Nyack square named for Hezekiah Easter, World War II vet, first Black elected official in Rockland

NYACK – It has hosted memorial vigils, boisterous rallies and moving demonstrations by young people insisting that the world acknowledge that their Black lives matter.

Now, the downtown corner once known as Veterans Park carries a new name that honors its roots and befits its role as a community lodestar: Hezekiah Easter Veterans Memorial Square.

"Nyack has so much history and a lot of rich Black history," said Nicole Hines, president of the Nyack NAACP, who helped lead a community effort to petition the Village Board to change the name.

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Easter, a World War II veteran, was the first Black man elected to office in Rockland. The Nyack community leader ensured the preservation and restoration of a historic Black cemetery and worked on behalf of social justice issues, including affordable housing and an integrated workforce.

Hines said it cannot be overstated how important it is for this community gathering place to be named after Easter.

"It's for our kids and our grandkids to know, in this little village, all history matters," she said.

The square along Main Street has been dedicated to veterans since 2005. In October 2007 on what would have been Easter's 86th birthday, a plaque honoring him was placed in the square.

The square's gazebo, benches and open space long served as a backdrop for community gatherings. During COVID and in the wake of George Floyd's murder by police in May 2020, the space helped galvanize people's frustrations and fears into unified calls of support and community.

Hines and others began to call the downtown square by Easter's name, a nod to its unifying force and his legacy.

A vote by the Village Board in September made it official.

"This was in the works for a while," Nyack Mayor Don Hammond said. "Hezie's name just kept coming up over and over again, and it made perfect sense."

The land is owned by the village, with the local Rotary, VFW and the American Legion donating benches, a brick wall, a clock and gazebo that make the square such an important village spot.

Hammond said those groups were consulted about the name change.

"We're happy to have the square named for Hezie," said Nick Del Pizzo, past commander of American Legion Post 310 in Nyack. "He's a fine representative for veterans."

Making his mark

Easter entered politics in 1965, winning a Nyack Village Board seat by a wide margin. Easter served as a Nyack trustee, deputy mayor and police commissioner in the village. In November 1969, he was elected as an inaugural member of the Rockland County Legislature.

In 1993, when Rockland County instituted its annual Buffalo Soldier Award that honors an outstanding African American veteran, Easter was the first recipient.

During World War II, Easter served in a segregated U.S. Army, often stuck with kitchen and guard duty. But at Nyack High School, he had studied German, so he was assigned to guard German POWs so he could spy on them. But the German soldiers' slurs against him elicited a sharp rebuke in fluent German, so Easter became an interrogation interpreter.

A talented saxophonist, Easter studied at Juilliard School of Music and Metropolitan Music School. He then worked in the construction field, developing road systems from the Thruway to the Palisades Interstate Parkway, and then as a state Labor Department wage investigator.

Easter's efforts saved Mount Moor, a historic Black cemetery, when the Palisades Center builders wanted to buy out the cemetery association. Because of his efforts, the mall sprung up around, not through it, and the cemetery was given a much-needed restoration.

Easter was the last to be buried at Mount Moor, alongside fellow veterans that included his father, a World War I veteran, and those whose service dated back to the Civil War.

Easter remains well-known in Rockland.

Del Pizzo recalled how, after participation in Nyack's Memorial Day Parade had dwindled, the parade committee looked for ways to revive the tradition in 2001.

"We selected Hezie and grand marshal," Del Pizzo said. "That's how highly we thought of him."

The Memorial Day Parade remains a significant event in the village.

Hammond said Nyack's diversity hasn't always been celebrated, with a lingering divide sometimes present between Black and white communities.

"This is where we come together," Hammond said as he stood in the square. Officially adding Hezekiah Easter's name to the square, he said, helps Nyack "continue to tell our story."

If you go

When: 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Veterans Day.

Where: Hezekiah Easter Veterans Memorial Square, Main and Cedar streets, Nyack.

More: Local officials join in rededicating the square in honor of Hezekiah Easter, a World War II veteran, Rotarian, public servant, and champion of civil rights.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Click here for her latest stories. Follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Vet and first Black Rockland elected official honored with park name