‘The Gilded Age' Enriches Its Portrait of Black High Society

New York Times

09-07-2025

The air felt different as I sat across from Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald and Denée Benton. I was lifted simply by being with these women, three generations of Broadway royalty. (Of course, as the former Clair Huxtable, Rashad qualifies as TV royalty as well.)
Now they are together on 'The Gilded Age,' the HBO drama about late 19th-century New York City and the old-money elites, arrivistes and workers who live and clash there.
I was initially worried about the show when it debuted in 2022. As a long-term fan of the creator Julian Fellowes's more homogenous hit 'Downton Abbey,' I feared this American counterpart would similarly overlook the racial dynamics of its era. But I was pleasantly surprised by the nuance of the character Peggy Scott (Benton), an aspiring journalist and secretary for Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and a member of Brooklyn's Black upper-middle class.
An early version of Peggy had the character posing as a domestic servant to gain access to Agnes. But Benton and the show's historical consultant, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, pushed for a more multifaceted exploration of the lives of Black New Yorkers, who often interacted with Manhattan's white elite even as they lived separately. (Dunbar and I were colleagues at Rutgers University.)
This season, 'The Gilded Age' has its most diverse and in-depth portrayal of Black high society yet, often pitting Peggy's mother, Dorothy (McDonald), against the aristocratic Elizabeth Kirkland (Rashad), who arrives on the show on Sunday. Like other wealthy mothers on this show, Elizabeth spends most of her time trying to control the marital fate of her children and discriminating against other families, like the Scotts, that she believes to be socially inferior.
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