In a packed Bushwick venue, hundreds of local residents, elected officials and supporters last night celebrated the work of community based organizations through the New Kings Democrats (NKD) annual awards ceremony.
This year’s awards, “True Blue”, highlighted the work of three local organizations who have been at the forefront of the Brooklyn reform movement in the last couple of years. This year’s honorees included Women of Color For Progress, Communities United For Police Reform and Brooklyn Movement Center.
“At the end of the day, acting locally will affect us globally. If we can make changes in our city and state, we can export those changes to the globe. We are so lucky that locally we can touch and feel the change, and when it’s tactile like that, I think it’s easier to keep people hooked on it. So it’s great to see a local club [NKD] honor some local groups and show why it’s important to act and affect change so hopefully that will energize more people ” said Assembly member Robert Carroll (D-Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington).
City Council member Brad Lander (D-Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Gowanus) also pointed out the work of grassroots organizing as a vehicle toward affecting local and national change. Lander highlighted the work of Wes Bellamy, the youngest and the only person of color in the Charlottesville City Council. Bellamy single-handedly pushed for the removal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, after successfully campaigning two other members of the City Council to join his side.
“Let’s not lose the fact that grassroots organizing and electoral progressive organizing sets the table to make progress and right now in city after city, people are tearing down those monuments. And I believe that they will take Wes’ message to make sure they don’t stop with a monument but bring the attention of racial justice to the structures and systems that carry forward white supremacy. It’s hard to be optimistic at a time like this but this group of people [NKD] shows that it is possible and that we can do it together,” added Lander.
The events theme, True Blue, was a symbol of the core values of NKD as a progressive political club in Brooklyn who works to not only bring about change but push for progressive reforms in politics. The group was established in 2008 when then Brooklyn Democratic Party Boss Vito Lopez rebuked reforms that a number of party loyalists wanted to institute.
NKD now endorses and helps to push for progressive candidates and legislation at the local, state and federal levels.
“Organizations like NKD that are always seeking to improve continuously and in some ways are opportunistically jumping on those bandwagons, where they’re like, ‘Look, this is what’s actually going to move us toward progressivism, what’s going to move us toward equal rights for all people.’ And when you cover your baseline you cover everyone,” said Aliya Allen, Founder of the Women Of Color For Progress.