Metro

Lynching Lessons

Jews and blacks find common ground at African Americanmuseum.

DON COHEN

Special to the Jewish News

T

alk is long, but the rope is
short" — so says the small
print on the cover of the Jan.
24, 1938, issue of Time magazine
included in the powerful exhibit
"Without Sanctuary: Lynching
Photography in America" at the
Charles H. Wright Museum of African
American History in Detroit.
Almost 57 years later, Rabbi David
Nelson of Congregation Beth Shalom
in Oak Park highlighted these words
during a panel discussion with Jewish
and African-American clergy who,
together with congregants, came to
view and discuss the exhibit on Jan. 23.
Calling it a "very sad afternoon that
shows America is haunted by racism,"
Rabbi Nelson reiterated the quote
NAACP Executive Secretary Walter
White had used to promote anti-
lynching legislation. The rabbi used it
to urge those assembled to move
beyond talk to action and become
,,
"pursuers of peace.
"You can not hate man and love
God," he told the receptive audience.
The cold, snowy weather turned half
of the 300 registered participants into
no-shows, but the event sponsored by
the Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit's "Detroit Jewish
Initiative" succeeded in helping to
bridge the yawning gap between the
city and its suburbs.
The graphic exhibit was quite a con-
versation starter, with the power to
give cold chills or make the blood boil.
"Without Sanctuary" includes more
than 100 historic lynching postcards
that were widely sold, collected and sent
through the U.S. mail to celebrate the
hangings, shootings, burnings and muti-
lations of mob violence. Many postcards
showed victims surrounded by festive,
smiling crowds of all ages who had come
to picnic or otherwise celebrate.

Reuniting for a panel discussion are
members of a 2002 Jewish Community
Council clergy trip to Israel and
Senegal: Rev. Nicholas Hood III, Rabbi
Jonathan Berkun, Rev. Benjamin Baker,
Rev. Robert Dulan Jr., Rabbi David
Nelson, Rev. Ronald Turner.

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2005

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Because blacks were considered
property prior to the Civil War, it was-
n't until decades later that black men,
women and children became the main
lynching victims, accounting for 3,445
of the victims, 73 percent of the U.S.
total, between 1882 and 1968. The
exhibit also explores the anti-lynching
movement and challenges visitors to
consider contemporary issues to learn
from the past.
Included is a photo of the lynching
of Leo Frank, the Jewish pencil factory
supervisor lynched in Marietta, Ga., in
1915 for allegedly murdering a young
employee, and then pardoned posthu-
mously in 1986. A member of B'nai
B'rith in Atlanta, Frank's murder led
to the formation of the Anti-
Defamation League.
Jan Wanetick brought her daughter,
Sala, a student at Birmingham Groves
High School, to see the exhibit. "It is
important for a high schooler to know
about American history" Wanetick
said. She also brought her younger
children with her but didn't take them
through the exhibit because it was "a
little bit too gruesome."
"It made me feel ashamed that there

LYNCHING LESSONS on page 21

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Wendy Robins of Huntington Woods meets the Rev. Ronald Turner of Detroit's Peace
Baptist Church at the lynching exhibition.

