30 Years Ago: Blacks and Jews United to Free African Slaves

A momentous anniversary for black-Jewish friendship

Exactly 30 years ago, a civil war erupted in Harlem when reports describing an ongoing Islamic trade in black slaves in Mauritania and Sudan hit the newsstands.

While much of the black community was incensed, others, led by Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, denied the stories and attacked the activists who brought the news. As this intracommunal clash intensified, a movement evolved that liberated tens of thousands of African slaves and, for the first time since the 1960s, united blacks and Jews in the long march for justice.

Charles Jacobs and Ben Poser’s new article in JNS tells the untold story of this latter-day civil rights movement; and of an unsung American hero, the late journalist Sam Cotton, whose courage and passion brought the truth to the black community.