The African American church that I attended in my chidhood & youth always portrayed Jesus as a white man with long flowing brown hair..

The fact that there were/are no photos of God didn't stop me from visualizing Him as this statesman looking White man with long staight white hair & beard who sat on a throne upon the clouds with a huge book in his hands. I believed that in this book God wrote down the actions of every individual each moment of every day...

But when I was approaching college age I became more of a free thinker. One Sunday it was my turn to make a presentation on the Bible for the combined Sunday School classes. I decided to talk about "How we think of Jesus". I'm sure folks-including my mother who was then the Superintendent of our church's Sunday School thought that I was going to talk about the positive character traits of Jesus and exhort children & adults in attendance to model themselves after him...But instead

I said that there are no records of Jesus' appearance [now I know that may not be true] and there are certainly no records of what God looks like [true]. I then asked the question why do we as African Americans always picture Jesus and God as White? Why don't we think of Jesus as looking like this- At that point I asked I held up a phototograph of a handsome middle aged Black man that was taken from the cover of an Ebony magazine.

Needless to say the disapproval was so strong you would have thought I had held up a pornographic phototograph...

Years passed ..Years passed..and I find myself here on Mudcat making similar observations about what Jesus looked like..

See this excerpt about Jesus and others from

www.faem.com/books/blaksec1.htm


"[Jesus] according to the Bible, called the "Lamb" of God, with kinky hair compared with lamb's wool, feet the color of burnt brass (Rev. 1:14,15) and a likeness resembling jasper and sardine stone (sard/sardonyx), which are commonly "brownish" stones. (Rev. 4:3). ALL the earliest pictures and statues of Christ depict him as Black. In the catacombs of Rome where images of Jesus appear for the first time, black paintings and statues of Christ, the Madonna, Apostles and Biblical characters still survive from early Christian worship. The most sacred icons of the Catholic Church and also, prominent cathedrals in Europe are the Black Madonna and Christ child. In the British Museum, a gold coin struck in the time of the Roman emperor Justinian II, shows Christ with tightly curled, wooly hair. J.A. Rogers reports in Sex and Race Vol.1, p.292 that the Cambridge Encyclopedia Co. says that this coin places beyond doubt "the fact that Jesus Christ was a Negro."

Like Christ, ALL founders of world religions on ALL continents were BLACK and "woolly" haired, including the earliest gods.
Buddha was Black, that's why his woolly hair is always shown in small tight curls, pepper corn style or corn rows. Early sculptures of him clearly reveal his Aficoid features ...wide nose and full lips. So was Zaha of Japan, Fu-Hsi of China, Tyr of Scandinavia, Quetzalcoatl of Mexico, Sommonacom of Siam and Isis of Egypt and Rome. Krishna of India was "blue-black," in fact his means black, or the Black One! (see dictionary). He is always portrayed with blue or blue-black skin. Mohammed, founder of Islam was also 'bluish' in color with 'frizzy' hair. His grandfather was "black as the night." Moses was Black according to Mohammedan tradition and early portraits. His hand would turn white, then back to his "other flesh" when God wished to give him a sign. (Ex. 4:6,7). Lao Tse of Taosim was "a divine incarnation ...born of a virgin black in complexion and as beautiful as jasper." (Thorton: History of China Vol.1) The chief title of Osiris, the greatest of Egyptian gods means "Lord of the Perfect Black." He was also called "The Great Black," similar to Krishna. The chief title of Zeus, greatest of the Greek gods was "Ethiops" which means "burnt faced." Early statues of gods in India have Africoid features and woolly or locked hair. The name of the Mexican god Ixtliton means "blacked faced." In fact, many ancient Mexican gods are portrayed jet black with Africoid features. Once banned, The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors, by Kersey Graves reveals remarkable knowledge on this subject, along with Anacalypis by Godfrey Higgins and African Origins of the Major World Religions by Amon Saakana, ed. Many Bible stories are borrowed from ancient Egypt, Sumer and India, as documented in John Jackson's Christianity Before Christ."

end of quote

It is now not uncommon in certain African American circles to folks say that Jesus was Black and had hair like lamb's wool. This descriptor even shows up in literary works such as Alice Walker's "The Color Purple'.

Though I detest the N-word, I'll retain it this quote:

"Somewhere in the bible it say Jesus hair was like lamb's wool, I say. Well, say Shug, if he came to any of these churches we talking bout he'd have to have it conked before anybody paid him any attention. The last thing niggers want to think about they God is that his hair kinky..."
end of quote...ALice Walker, The Color Purple


Hopefully Mudcat responses to these 'theories' will be a bit better than it was to my 1963 Sunday School presentation at Union Babtist Temple Church, Atlantic City, New Jersey.