Aaliyah
Aaliyah in 2001, photo by Prphotos.com
Birth Name: Aaliyah Dana Haughton
Date of Birth: January 16, 1979
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of Death: August 25, 2001
Place of Death: Marsh Harbour, Abaco Islands, Bahamas
Ethnicity: African-Jamaican, African-American, possibly some Native American
Aaliyah was an American R&B singer, actress, dancer, and model. She starred in the films Romeo Must Die and Queen of the Damned. She was also known as Baby Girl.
Her parents, Diane (Hankerson) and Michael Haughton, are both black. The name Aaliyah is from the word Aliyah, which is of Hebrew origin, meaning “highest, most exalted one, the best.” Her uncle is record producer and music manager Barry Hankerson, who founded Blackground Records, and was previously married to singer Gladys Knight. Aaliyah’s brother is writer, director, and screenwriter Rashad Haughton. She was said to be a cousin of Tek-N-Steele, of hip hop duo Smif-N-Wessun. Aaliyah was killed in a private plane crash.
Aaliyah had stated:
When I wake up in the morning I am African-American, and when I go to sleep at night I am African-American, and I can assure you I love who I am…
Her father is of African-Jamaican descent and her mother is of African-American ancestry.
Aaliyah has sometimes been cited as having a Native American grandmother, or as having a grandmother with some Native American ancestry. It is not clear if this ancestry has been verified/documented. A photo of her maternal grandmother Mintis can be seen here.
Aaliyah’s paternal grandfather was Franklin Gresley Reid Haughton (the son of Solomon Ehud Haughton and Lilia Margaret Bell). Franklin was a Jamaican emigrant, from Darliston, Westmoreland. Solomon was the son of Robert Samuel Haughton and Judith Richardson. Lilia was the daughter of Joseph Zebulon Bell and Ester Jemima Walker.
Aaliyah’s paternal grandmother was Gladys Lucille Burton (the daughter of Joseph Francis Cato Burton and Adella Adelaide Allen). Gladys was a Jamaican emigrant, from Bagnold Spring, Saint Mary. Joseph was the son of Francis Cato Burton. Adella was the daughter of Henry Staines Allen and Esther Adelaide Anderson. A picture of Gladys can be seen here.
Aaliyah’s maternal grandfather was Ernest W. Hankerson (the son of Waddy/Woddie Myers and Susie Hankerson). Ernest was born in Bullock, Georgia. Waddy was the son of Henry Myers and Andenia/Hannah/Anna Hankerson. Susie was the daughter of Henry Hankerson and Rachel Peeples.
Aaliyah’s maternal grandmother was Mintis L. Hicks (who possibly was the daughter of Daniel Hicks and Anna Scott). Mintis was born in Barnwell, South Carolina. Anna was the daughter of Sam Scott and Millie.
Sources: Genealogies of Aaliyah – https://www.geni.com
https://www.wikitree.com
Gosh,I miss /\aliyah so much she is an amazing role model and down to earth and she did not try so hard like artists today. I miss her so much and I want to be famous like her one day because she said If you have a talent that God gave you anything can happen but it’s hard work…… I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!
honestly most black american are mixed but not due to choice but due to RAPE of our ancestors by slave owners from various parts of the world. However Black is Dominant, brilliant and Beautiful irregardless of WHAT RACE u MIX it with. It will 90% of the time DOMINATE
Most were raped? LMFAO, tell yourself that anyway.
yes DUMMY thats what the person said and its accurate DUH
How about sharing positive comments.
The negative comments are unecessary and
help nothing.
wtf is up wit ppl claimin native?
look on a census. there arent many natives or mixed ppl. so yea sum ppl lyin claimin native.
notice they all claim cherokee..lol.
To mamita
When it comes to the census,most black people no matter what their mixture is, simply put down African American.I know that what everyone I know does,so you can’t go by that.I’m (Creole,Geechee,Seminole and Choctaw indian,and Afro-latino)but I simply write down African American on the census.
well…mayb ure just too damn lazy to put da rest down lol…i sure would be! i think the census is pathetic anywayz…
I agree with you wholeheartedley. I actually took a class in College on the origins of ethnic groups. Thomas jefferson’s chidlren that he had with his slave (the sister of his 1st wife-sally hemings) were as white as can be they were literally only 1/8 white YET on the census back then you were either negro, white, or maybe mulatto. But a lot of people quite honestly were put down as negro or mulatto even if they had blonde hair and blue eyes. thats just the way the 1 drop rule went.
however, other places like Brazil at least recognized people’s different racial mixtures. My great grandmother who jsut passed actually grw up in arkansas on a Choctaw reservation , however her kids and their children never considered themselves Native, even though theyer were equally that and black no matter what they looked. Many blacks are mized with Native American, many escaped slaves found refuge on reservations, or were bought as slaves by Native Americans. You’re going to have a lot of black people with distant NAtive American blood because hell, weve been in America since before the 1600s…*there were actually slaves prior to the 1600s living in Spanish Florida), and at the end of the day blacks in america look more mized than a white person so I say why not claim it?
Well Mamita,
When many Black people were originally brought to North America as slaves, they arrived in the south (GA, NC, SC, etc…). If you look it up, the majority of Cherokee Indians resided in the south. Here is a picture of a Cherokee woman:http://thomaslegioncherokee.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/cherokeeindianwomanandchildundated.jpg
Now mix that with a Black slave in that time period. It’s not that the non-light-skinned, curly-haired black people are trying to claim Indian just because. They know from pictures, looking and talking to their grandparents about their history, etc… After so far down the line maybe some should just stop claiming it since after the third generation, that racial background will have diminished significantly. But for someone to tell a person not claim that non-black relative who is responsible for their existence just because they don’t look like Halle Berry, Thandie Newton or Beyonce is disrepectful to their history.
for the record mamita thank God my granny was NOT cherokee i sure as hell would NOT even want to claim cherokee or seminole the way they have disenfranchised the black indians ” freedmen” from their heritage since the Daws Act was passed and all the legal proceedings going on with the Cherokee Nation over this- is insane absolutely revolting. Out of all Native gorups in america they actually owned the most slaves and had a form of slavery that most paralleled the white colonial’s. absolutely horrid if ther was a native term for “uncle Tom” etc..
TO OMG
As I am part Seminole,I totally agree with you.Those back stabbin’ ,selective memory having, fools are trippin’
omg i weep for you like seriously, you and the people who USED to be of the Cherokee nation and the sad thing is many people don’t know of the history between those 2 races or remember it- they’re voting based on ignorance and selfishness becuase they don’t want to share revenue from the casinos and their $300 million stipends from the American government. It’s amazing what receiving government funds does to people, and i found it interesting that they targeted specifically those with african descent, considering all the black seminoles fighting against the europeans in spanish florida with them, and those who crossed the trail of tears, and the mixed black and native american children who were used as sort of go betweens between the indians and white because they knew ALL the languages and becuase natives respected the africans who had a similar culture of honoring verbal agreements and all the history of blacks escaping as maroons beginning with the first slaves in the 1520s who were embraced by natives- it hurts my heart, they sure haven’t targeted those antives with european in them interestingly enough.
To OMG
You notice that to,like I said back stabbin’
I wish somebody would tell me that I couldn’t claim my Native American or Caucasian heritage. My Choctaw Indian grandmother was happily married to my white grandfather and it was certainly NOT rape. Their mixed son married a black woman whose mother was part Cheyenne. All of these people I had the pleasure of growing up with. I dare you to tell me to deny my grandparents race. Bitch. To lie and say that they were black when I sat on their lap and saw that they were not. Yes I have black skin, yes I identify with the black culture most. However, you cannot tell me that I cannot acknowledge my roots.
Just because blacks were brought in on slave ships does not mean the only roots we can claim are the Africaans. If a person knows who contributed to their existence, they can admit it. Just because your ancestors were all black on black doesn’t mean for you to hold a jealous grudge. Jealous because you wish you were different.
If a white woman admitted that she had black ancestors, black people would be soooo proud. They wouldn’t tell the white woman to only claim white. See how black people are always trying to claim Charlize Theron because she is African. Or trying to claim non-black people because of their soulful ways or attributes (Fergie, Kim Kardashian, etc..) as if only black people can have soul and big asses. Typical black mentality. Stop being hypocrites.
Oh and R.I.P. Aaliyah, whatever race you were, you were beautiful.
May Ms. Aaliyah rest in peace. She was truly gorgeous and sung lovely. Very promising career to influence! Can’t wait for the biopic!