Historically speaking, many cities like Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. had hidden societies largely populated by upper crust African Americans. Though WEB Dubois was talking about these cats when he came up with (and later discarded) the idea of a "Talented Tenth" and the first black fraternities and sororities were largely populated with their progeny, for much of the twentieth century these men and women operated in a world of their own. We can (rightly) critique them for the degree to which many of them placed skin tone (cafe au lait vs. ebony) above character. We can also rightly critique them for their unwillingness (in many though not all cases) to deeply engage the problems of black America (Dubois jettisoned the idea of a Talented Tenth largely because the Tenth was so damn trifling and random).
But in today's Washington Post we can get a glimpse of their majesty and power. Perhaps some would argue they were mimicing or aping their non-black peers, I'm thinking that's giving the forces of white supremacy wayy too much power.