From conversations with friends familiar with some of the older people of Washington DC and eastern Maryland, I would imagine that the title Colored Aristocracy refers to the old(and wealthy old monied) free Black families of Washington DC(c.1800's) who were for the most part, light complected. Unbeknown to most whites; Colored was the general term that African American society of the 19th and early 20th centuries used to differentiate fair African Americans from dark African Americans.