Voices blend to honor a civil rights icon

With today’s 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the American Jewish Committee noted that King received its American Liberties Medallion in 1965 and recalled how the organization has jointly worked with black groups on a variety of social issues.

Members of the Los Angeles branch of the committee joined representatives from Brotherhood Crusade, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other African American groups to visit King’s grave in Atlanta. There they recited the the Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer of mourning. “May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified,” begins the prayer.

When King received the medallion at the committee’s annual meeting, he delivered a powerful and poignant address on the struggle for civil rights. It can be heard and read here.

--Steve Padilla

Photo: AP