Ten Years of Standing Together The Origin Story of SDARJ
What does it take to build a movement from scratch? A recent episode of Blue Coast Talk answers that question by tracing the origin of the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice, founded in 2015 and now celebrating a decade of work.
The story begins not with an organization, but with a book club. Inspired by Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, founder Charlotte King gathered a small group at Trinity Faith Christian Center and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church to study how the criminal justice system had, in Alexander’s words, redefined America’s racial caste system rather than ended it. What started as 40 to 50 people meeting to discuss a single book grew, within months, into standing-room-only town halls.
Early volunteers describe the same pattern: someone showed up looking for a way to help, and found a mission that used every skill they had. City Councilwoman Trina Brown Hicks ran surveys and social media from behind the scenes. Calvin Jackson, a communications veteran, rebuilt the website and pioneered the organization’s Zoom town halls during the pandemic. Paulette Rappa, now director of the reentry nonprofit The Way Home, brought her background as an educator to confronting mass incarceration head-on. Father Mark Harris hosted the very first study sessions in his church basement.
Their reflections point to a throughline: SDARJ was never meant to be a one-time reckoning. The word “corrosive” in the organization’s mission statement was chosen deliberately, likened by one founding member to a stain that keeps resurfacing no matter how hard you scrub. From town halls with local police chiefs to the Black Voices insert now reaching thousands of Cape Gazette readers, the alliance has kept finding new ways to educate, advocate, and inform.
Ten years in, Charlotte King’s own words still capture the spirit best: the work isn’t finished — it’s ongoing.
