Chapter 3: Shepherd Park: Integration Starts In The Home
Keeping the Neighborhood Integrated: Neighbors, and T.I.
“We will understand it all, by and by” -from Marvin Caplanś favorite song, “Farther Along”
When “Boss” Alexander R. Shepherdś mansion still stood, 16th Street was Embassy Row, and in elite White society the three Patton sisters were rumored to be the fastest form of communication in Washington, DC. After the 1940ś, it became known as “Little Jerusalem.” Before that, the neighborhood bounded by 16th St, NW and Georgia Ave, then called the 7th Street Pike, from Alaska Avenue to Eastern Avenue was strictly White only. Neither Negroes nor Jews needed apply.
Marvin Caplan was a writer turned labor organizer who spent many years living and working in the deep South, organizing colored workers for the labor movement. Though Jewish, he came to know and love Negro spirituals and the Black church as he built alliances with the Black community. When he moved to Washington, DC in the 1950ś he found a city still reeling from the impact of the 1948 striking down of racial covenants, and the 1950 transfer of the White school system's Central High school to the Colored school system for use by Cardozo SHS, whilst segregated public facilities were supposed to be a thing of the past. He had shown in court that by merely cutting his hair, it was nigh on impossible for many White Southerners to accurately determine what race any given person really was. White residents of the Capital felt that they knew both how to identify and what to expect from colored residents. He now found that those same misconceptions were being used by unethical real estate agents and speculators, now known as Block Busters, to frighten White home owners into selling cheaply, profiting on their fear of the unknown after over 70 years of nearly complete separation of races and classes in the District of Columbia. Ironically, similar unethical practices had created much of this segregation in the District near the turn of the century. While there were formally organized groups working to make legal changes, the social changes were more difficult to fight. Marvin Caplanś now famous accomplishment in creating Neighborś, Inc, won recognition from the Kennedy administration, and the respect of those at Tifereth Israel conservative synagogue who worked with him and with Rabbi Nathan “Buddy” Abramowitz. Tifereth Israel, voting to stay in the neighborhood on upper 16th street, NW after an apparently tumultuous Board Meeting, was instrumental in anchoring the neighborhood of Shepherd Park as an integrated neighborhood, with the determination of members to work together with their colored neighbors for positive social change. The presence of those young families from Tifereth Israel in turn, quite likely kept families from her “sister synagogue” the orthodox Ohev Shalom across the street, in the neighborhood as well. The nearby minyan (a small independent prayer group) at a neighborhood apartment complex also continued to meet, possibly encouraged to stay longer than it would have due to the presence of the two 16th Street institutions. As Marvin Caplan was inspired by the music of the Black church, and Rabbi Abramowitz and members of Tifereth Israel inspired by the complementing music of the Jewish soul, they marched with Dr. King to create a hopeful and more just world for people of all creeds and colors. So, too, other faith groups came to the neighborhood of Shepherd park in the early 1960ś, drawn by its integrated and community-minded character, inspired by the example of Marvin Caplan and Tifereth Israel, now an egalitarian conservative synagogue whose members continue to uphold its tradition of cooperating with the community around it to work for justice.
WES/Fabrangen and Hanafi Muslims: Liberal Jews and Neighbors
of Color reforming alliances
“Do you know your story?” -Simon to John in Lopez play “The Whipping Man”
The Washington Ethical Society (WES), looking to build its new home in the early 1960ś, chose Shepherd Park, just one block north of Tifereth Israel Congregation. The WES hosts the Fabrangen Havurah, an egalitarian Jewish institution, also committed to social justice. The presence of these allies anchors Shepherd Park as both integrated, and retaining a strong sense of social justice. Longer-time members of both Tifereth Israel and the WES recall the presence in the 1970s of the Hanafi Muslim neighbors, next door to Ohev Shalom. Assistance rendered by members of the Hanafi sect to both Ohev Shalom and Tifereth Israel members on various occasions inspires the hope that neighbors can learn from and work with each other to build longer lasting cooperative structures. Ongoing efforts at cooperation between the Jewish and Black communities will be discussed in later chapters. Shepherd Park and nearby Takoma, DC are also home to individual Jews of Color, who combine the identities of people born into the African-American community, with membership, by birth or by choice, in the Jewish community.
African-Americans As Part Of The Jewish Community: On The
Inside Looking Out
“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child... ” -Negro Spiritual
Some, like facilities manager Steve Ross of Tifereth Israel congregation, see the prime example of Black-Jewish community cooperation embodied in those who are both Black and Jewish. Individuals, like the author, who maintain a foot in both worlds constitute bridges between the two communities, but are generally not representative of either community as a whole. As is often acknowledged by Jewish people of African-American ancestry, to be both Black and Jewish in the USA can be an exercise in otherness, of being accepted, but not fully included. To be at once within the Jewish community, but coming from a place of often profoundly different cultural norms, whilst both nominally accepted yet religiously and culinarily estranged from one's community of origin, the African-American community, can be disconcerting.
From feeling a part of the rich history in both places, having learned sacred songs from revered grandmothers and respected mentors in both settings, conflict sometimes derives. Learning to sing “We Shall Overcome” from a grandmother, rising with the prayers during the chanting of a niggun. Temple Beth Emet, in Silver Spring, MD embodies this feeling, holding Jewish services in a style more familiar to many African-Americans. The ties binding us to our community of origin drive us to find parallels in our community of choice, and calling us to build new bridges where the old ones have broken down.
While social cooperation happens informally, some Jewish and African-American legal professionals confronted discrimination more personally. One courageous couple, broke down barriers during the same time frame that Marvin Caplan and the neighbors of Shepherd Park were forging their alliances. They built bridges on the other side of Rock Creek Park which continue to inspire community cooperation today.