VIDEO: Black Lives Matter Speech by Congressional Candidate Jamaal Bowman (16th District)
About 1,000 of your neighbors participated in a Black Lives Matter protest and march on Saturday, June 13th.
The peaceful group gathered at Rye High School at 2pm and then marched to the village green for speeches from local officials and activists. The group then resumed its march, winding around Rye before ending back at the high school.
Here is the speech of Congressional Candidate Jamaal Bowman (16th District). He is challenging Congressman Elliot Engel in the June 23rd Democratic primary. The 16th district covers much of Rye (the 17th covers the remainder).
“America has an original sin. That original sin is slavery,” said Bowman. And since that original sin, black people have been treated as less than human throughout the history of this country.”
“And the first police in this country were actually slave catchers and slave patrol. This is the history of our nation that is often kept out of our schools. And in order for us to become a nation no longer saddled, and riddled and burdened by hate, we need to have an anti-racist curriculum in our schools,” Bowman continued.
“A couple weeks ago I was at a vigil in Bronxville… now I’m in Rye, New York and there is a reputation for those on the outside when you think about Bronxville and Rye. Those people are wealthy, those people are white, they don’t care. Well, god damn it look at the crowd out here today. The people of Rye care about black lives. The people of Rye care about structural racism. The people of Rye care about inequality.”
We’ll be posting more photos and videos of the march and various speeches here on MyRye.com through Monday, please check back.
Watch the video (run time 7:43):
