Paul Bass Photo
Welch, Ratner and Ross-Lee at WNHH.
They marched together — or some did. And they argued.
Along the way, African-Americans and Jewish-Americans forged a relationship during Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s day that remains valued but contested through the lens of history. And continues to pose challenges at the dawn of a new era in America’s civil rights history.
On Rev. King’s birthday, three New Haveners familiar with that history and with today’s new challenges joined me in the WNHH radio studio to try to separate fact from fiction and look at the most productive way to move forward.
The panel included the Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee, minister of Immanuel Baptist Church, Inner-City News columnist, and host of of the weekly “Community Spotlight” program on Ugly Radio and WNHH; Stanley Welch, who participated in the 1963 March on Washington and spent decades as a New Haven staffer for U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Bruce Morrison; and Rabbi Joshua Ratner, who heads the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater New Haven and is a newly-named American Jewish World Service (AJWS) global justice fellow.
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full discussion with Rev. Ross-Lee, Welch, and Rabbi Ratner on WNHH’s “Chai Haven” program.