metro » o n the cover

Cooperation
And C nflict

Changing relationships between Detroit’s African American and Jewish communities.

Robin Schwartz | Contributing Writer

R

iots, looting and destruction in Detroit
(in 1943 and 1967), jobs, housing and
white flight, solidarity, the Civil Rights
Movement and the fight for equality are among
the complex issues that have united and divided
Detroit’s African American and Jewish commu-
nities over the last 50-plus years.
Strong friendships and bridges between
the communities remain, but “getting people
to walk across those bridges” is a matter that
requires continued dialogue and deliberate
action, according to Rev. Kenneth Flowers,
senior pastor of Greater New Mount Moriah
Missionary Baptist Church, and others at the
forefront of such efforts.
“The problem is, black folk in America have
many other issues they’re dealing with,” Flowers
says. The church leader is a longtime friend of
Daniel Syme, rabbi emeritus at Temple Beth El
in Bloomfield Township. “Getting a job, gradu-
ating from high school, making sure their kids
eat, making sure we’re not racially profiled by
police. It’s not that they don’t want to engage,
but they’re so busy surviving being black in
America, you don’t find too many who make
black-Jewish relations a priority.”
Flowers points to the violence and heartbreak
gripping the nation, including the recent
shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana
and Philando Castile in Minnesota, black men

12 July 28 • 2016

Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) called upon
Americans to “hold up a mirror and ask
ourselves some very tough questions: about
hatred, about racial tensions, about anger and
violence” following the tragic events.
“When the shootings occurred with Philando
and Alton, I’m not getting any phone calls from
any of my Jewish friends,” Flowers says. “I did
get one text message; but if the situation had
been reversed, I would have personally made
phone calls. It’s the little things like that people
need to be aware of and understand. Volunteer,
call and say, ‘What can we do to help?’”

The front page of the Jewish News following
the 1967 riot in Detroit.

killed by police officers. In the wake of those
shootings, two ambush attacks on police in
Baton Rouge and Dallas left eight officers dead
and seven others wounded at the hands of black
shooting suspects (both of whom were killed
following standoffs with police).

‘I WAS A 6YEAROLD LOOTER’
Flowers’ connection to Detroit’s Jewish com-
munity dates back decades to the 1960s. Back
then, all he knew about Jews was that his grand-
mother and great-aunt worked for them, clean-
ing their homes and serving them during the
High Holidays. Flowers was a young child at the
time of the Detroit riot in July 1967, but he has
vivid memories.
“I was a 6-year-old looter, and I didn’t realize
it,” he says. “I remember it well. I remember
people going in and taking things out of a store,
and I remember walking down the street with
two six-packs of Coca-Cola, not knowing I was
doing anything wrong.”
In college, Flowers met the late Coretta Scott