Color of Christ: A Story of Race and Religion in America

"What did Jesus look like? The many different depictions of Christ tell a story about race and religion in America. Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey explore that history in their new book,The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America. The book traces how different races and ethnic groups claimed Christ as their own — and how depictions of Jesus have both inspired civil rights crusades, and been used to justify the violence of white supremacists."

"The Ku Klux Klan could not rely on Christian doctrine to justify their persecution and violence, so they had to turn to religious icons. 'The belief, the value, that Jesus is white provides them an image in place of text,' Blum tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. 'It gets them away from actually having to quote chapter and verse, which they can't really do to present their cause.'"