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The '''Hebrew Israelites''' are a religious group that erroneously claims that [[African American]]s are the descendants of the [[ancient Israelites]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-black-hebrew-israelites/|title=9 Things You Should Know About Black Hebrew Israelites|last=Carter|first=Joe|date=19 May 2017|publisher=The Gospel Coalition|language=English|accessdate=3 June 2018}}</ref>

The '''Hebrew Israelites''' are a [[heretical]] religious group that erroneously claims that [[African American]]s are the descendants of the [[ancient Israelites]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-black-hebrew-israelites/|title=9 Things You Should Know About Black Hebrew Israelites|last=Carter|first=Joe|date=19 May 2017|publisher=The Gospel Coalition|language=English|accessdate=3 June 2018}}</ref>

At the end of the 19th century, Frank Cherry and William Saunders Crowdy, after supposedly receiving revelations from God, both claimed that African Americans are descendants of the [[Hebrews]] in the [[Bible]]; Cherry established the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations in 1886 and Crowdy founded the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896.<ref name="Hutchinson2010">{{cite book|last=Hutchinson|first=Dawn|title=Antiquity and Social Reform: Religious Experience in the Unification Church, Feminist Wicca and Nation of Yahweh|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=9781443823081|page=139|quote=The first was the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations founded by F.S. Cherry in 1886 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherry preached that Adam, Eve, and Jesus were black and that African Americans lost their Hebrew identity during slavery. Later, William S. Crowdy founded the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896 in Lawrence, Kansas. Crowdy taught that blacks were heirs of the lost tribes of Israel, while white Jews were descendants of inter-racial marriages between Israelites and white Christians.}}</ref><ref name="Fernheimer2014">{{cite book|last=Fernheimer|first=Janice W.|title=Stepping Into Zion: Hatzaad Harishon, Black Jews, and the Remaking of Jewish Identity|year=2014|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9780817318246|page=10|quote=One of these groups, Prophet Cherry's Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of Truth for All Nations is the oldest knwn Black Judaic sect. It was originally established in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1886. Prophet Cherry argued they were part of the riginal Israelite tribes chased from Babylonia (and, they claim, into Central and Western Africa where they were later sold into slavery) by the Romans in 70 CE.}}</ref><ref name="IVSigler2009">{{cite book|editor-last1=Curtis IV|editor-first1=Edward E.|editor-last2=Sigler|editor-first2=Danielle Brune|title=The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions|year=2009|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253004086|first=Nora L.|last=Rubel|chapter='Chased Out of Palestine': Prophet Cherry's Church of God and Early Black Judaisms in the United States|page=57|quote=In 1893, Crowdy had a vision that resulted in the establishment of the Church of God and Saints in Christ.}}</ref><ref name="HSP1975">{{cite journal|first=J. David|last=Bleich|title=Black Jews: A Halakhic Perspective|journal=Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought|volume=15|number=1|date=Spring-Summer 1975|page=63|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23258489|accessdate=May 13, 2018|quote=Crowdy claimed to be the recipient of a series of revelations in which, among other things, he was told that Blacks were descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel.}}</ref>

At the end of the 19th century, Frank Cherry and William Saunders Crowdy, after supposedly receiving revelations from God, both claimed that African Americans are descendants of the [[Hebrews]] in the [[Bible]]; Cherry established the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations in 1886 and Crowdy founded the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896.<ref name="Hutchinson2010">{{cite book|last=Hutchinson|first=Dawn|title=Antiquity and Social Reform: Religious Experience in the Unification Church, Feminist Wicca and Nation of Yahweh|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=9781443823081|page=139|quote=The first was the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations founded by F.S. Cherry in 1886 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cherry preached that Adam, Eve, and Jesus were black and that African Americans lost their Hebrew identity during slavery. Later, William S. Crowdy founded the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896 in Lawrence, Kansas. Crowdy taught that blacks were heirs of the lost tribes of Israel, while white Jews were descendants of inter-racial marriages between Israelites and white Christians.}}</ref><ref name="Fernheimer2014">{{cite book|last=Fernheimer|first=Janice W.|title=Stepping Into Zion: Hatzaad Harishon, Black Jews, and the Remaking of Jewish Identity|year=2014|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9780817318246|page=10|quote=One of these groups, Prophet Cherry's Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of Truth for All Nations is the oldest knwn Black Judaic sect. It was originally established in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1886. Prophet Cherry argued they were part of the riginal Israelite tribes chased from Babylonia (and, they claim, into Central and Western Africa where they were later sold into slavery) by the Romans in 70 CE.}}</ref><ref name="IVSigler2009">{{cite book|editor-last1=Curtis IV|editor-first1=Edward E.|editor-last2=Sigler|editor-first2=Danielle Brune|title=The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions|year=2009|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253004086|first=Nora L.|last=Rubel|chapter='Chased Out of Palestine': Prophet Cherry's Church of God and Early Black Judaisms in the United States|page=57|quote=In 1893, Crowdy had a vision that resulted in the establishment of the Church of God and Saints in Christ.}}</ref><ref name="HSP1975">{{cite journal|first=J. David|last=Bleich|title=Black Jews: A Halakhic Perspective|journal=Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought|volume=15|number=1|date=Spring-Summer 1975|page=63|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23258489|accessdate=May 13, 2018|quote=Crowdy claimed to be the recipient of a series of revelations in which, among other things, he was told that Blacks were descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel.}}</ref>