Towns of Rockland County, NY

By Keith S. Shikowitz

Haverstraw, NY- A good education is one of the most important things for our children to have to be able to succeed in life. Sometimes extra help is needed and a place to get it is a necessity. Virginia Norfleet and the people of the Haverstraw African American Connection (HAAC) have opened such a place in the Village of Haverstraw, the Education and Resource Center located at 13 New Main Street. 

 The center offers youth a safe place to go for tutoring, language, music, and a place to go after the community center closes as well as to prevent them from becoming latch – key kids because their parents must work. Norfleet said, “We are a community that offers all kinds of activities for the kids.”   

 The grand opening for the center was held on August 9, 2023. Many local government officials were in attendance. Village of Haverstraw Mayor, Mike Kohut, Village Deputy Mayor, Gil Carlevaro, Village of West Haverstraw Trustee, Ralph Kirschkel, Haverstraw Town Supervisor, Howard Phillips, District Attorney, Tom Walsh, County Clerk, Donna Silverman, and Michael Grant, current County legislator for Legislative District 2. Other VIPs included, Executive Director of Rockland Holocaust Museum Center for Tolerance and Education, Andrea Myer Winograd, and Paul Adler Esquire, who served as Master of Ceremonies. 

Kirschkel said about the center, “I’m very excited today to have this addition being put in our neighboring Village of Haverstraw. It will just help educate our children and just move everything forward and have a place where we can hold meetings, instruction, and learning for all of the two villages and the town. We’re very excited to finally have a spot. Mrs. Norfleet with all she’s done, it’s been incredible with what she’s been able to accomplish, and this will take it to another level…It’s an education of history, help for the children. Just a place for them to go. So, we’re super excited to have this so close to our village in the North Rockland area.”

Grant felt that this was a terrific event for today in Haverstraw. “It’s a great facility they’re creating here for the kids in Haverstraw for after school. The Haverstraw African American Connection has done a terrific job. Ginny and Jackie and I look forward to seeing a great success.” 

“It’s just really great being here. It’s been a long time coming. They’ve been working really hard getting the building, getting the permits and everything in order. For this day to finally be here, it’s just wonderful to share in the joy that it’s going to bring to this community. It’s a great day.” Silverman stated. 

 You would think that a project like this would have a lot of governmental help and input to get it done. According to Mayor Kohut this was not the case. “This is Ginny’s program with the HAAC. Obviously she kept me abreast of it, but this is her baby. Her way of giving back to the community, making sure kids have a place to go after school, get some educational help, etc. It’s a great thing. Any time we have programs for young people, it’s positive.” 

The speech making portion of the day began with Andrea Myer Winograd, Executive Director Rockland Holocaust Museum Center for Tolerance and Education. I have had the privilege of working with Virginia Norfleet side by side with programs that the two organizations do called Better Together. I have the privilege of being here today and I have the great privilege of working with Virginia. My day starts off, I know Connie, you say it starts off with you and it does and then I might get to talk to her after she sees to her family. It’s such a privilege to speak with somebody every single day that dedicates her life to the people. Everyday I hear about the work that she is doing up til one in the morning, servicing kids. Kids that can’t find homes or in very precarious positions. That’s Virginia Norfleet. Today she opens up this institution that serves the community morning, noon and night we know that’s Virginia and so congratulations Virginia and all of the HAAC for this day. I am going to bring up a dear friend and colleague of mine, Mr. Paul Adler Esquire. He is going to be the MC of the day. I’m so glad I am speaking before him because he speaks so eloquently.” Adler added in “And so long.” 

“First of all welcome to everyone here. This is really a great day for Haverstraw but it’s also a great day for the County of Rockland as well. When you think about what the Haverstraw African American Connection does throughout the entire county with its roots here in Haverstraw, the outreach it gives to the entire county, is something extraordinary and we’re really honored to witness it. We’re honored to be in Ginny Norfleet’s presence because she not only walks the walk, she talks the talk. Sometimes she runs the run. I can tell you that in all of my years being in volved in the county, I had no greater honor than being inducted into the Civil Rights Hall of Fame right beside Ginny Norfleet. I say that respectfully because it was really just along side, I think I was a consolation prize. Right Connie, is that not right? You were the commissioner then. They knew we were having such a great love affair so that’s how I got it.” 

Adler proceeded to continue to praise Norfleet’s work in the community. “I will say this, when you look at the kind of work that Ginny does. The UNSUNG work that Ginny does. She eschews the spotlight. She’s not interested in getting the accolades. Each of you is sitting poised looking at the education and resource center right here. That’s not just a storefront to aggrandize the HAAC. That’s a storefront that is designed to pull our kids in at the times of day when they need it the most. When everything else is closing down and the kids are roaming the streets and trouble just seems to happen sometimes because you’re not occupied. You don’t have something to engage you intellectually. That’s been answered here in the Village of Haverstraw. That gets answered because there’s good leadership in the Village of Haverstraw. People like Mayor Mike Kohut who also talks the talk, walks the walk and makes sure that this village serves EVERYONE.” 

 Songs tell a lot about a people. National anthems show the pride of a nation, a people or a culture. The song that is known as the African American Anthem is called “Lift Every Voice” was sung before the rest of the program continued. Afterwards, Adler stated, “We just heard “Lift Every Voice.” Lift EVERY voice. Not SOME voices. Not more voices than other voices. Lift every voice. In some respects, that national anthem is the African American Anthem. It is all of our national anthem because it is colorblind in its message. I’ve had the privilege of being in the NAACP now for 48 years and I can tell you that, that mission of bringing folks together through civil rights, through understanding only happens on a granular level.”

He added, “When we know each other. When we respect each other. It doesn’t mean we have to agree with each other. It means we have to respectfully disagree with each other when we do disagree. We have to be constructive about it. We see Rockland County coming apart at the seams in many ways. There’s a lot of tension in the county and then there are people like Ginny and Andrea at the Holocaust Museum who strive to bring people together with an organization like Better Together. It’s just so simple. Just think of the name. Better Together. We are better together. We are that beautiful mosaic that they call New York. Where the American dream. It’s where the melting pot happens. Where we take pride in everyone else’s culture and sometimes appropriate it towards our own because we love what we see. We love the culture. We love the beauty of what everybody brings to it. Rather than look at it and say they’re odd, or they do this or that culture doesn’t appeal to me. Sometimes you have to be open to letting your heart feel it. You have to take a look at what other people are doing and say how can I add to that? How can I make this place better than when we found it?”

Adler went back to listing Norfleet’s accomplishments and background. From being a lifelong resident of Rockland County, her deep, very deep roots in Haverstraw, to her finding out that the house she was taking down was a part of the underground railroad and finding the brick in 2005 that turned out to be from the first Free African American Methodist Church in Rockland County. In addition, her induction into the Human Rights Commission Hall of Fame. 

“There were artifacts there. That was a reawakening for Ginny. It was a call to action because Ginny let that come into her heart. Bobby Kennedy used to say, “If it’s in your heart and in your mind, it will be on your lips.” We need to start to do that. We need to support places like the Education and Resource Center just over my shoulder because that’s where the next generation of kids, maybe the next generation of voters for (pointing to his right as Supervisor Phillips arrived) Howard Phillips, I don’t know. Howard’s been here since, I think it was 1616. He knew the Haverstraws. Didn’t you play with one of the Haverstraw kids? He said his father knew Henry Hudson. Howie is really very old. I know him a long time. He’s very old. We’re glad to have you here Supervisor and we’re going to hear from our Mayor and then I’m going to acknowledge some of our other elected officials here today.”

One of Norfleet’s and Myer Winograd’s visions is to be better together. Adler reiterated that sentiment. “We can work together. That’s an enormous message. One that everybody has a responsibility to carry forward.”

He introduced Village of Haverstraw mayor Mike Kohut. “I want to call up the outstanding Mayor of this village who has done a wonderful job in advocating not only here locally meeting with people, but bringing in millions and millions of state and federal dollars to help this place to become the gem of the Hudson that it was and will continue to be.”

“Unfortunately, following Paul in speaking is something like the poor bastard who had to follow Martin Luther King Jr. after his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. He’s very good at his job. I’ll have to give him that. I’m here just to say very few words speaking to what the Haverstraw African American Connection has meant here in the Village of Haverstraw. It was an awakening. Going back a number of years after Ginny found the brick and started filling in the blanks of OUR COMMON HISTORY. That’s what it is. It’ not Black history. It’s not White history. It’s just history. She filled in the blanks and she continues to fill in the blanks.”

Part of that is as Paul said, Better Together. Working together. That’s what we do here and when we find something that’s missing, we try to fill that gap. Ginny found something that was missing. That’s what the whole purpose of the center, the Education and Resource Center across the street is. As Paul said, giving an opportunity for kids to have a positive place to go. A positive role model to follow. Getting them off the streets and doing positive things for them. That’s what it’s all about. She’s been striving to do that for all the years I’ve known her.” He said proudly. 

“It’s morphed over time. It will continue to morph and it will continue to expand and become yet another jewel in the crown that is Haverstraw because Haverstraw grew up as a melting pot. Haverstraw Village, 170 years at this point. We’ve always been a melting pot and knock on wood we’ll always be a melting pot. That means learning other peoples’ and religions. Learning what makes people tick and becoming part of that and they becoming part of you. That’s what this is all about. Ginny, thank you for yet another jewel in the crown in the Village of Haverstraw and I just might add that’s the second new, it’s not a business, but the second new storefront in a month. Right next door is Flours a pasta place, fresh pasta and fresh sauces and pastries brand new to the village two lovely ladies who opened that. And Ginny’s right next door. New businesses, new ideas, fresh thinking in the Village of Haverstraw.”

Adler, like any good MC, taking another fun shot at Phillips said, “I know this is a, if you didn’t know what the definition of an oxymoron is, I’m going to give it to you. I’m going to invite Supervisor Phillips up for a FEW words.” 

Phillips went right along with the good-natured ribbing, “It’s worse than having Groucho Marx introduce you.” He continued, “We are here today for a wonderful event. It’s really special. Haverstraw has such a rich history. As a matter of fact whenever I say that, I should always start with, HISTORICAL HAVERSTRAW. We’ve had so many wonderful things here. So many things to be proud of. Whether it’s the beautiful view of the Hudson River. Whether it’s the Villages or the towns. Beautiful parks at Bowline and Emmaline. You can go on and on and our new recreation facility.”

When he finished listing the physical beauty and attractions in the town, he got down to the basics of what everyone was saying about what makes the town and village of Haverstraw a great place to live. “Over all of our history, it’s been the people. People that have come here with nothing, ABSOLUTELY nothing but a dream and they made it. Even those people who were forced to our shores, it became home. We’ve opened up our gates in this community to everyone. I am so proud of the fact that out of all of the different groups that have come here. ALL the people. We’ve all come together. It’s been a family and what greater thing can you say than that Haverstraw is a huge family. So, Ginny, today’s your day and this wonderful thing you’ve created. There can’t be enough activities for our children. Especially when it comes to education and learning. It’s key because we have people working. Let’s face it. We have single mothers. Single fathers. We have people working three or four jobs. We need to make sure that our children have the same advantages as every other child in this country. That’s how you get ahead. That’s how you reach the American dream. That’s what it means to be a community. More importantly Ginny, that’s what it means to be a family. I’ll leave you with this and I have said it before at one of Ginny’s other events, ’Our Lord left us with the commandments. I give you a new commandment, love one another as I have loved you. By this, the world will know that you are my disciples when you love one another. Thank you Ginny.”

No one was safe from Adler’s pleasant wit. He finished ribbing Phillips by ‘complaining’, “He read my notes. That wasn’t nice Howard. You said everything I’ve written down.” He then turned his sites on another of the elected dignitaries in attendance. “There’s an unfortunate soul standing in the sun which is something he should never do. His name is Thomas Walsh. He’s not meant, he wasn’t built, he’s not designed to stand in the sun. Look at him now, he’s like a lobster. Come on up DA. Da Tom Walsh.”

Walsh stayed on the road Adler had led him to. He walked up to the podium with a big yellow envelope. “I may be red, but it’s only out of happiness for Ms. Norfleet. Mr. Adler, you did a great job. Our Supervisor Phillips did a great job speaking as did Mayor Kohut. But I learned a long time ago that a picture is worth a thousand words. So Ms. Norfleet, will you come up for your picture. When the Harriet Tubman statue was in the village at the park at the end of Division Street. What we saw there was Ms. Tubman leading the children in the 19^th century to freedom. Today we have Ginny Norfleet leading our children in the Village of Haverstraw in Rockland County into the 21^st century so they can flourish, prosper and enjoy all of the benefits of this great country. Let’s all stand up in honor of Ms. Norfleet.”

“I must tell you I got nervous when Tom showed up with an envelope like this.” Adler held up the big yellow envelope Walsh had the picture in. “I thought it was a subpoena. (Wiping “sweat” form his head) Thank God it’s only a photo. And thank God it was THAT photo. 

He introduced all of the other elected officials who were in attendance who had not spoken. After which he went into his introduction of the final speaker of the afternoon. The guest of honor, Virginia Norfleet.

“I think that Howard hit on a really important theme and that is we are family. There’s the Rockland family and then there’s the Haverstraw family. In that Haverstraw family, that blood runs thick in the Haverstraw family. Ginny has made it her point to keep Haverstraw in the forefront, to make sure that kids of every age, every color, every ethnicity, every race, every creed, has that opportunity to thrive. She is really one of God’s soldiers, doing what needs to be done to bring this community together. She does it every time she opens her eyes. Every time she reaches out thinking about bringing this community together. Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome for Ginny Norfleet.”

Besides the theme of family, the sub theme of the day was comedy. Norfleet got up to the podium, looked at the crowd, and said, “That’s it.” raised her hands waving goodbye. “I’m just kidding. Can you hear me? I’m going to ask you to travel back with me a bit and then I’m going to bring you forward. When my grandfather was leaving he south, because he was going to be lynched. He ended up in Suffolk Virginia. In Suffolk Va. he ran into somebody. At the time people would have called them colored men. They told him come with us to Haverstraw. We’re going to work in the brick yards. My grandfather came with others to the brickyards of Haverstraw to work.”

With pride in her eyes and her tone she exclaimed, “He would have been SHOCKED at what is going on here now! He is the grandchild of a slave. For his granddaughter to stand at this podium today and do what I do in the village that he loved enough to raise his child, he would be floored. In the Bible it says there is a cloud of witnesses that stand there at the edge of heaven cheering you on as you cross your finish line, or as you aim for your finish line. For me that would be my grandfather, my grandmother, my mother, my father and all of my sisters who have gone on before me. They believed in this village and they taught me to believe in this village. To love this place. To love ALL people. To welcome people here to be of assistance to people here.” 

Continuing on the background that got her to where she is and what made her the person she is today, she said, “One thing my mother taught me, one time somebody said to my mother, as she was the preacher in the church at St. Thomas, where will you get your help from? She said everything I need is in my house. They didn’t know she had nine kids, a husband and her mother in the house. The story is that I have learned the same thing. People say how? Michael would say, I give Mike some crazy ideas. Mike, I want to do this, Ginny, where will we get the money? Don’t worry about it. Ginny how and what are we going to do about the weather. Don’t worry about it. I always tell him not to worry because I know before I have a vision, God has already made PROVISIONS for me.”

There’s no doubt about it. I’m going to prove something to you. For anybody who does NOT believe that there’s a God as my mama would say, there is no way as a child that I would have been able to walk these streets as really to be able to embrace ALL people without having a mother and father like I had. One of the stories I want to tell you about my father. He was a man about town. When people walk around Haverstraw, the new Haverstraw, I still see the old Haverstraw. Even in this parking lot, this building here (pointing to the Union Restaurant), Mr. Alvarado’s television repair shop. In 1969, Ed Sullivan, or ’68. Ed Sullivan was going to have the Jackson family, the Jackson 5 on. We were so poor we had a black and white tv. My father said to me, come with me to Mr. Alvarado’s. I thought we were going to get a color tv. Mr. Alvarado said to him, listen I’ve got something better. I have a rainbow screen. You know what a rainbow screen is? A rainbow screen is, Oh, Mike knows. It had a red line, a yellow line and a blue line. You put it on your black and white tv. My father said, now you can have Michael Jackson in any color you want. You guys see Haverstraw one way. I see Haverstraw in many ways because this is the very land, the very dirt I played on, ate on and my fondest memories are here. Two blocks down the road, we call it the mud hole, that’s where I come from.”

 That’s the Norfleet’s headquarters. All my memories, childhood growing up it’s now called the Harbors. We thought we were poor. I can’t wait to get to heaven and tell my mother we were millionaires long ago. Look at what they put down there. We had that same view all along and didn’t enjoy it. Some of my proudest moments, this is where I wanted to bring my moms, all of this and people say Ginny, Ginny, Ginny, Ginny, but there’s a team behind me that you guys have NO idea.”

 “I call them my three T’s. This is my kids who fly from Georgia. Get here and work from sunup to sundown and we left this building at one o’clock in the morning and we get back at it at five. Tyisha, Tasha and Tahrah, thank you for all you have done. I want you to know, this is the beauty of Haverstraw, the lady in red (pointing to a lady to her right) and Howie you can go along with me when you say we are family, this is my goddaughter. I have been with her since she was in her mother’s womb. She’s MY daughter. She has walked the walk with me all through my life through the good, through the bad. She got on that plane Monday and got here and brought her fiancé with her and they did work.” 

Norfleet said that her kids believe she wears ‘S’ on my chest and that they believe she is superwoman. Many people feel the same way and it is a hard job to convince them otherwise. She said she acknowledges them because they and her grandson who was over by the tent, on the phone, will be the legacy. “They will carry this legacy so the history that was lost and untold and it will NEVER be lost again. Even when I die, they know to pick up the mantle and he’s already being prepped.”

She went on to acknowledge certain people who have been there through the thick and thin with her over the years. “Now, as God would have it, he put some other special in my life. I can’t tell you enough about this man in the plaid shirt. Mike Kohut, he’s like me, he doesn’t like to be acknowledged but I acknowledge him. Mike will believe anything I say, just about. Because he knows if I say it, I will see it through. Not because he likes me so much. I get on his nerves, trust me. I know I do, but it’s okay because Mike believes this is Haverstraw for ALL people. He shares the same heart, the same passion to make this place a welcoming home for everybody.”

After her compliments of Kohut, she went to Phillips. “Then there’s Howie. Howie’s a little scary. He likes to pull the reins on me a little bit. Mike is like it never happened. But they stay with me because this is a story that in most places in America, they would be shutting me up. These guys are the wind beneath my wings to say go on and let’s get this thing out.”

“Let’s share the story. There was a story coming up about the brickyards and Aron is from Arts Westchester. Mike said to Aron, please do not do this story without talking to Ginny Norfleet. Aron comes up to Clinton Street and I start talking about Clinton Street and Haverstraw and start telling him stories and he said, you think you’d write this. I look back at him and he’s crying because I’m telling him about the love I have for Haverstraw. He convinced me that I could write it. Not only did I write it, but I created a play called the Songs of the Brickyard. The house was packed. I had to turn people away. Mike was in the front row and when we did the scene when my grandson was being freed finally from the brickyards to go pursue his family and I saw a tear come from Mike’s eye. I knew I hit people’s hearts. Because that’s the story of Haverstraw. We might have come here under circumstances that we didn’t appreciate, but we have contributed to this place and made it home. It’s still home.” 

After the speeches and accolades were completed. The group went across the street for the official opening of the Education and Resource Center. After which the center was opened for a tour of the facility.

In a somewhat quiet moment, I had the chance to talk to Supervisor Phillips. His pride in the accomplishments of Norfleet and the HAAC were evident on his face outside of` his words. We’re very proud of this. Ginny has been in our community from day one really reaching out to everybody. Reaching out to the children. Reaching out to the adults. Haverstraw is a real community of a family. The more programs. The greater we can help this young generation get educated, Make them at the same time of the great heritage that is here in our community, and really the culture that is Haverstraw the better off we are. I’m so proud of this new education center. It’s going to be great. It’s only a beginning though. From here we now build upon this foundation for even better and greater things. Thank you to Ginny Norfleet and the entire committee for doing this and making a really fun place to live in Haverstraw.”

As with the village, the town was more of a sponsor and aide when needed to get this project completed. According to Phillips, they always try to sponsor all of the local organizations. “We’re involved in so many of them. We continue to do that but it’s been a great partnership with the town and the village on a number of different levels. Such as after school programs. We’re very big on after school programs assisting the youth. We’ve had a few models from which to build upon and really giving the opportunity, it can’t be just basketball. It’s got to be more than that. It’s got to involve education. Giving them programs after school that reinforce the education they have in school is a key to successful education.”

I was finally able to get Norfleet away from the throngs to get her take on the day and the center. I asked her about statements she made at the outdoor part of the event. “You said you were on Clinton Street. What inspired you to move here. Tell me about the process. What happened? How’d you get this place?”

“I was born and raised a couple of blocks from here in the mudhole. I know every street in Haverstraw. This opportunity came because we had the kids on Clinton Street in an outdoor park which was an outdoor classroom. We needed more space, so we used my house and we outgrew that. Thank God this came about and working with Danny Freeman and Barry Berman, they made sure we got this place. We came in and now the kids have a home. This works after hours. It helps the adults as much. The mothers don’t have to worry about the kids being latch-key kids or where are they? I can intervene. I can get involved because I’m the boots on the ground.” 

Some after-school programs focus on only one type of activity. Many of them are sports related. This place will have a variety of programs being offered to the kids in the neighborhood. 

“We have all kinds of things.” Norfleet stated. We have homework, tutoring, technology, languages, ESL, photography, videography and music. We have a little bit of everything. Believe it or not, one of the main things the kids asked us for was they wanted to learn more about the Bible. That came from the kids.” 

Laughing, I said, “I can’t help you with that.” Norfleet responded, “We’ve got that. We’ve got rabbis. We’ve got the pastors.”

“What we want to do Keith is we want to give the kids every opportunity. I don’t say no to any opportunity because you never know what one kid will like and what one won’t. I would prefer to put it all out there like a buffet. They pick and choose what they want to do.” 

“In your speech out there, you were saying you’ve already outgrown this place. Are you going to up, out, how are you going to expand?”

“We’re going to go up, out. We’re going to continue. The whole idea is this is an untold story about invisible people. Now we’re loud and strong and very visible. This is the beginning. People thought the park was the end. It’s not the end. This is just what it has to be. From what I was told in my upbringing, it has come full circle because we have never left God and God has never left us. Therefore, he is just restoring us back to where we were. That’s it. That’s it.”