Genealogy is a form of storytelling that never ends. With the advent of DNA technology, genealogy has become more accurate and fascinating. For Black Americans, our story has often been told from a one-sided perspective. For centuries, lies have been told in order to leverage a superior white society. One lie begets another lie, and the previous lie grows into a monster until the masses believe whatever the majority teaches. Much of our history has been forgotten, lost, and suppressed. Through DNA, I discovered there was indeed a Black Hebrew in my bloodline and his name was Billy Simmons.
I can remember riding the Marta train to school to complete my undergraduate degree. At Five Points, Atlanta the Black Hebrew Israelites were there shouting a provocative message with bullhorns. Some passersby stopped and listened and others like myself walked slowly and listened as Black men shouted, “We Are the Real Jews! We Are the Israelites!”. This message and movement at the time was so radical and dogmatic until I ignored it. At the time, my melanated skin didn’t quite fit into what I thought an Israelite looked like. You have to understand America has been force-fed a white Jesus for centuries. Perspective is everything. Many of those who have crossed over happen to be melanated and have Black features. The Nation of Israel was established in 1948 by Polish Jews. Before they arrived, “Israel” was populated with olive to dark-skinned Arabs, Palestinians, and “Africans”. Black Hebrew Israelites are a group of tenacious individuals, and their underlying message deserves further examination. I don’t co-sign any hatred, only facts.
Since 2002, I have been researching my genealogy off and on, because it is very time consuming. I hit a brick wall with a specific bloodline on my mother’s maternal line. Eventually, the wall was broken and I discovered Billy Simmons, my 5th great-grandfather. I messaged two cousins on ancestry dot com and began to connect the dots through DNA and paper trails.
Billy Simmons was born ~ 1780 in Madagascar. During the Barbary Wars, he was taken to from Madagascar to the Barbary States (Northern African States). From there his Jewish enslavers brought him to Charleston, South Carolina. Billy Simmons claimed to be descendants of the Rechabite tribe, a nomadic Hebrew tribe. He is one of the few documented Black Hebrews in American history.
Billy the Jew; the blackest, raggediest, shrewdest, quickest, richest, and honest slave in the whole State of South Carolina. In Hebrew and Arabic, Billy is an accomplished scholar; and there are few who excel him in a thourough and critical knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures.
Sketches of South Carolina, Knickerbocker 21 (May 1843).
As my children learn English in addition to Arabic at their school, I can’t help but to think about Grandpa Billy being a scholar in Hebrew and Arabic. He sat in the nave or central area of the synagogue with the other male congregants. Not even women could sit in the central area, but were ushered to designated balconies. Legally and institutionally, Blacks were not allowed inside or able to worship at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) in Charleston, SC. Since then, reform has taken place and KKBE is one of the most progressive synagogues in the nation. Billy Simmons sat with white Jewish men and observed, worshipped, and taught Hebrew. Many white Jewish men during this time were fluent in Yiddish, but not Hebrew. His vernacular of Hebrew and Arabic was undeniable. How else was he allowed to sit in an all white synagogue in the early 1800s.
He dropped dead while delivering newspapers on George Street in Charleston, South Carolina in front of the College of Charleston on the 10th December 1859. The entirety of his adult life was spent working for Charleston newspapers such as the The Charleston Courier. He also served as a local fire fighter.
Billy’s legacy has not ended, but it lives through all of his descendants.
