It is very likely that people of all colors and ethnicities were inhabiting the geography of the Biblical world and certainly this was true by the first Century. We heard about Asenath and her two sons. At the end of the period of slavery when finally the Pharaoh of the time released his Hebrew slaves the Bible says in Exodus 12:38, “Many other people went up with them.” Most translations say, “A mixed multitude.” In other words, a whole lot of different people who wanted to get out from under the yoke of slavery, made a break for it and become part the new community.
And then at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, we meet Simon of Cyrene who most likely was black, from modern day Libya. Mark, in his gospel, also mentions his two sons, Rufus and Alexander who must have been known to whomever Mark was writing to, but likely they were men who were integrated into the community. Mark mentions them because of their connection to the eyewitness to Jesus’ crucifixion, Simon of Cyrene.
Esau McCaulley again from Reading While Black says, “We need to be as clear as possible about this. When it comes to the question of Black presence in the Bible, it is not a question of finding our place in someone else’s story. The Bible is first and foremost the story of God’s desire to create a people. We are encompassed within that desire.” And later, “[W]hen we finally meet our savior, we do not come to him as a faceless horde but as transformed believers from every tribe, tongue and nation. When Black Christian enters the community of faith, she is not entering a strange land. She is finding her way home.”