The Jew a Negro: Being a Study of the Jewish Ancestry from an Impartial Standpoint

“The most the startling book of the year...its research is unanswerable.” -Literary Digest Abernethy’s 1910 book “The Jew a Negro” has been analyzed by numerous modern authors studying race relations in earlier times in America. Arthur Talmage Abernethy, PH. D., (1872 –1956) was a professor, Methodist pastor in New York and North Carolina, and a Democratic candidate for congress in North Carolina. He was a gifted speaker and author a score of historical books, as well as being the youngest son of the founder of Rutherford College. He was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and became the poet laureate of North Carolina. Abernethy’s 1910 book “The Jew a Negro” has been analyzed by numerous modern authors studying race relations in earlier times in America. For example, the 2006 “Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History” notes: “One southern writer, the North Carolina minister Arthur T. Abernethy, published an entire book arguing that ‘the Jew of to-day is essentially Negro in habits, physical peculiarities and tendencies." In rare cases, ... Jews were ... grouped with blacks.’” The 2006 book “The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity” states: “Published in 1910 by the North Carolina minister and professor Arthur T. Abernethy, The Jew a Negro argued that ancient Jews had thoroughly mixed with neighboring African peoples, leaving little significant difference between the Jewish and Negro types. As the Jews migrated to more temperate climes, their skin lightened and they became successful, but their essential racial similarity to blacks remained unaltered." The 2011 book “The Colors of Zion” point out: “A peripheral literature sprang up to classify Jews as ‘negroid.’ One notorious instance is The Jew a Negro (1910) by the North Carolinian Reverend Arthur T. Abernethy.” The 1999 book “Strangers & Neighbors: Relations Between Blacks & Jews in the United States” cites to Abernethy’s book, in stating: "One southern writer insisted Jews were of Negro descent." In 1997, American Jewish History, Volume 85 notes that “The Jew a Negro, Being A Study of the Jewish Ancestry from an Impartial Standpoint by the Rev. Arthur T. Abernethy, A.M., Ph.D. Abernethy — a preacher, professor, and rustic journalist — sought to demonstrate through ‘ethnology’ and ‘Scriptural proofs’ how ‘the Jew of to-day, as well as his ancestors in other times, is the kinsman and descendant of the Negro.” Black Hebrew Israelites (also called Black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are groups of Black Americans who believe that they are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Black Hebrews adhere in varying degrees to the religious beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Judaism. They are not recognized as Jews by the greater Jewish community. Many choose to identify themselves as Hebrew Israelites or Black Hebrews rather than Jews in order to indicate their claimed historic connections. Books linking the ancestry of Jews and Blacks have become popular such as "From Babylon to Timbuktu: A History of the Ancient Black Races Including the Black Hebrews." Many Black Hebrew groups were founded in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Kansas to New York City, by both African Americans and West Indian immigrants. In the mid-1980s, the number of Black Hebrews in the United States was between 25,000 and 40,000.[6] In the 1990s, the Alliance of Black Jews (which is no longer operating) estimated that there were 200,000 African-American Jews; this estimate was based on a 1990 survey conducted by the Council of Jewish Federations. The exact number of Black Hebrews within that surveyed group remains unspecified. Other works by Abernathy include: Moonshine: Being Appalachia's Arabian Nights Did Washington Aspire to be King? Mechanics and Practice of the Electric Telegraph