You’ll be reading this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A day enshrined into a yearly observance as one of the country’s days of tribute to Americans who changed the course of history. Living in the country transformed by King and those who struggled mightily for civic change, it’s easy for us to lose sight of how difficult it was to secure the progress that we celebrate today. It’s important to remember that King marched nearly one hundred years after the Civil War. Though enslaved Americans were liberated, their long path to civil rights was marred by decades of resistance and repression. W.E.B. Du Bois, in 1903, lamented that “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” A few years earlier, Ida B. Wells, an activist and journalist, wrote, “The white man’s power will not be given up until the Negro will stand up and demand it.” The recent horrific arson attack on Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, occurred six decades after the same synagogue was desecrated by the KKK for its involvement in the civil rights struggle. Most of us, of course, are familiar with King’s aspirational “I Have a Dream” speech at our nation’s capital. He did not live to see his words fulfilled. The battle for civil rights was hard fought and long in coming.
I offer this reminder as we witness the struggle for basic rights being fought in Iran. It has been nearly 50 years since the ayatollahs secured power and forced their oppressive version of autocratic Islam on the people of Iran. While the form of American slavery that was ended by the Civil War is rare in the world, the Iranian version of enslavement to the whims of mullahs and the arbitrary application of their version of Islam reflects a denial of human rights that echoes the repressiveness of the most extreme of human regimes.
The daily suffering of Iranians and the exportation of terror around the world is linked to the inability of the people to throw off the ayatollah’s yoke. There have been several bold attempts. Each one offering a glimmer of hope, each one suppressed by profound violence and an overwhelming capacity to slaughter and imprison the protestors. (It should not be lost on us that there are still Jews living in the country who are caught between the oppressiveness of the mullahs and our own country’s unwillingness to open our doors to their immigration.)
Freedom is not given; it must be demanded. That is the truth offered by Ida B. Wells and reflected in the protest in Iran. Often those demands fall on deaf ears or are rebuffed by those who would not have their hegemony challenged. What America’s long walk to civil rights demonstrates is that the path is long and fraught and often deadly. And yet, fierce determination, charismatic leadership, and relentless protest can change the course of history. As we witness the struggles in Iran, our own observance of King’s legacy gives us the strength to continue to hope that the people will prevail and that Iran will achieve a version of democracy and freedom that will bring stability and peace to a troubled region.
Rabbi Ron Stern