There's this thing called Multigenerational mixed.
In the case of Vanessa Williams, the actress does come from a family that has became
mixed-race and continually remained mixed-race throughout the family’s many generations leading up to Vanessa’s very own generation.
Thus, Vanessa is a
multi-generational multiracially-mixed (MGM-Mixed) individual, because she comes from a family that has became and continually remained mixed-race throughout its multiple generations.
Vanessa Williams can be classified as “multiracial” because she has additional racial ancestries other than just one, but she self-identifies as “Black,” nonetheless; and Vanessa is “black” in a socio-political sense. Although there are many erroneous sources that claim that Vanessa Williams is “biracial” or “half-white and half-black,” she actually is not because she is not an interracial relationship offspring and neither are any of her parents.
Vanessa Williams’ father, Milton Williams, Jr. is an African-American who was born to two African-American parents–Iris Carll and Milton Williams, Sr.
Wilton Williams, Sr. was born to two African-American parents as well–John Hill Williams and
Mary Fields. Mary Fields was the daughter of
William A. Fields–a teacher who was classified as “mulatto,” and who also served on the
Tennessee state legislature.
Iris Carll, Vanessa’s paternal grandmother, was the daughter of Frank Carll. Frank Carll was “biracial” because his mother, Mary Louisa Appleford, was white, and Frank Carll’s father, David Carll, a pioneering free negro who served in the Union Army, was African-American. That means that Vanessa Williams great-great-grandmother was a white woman named Mary Louisa Appleford.
Beyonce would fall into this category as well.