MLK’s daughter urges action, understanding
Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel formed what may have seemed an unlikely friendship in the civil rights era, cementing their bond through a steadfast belief in God and a right to equality.
The Baptist minister and Jewish scholar had a deep influence on each other.
For the first time, their daughters shared a public stage Sunday, renewing their fathers’ call for understanding and action.
Bernice King, the youngest of four, and Susannah Heschel, her parents’ only child, appeared at the Pabst Theater in downtown Milwaukee, in a free event that drew several hundred people, hosted by the Jewish Community Center and the Milwaukee Urban League.
The event, coming a month before the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, sought to highlight common ground between the Jewish and African-American communities, as increasingly bold acts of hatred and discrimination surface across the country, such as the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
King said the connection between the two communities is not as strong as it once was and it is up to leaders to change that for young people.
“We have a responsibility to help them understand the connections, the nexus, and the strength,” King said. “The history of oppression for both is where the connection is and we need to keep that alive in each generation.”
Heschel said it is important for people in the Jewish community in America to understand how deeply ingrained discrimination is for African-Americans.
“What is it like to be black in this country? When the police stop my car, I don’t fear for my life,” she said. “That’s a big issue, a big difference. It is important for us to think about being a United States citizen to be stopped by the law and be in danger of one’s life.“
The event’s title, “Praying with their Feet,” was inspired by a comment made by Rabbi Heschel after he returned from marching in Selma, Ala., with King 53 years ago this week. He told his family he found the march deeply moving, that he felt as though he was praying with his legs, Susannah Heschel recalled.
King, who was 5 when her father was slain, credited her mother with inspiring her, urging her to become “her best self.” King herself is now a minister and head of the King Center.
She didn’t race into her father’s footsteps. She resisted as a teenager and even deliberately avoided her father’s writings for a time. But when she gave her first sermon, her mother and others said her gestures were straight from her father. She has nowt embraced his teachings.
King said her father would be heartened by the surge in youth activism lately. The election of President Donald Trump has energized young people in a way she has not seen before and she believes there is a reason for Trump.
“We would not be having conversations like we have refused to have in America,” she said. “At the end of the day, it is waking us up to who we really are . ... A person like that is forcing us to deal with ourselves.”
King called on people to reach out to those who support Trump, who themselves are feeling left behind and are yearning for change in this country, to help foster understanding.