Opinion OTHER VIEWS Ezra Greenberg plants a tree in Israel during the summer of 1998. He's Jack Greenberg's son and Debbie Keith's father's law clerk. He later wanted to honor Debbie's mother and asked that a ring of three trees be planted in the Coretta Scott King forest in Israel. Civil Rights Pioneers' Common Cause Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday (Jan. 15) will be celebrated Jan. 21 this year. N of many women are fond of tell- ing their age, but I am a child of the 1960s and proud of it. Why? My parents, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Damon J. Keith of Detroit and the late Dr. Rachel Boone Keith, were at the fore- front of that era's struggle for racial equality, working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League. Living through that special time made a strong impression on me, so that as an adult I cherish the common bonds of humanity that join all people together. For his efforts to defend blacks, my father received the NAACP's highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, while my soft-spoken mother worked several decades with the NAACP's women's committee. In recogni- tion of her commitment and diligence to "the struggle:' the National Urban League will award her posthumously with a Distinguished Warrior medal at their spring fundraising dinner. Importantly, she showed how quiet strength can be dis- arming and effective. As the saying goes, "She walked gently, but carried a big stick!" Sadly, my mother passed unexpectedly A30 January 17 • 2008 iN last January; but the Cabinet minister. civil rights mission Sharansky wrote to which she and after arriving in Israel my father were both in 1986: "Your help and committed is still an support ever since we imperative. Their past first met in Moscow all efforts to reach out to those years ago has been the Jewish people is a a vital part of the cam- story that especially paign which has now begs to be told. We succeeded in bringing can all benefit from me home!' lessons learned from To her credit, my my parents' positive mother, in her humble experience with Jews and unassuming way, Rachel and Damon Keith and African Americans was able to treat the striving to secure civil famous dissident for an rights for all people. eye ailment during her visit to Moscow, Consider the friendship between one of her famous "house calls" which Deborah and Jack Greenberg, former took her the farthest way from home. NAACP legal defense counsel of New York, I'd like to think that while treating him and my parents. As champions for free- physically, she was able to also give him dom, the two men met as both fought with spiritual "eyesight" — the hope of finding the NAACP to end the Jim Crow system in freedom. the 1960s; and the friends are knit togeth- er with a bond of solidarity and respect Foxhole Brothers for the defense of each other's race. During the visit to the Soviet Union, my Jack Greenberg has long been an father was constantly asked why he, an ardent proponent of full civil rights for African-American man, would be inter- African Americans, and my father has ested in the fate of Jews. "It was a matter been rewarded for his friendship with of conscience to help support those who the Jewish people with an honor from the have been 'foxhole brothers' to African Anti-Defamation League. Americans in matters of civil rights;' he This mission of defending human rights replied. "I am a supporter of freedom and would eventually take the two couples far democracy for all. No distance is too great away in 1976. They traveled together to the to travel to help ensure this precious right!' Soviet Union to help support and bolster Similarly, Jack Greenberg's effective legal the morale of the well-known dissidents, advocacy on behalf of African Americans Dr. Andrei Sakharov, a nuclear scientist has begged the question of why a Jew who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, would be so passionate about the rights and Natan Sharansky, who was finally able of another minority group. Mr. Greenberg, to emigrate to Israel and later became a now a Columbia University law profes- sor, is both altruistic and practical. "The Jewish tradition encourages us to uphold social justice for the oppressed and dis- advantaged. By securing the rights of the disenfranchised, I am protecting the voice of all to be represented in society." As one of my father's former law clerks, Greenberg's son Ezra witnessed the col- legiality over time between Deborah and Jack and my father and mother. When my mother died, he requested that a ring of three trees be planted in the Coretta Scott King Forest in Israel in honor of her. This recognition would have touched my moth- er deeply since it is reserved for those special ones among us who have success- fully and tirelessly worked for "equality and peace." This beautiful symbolic gesture also - epitomizes the friendship between two couples who have fought, and continue to fight, many battles to help not only African Americans and Jews, but all those who wish to enjoy the full benefits of democracy. Wishful thinking? Perhaps not. "Nothing beats a failure, but a try" Let's give it our best — or die trying, just like my dear mother. ❑ Debbie Keith, daughter of Judge and Dr. Keith and a Princeton University graduate, lives in Detroit. She works as a public relations professional. She is interested in fostering a new generation of Jewish and African- American activists such as the Jewish Fund- sponsored Emerging Leaders group at New Detroit Inc. In this community-based initiative, socially conscious Jews and African Americans work together to ensure racial harmony and economic development for Detroit.