On July 17th 2025 Cooper River Indivisible (CRI) held a joyful and powerful community celebration honoring the life and legacy of civil rights hero John Lewis. The event took place at 6 pm Cooper’s Poynt Park along the Camden waterfront right in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge and included a variety of community-centered activities, crafts, music and more!
Many of CRI’s Committees had informative and interactive tables on hand for the community members to lear more about what we do and how to become involved with Cooper River Indivisible. These participating committees included Immigration, the Book Club, Democracy, Voter Registration, Creative, and LGBTQIA+.
In addition to CRI, a number of local organizations accepted our invitation to share their community resources and learning opportunities. These include Embracing Race, Moms Demand Action, League of Women Voters, Bilingual Books, Rutgers CARE Lab (Urban Heat Island and One Health), and Newton Quaker Friends. There was also a John Lewis tent that gave people a chance to learn about the life and accomplishments of the event’s namesake. A kids crafts and activities table was led by Sarah O’Brien Music, Crafts and More.
Cooper’s Poynt was chosen as the site of this event not only because of the beautiful views and river breezes, but also because it is one of three locations in Camden that has been identified as an historic slave trading site. Our guest speakers shared their knowledge of this historic location as well as the history of voting and civil rights. These speakers included Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen, David Steinberg, Pastor Pat Rivers, and Historian Dolly Marshall. Congressperson Donald Norcross was scheduled to speak but he got held up in Washington and couldn’t attend. In his place, he had one of his aids read a letter he wrote for the occasion. In addition to the speakers, the group Community Rocks also took part by leading singalongs to some of the more famous protest songs.
The evening concluded with a march down the promenade, under the bridge, and into the area by the former location of Campbell’s Field. Once there we had a flashlight vigil to remind us all of how far we have come as a people and how far we still have to go.
We thank Craig Strimel for MCing the night along with DJ Adam who provided us with music when the speakers were not speaking. We appreciate the donation of food by Cathedral Kitchen and the donation of water by Congressperson Norcross’s office. Also, we want to acknowledge the support we got from the City of Camden and Camden Country. Finally, we want to give a shout out to the police from the City of Camden who were extremely supportive, friendly, and helpful including when they were redirecting traffic during our march and vigil.