Civil Rights Organization Commits to Fulfilling Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s 55-Year-Old Promise To The Jewish Nation
ATLANTA – Ten days after he was assassinated on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr., the co-founder and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was scheduled to make a return visit to Israel, where he was fostering stronger alliances between Black Americans and Jews, two groups that shared a common history of discrimination, racism, and oppression.
Last month, SCLC’s First Lady Cathelean Steele, and Dr. Charles Steele, Jr., the civil rights organization’s president and CEO, finally made good on the SCLC’s return to Israel. First Lady Steele was honored by Israeli leaders and was a guest speaker at three events, including one on a street named after Dr. King and one outside a popular forest where a section is named after Dr. King’s late wife, Coretta. During the SCLC’s 54th Annual Conference on August 25 and 26th, Ms. Steele and Dr. Steele provided highlights of that historic trip.
Today, they announced next steps for strengthening relations between both communities, which includes educating Black Americans about the historic alliance and the need for it to continue as well as supporting efforts that encourage Black Americans to travel to Israel where they can learn first-hand about the reason Black Americans and Jews have a bond that cannot be broken.
This renewed focus comes during a time when tensions have developed between the Black and Jewish communities following comments by high profile individuals from both sectors that are perceived antisemitic and anti-Black.
In an effort to address the discourse and to repair damage to decades of Black Americans and Jews uniting to address injustices, many Black and Jewish organizations across the nation have been holding symposiums and other meetings where the discussions center on honest dialogue about the state of the alliance. The SCLC is one of the latest internationally recognized Black organizations and one of the most legendary to place the spotlight on strengthening the alliance, because its ties to working closely with Israeli leaders date back to Dr. King’s visit in 1959.
With major civil rights gains being reversed and attacked and with the heightened racial tensions in the U.S., Ms. Steele and Dr. Steele said the SCLC made a commitment with Israeli leaders that the organization is committed to completing Dr. King’s vision of building a stronger collaboration between the two communities.
“We still need each other,” Mrs. Steele said about the alliance with Israel. “We need to work together. We need to realize our past, and we need to make sure our future is better than our past. I believe that Dr. King’s dream and Mrs. Coretta Scott King’s dream is being fulfilled. The history of African Americans and the history of our Jewish brothers and sisters is not that different. Slavery is slavery. I don’t care what name you call it by.”
She added, “We are fulfilling the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to bring African Americans to Israel. Our job is to bring us back together because of the history we share.”
During her visit to Jerusalem, Ms. Steele shared a passage Dr. King shared about the SCLC’s commitment to Israel.
“Peace for Israel means security, and we want to stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist. It’s territorial integrity. I think Israel, and I never mind saying it, has one of the great outposts of democracy in the world and a marvelous example of what can be done… how desert land can almost be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be reality.”
Ms. Steele, one of a delegation of 600 women, including 150 women leaders from the U.S., said the SCLC will be working through an organization called the Covenant Daughters International, who is working closely with the First Lady of Israel Michal Herzog to bring African Americans on a continuous basis to Israel.
Dr. Steele said the alliance would also include focus on economics, because Dr. King recognized a few months before his death that the movement had focused on integration and voting rights and left out economics.
“He thought integrating people in society and putting them in political positions would bring about economic equality,” Dr. Steele said. “You cannot have the right to vote without economics.”
Ms. Steele and Dr. Steele said education is the key to building the foundation for a stronger alliance with Israel, something that Ms. King was intentionally about in her quest to root out communism and antisemitism until her death.
“She believed there was an educational benefit reassuring that Black and Jewish youth understood the struggle that each group experienced as two of the most repressed groups in the world,” Ms. Steele said. “Dr. Steele and I agree, and we are committed to strengthening the alliance so we can eradicate all injustices.”
ABOUT THE SCLC: Established in 1957, the SCLC, whose first president was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is an international organization made up of chapters and affiliates with programs that affect the lives of all Americans: north, south, east, and west. Its sphere of influence and interests has become international in scope because the human rights movement transcends national boundaries. For additional information about the SCLC, visit www.nationalsclc.org.To arrange an interview with Ms. Steele and Dr. Steele, contact Jerry Thomas at jerry@jerrythomaspr.com, or (312) 804-7999.
Affordable Housing, Homeownership, and Generational Wealth – It’s Critical
What’s got a megachurch pastor buying land for affordable housing? Simply, the man of God knows what that government has failed to honor and understand: Work and ownership creates immediate provision but also generational wealth.
“We need affordable housing” is spoken by those whose properties are hit by increasing property taxes or those who see homes leveled for more pricey units for rent, lease, or sale by developers in the process called gentrification.
Whatever the influencing factor, the reality is that homeownership has been difficult in the African American community and has worsened.
Bishop T.D. Jakes, lead pastor of The Potters House in Dallas, Texas, established an enterprise which includes a real estate venture company. The TD Jakes Group purchased almost 100 acres in Atlanta in 2022 to assist in making homeownership a greater likelihood for African Americans who couldn’t otherwise afford to own or attain lending.
The development is the first of a joint effort with Wells Fargo and Jakes, whose devotion to facilitate financial literacy and independence is often woven throughout his ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Atlanta endeavor launches a 10-year agreement of about $1 billion in investment of “mixed-income housing with an array of living choices such as single-family homes, townhomes and apartments positioned in well-designed neighborhoods with ample amenities aimed at enhancing the quality of life through healthy food choices, healthcare options and other wraparound services.”
Some may applaud the business acumen of the highly driven and intelligent pastor. Yet, his plan is not just biblical, it’s supported by economists and reality.
The entire Old Testament records God’s people in a land of their own with the priority of family as the foundation of all society. Remember, there was no “church” until Acts 2, so God used family and generational wealth to establish His people.
The fight, then, was against warring nations that demanded their loyalty and servitude. That battle continues as families sometimes literally fight to own their own homes in an overtaxed, over-regulated environment with constant pressures on the family unit itself.
Economic experts on African American wealth and ownership:
Possessing personal property and wealth is critically important to lift all. Innovative solutions to remove barriers and threats to these biblical and American rights are ones to applaud.