Contemporary polls suggest that some of that bond remains.
A 2018 survey by the PRRI polling firm said that while 28% of White mainline Protestant and 20% of White evangelical Protestants believe Jewish Americans experience a lot of discrimination, 44% of Black Protestants say Jewish people face a lot of discrimination.
African Americans are actually more likely than White Americans and the general population to say that Jews face a lot of discrimination in the US today," says Robert Jones, founder of PRRI and author of "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity."
A
2019 poll from LifeWay Research found that one in five Black Americans believe Jewish people are blocking their progress.
But the survey also found that "a significant number (of African Americans) also draw comparisons to their overcoming struggles as a people and that of the ancient Israelites."
Why is this shared history so easily forgotten, even by educated folks?
Part of the answer can be summed up in one name: Louis Farrakhan.
You might assume Farrakhan has a large following in the Black community based on the attention he gets. But Farrakhan's following has long been misunderstood or distorted. No matter how he portrays himself, he has not been widely accepted like an MLK or a Barack Obama. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to con you.
I covered Farrakhan at his peak popularity and attended rallies when he could fill a stadium. I sat in on an intimate, two-hour interview with him. And I wrote about the epic 1996
Million Man March.
But here's what some people forget. His anti-Semitism was never a huge part of his appeal to Black people. For some, sure. But for most it was his message about self-empowerment, and the way he denounced White racism.
The media often misses this nuance when talking about the Nation and Farrakhan. There were churches that wouldn't or couldn't reach Black men in prison, or didn't know how to reach young men. But the Nation did -- and still does.
Perry, the political scientist, says a lot of Black people tune out parts of Farrakhan's anti-Semitism, much like they do with other religious leaders.
"To assume that every Black church member believes everything that their pastor says out of his mouth is ridiculous," he says, "but that doesn't mean they're going to stop going to church."