VIDEO: Black Lives Matter Speech by Port Chester Board of Trustee Joan Grangenois-Thomas

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 Port Chester Board of Trustee Joan Grangenois-Thomas. She is the first woman of color to sit on the board. She also runs JGT Public Relations.

“I’m not here to make you feel comfortable Rye,” said Grangenois-Thomas. “I’m asking you what happens after today… it takes work people. You need to be as uncomfortable as I am every day when I fear for my daughter or my son when they go out into the world and I wonder if they are going to come home at night.”

“And when you had the chance to build affordable housing, where did you build it? Did you build it in the center of town so that people could integrate? No. You built it on the outskirts of town so you would not have to see it. What is that Rye? We have to do better than that Rye.”

Do you know there is a Port Chester Rye branch of the NAACP? Are you a member of that group? It shouldn’t be difficult for me to send a message to the newspaper to say please print our message about what we are doing at the Port Chester Rye NAACP. It shouldn’t be that difficult. We have never been in your local papers. What is that about Rye?”

“You need to look at yourself. Collectively and individually… when you decide black lives matter and you’re going to check your social circles and see who you invite to your dinner parties and see who sits around your board of directors table then you’re going to make progress. I’m not here to make you feel comfortable Rye, enough is enough.”

We’ll be posting more photos and videos of the march and various speeches here on MyRye.com through Sunday and Monday, please check back.

Watch the video (run time 3:05):