Senator Jacob K. Javits today urged Jews to help Negroes get the same rights for which their own parents and grandparents had come to the United States.
“Negroes came to this country two years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock,” he told the biennial convention of the National Council of Jewish Women meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria. “But the trip to the county court house to register to vote is still longer for them than the trip our parents took across an ocean.”
Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban League, at the same convention panel on civil rights, urged Jews to help Negroes achieve the same kind of high educational standards they had succeeded in winning for themselves. Both Senator Javits and Mr. Young expressed reservations about giving support to Dr. Martin Luther King’s call for a boycott of Alabama products.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
