Thursday, October 1, 2026
After more than two weeks of protests following the murder in Minneapolis of a black man by a white police officer, black and religious leaders in Long Beach said in interviews earlier this week they feel progress on the racial front is being made, but that there is still much work to be done.
There were two large demonstrations in Long Beach - one on the boardwalk and the other at Kennedy Plaza in front of City Hall - last week. The protests drew hundreds of people, black, white, young and old, caring signs appealing for justice and making black lives important.
"I would say that what has been accomplished, across the nation, is that there is now an acknowledgment that many black people have been suffering," said Anissa Moore, a professor at Nassau County Community College, who was the first black woman to be elected to the Long Beach City Council. That work began in the 1960 and '70-s, but was cut short when the Vietnam war wound down in the mid-'70s and the draft ended for young Americans. Many halted their protest efforts.
Moore noted that there was "more cohesion in the earlier part of the civil-rights era than there is now.
"Today the young people are more disillusioned," Moore said. "There was more of a sense of hope back then and more respect for authority. Progress has certainly been made, Moore said, but there is a way to go."
Moore says she remains hopeful. As a professor, she said, "I have to be, I believe if we can educate a few, we will have accomplished a lot." Young people, Moore said, need to delve into American history. "It's not all about this moment," she said. Moore delivered a fiery speech at Kennedy Plaza last week, calling for peaceful demonstrations.
Rabbi Eli Goodman, of the Chabad of the Beaches, who also spoke at the same rally last week, noted that he and James Hodge, who is black and the chairman of the MLK Center in Long Beach, have baked challah bread together and held classes in the making of the bread eaten by Jews on Shabbat and on holidays.
"We have brought the issue of injustice to the fore," Goodman said, "I think we are all in agreement that changes need to be made. But are they the tight changes" Goodman and Moore both said they opposed calls by some to defund police departments. "We need the police," Goodman said.
"It all comes down to education," Goodman said. "When people believe in the concept of God, it allows them to be more understanding We need to take steps to abide by a moral code." The message protestors have been delivering is getting through," Goodman said, but there has also been division during these last few weeks. "People want to change. That much has been made clear. The elected officials have to bring about
the change and it has to be the right kind of change."
Hodge, who was on his way to Albany Monday to lobby for the elimination of legislation that allows disciplinary cases involving
police officers to be kept secret, said progress so far can be measured in a few acts: the officer who kept a knee on George Floyd's neck for neartly nine minutes, until he died, has been charged with murder. Three other officers at the scene in Minneapolis have also been charged, but with lesser crimes,.
"Demonstrations can accomplish a lot," Hodge said, "Even people outside the country are protesting about police brutality.
Sergio Argueta, founder of Strong Youth, a 20-year-old Uniondale organization that attempts to empower young people, and who was traveling with Hodg to Albany, said "At the core, what we're asking for is accountability. We've seen more traction in the last three weeks than in the last three years," he said. "There's a reason the community is mobilizing like never before."
But this, Argueta said, has to be only the beginning of the road to justice.
