OPINION
CONTENTS
Honoring Martyrs
With A New Coalition
A. JAMES RUDIN
Special to The Jewish News
I
t has been 25 years since
the three young civil
rights workers, James
Chaney, Andrew Goodman,
and Michael Schwerner, were
murdered in Neshoba County,
Miss.
The slayings of two Jews
and a black on June 20, 1964,
stunned the nation and pro-
vided an impetus for the
passage of important civil
rights laws. And, sadly, the
murders also provided three
martyrs for the black-Jewish
"alliance" of the 1960s.
Much has changed since
that fateful summer of 1964,
especially in black-Jewish
relations.
During that year, I par-
ticipated in an interreligious
We know very well
that racism was
not and is not a
sectional problem.
It is, rather, a
nationwide
pathology.
voting rights drive in Hat-
tiesburg, Miss., and was wide-
ly praised by the American
Jewish community for my
action.
But when I returned from
another civil rights march,
this time in Cumming, Ga.,
just two years ago, I received
many letters and phone calls
from Jews who sharply
criticized me for "marching
again for the blacks" (a well
known Yiddish epithet was
often used).
Several callers said that
"once was enough" and
declared that Jewish par-
ticipation in such marches
was no longer desirable nor
even necessary.
As a Jew who was raised in
a legally segregated racist
society in the South, I active-
ly opposed the Jim Crow laws
and the many restrictions
that prevented blacks from
voting.
But bad as Southern racism
was (and is), I also deeply
resented the statements of
many Northern Jews who
piously proclaimed that anti-
Rabbi A. James Rudin is the
American Jewish Committee's
national interreligious affairs
director. He is a founder of
the National Interreligious
Task Force on Black-Jewish
Relations.
black attitudes and actions
were somehow a problem uni-
que to the South.
Such Jews believed there
were racist states of the Old
Confederacy, and that the rest
of the United States was free
of racial prejudice. It was not
true in 1964, and it certainly
is not true today.
In 1989, we know very well
that racism was not and is not
a sectional problem. It is,
rather, a nationwide
pathology. And the American
Jewish community recognizes
that it, too, is not free of racial
hatred and bigotry.
This recognition is a step
forward away from the
dangerous myths of a quarter-
century ago, when some Nor-
thern Jews pointed fingers of
derision and scorn at their
Southern brothers and
sisters.
Now we all know the dirty
little secret: Racism is na-
tional in scope and infects all
religious and ethnic groups.
While paying tribute to
Schwerner, Chaney and Good-
man, we should remember
that there never was a formal
alliance between blacks and
Jews in the 1960s.
An alliance implies solemn
agreements and systematic
programs to achieve specific
goals. My own sense of the
"Movement" during the
1960s rejects the idea of an
alliance. A "working coali-
tion" would be a more ac-
curate description explaining
how a convergence of mutual
interests brought some blacks
and Jews together back then.
For the American Jew, it
was clear that restricted
freedoms and a lack of full
civil rights for blacks also
undermined Jewish security
in this country.
We need not apologize for
understanding that our own
rights were linked to civil
rights for black Americans.
Nor should we apologize for
the black-Jewish coalition. It
made a real difference in
1964. It provided the black-
led civil rights movement in
the South with the national
attention and the moral
urgency that helped advance
civil rights legislation,
especially voting rights.
It energized millions of peo-
ple and it helped bring about
irreversible changes in the
United States.
But the 1960s coalition was
effective for that time and for
that place. It should be warm-
ly appreciated for what it ac-
complished, and all of us
Continued on Page 10
24
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CANDLELIGHTING
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June 23, 1989
8:55 p.m.
Sabbath ends June 24
10:02 p.m.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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