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The Mutual Identity Crises of Black and Jewish Americans In The Ties That Bind: The Mutual Identity Crises of Black and Jewish Americans in the Late 1960s by Michael Nason Bachelor of Arts, University of New Brunswick, 2006 A Thesis, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Academic Unit of History Supervisor: Sean Kennedy, Professor & Director, Graduate Studies, History Co-Supervisor: Jeffrey Brown, Associate Professor & Director of Honours, History Examining Board: Gary Waite, Professor & Chair, History, Chair Peter Kent, Dean Emeritus, History Ross Leckie, Professor, Director of Creative Writing, English This thesis, is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK September, 2012 ©Michael Nason, 2013 DEDICATION To/For anyone who pushed me. Thanks. Sorry I uhh… sorry I took a while. ii ABSTRACT During the late 1960s, American Jews and black Americans went through strikingly similar situations and changes. Each minority struggled with an identity crisis that drove their attention inward to question culture and understand heritage. Both minorities also contended with controversy over racism and prejudice, both within their own ethnic communities and nationally. Furthermore, both groups experienced ideological rifts that sharply divided them in terms of politics and culture. What is even more striking, however, is that these developments were often a product of the tumultuous relationship between each other. Though it is often suggested that the two minorities were allies, I argue that the alliance, even at the best of times, was never clear-cut. This thesis examines the ways in which each group depended on the other for furthering its own purposes and, in doing so, shaped its identities in the process. iii Table of Contents DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review.......................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................... 23 A Legacy of Anti-Semitism .......................................................................................... 28 Early Relations Between Jews and African Americans ................................................ 34 Civil Rights, Priorities, and the Looming Identity Crisis ............................................. 38 Turmoil ......................................................................................................................... 43 A New Anti-Semitism? ................................................................................................. 46 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 51 Identity .......................................................................................................................... 56 Action and Reaction ...................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 83 Differences .................................................................................................................... 90 Changing Focus and Emergent Identities ..................................................................... 95 Black Power ................................................................................................................ 100 Jewish Identity ............................................................................................................ 104 The “Negro-Jewish Question” and the Bolstering of Identity .................................... 109 Ocean-Hill Brownsville .............................................................................................. 119 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 130 Curriculum Vitae iv Introduction In August 1965 it appeared as though the Civil Rights movement had come to its dramatic finale. With the successful “march on ballot boxes” in Selma, Alabama the previous spring, Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers finally closed a crucial gap in the fight for desegregation by marking the first time a significant number of whites actively participated in a demonstration in the American South alongside blacks.1 White and black Americans endured physical and verbal abuse together on their march from Selma to Montgomery. Between the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which allowed blacks social equality, and the Voting Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson as a result of the Selma march, blacks gained the legal parity they had sought for so long. James Bevel, one of King’s staffers, remarked that “the Civil Rights movement ceased to exist as soon as President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Bill.”2 Five days after President Johnson signed the bill, however, the black community of Watts, Los Angeles erupted. Nearly a week of violence caused thirty-four deaths, some four thousand arrests, and massive amounts of property damage, primarily to white- owned businesses.3 King went to Los Angeles to stress non-violence but discovered that his integrationist policies and focus on social acceptance meant little to the black urban 1 James H. Cone, Martin & Malcom & America: A Dream or a Nightmare (New York: Orbis Books, 1992), 217. 2 Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America, 219. 3 Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America, 218. 1 poor who were locked in the lowest class by a cyclical process of economic exploitation.4 The event propelled a change for King personally, who began to focus increasingly on economic justice, and signalled the beginning of a new struggle that would aim to give blacks an equal footing in their lives and communities as well as in the voting booths.5 King’s discovery that there were “two Americas,” one largely wealthy and white and one predominantly poor and black, galvanized his activism once more. He had been insensitive to the nature of northern racism, but now began to understand the frustration voiced by black nationalists such as Malcolm X. He once fought to get blacks the right to eat alongside whites; now he fought to help them be able to afford to eat. 6 It was apparent that urban blacks were unhappy with the slow progress and seemingly empty promises of post-war liberalism. For all that the Civil Rights movement had achieved, life for many African Americans was just as bad as it had been. The Watts riots symbolized both the growing frustration of many urban blacks and their unwillingness to continue down the non-violent path. Following Watts, the previously non-violent leadership of the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) became increasingly intrigued by the ideas of Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam (NOI). The result was the burgeoning of a movement that stressed a strong and positive image of blacks, one that would not stand by while whites continued to exploit and abuse poor communities.7 4 Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Black Power: Radical Politics And African American Identity (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005), 84-85. 5 Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America, 223. 6 Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America, 222. 7 Ogbar, Black Power, 60-67. 2 On June 5, 1966, James Meredith, the first black student allowed to study at the University of Mississippi and a crucial figure in the Civil Rights movement, began a one- man “march against fear” in order to illustrate that blacks could walk free in the South.8 He hoped to motivate blacks to register to vote. Walking across the state was a way to demonstrate to blacks that it was possible to walk to the courthouse and register to vote. On the second day of his march, an assailant with a shotgun seriously wounded him.9 Shortly thereafter, members of the Civil Rights leadership met in his hospital room and decided to finish what Meredith had started. During the march the standard Civil Rights rallying cry of “freedom now” was challenged by a new chant.10 On June 16, Stokely Carmichael, chairman of SNCC, shouted ‘black power!’ “from the tailgate of a truck.”11 As other members of SNCC and CORE joined in with Carmichael, it became immediately obvious that “Black Power” was not only a rallying cry but also the beginning of a new rift in the movement as a whole. By the fall of 1966 the Black Panthers had been formed and even Martin Luther King began to question the validity and effectiveness of the nonviolent integrationist movement he had fought so hard for. Indeed, the birth of Black Power marked a tremendous turning point in the history of black American struggle. Though blacks had seemingly gained social and political equality, they now wanted to level the playing field economically and intellectually. They wanted to emphasize their blackness and foster pride in their colour and heritage. 8 Ogbar,
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