Township Resident Helps Lead Charge Against No-Show White Supremacist Group

Township resident Daryle Lamont Jenkins addresses anti-racism protestors at Palmer Square, Princeton.

PRINCETON – Hundreds of protestors from across the state gathered at Palmer Square here Jan. 12 for what they thought was going to be a counter-demonstration against a fledgling white supremacist group’s march.

But the group – the New Jersey European Heritage Association – never showed up, so the protestors turned the event into a general ant-hate rally.

Prominent among the protestors was township native Daryle Lamont Jenkins, founder of the One People’s Project. The Project’s mission is “to research and report on who’s who and what’s what regarding right-wing groups, individuals and activities, and encourage society to be vigilant against them in an effort to diminish their ability to function and cause that society harm,” according to its web site.

The NJEHA had plastered downtown Princeton with fliers advertising the “It’s OK to be White” march, set for noon on Jan. 12. The group held a similar gathering in November, when six of its members walked down Nassau Street holding signs bearing their theme.

The group’s literature also showed up in the township last summer. A Kingston resident reported to police that she found the flier stuck inside a “Little Free Library” box in front of her house.

On Jan. 11, the NJEHA announced on its Twitter feed that the march had been a hoax.

In its announcement, the group thanked several groups, including “Jewish supremacist news outlets, and the many other Communist snowflakes who are making us a household name. Thanks to them, our organization has received an unprecedented amount of publicity, media coverage and website traffic. Hundreds of people from across the state are eagerly awaiting to join our ranks.”

On Jan. 12, the NJEHA posted that it never announces events in advance “for the sake of our members’ safety from ANTIFA thugs,” and that “there was NO application for a permit. There were NO social media postings announcing a rally. Next time do a little more research than the FAKE NEWS MEDIA! Have fun and keep warm at your “anti-racist” echo-chamber today.”

After waiting for any of the NJEHA to show up, the hundreds of counter-protestors marched around Palmer Square, chanting slogans and holding up signs.

Jenkins, who said the organization will be re-opening a New Brunswick office this year, was one of the speakers to close out the event.

“This group has been trying to hassle Princeton for a couple months now,” he said. “They used to sneak around, put their fliers up on this kiosk. Back in November, they came out here to do their little five-man ‘it’s OK to be white’ march.”

“Princeton doesn’t tolerate that kind of nonsense,” Jenkins said to cheers. “They decided to make their presence more public, they said, hey we’re coming out here and we’re going to let you know we’re coming out here, so we let them know we’re coming out here, too.”

Jenkins said the group should be forced to pay for the costs to Princeton associated with the aborted march.

“We have to recoup our costs for what they were trying to pull,” he said. “The reason I say that is because if they can just announce a rally, we come out here like this and they just not show up, they just basically have a new weapon against other communities that they hate.”

“They can say we’re having a rally, all of us come out and they say, psyche!,” Jenkins said. “It’s like, no, you’re going to have to pay for us coming out here. This can not be a new normal.”

“They were coming here to pick a fight in some fashion,” Jenkins said. “They picked it, but they didn’t know what they had on their hands. Now we have to show the rest of state, now we have to show the rest of the country.”

Also on hand was veteran civil rights activist and author Cornell West, currently a professor at Harvard University.

“Reacting against Nazis, we’re standing for love and care and justice,” he said to the cheering crowd.

“We represent every color, every gender, every sexual orientation, every religion, every atheist and agnostic,” he said. “We’re here as human beings.”

“Never forget that in these grim days, when you see what’s happening in the White House, Wall Street, Pentagon, when you see all the ugly transphobia and homophobia, when you see all the disenchantment and all the different kinds of disorientation, do not become discouraged, think of this moment,” he said.

“Let us continue to bear witness, even here in Princeton,” West said.

The Franklin Reporter & Advocate live-streamed from the event:

https://www.facebook.com/franklinreporter/videos/976046539263280/

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