On January 14, 1963, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel gave the speech “Religion and Race,” at a conference of the same name that assembled in Chicago, Illinois. There he met Dr. Martin Luther King and the two became friends. Rabbi Heschel marched with Dr. King at Selma, Alabama in 1965. The speech Rabbi Heschel gave at the 1963 conference appears below.
At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. Moses’ words were: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me.” While Pharaoh retorted: “Who is the Lord, that I should heed this voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The exodus began, but is far from having been completed. In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses.
Let us dodge no issues. Let us yield no inch to bigotry, let us make no compromise with callousness.
In the words of William Lloyd Garrison, “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject [slavery] I do not wish to think, to speak, or to write with moderation. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.”
Religion and race. How can the two be uttered together? To act in the spirit of religion is to unite what lies apart, to remember that humanity as a whole is God’s beloved child. To act in the spirit of race is to sunder, to slash, to dismember the flesh of living humanity. Is this the way to honor a father: to torture his child? How can we hear the word “race” and feel no self reproach?
Race as a normative legal or political concept is capable of expanding to formidable dimensions. A mere thought, it extends to become a way of thinking, a highway of insolence, as well as a standard of values, overriding truth, justice, beauty.
On this day in:
1814 The last London Frost Fair on the frozen Thames River. Entertainment, and a large selection of food vendors on ice.
1841 Juliet Corson was born. A cookery teacher and writer, founder of the New York Cooking School in 1876. She wrote many articles and several cookery books, including 'Cooking Manual' (1877), 'Twenty-five Cent Dinners for Families of Six' (1878) and 'Miss Corson's Practical American Cookery' (1886).
1861 David Wesson was born. Wesson was an American chemist and in 1900 he developed a method to make pure cotton seed oil palatable, and formed the Southern Oil Company. Wesson Oil was the first vegetable oil used in the U.S. Cotton seed oil is noted for its lack of taste, which allows the flavors of foods to come through. It is used in margarine, salad dressings, and in commercially fried foods.
1890 Rolla N. Harger was born. A biochemist, he invented the first successful test machine for blood alcohol content, the Drunkometer, in 1931.
1898 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson died. Dodgson's pen name was Lewis Carroll. He was an English mathematician and creator of ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.’ Alice had a habit of eating and drinking unknown substances.
1929 Mail delivery by dog sled arrived in Montreal Canada. The 6 dog sled left Lewiston, Maine on December 20, 1928.
1948 T-Bone Burnett, record producer and artist was born.
1984 Ray Kroc died in San Diego, California (born Oct 5, 1902). Ray Kroc sold blenders for milkshakes, and one of his customers was a restaurant in San Bernardino, California owned by Maurice and Richard McDonald. Kroc set up a chain of drive-in restaurants based on their efficient assembly line production kitchen. He opened his first restaurant on April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois. By 1961 he had 228 restaurants and he bought out the McDonald brothers. When he died in 1984 there were over 7,500 McDonald's restaurants.
2002 With no outbreaks for more than 3 months, the UK is declared free of foot-and-mouth disease. Since the disease was first discovered on February 19, 2001, 6½ million animals have been slaughtered, most of them sheep.
2019 A tanker truck containing 40,000 pounds of liquid chocolate rolled over on the Interstate 40 near Flagstaff, Arizona, leaving a river of chocolate all over the road.