This week I traveled with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington to Alabama with 20 rabbis from the DMV. (I suppose I should entitle this week’s email: “Letter from a Hotel in Montgomery”.) We went to Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery; we visited Dr. Martin Luther King's parsonage, the Rosa Parks Museum, and other important spots on the civil rights trail. We also spoke with some of the freedom riders and activists who organized and marched for desegregation and equal rights for African Americans and people of color in the 1960’s and beyond.

There is much to discuss and think about, and I’m sure I will speak about it more on Shabbat, but for this moment I’ll share one idea. When we visited the sites of the civil rights movement and spoke to the people who marched and were involved in organizing it, it struck me how religious ideas, biblical passages, and expressions of faith framed so much of their vision for equality and freedom. 

The face of the movement was, of course, a clergyman and the language he used over and over was Biblical — but it’s much more than that. The individuals we spoke with — Bernard Lafayette, one of the movement's main organizers; Dr. King’s congregants and neighbors; and others in the community — all saw their struggle through religious lenses. The greater purpose of Divine love, and the human image of God, were their guiding lights and their truth.

Below is a photo of the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge where the march from Selma to Montgomery began. Interestingly, on the other side of the bridge, which was only reached in the third march when federal troops came to accompany and protect the marchers, there is a memorial for those who were killed in the struggle for civil rights. 

It’s several large stones and on it is carved the verse from Sefer Yehoshua (4:21-22), “When your children shall ask you in time to come saying: ‘What mean these 12 stones?' Then you shall tell them how you made it over.”

In their eyes, crossing the bridge over the Alabama River out of Selma was like a passage into the promised land. It took them many years and several tries but they were sure that God was with them — and of course He was — as He is with us in every effort to better humanity and to ensure the dignity of all human beings. May we merit to learn from them as we read of our own freedom in Parshat Beshalach this Shabbat.