black elite socializes on the island of Manhattan. We aggressively rely on our private limousine and car services. This arose out of necessity when it became obvious more than a decade ago that many of the city’s taxi drivers refused to pick up black passengers—particularly after sunset.
However, there’s also an obvious currency in traveling in your own chauffeured town car. In this case, it was from a black society wedding at 53rd Street and Fifth to the post-wedding reception fewer than 25 steps away at 54th Street and Fifth. The husband was right, that it would be just a one-block walk north. But like the rest of this group, my wife and I found our way to our waiting driver and took the 15-minute ride around the single square block, where we landed in front of the University Club, the site of the reception celebrating the wedding of New York investment banker Ronald Blaylock and Chicago socialite businesswoman Judith Byrd. 
As dozens of well-coiffed and bejeweled African-American couples climbed out of their cars at 54th and Fifth, they again stopped traffic—and captured the gaze of white people, who always seem to be stunned by the image of rich, good-looking blacks. Unlike cities such as Boston and San Francisco, where the majority of the black well-to-do self-segregates, Manhattan’s black glitterati (as some call them) show no such reserve, propelling themselves with no hesitation into the ultrawhite environs that, in any other city, would remain off-limits to even the best-connected African-Americans. This is why one finds them—even if in small numbers—in upscale apartment buildings along Central Park West and on tony Park and Fifth avenues; in the mostly white, wealthy suburban neighborhoods of Bronxville, Short Hills, Great Neck, or Scarsdale; on the boards of the Whitney, the Met, or the Museum of Natural History; in private schools like Brearley, Spence, Fieldston, Horace Mann, and Dalton; and in members-only city clubs like the Metropolitan, the Harvard, and the Century. The University Club, designed by McKim, Mead & White and erected in 1899, is one of those places. And it was the ideal backdrop for our evening.
“Isn’t that Vernon Jordan?” someone whispered behind us as we climbed the granite steps to go inside. Entering the building we passed Ken Chenault, the CEO of American Express, talking to Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee giving a hug to Ebony magazine owner Linda Johnson Rice, who had flown in from Chicago to serve as a bridesmaid. Former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal was sharing a hearty laugh with Urban League CEO Marc Morial, Black Enterprise magazine owner Earl G. Graves, BET President Debra Lee, and a couple of managing directors from Morgan Stanley. It was another old-school class reunion.
While many white millionaires—as well as a few beloved billionaires like Mayor Michael Bloomberg and oil tycoon David Koch—were in the room and along the stairs leading up to the reception, it was clear that this was a black wedding, a black event, a black moment. White people were there in great number, and ere similarly decked out in tuxedos, floor-length gowns, and tasteful diamonds, but they lingered along the edges of the scenery, like a side dish to our entrée: the background to our foreground. This typically happens at events of this nature in New York because of the large number of superwealthy black bankers, finance executives, and Wall Street traders.
After all, that year Blaylock’s firm, Blaylock & Partners, had underwritten $150 billion in securities and was managing another $10 billion in assets. Ron, a graduate of Georgetown University, sits on the board of numerous companies and institutions like New York University and Carnegie Hall. His beautiful new Chicago-reared wife, Judy, a graduate of Howard University and Georgetown Law School, was a business heavyweight in her own right long before meeting the multimillionaire.
Black achievement was on the minds of many that evening. Several guests discussed the then recent announcement that Buddy Fletcher, a 38-year-old black Harvard graduate and New York financier who had made millions at Bear Stearns and through his own company, Fletcher Asset Management, would make a philanthropic contribution of $50 million in honor of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case’s 50th anniversary. His donation would be divided among Howard University, the NAACP, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, three favorite organizations of the local crowd.
So it was at this moment—while seeing the black power set from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and other cities merging together at this wedding—that I realized there ought to be a book or directory that profiled these successful people and their illustrious families. The six o’clock news, myriad gangsta videos, and exploitative Jerry Springer–like talk shows bombard us with images of black criminals, black teen mothers, and angry black youth with little hope for their own futures. Isn’t it time we celebrated our positive stories, highlighted our accomplishments, and stopped affecting that fake I’m-just-keepin’-my-head-above-water facade that we’ve been embracing since the early ’70s?
No other group hides from and apologizes more for its success than we black people. While Irish-Americans are happy to claim their Kennedys, the WASPs their Rockefellers, the Jews their Tisches, and the Italians their Agnellis, we’ve been taught to shun or eschew any black movers and shakers outside of sports or entertainment. We somehow feel awkward and hesitant about embracing educated blacks who are breaking barriers and building dynasties. For example, why was it a good thing that John F. Kennedy and George Bush graduated from Harvard and Yale, yet considered a liability by many when we learned that Barack and Michelle Obama had degrees from three Ivy Leagues: Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard Law School?
Do we really want the message to be that an African-American loses his authenticity the minute he becomes successful? Perhaps this is why too many of our black kids are afraid to use correct diction, shine in the classroom, or plan careers in business, law, or medicine. More than 100 years ago, historian and sociologist Dr. W.E.B. DuBois told us that there was a Talented Tenth among our community. So the concept of a black elite is nothing new—despite those around us who try to perpetuate another stereotype. The media have told us that to be authentically black, we better not reveal ambition or a passion for excellence. It’s our job to change that message.
And we can all do it by admitting that there’s something good about being rich, educated, and well connected. By the time I’ve completed my research and have profiled the 800 members of these black dynasties, I’m hoping that some of the naysayers will finally allow the black crème de la crème to come out of the closet and publicly acknowledge their own contributions and success. U
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. Among our many featured speakers at our Annual GA Youth Conference/Dinner over the years have been Bridgette Heller, Earl “Butch” Graves and Bob Johnson and Vernon Jordan. GA 2008 Conference was held March 27-30 in New Haven, CT, and the 2009 Conference will be held in Prince Georges, MD March 26-29. 
Riffs On Rides
