They were among the black elite and encouraged their children in academic achievement.

His family was influential in the tiny black elite of the south.

They returned to Philadelphia, where their family was among the black elite.

But this is precisely why some members of the black elite see Smith as no less than their liberator.

He also reaches into the past, attacking earlier members of the black elite for doing the same thing.

The black elite would make its getaway when the walls of segregation came down.

The early black elite started and led the civil rights movement, which involved making common cause with the lower classes.

In these ways, the black elites served the same basic functions as their white counterparts.

They see betrayal instead of brotherhood coming from the new black elite.

It is also a black elite that seems to have forgotten ordinary people.