Jews have always been in the forefront of the American Civil Rights movement, because it always has been a movement committed to Jewish ideals. After all, we were slaves too, and we suffered pogroms, and we acutely remember the misery brought about by that state.
Much of the early funding and leadership and many of the early board members and early leadership of the NAACP (National Ass’n for the Advancement of Colored People) were Jews, including Jacob Schiff, Jacob Billikopf, and Rabbi Stephen Wise. Early Jewish-American co-founders included Julius Rosenwald, Lillian Wald, Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch and Wise.
About half of the Freedom Riders in the late 50’s and early 60’s were Jews of yet another generation. Two of the three civil rights workers beaten and murdered in Mississippi in 1963 were Jewish.
Dr. King’s struggle has been our struggle, and has resulted in the greatest freedom for Jews ever experienced in the Galus. Dr. King’s sacrifice has benefited all Americans AND made the world a more just place and what could be more Jewish than that?