50 Vehicles Participate

In ‘Ride For Black Lives’

WALTON – A 50-vehicle “Justice Ride for Black Lives” traversed Delaware County Friday evening, in solidarity with nationwide protests since George Floyd’s death, travelling through Margaretville, Andes, Delhi, Hamden and Walton.

The caravan of vehicles decorated with Black Lives Matter messages stretched out for two miles.

The ride highlighted three locations: SUNY Delhi, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County (whose 4-H Program is central in county fairs) and the Delaware County Fairgrounds. The ride ended outside the Walton Cemetery (inset photo at right), where participants left flowers to honor the Union soldiers buried there.

The date for the Ride was chosen to honor Juneteenth, the day when slaves in Texas first heard about the Emancipation Proclamation, two and a half years after they had been freed.

The Ride was sponsored by Fair For All, a local volunteer group organized in 2017 to petition the Delaware County Fair to ban the sale and display of Confederate flags. The Delaware County Fairgrounds sit directly across the street from the cemetery and its Civil War monument.