BLM Supporters Rally in Reaction to Back the Blue Convoy in Tarrytown

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A multi-racial crowd gathered for Black Lives Matter rally in Tarrytown Sunday

September 20, 2020

By Barrett Seaman—

With the memory of last weekend’s Back the Blue parade of flag-festooned trucks and military vehicles fresh in their minds, a group of Sleepy Hollow High School(SHHS) students organized a counter rally, Hudson Valley Stands Up, eight days later in a parking lot next to Tarrytown’s Losee Park in support of Black Lives Matter. It was the same location the Back the Blue convoy used a week earlier.

About 150 answered the call on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There were no vehicles, no flags—just the familiar array of homemade Black Lives Matter placards with a smattering of signs honoring the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There appeared to be slightly more whites than blacks present, though a clear majority of young people. No politicians were present; only the remarks of County Legislative Vice-Chair Alfreda Williams were read by SHHS senior Phoebe Neilsen.

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The principal organizer of the event was 16-year-old Sleepy Hollow student Sandra Aderemi, who described it as “a healing event—more community-building than anti-Back the Blue.”

In her opening remarks, Aderemi asked the crowd, “Was there a Back the Blue movement before there was Black Lives Matter?” To which the audience responded, “No!”

Rally organizers included Sandra Aderemi (standing, center)

Largely for the benefit of whites in the audience, Aderemi explained “the talk” all black parents give to their children—“not the one about the birds and the bees,” but rather the one about surviving in a racist society. “All lives do matter, yes,” she acknowledged, “but society does not treat all lives equally.”

Invitees from other villages spoke in praise of the Sleepy Hollow organizers. A. J. McLean of Portchester exhorted, “If you’re older than 30, you’ve got to get behind this younger generation.” A young woman named Haley from Rockland County voiced her admiration for the rally’s leaders. Jana Holyfield, a former Tarrytown resident, won applause when she said, “I shouldn’t have to be here saying Black Lives Matter.”

A girl who identified herself as Elizabeth from Ardsley paid tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and called for a moment of silence in her honor. Justin Knowles of Ossining, who described himself as a gay black man, read a poem he had written a year ago that he felt was still relevant today. Two folk-style guitarists, one black, one white, played songs they had written in support of social justice.

Irvington resident Sarah Cox, who with fellow researcher Cathy Sears has uncovered the existence of a burial ground for enslaved Africans in her village, picked up on the BLM tradition of calling out the names of victims of police violence by naming aloud the names of several enslaved people from the rivertowns’ history.

Alberta Jarane, owner of Pik Nik and Mint, two Main Street restaurants in the village and a frequent speaker at BLM events, allowed that she respects the right of Back the Blue supporters to assemble, but added, “They need to respect my right to assemble. Stop threatening me,” she said, “It’s not going to work.”

Not every speaker reflected the intended theme of unity and community-building Sandra Aderemi and other organizers hoped to highlight. New York City-based activist Tanesha Grant, who heads up a group she called “Moms United for Black Lives” and other race-related non-profits, made it clear she was there to support blacks and no one else. She dismissed recent immigrants for coming to America by choice as distinct from her ancestors who came on slave ships. Apparently addressing the large white contingent in the crowd, she said, “I am a descendant of enslaved ancestors. You don’t know how that feels.”

“I don’t care about burning your buildings,” said Grant. “That’s not murder.”

After Sandra Aderemi had closed the rally, Grant, with an unidentified black woman at her side, called out one of the half-dozen Tarrytown police officers by name, claiming that he had beaten up the woman’s son 15 years earlier. The officers did not react.

Responding to an inquiry by The Hudson Independent, rally co-organizer Phoebe Neilsen wrote,”On behalf of the organizers, I would like to say we did not agree with everything that was said, especially the anti-immigrant remarks by Tanesha Grant. We will be releasing a statement about it later, and we don’t want the press to get the wrong idea. We don’t want those words to obscure our message of intersectional love and acceptance.”

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