Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era
Changing Perspectives charts the pivotal period in Houston’s history when Jewish and Black leadership eventually came together to work for positive change. This is a story of two communities, both of which struggled to claim the rights and privileges they desired. Previous scholars of Southern Jewish history have argued that Black-Jewish relations did not exist in the South. However, during the 1930s to the 1980s, Jews and Blacks in Houston interacted in diverse and oftentimes surprising ways. For example, Houston’s Jewish leaders and eventually Black political leaders forged a connection that blossomed into the creation of the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship in Israel for disadvantaged Black youth. Initially Houston Jewish leadership battled with their devotion to liberalism and sympathy with oppressed Blacks and their desire to acculturate. The distance between Houston’s Jews and Blacks diminished after changing demographics, the end of segregation, city redistricting, and the emergence of Black political power. Simultaneously, Israel’s victory during the Six-Day War caused the city’s Jews to embrace their Jewish identity and form an unexpected bond with Black political leaders over the cause of Zionism. Allison Schottenstein shows that Black-Jewish relations did exist during the Long Civil Rights Movement in Houston. Indeed, Houston played a significant role in the scope of Southern Jewish history and in expanding our understanding of Black-Jewish relations in the United States.
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Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era
Changing Perspectives charts the pivotal period in Houston’s history when Jewish and Black leadership eventually came together to work for positive change. This is a story of two communities, both of which struggled to claim the rights and privileges they desired. Previous scholars of Southern Jewish history have argued that Black-Jewish relations did not exist in the South. However, during the 1930s to the 1980s, Jews and Blacks in Houston interacted in diverse and oftentimes surprising ways. For example, Houston’s Jewish leaders and eventually Black political leaders forged a connection that blossomed into the creation of the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship in Israel for disadvantaged Black youth. Initially Houston Jewish leadership battled with their devotion to liberalism and sympathy with oppressed Blacks and their desire to acculturate. The distance between Houston’s Jews and Blacks diminished after changing demographics, the end of segregation, city redistricting, and the emergence of Black political power. Simultaneously, Israel’s victory during the Six-Day War caused the city’s Jews to embrace their Jewish identity and form an unexpected bond with Black political leaders over the cause of Zionism. Allison Schottenstein shows that Black-Jewish relations did exist during the Long Civil Rights Movement in Houston. Indeed, Houston played a significant role in the scope of Southern Jewish history and in expanding our understanding of Black-Jewish relations in the United States.
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Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era

Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era

by Allison E Schottenstein
Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era
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Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era

Changing Perspectives: Black-Jewish Relations in Houston during the Civil Rights Era

by Allison E Schottenstein

Overview

Changing Perspectives charts the pivotal period in Houston’s history when Jewish and Black leadership eventually came together to work for positive change. This is a story of two communities, both of which struggled to claim the rights and privileges they desired. Previous scholars of Southern Jewish history have argued that Black-Jewish relations did not exist in the South. However, during the 1930s to the 1980s, Jews and Blacks in Houston interacted in diverse and oftentimes surprising ways. For example, Houston’s Jewish leaders and eventually Black political leaders forged a connection that blossomed into the creation of the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship in Israel for disadvantaged Black youth. Initially Houston Jewish leadership battled with their devotion to liberalism and sympathy with oppressed Blacks and their desire to acculturate. The distance between Houston’s Jews and Blacks diminished after changing demographics, the end of segregation, city redistricting, and the emergence of Black political power. Simultaneously, Israel’s victory during the Six-Day War caused the city’s Jews to embrace their Jewish identity and form an unexpected bond with Black political leaders over the cause of Zionism. Allison Schottenstein shows that Black-Jewish relations did exist during the Long Civil Rights Movement in Houston. Indeed, Houston played a significant role in the scope of Southern Jewish history and in expanding our understanding of Black-Jewish relations in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781574418378
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Publication date: 03/15/2021
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Allison E. Schottenstein received her Ph.D. in American history with a specialty in Jewish History from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently teaches at the University of Cincinnati and its Blue Ash campus.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Prologue: Early History of African American and Jewish Communities in Houston 23

Chapter 1 The Implications of the Basic Principles 39

Chapter 2 Houston's Communist Scare and the Jewish Promotion of Tolerance 73

Chapter 3 Brown v. Board of Education: The Houston Jewish Response 102

Chapter 4 The Houston Jewish Exodus from v Riverside to Meyerland 131

Chapter 5 Jewish Commercial Involvement in the Desegregation of Downtown Houston 156

Chapter 6 The Dual Fights against Segregation and Religion in the Schools 196

Chapter 7 Self-Interest Politics 230

Chapter 8 Black-Jewish Encounters in Houston 257

Conclusion: "Together or Apart?" 283

Endnotes 297

Bibliography 375

Index 407

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