After a long and trying trip, you arrive in Mobile where your sponsor helps you find a job in a hardware store and a place to live. You begin to learn the hardware business, how to use the cash register, and how to deal with customers. Inside the store, all goes well.
Outside the store, however, you are astonished by the treatment of black
people. Blacks are not permitted to use the same bathrooms, benches, water
fountains, restaurants, and hotels as whites. What makes you even angrier
is that some southern Jews accept this segregation. When you try to
explain to them that this form of racism is but one step removed from
Nazism and its racial hatred of the Jews, they reject the comparison. They
tell you to keep your opinions to yourself.
Don't rock the boat!
However, you continue voicing your opinions. You have learned the hard way that discrimination against one can lead very quickly to discrimination to others. What is happening to blacks can happen to Jews. You speak out, finding few white allies but many enemies. Sometimes, they throw garbage on your lawn and bricks through your windows, but you persist. What is right is right!
When Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., comes to Mobile, he meets you and
thanks you for your efforts. There is something spiritual and forceful
about this black leader; if he believes in you, you will have the strength
to continue your lonely fight. Other members of the Jewish community join
your work, and you are encouraged. In America,
you say to yourself,
justice will eventually win.
END