On Thursday, Aug. 20, I read the following speech to the Sussex County Board of Commissioners. They did not publish a record of it and did not stream their meeting:
I stand here today on a direct line of historical memory—one that links the land you govern to the deliberate persistence of racial exclusion in Sussex County. Six miles from where we sit, Hillside Park in Andover Township stands as public property. Almost exactly 86 years ago, on August 18, 1940, over ten thousand people gathered on that field as Adolf Hitler’s German American Bund joined hands with the Ku Klux Klan beneath a swastika mounted to the ceiling. When Sheriff Denton Quick raided that camp in 1941, he uncovered an explicit infrastructure of hate. The uniforms came off, but the mindset remained rooted in this soil.
That legacy isn’t an artifact of the past—it lives here right now. I have personally witnessed the racism directed at a brown-skinned couple living near me in Andover Township. It has gotten so hostile that the wife now refuses to live in her own home. This is not ancient history. This is forced displacement happening in our community today.The physical proof of how this county devaluation operates sits on the official record:* Desecration of Enslaved Human Remains: For thirty years, the bones of three enslaved Black men—Tom, Dan, and John—sat in a cabinet at Space Farms alongside taxidermy before a private burial in 2009 without a single official county resolution. Today, that same family institution controls the leadership of this board, represents this legislative district in Trenton, and does not care that displaying a confederate flag is racially insensitive at best.
Differential Law Enforcement: An 80-year-old white man who fires a gun at police is taken into custody alive with “exceptional restraint,” while Major Gulia Dale III—a decorated Black combat veteran in crisis—is shot dead in front of his home within fifteen seconds.
Institutional Exploitation: At SCCC, whistleblowers like historian Jason Boehm exposed the systemic exploitation of out-of-state Black student-athletes, only to face institutional silence and retaliation.
This board cannot continue to hide behind painted-over swastikas and public park brochures while families are driven from their homes. I demand this board take three concrete actions today: 1. Pass a Formal Resolution recognizing and protecting the historic Black burial ground in Newton, ensuring full public accounting and historic preservation. 2. Establish a Human Rights Advisory Council tasked with investigating modern hate incidents, housing intimidation, and systemic hostility in Sussex County neighborhoods. 3. Commission an Independent Audit of county-funded institutions—including SCCC and local law enforcement protocols—to enforce structural equity and civil rights compliance. Hatred for people of color is active here. Stamp it out, establish these safeguards, and fulfill your duty to protect every resident of Sussex
Kenneth Collins
Andover