The lawn at Academy Green Park in Kingston filled up with around 80 activists yesterday evening to commence the biweekly Wednesday Walk 4 Black Lives, which was then followed by a Celebrate The Vote event at the Ulster County Courthouse, which urged that all votes cast in the general election be counted.
Anne Ames, who is with the local chapter of End the New Jim Crow Network, kicked off the Walk 4 Black Lives by rallying activists and reminding everyone why they were there. The theme of the night was “Take a stand, or take a seat.”
“We can all come out in solidarity, which is good,” said Ames. “We need to do that for emotional reasons to feel social and close to each other. But the bottom line is work. We have to do work. Everyone who is coming out here can help do something.”
There were three speakers at the event on Wednesday: Brian Robinson, who works on civil rights legislation in the Hudson Valley, Callie Jayne, executive director of Rise Up Kingston, Rashida Tyler, from the Real Kingston Tenants Union, and Minerva Solla, director of New York State Nursing Association Cultural of Affairs. At each walk, similar issues are discussed: “It’s police accountability, education, jobs, housing, health,” said Ames.
“We’re talking about taking a stand,” said Jayne. “I feel like I’ve been saying the same thing for years and years and years. We need to not just stand against things, we need to be standing for things.”
The flier for Wednesday’s event specifically asked that poster messages stress what marchers are for, not against. It also stated, “emphasize the strength of the people, don’t give power to hate or fear.”
Jayne’s comments touched on the election.
“No matter what happens, we have to keep pushing and take a stand for something,” said Jayne.
Rise Up Kingston an organization that is dedicated to dismantling the structures of racism and oppression. Jayne said the group has been spending time figuring out “how to convince our community that we need to do something more.”
The march headed down Broadway from Academy Green toward where the former Kings Inn Motel was, then circled around Midtown back to the park.
Tyler spoke at the lot at the corner of Broadway and Henry streets, where the motel was torn down back in 2011. In the past, the lot was used for farmer’s markets and a summer-season event venue. The city owns the property and in 2018, Mayor Steve Noble announced the city’s intention to redevelop the lot, but at this time no developer has offered plan to do so.
“The Kings Inn motel was one of the only affordable motels in the city of Kingston,” said Tyler. “Right now if you are homeless and become homeless in the city of Kingston, and the shelters are full, and you have to go to a motel, you are almost automatically displaced from the city because there are not enough vacancies in the motels here because we have such a housing crisis.”
She said the city only has 21 shelter beds, which is not enough to handle the number of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Kingston.
The Ulster County Coalition for Housing Justice group has proposed that this site should become non congregate housing, housing that people can live in that is small enough to also be affordable.
At another stop on the march, resident Rose Quinn spoke about the group she is a part of a team called Cop Watch. She said the team evolved once the city stepped up its multi agency police initiative in early August to help combat the uptick of shootings in Kingston.
“All it is are people who notice when somebody is being pulled over and stopped by the police and make the conscious decision to stop and watch what’s happening,” said Quinn about Cop Watch. “It’s not something that any one of us can’t do. We pass people who are stopped all the time.”
Celebrate the vote
The walk finished up at the park where it started and many of the same faces headed over to the courthouse to “celebrate the vote.” That event began at around 6 p.m. which was lively with music and a projector lighting up slogans like “Every vote counts,” and “Power to the people” onto the front of the courthouse building.
“We wanted to come together, celebrate the vote and make sure that every vote is counted,” said one organizer, Franny Silverman.
Brothers Austin and Albert Cook spoke about community safety and the history of the civil rights movement. Austin stressed the importance of situational awareness, which is “knowing your environment, what’s around you, who’s around you and how their actions might affect you.”
Austin said, “The fight is not over just because there’s a president elected. We can’t stop, we need to keep moving, demonstrating and marching.”
Other speakers of the night included Jaguar Mary X from Radio Kingston and Ulster County comptroller March Gallagher.
“We need to talk to people, not read polls,” said Gallagher. “We need to not be behind screens. We have to start talking to one another. Our leadership is not talking to people and they are not listening to people. We need to pay attention to what regular people want.
“When I say leadership needs to change, the first thing I’m starting with is that white people need to be unapologetically antiracist, starting today,” said Gallagher.
The night concluded with people mingling and enjoying live music from a local banjo player.
Kingston’s activists remain dedicated to creating change, regardless of the outcome of the election. They promised to push forward on a local level with different actions like writing to the mayor and aldermen, organizing additional advocacy events, and attending civic meetings like the rescheduled Common Council public hearing for the 2021 proposed budget that will now take place on November 23.
The next Wednesday Walk 4 Black Lives will be held November 18, weather dependent. For more information and resources you can visit linktr.ee/ww4bl.
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