When filmmakers choose what to include or exclude from the stories they tell, their choices often have repercussions beyond the drama on the screen. In films based on real-life events, omissions can seriously distort the way we remember the past. “Selma,” a film directed by Ava DuVernay, offers an ambitious portrait of Martin Luther King…
Selma. Nearly 50 years ago it was violent Selma, impossibly racist Selma, site of Bloody Sunday, when peaceful civil rights marchers made their first attempt to cross the Pettus Bridge on the way to the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. They succeeded on their third attempt, protected by federal troops. You’ve seen the famous picture…
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 46 years ago while standing on the balcony outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39. In his short lifetime, King collected a cadre of loyal and fervent friends and colleagues. The majority of them, including the reverends Ralph David Abernathy, Andrew Young, John…
Jews pop up in unexpected places in Memphis, Tennessee. Here are six things that surprised us in the Blues City. 1) Joseph Is Stalking Us The biblical Joseph is stalking us in the South. We first came across him in Alabama, when we drove through Dothan, a town with a fledgling Jewish community. The town’s…
Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, 1968. Left: April 3. Right: April 4. Today is the 46th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Below is the editorial I wrote for the Forward seven years ago, on what would have been his 78th birthday — the moment when the years since his death…
Rabbi Joachim Prinz (center) confers with Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963. / Getty Images As a Canadian Jew, I often feel a twinge of envy on Martin Luther King Day. I’m envious of larger-than-life heroes who succeed in uniting a nation around issues that are so blatantly about justice…
I met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on June 6, 1967 following his keynote address to several hundred American and foreign authors, publishers and booksellers at the American Booksellers Association’s (ABA—now renamed Book Expo) annual convention at Washington, D.C.’s Shoreham Hotel. Following the dinner, Dr. King, surrounded by security and members of his staff, graciously…
The following speech was delivered at this week’s ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Fifty years ago a Rabbi shared these steps with Dr. King and began his remarks by saying, “I speak to you as an American Jew.” My name is Alan van Capelle, and today I speak to you…
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