White supremacist Hal Turner holds rally in Kingston

Nate Kimball Staff Writer

In Kingston, NY, 15 miles north of Vassar and across the Hudson, New Jersey talk show radio host and known white supremacist Hal Turner organized a rally on Nov. 19 as a demonstration against recent racial violence in Kingston High School between white students and students of color.

Turner protested violence against white students at Kingston High School, calling for equal rights in hate crime laws for all students. Several local news sources covered the rally, which lasted for approximately one hour. According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, no one at the rally was arrested.

“As of tonight, two dozen Ku Klux Klansmen are in Kingston, and the white students had better be left alone,” said Turner in his speech Saturday morning.

Neither the ALANA center nor the College administration were involved in the counter-rally, and no Vassar students participated either.

Director of the ALANA center Yolanda Ramos said that she knew about the rally, and decided not to get involved in the counter-rally.

Ed Pittman, Associate Dean of the College, said that he did not know about the rally until after the event but commented on the counter-rally in an e-mailed statement. He said, “It is always affirming to see that good people will stand up when racism surfaces anywhere.”

Mona Montgomery, an attorney from California who spoke at the rally, said that she is “tired of feeling apologetic for being white.” Montgomery’s speech focused on the oppression of white Christians, calling the Holocaust a “hoax” and decrying the “unequal enforcement of hate crime laws.”

Numbering about 30, the ralliers were protected by 200 policemen who came in from around Dutchess and Ulster Counties and from as far away as New York City.

The protesters for the most part were from New Jersey and hoisted signs saying such things as “I drove 100 miles to protest black crime against your child.”

The ralliers were met with a host of groups that protested their actions. Counter-ralliers assembled to voice dissenting opinions.

Joseph Arrindall from Harlem came with his friends to protest the white supremacist groups. “I would like to see Hal Turner try something like this in Harlem,” commented Arrindall.
Arrindall and others were verbally abused and videotaped against their will by members of the white supremacist group and were not protected by police.

“I can’t understand your lingo, black man,” shouted the videotaper at Arrindall.
As the ralliers moved down the street with their security surrounding them on all sides, members of Freestyle Frolicking, a dance group in Kingston, shouted “You hate God” to the white supremacists.

They were met with the reply, “We are the children of God.”
Hrana Janto, the organizer of Dance New England and a member of Freestyle Frolicking, said that the members of the group did not know about the rally until a few days before, and decided to attend in order to “spread love and good energy” in a grim, tense atmosphere.

Coming together from several locations across the Northeast, they distributed free doughnuts and coffee, and danced to hip hop music. They said they did so as a form of protest against the sense of hate on the streets of Kingston from the rally.

“We’re not all activists, but when we get together and see something like this happening, we can’t sit and do nothing,” said Janto.