Our Accomplishments
March for Racial Justice.
In 2017 The SOMA Action Racial Justice Committee organized the March for Racial Justice. This was an official sister march to the March for Racial Justice held in Washington DC on Sept 30, 2017. The March for Racial Justice is a black and indigenous led multi-community movement organized to resist the U.S. laws, policies, and practices that remain steeped in racism and white supremacy. We gathered a coalition of co-sponsors and speakers including representatives from: SOMA Action Racial Justice Committee, The South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race, SOMA Justice, The MAPSO Freedom School, Black Lives Matter of Newark, People’s Organization for Progress (POP), Congregation Beth EL, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and North Jersey Pride.
Restorative and Restorative Justice Program
Recently, a major social justice concern has been the inequitable forms of punishment meted out to students of color. Black students tend to receive much higher levels of suspension that white students for the same offence. On a societal level, the same holds true in the criminal justice system. Our Restorative and Transformative Justice program brought together a panel of four experts in this field. After the panel, Rev. Brenda Ehlers, one of the panelists conducted a mock restorative justice session.
Founding member of SOMA Against Hate Collective
SOMA Against Hate is a collective of houses of worship and community groups in South Orange and Maplewood. The collective was formed in the wake of efforts by an anti-Semitic white supremacist hate group to recruit in our communities by posting flyers in prominent places in our two towns. The SOMA Action Racial Justice committee played a major role in the formation of this collective and continues to participate as necessary.
Hate Has Consequences
We invited Daryle Lamont Jenkins to participate in an online program to discuss his work fighting racism, fascism and right-wing groups. The timing was very appropriate as George Floyd had recently met a horrible death at the hands of brutal police in Minneapolis. SOMA had recently experienced a racist incident as well which the SOMA Against Hate Collective, among others addressed. Although the presentation was free our 100 Evite tickets were sold out.
Violin Vigil for Elijah McClain
Due to the Corona-19 virus, Independence Day celebrations had been cancelled in 2020. In light of the death of George Floyd and increased awareness of BLM issues, many of us did not feel like celebrating the “Fourth” in the traditional way. When the death of Elijah McClain, the gentle soul who played violin for shelter cats came to light, it seemed like a fitting tribute to honor him on Independence Day. Barbara Velazquez, Co-chair of the SOMA Action Racial Justice Committee along with professional Jazz violinist Zach Brock organized this event in a record three days time.