| Billy Simmons | |
| Birth Date: | c. 1780 |
| Birth Place: | Madagascar |
| Death Date: | 1860 |
| Death Place: | United States |
| Occupation: | Scholar, newspaper deliverer |
Billy Simmons (also known as Billy Simons) was an African-American Jew from Charleston, South Carolina, one of the few documented Black Jews living in the Antebellum South. Simmons was a scholar in both Hebrew and Arabic.[1]
Simmons was born in Madagascar. Simmons claimed to be a descendant of a Rechabite tribe, a claim that two cantors and other Jewish authorities supported. Purchased by white Jewish enslavers, Simmons was taken into captivity and brought to South Carolina. A newspaper editor in Charleston enslaved him and forced him to deliver newspapers.[2]
Despite anti-Black restrictions in the constitution of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim that banned Black converts from membership, Simmons was among the few African-American Jews known to have attended the synagogue during the antebellum period.[3] [4] Simmons attended the synagogue during the 1850s and was known to members as Uncle Billy. Simmons was known to attend Shabbat services wearing a black top hat, black suit, and frilly shirt.[5]
A drawing of Billy Simmons is held by the Special Collections Library of the College of Charleston.[6]