Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld Collection

Arthur J. Lelyveld was born on February 6, 1913. He became a prominent rabbi and lived in Nebraska, New York, and Ohio. Rabbi Lelyveld was an active person in the Civil Rights movements of the 1960’s. He came to Hattiesburg, Mississippi in the summer of 1964 to assist in registering local African American citizens to vote. On July 10, 1964, two segregationists attacked Rabbi Lelyveld, civil rights workers Lawrence Spears, and civil rights worker David Owen with iron pipes as they were walking along a railroad track with two local African American women in Hattiesburg. Rabbi Lelyveld suffered lacerations and a concussion from the attack and was taken to Methodist Hospital for treatments to his injuries. He retired from the rabbinate in 1986 and became Rabbi Emeritus. Arthur J. Lelyveld died on April 15, 1996.