By TOM RUE
Sullivan residents join "Million Man March"
WASHINGTON, DC - A busload of local men will join an October 16 march on the nation's capital to support family values, voting rights and Affirmative Action, local organizers said.Monticello human rights commissioner Jesse York, 49, and Long Eddy author and college professor William F. Browne, 59, together chartered a 50-passenger bus to carry marchers from Monticello to Washington. Participants will pay $35 each for transportation.
York said a few seats are still available.
He said he initiated the local contingent because he felt a need to make a statement about social injustice in America. York has publicly called for investigation of complaints that a few Village of Monticello police officers have a pattern of treating African-Americans differently than others in the community.
The beating of James Tomlinson, a black man who went to the Monticello police station on July 15 to pick up his daughter's bicycle, is being investigated by state and federal authorities.
"In the 1960s I was too young. What Martin Luther King stood for and died for is being lost. It's not there. We need to stand up for each other and respect each other," York explained.
Called the "Million Man March," the event is being promoted as "a holy day of atonement and reconciliation for, and by, Black men... to publicly proclaim to the global community that the Black man is prepared and moving forward to unify our families and build our communities."
The event is organized by Rev. Benjamin Chavis, past president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other national civil rights leaders.
Four square city miles will be closed to traffic, York said. "We need to see how many Black folk we can get to represent Sullivan County," he added.
To reserve a seat, call York at 914/796-2640.
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