This past week’s Orangetown Town Board meeting was one of the quickest meetings in recent memory On the evening of February 24th the board of Orangetown met to discuss various appointments and approvals. Paul Valentine led the board in Teresa Kenny’s absence through a quick meeting totaling just 14 minutes, with some calling it a […]
At Fieldstone Middle School, intersectional community building is taking root thanks to the efforts of Michael Arterberry and his program, The Power of Peace. This program, implemented in groups of 20 students over the course of 2-days, takes both the kids and the teachers on a journey of empathy, discovery, and understanding. Arterberry, the founder […]
Part Two: Post 1900 During the Great Migration era, many Black-Americans in the south traveled north, often to find work in cities like New York City or Chicago. In Rockland, numerous Black laborers were recruited to work in factories and plants here. Many had come up from NYC, but many more were recruited directly from […]
The Palisades Shopping Center is one of the most popular attractions that Rockland has to offer and is a cornerstone of the community. People from all over the NYC metro area know this mall and visit it frequently, bringing in significant amounts of revenue for the county and the town of Clarkstown. In recent years, […]
Part One: Pre-1900 The African American community of Rockland County is older than the United States itself. The Dutch, when they first settled what was then the New Netherlands colony, actively participated in the trans-atlantic slave trade. Enslaved people had a presence in the Hudson Valley from as early as 1626, three years after the […]
On the evening of February 10th the town board of Orangetown honored the town’s first African-American police officer, Courtney F. Smith. Smith, who passed away in 2015, was a trail blazer and beloved member of the Nyack and Orangetown community. For the ceremony, Teresa Kenny read out a proclamation honoring Courtney Smith and members of […]