Gloucester’s colonial courthouse was standing room only on Sunday afternoon, as people turned out to hear from former NAACP president and current Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous, who spoke about the issues that divide us as a nation, and the commonalities that can bring us back together.

“Racism is a wedge meant to divide,” Jealous told the assembled guests at the lecture that was held by the Gloucester Museum of History and sponsored by the Friends of the Museum, the Gloucester Historical Society and the Fairfield Foundation.

His Gloucester visit was part of tour that Jealous has been making to promote his new book, “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: An American Parable of Healing.”

The book chronicles both the nation’s troubled history with racism and experiences that Jealous has had in his life that may offer a path out of the divisiveness.

Referencing a part of his book, Jealous told the story of how he met a previously unknown cousin, as well as an ...