A holocaust survivor born in France during the rise of fascism, he would become an advocate for African-American liberation and a strong opponent of the genocide in Gaza

***

Dr. Rene Lichtman, 87, took his last breath on January 28, 2025, yet his legacy remains very much alive in Detroit and across the United States.

Born in Paris, France in 1937, his father Jacob Zajdman, was killed fighting with the Foreign Legion against the German Nazi invasion during 1940. His mother Helen Zajdman was separated from Rene after leaving him to be raised by an elderly Christian couple Anne and Paul Lepage for his protection against the Third Reich.

After the conclusion of World War II, Rene and his mother were reunited. They migrated to Brooklyn New York when Rene was 12 years old. He had to learn English after arriving in the U.S. and later attended the Music and Art High School.

After finishing High School, Lichtman joined the military. Later he would work with his mentor, African American communist and Spanish Civil War veteran Oscar Hunter.

Lichtman would continue his education at the Cooper Union utilizing the GI Bill. He eventually won a Fulbright Scholarship to paint in Belgium.

During the late 1960s, Lichtman would return to New York City and later worked with the Newsreel Film Collective. This organization produced political documentary films which examined events such as the San Francisco State College student strike of 1968-69, the longest of such actions in U.S. history.

The Newsreel Collective created several short documentaries on the work of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP) formed in Oakland, California in October 1966. Films such as “Repression”, “Black Panther” and “Off the Pigs” were distributed to revolutionary groups for independent screenings around the country.

Several members of the Collective presented their documentaries films on the BPP during a February 1970 Detroit rally held at the Shrine of the Black Madonna in honor of the 28th birthday of Dr. Huey P. Newton, the then Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party, who was serving a 2-15 years sentence in California for the manslaughter death of an Oakland Police officer and the wounding of another. The Collective, including Lichtman, were in the city filming events surrounding the activities of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (DRUM).

“Finally Got the News”

The LRBW took a different approach than the Oakland-based BPP. The League viewed the African American proletariat as the vanguard of the Black Revolution due to its strategic position within the overall labor market. At that time key production centers in the automobile industry demographically were dominated by young African American workers.

Racism on the part of the industrial firms and the failure of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) to address the split labor market, prompted the growth of an African American-led insurgency within the plants in the aftermath of the July 1967 Rebellion in Detroit, the largest outbreak of urban civil unrest in the history of the U.S. up until that time.

Consequently, after visiting Detroit to cover the activities of the local chapter of the National Committees to Combat Fascism (NCCF), described at the time as an organizing bureau for the BPP, Lichtman and his comrades eventually produced the film “Finally Got the News”, which documents the origins and growth of the LRBW and its allies within the African American community, area junior and senior high schools and Wayne State University.

.

Rene Lichtman graphic from Finally Got the News, 1970 (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

.

This documentary film (see below) features extensive interviews with leading figures in the Detroit movement at the time. John Watson, a co-founder of the LRBW and editor of the WSU South End newspaper (1968-69) during its revolutionary phase which extended from 1967-73, outlines their theoretical views on the character of racial capitalism. Chuck Wooten, Ron March, Mike Hamlin and Ken Cockrel, Sr. are also highlighted in the documentary discussing the plight of African American workers and their efforts to win control over the UAW Local at the Hamtramck Dodge Main plant during the period between 1968-1970.

Detroit in the early months of 1970 remained a tinderbox of social unrest. Independent organizing in the auto plants coincided with student walkouts and rebellions in the schools and higher educational institutions.

Lichtman would spend nearly 20 years working at Beaumont Hospital in the field of instructional technology. He received his PhD at 63 years old.

Later Years Spent Opposing Genocide in Gaza

In his final years, Lichtman was seen at the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Detroit in the aftermath of the brutal police execution of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Hakim Littleton and others in 2020. He often spoke on the need to prevent another genocide similar to what his family fled from in France during the fascist period of the 1930s and 1940s.

After the October 7, 2023 launch of the Al Aqsa Flood emanating from the Gaza Strip in Occupied Palestine, Lichtman denounced the genocidal onslaught carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which is backed by the U.S. and its NATO allies. Lichtman’s work with the Holocaust Museum in Farmington Hills abruptly ended after he expressed his views that a genocide was taking place in Gaza.

A Coalition Against Genocide was formed in the Detroit Metropolitan area which organized weekly picket lines outside the Holocaust Museum for its refusal to condemn the actions of the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lichtman’s participation in the Coalition Against Genocide drew extreme hostility from the elements within the Jewish American community which continued to defend Tel Aviv and its war in Gaza and throughout the West Asia region.

An entry on the website cyberpsalm.com says of Lichtman in his final days that:

“The Zekelman Holocaust Center in metro Detroit featured René as a regular speaker. However, when he spoke out and protested against Israel’s extreme behavior in Gaza, they unceremoniously removed him from the calendar. This did not phase him, such was Rene’s war opposition, and he articulated Israel’s sad irony. Rene’s art is never really totally done. René and I had been collaborating on an account of his life, each of us writing it up, with intent to merge it as one. I intend to get it done. Another unique, hard-to-replace man moves on. Thank you, René. Your memory is enduring. I won’t say you are irreplaceable, in order not to discourage any of the aspiring youngsters you brought along. Peace and love.” 

The ongoing unresolved Palestinian Question has divided the U.S. population as a whole. Successive administrations are continuing to fund and arm the Israeli regime.

At the memorial for Lichtman on June 8 at the St. Matthew’s-St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, several speakers reflected on his legacy. The memorial was addressed by Risa Lichtman, Jamie Thrower, Hon. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Mark Shephard, Barbara Barefield, Nabil Sater, Heather Burnham, Dr. Ismail Noor and Maryam Lowen.

This was a fitting location for the memorial since the Church encompasses the second African American religious congregation founded in Detroit in 1846. The Church was involved in the Underground Railroad in which the city of Detroit was a major force due to its border with Canada.

During the 1920s meetings were held at the Church to build a defense campaign for Dr. Ossian Sweet, who was charged with murder after his home was attacked by a white mob in 1925. He was eventually exonerated of the charges.

In April of 1966, African American students at Northern High School located near St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, staged a strike against the racist curriculum and practices. A “Freedom School” was established at the Church which provided an alternative anti-racist education to the striking students. In 1971, the St. Joseph’s and St. Matthew’s Episcopal Churches merged into one congregation.

Since 2019, the Annual Detroit MLK Day Rally & March has been held at this location. The purpose of these events is to uphold the actual social justice and antiwar legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

*

Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.

Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.  

Featured image source

Global Research is a reader-funded media. We do not accept any funding from corporations or governments. Help us stay afloat. Click the image below to make a one-time or recurring donation.

Source link