Abernethy’s 1910 book The Jew a Negro has been analyzed by numerous modern authors studying race relations in earlier times in America.

Arthur Talmage Abernethy, PH. D., (1872 –1956) was a professor, Methodist pastor in New York and North Carolina, and a Democratic candidate for congress in North Carolina. He was a gifted speaker and author a score of historical books, as well as being the youngest son of the founder of Rutherford College. He was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and became the poet laureate of North Carolina.

For example, the 2006 Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History notes: “One southern writer, the North Carolina minister Arthur T. Abernethy, published an entire book arguing that "the Jew of to-day is essentially Negro in habits, physical peculiarities and tendencies". In rare cases...Jews were...grouped with blacks."

The 2006 book The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity states: “Published in 1910 by the North Carolina minister and professor Arthur T. Abernethy, The Jew a Negro argued that ancient Jews had thoroughly mixed with neighboring African peoples, leaving little significant difference between the Jewish and Negro types. As the Jews migrated to more temperate climes, their skin lightened and they became successful, but their essential racial similarity to blacks remained unaltered."