NEW CITY – Local NAACP, nonprofit and faith leaders stood next to a statue of civil rights leader and justice stalwart Thurgood Marshall on May 21 to blast an upcoming visit to this diverse county by President Donald Trump, scheduled for May 22.
U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler was also blasted for focusing his energy on bringing fellow Republican Trump rather than on constituent needs.
“Lawler has always attempted to present himself to us voters as a bipartisan moderate,” said Nicole Hines, NAACP Mid-Hudson Westchester regional director and president of the Nyack NAACP to the dozens who stood in the rain to show support. His actions, though, Hines said, “show he’s not.”
Those in attendance said they’ll be at SUNY Rockland Community College in Suffern Friday when Trump is slated to speak inside the fieldhouse. But they would be outside, lining the college’s entrance to protest Trump and his visit.
Meanwhile, Hines called on people to register to vote and turn out to the polls. And, she said, to stay engaged. “We will continue to organize, agitate, litigate.”
Lawler spokesman Scott Waters said more than 5,000 people had registered for the event — “There are many in Rockland who are excited to hear from President Trump.”
‘Rough and dangerous times’
Hines ticked off a list of Trump administration targets that she said target vulnerable communities, from the administration’s efforts to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1964 to immigration crackdowns.
Those gathered also pointed to the Trump administration’s Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cuts and attacks on transgender individuals.
“True democracy requires boundaries that reflect actual diversity of our communities,” she said.
Rockland County Legislator Dana Stilley cited Rocklanders’ economic struggles amid soaring gas and grocery prices and the president’s comments that he wasn’t thinking about rising costs “not even a little bit.”
She also referenced the Justice Department’s “lawfare and weaponization” fund created as part of Trump’s settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, and the president’s repeated focus on “American exceptionalism” that erases key Black and civil rights history.
Stilley said such moves go beyond political hypocrisy. “That is a moral failure.”
“Rockland will not be divided,” said Stilley, a Democrat whose District 17 includes the river villages in Orangetown and a slice of Clarkstown. “We will never stop fighting for the humanity and dignity for all.”
The Rev. Carl Washington of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Nyack, reminded those gathered that “we stand at the precipice of rough and dangerous times.”
Invoking the “lawless Lawler” moniker often heard at weekly protests at the Four Corners in Nanuet, Washington said it was “time to go get those out who would do us harm.”
Lawler spokesman Waters said the congressman was always happy to welcome a U.S. president to his district, just as he had when former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, visited in 2023.
Visit comes as Lawler faces tough re-election
U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler and the White House announced Trump’s visit earlier this week.
Lawler faces a tough re-election campaign in the 17th District in the November midterm elections.
Lawler is seeking a third term representing a Hudson Valley district that takes in all of Rockland and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess.
The race is rated a “toss up” that either party can win by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Trump has backed the fellow Republican, most recently in a May 7 Truth Social post saying Lawler his “Complete and Total Endorsement” for re-election.
Hines called the visit a “tactical play to secure a congressman’s seat while ignoring the civil rights of its own people.”
Waters questioned the approach by civil rights leaders.
“While we respect those who disagree with the president’s visit, the question is how do you address issues of concern if you are unable to sit down and engage in constructive dialog? Simply yelling and waving signs is not a solution.”
Standing by Thurgood Marshall
The press conference took place alongside the Thurgood Marshall Human Rights Monument, which is next to the historic Dutch Gardens and Rockland County Court House.
The former U.S. Supreme Court justice and NAACP lawyer successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education, the case that led to school desegregation.
Marshall holds a special place in Rockland history: a decade before Brown, Marshall led the 1943 effort to close the dilapidated Brook School for Colored Children and allow Black and indigenous children to attend a modern Hillburn Elementary with white children.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Go to Trump’s Rockland speech and protest outside, NAACP activists say
Reporting by Nancy Cutler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
