Crossing the Bridge: Jewish groups will gather for 60th anniversary of Selma march

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan talks with David Jackson of the Philos Project while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, site of the 1965 Bloody Sunday civil rights demonstrations, in February 2021. SJL file.

Sixty years after a large number of Jewish activists from across the country descended on Selma for the Selma to Montgomery March for civil rights, Jewish groups are planning to gather in the city for the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

The National Council of Jewish Women and Workers Circle are planning weekend events around the Selma Jubilee, and other Jewish organizations are invited to a late-morning event on March 9 at Mishkan Israel, Selma’s historic synagogue. Specific timing for the events will be announced the week before.

Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham will also meet up at the Mishkan Israel event. The Jewish Federation of Central Alabama also plans to march.

Noelle Damico, director of social justice for the Workers Circle, said they are bringing a group of young activists to Selma to be trained on history and organizing skills, “to keep fighting some of these very basic freedoms… that are apparently still up for grabs.”

As they have been exploring their history and archives, they found that Workers Circle members had been in Selma in 1965.

During the “year of racial justice reckoning” in 2020, the Workers Circle did a “deep dive” into what it meant for them to fight systemic racism. One important factor was “to be invested over the long haul in building solidarity with groups on the ground working for today’s civil rights and voting rights, and democracy issues.”

They partnered with Black-led organizations on the grassroots level, and in 2021 worked with Black Voters Matter and “we were all getting arrested together in front of the White House.”

In 2022, Workers Circle co-sponsored the annual Selma march, and “each year we have returned.” Damico said they continue to go because it is part of their history, but also because of the current societal challenges. “Selma is an incredible place to learn, to continue to build our connection on the ground” so they can be strengthened nationally.

Rachel Faulkner, NCJW senior director of national campaigns and partnerships, said their trip will “dive into what the relationship between Blacks and Jews looked like during the Civil Rights movement.” She said the story is usually told from the viewpoint of northern activists, and “it’s important for us that the Southern story is told, and that story we know is a bit more complicated.”

They will also explore what it means to be involved in social justice today, and when “coalitions are harder for Jews to be in” because of anti-Israel activism by many traditional allies. “What is my place in the movement right now” in the fight for reproductive rights, civil rights, the LBGTQ community, gun violence “all the things we work on across the country,” Faulkner said.

While the Black and Jewish communities are generally thought of as distinct from each other, Faulkner said that as a reminder of how communities intersect, they will have many Jewish women of color in the delegation, including herself. This will “honor the way the communities are already bridged.”

Among other participating groups are the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, T’ruah, Keshet, Bend the Arc, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Women of Reform Judaism, Mishkan Chicago, the Jewish Women’s Archive and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

The Workers Circle delegation will arrive on March 6, with scholars in residence including Lilliane Kshensky Baxter, senior non-violence trainer at the King Center for Non-Violence; Josh Parshall, former director of history at the ISJL; and Anthony Russell, consultant to Workers Circle.

The NCJW visit begins on March 7 with optional visits to civil rights sites in Birmingham, including the new Beth-El Civil Rights Experience. The weekend officially begins with a Shabbat dinner. On March 8, there will be a day trip to Montgomery, with visits to the civil rights museums and sites, along with a visit to Agudath Israel-Etz Ahayem.

The group will then travel to Selma on the morning of March 9 for the event at Mishkan Israel and the Bridge Crossing.

At the 50th anniversary in 2015, Mishkan Israel hosted hundreds at a commemoration that included Susannah Heschel, daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. who marched with him in Selma; David Goodman, brother of Andrew Goodman, who was murdered by the Klan in Mississippi in 1964 while working for voting rights; Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; and North Carolina NAACP leader Rev. William Barber.

A surprise guest was Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary, who went there specifically to sing “Blowing in the Wind” in that venue.

Three attempts to march

At the start of 1965, Blacks in Dallas County pushed back against public officials who made it almost impossible for Blacks to register to vote. There were numerous demonstrations, but the restrictions remained.

On Feb. 18, a march took place in Marion, but they were attacked by a mob. State troopers shot and killed Jimmie Lee Jackson, leading to daily vigils for him in Selma. A march to Montgomery was proposed to protest his death and call for enforcement of voting rights.

Governor George Wallace then issued a declaration that the march, planned for March 7, “cannot and will not be tolerated” and ordered state troopers to do whatever they needed to prevent it.

After morning services at Brown Chapel on March 7, about 600 marchers lined up behind SCLC’s Hosea Williams and SNCC President John Lewis to head to the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River, for the trek along U.S. 80 to Montgomery.

On the county side of the bridge the demonstrators were ordered to turn around, so they knelt as planned. The troopers surged forward, swinging their clubs and firing tear gas and a free-for-all ensued as the troopers chased the demonstrators back through downtown Selma. Roughly 100 of the 600 marchers were injured. The events of “Bloody Sunday” were immediately broadcast worldwide.

A second march, on March 9, drew from around the country, but was postponed by King due to ongoing Federal litigation. The third march, which successfully went from Selma to Montgomery, began on March 21 with 8,000 demonstrators protected by 2,000 troops.

On April 18, a Federal court struck down Selma’s voting registration restrictions. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965.