Actress/civil rights activist/icon Ruby Dee headlined our Parade for Change rally here in New Rochelle, NY today.
About 700 people turned out on a sunny fall afternoon to show the city's support for Barack Obama and Joe Biden with a rally on the steps of City Hall, and a 2 mile march to Library Green and back. Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Mayor Noam Bramson and City Councilman James Stowe joined Ruby Dee to address the crowd, along with rally organizers Angelique Francis and Caroline Graves.
The gathering was representative of the diverse population of this small city (population 72,000) in Westchester County. Youngsters carried handpainted signs and us older folk shouted variations on favorite slogans from rallies and marches past. The goal was to remind our fellow citizens to Get Out The Vote; the mood was hopeful and collaborative, with people volunteering to help at the polls and hand out literature at the train station. The police were great; they blocked off part of North Avenue, the city's main thoroughfare, for our march, and for the most part our parade was greeted enthusiastically by motorists (who honked their horns gleefully and displayed their own buttons and tee-shirts) and pedestrians, who waved and yelled along with us.
We know New York is not a battleground state -- many of us have traveled to Pennsylvania over the last two months to help where we are needed -- but it felt good to create some excitement here at home.