Chapter 2: Before Jews Were White: Black-Jewish
alliances in DC Before 1948
Carnegie Library and Central Market
-Carnegie Library
Much attention has been paid to the alliance between the Black and Jewish communities as a twentieth century phenomenon, but this alliance was born long before the Holocaust. Between the Civil War and the end of the Reconstruction, the Federal City was relatively desegregated and offered some freedom of movement for people of color, but as the 1880ś progressed, those freedoms were eroded. By the turn of the century, the city was firmly segregated, negatively affecting both Jews and African-Americans. With small and informal exception, the only places where citizens of differing races might mingle freely on any regular basis were Central Market, now roughly located where Archives is, at 7th and Pennsylvania Ave, NW, and the never-segregated Carnegie Public Library. Some working class neighborhoods, such as the SW neighborhood where Al Jolson learned the speaking style he would later play on stage, allowed limited mixing. The annual Easter Monday Egg Rolling contest was, however, the only officially non-segregated social event in the city for many years. Despite this, or because of it, Washington, DC was eventually declared the most segregated city in the Union. That artificial separation of groups and classes of people, with its attendant humiliation and ambiguity for both Negroes and Jews, was shown for the disruptive force it was meant to be, and broken down in two places: the lone institution of learning where all could meet and see past their differences, and the largest market in the city, where all could meet and see their common needs for food, and other goods, as human beings.
At the turn of the century, both communities developed similar ways of evading White discrimination. Both communities built their own institutions, and both sometimes had assimilation attempts. The Jewish community took refuge in its own institutions, from the synagogues to the YMHA near 11th and Pennsylvania Ave, NW. Comparable institutions in the African-American community included churches and the 12th Street YMCA, also known as the Anthony Bowen YMCA, after a prominent free man of color who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Jewish families sometimes switched from Ohev Shalom to the reform Washington Hebrew Congregation in order “to be more American.” Most members of the Negro community did not have that option. White-only establishments often hired “spotters” -people of color from the local community-to point out colored patrons with light skin, attempting to enter. The recognition that both Jews and Negroes had to create their own institutions, from free loan societies and banks to Jewish Community Centers and social halls like True Reformers Hall, deepens the connection between them. Cooperation in other areas built ties that would eventually lead to the well-known actions of the later Civil Rights era in the 1960ś.
Kann's And Morton's
After the end of the Reconstruction, colored patrons were not allowed to try on clothing in department stores, nor even to eat comfortably, from the 1890ś and worsening through the Wilson administration. Most White-owned businesses also refused to give anything more than menial jobs, if that, to colored workers, even when the stores were located in colored neighborhoods.
The exception to this rule, particularly with regard to workers and the trying on of clothing in department stores, were several Jewish owned department stores, including Kann's department store, and Morton's. Kannś long employed colored tailors, even allowing at least one to hold the position of Head Tailor for many years at a time when that same colored man was arrested and charged bail for merely jaywalking. Kannś and Mortonś were both also exceptional as examples of stores that broke the unwritten rule against allowing colored patrons to try on clothing before purchase. Other stores routinely refused what is now considered a standard right for all customers.
Mortonś department store, likewise, had a long-standing reputation for loyalty to store owner Mortimer LeibowitzÁfrican-American customers. Other Jewish shop owners operated out of places as diverse as the O Street Market at 7th and O Streets, NW. This market is recalled by many native Washingtonians such as Mr. Gilbert Burgess, now living in nearby MD, facilities manager Steve Ross, formerly from Anacostia in South East, and Mr. “Johnny” Brown, from near NE. Mr. Burgess recalls Jewish shops extending credit to colored customers, saying “everyone knew each other.” Mr. Brown and others confirm that the Jewish shop owners would allow Black customers to “sign the book” as a way of purchasing goods on credit, payable at the end of the month. Such family grocery store owners as Al and Ida Mendelson of 4401 Sheriff Road in the Deanwood neighborhood, who might have known Marvin Gayeś family, took a great risk by cooperating with their colored customers, whom White society mistrusted, in allowing them credit to the end of the month. This cooperation was recalled by Hayden Wetzel as not being the norm among White-owned businesses in any neighborhoods. Many native Washingtonians of color recall a loyalty between Jewish shop owners and African-American customers which helped both communities. That loyalty must certainly have inspired connections between both individuals and communities, stemming from long years working side by side. That loyalty also built trust based on mutual respect, and from the shared difficulties faced by Negroes and Jews. Connections led to borrowing of strategies, and later to sharing of dreams, cultures, and ideals.
New Negro Alliance, Shared Tactics: Pickets And Boycotts
“...a Negro heard one white man mutter to another: “I don´t see why we have to sit at table with Jews.” -C. Green, p. 216
Not only was there informal cooperation, but also transfers of knowledge and strategies took place semi-officially, particularly between Negro and Labor Movement organizers, many of whom were Jewish. The New Negro Alliance (“the Alliance”), founded in 1933, began using new more aggressive tactics borrowed from the labor union movement, such as the boycott and picketing. These tactics in combination with a weekly newspaper used to inform and educate, maintaining transparency and reiterating the importance of understanding how the tactics worked, got results. Those results followed the path that had been opened shortly before by the use of boycotts and pickets in labor disputes, benefiting from the precedent set by the prohibition of injunctions against strikers. While the Alliance was organized by professional men of color, the experience and legal battles won by the labor movement played a crucial role in the success of Alliance campaigns. These labor movement tactics were also being transferred directly from person to person by organizers, many Jewish, spending time in the deep South, living and working with the Black community during the 1930s and 40s. By 1950 Black and Jewish protesters in and around Washington, DC were jointly picketing on the premise that “antisemitism is kin to Jim-Crowism”. One Jewish organizer came to build an even greater level of cooperation here in the Nationś Capital, and set an example for the entire country. His work inspired cooperation for generations to come.