When I first met Arthur, I knew next to nothing about his past lives as a student activist at Notre Dame or as a protestor arrested in the Charleston Movement sit-ins. I knew about his present role as co-president of the Charleston Area Justice Ministry. CAJM (pronounced KAY-jum) is an interracial, interreligious grassroots coalition of more than forty congregations working together to make the South Carolina Lowcountry just and equitable for all. 

St. Patrick Catholic church among CAJM’s inaugural congregations. Arthur joined the following year. And when I lived in Charleston, I was a member of CAJM too. I eventually served on the executive board alongside Dr. Elise Davis-McFarland, Arthur’s inestimable and indefatigable wife — a remarkable woman with her own distinguished career working for a better world. 

CAJM is a great example of a group of ordinary people of faith stirring up good trouble. Since its founding in 2013, CAJM has demanded that public schools institute restorative justice practices to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline; that local police departments undergo an independent audit for racial bias; that the city of Charleston halt plans to fill in the local wetland Gadsden Creek that runs through an historically Black community; and that Charleston County establish an affordable housing trust fund to address the ongoing housing crisis. Some of these demands were met. CAJM continues to fight for all of them.

You can read more about who CAJM is and how they’ve worked for racial justice in Charleston here.