Alabama’s First Black Judge Speaks in Portland Synagogue for MLK Celebration

Friday, January 15th at Congregation Beth Israel

The Honorable Myron Herbert Thompson, US District Judge from Montgomery, Alabama & that state’s first African American federal judge, will be the featured guest speaker at a special Sabbath service at Congregation Beth Israel on Friday evening January 15th . Speaking as the Congregation’s 2010 Daniel J. and Elizabeth O. Cohn Lecturer, Judge Thompson will talk about “Judging in Difficult Times: Berlin, 1933 to Birmingham, 1963.” 

Continuing collaborations between the Jewish and African American communities of Portland, Congregation Beth Israel will host the Sabbath service dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and achievements. The service will be held in the Congregation’s historic sanctuary, Friday, January 15 at 7:30 pm. In addition to Justice Thompson’s speech, the service will feature a greeting by Marcus Mundy, President and CEO of the Urban League Portland, and his overview of the “State of Black Oregon” report. The service will also feature vocal performances by members of the Northwest Community Gospel Chorus as well as the Beth Israel Choir. 

Judge Myron Thompson was appointed by President Carter and was the first African American appointed to be a federal judge in Alabama. He inherited the historic courtroom where his predecessor Judge Frank Johnson heard some of the century’s most important civil rights cases and ruled that Montgomery’s segregated buses were illegal, enjoined the KKK from attacking Freedom Riders, enjoined Governor Wallace from interfering with the march from Selma to Montgomery and, finally, tried and convicted the murderers of Viola Liuzzo. 

Judge Thompson attended Tuskegee Institute High School, where he was class salutatorian in the class of 1965.  He received his BA from Yale (major - political science) in 1969 and his JD from Yale Law School in 1972. After graduation from law school, he served as the first African American Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama, holding that position for two years.  Then he went into private practice in Dothan, Alabama.  His firm handled, among other things, cases involving civil rights, school desegregation, sex discrimination, labor law, and First Amendment issues.  In 1980 President Carter nominated Judge Thompson - then only 33 years old - to the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. 

Judge Thompson received national publicity (both favorable and unfavorable) when he ordered Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the State of Alabama’s Supreme Court building.  Judge Thompson has handled many other controversial cases as well, including many concerning voting rights and school integration. 

Daniel J. and Elizabeth O. Cohn endowed their fund in 1980 to bring lecturers to Congregation Beth Israel to discuss current social issues.  Included in the list of past lecturers are Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service; Senator Paul Sarbanes; William Raspberry, columnist; Jack Rosenthal, columnist; Eugene Lang, founder of the “I Have a Dream” program; Morris Dees, chief Trial Counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center; and Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking. 

For information about this or other services at Beth Israel please contact Sydney Baer, Executive Director: 503-222-1069.  Congregation Beth Israel is located at 1972 NW Flanders Street