Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) of the body or a body-part, pale, ashen-coloured.

1854		Nashville Union & American (TN) 18 May 2/3: I tell you I was ashy.
1905		N. Davis Northerner 217: Poor devils, they were ashy with fear. The black ones get about the color of the ashes in my pipe.
1915		L.R. Dingus ‘A Word-List From Virginia’ in DN IV:iii 180: ashy, adj. Provoked; angry. ‘What are you looking so ashy [pale with rage?] about?’.
1926		Odum & Johnson Negro Workaday Songs 69: His head was big an’ nappy, / An’ ashy wus his skin.
1969		H. Rap Brown Die, Nigger Die! 20: [B]eing smart wasn’t enough if your hair was uncombed, your clothes a little dirty, your skin a little ashy and your manners not the best.
1971		B. Short Black and White Baby 291: She's had her bath and [...] oiled her legs so they won’t look ashy.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 117: Jonesy’s ashy, caramel-colored skin, pink nails and bright black eyes.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 75: Get away from my lotion, you Black-ashy bitch!
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 251: Sistuhgirl’s desire [...] to see that oily, ashy, greasy, eight-ball black boy kept clean.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 159: A hand so disgustingly ashy, so white and dry-skinned, that it could only be black.
2019		C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] [He] stood in a white t-shirt so baggy it appeared a sleeping gown. His ashy knees showed beneath it.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 210: [T]ight jeans rolled up showing ashy ankles.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] [L]ooking like a black Methuselah, his old, ashy knees poking out.