From Attorney to Activist: Craig Emanuel Talks ‘Worthwhile Endeavor’ to Bridge Cultural Divides
Growing up in Australia, civil rights in the U.S. were not part of Craig Emanuel’s school curriculum. So when the future power attorney moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, he “read everything” he could get his hands on.
“I was fascinated,” says Emanuel. “And when it was the 50th anniversary of the marches on the Edmund Pettus Bridge [in 2015], I turned to [my wife] and said, ‘I want to go to Selma.’”
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An avid photographer, Emanuel has “saved every negative [he’s] shot” from the age of 6. He’d photographed historic events like President Barack Obama’s inauguration and wanted to do the same in Selma, Ala. Upon the suggestion of a colleague, Emanuel reached out to the Faith & Politics Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1991 to bridge racial, religious and political schisms among politicians. Rep. John Lewis, who died in 2020, organized the group’s annual civil rights pilgrimage to Selma. Emanuel and his wife made plans to join the organization there.
About 30,000 people turned up for that anniversary, among them 120 senators and members of Congress. “The security was insane,” says Emanuel, who wore a custom-designed T-shirt with the slogan: “I am an Australian. I am a Jew. Today I march for the freedom & equality of all!”
The crowd in Selma swelled to such an unmanageable size that day that state officials were forced at the last minute to cap the number of participants. But Emanuel was determined.
“I see out of the corner of my eye five or six state troopers who are walking together down the semi-closed area in the direction of where the bridge is,” he says. “And I said to my wife, let’s just fall behind. And we did. And at some point the state troopers turned around and they let us walk with them. And it was incredible.”
From that moment on, Emanuel has been a staunch supporter of the Faith & Politics Institute. He is an active board member and has accompanied the organization on trips to places such as Underground Railroad sites in upstate New York and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., site of the 2015 massacre. Last July, Emanuel organized the group’s first trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
“It’s an amazing organization,” says Emanuel. “Their mission is really to create civility and dialogue in government. Not an easy thing in this environment.”
“One of the problems we have in society is that there is a lot of talking, but not a lot of conversation,” he adds.
Emanuel aims to reverse that trend not only through his work with the Faith & Politics Institute, but also at the March on Washington Film Festival, for which he arranged a screening of the 2019 Israeli documentary “Advocate,” which follows international human rights attorney Lea Tsemel.
Emanuel also serves on the advisory board of the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance, which launched to bring the two communities together in solidarity. Its formation was inspired by the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and the many Blacks and Jews who stood side by side fighting for civil rights and working to erase bigotry and hatred in society. Thus far, the alliance has hosted conversations and events with entertainment and political figures ranging from Gene Simmons and Sharon Osbourne to Sen. Cory Booker and Ben Silverman, chairman and co-CEO of Propagate Content.
“There was a time when the two communities were a lot more closely aligned because they had a lot of common interest,” says Emanuel. “I think a number of people felt that we should figure out a path to make these two communities more engaging. For me, it’s no different than finding a way to engage in conversation that’s not just talking. And it does fit in with everything else that I’ve learned in the civil rights-related space.”
“Anything that we can do in society today that’s going to bring groups together to engage in a conversation is a worthwhile endeavor,” says Emanuel. “And so, I’ll support anything that has that as a mission.”
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