Martin Luther King Jr. Day was celebrated Monday at a new arts and cultural center honoring Black and African-American experiences in Albany.
Saying the legacy of racism continues to impact life in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law last month to explore reparations. It sets up a commission to examine the impact of slavery today and consider whether to pay monetary reparations for people whose ancestors suffered under slavery. Hochul acknowledged struggling with the idea, but the Democrat says the state has its own dark history despite its reputation as an abolitionist leader.
Dr. Alice Green of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany says it’s a much-needed conversation.
“New York State has now passed reparations- legislation that will establish a reparations commission, and we're going to be talking about things like that, you know. And I think the center is going to provide the leadership to do that,” Green said.
Green spoke at the grand opening of the Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center.
“There are a lot of people right down the street from us, at the shelter, people don't have housing. And if we expect to change our society, people have to have the- they have to have housing, they have to have a minimum income, OK, and food. And if we don't do that, we're missing the mark. And we can't complain about violence and all these other problems,” Green said.
A recent report from New York Attorney General Letitia James shows the city of Albany has one of the highest disparities in homeownership rates between white and Black people nationwide. Green says unity is key.
“We don't have the solutions for everything. But we do know that there are people in our community who've experienced and a lot of them are experiencing lack of housing right now, we need to be listening to those people. Because we, you know, leaders and politicians don't always know or understand the nature of the problem. And they're not listening to people,” Green said.
Green says she hopes to see local support of the Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center’s mission of neighborhood revitalization.
“I know that this area is going to be developed, but it's not about money so much as about supporting this kind of effort that comes from the community. And so we hope that they understand that and that they will support us instead of trying to take over land,” Green said.
Green says she hopes the Center can expand in the future.
“The dream is that we will build two more buildings roughly this size, on land that's south right next to us. So that land will be used to not only expand this center, but also to build affordable housing apartments that people can afford,” Green said.
That plays into King’s “beloved community,” according to Reverend Antonio Booth, Associate Pastor at Albany’s Macedonia Baptist Church, who says work toward Dr. King’s goal of harmony between all people continues.
“The only way for this to happen is when people begin to understand and appreciate each other's history and culture. Dr. King once stated, people fail to get along because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don't know each other. And they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other,” Booth said.
Booth says the Center and organizations like it are needed now more than ever — at a time when teaching Black history is being challenged.
“We have forces that seek to rewrite American history. We have forces that want to tell descendants of enslaved people that their enslaved ancestors benefited from slavery. They want to eliminate any books about African American history or culture that makes white children feel uncomfortable about being white. School administrators in many parts of our country must get approval before they can have children read about Emmett Till or lynching, or Jim Crow, or segregation, or even the Civil Rights movement,” Booth said.
Booth says such ignorance stirs racial discord by permeating stereotypes and trying to ensure Americans remain culturally incompetent.
“If people really knew the American story, they would know that the Underground Railroad consisted of numerous white people, that sheltered runaway enslaved people. If they really knew the American story, they would know that even doing segregated- even during segregated education, people like Julius Rosenwald, the founder of Sears and Roebuck spent his fortune building schools for colored children throughout this country. If they knew the real American story, they will know people like Viola Liuzzo, a white woman from Detroit was killed by a white supremacist when she transported black people in the march to Selma,” Booth said.
The ceremony featured a re-enactment of King’s “I Have A Dream” speech by the Center’s Willie White, a performance of several spirituals, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem, and a raising of the Pan-African flag outside.
White says the Center is a space the Black community can call its own in Albany.
“We just celebrated Kwanzaa. And the second principle of Kwanzaa is kujichagulia, which means our self-determination, where we speak for self, we own for ourselves, we own our own community. One of the things that's like in in our community, we don't own a damn thing. We need to own things in our community. We let other people come in and own everything in our community. Kujichagulia- self-determination and self-ownership. You speak for yourself, you do everything for yourself, you don't depend on other people,” White said.
More information about the Center and its programs can be found here.
