You’re invited!

New Rochelle Against Racism (New RoAR) will celebrate its tenth anniversary at a dinner party on Friday, April 26, at Bethesda Baptist Church beginning at 6 pm.

New Rochelle Against Racism (New RoAR) has been organizing for change in New Rochelle since the spring of 2014.  A multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational community group committed to dismantling structural racism in New Rochelle, New RoAR has been involved directly in advocating for change in policing, education, housing, downtown development, environmental justice and other areas.  A listing of New RoAR’s activities over the past decade can be found at the end of this article.

Meeting weekly at Bethesda Baptist Church, then virtually during the pandemic, New RoAR’s study and organizing has been based on the principles of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, a national organization that has trained thousands of people in anti-racism for over 40 years.

In its ten years of work, New RoAR has:

All past, present, and future New RoAR members are invited to join New RoAR on April 26th for dinner, celebration, and a look back on New RoAR’s successes, failures, and lessons learned, and a look ahead to future work together.  

Please join us and contribute to this celebration!  How you can help:

Please share information with us at newroar1@gmail.com by April 19th.

Here’s our (partial) list of New RoAR activities over the past ten years:

 Learning activities

• Viewed powerful documentaries (such as “Racism:The Power of Illusion”) and read challenging books (such as Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”)
• Created leadership training cohorts within New Roar to support local action 
• Practiced working in multi-racial teams 
• Explored concepts such as Internalized Racial Oppression (both Internalized Racial Inferiority and Internalized Racial Superiority) and whiteness as property 

Action activities

Economic Development & Jobs

• Helped save the New Rochelle Public Library from being confiscated by downtown development
• Brought to New Rochelle the “Pathways to Apprenticeship” pre-apprenticeship program providing direct entry into unionized construction trades for graduates
• Demanded compliance and improvements to the City’s Economic Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy
• Developed a directory of Black-owned businesses 
• Presented an alternative vision for the LINC

Education

• Worked with other community groups to demand the ouster of School Superintendent Laura Feijoo and to elect members of the Board of Education who would better represent the New Rochelle community 
• Worked with the School Board to develop a school buddy program, engaging the board members to visit and get to know the schools
• Organized for the first School Board meeting held in the Lincoln School District since the demolition of the neighborhood public school
• Developed coalitions to prevent the placement of SROs (Security Resource Officers) in our public schools
• Worked with the community to develop Parent-Teacher-Staff Associations (PTSAs) for the Lincoln Attendance Zone and the Huguenot Academy

Social Justice/Police Reform

• Supported and established the Youth-Police Initiative (YPI) to increase understanding between youth and police 
• Helped create the Youth Justice Equity Team (YJET) of New Rochelle
• Participated in Court Watch 
• Worked with other organizations  to demand a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) to provide civilian oversight of the NRPD

Environmental Justice

• Organized the Environmental Racism Trolley Tour
• Organized learning events to protest the development of a Starbucks drive-thru adjacent to public and supportive housing 

 Education on the History of Black New Rochelle

• Shared information about the Black History of New Rochelle, such as Pugsley Hollow and Carpenter Cemetery
• Pushed the city to identify and honor Black burial grounds in New Rochelle 

City Government

• Organized to elect a new City Council which is more representative of the New Rochelle community
• Organized transportation to polling places for seniors and persons with disabilities 

Health

• Supported the development of New Rochelle’s first Community Health Center 
• Distributed food grown in the Lincoln Community Garden to community agencies  

Other

• Provided Undoing Racism workshops to labor, school board, library board, city council, community members and the mayor
• Developed strategic partnerships with faith leaders, local labor unions, and community partners through the New Rochelle Alliance for Justice (NRAJ) 
• Created the New RoAR Hotline to support community members during Covid
• Formed Women Be A Blessing (WBAB) to support community members in need during and after Covid 
• Worked to create more affordable Summer Camps 
• Created New RoAR News, New Rochelle’s anti-racist news blog