Singing "We Shall

metro

Overcome" at an event

marking the 50th anni-

versary of the Detroit

"Walk to Freedom" are,

from right, Rev. Kenneth

Flowers, Rabbi Daniel

Syme and a visiting

minister from Houston,

Texas.

50 Years

Jewish community helps commemorate anniversary of Detroit freedom walk.

Robin Schwartz
JN Contributing Writer

T

housands of people from all walks
of life came together Saturday
to follow in the footsteps of Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. and the more than
125,000 others who walked for freedom
and racial equality down Woodward
Avenue in Detroit half a century ago.
The 2013 version of the "Walk to
Freedom:' sponsored by the Detroit
Branch NAACP and the United Auto
Workers union, attracted activists includ-
ing the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse
Jackson, politicians like Detroit Mayor
Dave Bing and Congressman Sander
Levin, and people of all ages and ethnic
backgrounds from across the country.
Detroit's flamboyant Martin Luther King
High School marching band led the pro-
cession. Martin Luther King III was also
there to help recreate his father's historic
march where King debuted his famous "I
Have A Dream" speech.
"I can say I'm excited to be here the
younger King is quoted as saying. "But, I
can't — nor should anyone — say they've
achieved the dreams of Martin Luther
King Jr:"
United States District Court Judge for
the Eastern District of Michigan Avern
Cohn took part in the original walk back
in 1963 at the age of 39. He marched with
his late wife, Joyce, and the American
Civil Liberties Union. An old black and
white photograph shows the group carry-

14 June 27 • 2013

Rabbi Daniel Syme of Temple Beth El address church members at an interfaith
event on June 23.

ing signs that read, "ACLU supports equal
rights and liberties for all:'
"I was showing my loyalty to the cause
Cohn said. "If you wanted to demonstrate
the fact that you were liberal, you showed
solidarity for the underdog. Blacks were
expressing their opposition to being
treated as second-class citizens. Not a lot
of people agreed with us. There were all
kinds of black-white issues at that time:'
Because he has difficulty walking long
distances, Cohn, now 89, did not take part
in the 50th anniversary march. The tim-
ing of the event, which was held during
Shabbat, made it impossible for observant
members of the Jewish community to

attend. In 1963, there was no participation
by the organized Jewish community.
"The relationship between the orga-
nized Jewish community and the African
American community was tense at that
time. A lot of the rioting in 1943 took
place in business neighborhoods with
Jewish merchants:' Cohn said. "The ten-
sions evolved out of two things: white
flight and the changing housing patterns
in northwest Detroit. Jewish families were
moving to the suburbs but many still
owned businesses in the city. There wasn't
the kind of interfaith dialogue they have
today:'

Tense Times
Cohn recalls the late Arthur Johnson, who
led the Detroit NAACP chapter in the 1960s,
attended a meeting of the Jewish Community
Relations Council to talk about what he'd like
to see happen with Black-Jewish relations in
Metro Detroit.
"It was an eye opener for the Jews at the
table Cohn said. "The organized Jewish
community began taking an active interest
after the riots of 1967:'
Rabbi Daniel Syme, senior rabbi at Temple
Beth El in Bloomfield Township, remembers
the climate of that time from the perspective
of a teenager. He was just 17 years old when
his father, the late Rabbi M. Robert Syme of
Temple Israel, accompanied a group of black
clergy members to Washington, D.C., for
the March on Washington, one of the larg-
est political rallies for human rights in U.S.
history.
"Dr. King was in idol of my father's," Syme
said. "After hearing the 'I Have A Dream
speech, he came back transformed. He real-
ized he wasrit just marching for blacks, he
was marching for Jews and for anyone in any
state of inequality:'
In September 1963, after the Ku Klux Klan
bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Ala., killing four young black
girls, Syme recalls his father issued a denun-
ciation of the Klan and all haters.
"He received death threats and police
guarded our house for about a week;' Syme
said. At first, I wasn't aware of what was
going on. When I found out, I was never
more proud of my father. That was the view

