Green’s Dictionary of Slang

boots n.3

[boot n.2 (3)/SE boots]

(US black) a fellow black person, sometimes derog.

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Riesman & Dawkins Play It Cool 54: Boots. n. (always with plural -s) [...] a Negro [...] There’s a boots playing quarterback on the Mustangs.
[US]I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 48: afro-americans Occupational Stereotypes: boots [from a nickname for a shoe-shine man in a hotel or train station. Also shoe-shine and shoe-shine-boy].