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March for Racial Justice & Compassion

March for Racial Justice & Compassion

March Statement:

For generations we have marched, sat-in, walked-out, blocked bridges, protested, and educated our communities about issues of racial justice in a struggle to transform the policies that produce injustice.

The late Nelson Mandela once said: “People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite… Man’s goodness (Humanity) is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished”.

We will be marching for justice and equality for all people. We will be marching to educate and raise awareness of the daily challenges that face communities of color such as inequalities in education, labor and economics, law enforcement, criminal justice, environmental injustices, and more.

We will be marching because we must endeavor to dismantle oppression, challenge, reverse, and put an end to racist laws, policies, and practices that dehumanize people of color while white supremacy and racism are being sustained by many of those in our government.

Our mission is to bring our community together to harness our unrest, dissatisfaction, and anger with racial injustice. We will be joining a national mobilization that strengthens local and national efforts for racial equity and justice.

Just as activists and community members before us have marched in silence and with solidarity at The NAACP’s Silent Protest Parade in 1917 on New York City’s 5th Avenue, we will incorporate that same symbolic silence into our march as well.

 

The NAACP’s Silent Protest Parade in 1917 on New York City’s 5th Avenue.

 

We will be marching together to join our minds and hearts in order to make a conscious choice to show respect for one another. Moreover, we will remember and honor Newark, Delaware‘s own history, and all of those who have suffered injustice and marched before us. We will be joining them in hope for a just and equitable future for the whole human family. Together we will be taking a stand for racial justice in our local communities and in our nation. We stand in unity with compassion in order to create this change.

We hope you will join our symbolic silent march as we strive to bring awareness to the racial injustice in our communities, and inform the community about the historical and current racial struggles that our communities still endure. It is 2017, and we hope to achieve what we as a society could not do in the past together. It is time to end racial injustice in this forward moving society!

 

Details of March:

Date: Saturday, October 28th, 2017

Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Where: George Wilson Community Center in Newark, DE

Route: We will begin marching from the George Wilson Community Center at 10:00 a.m. on 10/28/17. The group will cross the street at the GWCC, and proceed down New London Road toward the railroad tracks. We will then turn left to Main Street, past the Deer Park. We will continue to walk on Main Street until we make a left onto North College Avenue. We will cross the street at the corner of Cleveland and North College Avenue, and proceed to turn left on Cleveland Avenue in the direction of New London Road. At the corner of Cleveland Avenue and New London Road, we will turn right onto New London Road, walking up New London Road, back to the George Wilson Community Center crossing New London Road.

Schedule:

-Speakers: 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.

  • Freeman Williams, Newark NAACP – Masters of ceremony
  • Rev. Blaine Hackett, St. John’s AM – Invocation
  • Sylvester Woolford, Historian – Newark racial history
  • Florine Henderson, NAACP – March directions

-March: 10:00 – 11:00 am

There will also be presenters who will remain at the George Wilson Center during this time for those who choose not to march.

-Speakers: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon

  • Sherry Dorsey – Community engagement
  • Jeffery Richardson – University of Delaware, Environmental Justice
  • Sen. Stephanie Hansen – Community engagement and the political process
  • Rev. Lawrence Livingston – Sending message and closing prayer
Parking: Marchers are asked to park at the University of Delaware in Lot 6. (We have received approval from UD for this.)

 

 

Tickets: Tickets help the organizers to plan appropriately for crowd size. There is NO COST to attend the march but please do register and “get a ticket” to help us plan! Thanks!

 

Register to Attend on Eventbrite! Click here! 

 

About the Speakers:

Freeman Williams. ED.D. is a past superintendent of the Christina School District. Currently, he serves his community as the president of the Board for Neighborhood House in Wilmington and Middletown which provides counseling, early childhood education, and meal services. Dr. Williams is also actively engaged in community service as the vice president Newark chapter of the NAACP.

Elder Blaine A. Hackett currently serves as pastor of Historic St. John African AM Church in Newark, DE; a Congregational, Community, Fellowship Ministry. He is also a DMin. student at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, PA. Elder Hackett is the 3rd Vice President of the Newark Branch of the NAACP. He is married to his wife Vernell Jackson-Hackett, one son Sieki, and two grand-daughters Simyrah, Yazmeen and a grand-son Cameron.

Syl Woolford is a well-known native of Delaware. He lectures on both history and genealogy. He is a member of the Delaware Heritage Commission, on the Historical and Cultural Affairs Collections Committee, and the Wilmington University – History Committee and Historic Preservation Fund. Syl has been honored by the National Education Association (NEA), with the Civil Rights and Human Rights Award, by the Wilmington NAACP with the History Award, and by a Howard High School Alumni Association Tribute.

Florine Henderson is a member of the NAACP, the Coalition to Dismantle the New Jim Crow, and New Elizabeth A.M.E. Church. She was born and raised in Delaware and grew up on New London Road. Florine attended school in the Newark Special School District graduating from Newark High School in 1970. After 34 years of working in the office of Admissions at the University of Delaware, Florine is now retired. She says it really does “take a whole village to raise a child” and she is proud to be a product of “the village”.

State Senator Stephanie Hansen represents the 10th Senate District which includes Middletown, Bear/Glasgow, and part of Newark.  Stephanie is an environmental attorney, a long-time resident of Delaware, and before being elected Senator, was the President and founder of the Bear/Glasgow Council of Civic Organizations and President of New Castle County Council.In Dover, Senator Hansen chairs the Transportation Committee and has led legislative efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and address environmental issues in the state.  She has also founded the 10th Senate District Multi-Cultural Coalition whose goal is to increase cross-cultural communication, open dialogue, mutual respect, fairness, and promote equal protection under the law.

Jeffrey Richardson is the Director of Diversity, Outreach and Community Engagement for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware where he teaches courses on Environmental Justice and Black Thought and Philosophy for the Department of Africana Studies. He is a renewable energy advocate who also directs a solar company that focuses on training, local workforce development and diversification of the solar industry. He has over 30 years of experience in social justice organizing and community economic development with a primary focus on increasing the accountability of systems to low-income and people of color communities.

Sherry Dorsey Walker is a native of Wilmington, Delaware, is the first Woman and the first Person of Color elected to the 6th District to the Wilmington City Council in 2012. She earned a Masters in Film from Howard University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware in English/Journalism. In 2001, Sherry established SWAP Productions LLC, an independent film production company. SWAP is an acronym for Sisters With A Purpose. Sherry humbly believes that her purpose in life is to educate, entertain and enlighten through her films and her public service. For this reason, she conceptualized “Justice For All: The Documentary.”

Rev. Dr. Lawrence Livingston is pastor of the historic Mother African Union Church, the oldest incorporated African American congregation in the nation.  He has served in several ministry and church-related positions in Maryland, Dover, DE, Wilmington, and including United Methodist News Service in Washington, D.C.  He is first Vice-President of the Interdenominational Ministers Action Council (IMAC), and he is part of DE faith in Action.  He is a founding member of the Coalition to Dismantle the New Jim Crow.  He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Delaware Historical Society, and the Mitchell Center for African American Heritage. He is an adjunct faculty at the University of Delaware, serving the Associate in Arts Program.

 

Supporting Congregations and Organizations:

Unitarian Universalist Delaware Advocacy Network (UUDAN)

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark (UUFN)

The Delaware Coalition to Dismantle the New Jim Crow

St. John AM Church

Delaware United

Lifepath Church

Newark Friends Meeting

Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice

New Ark United Church of Christ

Delaware Citizens Against the Death Penalty

League of Women Voters of New Castle County

YWCA Delaware

Unitarian Universalist Society of Mill Creek

Unitarian Universalist of Southern Delaware (UUSD)

New Elizabeth AME Church

St. Thomas’s Episcopal Parish

If our club or organization would like to share the “March of Social Justice and Compassion” Facebook Event on your Official Facebook Page, download the Share and Event on Your Organization’s Facebook Page PDF by Clicking Here! 

 

Comments from March Coordinators:

Cami Seward – Volunteer with the Delaware Coalition to Dismantle the New Jim Crow

“Delaware is a microcosm of the most difficult problems vexing the whole country. We have enormous problems with inequality, education, employment, environmental and criminal injustices. We’re a small state, the First State, and we still even have a north and a south. Wouldn’t it be a beautiful thing if we could get these things figured out? Wouldn’t it be fitting for the First State to be a beacon of decency, reason, and creativity for the rest of the country? Our only hope of solving our problems is in working together respectfully and inclusively. Coming together to march for racial justice and compassion, recognizing each other as neighbors, will be a few steps in the right direction.”