2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 8: "Strange Fruit"

APPENDIX 8 

"STRANGE FRUIT"

"Strange Fruit" is a song recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939.  Written by Abel Meeropol and published in 1937. It protests the lynching of African Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black.  "Strange Fruit" has been called "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement".

Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife and singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. The song has been covered by numerous artists, including Nina Simone, UB40, Jeff Buckley, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Robert Wyatt, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.  Diana Ross recorded the song for her debut film, the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and it was included on the chart topping soundtrack album. Holiday's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

"Strange Fruit" originated as a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings.  In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings, inspired by Lawrence Beitler's  photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.  Meeropol published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine of the Teachers Union.  Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. His protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden.

One version of events claims that Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday.  Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Cafe Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her.  However the song came to her, Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.

Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS.  When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it. Frankie Newton's eight-piece Cafe Society Band was used for the session. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. It was recorded on April 20, 1939. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.

Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The song was highly regarded. The 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording.

Billie Holiday was so well known for her rendition of "Strange Fruit" that "she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable".  Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the National Recording Registry on January 27, 2003.

Some of the other honors bestowed upon Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" are:

• 1999: Time magazine named "Strange Fruit" as "Best Song of the Century" in its issue dated December 31, 1999.
• 2002: The Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to  be added to the National Recording Registry. 
• 2010: The New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".
• 2011: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution listed the song as Number One on "100 Songs of the South".

2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 7: Abel Meeropol

 

APPENDIX 7

ABEL MEEROPOL

Abel Meeropol (February 10, 1903 – October 29, 1986) was an American songwriter and poet whose works were published under his pseudonym, Lewis Allan. He wrote "Strange Fruit" (1937), which was recorded by Billie Holiday.  At the time, Meeropol was a member of the American Communist Party, but he would later quit.

Meeropol was born in 1903 to Russian Jewish immigrants in The Bronx, New York City. Meeropol graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1921. Meeropol earned a bachelor of arts degree from City College of New York, and a master of arts degree from Harvard.  He taught English at DeWitt Clinton High School for 17 years. During his tenure, Meeropol taught the notable author and racial justice advocate, James Baldwin.

Meeropol wrote the anti-lynching poem "Strange Fruit" (1937), which was first published as "Bitter Fruit" in a Teachers Union publication. He later set it to music. The song was recorded and performed by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone among other artists. Holiday claimed in the book Lady Sings the Blues that she co-wrote the music to the song with Meeropol and Sonny White. 

Meeropol wrote numerous poems and songs, including the Frank Sinatra and Josh White hit "The House I Live In."  He also wrote the libretto of Robert Kurka's opera The Good Soldier Svejk (1957), which was premiered in 1958 by the New York City Opera. 

The songs "Strange Fruit" and "The House I Live In," along with the Peggy Lee hit "Apples, Peaches and Cherries," provided most of the royalty income for the Meeropol family. 

Meeropol was a communist and sympathetic to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.  Later, he and his wife Anne adopted the Rosenbergs' two sons, Michael and Robert, who were orphaned after their parents' executions for espionage. Michael and Robert took the surname Meeropol.

Meeropol died on October 29, 1986, at the Jewish Nursing Home in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. 

2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 6: James Cameron

 

APPENDIX 6

JAMES CAMERON

***

James Cameron (b. February 25, 1914, La Crosse, Wisconsin – d. June 11, 2006, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was an American civil rights activist. In the 1940s, he founded three chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Indiana. He also served as Indiana's State Director of the Office of Civil Liberties from 1942 to 1950.

In the 1950s, he moved with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he continued as an activist and started speaking on African-American history. In 1988, he founded America's Black Holocaust Museum in the city, devoted to African-American history from slavery to the present.

Cameron was a survivor of a lynching attempt, which occurred when he was a 16-year-old suspect in a murder/robbery case in Marion, Indiana; two older teenagers were killed by the mob.

Cameron was born on February 25, 1914, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to James Herbert Cameron and Vera Carter. After his father left the family, they moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and then to Marion, Indiana. When James was 14, his mother remarried.

In August 1930, when Cameron was 16 years old, he went out with two older teenage African-American friends, Thomas Shipp (age 18) and Abram Smith (age 19). A white couple, Claude Deeter (age 23) and Mary Ball, was parked in a lovers lane when the trio came upon them and one of the group suggested robbing the couple. Later, Shipp and Smith killed Deeter.  Deeter's girlfriend, Mary Ball, was with him, and said she had been raped.  Cameron said he ran away before Deeter was killed.  The three youths were caught quickly, arrested, and charged the same night with robbery, murder and rape.  (The rape charge was later dropped, as Ball retracted it.)

A lynch mob broke into the jail where Cameron and his two friends were being held. According to Cameron's account, a lynch mob gathered at the Grant County Courthouse Square and took all three youths from the jail. The older two, Shipp and Smith, were killed first.  Shipp was taken out and beaten, and hanged from the bars of his jail window. Smith was dead from the beating he received from the mob.   The mob then hanged both of the boys from a tree in the square.

Then came Cameron's turn.

In his autobiography, Cameron recalled the raw, inhuman sound of the mob, which included members of the local Ku Klux Klan. He once said he still could remember the faces of the 2,000 white people who gathered there, some with their children, some eating. He prayed for his life.

Cameron was beaten and a noose was put around his neck. Then, as the noose grew tighter around his neck, the voice of an unidentified woman called out: "Take this boy back. He had nothing to do with any raping or shooting of anybody." Frank Faunce, a local sports hero and football All-American from Indiana University also intervened and removed the noose from Cameron's neck, saying he deserved a fair trial. Faunce then escorted the young man back to  the jail. Cameron's neck was long scarred from the rope.

Flossie Bailey, a local NAACP official, and the State Attorney General worked to gain indictments against leaders of the mob in the lynchings but were unsuccessful. No one was ever charged in the murders of Shipp and Smith, nor for the assault on Cameron.

Cameron was convicted at a trial in 1931 as an accessory before the fact to the murder of Deeter, and served four years of his sentence in a state prison. After he was paroled, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked at Stroh Brewery Company and attended Wayne State University.

(In 1991, Cameron was pardoned by the state of Indiana.)

Cameron studied at Wayne State University to become a boiler engineer and worked in that field until he was 65. At the same time, he continued to study lynchings, race, and civil rights in America and trying to teach others.

Because of his personal experience, Cameron dedicated his life to promoting civil rights, racial unity, and equality. While he worked in a variety of jobs in Indiana during the 1940s, he founded three chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  This was a period when the Ku Klux Klan was still active in the Midwest, although its numbers had decreased since its peak in the 1920s. Cameron established and became the first president of the NAACP Madison County chapter in Anderson, Indiana. 

He also served as the Indiana State Director of Civil Liberties from 1942 to 1950. In this capacity, Cameron reported to Governor of Indiana Henry Schricker on violations of the "equal accommodations" laws designed to end segregation. During his eight-year tenure, Cameron investigated more than 25 incidents of civil rights infractions. He faced violence and death threats because of his work.

The emotional toll of threats led Cameron to search for a safer home for his wife and five children. Planning to move to Canada, they decided on Milwaukee when he found work there. There Cameron continued his work in civil rights by assisting in protests to end segregated housing in the city. He also participated in both marches on Washington in the 1960s, the first with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the second with King's widow Coretta and Jesse Jackson. 

Cameron studied history on his own and lectured on the African-American experience. From 1955 to 1989 he published hundreds of articles and booklets detailing civil rights and occurrences of racial injustices, including "What is Equality in American Life?"; "The Lingering Problem of Reconstruction in American Life: Black Suffrage"; and "The Second Civil Rights Bill". In 1982 he published his memoir, A Time of Terror: A Survivor's Story.

Cameron worked in a brewery for a few years and at Milprint packaging company awhile. He also went to a trade school to become a boiler engineer. He worked at one of the biggest malls in Milwaukee, Mayfair Shopping Center, until age 65. He also owned a rug-cleaning business, which afforded him the chance to travel.

After being inspired by a visit with his wife to the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, Cameron founded  America's Black Holocaust Museum in 1988. He used material from his collections to document the struggles of African Americans in the United States, from slavery through lynchings, and the 20th-century civil rights movement. When he first started collecting materials about slavery, he kept the materials in his basement. Working with others to build support for the museum, he was aided by philanthropist Daniel Bader. 

The museum started as a grassroots effort and became one of the largest African-American museums in the country.  In 2008, the museum closed because of financial problems. It reopened on Cameron's birthday, February 25, 2012, as a virtual museum.

Cameron and his wife, Virginia Hamilton, had five children. He died on June 11, 2006, at the age of 92, from congestive heart failure.  He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee. Two sons, David and James, had died before him. He was survived by his wife Virginia and three children: Virgil, Walter, and Dolores Cameron, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

***

2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 5: A Chronological Listing of Lynchings: 1882-1968

 

APPENDIX 5
A CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF LYNCHINGS
1882 - 1968

Throughout the late 19th century racial tension grew throughout the United States.  More of this tension was noticeable in the Southern parts of the United States.  In the south, people were blaming their financial problems on the newly freed slaves that lived around them.  Lynchings were becoming a popular way of resolving some of the anger that whites had in relation to the free blacks.

From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States.  Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black.  The blacks lynched accounted for 72.7% of the people lynched.  These numbers seem large, but it is known that not all of the lynchings were ever recorded.  Out of the 4,743 people lynched only 1,297 white people were lynched.  That is only 27.3%.  Many of the whites lynched were lynched for helping the black or being anti lynching and even for domestic crimes.

Was lynching necessary?  To many people it was not, but to the whites in the late 19th century it served a purpose.  Whites started lynching because they felt it was necessary to protect white women.  Rape though was not a great factor in reasoning behind the lynching.  It was the third greatest cause of lynchings behind homicides and ‘all other causes’.

Most of the lynchings that took place happened in the South.  A big reason for this was the end of the Civil War.  Once black were given their freedom, many people felt that the freed blacks were getting away with too much freedom and felt they needed to be controlled.  Mississippi had the highest lynchings from 1882-1968 with 581.  Georgia was second with 531, and Texas was third with 493.  79% of lynching happened in the South.

Of the lynching that did not take place in the South, mainly in the West, were normally lynchings of whites, not blacks.  Most of the lynching in the West came from the lynching of either murders or cattle thief’s.  There really was no political link to the lynching of blacks in the South, and whites in the West.

Not all states did lynch people.  Some states did not lynch a white or a black person.  Alaska, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut were these few states that had no lynchings between 1882-1968.

Although some states did have lynchings, some of them did not lynch any blacks.  Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin were some states that did not lynch any blacks to record.

Quite a few states did in fact lynch more white people than black.  In the West these greater number of white lynchings was due to political reasons not racial reasons.  California, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming lynched more whites than blacks.

2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 4: Ethiopian Imperial and Royal Titles

 

APPENDIX 4

ETHIOPIAN IMPERIAL AND ROYAL TITLES

Until the end of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia. The Mesafint, the hereditary nobility, formed the upper echelon of the ruling class. The Mekwanint were the appointed nobles, often of humble birth, who formed the bulk of the aristocracy. Until the 20th century, the most powerful people at court were generally members of the Mekwanint appointed by the monarch, while regionally, the Mesafint enjoyed greater influence and power. Emperor Haile Selassie greatly curtailed the power of the Mesafint to the benefit of the Mekwanint.

The Mekwanint were officials who had been granted specific offices in the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) government or court. Higher ranks from the title of Ras through to Balambaras were also bestowed upon members of the Mekwanint. A member of the Mesafint, however, would traditionally be given precedence over a member of the Mekwanint of the same rank. For example, Ras Mengesha Yohannes, son of Emperor Yohannes IV and thus a member of the Mesafint, would have outranked Ras Alula Engida, who was of humble birth and therefore a member of the Mekwanint, even though their ranks were equal.

There were also parallel rules of precedence, primarily seniority based on age, on offices held, and on when they each obtained their titles, which made the rules for precedence rather complex. Combined with the ambiguous position of titled heirs of members of the Mekwanint, Emperor Haile Selassie, as part of his program of modernizing reforms, and in line with his aims of centralizing power away from the Mesafint, replaced the traditional system of precedence with a simplified, Western-inspired system that gave precedence by rank, and then by seniority based on when the title had been assumed – irrespective of how the title was acquired.
Some of the imperial and royal titles are as follows:

The Negusa Nagast -- the "King of Kings" -- would be the Emperor of Ethiopia. Although several kings of Aksum used this title, until the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty under Yekuno Amlak,  rulers of Ethiopia generally used the title of Negus -- the "King" , although "King of Kings" was used as far back as Ezana.

The title of the Emperor of Ethiopia, Negusa Nagast, is typically accompanied with the honorific Seyoume Igziabeher -- "Elect of God"). The title Moa Anbessa Ze Imnegede Yehuda ("Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah") always preceded the titles of the Emperor. It was not a personal title but rather referred to the title of Jesus and placed the office of Christ ahead of the Emperor's name in an act of Imperial submission. Until the reign of Yohannes IV, the Emperor was also Neguse Tsion -- "King of Zion" -- whose seat was at Axum, and which conferred hegemony over much of the north of the Empire.

The Emperor was referred to by the dignitaries with the formal Girmawi -- "His Imperial Majesty" -- and, in common speech, as Janhoy --"Your [Imperial] Majesty",or literally "sire". In his own household, and by his own family members, the Emperor was called Getochu -- "Our Master" in the plural, and when referred to by name in the third person with the suffix of Atse -- effectively "Emperor", i.e. Atse Menelik.

All formal speech concerning the Emperor was in the plural, as was his own speech. Haile Selassie, for instance, referred to himself in the first-person plural at all times, even in casual conversation and when speaking in French (however, this was not the case when he spoke in English, in which he was not fully fluent).

A Negus -- a "king" -- was a hereditary ruler of one of Ethiopia's larger provinces, over whom collectively the monarch ruled, thus justifying his imperial title. The title of Negus was awarded at the discretion of the Emperor to those who ruled important provinces, although it was often used hereditarily. The rulers of Begember, Shewa, Gojjam, and Wollo all held the title of Negus at some point, as the "Negus of Shewa", "Negus of Gojjam", and so forth.

During and after the reign of Menelik II (1889-1913), virtually all of the titles either lapsed into the Imperial crown or were dissolved. In 1914, after having been appointed "Negus of Zion" by his son Lij Iyasu (Iyasu V), Mikael Wollo, chose a different title.  In consideration of the hostile feelings the title of "Negus of Zion" -- or "King of the North" -- provoked in much of the nobility in northern Ethiopia (particularly Le'ul Ras Seyoum Mengesha, whose family had resented being denied the title by Menelik), who were now technically made subordinate to him, Mikael Wollo instead elected to use the title of Negus of Wollo.  Tafari Makonnen, who later became Emperor Haile Selassie, was bestowed the title of Negus in 1928.  He would be the last person to bear the title.

Despite the cultural impropriety, European sources referred to the Ethiopian monarch as the Negus well into the 20th century, switching to Emperor only after the Second World War  – around the same time the name Abyssinia fell out of use in favor of Ethiopia in the west.

Le'ul or Leul  -- Prince -- was a title used by sons and grandsons of the Emperor. It conferred upon its holder the title of Imperial Highness. The title first came into use in 1916, following the enthronement of Empress Zewditu.

Abetohun or Abeto  – Prince -- is a title reserved for males of imperial ancestry in the male line. The title fell into disuse by the late 19th century.  Lij Iyasu attempted to revive the title as Abeto-hoy ("Great Prince").

Ras – Duke - is a title held by one of the powerful non-imperial males.  The combined title of Leul Ras was given to the heads of the cadet branches of the Imperial dynasty, such as the Princes of Gojjam, Tigray and the Selalle sub-branch of the last reigning Shewan Branch.

Bitwoded or Betwadad -- Beloved --  is an office thought to have been created by Zara Yaqob who appointed two of these, one of the Left and one of the Right. These were later merged into one office, which became the supreme grade of Ras.   Ras Betwadad equates the European title of earl. 

Lij -- child – is a title issued at birth to sons of members of the Mesafint, the hereditary nobility.

Dejazmach  -- Commander or General of the Gate – is a military title meaning commander of the central body of a traditional Ethiopian armed force composed of a vanguard, main body, left and right wings and a rear body. A dejazmach equates to a the European title of "count".  The heirs of the Leul Rases  were titled Leul Dejazmach to elevate them above the non-Imperial blood Dejazmaches.

*****

 There are special imperial and royal titles attributable to the female members of the royal court.  They are as follows:

Nigiste Negestatt -- "Empress Regnant" -- literally "Queen of Kings" was a title held by Zewditu.  Zewditu (r. 1917–1930) was the only woman to be crowned in Ethiopia in her own right since ancient times. Rather than take the title Itege, which was reserved for empress consorts,  Zewditu was given the feminized version of Nigusa Nigist to indicate that she reigned in her own right. She was accorded the dignity of Girmawit ("[Her] Imperial Majesty") and the title of Siyimta Igzi'abher ("Electress of God"). She was commonly referred to as Nigist "Queen". The 1955 Constitution of Ethiopis excluded women from the succession to the throne so the title of Nigiste Negestatt was effectively abolished.

Itege -- "Empress Consort"  -- was the title held for the non-ruling mate of the Emperor.   Empresses were generally crowned as consorts by the emperor at the Imperial Palace. However, Taytu Betul, consort of Menelik II, became the first Itege to be crowned by the Emperor at church rather than at the Palace. Her coronation took place on the second day of the emperor's coronation holiday. Menen Asfaw became the first Itege to be crowned by the archbishop on the same day and during the same ceremony as her husband, Haile Selassie.  The Itege was entitled to the honorific of Girmawit ("Her/Your Imperial Majesty").

Le'elt  -- "Princess" -- was a title that came into use in 1916 upon the enthronement of Zewditu. Reserved at birth for daughters of the monarch and patrilineal granddaughters. Usually bestowed on the wives of "Leul Rases" as well as the monarch's granddaughters in the female line upon their marriages. The notable exception to the rule was Leult Yeshashework Vilma, Emperor Haile Selassie's niece by his elder brother, who received the title with the dignity of "Highness" from Zewditu upon the princess' marriage to Leul Ras Gugsa Araya Selassie in 1918, and then again from her uncle upon his coronation in 1930 with the enhanced dignity of "Imperial Highness".

The Enderase -- the "Regent" -- acted as the Regent of the Empire in times of the Emperor's youth, infirmity, or other limited capacity. Empress Zewditu, who reigned from 1917 to 1930, was obliged to share power with an Enderase, Ras Tafari Makonnen, who was also her designated heir, and thus assumed the throne as Emperor Haile Selassie in 1930.

*****

2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 3: Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary Latin America

RACE AND ETHNICITY IN CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICA

There is no single system of races or ethnicities that covers all modern Latin America, and usage of labels may vary substantially. In Mexico, for example, the category mestizo is not defined or applied the same as the corresponding category of mestico in Brazil. In spite of these differences, the construction of race in Latin America can be contrasted with concepts of race and ethnicity in the United States. The ethno-racial composition of modern-day Latin American nations combines diverse Amerindian populations, with influence from Iberian and other European colonizers, and equally diverse African groups brought to the Americas as slave labor, and also recent immigrant groups from all over the world.

Racial categories in Latin America are often linked to both continental ancestry or mixture as inferred from phenotypical traits, but also to socio-economic status. Ethnicity is often constructed either as an amalgam national identity or as something reserved for the indigenous groups so that ethnic identity is something that members of indigenous groups have in addition to their national identity. Racial and ethnic discrimination is common in Latin America where socio-economic status generally correlates with perceived whiteness, and indigenous status and perceived African ancestry is generally correlated with poverty and lack of opportunity and social status.

The contemporary classification of individuals in Latin America includes the following categories:

• Amerindians.The indigenous population of Latin America, the Amerindians, arrived during the Lithic stage -- the earliest stage of human habitation of the Americas. In pre-Columbian times, the Amerindians numbered over one hundred million. In post-Columbian times, they experienced tremendous population decrease, particularly in the early decades of colonization. They have since recovered in numbers, surpassing sixty million by some estimates. With the growth of other groups, they now compose a majority only in Bolivia and Peru. In Guatemala, Amerindians are a large minority who comprise two-fifths of the population. Mexico's fourteen percent (14%) (9.8% in the official 2005 census) is the next largest population, and one of the largest Amerindian populations in the Americas in absolute numbers. Most of the remaining countries have Amerindian minorities, in every case making up less than one-tenth of the respective country's population. In many countries, people of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry make up the majority of the population (see Mestizo).

• Asians.  People of Asian descent number several million in Latin America. The first Asians to settle in the region were Filipino, as a result of Spain trading in Asia and the Americas. The majority of Asian Latin Americans are of Japanese or Chinese ancestry and reside mainly in Brazil and Peru.  There is also a growing Chinese minority in Panama.  Brazil is home to about two million people of Asian descent; this includes the largest ethnic Japanese community outside Japan itself (estimated as high as 1.5 million), and about 200,000 ethnic Chinese and 100,000 ethnic Koreans. Ethnic Koreans  number tens of thousands in Argentina and Mexico.  Peru, with 1.47 million people of Asian descent, has one of the largest Chinese communities in the world, with nearly one million Peruvians being of Chinese ancestry. There is a strong ethnic-Japanese presence in Peru, where a past president (Alberto Fujimori) and a number of politicians are of Japanese descent. The Martinican population includes an African-White-Indian mixed population, and an East Indian (Asian Indian) population. The Guadeloupe East Indian population is estimated at fourteen percent (14%) of the population.

• Blacks.  Millions of Africans were brought to Latin America from the 16th century onward, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean region and Brazil.  Today, people identified as "Black" are most numerous in Brazil (more than 10 million) and in Haiti (more than 7 million).  Among the Latin American nations, Brazil has the largest number of Blacks with seven percent (7%) of the population being Afro-Latin American. Significant populations are also found in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay.  Latin Americans of mixed Black and White ancestry, called Mulattoes, are far more numerous than Blacks.

• Mestizos. Intermixing between Europeans and Amerindians began early in the colonial period and was extensive. The resulting people, known as Mestizos, make up the majority of the population in half of the countries of Latin America. Additionally, Mestizos compose large minorities in nearly all the other mainland countries.

• Mulattoes.  Mulattoes are people of mixed European and African ancestry. In Latin America, Mulattoes descend primarily from Spanish or Portuguese settlers on one side, and African on the other. Brazil is home to Latin America's largest mulatto population. Mulattoes are a population majority in the Dominican Republic and, depending on the source, Cuba as well. Mulattoes are also numerous in Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Uruguay. Smaller populations of mulattoes are found in other Latin American countries.

• Whites.  Beginning in the late 15th century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America. The Portuguese colonized Brazil primarily, and the Spaniards settled elsewhere in the region. At present, most White Latin Americans are of Spanish or Portuguese origin. Iberians brought the Spanish and Portuguese languages, the Catholic faith, and many Iberian-Latin traditions. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela contain the largest absolute numbers of Whites in Latin America. Whites make up the majorities of Argentina, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Chile, Uruguay, and depending on the source in Cuba. Whites make up nearly half of Brazil's population. Ever since most of Latin America gained independence in the 1810s–1820s, millions of people have immigrated there. Of these immigrants, Italians formed the largest group, and next were Spaniards and Portuguese. Many others arrived, such as French, Germans, Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Croats, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Irish, and Welsh. Also included are Jews, as well as Arabs of Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian descent; most of them are Christian.  Whites presently compose the largest racial group in Latin America (approximately thirty-six percent [36%]) and, whether as White, Mestizo, or Mulatto, the vast majority of Latin Americans have white ancestry.

• Zambos. Intermixing between Africans and Amerindians was especially prevalent in Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Brazil, often due to slaves running away (becoming cimarrones: maroons) and being taken in by Amerindian villagers. In Spanish speaking nations, people of this mixed ancestry are known as Zambos in Middle America, and Cafuzos in Brazil.

In addition to the foregoing groups, Latin America also has millions of tri-racial peoples of African, Amerindian, and European ancestry. Most are found in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Peru with a much smaller presence in other countries.

2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 2: Colonial Racial Categories

COLONIAL RACIAL CATEGORIES

A casta is a term which has been interpreted by certain historians during the 20th century to describe mixed-race individuals in Spanish America, resulting from unions of Spaniards (españoles), Amerindians (Indios), and Africans (Negros). Basic mixed-race categories that appeared in official colonial documentation include Mestizo, generally offspring of a Spaniard and an India; Castizo, offspring of a Spaniard and a Mestiza; Mulatto, offspring of a Spaniard and a Negra; and Morisco was the offspring of a Spaniard and a Mulatta. There were a plethora of terms for mixed-race persons of indigenous and African ancestry, some of which appear in official documentation, but many do not.

Racial category labels had legal and social consequences, since racial status was a key organizing principle of Spanish colonial rule. Often called the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas, there was, in fact, no fixed system of classification for individuals. There was considerable fluidity in society, with individuals being identified by different categories simultaneously or over time. Individuals self-identified by particular terms, often to shift their status from one category to another to their advantage. For example, Mestizos were exempt from tribute obligations, but were subject to the Inquisition, unlike Indios, who paid tribute and were exempt from the Inquisition. A Mestizo might try to "pass" as an Indio to escape the Inquisition. An Indio might try to pass as a Mestizo to escape tribute obligations.

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Affranchi is a former French legal term denoting a freedman or emancxipated slave, but was a term used to refer pejoratively to mulattoes. It is used in the English language to describe the social class of freedmen in Saint-Domingue, and other slave-holding French territories, who held legal rights intermediate between those of free whites and enslaved Africans. In Saint-Domingue, roughly half of the affranchis were gens de couleur libres (free people of color; Mulatto) and the other half African slaves.

The term is derived from the French word for emancipation — affranchissement, or enfranchisement in terms of political rights. But, the affranchis were barred from the franchise (voting) prior to a 1791 court case, which followed the French Revolution. The decision in their favor prompted a backlash from the French white planter class on Saint-Domingue, who also exerted power in France. These elements contributed to the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution.

The affranchis had legal and social advantages over enslaved Africans. They became a distinct class in the society between whites and slaves. They could get some education, were able to own land, and could attend some French colonial entertainments. Planters who took slave women or free women of color as concubines, often sent their sons to France for education. In some cases these sons entered the French military. The parents were more likely to settle property on them as well. Because of such property and class issues, some free men of color considered themselves to have status above that of the petits blancs, shopkeepers and workers. Nonetheless, the latter had more political rights in the colony until after the Revolution.

The colonists passed so many restrictions that the affranchis were limited as a separate caste. The affranchis could not vote or hold colonial administrative posts, or work in professional careers as doctors or lawyers. There were sumptuary laws: the free people of color were forbidden to wear the style of clothes favored by the wealthy white colonists. In spite of the disadvantages, many educated affranchis identified culturally with France rather than with the enslaved population. A social class in between, the free people of color sometimes had tensions with both whites and enslaved Africans.

Ambitious mulattoes worked to gain acceptance from the white colonists who held power in that society. As they advanced in society, affranchis often also held land and slaves. Some acted as creditors for planters. One of the affranchi leaders in the late 18th century, Julien Raimond, an indigo planter, claimed that affranchis owned a third of all the slaves in the colony at that time. In the early years of the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution, many gens de couleur were committed to maintaining the institution of slavery. They wanted political equality based on class - that is, extended to men of property, regardless of skin color.

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Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning "to place with". The women were not legally recognized as wives but were known as placées; their relationships were recognized among the free people of color (gens de couleur libres) as mariages de la main gauche or left-handed marriages. They became institutionalized with contracts or negotiations that settled property on the woman and her children, and in some cases gave them freedom if they were enslaved. The system flourished throughout the French and Spanish colonial periods, reaching its zenith during the latter, between 1769 and 1803.

Placage was widely practiced in New Orleans, where planter society had created enough wealth to support the system. It also took place in the Latin-influenced cities of Natchez and Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; Saint Augustine and Pensacola, Florida; as well as Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti).  Placage became associated with New Orleans as part of its cosmopolitan society.

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