Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Susannah Heschel, daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, will convene in Milwaukee to discuss the legacy of the civil rights movement, the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center and Milwaukee Urban League announced.
The “Praying With Their Feet” event will be held at 3 p.m. on March 4 at the Pabst Theater.
“It is a great privilege to bring these accomplished, exceptional women to Milwaukee and to learn from their experiences, perspectives, and memories,” said Mark Shapiro, JCC president and chief executive officer. “Never has it been more clear that we have a responsibility to learn from our shared pasts, to understand the importance of partnership between our communities, and to open the lines of dialogue and confront the challenges Milwaukee faces.”
The event will include a discussion of the civil rights movement, the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and the two women’s roles in advancing their fathers’ legacies in the current social environment. The conversation will be moderated by Bonnie North of WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio.
“The Milwaukee Urban League welcomes people of all races and cultures,” said Eve Hall, president & CEO of the Milwaukee Urban League. ”This ideology contributes to our collaborative efforts to work with everyone who has positive ideas of how we can co-exist as a people and move forward as a society. We must create policies that not only serve our interests, but also mirror our values in order to achieve a more peaceful, equitable nation.”
The youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, Bernice King is chief executive officer of The King Center, which was founded by her mother in 1968.
Heschel is the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College with her scholarship focusing on Jewish-Christian relations in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of biblical scholarship and the history of anti-Semitism. Heschel’s father was a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, authored several books on Jewish philosophy and was active in the civil rights movement. He was famously photographed marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. during the Selma march in 1965.
Tickets to the free event are available on the JCC website.
