It’s not easy to access photos of famous black people from centuries ago, but on top of that, many individuals who looked ethnically ambiguous during the time of segregation would not lay claim to their black roots. For these and other reasons, there are plenty of people of note throughout history—even today—who, much to the public’s surprise and sometimes their own, are part black. Here’s a list from HowStuffWorks of famous people you might not have known were black.
1. GENERAL ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Dumas is one of the unsung heroes of the French Revolution. He was born in what today is Haiti to a white aristocratic father, and a black slave mother. Dumas’ father took him to France to spend his childhood, where those of mixed race had more opportunities. In France, Dumas entered the military academy and eventually became a general. He went on to lead over 50,000 soldiers, allegedly single-handedly captured 13 prisoners, and fought in the French campaign to conquer Egypt. In the 1790s, Dumas was captured by Napoleon’s followers and thrown into a dungeon, where he was left for two years. He was eventually released, but that was the end of his military career. However, his exciting career inspired the novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” written by his son Alexandre, who also wrote “The Three Musketeers.”

2. ANATOLE BROYARD
Anatole spent most of his adult life hiding his roots, but he was in fact born to light-skinned black parents, and raised in a predominantly black Brooklyn neighborhood. Broyard succeeded in joining the segregated Army as a white man and after leaving the Army, he opened a bookstore in New York City, eventually becoming a copywriter at an ad agency. Broyard landed himself a job as a book reviewer for The New York Times, all the while living as a “white man,” even to his wife and children. In 1990, Broyard died of prostate cancer but his daughter wrote a book exploring his identity issues: “One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life—A Story of Race and Family Secrets.”

3. MALCOLM GLADWELL
Best-selling author of “The Tipping Point,” “Blink,” “Outliers,” and “What the Dog Saw,” Malcolm Gladwell was born to a Jamaican mother and British father. Gladwell took no issue with his mixed heritage and in fact, found it to be great material for his writing. In his New Yorker stroy, “Black Like Them,” Gladwell extrapolated on the differences between American blacks and West Indians, making observations about his own family and upbringing including discrimination among his dark- and light-skinned ancestors.

4. CAROL CHANNING
Carol Channing was already making a splash on Broadway in productions like “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Hello Dolly” when she discovered that her father was a light-skinned black man. Channing did not dwell on race issues, but went on to be a great gay rights activist. She rarely spoke during her life – or in her memoir “Just Lucky I Guess,” - about being of mixed race. However she did recall a time her mother warned her in an argument that her own children might come out black. Channing allegedly said she hoped they would.

5. PETE WENTZ
The former member of American rock band Fall Out Boy was known for his signature look of stick-straight hair. It was only after his band dissolved that he began to let his natural hair show, and that hair was tight curls. This prompted rumors that Wentz might have black ancestors, and the rumors turned out to be true. Wentz’s family on his mother’s side is from Jamaica.

6. SOLEDAD O’BRIEN
Viewers were confused when O’Brien debuted as the host of CNN’s “Black in America,” until they discovered the star anchorwoman is the daughter of a black Latina mother and a white Australian father. Although O’Brien grew up in a mostly white neighborhood, her parents told her she should identify as black. O’Brien has spent much of her career fighting for equal coverage for people of color in the media.

7. QUEEN CHARLOTTE OF ENGLAND
The wife of British King George III descended from a Portuguese family who traced their ancestry back to a 13th-century ruler named Alfonso III, and his “Moor” mistress, Madragana. Some historians question these speculations, but scholar Mario de Valdes y Cocom quotes the queen’s personal physician as having said she had a “true mulatto face.”

8. ALEXANDER PUSHKIN
Literary genius Pushkin was the great-grandson of an Ethiopian prince named Ibrahim Gannibal. Gannibal was relocated to Russia when he joined the army, which is how his grandson found roots there. Pushkin’s mixed ethnicity didn’t prove to be problematic, but he did have a turbulent life for other reasons: he wrote a lot about social reform and revolutions, and was eventually exiled by Russian authorities, later to be pardoned by Czar Nicholas.

9. MICHAEL FOSBERG
Action movie fans will know Fosberg from his roles in “Hard to Kill” and “The Presidio.” Fosberg played a white character in both of these films, and never thought he should fulfill any other role—he grew up in an upper-class family, with two seemingly white parents. But at the age of 32 he discovered his biological father (he’d been raised by his stepfather) was black. The discovery spurred Fosberg’s memoir, “Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race and Self-Discovery,” as well as further discoveries. He learned his grandfather had been chairman of the Science and Engineering Department at Norfolk State University, and his great-grandfather was a start pitcher for the Negro Leagues - U.S. professional baseball leagues predominantly made up of African Americans and, to a lesser degree, Latin Americans.

10. ALESSANDRO DE MEDICI
The Medici family played a major role in the Italian Renaissance. Not only did Alessandro patronize many of the greatest artists of the time, he was buried in a tomb designed by Michelangelo. Medici was the first black head of state in the Western World, but his ethnicity was rarely addressed. The prince was born to a black servant woman named Simonetta da Collavechio and 17-year-old Cardinal Giulio de Medici, who later became Pope Clement VII.



Culled from http://eluquenson..com/2013/12/10-famous-black-people-you-may-not-have.html

back it up with pics na

Hmm. Never heard of them. Op, would like to see their pics

you cannot call someone whose father is white,black....i think that is misleading and quite incorrect....thanks.....and i av checked their pics on google,they all look white to me....so except the father is black like barack obama dad,then most of those u have mentioned with white fathers cannot be called blacks but rather mixed parentage...

Maria Carey and vin diesel too

When i was little, i thought Beyonce was white...lol

UIA04: Maria Carey and vin diesel too

Vin Diesel is black?

kbpresh: When i was little, i thought Beyonce was white...lol

I thought mariah carey was white too.

Did you just call those people "FAMOUS"!..

Claimed Famous people that 80 percent of Nairalanders don't know what/how they look like!...


Hope you know its dictionary meaning?

Pics or it didn't happen.

kbpresh: When i was little, i thought Beyonce was white...lol

.

Akshow: I thought mariah carey was white too.

So Beyonce and Mariah Carey are Black women? Wonderful!

IAMBREEZY: Pics or it didn't happen.

I hope you haven't brought this madness from 2013 to this New year!

Pix or dey never exist

...

Mariah Carey is not white? When I was younger I used 2 tink Beyonce and Alicia keys were white too.

Attention seeker

nice list,had to google dem tho... but y z it turning out d worlds greatest pple r black? obama,Oprah, mandela,martin lurther,Michael jackson,mariah Carey,Whitney, Beyonce ,,,only few whites hav achieved their level of success!!!am inspired!

Mariah carey is 99% white and 1% black

famous people ke ? maybe they are only famous to historians alone

overdrive: Mariah carey is 99% white and 1% black

her moms white, her dad z Hispanic/ black, mariah carey mom even said in an interview her kids r black...

mrvocalprowess: nice list,had to google dem tho... but y z it turning out d worlds greatest pple r black? obama,Oprah, mandela,martin lurther,Michael jackson,mariah Carey,Whitney, Beyonce ,,,only few whites hav achieved their level of success!!!am inspired!

Is that what yhu fink?... Anyway, from the names yhu listed, the remaining persons in the world's greatest people are whites!...

kidding! right?

IAMBREEZY: Pics or it didn't happen.

#team pic or it didn't happen

Jeez who are all this people..their names sounds like incantations to me....

well "AM BLACK,PROUD,BEAUTIFUL ND U CANT TAKE DAT AWAY"...words of MI ABAGA

The medicis? For real? Thought i knew everything o. Thank you so much! I just confirmed it. BUT you forgot notable names The Great Pharoah Amen-no-hotep (other texts use other variants of his name), Hannibal, and other great names in history. even heard queen isabella was a moore (aquina and pliny too). All the same thanks. GOD bless you.

They dont seem to be famous like you said, its just few of them whose names seem to ring a bell......

Of all these peeps... I only know of Malcolm Gladwell.. read two of his books

Danhumprey: I hope you haven't brought this madness from 2013 to this New year!

lol

Danhumprey: I hope you haven't brought this madness from 2013 to this New year!

not at all but how would i believe without pics isn't it ridiculous atleast the op suppose to back it up with pics.