Most people consider Phillip Augustus White a Caucasian man, based solely on his physical appearance with his pale white skin and straight parted hair.  However, as a result of growing racial tension of the 1800’s under the one-drop rule, White was classified as a Negro.  The one-drop rule ascribed the ethnicity of a person as Negro no matter how miniscule their African heritage. Phillip Augustus White was an innocent bystander of the one-drop classification system. He was born to Thomas and Elizabeth White in 1823.  Thomas White was a Caucasian grocery owner (born in England), while Elizabeth White was a very fair-skinned mulatto (born in Jamaica).  Phillip grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey with 5 other siblings. Later on around 8 years old the Whites moved to the Lower Manhattan, New York.

When White turned 17 years old, in 1840 he began his ascension into the selective black aristocracy.   At 17, James McCune Smith took White on as his apprentice in his pharmacy on 40 West Broadway, Greenwich Village.  Eventually as a result of this apprenticeship he was accepted into the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York in 1842.  After graduation he was able to open his own pharmacy on the intersection of Frankfurt and Gold Streets, Lower Manhattan.  White was well respected for both his skills in curing ailments and his generosity to those who could not afford his services (mainly African Americans).

White’s skin appearance, education, marital ties, membership in elite clubs of the black aristocracy, and his position in St. Phillip’s solidified his role as a pivotal figure of the black aristocracy. White’s skin and education need not be discussed as they were mentioned earlier, however his marital ties, membership in elite clubs of the black, and his position in St. Phillip’s will be discussed. White married fellow black aristocrat Elizabeth Guignon and he also made sure all his children (which were all girls) married black aristocrats. His oldest daughter Ellie White married Henry Mars, the son of James W. Mars a caterer, senior warden at St. Phillip’s that was highly active in all the elite clubs of the black aristocracy. His middle daughter is Cornelia White marries Jerome Bowers Peterson.  Peterson was a member of the New York African Society for Mutual Relief. His youngest daughter, Katherine White marries Charles H. Lansing Jr. Lansing.  Lansing held steady office white-collar job at the Brooklyn Water, Gas and Electricity Department, he was a member of the New York African Society for Mutual Relief and senior warden of Brooklyn’s St. Augustine’s Escopiscal Church.   Phillips was an active member of many of elite black aristocracy clubs of the city.  In particular, he was vice-president of both the Ugly Club and the New York African Society for Mutual Relief.

…it [the Ugly Club] was an organization of the social elite that had two banquets each year, one in the winter  and the other following Lent…Commodore Mars and Vice-Commodore Phillip A. White and their wives served as hosts at the affair, which included ‘the youth and beauty, learning and wealth of New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and other cities.[1]

Finally, White was a patron and leader of St. Philip’s, which was reputed as the wealthiest black Episcopal Church in the United States. 

The church attracted ‘the most outstanding members of the [African American] race to its membership.’  It retained New York’s ‘most fashionable’ black church…[2]

White made significant contributions to the African American community.  He considered improvement of African American condition one of his biggest life goals.  White headed various efforts to improve the quality of lives of his fellow African American counterparts received through education and charity. In the late 1830s White began taught classes at the New York Select Academy to black adults[3]. George Downing described in considerable detail how skillful a teacher White was. He wrote of Phillip,

[He] Was enabled to fasten in his mind the principles he endeavored to explain.  To make what he knew available he had to mentally classify and arrange miscellaneous collections of facts, and the conscious power exerted in so doing stimulated him to increase the variety, extent and value of his literary acquisitions.  These accumulated facts furnish material for thought, and in the effort of trying to think the mind began to expand, and with growth that is natural and normal, there is always proportion, harmony and strength.[4]

He was also the Secretary for the Society of Education Among Colored Children from 1851 to the mid 1860’s. White’s most effective means of improving black education was with his position as a member of the Brooklyn Board of Education in the early 1880’s.   White raised money with debutante balls and through the various clubs of the black aristocracy that he had membership in, especially the New York African Society for Mutual Relief.

Phillip A. White a prominent member of the black aristocracy of New York.  His accomplishments are formidable and should be always be referenced when studying the black aristocrats of New York City during the 1800’s.