Was Michelle Obama really the first Black First Lady? Do you know which one of your bills features a Black man?

You might be surprised at these historical figures you didn’t know were Black. In fact, in many cases, these men and women didn’t hide their mixed racial ethnicities, but rather history sought to erase it in one way or another.

Betty Boop

They might have drawn Betty Boop white, but her history is black. The character was actually stolen from Cotton Club singer Esther Jones — known by her stage name “Baby Esther” and the baby talk she used when she sang songs like “I Wanna Be Loved By You (Boop- Boop-BeDoo).

Her act later “inspired” cartoonist Max Fleischer to create the character Betty Boop and Esther tried to win the rights back to her character until the day she died.