What Dr. King and Rabbi Salanter Might Have Said about Lowe’s and Racism

In commemoration of Martin Luther King Day and in solidarity with the American Muslim community, on Sunday, Jan. 15 JCUA’s Jane Ramsey spoke at an interfaith town hall meeting concerning Lowe’s anti-Muslim actions last month. The town hall meeting took place at the Prayer Center of Orland Park.

See media coverage of the event:  Southtown Star | Enews Park Forest

Watch the full town hall meeting on YouTube (see Jane Ramsey’s speech from 8:00 to 15:45).

Here is Jane Ramsey’s full speech at the event:

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born 83 years ago today. Assassinated over 40 years ago, his powerful legacy lives on. Dr. King fought on behalf of and with oppressed communities, not in defiance of American ideals, but in their name. His famous words echo strongly as ever:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Dr. King emphasized that though our past, as well as our present, are engulfed by the oppression, racism and discrimination that targets minority communities – as a society, we all face a common future.

Jane Ramsey (from left) Amina Shareef, CAIR-Chicago; Jan Shaulis, Faith United Methodist Church; and Anya Cordell, writerJane Ramsey and other speakers at a panel discussion about Lowe's. (Photo: Enews Park Forest.)

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs stands strong here today with you, stating loudly and clearly that the outrage felt by Muslims, and by all people of good will, regarding Lowe’s shameful actions reflects our outrage. Lowe’s cowardice in buckling to the right-wing Florida Family Association’s demand that it pull its ads from TLC’s reality show “All-American Muslim” and subsequent justifications by Lowe’s for these acts, are deeply offensive and attack the very core of our democracy.

“May We Learn to Endure Freedom and Love”

Speech delivered by Rabbi Robert Marx with Dr. King at Soldier Field in 1966

History remembers its villains; it forgets its victims. Tyrants and despots, monarchs and dictators–their names are preserved in the annals of mankind. Who, however, recalls the names of the men and women and little children, who, through no fault of their own, have seen their own lives ruined and who rest in nameless graves.

No rabbi can participate in an occasion such as this without recalling what happens when such a demonstration on behalf of freedom is made impossible by government or military tyrannies. We who have seen the slaughter of six million of our brothers can only shudder in cognizant agony at the thought that our Negro brothers are still dying to purchase the same freedom for which we too have bled and died.

Audience at Soldier Field, 1966

Unfortunately the fall-out of prejudice and discrimination maims and wounds, not only its present victims, but leaves its scars upon unborn generations as well. The legacy being unwanted is a miserable inheritance.