The hoax gained public notoriety when a congressman read a supposed quotation from the book to argue against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
[1] On June 7, 1957, during a debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1957, Rep. Thomas Abernethy of Mississippi read into the Congressional Record a supposed quotation from the nonexistent book, which was purported to have been written by an "Israel Cohen" in 1912.
"[2][1] Abernethy had found the quotation in a March 20, 1957 letter to the editor of The Washington Star; he claimed it as proof that the civil rights movement was a foreign communist plot.
[1][3] On August 30 of that year, Rep. Abraham J. Multer of New York read the Star article into the Congressional Record and raised several other points challenging the quotation's authenticity.
Although a British Jewish author and Zionist named Israel Cohen did exist in that period, he had no affiliation with Communism nor is there any record of him writing such a work.