As the Capital Region mourns civil rights activist Alice Green, officials at the Albany Center for Law and Justice, which she founded, say her work will continue uninterrupted.
Alice Green was a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, social worker, politician and at times a one-woman civil rights movement. She died unexpectedly Tuesday at St. Peter's Hospital at 84.
Ta-Sean Murdock has been the center's director of operations for eight months. He says Green's "life's calling" was her commitment to fighting for the rights of the marginalized community, challenging injustices and pushing for reform.
"As we process this profound loss, we also recognize the responsibility to continue the work of Dr. Green," said Murdock. "Dr. Green's legacy demands that we keep pushing forward and we do not stop. That we continue to fight for justice, equality and dignity, dignity for every individual. While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Dr. Green, we are also very deeply committed to ensuring that, (and I had 'vision' written), but 'her legacy' is what we should use. Her legacy lives on through us, here at the center, through our community and through our country."
Murdock encourages people to remember Dr. Green by talking about her work. "She was working right up until Monday evening. You know, I always say here at the center that she would run circles around all of us, we were tired, but she's not, you know, she would say, 'All right, let's go. We got to move on to the next thing.' And despite her, her being older in age, to be honest, you would have thought she had the spirit of a teenager," Murdock said.
Richard Jackson testified to Green's spirit. He was 18 years old, serving a life sentence in prison when he met Green. He was released after 26 years.
"Dr. Green has done a lot of abolitionist work, a lot of what we call new prison movement based on the non-traditional approach to criminal and social justice," Jackson said. "So she came in the prison system at an early time, in the early 80s, and she linked up with prisoners so that we could be access to our communities instead of liabilities when we come home. She organized a political action committee within the prison system where they actually brought in a number of legislators and congresspeople to the prison to sit down with prisoners so that prisoners can have a say so in policy making inside the prison system."
Mark Bobb-Semple with the Alice Moore Black Arts and Culture Center says work at the Center for Law and Justice will continue.
"She would have wanted that. You know, we just have to give the family time, because this was these, both organization as a family organization, and we will let you know. Promise. We will let you know what that, what would that look like, but the African American culture center will continue. She wanted to make sure. She stood right here, her last word to me, so, you know, Friday, or one of those days, right there we were talking, she said, 'Mark, we got to get the Culture Center going.' That was her last words to me, right there, right there. We were, right here. And I'm going to make sure that that happens not only for her, but for the community, because that's what she would want," Bobb-Semple said.
Green had been planning to step up advocating for reparations and center officials say that too will continue, with a program launch "coming soon." Funeral and memorial arrangements were not immediately announced.
