page_title: African American–Jewish relations
section_title: Alleged role of Jews in the slave trade
hierarchical_section_title: African American–Jewish relations / Alleged role of Jews in the slave trade
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
context_page_description: African Americans and Jewish Americans have interacted throughout much of the history of the United States. This relationship has included widely publicized cooperation and conflict, and—since the 1970s—has been an area of significant academic research. Cooperation during the Civil Rights Movement was strategic and significant, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  The relationship has also featured conflict and controversy related to such topics as the Black Power movement, Zionism, affirmative action, and the antisemitic canard concerning the alleged role of American and Caribbean-based Jews in the Atlantic slave trade.
context_section_description: During the 1990s, much of the Jewish-black conflict centered on allegations of anti-Semitism made against studies of Jewish involvement in the Atlantic slave trade and allegations that they were over-represented as prominent figures in it. Professor Leonard Jeffries said in a 1991 speech that "rich Jews" financed the slave trade, citing the role of Jews in slave-trading centers such as Rhode Island, Brazil, the Caribbean, Curaçao, and Amsterdam. His comments drew widespread outrage and calls for his dismissal from his position.
  Jeffries cited as a source The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews (1991), published by the Nation of Islam. That book alleges that Jews played a major role in the African slave trade, and it generated considerable controversy. Scholarly works were published which rebutted its charges. Mainstream scholars of slavery such as David Brion Davis concluded that Jews had little major or continuing impact on the history of New World slavery. Most held fewer slaves than non-Jews in every British territory in North America and the Caribbean. Except in Brazil, Suriname, and Curaçao—they did not play leading roles as financiers, shipowners, or factors in the transatlantic or Caribbean slave trades.
  Tony Martin of Wellesley College included The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews in the reading list for his classes, leading to charges of anti-Semitism against him in 1993.
  Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University called the book "the bible of new anti-Semitism" and added that "the book massively misinterprets the historical record, largely through a process of cunningly selective quotations of often reputable sources."
caption: Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews "the bible of new anti-Semitism"
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