On Easter morning, Lowcountry pastors will preach similar messages of Jesus’s resurrection, but if Christians are asked to describe their Messiah’s appearance, the answers might vary.
Some might say Jesus had dark skin, a broad nose, thick lips and black curly hair. Others might respond that Jesus had long, straight blonde hair, blue eyes and a pointed, narrow nose.
Three local pastors, however, said they believe those depictions are historically inaccurate, given the place and time in which Jesus walked the Earth.
The Charleston City Paper interviewed the pastors who said they’ve been intrigued by the question of Jesus’s appearance. It has been a subject of conversation, they said, within their churches and their academic training as the nation grapples with how far-right religious ideology has shaped the political discourse.
The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III, pastor of Charity Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, said the question of what the “living Jesus actually looked like is never more important than at Easter. If Jesus in the manger is important, then we must care about Jesus on the cross even more because for Christians the cross, not the manger, changed the world.”
The Rev. Dr. Eric Manning, senior pastor at Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street, said the question of Jesus’ appearance has him planning to educate his congregation about the 7th century monk John Damascus, who studied the theological truth of the icons of the early church.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Shaffer, rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Thomas Street, reflected on Billy Graham’s 1973 sermon in South Africa. Graham said: “Jesus was not a White man like me, and nor was he as Black as some of you. … Don’t ever say it’s a White man’s religion, or a Black man’s religion. It’s a world religion. He belongs to the world.”
During interviews with the City Paper, the pastors shared how life experiences influenced their views on Jesus’ appearance and the messages they’ve shared with their congregations and others.
Nelson Rivers
Charity Missionary Baptist
City Paper: When you were growing up in Charleston, what image of Jesus did you see?
Nelson Rivers: “All I knew was Jesus was White. I was taught Black is ugly and dumb and hard to educate.”
CP: When did you question the accepted idea that Jesus was White?
Rivers: When I went to Wilberforce (University in Wilberforce, Ohio.) I had a White female English teacher who assigned us the Autobiography of Malcolm X. The book changed my life. It radicalized me that when I came home, I took the White Jesus off the wall.”
CP: What was your mother’s reaction?
Rivers: “They tried to put me out. ‘Don’t mess with my Jesus!’ my mother said. Mama, that is not your Jesus. She said, ‘Boy, shut up.’ She couldn’t get over that. She came around, later on.
“I became part of the militant group. We shut the school down because they wouldn’t teach Black history.”
CP: Why wouldn’t a historically Black college not teach Black history?
AME school. In their mind, Jesus was White.”
CP: When you arrived at Charity in 2008, was there a Black Jesus pictured in the church?
Rivers: “No. All they had was the Ten Commandments. This church didn’t have that (White) Jesus.”
CP: “Why not?
Rivers: “This church is woke.”
CP: “As a visiting pastor at the other Black churches have you seen a White Jesus in the sanctuary?
Rivers: “Oh yes. Many places.”
CP: Did you speak to that?
Rivers: “Early days they said it was blasphemy (to do so). But now, there is cognitive dissonance among Black Christians. They know Jesus couldn’t have been White. You will now find fewer depictions of (White Jesus) in Black churches. But the older churches won’t take them down.”
CP: Why not?
Rivers: “I think it is more of the congregations and tradition. To be fair to them, I never had to deal with taking it down because it was never up.”
Eric Manning
Emanuel AME
City Paper: Emanuel has two White Jesus murals in the pulpit. Has this ever been a topic of discussion?
Eric Manning: “Lee Bennett, our church historian, will say it has been. He gives the historical aspect of why it was painted that way in 1945. To have a White European Jesus in a Black church intentionally teaches that holiness looks White, authority looks White, God’s nearness is racially coded and Black bodies are less capable of bearing divine beauty.”
CP: You studied this question in seminary.
Manning: “This was a problem for me. This is something we have to understand. John Damascus would be concerned if these images took away from the dignity of the community.”
CP: In the 7th century, what would have been the image of the incarnation that would have been the truth?
Manning: “It would have been a person of color from Middle Eastern times. The church and the original letters of the apostles were not birthed in Europe. If we know the history of the church, then perhaps we can dismantle these inaccuracies of scripture.”
CP: This question about Jesus’s appearance has prompted you to plan a letter to the church on this topic.
Manning: “We are in the restoration process of the interior of the church, and the question is going to be what do we do with (the murals)? Do we update them? Do we touch them up? In some churches, we do the extreme, which is we paint Jesus Black and give him an Afro. That is not necessarily theologically correct either.”
Michael Shaffer
St. Mark’s
Michael Shaffer: “This is not politics as Democrat or Republican. The whitewashing of Jesus has marginalized people of color by associating White with divinity and authority.”
CP: How did some people of color buy into this?
Shaffer: “As a privileged White man, I have a lot to learn. In truth, I believe the continued insistence by many, that Jesus was a blond-haired, blue-eyed White man, is rooted in our ongoing narrative of systemic oppression. That makes it critically important that pastors, particularly in 2026, do their part to rectify a perpetuating untruth.”
CP: If a historically accurate depiction of Jesus is not that of a Black man, then what was his appearance?
Shaffer: It is interesting that we are talking about this at St. Mark’s that has a history of colorism. Although St. Mark’s was founded by free people of color, there was a … time at St. Mark’s when (membership) was based on colorism or elitism based (on skin tone). In some of the historical icons, Jesus is very dark, and then you will see ones that are more olive complexion, but you won’t find one that has blonde hair and blue eyes.”
CP: What should Christians remember about Jesus this Easter?
Shaffer: “If you profess to be a disciple and follower of Jesus, then the one you follow was a peaceful, radically nonviolent revolutionary, who wasn’t American and never spoke English, who hung around with lepers, prostitutes and thieves, never sought tax cuts for (the) rich, was anti-death penalty, anti-public prayer, never asked the sick for co-pay, never called poor people “lazy,” never mentioned abortion or homosexuality, supported paying taxes and was a brown-skinned, unarmed, Palestinian homeless Jew, who was a community organizing, authority challenging rebel. Of course, that is the one you follow, if you read and believe what is actually written in the Bible.”
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