12 | JUNE 1 • 2023 

Jim Crow laws enacted after the Civil 
War trampled the rights of Black res-
idents of the South. Later, peaceful 
protesters trying to desegregate schools 
and lunch counters, as well as volun-
teers attempting to register African 
Americans to vote, were subjected to 
fire hoses, attack dogs and beatings. 
Many were jailed and some were killed. 
After African Americans were repeat-
edly turned away from voter regis-
tration offices in Alabama, a protest 
march from Selma to the state capital, 
Montgomery, was planned in 1965. 
However, when the voting rights sup-

porters crossed the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge, they were attacked and brutally 
beaten. The march was televised across 
the nation, prompting public support 
for Civil Rights marchers and the vot-
ing rights campaign. After this “Bloody 

Sunday,” protestors were granted the 
right to march and two more marches 
for voting rights followed.
For Marcy Feldman, the trip was “val-
idating what the Friends do for the stu-
dents and families at Pasteur. I learned 
more about systemic racism, mass 
incarceration and modern-day lynch-
ings by shooting. My hope is that more 
people offer the gift of tutoring children 
from low-income families so that they 
can uplift their own families. 
“Many families are low-income and 
struggling. It all goes back to their 
history.” 

For information about the Friends of Pasteur, visit 

www.friendsofpasteur.org.

continued from page 11

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER
“MANY FAMILIES ARE 
LOW-INCOME 
AND STRUGGLING. IT 
ALL GOES BACK 

TO THEIR HISTORY.”

— MARCY FELDMAN

T

hose grainy black-and-white pho-
tos of the Civil Rights movement 
in the 1960s are forever seared 
in our national psyche. They capture the 
many horrors of those years: the attack 
dogs, car bombings, bus bombings, 
church bombings, lynchings, tear gas, 
racist taunts, fire hoses, frightened chil-

dren. America cannot hide from those 
photos. That’s who we were. 
Confronting a shameful past is a painful 
exercise for a nation, but it’s the only way to 
evolve and heal. Germany had to confront 
the Holocaust. Rwanda had to confront 
its national genocide, and America has to 
confront its sins during the Civil Rights 

movement. 
But reading about our nation’s past sins 
is a far cry from actually seeing the places 
where they occurred. In three jammed-
packed days, 24 members and guests of 
the Coalition for Black and Jewish Unity 
— half from each community and half of 
those pastors and rabbis — visited many 

Coalition for 
Black and 
Jewish Unity of 
Detroit embarks 
on tour of Civil 
Rights sites.

MARK JACOBS 
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Heading 
South

continued on page 14

The group poses 
before the Ebenezer 
Baptist Church

