|
|
How many times are we going to turn on the news, only to see another murder of a black man or black woman by law enforcement? How much longer are black mothers going to have to tell their children that they will be treated differently by law enforcement? To tell them to have their money out, keep their receipts, don’t wear a hoodie, don’t drive late at night, don’t stand in the same place too long, and list goes on. When are black mothers and fathers, and sisters and brothers, and aunts and uncles, cousins and friends going to have to stop burying their children? When is the world going to understand that Black Lives Matter?
The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor ignited a revolution across the country to demand justice for the victims, peace, equality, and an end to racism. While George Floyd and Breonna Taylor reignited the fight in 2020, this fight has been ongoing for centuries. The epicenter of this fight was once right here in Teaneck, when 16-year-old Phillip Clinton Pannell was shot in the back by Teaneck Police Office Gary Spath.
Phillip Clinton Pannell was a 16-year-old son, brother, relative and friend. On April 10, 1990 Phillip was shot in the back, with his hands up in the air and murdered by a police officer while cornered in a backyard, bordered by a 6 foot fence and hedges. The incident shocked America as this occurred right here in Teaneck, which held the image of a small suburban diverse community.
On the evening of April 10, 1990, Phillip and some of his friends were hanging out around Bryant School. A Teaneck man called the Teaneck Police claiming that the kids were hanging out at the school, and that he saw a gun on one of the boys. Two officers responded to the call, one of which was Gary Spath. The New York Times reported that the officers claimed to have frisked the children against the wall of the school. The police initially claimed that during this frisking, they felt a gun in the pocket of Phillip, and at that point, 16 year old Phillip Pannell ran. It was later revealed at trial, that Phillip Pannell and his friends were never frisked. He was 16, he was black, he had problems at his school in Englewood, he was scared. Phillip had found a starter pistol after their move from Teaneck to Englewood, it is this gun that the police claim he had on him. For as long as I can remember, there have always been tensions between Teaneck High School and Dwight Morrow High School students, and the move from Teaneck to Englewood exacerbated his fears, hence his feeling the need to protect himself with a gun.
Phillip ran across the street into a neighbor’s yard and Spath followed him in pursuit. Two shots were fired by Spath. The first did not hit anything. Phillip ended up in a backyard, with a 6-foot fence, surrounded by hedges. There was nowhere for him to go, so he put his hands up and surrendered. There were two autopsies performed, the first having been deemed inconclusive. When the results of the first autopsy came back, the coroner deemed a second autopsy necessary. His surrender is confirmed by the second autopsy. The second autopsy showed the bullet holes aligned with his jacket and clothes when his arms were raised in a surrender position. With Phillip's hands up in the air saying “don’t shoot!” Teaneck Police Officer Gary Spath shot 16-year-old Phillip Pannell in the back.
Phillip Pannell was pronounced dead at Holy Name Hospital, and was identified by his mother, Thelma Pannell, and 13-year-old sister Natacha Pannell, who upon seeing her brother pulled the grass out of his hair.
The night after the murder, riots erupted in Teaneck. Police cars were overturned, marches took place across the country. People were angry, people were hurt, and people were scared.
Gary Spath was suspended with pay after the shooting. He was charged with reckless manslaughter, New Jersey’s least serious homicide charge, for the murder of Phillip Pannell. Spath’s defense team claimed that Phillip was reaching into his pocket for a gun at the time of the shooting, while the prosecution maintained he was surrendering with his hands raised. The all-white jury deliberated for 8 hours before acquitting Spath. Spath was reinstated as a police officer, and then retired.
Today, after the countless murders of black men and black women, we are demanding the Council place a Black Lives Matter mural with Phillip Pannell’s name on it in a prominent and permanent location in Teaneck.
|
|
|
A Tree for Phillip Clinton Pannell:
“Re-ROOTED”
By Natacha Pannell
|
Looking back over my life throughout the past thirty years has been both mentally draining and rewarding. There have been countless cases of black and brown persons who were killed by law enforcement at a disproportionate rate to whites in similar situations. Each instance serves as a constant reminder of what happened to my brother Phillip ‘Clint’ Pannell.
On a lighter note, I have gone on with my life and I’m proud to say I’m a college graduate, less than 20 credits away from my MPA, and I have plans of furthering my education in the near future. I have an extremely supportive and loving mother, and a father who was also loving and understanding until the day he died in July, 2016. I have a beautiful, loving son, a good and compassionate person inside and out, who I decided to name after my brother. GOD has blessed me with as well rounded, kind, kindred-spirited, and bright soul child as I could wish.
Honestly, I do believe my son’s existence plays a huge part in bringing me out of the darkness and emotional distress I have lived with for many years and with which I still at times find myself struggling. For me it is the memories shared as a little girl with my family, and having an older brother who not only was always there for me at any given moment, but was also truly a loving individual to everyone who knew him.
The thought of having two parents who loved us both, who worked hard to feed and clothe us, provide for our overall well-being, who raised us to be well-mannered children, who gave us practically anything we wanted as kids sustains me. If I had to sum up and describe my childhood I will always tell people “I had a fairytale childhood.” I’m not simply bragging, I’m sharing with the township of Teaneck, NJ how both Clint and I really grew up and my fonder memories as a child living in town.I’m thankful to be alive today, to be able to share the real whole entire truth with not only the community but to the entire world. In no shape or form am I saying my family was a perfect family. I am saying we were a grounded strong-knit, loving family.
My mom and I are in the process of finishing up our book about who my brother was and will always be to us, his friends and most people in the community (his former teachers, school administrators, public officials, civic groups and residents who expressively wanted to share their thoughts and feelings). The book will also include recounts about the incident in 1990, both my parents' lives, our family dynamics, our relocation to Teaneck, NJ, the trial process, lessons learned, and moving forward---leading us to the current day (2020) and the replanting of a tree destroyed by someone thirty years ago, in Tryon Park where Clint often played.
On October 3, 2020 which would have been Clint’s 47th Birthday, my mom, family, friends and community residents all joined together to witness the “Tree of Healing” Memorial ceremony where both the tree and a plaque were placed in the ground to help aid in his remembrance and to unify the community.
For additional info please visit the Foundation website www.phillippannellfoundation.org. The book will be published and for sale by 2021 and a portion of all book proceeds will go towards the Phillip Pannell Foundation Inc. a 501 (c) 3, not for profit organization. Our scholarship fund awards THS and multiple students throughout the state of New Jersey who choose to further their education.
|
|
|
|
|
Why the Teaneck Municipal Council Should Allow the BLM Mural to be painted on the street
By Dr. Henry Pruitt
|
Teaneck, our town, is a special place with a long history of positive intergroup relationships. America on the other hand has a long history of treating African Americans unjustly.
The pandemic will someday be managed, the economic crisis will eventually be conquered but white racism towards black and brown people will be left unresolved as it has been for hundreds of years in America. The BLM mural is a recognition to all of us that this problem has not been effectively dealt with in America and our country must be forced to live up to its promise of Liberty and Justice for All.
The George Floyd murder caused the entire world to re examine just how badly Black Americans have been treated throughout our nation’s history.
This treatment included slavery ( also practiced in Bergen County), racist terroristic behaviors against Black Americans after slavery, governmentally enforced segregation laws, lynching with no accountability for the murderers, discrimination relative to the right to vote, massive imprisonment due to the inability to make bail or hire competent legal representation, significant killing of unarmed people by law enforcement officers with little accountability for their actions and general social derision in all aspects of American life because of the color of their skin.
We need to take a closer look at this problem. The recent discussion centers around rogue police brutality. This is a small component of the problem of white supremacy in America. There have been many incidents involving regular (law abiding citizens). Vehicular homicide driving motor vehicles into crowds of protestors, use of Ak 47 and other high powered rifles and shooting into crowds of protestors, attending church to pray with victims before shooting them, church bombings, murder in all possible ways with no one held accountable. As painful as it may be we must look at the antics of our current president being tolerated because of white privilege. It is my belief that if he was black or brown he would have been impeached and removed from the white house months ago with support from the Democrats and the Republicans.
We have the ability to recognize this national mistreatment by allowing the BLM mural to be painted on the street to indicate that Black lives do matter in Teaneck. This will show our country that Teaneck recognizes the fact that Black people nationally have been treated as though their lives do not matter but that they do matter in this community. It will require courage because of the systemic opposition to this recognition. This is another opportunity for Teaneck to show that it supports social justice. It would be most unfortunate if we do not avail our selves of this opportunity.
|
|
|
Why Black Lives Matter is important to me! - A White Perspective |
|
 |
By Bernard Rous
Black Lives Matter. Don’t Blue Lives Matter? Don’t White Lives Matter? Of course they do. But to focus on these questions is to miss the whole point, from ignorance or malice: Black Lives Matter is a statement and protest that they have not mattered, and continue not to matter - not in the same ways as White lives and police lives.
Since the publicly recorded murder of George Floyd, and the consequent Black Lives Matter protests around the country, Whites are challenged as never before to learn the history of racism in our country in concrete detail, which we were not taught in school; how it still operates today in new and transformed legal guises; and to understand how current experience today in America remains vastly different for Whites and non-Whites, specifically vis-à-vis the police and more generally in myriad other ways, both gross and petty. We are, above all, challenged to learn how to be more than understanding – to be actively anti-Racist.
Now, of all times, we need to be well-informed to answer those whites who feel they are the beleaguered ones whose rights are being suppressed in a demographically changing United States; who feel they are the persecuted who need to rise up and fight for their freedom.
In Teaneck, all segments of the town rallied around to participate in the local march protesting the killing of George Floyd organized by Black Lives Matter members.
Yet now, I fear, only time continues to march on in Teaneck. Four and a half months later, there is still no BLM Mural – no permanent official Teaneck expression of solidarity, of recognition and admission that racial equality has never been achieved in America.
Why not? Teaneck Council has raised legal concerns about town liability for automobile accidents resulting from the location of the mural. It has raised objections to any mention on the mural of Phillip Pannell, a 15 year-old Black youth shot in the back and killed on April 10, 1990 in Teaneck.
Other towns and cities have managed to act more swiftly with official, visible markers that Black lives do matter and memorializing specific lives lost.
As a Jew, haunted by history, I feel the call to act, not to sit idle or to dawdle; not to argue the merits of this placement or that, of specifically naming someone or not. To me these considerations pale in comparison to the urgency of this moment in history when our country is trying to come to grips with its racist past and present.
As a man who is defined as White in America’s racial system, I have been learning just how much and in how many ways my daily life differs from that of people of color. I therefore feel that it is I who needs a highly visible BLM Mural in Teaneck, that recognizes that here too a specific young Black fellow was killed – as a constant reminder to stay focused and committed, and to stay active about America’s “original sin” and all current instantiations of it, no matter how byzantine, labyrinthine, or obfuscated the expression and operations of that sin remain today.
Addendum: Since writing this letter, the Council has approved a proposal for the BLM Mural that is temporary; that does not have high visibility; and that does not mention Phillip Pannell. Prior to the unanimous vote, almost all the residents' comments to Council noted these deficiencies while thanking and applauding the student-led group for persevering.
|
|
|
|
|
By Sue Grand, PhD
I am a white Jewish woman, living in Teaneck for many years. I want Teaneck to stand up for Black Lives Matters. As a Jewish woman, I need us to stand up for our neighbors’ lives. I want my neighbors to feel heard, cherished, protected. I want my neighbors to be respected in ways that they do not feel respected. For many years, I have been studying African-American slavery and its aftermath. For centuries, Black lives have been used, degraded and discarded. When one form of persecution is outlawed, another takes its place. For centuries our Black neighbors have fought for justice, for the safety, dignity and humanity that White people can take for granted. Backlash and reversals have met every moment of progress. Every time I think I know what has happened to Black bodies, I am struck dumb again by the wounds of which I know nothing. What I do know is that there have always been two realities in this country, two systems of justice: one White, the other Black.
This Spring, in the midst of Covid, Black bodies were dying at higher rates. They were being shot for the most minor traffic violations. Breonna Taylor was shot in her bed while sleeping. An officer smiled for the camera as he pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck. These are not exceptions. I am a White woman. I never worry about being stopped by a policeman for a broken taillight or for going through a stop sign. My encounter will never turn lethal. My Black neighbors live with a different, terrifying truth. I cannot sleep peacefully while they live in fear.
My father was a liberator at Dachau. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, I was taught that the Holocaust wasn’t just about ‘us’. It was about the violence and persecution that occur when good people do nothing. Evil accrues power when we blind ourselves to the suffering other; when we imagine that we need not act because we are untouched by this cruelty. Once, Jews needed the world to stand up for ‘us’, and the world did nothing. I want us to stand up for those who are being persecuted, here and now. I want us to emulate my greatest Jewish hero, Abraham Heschel, who marched, arm in arm, with Martin Luther King, Jr. I want to listen to the needs of our Black neighbors, and link arms with them, in the pursuit of justice.
|
By Barbara Ley Toffler, PhD
“And a red-headed Irish boy jumped into the Atlantic Ocean and saved me!” My grandmother’s favorite story about falling out of her mother’s arms on the ship to America in 1891, when she was three months old. It was always followed by the moral of the story, “So you must love everybody no matter the color of their hair or their skin, no matter what their nationality or race. Always remember that.”
My grandma came to this country from Eastern Europe with her mother and two older brothers (2 and 4), to meet her father who had traveled earlier to the Lower East Side of New York to find a job working a sewing machine, and a tenement apartment for his family. Ultimately, she had only an 8th grade education. But making sure her children and grandchildren grew up embracing what we now call “diversity” was her legacy.
My family were not marchers and demonstrators. Our hero was Eleanor Roosevelt, and we truly tried to “light one candle,” and not curse the darkness. Help one person, provide something for one family, maybe be part of a town-wide action, but taking small concrete steps to make something better for someone or some few who were discriminated against because of their skin color (or race or religion).
Then in high school, I learned about apartheid in South Africa, about Nelson Mandela, about Soweto. Someone suggested I read Alan Paton’s 1948 novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, a story of a Black father and a White father and the loss of their sons. In the novel, there is the land – the embracing but divided land – that will be destroyed like their Black son and White son, if the rage and hate continue. The moral of the story is that unless White and Black together work, concrete step by concrete step, to heal themselves and their land, there can be no hope and no future.
Here it is 72 years later, in Teaneck. New Jersey. I think of Paton’s book almost every day. It feels to me like we, here, are a living microcosm of apartheid South Africa. Right now, Black Lives Matter, and specifically the raising of the BLM Mural bearing the name of Philip Pannell, a lost son, is a concrete step that I, a White woman, with extraordinary White Privilege, can take to make our common land fertile again, for all of us. It is serving my cherished obligation to the legacies of my grandma, my parents and my remarkable community to work with my Black neighbors to assure that Black Lives Matter.
|
|
|
|
March 5, 2020 Fitzroy Gayle was viciously attacked over a marijuana arrest in NYC. May 7, 2015 Ronald Hammond received a 20 year sentence for possession of 5 grams of marijuana in Baltimore. September 2011 two Teaneck women (one white and one Asian) were arrested on distribution charges carrying 21 lbs of marijuana, 2 lbs of cocaine, and 28 grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Iowa, and received probation. 2005 a 20 year old white Jewish man, and one of my best friends, went to Yeshiva almost his entire life, who spent the years I knew him being arrested and let go by Teaneck Police on different drug charges, died of an overdose. The war on drugs has been discriminatory at every level, seeing case after case of more than twice the number of black individuals incarcerated for marijuana than white individuals.
August 2003, I was driving from Tenafly to Teaneck after dropping off some friends. At the time, I had glow in the dark decals on my windows that drew attention to my car. I made the left turn onto S Washington Ave in Bergenfield while the light was yellow, and the sirens went on behind me. I pulled over in front of a Bergenfield school. The officer claimed to smell marijuana in my car, neither myself nor the passenger had even smoked any marijuana that night, the passenger had never smoked anything. They suspected marijuana because of the decals. They searched my car, and found $5-$10 worth of marijuana under the seat, and Adderall that didn’t belong to me in my purse.
I immediately arrested for possession of controlled substances, in a school zone. I am a white Jewish female. I was released on bail an hour and a half later, that my father paid, and my parents were able to afford a lawyer for me. There was discussion about losing my license, about jail time because it was in a school zone, we didn’t know what to expect. My lawyer was able to negotiate a conditional probation with the prosecutor and judge which meant 6 months of probation, and if I stayed out of trouble my record would be expunged. The paperwork in my deal stated I would have to see my probation officer monthly and that I would be regularly drug tested. I went to my first probation meeting, they watched me pee in a cup, we spoke for about an hour. I was then told I would not ever have to come back to probation, I was still on probation, but once and a clean drug test was enough for her. At the end of my 6 months my record was expunged. I was arrested in a school zone with marijuana in a car, I kept my license, I took one drug test, one probation meeting and it’s as if it never happened. If my story isn’t the definition of white privilege then I don’t know what is.
Every time I see a black teen being pulled over, or arrested, or worse, I think to myself, will they get a conditional probation? Probably not. The injustice is real, the inequality is real, the murder of innocence is real. I demand a Black Lives Matter mural in a prominent and permanent location in Teaneck because it serves as a symbol, but also a reminder to all the white residents of this town that they have a duty to use their privilege to protect their neighbors. It serves as a reminder that someone isn’t more violent or more prone to crime because of the color of their skin. It serves as a reminder that their lives need protecting, both their literal lives, and their freedom. They are someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, and friend, and they shouldn’t have to fear for their lives over $5 of marijuana, or a hoodie, or a cell phone, or being in their home. If I were black in 2003, I know, not just from the news cycle, but also my bachelors and masters in criminal justice related fields, that I would have been in prison, I wouldn’t have gone home that night on bail, my friend would have been arrested too, even if I still claimed the possession. My record would not be expunged. My story could have been the story of any number of day school teenagers back in 2003 or today. Would two black women in Iowa be given probation for driving with such an extensive amount of drugs? Never.
Black Lives Matters to me because as a white Jewish person, I don’t want to have a privilege, I want racial equality. However, we as a country, we as a state, we as Teaneck have failed. It is therefore my responsibility to educate and use my privilege to fight for justice and peace for my black friends, and black strangers every minute of every day until they are equal and until they are safe.
There are many people in the Jewish community (which I am a part of) in Teaneck that live in a bubble, that don’t see beyond what happens at their schools and shuls. They see the news, but when a Jewish kids gets caught selling or using drugs at one of the Yeshiva high schools, those are handled within the community. They may get kicked out of yeshiva, as my friend who overdosed, but they aren’t entering the juvenile or criminal justice system. We as a community need to look outside and remember that for the same crime, a black teenager is going to prison, probably going to be charged as an adult, they may not even make it to the police station.
I think about my story, about the two Teaneck women who were close friends of mine in high school, about my dear friend, every single day I see another black person murdered by cop, arrested, charged, and incarcerated. I should have served some jail time because I was in a school zone, the Teaneck women should be in prison for a long time, my dear friend should have been arrested and in jail for the distribution and possession of drugs over the years I knew him. None of us did. Fitzroy Gayle, Ronald Hammond, Phillip Pannell, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, we need a Black Lives Matter mural to remember all of their stories, and to remember all lives cannot matter until black lives matter.
|
|
|
|
Teaneck Voices Interview with the Black Lives Matter Committee |
|
Why is the BLM Mural important for Teaneck as a Community?
The BLM mural in Teaneck and those across the country serve as visual reminders for a wide range of issues that pertain to the mistreatment of Black people in America. Teaneck should not be exempt from this messaging that includes police brutality and systemic racism. The entire community benefits when these conversations are brought to the forefront.
Why is having Phillip Pannell's name on it important for Teaneck as a Community?
You cannot tell the story of BLM in Teaneck without mentioning Phillip Pannell. The importance of his name on a mural lets the community know that a young man's life, although taken tragically, was not lost in vain. Ensuring that this young man’s story continues to be told and resonate, not only to point out the towns tragic missteps but to also brings light to how far the town has come, as it pertains to police action, during the past 30 years.
What are the Committee's thoughts on the location that the council has agreed to place the mural?
The committee recognizes the various challenges associated with a street project and has accepted the location in hopes of utilizing this space to bring light to the BLM issues.
Is it better to fight for a permanent and more prominent location, even if it takes longer?
Each step that we take is progress. This is an ongoing process in the fight for awareness, understanding and equality, as it pertains to the plight of Black people in Teaneck and across America.
Did the Committee agree to the mural only being in place for only 90 days, as what is in the resolution?
The time restrictions were within the purview of the Council, of which it states that there are two 90 day stipulations. The committee will readdress and continue this dialogue with the Council as necessary.
What plans does the Committee have to keep BLM alive and strong in Teaneck?
Currently, the committee’s primary focus is on the execution of the township BLM mural and the BOE BLM mural. Within these two community projects we hope to further engage the students and residents throughout the entire community, encouraging them to use these placeholders as educational and ceremonial components. Within any on site programming, we are confident that the strong messaging about BLM will stay alive and strong in Teaneck.
What actions would you like to see from Teaneck Police?
We would like to see the Teaneck Police continue with the absence of police shootings in town, as well as move from discretionary choke hold use to the full elimination. We are aware that body cameras are in the process of being implemented, which will add to the need for transparency. Community policing continues to be a topic of discussion.
Would you like to see a Black Lives Matter Advisory Board created by the Council?
As we are aware advisory boards in Teaneck serve a marginal purpose. We would prefer to see a restructured Community Relations Advisory Board. In addition, if the Council would have appointed Councilwoman Gervonn Romney Rice to one of the two Deputy Mayor positions, it would have been tremendously impactful as it pertains to BLM and the community at large.
|
|
|
|
Maplewood, NJ Black Lives Matter Murals on the Street! |
The New Jersey towns of Teaneck and Maplewood are similar in many ways. They are both towns that have diverse populations. In Teaneck the population is about 45% White, 25% Black and 18% Latino. In Maplewood the population is about 55% White, 37% Black and 7% Latino. Median household income is over $120,000 per year in both towns. College grads make up 60% or more of the population in each town. Town councils are the governing body in each town with Teaneck having seven people on its council and Maplewood having five.
Dean Dafis, currently the Deputy Mayor of Maplewood, provided much of the information about his town for this article. Maplewood currently has two Black Lives Matter murals. One is painted on a heavily traveled county road right by the local high school in solidarity with black and brown students who have often spoken out against systematic racism in their education, and about their lived experience in town where implicit bias had let to their being harassed, and their not feeling welcome everywhere. The other, is painted in front of the Maplewood Police Station.
The murals were community driven efforts in consultation with various community groups and strong local young black voices. Community organizing and broad coalition building have a long history in Maplewood, where rainbow crosswalks adorn one of the most heavily traveled intersections in town. Where pride is celebrated everyday throughout the month of June each year. Where the town sponsors fulesome Black History Month events annually. Where the governing body adopts resolutions that highlight domestic or intimate partner violence, bullying & mental health, access to healthcare inequities, voting, women's rights suppression, and other community health and social justice issues. It was a broad working group coalition that helped create Maplewood's Civilian Review Board two years ago- The Community Board on Police. The first suburban CRB in the state at the time in response to a racially biased excessive use of force incident against local youth of color.
With progress comes setbacks, Deputy Mayor Dafis reported a brewing resistance, and some recent backlash to transformative change and reform as the town considers divesting some law and order resources into social worker, and crisis intervention efforts in order to combat rising mental health issues, and regional homelessness. In response to recent Black Lives Matter peaceful protests, and actions, some Black Lives Matter signs were reportedly removed from private lawns, or All Lives Matter were put up across the street from Black Lives Matter ones. The racial dynamics in town are by no means settled. After all, it was in Maplewood where 25 years ago during white suburban flight after the Newark riots, The Community Coalition on Race was formed by a few concerned neighbors, who are still working in the community and school district integration efforts today. "The struggle continues. The work is not done. The tensions are high right now, and every neighbor, young or old, we all have a duty to work together for the betterment or our community. To ensure all have equal access to opportunity, for the wellness and health of one member will lead to a healthy and well community for all" said Dafis.
Teaneck has had more of a struggle in order to get a Black Lives Matter mural approved. The student led, Black Lives Matter committee met with Town Manager Dean Kazinci and then with Teaneck Mayor Dunleavy several times to discuss the mural. Mayor Dunleavey raised the question of legal issues that might arise. The mayor and the mural committee disagreed about the design and content of the mural, and especially the inclusion of names. Compromises were made and a decision was ultimately reached.
A special Teaneck Town Council meeting took place on October 13, 2010 at 4:30 pm to discuss the Black Lives Matter mural. The town Council’s proposal called for a 90 day temporary mural to be painted in an overflow parking lot which is currently not being used. Several residents have already voiced concern that the mural is not being displayed in a more prominent place and that the mural is only approved for 90 days requiring a renewal vote by the council.
During the meeting residents continued to object to the time it took to come to an agreement about mural, and the temporary nature as well as the placement of the mural.
Here are some comments that were made:
This is like the fight we had to fly the Pride flag in June. By the time the town got around to it the relevant month had passed and the flag was flown in a park and not on the municipal green.
Giving the committee the choice of painting the mural in front of the Rodda Center or on the overflow parking lot is like giving Rosa Parks a choice of sitting in the back of the bus, or walking.
I went to Troy recently and there were Black Lives Matter murals all over the city. Why can’t we do that?
I am the mother of two Black boys and you are putting Black people in a corner.
We live in a diverse town. Because of the pandemic we cannot hold in person meetings or even small group discussions when an important decision is to be made. But we have to make certain that important decisions reflect the voices of all of us. We can do better than we have so far.
|
|
|
|
SPOTLIGHT ON: COUNCILWOMAN GERVONN ROMNEY-RICE |
|
|
|
|
TEANECK'S UNSUNG SHERO
Contributions by Shelley Worrell and Gloria Wilson
|
Within the quaint, quiet, suburban Township of Teaneck, New Jersey, lives a number of unsung sheroes. Having lived here for the past 53 years, I have witnessed first-hand the work that many individuals have done to improve their lives, but more importantly, the lives of others. One unsung "shero" who quickly comes to mind is Gervonn Romney Rice, who I have known for almost five decades. She is truly a person who walks the walk and talks the talk. She wears many hats including that of a doting mother, loving wife, admired sister, loyal friend, public servant and leader with a long history of community activism, service and advocacy. Yes, she is a doer!
Married to Willie Rice for 27 years, they are the proud parents of 3 sons Gerard 25, Jordan 20 and Jullian 18 all products of Teaneck Public Schools and she is very happy that they are all on their journey to independence. She took time off to raise her sons and Jullian, the youngest, had complications at birth and wasn’t expected to live. In addition to advocating for her son Julian, an extremely intelligent young man, who experienced complications at birth, she has also advocated for and still advocates for those who feel as if they have no voice nor representation. Thus, began the numerous doctor visits, therapists, IEP meetings and advocacy. Through advocating for her own children, she found herself sharing all the resources she researched and advocating for classrooms, schools and ultimately the school district as a Board of Education Trustee. Her election to the Board of Education (3 terms), where she served as Vice President for 3 years, afforded her the opportune platform to assist parents and students in various ways. She also assisted and advocated for many others during her tenure as PTO President at Bryant School, PTO Council President and as a member of the Executive Board of Special Parents of Teaneck (SPOT). Ms. Rice has worked with Domestic Violence victims, participated in several voter registration drives and a host of other community programs.
Her work ethic and sense of community is unmatched and have not gone unnoticed. Following the untimely passing of Mayor Lizette Parker, Gervonn was appointed to the Teaneck Township Council in 2016. Following her appointment, she ran a successful campaign in 2018 and was elected as the top vote recipient with 700 more votes than the next candidate. Unfortunately, as the only Councilwoman, who just happens to be African-American, she faces a host of opposition. However, this has not stopped her from standing her ground and persevering. Her faith, strong will and determination have allowed her to continue pushing onward and upward.
Gervonn’s educational and advocacy skill sets have afforded her the opportunity to be hired as a Parent-Liaison with the Teaneck Board of Education. In essence, she is doing exactly what her numerous years of service as a leader, public servant, and advocate have prepared her to do.
This Unsung Shero has received numerous awards and acknowledgements surrounding her commitment to family, education and community, and undoubtedly she will receive many more in her lifetime. Several of her awards include, but are certainly not limited to, being named as a Trailblazer by Lizette Parker, Mother of the Year by the Bergen County, NJ Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, and recently honored by Nu Beta Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Amongst Those Making a Difference in the Community.
Gervonn Romney Rice, one of Teaneck’s Unsung Sheroes, has truly made and is still making a difference in Teaneck.
|
|
|
Support Teaneck's Black Owned Restaurants! |
|
Do you know someone who would be interested in our newsletter? Send us their E-mail address!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
