Life or Death: Criminal Justice and Race in Delaware New Castle County Town Hall Meeting November 17th at 7:00PM

Last March the US Department of Education’s civil rights survey examined all 97,000 public schools in the US, representing 49 million students. They study found that…

Black students accounted for 18 percent of the country’s pre-K enrollment, but made up 48 percent of preschoolers with multiple out-of-school suspensions.

Black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students.

Black girls were suspended at higher rates than all other girls and most boys.

Black students were more than three times as likely to attend schools where fewer than 60 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements.

That’s only 4 of the study’s 14 key findings, and that is only looking at race and justice through the lens of public education. What does that say about us as a country? What does it mean for the lives of these young people who get caught in the gears of a criminal justice system so early in their lives? The town hall meeting on November 17th is set to address these and other pressing questions raised by the glaring racial inequities of our criminal justice system.

Life or Death: Criminal Justice and Race in Delaware New Castle County Town Hall Meeting November 17th at 7:00PM

The Complexities of Color Coalition, the NAACP Delaware State Conference, the Delaware Repeal Project, and the Innocence Project will be hosting the third in a series of four town hall meetings to address the racial inequities in Delaware’s criminal justice system. It will take place on Tuesday, November 17th at 7:00PM at Tabernacle Full Gospel Baptist Cathedral in Wilmington (details below).

The call to action for Delaware’s political leaders will be amplified – the black community will no longer tolerate the status quo.

“Racial injustice in Delaware must be addressed by the powers that be,” said Dr. Donald Morton, Executive Director, Complexities of Color Coalition. “Inaction on issues such as racial profiling and the death penalty sends the message that black lives don’t matter and that Delaware’s political leaders do not care.”

The Keynote speaker for the event will be nationally known activist Tamika Mallory, Board Member, The Gathering For Justice, who is also a murder victim family member.

“My message will be unmistakable and it will echo what Delaware’s black community has been saying for far too long,” Mallory said. “Whether it is police use of unnecessary force or racial disparities in pursuit of the death penalty, we are demanding justice. Just like in the rest of America, in Delaware, we can’t breathe.”

The New Castle County town hall meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 17th at 7:00PM at Tabernacle Full Gospel Baptist Cathedral, 501-505 Washington Street in Wilmington.

For more information contact Rachel B. Livingston at 302-230-6141 or rachel@derepeal.org.