Complex sentence: For African-Americans the appropriation of Jewish history was a rebellion against the American racial hierarchy which deemed Africans inferior, and it was also a means of fulfilling the desire to know their origins and "regain" a lost history.
Split into simpler sentences: For African-Americans, appropriating Jewish history was part of a rebellion against the American racial hierarchy that deemed Africans inferior. It was also a means of fulfilling their desire to know their origins and regain their lost history.