Remembering Jews who fought for black civil rights (1)

IN the 1960s, hundreds of Jews worked tirelessly to advance civil rights. Two of them were murdered.

Hank Thomas, a major figure in the American civil rights struggle and one of the first Freedom Riders who travelled throughout the American South dent at Harvard Law School. In in the 1960s to raise awareness 1958, he bought a bus ticket from of the struggle for black rights, Washington, DC, to his home always remembered the many in Montgomery, Alabama. DurJews who helped him. ing a 40-minute layover in Rich

In the 2011 documentary Freemond, Virginia, he entered a resdom Riders, he recalled the key taurant in the station, sat in the role American Jews played in “whites only” section, and orcalling for equal rights for black dered a sandwich and a cup of Americans. “Let’s put it this tea. Arrested for trespassing, he way,” Thomas explained, “when sued the authorities for wrongGermany was defeated in World ful arrest in a case that eventualWar II, headlines across the naly reached the Supreme Court. In tion read Allies defeat Germany. its 1960 ruling, the court barred Well, we had allies, too. Half of discrimination in the interstate the freedom riders were white, passenger transportation indusand of those whites, a verytry.significant portion of them were hough it was illegal to disJews. Jews played a very signifcriminate against black Americant part in our human rights icans on buses, bus cafes and struggle.” waiting rooms, segregation continued to be the law of the land in much of the American South. Beginning in 1960, brave groups of black and white Americans came together to

Start of the Freedom Riders

In 1960, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Boynton v Virginia. The case was brought by Bruce Boynton, a black stutravel throughout the South on public transportation, daring police to disrupt their activities, and bringing attention to the plight of black Americans in the region. Known as Freedom Riders, over 400 people participated in these trips, often courting intense danger. Many of them were Jews.

In the documentary Freedom Riders, Israel Dresner describes the intensity and excitement of that time when Jewish activists collaborated with black leaders. One night in 1962, Dresner found himself in Georgia, speaking with Dr Martin Luther King Jr. “The Jewish people haven’t forgotten that they were slaves 32 centuries ago,” Dr King noted, asking, “How will Negroes forget we were slaves only a century ago?”

“Not just 32 centuries ago,” Dresner replied to Dr King.

“We were slave labourers in the Nazi concentration camps too.” Dr King fell silent contemplating this brutal truth. “We need to learn not to be ashamed of our slave ancestors,” he replied. “Jews are proud of their ancestors.”

Orthodox Jewish leaders were among the most eloquent defenders of the key Jewish tenet that all people are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, and possess equal human rights, no matter the colour of their skin.

In April 1960, Jewish students travelled to Greensboro, North Carolina, to stand side by side with Black students protesting discrimination. Among the Jews attending the protest was a delegation from Yeshiva University. “As Jews, we have a moral and religious duty to uphold the rights of our fellow man,” they told their school newspaper. “As Jews, we must be in the vanguard of any movement which seeks to break the bars of discrimination.”

In 1962, when Northerners — many of whom were Jewish — took part in anti-discrimination protests in Selma, Alabama, Orthodox Jews were part of the movement, travelling to the South to stand as allies with Black Americans in their struggle for equal rights.

Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik wrote in his famous essay Civil Rights and the Dignity of Man: “From the standpoint of the Torah, there can be no distinction between one human being and another on the basis of race or colour. Any discrimination shown to a human being on account of the colour of his or her skin constitutes loathsome barbarity.”

In 1964, after years of demonstrations against discrimination in the South, civil rights groups decided to focus on voting rights in Mississippi. Despite being eligible to vote, just 7% of Black Mississippians were registered to vote in the early 1960s. Activists were invited to come to the state and register black voters: over a thousand people heeded the call and travelled south. Fully half of these volunteers were Jewish college students.

*TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK