A proponent of the “one drop rule,” Walter A.

There are Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Freedmen/Freedman). The Cherokee Nation broke the treaty of 1866, which promised an end to slavery and tribal citizenship for Cherokee Freedmen. Native Americans and the enslaved (later the Cherokee Freedmen) were forced to march on the “Trail of Tears” to Oklahoma. The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment joined the previously enslaved with 'free people of color' into Freedmen, now Black Americans. Individuals with visible African ancestry were classified as 'free people of color.' Others presented and lived as Indigenous (i.e., Native American and Austronesian).

Some presented and lived as European descendants. The second generation mixed with Europeans, Indigenous (i.e., Native American and Austronesian) tribes, and mixed progeny. In North America, the first generation of free Africans mixed with Europeans and Indigenous (i.e., Native American and Austronesian) tribes.

Brave lyrics fearless soul