Champlain Valley activist Alice Green worked to shine a light on the struggles of Black Adirondackers as part of New York state conversations around reparations
Editor’s note: Alice Green died on Tuesday. This story represents one of her last media interviews.
By David Escobar
As the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies begins examining the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination in New York, longtime activist Alice Green wants to ensure Black history in the Adirondacks is part of the conversation.
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Green, 84, grew up in Witherbee, a small, Champlain Valley community tied to the iron ore mining industry. Starting in the late 19th-century through the mid-20th-century, mining companies employed Black workers like Green’s father, who moved to the North Country from South Carolina in the Great Migration.
The movement brought many African Americans from the rural South to industrial northern cities to pursue economic opportunities. However, Green said racism was part of everyday life growing up in her Adirondack community.
“Black people were treated differently,” said Green, who has had a residence in Essex with her husband Charles Touhey for years. “When someone else — mainly Black people or any other people of color — came into the area, they were considered outsiders.”
She said the racial dynamics of her childhood community have left lasting impacts on her identity.
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“You grew up in a white supremacist community, which affected what you could do, how you were seen [and] how you were treated,” Green recalled. “Psychologically, it’s damaging.”
Prisons’ role in Adirondack history
The echoes of Green’s experiences still resonate. She split her time between the Adirondacks and Albany, where she led The Center for Law and Justice. This summer, she returned to the Adirondacks to meet with a multiracial group of community members to discuss reparations and social justice.
Despite the region being predominantly white, Green said the Adirondacks’ high concentration of prisons holds a significant and overlooked role in New York’s Black history.
“The people who were incarcerated [in New York state] were up here, and they were exploited,” Green said. “They worked when there was a catastrophe like a flood or an ice jam. They worked this land.”
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Green said the Adirondacks’ history of incarcerated labor and white racial homogeny are key factors that the state’s reparations commission should consider in its report. She said these considerations will help the commission understand a common theme for Black communities across New York.
“African American people have not been able to become owners of land that would make them stable, help them economically and pass it on to generations,” Green said.
Land ownership remains a central issue in Green’s conversations about a reparations plan, particularly in rural areas where land can be a means to wealth accumulation and financial stability.
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Reparations commission: Early conversations
The state reparations commission, established through legislation in December 2023, is “tasked with examining the legacy of slavery and its lingering negative effects,” according to a press release issued by State Sen. James Sanders Jr.
New York joins 11 other states that have introduced legislation to create such a commission, including the first task force in California.
In New York, eight of the commission’s nine members met in July to begin work toward a report outlining how the institution of slavery continues to impact Black New Yorkers.
The commission’s seats are held by historians, academics and community activists, many of whom are based in New York City. Though she is not a commission member, Green wanted to engage a wider audience in these conversations through her work.
Green said the commission’s primary goal is to collect information for state legislators that could one day lead to policy changes.
“It’s very important to have the community — and I’m talking about all voices in the community — to talk about this issue so that we can have some kind of reconciliation,” she said. “I think that’s what is needed when you’re talking about repairing a damage.”
However, discussions around reparations can become bogged down by financial concerns, she said.
“People tend to think of it as money, only money,” Green said. “I think that’s a mistake.”
A path forward
Green called for improved education about marginalized groups in America to build awareness for reparations.
“We need to make sure that the schools incorporate really good education about the history of African Americans and other groups,” she said. “It would have helped me and a lot of other Blacks that I know … to have a sense of where they came from.”
Green said reparations are viable in New York, even in the face of resistance.
“There’s been a lot of instances where the reparations have been done,” she said, referring to multiple payments made by government entities around the country. “And so you’ve got to tell me why it shouldn’t be done for African Americans.”
The commission’s final report is expected by the end of 2025, but Green said the process of grappling with the legacy of slavery and systemic racism is only beginning.
“There are a lot of things that we probably can do that we as a community need to be talking about,” she said, emphasizing the importance of broad community involvement in the commission’s work.
Residents across New York may submit thoughts and feedback on reparations through the commission’s website.
David Escobar comes to us from Report For America. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today: www.adirondackexplorer.org/donate-now
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I concur, there should be reparations for everyone. The Native Americans, the Slavic, and the victims of the Holocaust.
The day NYS approves reparations, is the day I leave this state. My relatives came from Italy and Ireland and never owned slaves or participated in slavery of any kind.
I will NOT pay a dime for this nonsense. Slavery was abolished over two generations ago and there have been and still are many social programs to help people of color. When does this stop?
Over two generations ago my family had their property taken from them, all of their belongings were taken, some had their life taken and the rest put in a refugee camp, with nothing. They made it out after years of waiting, in the camp, for an opportunity to come to America. My family was provided with a horse’s stall, in a barn, in Lockport, NY where they lived long enough to get a factory job, saved some cash AND THEN GOT A BUSNESS LOAN with nearly no collateral and little ability to speak English. The first generation had no inheritance to look forward to, no financial security, no ability to succeed at college given the external socioeconomic stressors. The second generation still had little to no inheritance but managed to get some college given financial aid and some success educationally but with no family wealth, home ownership was elusive saving for retirement wasn’t feasible. The third generation finally reaped some of the middle class rewards of that business loan, were able to go to college with financial aid and some self funding via getting jobs and working through school and were able to scrape together down payments for homebuying as second generation left a small inheritance. Finally, the fourth generation was able obtain academic scholarships, the benefit of some family wealth and independence given their ability to get jobs at most every turn.
My family is a regular white European family. It took four generations and the privilege of getting a business loan in the early 1960s with no collateral for an opportunity for said family to become a viable and self-sustaining middle class enclave.
To answer your question, “When does this stop?” I imagine it stops when people of color have access to the same benefits and privileges that accompanied my white ancestors with respect to that business loan and I’ll also add, our ongoing ability to get jobs at will over the course of four generations. Also, when systemic barriers that prevent families of color from accumulating generational/family wealth that many white families, particularly those that go back generations in America take for granted, are eliminated.
Thank you very much ! Your narrative explained the difference between white people who were poor and poor people of color who did not have access to financial services. I hope this helps frame “reparations” in a new light .
Every time I post a comment it says awaiting moderation. It never appears. Why???
Hi Rob! Which comment are you referring to? I don’t currently see any of yours pending….thanks!
Throwing in additional welfare will not solve anything…