“No Justice, No Peace!” Unrest in America on Display at Local Rallies

By Rick Pezzullo and Madeline Rosenberg

The unrest in the United States, sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African American man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was on display in local municipalities as residents turned out in droves.

From Thursday to Sunday, Somers, Ossining, Peekskill and Yorktown all held large, peaceful rallies to support the Black Lives Matter movement and call for an end to racial inequality.

“No Justice, No Peace!” Valerie Eaton, president of the Peekskill NAACP, shouted during a Unity Rally at Depew Park in Peekskill Saturday that attracted at least 800 people. “When we fight, we win. We are not thugs. We are not criminals. We want the same things everyone else wants. We need equality and we need it now.”

Mayor Andre Rainey, the second African American mayor in the city’s history, advocated for “unity in the community.”

“Let George Floyd be the excuse you are no longer not involved anymore,” Rainey said. “We all know we cannot do it if we are not together.”

One speaker, Warren Jones, asked, “Where has America come where we are comfortable in our wickedness?”

The powerful hour-long event concluded with everyone kneeling for eight minutes and 46 seconds—the length of time Police Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck, leading to his death and charges of second-degree murder.

At the same time the Peekskill rally was taking place, an estimated 1,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Ossining for the same cause, walking from Engel Park to Nelson Park, led by Ossining High School students and alumni.

On Thursday, hundreds of residents from Somers and surrounding communities gathered in Reis Park for the Somers Solidarity Rally for Black Lives.

Jena Blair, Katie Goldberg and Lucille Lord, 2018 Somers High School graduates, organized the rally.

“For the Somers community, I don’t think they needed noise. I think they needed to sit down and listen,” Goldberg said after the rally. “This town has been so divided because the black community is so small that they feel like they can’t even speak up.”

As demonstrators dressed in black sprawled across the lawn surrounded by Black Lives Matter posters pasted on pavilion walls and trees, the community heard speeches from students, local leaders and educators who voiced their pain as people of color in a predominantly white community. 

Courtney Warren, a Harvey School graduate and a rising sophomore at St. John’s University, took the stage with her siblings Alex and Avery expressing her experiences as a black woman. She said she has often felt alone and silenced and was stereotyped on her sports teams. 

Alex Warren said being the only black girl in her grade at The Gunnery, a private prep school in Connecticut, means being used as a “Q&A machine,” interrogated about her race.

“Systemic racism is instilled in the air that we breathe, the water that we drink,” Avery Warren told a cheering audience. “It poisons our children and our society. It taints the earth and hides the sun.” 

Summer Blair, a 2013 Somers graduate, told the crowd she wondered what her white peers did on Martin Luther King Jr. Day while she and her family watched documentaries about the black struggle, from slavery to civil rights. Her sister, Jena, one of the co-organizers, said when she reported racist incidents to Somers High School administrators when she attended the school, nothing happened, “not even an apology.” 

“If you believe that racism in Westchester County, in Somers, in our schools and in our homes does not exist, then you are sadly mistaken,” Jena Blair said. “So, I ask the Somers community today, when is it okay for me and others like me to speak up? It seems to me it is never a good time, but I am tired of being quiet.”  

Racial discrimination surfaced as the three graduates planned the event. Jena Blair said she received death threats from the same peers she sat beside at high school athletic events and musical performances. Backlash from local parents amassed on Facebook, who said the rally threatened the community’s safety during the coronavirus pandemic. 

But Goldberg said some of the same parents participated in a parade days before where people were hugging.    

“Twenty-year-olds should not have to fight adults in our community about racism,” Goldberg said to an applauding audience. “We shouldn’t have to convince others that this is needed. We created this because we have to. We have to take (the) initiative.”

On Sunday in downtown Yorktown, a mixed crowd of at least 600 marched from Town Hall to Jack DeVito Veterans Memorial Field on Veterans Road, led by students from Yorktown High School.

Earlier in the week, the Yorktown Town Board condemned the death of Floyd and rejected all forms of racism.

“The fact that we are still fighting oppression and abuse in this country in 2020 is both unacceptable and unfathomable to me,” said Supervisor Matt Slater, who attended Sunday’s rally, along with Councilman Vishnu Patel. “We may not necessarily be able to change the hearts and minds of evil people everywhere but we can do our part right here in Yorktown. The Bible tells us to love thy neighbor. It doesn’t tell us to only love the neighbor who looks like us, or talks like us or worships with us. It is pretty simple: love thy neighbor. Growing up in this community I believe that is exactly what we do here in Yorktown.”

“As a human being, I was sick to my stomach watching Mr. Floyd die on that video. Anger, frustration and sadness are the emotions I felt. As a law enforcement professional, my message to those in the profession is: those of you who aren’t deeply troubled with how Mr. Floyd died, you should consider turning in your badge.” said Yorktown Police Chief Robert Noble.