Business group launches campaign to see Black Chancery judge

A $350,000 television ad campaign featuring Martin Luther King III, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Newark Pastor Pastor Blaine Hackett will call for a Black judge to be appointed to Delaware’s Chancery Court.

The ad campaign, by Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, will be part of a $500,000 effort that will include print and digital ads that says there’s a movement building for justice, and that includes appointing Black judges.

The business group is referring to a vacancy on the Chancery Court left when Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights’ retired recently.

If Gov. John Carney does appoint a Black judge, that person will not be the first Black Chancery judge.

Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, who is Black, served on the court for four years before moving to the Delaware Supreme Court in 2019. She is the only Black person to have served on the court in its 320-year history.