No, they were not black. The blacks are the Hamites, the whites are the Japhethites, and the Asiatics are the Semites. Israelites are Semites, their original appearance would be Asiatic.
I think the reason you have typically speaking "black Jesus" and "white Jesus" and so forth is just a cultural thing that came later. It is fairly understandable that just psychologically as Christianity spread to the Gentiles, the Gentiles would portray Jesus, Mary, and other biblical figures to look like one of them as they began to embrace and venerate Jesus and in a larger sense the biblical narrative.
The Italians for instance at the Sistine Chapel portray many biblical figures in pretty typical Roman and Greek ideals of beauty though in truth the Romans are Japhethites, specifically sons of Javan. The Ethiopians, whom are Hamites, specifically sons of Cush, and noted as the darkest skinned race, and one of the first Gentile races in Africa to accept Christianity, commonly portray Jesus and other biblical figures as black, like one of them. You could pretty much just go through all the races and you will pretty generally find it common that they will depict biblical figures to look like one them.
I suppose it's just a psychological thing and is understandable that in the course of history as Christianity and the Bible spread that other races would imagine the characters in the Bible to look like themselves. I suppose it's sort of like a process of identifying with the characters found in the Bible to imagine them to be of one's own race.