MISSION & HISTORY.
The mission of the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus includes prioritizing legislative and policy agendas to insure that people of color in particular are treated equally, and justly when it comes to social justice, economic justice, and criminal justice reform; and are afforded the equity.
On November 6, 1971, the late Assemblyman George C. Richardson who was the assistant Assembly minority leader announced that he was inviting the other six Black legislators in the Assembly to discuss creating a Black Caucus. This meeting is the earliest attempt to create the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus (NJLBC).
Officially, in 1979 Black delegates in the New Jersey Legislature joined together to create the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus. In efforts to strengthen their influence to empower New Jersey’s communities of color, Black legislatures created the NJLBC to address the legislative concerns of Black and Brown populations.
Prior to the creation of the NJLBC, Black legislators were concerned with the urban unrest because of the 1960’s civil unrest. Much of the conditions that led to civil unrest in the 1960’s is a direct result of unaddressed systemic and structural racist systems. In efforts to address these ongoing issues, the founding members promulgated their objectives and created the NJLBC.