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PAGE 2 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 8, 1985
Give yourself
and your family
a gift never to
be forgotten
B’nai Torah’s
Semi-
Annual
Family
Tour of
Israel
with 3 night
weekend in Paris
June 17-30
Hosted by
Rabbi
Juda Mintz
Tour includes:
• Roundtrip Air
Direct from Atlanta
(by-pass New York)
• 5’Star Deluxe
Hotels
• All Kosher
Breakfasts &
Dinners
• All Sightseeing
& Entrance Fees
All inclusive cost:
$1995
($200 reduction
for children under 12)
You are invited
to meet the
men, women, &
children who „
are planning to
join the tour
Sunday, Mar. 10
7:30 P.M.
(RSVP 257-0537)
Congregation
B’nai Torah
700 Mt. Vernon Hwy.
Open to the
entire community
For information
and brochure
with detailed
itinerary
call
257-0537
Selma revisited . . ,
Atlantans commemorate historical march
by Vida Goldgar
Cecil Alexander, co-chairman of
Sherry Frank, Cecil Alexander, John Lewis and Elaine Alexander
Drenare to join the march. Alexander and Lewis are co-chairmen of
Twenty years ago, it was “Bloody
Sunday” in Selma, Alabama. Those
who are too young to remember
the tragic events in March of 1965,
this week watched 20-year-old tele
vised film clips showing Sheriff
Jim Clark and his brown shirted
posse tear into civil rights march
ers with billy clubs, tear gas and
bullwhips.
By contrast, last Sunday's com
memorative march might be called
“Sunny Sunday.” Under summery
skies, Selma city police, including
several black women officers, im
passively lined the streets of Selma
as nearly 3,000 people reenacted
the 1965 march across the Edmund
Pettus Bridge. Alabama State Pa
trol cars lined the highway and of
ficial protective helicopters circled
endlessly overhead, alert for any
possible disruption. There was none.
At the crest of the bridge, leaders
of the march, including Atlanta
City Councilman John Lewis, who
had his skull fractured in the 1965
march, and the Rev. Jesse Jack-
son, knelt for a brief moment of
prayer.
Then, singing “We Shall Over
come,” the marchers continued up
the Selma-Montgomery Road.
As it had begun in 1965, this
week’s march started with a rally at
the Brown’s Chapel AME Church.
Today, the street on which the
church stands has been renamed
for Martin Luther King Jr. What
the street was called in 1965 is lost
to all but long-time Selma residents.
During church services proceed
ing the rally, repentent Selma May
or Joe Smitherman, who was mayor
in 1965 as well, sat next to Jesse
Jackson. The Rev. Joseph Lowery,
head of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, spotted
The Temple’s Rabbi Alvin Sugar-
man standing in the rear of the
church and invited him to the dais.
Later, Rabbi Sugarman ad
dressed the rally in front of the church.
Many of those who spoke to the
assembly had been part of the
march in 1965. The rabbi had been
Atlanta’s Black/Jewish Coalition.
in Selma, too. But his experience
was different. As he told the crowd,
Selma was part of his territory
when he was a travelling salesman
in the early 1960s. “I was told,” he
said, ‘“when you get over there,
don’t you talk religion, don’t you
talk politics and don’t talk about
segregation. You gotta keep your
business connections happy.’”
He then related an incident that
happened only blocks from the
Brown Chapel. “One morning I
came in and a buyer phoned in and
said he was late. He came in with
mud all over his boots and said,
‘I’m sorry son, I was late; 1 was out
in the field beatin’ up a bunch of
niggers.’ And he said that,” Rabbi
Sugarman added, “as matter of
factly as if he’d had a flat tire. I
never walked in that man’s store
again and two years later I left the
business world and entered rabbinic
school.”
Rabbi Sugarman grew up in The
Temple under the spiritual leader
ship of Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild,
whose outspoken support of the
Civil Rights movement affected
not only his successor and his con
gregation, but the city as a whole.
The rabbi came to Selma this
week with a busload of Atlantans
representing the Black/Jewish Co
alition, established by the Ameri
can Jewish Committee’s Atlanta
Chapter in 1982 to provide a forum
for dialogue on issues of concern to
blacks and Jews in Atlanta.
the coalition with John Lewis, rode
the bus, along with his son and
daughter. Alexander and his late
wife Hermi were among the early
supporters of the Civil Rights move
ment, providing a meeting place in
■v their home where black and white
| leaders could meet, away from the
public eye. Sunday, he said:
1 “The Selma to Montgomery
2 march was a watershed in history
| that led to legislative action that
changed the face of America. The
Jews at that time were concerned
and involved with eliminating the
blot of racism and discrimination
in America, and supported and par
ticipated in many facets of the Civil
Rights movement.
“Our concern is no less today
that our country should live up to
the promises of the Declaration (of
Independence) and the Constitution
and we join hands with black citi
zens of America in commemorat
ing this historic event.”
The bus left Atlanta soon after
9:30 a.m. after breakfast at The
Temple. Though it wasn’t planned
that way the travellers were almost
evenly divided among blacks and
Jews, with a handful of white Chris
tians as well. No one could over
look the fact that several state and
city officials might not hold their
elected positions were it not for
what happened at Selma and the
ensuing enactment of the Voting
Rights Act. These included Geor
gia State Reps. Tyrone Brooks,
Douglas Dean and Billy McKin
ney and City Councilman Bill Camp
bell.
Also on board was city council
man John Lewis’s wife Lillian (cele
brating her birthday) and their
young son, John Miles.
| Other passengers on the Cosh
'S- tion bus included representatives
° of Clergy and Laity Concerned
< (CALC), the Coalition of Con
science, the Martin Luther King
Center for Non-Violent Change,
American Jewish Committee, Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai B’rith,
the Atlanta Board of Education
and others who wanted to walk in
the footsteps traveled by blacks
and Jews 20 years ago.
Parents brought their children,
both young and young adult, to
share with them the commemora
tion of a unique moment in history.
There was even rumor that Jesse
Jackson had requested a seat on
the bus, but not only was there a
waiting list for seats, but it turned
out that he needed to be in Selma
earlier than the bus would arrive.
As Sherry Frank, AJCs Southeast
ern director, who initiated the bus
trip, said, “The response from black
and Jewish leaders... was overwhelm
ing. We had to turn people down
when our bus filled up.”
Ms. Frank said, too, “This trip
was a reaffirmation of our shared
values, of our deep commitment to
equality and social justice and to
our rededication to the cause of
human rights and civil rights. It is a
symbolic act as well as a substan
tive act which allows us to strength
en our coalition and repudiate
racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry.
Mickie Eisenberg chats with Rocky Wade (hidden by his daughter, the
youngest passenger on the bus) as the delegation prepares to return to
Atlanta.
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