what year were blacks allowed to read the bible?

Answer 1

All people have always been allowed to read the Bible (assuming they knew how to read Latin or Greek and there was one of the rare hand-copied Bibles available)

Blacks have been involved in Christianity from the beginning.

Legend tells us that one of the Magi was Black.

The Bible tells us of Philip preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) in Acts 8:27.

Saints Aizan and Sazan were twin brothers. Aizan was the first Christian Emperor of the Kingdom of Axum, Ethiopia, circa 360.

Saint Moses the Black was a slave and gang leader who after conversion died a martyr of non-violence on August 28, 395. That date coincides with the march to Washington by 200,000 African Americans in 1963. (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintm34.htm)

Saint Elesbaan was an Ethiopian King who died as a monk in Jerusalem in 555.

Saint Lalibala (Ghebre Mesqel) was an Ethiopian Emperor revered for his faith, circa 1255.

Saint Tekla Hymanot, about 1313, was an Ethiopian reformer of monasticism.

And there have been at least three African popes:
• St. Victor I (189-199) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15408a.htm
• St. Melchiades (311-314) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10318a.htm
• St. Gelasius (492-496) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06406a.htm

Today, the 270 million Catholics of African descent represent about 25% of the one billion Roman Catholics throughout the world in more than 59 countries.

Most Black Catholics are in Africa. However there are about 3 million in the United States.

Black Catholic statistics: http://www.nbccongress.org/black-catholics/worldwide-count-black-catholics-01.asp

And finally I have heard of some debate of whether Saint Mark (author of the Gospel of Mark) might have been of African descent.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Presumably the Ethiopian of the New Testament (Acts 8:26-40) read the bible, circa 40 CE.

Certainly St. Augustine was well read in the bible. St. Augustine (November 13, 354 CE – August 28, 430 CE) was the bishop of Hippo in North Africa, and the greatest theologian of the western church of the classical era.