A group of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah adult learners spent three days in Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia, in late March on an immersive trip studying slavery and the Civil Rights Movement in America.
“Social justice is core to who we are at B’nai Jehudah, and the Civil Rights struggle is a key element of our shared history as a congregation and as a people,” said Senior Rabbi Stephanie Kramer, who organized and led the trip for 30 members and guests. “Our own rabbis fought for justice and equality locally while national leaders such as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walked on the freedom marches in the Deep South in the 1950s and 1960s.”
The B’nai Jehudah group traced the freedom march of March 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, including walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Non-violent protesters, led by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., demonstrated for voting rights in the historic march which raised the awareness of injustice experienced by African Americans.
Travelers met with Lynda Blackmon Lowery, who was the youngest participant and turned 15 years old on the Selma march. She shared her personal history, which included a beating and being arrested 11 times for peaceful protesting before her 15th birthday. Now 74, Lowery lives in Selma and regularly shares her life story with visitors and students.
Other stops included the Rosa Parks Museum and Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Legacy Museum and Memorial in Montgomery. The B’nai Jehudah group was among the first to visit EJI’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which recently opened on 17 acres overlooking the Alabama River. The Park mixes artifacts of slavery, including a whipping post and plantation dwellings, with artistic depictions of enslaved people.
The trip wrapped up on Easter Sunday with the Kansas City travelers attending worship services at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where King served as pastor before being murdered in 1968. The Easter sermon was delivered by Ebenezer’s current senior pastor, Dr. Raphael Warnock, who also serves as one of Georgia’s United States senators. He is the first African American to represent Georgia in the Senate.
“It was so moving and useful to be immersed in social justice,” said Donna Thalblum, a B’nai Jehudah congregant and past president. “The trip was an inspiration to do something now.”
“I encourage others to join me at Church of the Resurrection on May 7 at 6 p.m. for the The Nehemiah Action, an interfaith gathering of The Good Faith Network,” Thalblum continued. “We will raise many voices loud enough to Johnson County commissioners who will be there to further the work to end homelessness, establish a crisis intervention center and provide affordable housing right here in Johnson County.”
The Good Faith Network is an interfaith justice alliance of Johnson County faith organizations that includes B’nai Jehudah, Congregation Beth Shalom and Congregation Beth Torah.