For WPS.News / Occupy 2.5
August 8, 2025 – 10:15 EDT

The rumor has circulated for decades in barbershops, college dorm rooms, and the ever-churning digital underground: that Ludwig van Beethoven, the German composer revered as one of classical music’s greatest minds, was in fact a Black man—or perhaps of Moorish descent. The claim, while lacking solid historical backing, has taken on a kind of mythic life of its own.

It’s not hard to see why. At a time when the erasure of Black voices from historical narratives is being more widely acknowledged, the idea of reclaiming figures from history resonates. But to tell the truth—both the truth about Beethoven and the truth about whitewashing—we must separate fact from fantasy without losing sight of the deeper forces that birthed these myths in the first place.

The Origins of the “Beethoven Was Black” Claim

The idea that Beethoven may have been Black, or at least mixed race, was popularized by Jamaican-American historian and journalist J.A. Rogers in his 1940s book World’s Great Men of Color. Rogers noted Beethoven’s “dark complexion” and referenced old descriptions that called him “swarthy.” From this, a theory emerged that Beethoven had African ancestry, perhaps through the Moors who occupied parts of Europe centuries earlier.

This theory gained some traction in Black nationalist and Afrocentric circles during the civil rights movement and beyond, passed down as cultural counter-history to challenge the dominance of Eurocentric historical narratives.

But it was, and remains, speculative at best.

The Actual Evidence: Beethoven Was Almost Certainly White

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, in what is now Germany, in 1770. His ancestry is well documented: his paternal line traces back to Flanders (modern-day Belgium), and his mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, came from a respected German family. There is no known African ancestry in his family tree (Solomon, 1998).

Descriptions of Beethoven from contemporaries do note his darker-than-average complexion—”swarthy,” “olive-skinned,” “coarse” hair. But none go so far as to identify him as Black or mixed-race. And in 18th- and 19th-century Europe, where anti-Black racism was both common and explicit, a visibly Black composer achieving such status would not have escaped comment or controversy.

In fact, many white Europeans of the time had Mediterranean features—dark eyes, olive skin, or curly hair—without having African ancestry. These descriptors alone are not evidence of Black identity.

“The suggestion that Beethoven was Black has no factual basis in the historical record. It arises from a misreading of period descriptions and wishful thinking rather than verifiable ancestry.”
— Green, 2021, Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces

The Real Issue: Historical Whitewashing Is Real

While Beethoven was almost certainly white, the suspicion that history has been whitewashed is entirely valid—and urgently important.

Take Jesus Christ, the most iconic religious figure in Western civilization. For centuries, Western art portrayed him as a pale-skinned, blue-eyed man, despite his birth in Roman-occupied Judea—modern-day Palestine. Scholars and historians now widely agree that Jesus would have resembled a Galilean Semite of the first century: dark-skinned, dark-haired, and likely short by modern standards (Taylor, 2001).

So why the blonde Jesus?

Because the image served power. A white Jesus justified colonial missions. A white Beethoven reinforces the myth that classical genius was exclusively European and white.

This is the heart of the problem: when history is curated to serve supremacy, it becomes propaganda. That’s why marginalized groups often reach for counter-narratives—not to lie, but to correct the record. Sometimes, though, myth can overcorrect in the wrong direction.

The Better Path: Celebrate Actual Black Composers

Rather than stake our pride on wishful claims about Beethoven, we can elevate the real Black composers whose brilliance was buried under white supremacy:

  • Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges — A violin virtuoso and composer in 18th-century France, often dubbed the “Black Mozart.”
  • Florence Price — The first African-American woman to have her symphony performed by a major orchestra.
  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor — A British composer of mixed heritage whose work was admired by Edward Elgar and Booker T. Washington.

These artists don’t need a myth to validate their genius. They just need to be heard.

Reclaiming Truth Without Replacing It With Fantasy

It’s tempting to rewrite history to serve the present, especially when the truth has been weaponized against you. But the antidote to whitewashing isn’t fabrication—it’s illumination.

Let’s expose the actual erasure of Black brilliance, challenge the fictions about a white Jesus, and deconstruct the gatekeeping around classical music. Let’s also admit that some historical figures—like Beethoven—were white and brilliant, and that neither fact negates the contributions of Black musicians or undermines the fight against racism.

Final Note: It’s About Power, Not Pigment

This isn’t about skin tone—it’s about who gets remembered, and why. It’s about reclaiming the full complexity of human history from the forces that sanitize, simplify, and segregate it for power’s sake.

So no, Beethoven wasn’t Black. But that doesn’t mean Black genius wasn’t present—it was just hidden behind the curtain of European elitism. Let’s pull the curtain back and tell everybody’s truth.

References (APA Style)

Green, J. (2021). Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces. Random House.

Solomon, M. (1998). Beethoven. Schirmer Trade Books.

Taylor, J. E. (2001). What Did Jesus Look Like? In Bible Review, 17(6), 20–29.

Rogers, J. A. (1946). World’s Great Men of Color, Volume I. Touchstone.