Black-Jewish History FAQ

 

Is The Secret Relationship “hate literature”?

No. It is truth literature. The release in 1991 of The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 1, offered the world a glimpse of how the so-called chosen people have historically related to the Blacks with whom they have come into contact. Jews, upset with the revelation, have reacted by condemning the book as “unscholarly” and “hate literature.” But at the same time many, many academic libraries have quietly bought the book and put it in their collections. At least 115 libraries around the world now have the book in their collections, including such prestigious institutions as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brandeis, Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Brown University, Stanford University, even Cambridge University in London, England, and others in Germany and New Zealand, all of which have the book on their library shelves.

Some libraries have the book but keep it locked away in a special location, requiring ID in order to see it. At one point the Brandeis University library kept it, along with other important works, in what they called “The Cage.” The Library of Congress wrote to the NOI and demanded a copy (which was supplied).

There have been more than a dozen books and dozens more articles written to try to refute The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 1. One scholar called this new body of scholarship spawned by The Secret Relationship a “cottage industry.” The Jewish leaders have held high-level meetings at retailers like Barnes & Noble and Borders about what to do with this bestseller. One store in California was putting one of these “refutation” books in the bags of any Black customer who bought any book on any topic. Canada was stopping The Secret Relationship at the border and labeling it “contraband.” On the official form the border agents could check one of three categories: “pornography,” “hate literature,” or “other.” They checked “other.”

Libraries list the book as “history”—not “hate literature”— and have deemed it too important to the discourse on the Black–Jewish relationship to exclude it.

Other Libraries that own Volume 1 include:

FOREIGN

London Library of Haringay, UK

London Library of Newham, UK

Yorkshire Library, UK

Senckenberg Univ., Frankfurt, Germany

Univ. of Otago Library, New Zealand

Vancouver Public Library

Univ. of the W. Indies, Barbados

British Library

University of Toronto Libraries


UNITED STATES

New York University

Smith College

Amherst College

College of the Holy Cross

Northeastern University

UCLA Library

University of California, Davis

University of California, Irvine

University of San Diego

University of Southern California

University of California Berkeley

Hoover Institute, Stanford, CA

University of Texas, Austin

Texas A&M University, Kingsville

Maricopa Community Colleges

Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA

Multnomah County Library

Pierce College Library

University of Nevada, Reno

Rice University, Fondren Library

Wisconsin Historical Society

Atlanta-Fulton Public Library

Doane College

California State, Northridge

Florida Atlantic University

Missouri State University

Grambling State University

Pittsburg State University

Southern University in New Orleans

Sam Houston State University

University of Miami

University of West Georgia

University of Iowa Library

University of Florida

Saint Louis Public Library

Southeast Missouri State University

Mervyn H. Sterne Library

Grinnell College

University of Chicago

Chicago Public Library


Loyola University Libraries

Saint Xavier University Library

Milwaukee Library System

Western Kentucky University

University of Illinois

Savannah State University

Fayetteville State University

Michigan State University Libraries

Antioch College

Barber-Scotia College

Davidson College Library

Allen County Public Library

Calvin College & Theological Seminary

Indiana State University

University of Akron

Detroit Public Library

Duke University Library

North Carolina State University

Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Ohio State University

Toledo-Lucas County Public Library

Eastern Michigan University Library

University of Michigan Library

Bowling Green State University

Bucknell University

Concordia Univ. Library

McGill University

Delaware State University

University of Maryland, College Park

University of Pittsburgh

Hampton University

Elizabeth City State University

Bowdoin College

Temple University Libraries

Univ. of Pennsylvania, Judaic Studies

Haverford College

Richard Stockton College

St. Lawrence University

West Chester University

Penfield Library - Suny Oswego

University of Delaware

William Paterson University

New York Public Library

Brooklyn Public Library

Brooklyn College

Hamilton College Library

Boston Public Library

University of Vermont

Worcester State College