American Jewish individuals and institutions tend to recall Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement with pride, often as proof of an innate Jewish concern with and commitment to racial justice. Yet expanding scholarship on civil rights history, Jewish identity, and Black-Jewish relations has complicated this history, highlighting the need for a more nuanced approach. Shifting our attention from charismatic leaders and high-profile national events and toward locally specific struggles and dynamics yields new opportunities for understanding what it means to stand for justice in troubled times. Exploring major themes and stages in the civil rights era of the 1950s-60s through the particular lens of events, figures, and communal life in Louisville, Kentucky, this talk illuminates both successes and failures of Jewish involvement in the quest for racial equality and offers urgent lessons for our present day.

Abigail Glogower is the founding curator of Jewish collections at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky. A multidisciplinary scholar, curator, and educator, she earned her doctorate in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester, with a dissertation entitled “Drawn Together: Collective Representation in United States Visual Culture, 1815–1860.” Most recently, she is coauthor of the article “Collecting Kentucky Jewish History: Covenant and Collaboration” (forthcoming in the Journal of Jewish Identities).