During the 8th March to support Black lives mattering more, many speakers spoke at a soundstage down at Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park on July 25, 2020. This protest was organized by Next Step Hudson Valley and Ali T. Muhammad, a former council member in Beacon for Ward 2, and a local community organizer that has been working to bring the sister-cities of Dutchess and Orange Counties together for this movement and improved way of life.

Both of their speeches are below. Transcription by Yvonne DeMoss.

INTRODUCTION: Ali T. Muhammad’s Introduction for Reuben Simmons

Ali T. Muhammad Photo Credit: Ali T. Muhammad — Ali T. Muhammad
*Photo Credit: Ali T. Muhammad*

“You're hearing it. You're hearing it from our people, from around the county, from the area that are involved, that are involved in so many different facets that are needed.

”Something that Matty and his family and Club Draw were working on, based off of a lot of discussions that we've had. Based off of experience. Experiences in these communities. Things that we got to think about with, why Black lives matter.

”American music is Black music. Privilege is thinking something is not a problem when it's not a problem to you, personally. Systemic racism is real. Teach your child early what you learned late. Racism is a public health crisis. Racial justice is a feminist issue. Black trans lives matter. Decolonize education. Decolonize health care.

”I heard “Decolonize wellness.” That was fire. I never heard that before. That's a good one. Uproot systemic racism. Uproot white supremacy from your personal life. Uproot white supremacy from your personal life.

”Systemic oppression is not broke, a broken system. You cannot fix a system that works exactly as it was intended. We need to rebuild our systems to serve the people. Standing up for your fellow Americans is the act of a true patriot.

”Amplify Black voices. Racism is so American that when you protest it, people think you are protesting America. “Radical means grasping at the root.” Angela Davis. “Walls turned sideways are bridges.” Angela Davis. “I can't believe what you say because I see what you do.” James Baldwin, Newburgh native. Freedom is not a state. It is an act.” John Lewis.

”I say this to say we need to create opportunities like this so that way we could educate more. I mean with memes and social media, there's ways to reach more people. These are these ideas are not solely to one person like Anusha said. “Decolonize wellness.” There's so many areas that we need to work in and again that's why we're here.

”The next person that I'm going to call up is Reuben Simmons, Someone I've been working with and I've been close with for years. He works for the City of Beacon and he has a story to share, but most importantly solutions for what's next. Reuben.

”Again, we have water straight ahead. We've got some snacks if somebody needs food or needs something, please reach out. We can get you something delivered or ordered because I don't know if everybody likes pizza or not. But if you do need something, really come over, okay. Reuben Simmons.”

SPEECH: Reuben Simmons

Reuben Simmons Photo Credit: Reuben Simmons — Reuben Simmons
*Photo Credit: Reuben Simmons*

“Good afternoon, like Ali said, my name is Reuben Simmons but I'm also known in this community as Coach Yogi. I work in the city. I work in the city of Beacon Highway Department. I was born and raised in the city [of Beacon]. I was born in the hospital before it closed in ’84, Highland Hospital off of Delavan Avenue. I lived in the city my whole time.

”Anybody from Beacon here? Make some noise if you're from Beacon, if you live in Beacon, if you do anything in Beacon, if you came to support Beacon, you came from out of town, you make some noise! I'm gonna touch on the importance of both of those reasons, I will be remiss if I don't thank the organizers of Beacon 4 Black Lives.

”I want to publicly thank Ciarda Hall, Stefon Stewart, Xavier Mayo, Cedric Parksdale, and Justice McCray. If it wasn't for the momentum that they built with the Black lives movement and the protests that they've been doing in the city, I'll tell you right now. I wouldn't be standing here, today.

”People call me a community leader. My response? Leader? I'm no leader. ‘I do what I have to do and sometimes people follow.’ Edgar Friendly. Those young adults motivated me and I seen something in em’ that I seen when I was younger and people identified me as a leader so I thank them.

”This is the 8th protest in this city. No looting, no rioting, and nothing negative. All peaceful. Give them a round of applause. Anybody there last Sunday and Beacon up on 9D? Well, we're going to talk about that because we're going to talk about why it's so important.

”Last Sunday, there was a Support the Police campaign rally. We're seeing all over the nation all over the country that these rallies are dividing communities. We brought our stance to their rally. They haven't hijacked or counter protested any of our protests. The goal wasn't to counter protest them. The goal was to let them know we got issues here and we want to make sure that we come to the table and you hear our issues. Word spread out.

”There's people from Beacon and support just like you guys here from out of town so automatically we cannot, we cannot control the social media. (train whistle blows) That's one reason Beacon’s so popular, the train to the city, we cannot control the narratives that are going to be written all over Facebook. But what I saw on Saturday, last Saturday in Pleasant Valley. Did you guys see that? That is ugly for any community. That will not help move things forward.

”Sunday, I participated in a demonstration that showed you can support the police. You can counter protest and support Black Lives Matter and the demonstration can be done peacefully because that is your constitutional right to stand for what you believe in and we demonstrated it last Sunday here in the city of Beacon. For some people may not know some good things came out of that.

”I'm gonna tell you right now, people, that I've seen that seen me grow up in the city as a child, some white people they're uncomfortable right now. They're upset, they're confused, they're saying "Yogi we know you. What were you doing on the other side?" My reply is there is no other side. This is one Beacon and subconsciously you don't understand what we said, what we mean when we say Black lives matter and you need to know and if we have to go to war, know where I'll be if you try to divide this community.”

“I’m gonna tell you right now, people, that I’ve seen that seen me grow up in the city as a child, some white people they’re uncomfortable right now. They’re upset, they’re confused, they’re saying “Yogi we know you. What were you doing on the other side?” My reply is there is no other side. This is one Beacon.”

— Reuben Simmons

[Editor’s Note: For reference, back during the moving of the bench controversy, former Mayor Randy Casale spoke out for the first time since his term as mayor. He was emotional during discussions of moving the bench that was a dedication to his stepson. In voicing his disagreement, he used language like “I will divide this city if they move the bench,” in his social media, and in the original 3hr recording of a podcast on “Wait, What Is That?”]

”There's going to be another shout out I want to give. We went from one end of the city all the way to the river side of the city. You've seen all the police officers out there. The police department's union has told me, has confirmed with me that they want to sit at the table with us to address the issues moving forward. So I want to applaud them for helping us protest peacefully and I want to applaud them for being the big people to understand that they want to sit with us and hear what we have to say, and that is done by Justice McCray.

”Pleasant Valley is-was very ugly. It was very dangerous. What I didn't know last Sunday, where some people went to Pleasant Valley Saturday, those same people came to support us in Beacon on Sunday and I want to apologize to them, because yes I do move militant like Malcolm. My goal is to, to increase peace like Martin, so sometimes I come off with no compassion. So if there's anybody that felt disrespected by me on Sunday, I apologize.

”But at no time did I ever felt you were in danger in my city cause I'm gonna tell you right now: My mother was out there. My sisters were out there. My uncle was out there standing on the other side of the street. He came over across the street for conversation. So if my family's out there, I wanna make sure nothing happens to them. So please believe nothing's gonna happen to you.

”The police were out there. You seen the way the police respect what we're doing here. That's what we need in every community. Pleasant Valley, I don't even know if they have a police department. They're patrolled by state troopers. They're patrolled by county sheriffs. And yes, you could give a boo to the county sheriffs. That's a big reason why I believe we need to start in cities, because cities have their own police department.

”The City of Newburgh has a police department. The City of Poughkeepsie has a police department, and we see them at our community events. When you guys are out there, the people at the counter protest last Saturday, last Sunday in Beacon. The police that you see, I see them all the time. When you guys are in your community, you guys see these people all the time. Let's make sure we're having that conversation and we're bridging the gap. That was a goal of ours last Sunday when we went up for the counter protest.

”Yes I know, that's what it looks like on the optics. I'm not trying to control optics, I'm trying to move this city forward and if we could create a blueprint I would be happy. I would be honored to stand with you guys in your community and see how we could address things forward because you need your local elected leadership which right now, did you see any of them here? I want to give a shout out to them, that's why I want to make sure.

”You need your local elected officials, you need police representation and if they're in a union you need that union representation and you need the Black community. You need to support the police community, and that's a table that we're currently building right now in the city of Beacon. And I'm proud of everyone who's doing the work and I just want to applaud them and I just want to let you guys know, thank you for the support and I think what we're doing here, we could do in many other communities, but it's going to take you as the individual.

”I'm going to wrap it up because I know we're going to move into breakout sessions. Aliyah that has asked me to stand in for, uh, on, on employment. I work in the city of Beacon. I work in the Highway Department. I work my way up. I share the story with anybody who wants to come to the area I'll be at, I'll probably be over here, um, we'll talk about Civil Service Law. We'll talk about application processes. We're talking about how people get hired, how people don't get hired. School districts. Public, um, police departments, things like, things of that nature.

”Once again I just want to thank everybody. I think we're doing good work to move things forward and I want to thank you guys for allowing me to speak. Once again, my name is Ruben Simmons, they call me Coach Yogi.”