Exhibit to tell story of ‘Brothers’ fight for rights

PHOTOGRAPHER: Patrick Dodson

Jillian Altenburg, left, executive director of Ten Broeck Mansion, and Arlene Way, a trustee at the Albany County Historical Association, stand among the photograph at a new exhibit showcasing Albany's Civil Rights movement at the King's Place buildin...

As a young black girl growing up in New York City in the 1960s, Arlene C. Way always had people in the national spotlight she could look up to: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others.

A resident of the Capital Region for more than two decades, Way recently discovered that Albany also had its share of activists from a half century ago, and while these black men have been largely forgotten, the group they formed, The Brothers, had a major impact on the Civil Rights movement locally.

“There was a lot going on in the country at that time, and here in Albany people like Leon Van Dyke, Earl Thorpe, Persell McDowell and others really shook things up,” said Way, who recently retired from the state Education Department and is now president of the Arbor Hill Development Corporation.

“I don’t know that I would call them militant. Maybe other people would, but they were activists who, while they were prepared to take action, saw themselves very much as non-violent.”

The story of The Brothers, formed in downtown Albany in 1966, is being told in an exhibit put together by the Albany County Historical Association at the group’s new gallery space, King’s Place, at 29 North Swan St.

‘The Brothers: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in Albany’

WHAT: A public viewing of an Albany County Historical Association exhibit

WHERE: King’s Place, 29 N. Swan St., Albany

WHEN: 3 p.m. Monday

HOW MUCH: Free

MORE INFO: 436-9826, www.tenbroeckmansion.org

The ACHA is having a press conference and reception at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, and then the exhibit, “The Brothers: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in Albany,” will be open for a public viewing at 3 p.m.

Aaron Carter, who plans to attend the program, was a 19-year-old graduate of Mont Pleasant High School attending Siena College when he got involved with The Brothers in 1966.

“Most of them were slightly older than me, and I would get over to downtown Albany on the weekends when I didn’t have classes,” remembered Carter.

“They were different men with different backgrounds, but they formed a real community, and they were a big part of that social time of change. There was plenty of serious talk and plenty of laughter. They did a lot of positive things and were a great influence on me.”

Collaborative event

The exhibit at King’s Place, which is just behind ACHA headquarters at the Ten Broeck Mansion in the Arbor Hill section of Albany, is a collaborative project that also included major contributions from the New York State Museum and the University at Albany.

“We were looking for a way to honor the 50th anniversary of some key milestones in the Civil Rights Movement, and the question came up about what was going on in Albany at the same time,” said Way, who is an ACHA trustee and is also helping create another group, the African American History Project.

“What we uncovered through the telling of The Brothers’ story was a whole slice of Albany’s history that I hadn’t heard about. You hear about the Civil Rights Act and the March on Washington, but apparently there was also a lot going on right here in Albany.”

Positive changes

According to ACHA Executive Director Jillian Altenburg, The Brothers helped bring about many positive changes in Albany. Not only did they fight against the Democratic political machine and job discrimination, they also sparked improvements in the areas of housing reform, municipal trash pickup and health care.

“The Democratic political machine used to buy votes for $5, but when The Brothers got involved in politics that eventually stopped,” said Altenburg.

“There was never any free trash pickup in Albany, but The Brothers collected the garbage and then dumped it at City Hall. That really shook things up and helped things change.”

When race riots broke out during the summer of 1967 in Newark, New Jersey, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago and other U.S. cities, Albany remained relatively quiet. And, when a police automobile nearly ran over a black woman and her baby in July of that year, it was The Brothers who kept things calm.

“There were a lot of things going on throughout the country that were hurting race relations, and when things were about to get out of hand in Albany that night it was The Brothers who got out and talked to young people and stopped the violence,” said Way.

“It’s important we learn that history because so many young people today feel powerless. But they need to know that they do have a voice and they can do a lot. They do have power for change.”