The state judiciary in Delaware isn't diverse enough, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday night in a visit to Delaware.

As part of a Black History Month celebration, the Citizens for Pro Business Delaware hosted the event, which was a dinner and chat with the civil rights activist at the Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington's Riverside neighborhood.

"They thought I wasn't going to come back. I'm going to keep coming back until this is not an issue," Sharpton said in front of a crowd of about 200.

Sharpton's visit came after the state Senate denied him the opportunity to speak on the issue of diversity of the state's judicial system at a Chancery Court chancellor's nomination hearing. Delaware did make big news in January when Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, 38, became the first African American and the youngest person to ever sit on the state's Supreme Court. Sharpton lauded the move, but also said there was more work to be done.

"Delaware needs to make some history," Sharpton said. He expressed congratulations to Montgomery-Reeves but said that she was replaced by a white male, which didn't really diversify the judiciary any more than it had been. He and others called on well-known local law firms to advance people of color getting onto the judiciary.

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"It is a pivotal issue at the right time," said Sharpton, who said he was traveling to South Carolina for the next Democratic primary debate and would bring the issue of Delaware's lack of a diverse judiciary up with presidential hopeful Joe Biden. Sharpton said with voters having to deal with issues of stop and frisk and mass incarceration, it is important to deal with people who make the decisions about who goes to prison. In Delaware, he said the facts are that people who are mostly in prison are people of color and that the people sending them there are not.

Joined by Sharpton onstage was Pastor Dale Dennis II of Hoyt Memorial CME Church. Dennis urged audience members, who dined on chicken, salad, fruit and dessert, to be intentional about keeping the issue of having more people of color on the judiciary in the minds of lawmakers nationally and locally.

"Our push tonight is to make sure that we lift our voice in a united front," Dennis said.

Contact Ira Porter at 302-324-2581 or iporter@delawareonline.com