Underground Railroad Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

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The Interpretive Center

I received the April 2025 monthly e-blast from the Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany, an entity I have supported financially. It was uncharacteristically dire. The message said, “Thank you for your support! Please share.” So I shared.

Donate to UREC now while you still can. Write to your Legislators

ITEM: The Museum Studies Teen Program is designed to prepare high school students to seek employment in the museum field. The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funding, an open grant supporting Lacey Wilson’s Project Director position for the Museum Studies Teen Program, has been negatively impacted. On 3/31/25, IMLS was forced to place 85% of its staff on administrative leave and cancel all open grants.

(Not incidentally, the IMLS may be affecting the New York State Library, and museums and libraries across the United States.)

ITEM: UREC is in the process of building an Interpretive Center. However, funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been imperiled.

The NEH, which awarded the Interpretive Center a $250,000 grant, has been negatively impacted. NEH had 80% of its staff put on indefinite administrative leave, and all open grants were canceled.

The EPA, which awarded UREC $3.6 million toward the Interpretive Center as part of an 8-group collaborative that received an award of $20,000,000, has had its funds frozen.

Write!

Use this link – https://www.congressweb.com/aam/94 – to send your comments to your elected officials. The template letter provided at this link needs personalization. Here is a suggested text for your use – – – – –

The Underground Railroad Education Center receives funding from IMLS to support the planning and implementation of a Museum Studies Teen Program, which is designed to prepare high school students to seek employment in the museum field. This program introduces students to the vast array of job possibilities within the museum field and the value of museums to the health, well-being, and financial sustainability of our communities. As a workforce development program, it will support the development of “hard skills” relevant to specific jobs in the museum field and “soft skills” such as a strong work ethic and positive attitude, which are crucial for success in any workplace.

Likewise, the Underground Railroad Education Center has an open grant with NEH for $250,000 to support the building of a community center highlighting community history and culture. This center will provide jobs for community residents, transform educational experiences, and attract thousands of visitors. IMLS and the NEH must honor their commitments to support the life-changing educational programming offered by the Underground Railroad Education Center.

IMLS and the NEH must honor their commitments to support the Underground Railroad Education Center’s life-changing educational programming.

Arias in the Afternoon

geothermal infrastructure

At the end of September, my wife and I attended a fundraiser entitled Arias in the Afternoon. It celebrated the Underground Railroad Education Center, which has been researching and sharing, through conferences and public presentations, the story of the Underground Railroad in Albany and beyond for the past two decades.

A key element of the exploration has been the discovery of the former residence of Stephen and Harriet Myers, prominent leaders of the Underground Railroad in Albany during the 1850s, at 194 Livingston Avenue, which is currently the base of operations of UREC.

UREC “needs more space to expand its empowering interpretive programs and community engagement opportunities, and to develop new programs and ways to interact with the community far and wide.” Also, the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence could be restored “to its period of historic relevance.”

Here’s a description of the forthcoming Interpretive Center. After attending the groundbreaking ceremony a few months ago, I discovered that the building’s construction is environmentally sound. “The Center will contain a geothermal infrastructure and be designed according to Living Building Challenge of Sustainability standards for green buildings, which focuses on a regenerative built environment, aligning with and meeting the zero-greenhouse gas emission standards set by New York State’s Gov. Hochul. The building will incorporate surrounding green spaces… deliberately designed to enhance health benefits in the neighborhood.”

Argus Hotel

The Arias event was at the Argus Hotel. I’ve only lived in Albany since 1979, so I hadn’t heard of The Argus Hotel. Where is it? 8 Thurlow Terrace, that one-block road from Western Avenue near the downtown SUNY Campus to just before Washington Park. I’ve SEEN that big old house, but I didn’t know it was a hotel.

As stated in the bulletin, Arias in the Afternoon’s “event champion ” was the honorable Patricia Fahy. Pat Fahy is my assemblyperson for the 109th district in the New York State Legislature. She’s currently running for the New York State Senate in my district. She has been a champion for the Interpretive Center.

The event ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. I arrived after church, around 12:30, so I missed Pat Fahy’s opening remarks and the first round of singing by Daniel Pascoe Aguilar, though I did listen to him later. There was also a pianist, Paul Cronin, who I did hear. If you would like to support the construction of the Interpretive Center, go to the bottom of this page.

After my wife, who arrived after a church rehearsal, and I left, we went to the Upper Madison Street Fair, one block from our house featuring music, food, and more. I even got a massage.

At both events, I saw several people I knew, some for the first time in a while. The day gave me that good Albany feel.

Sunday Stealing: The Pen Company

The Good Book

Here’s the new Sunday Stealing, The Pen Company. But before I get to that, a couple of Independence Day announcements in Albany, NY.

First, the July 4 oration will take place at the Stephen and Harriet Myers residence, 194 Livingston Avenue in Albany, NY, sponsored by the Underground Railroad Education Center (UREC). Music by Magpie, who will be joined by Kim Harris.

Second, Sheila E. will be performing at 8 pm at the Empire State Plaza. One of her singers cannot make it, so subbing will be Rebecca Jade, who is my niece. Rebecca was backing Sheila when my wife, daughter, and I saw them at the New York State Fair in Syracuse back in September 2019.

Onto the show

1. If your house was on fire, which three items would you save?

A metal box in my office that has my birth certificate, my father’s death certificate plus other important documents. A box of photos. My laptop.

2. What is the strangest or most awkward date you’ve ever been on?

Oddly, it wasn’t my date. My ex-girlfriend was going to the Washington (NY) County Fair with her new boyfriend c 1996/97. She invited a friend of ours and me to attend as well, because we were all “mature” people. It was…weird. Interestingly, they broke up, I got back together with my gf, and we’ve been married 24 years.

3. What are your biggest fears?

The loss of freedom and justice in the United States, based on the actions of several governors and state legislatures, the rhetoric of several candidates for the 2024 Presidency, and recent Supreme Court decisions.

4. How do you spend your time when you are procrastinating?

Usually playing double deck pinochle or backgammon on my phone.

5. What has been your most memorable birthday so far, and why?

Probably my 50th because I had a big party at my church. I made a mixed CD that I gave out.

6. What is your favorite snack?

Fig Newtons with milk.

7. What was your first pet?

Peter the cat. He was very smart. When he wanted to come in, he’d jump onto a piece of furniture and rattle the door knob.

I am where I am

8. What’s your favorite city in your country?

It might be Albany, NY because that’s where I decided to live. My favorite place to visit might be Galveston, TX; I’d go out to he pier at 5 a.m., watching the tide from the Gulf of Mexico come in.

9. Do you have a garden?

We have a garden. But I have little or nothing to do with it.

10. What is your favorite thing about your home town?

My hometown was Binghamton, NY. It was small enough – and my school was tiny enough – that I can to this day name most of the kids in my 9th grade class. And I’m still friends with three of them. Oh, and went to kindergarten with them too.

11. What was the last book you read?

A Century of Pop Music bt Joel Whitburn.

12. What is the best book you have ever read?

Quite possibly, The Good Book: Discovering the Bible’s Place in Our Lives by Peter J. Gomes. Here’s a reader recommendation from Thrift Books:

“Gomes takes the Bible off its pedestal and presents it to us as a tool for Christian living. This book is a must read for any Christian struggling to read and understand the Bible in modern terms. He explores many of the controversial topics of the Bible, including race, homosexuality, women’s roles, anti-Semitism, wealth, and more. [This is definitely true.]

“He challenges the reader to accept the Bible as an interpretation of fantastic religious events with historical and sociological significance. He teaches the reader to deal with contradictions within the Bible, even within individual books of the Bible… This book challenged my beliefs in positive ways and taught me to never ‘idolize’ the Bible again.”

Roger that

13. Who is your favorite author?

It might be Roger Ebert, whose movie essays I enjoyed greatly. His autobio, Life Itself, is the book I would liked to have written, if I had the skills.

14. Is there a food that you hate?

Olives. Black olives, green olives.

15. Do you get along with your neighbors?

The neighbor to one side, Al, is great. Now, the property on the other side is owned by an absentee landlord, so the quality of the tenants has varied. I’ve written about not great ones here and elsewhere, and the best ones here. But by far, the WORST thing that happened from that house was created by the landlord himself. What a schmuck.

I wrote about terrible neighbors across the street, but thankfully, they’re gone.

16. Do you have any tattoos or piercings?

Nope. And I was never seriously interested in doing so.

I’m way too busy to work

Art at APL

It is a cliche, but like a lot of retirees, I’m way too busy to work. Friday, 1 October was a perfect example.

I was attending the third of a three-day online state Data Center conference. The penultimate session was on The Quality of the 2020 Census Apportionment Counts: What Can Process Statistics Tell Us? by Joe Salvo, Research Fellow, Social Data and Decision Analytics.

What? No, this was fascinating stuff! Really! For instance, how many more records had partial responses, such as just numbers with no names, for instance, because of the Non-Response Follow-Up taking place during a pandemic? As an enumerator for the 2020 Census, I would have loved to have stayed for the whole talk, not to mention the question-and-answer period.

Underground Railroad

But I needed to catch a bus for a tea for the Underground Railroad Education Center. It was outdoors, and fortunately a nice day. The UREC is a tremendous asset to Albany and the history of the country. Paul and Mary Liz Stewart’s “work uncovered the voices and stories of people written out of this history.”

Discovering the home of Stephen and Harriet Myers, abolitionists who lived in the city, and then buying and renovating – especially renovating – 194 Livingston Ave – has been a boon to the process. But it’s hardly the endpoint.

I knew a few people there, including mayor Sheehan, and met several more. One of the interns interviewed me for a project about the history of the UREC.

I was trying to remember how I knew Paul and Mary Liz, which predated the project that started two decades ago. Paul theorizes that the late Donna George probably brought us together. She was always connecting people to others they didn’t know before.

After I went home with my wife, who had come to the event directly from work, we ate a quick dinner.

Art@APL

Then I walked less than a fifth of a mile to the Pine Hills branch of the Albany Public Library to see the new installation of Art at APL called Pieced Together. The artists include Fern Apfel, Paula Drysdale Frazell, Danny Goodwin, Chloe Harrison, Niki Haynes, Beth, Humphrey, Henry Klimowicz, Juan Hinojosa, Melinda McDaniel, Michael Oatman, and Kenneth Ragsdale. The exhibition guide is just a small fraction of the work.

I was immediately drawn to Michael Oatman’s work. Much of the created works are based on comic book covers, magazine logos, and the like. The installation will be at 517 Western Avenue until April 17, 2022, so check it out.

Expect that many of the next few posts will be of the “I’m way too busy to work” mode.

The Third Reconstruction

fighting voter suppression

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week to further declaw the Voting Rights Act I found to be a kick in the gut. SCOTUS, by a 6-3 vote, overturned a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. It had found that two voting laws passed in Arizona “had both the effect and intent of discriminating against Black, Latino and Native American voters… The decision… will make it much harder to block other laws that have a discriminatory effect on voters of color.”

We’ve already seen a plethora of “voter suppression laws that hide their racist intent but have clearly disparate effects based on race.”

The “ruling significantly increased the level of discriminatory and burdensome effects that plaintiffs must demonstrate for a voting law or procedure to violate the Voting Rights Act, giving lawmakers or officials who enact such rules great deference in the interest of preventing supposed fraud—even without any evidence of such fraud…

“Some legal observers had warned before this latest decision, known as Brnovich v. DNC, that… the Supreme Court could make it so difficult to comply with the requirements to prove discrimination that the VRA would nevertheless become meaningless. That is, in essence, what happened.

With Congress so closely divided, it’s difficult to imagine it passing what is needed. That would be passing a new Voting Rights Act and the For The People Act, which would, among other things, expand voting protections.

July 4th Oration

I was thinking about this as I listened to Rev. Roxanne Booth at The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence in Albany on Saturday, July 3. In person! after being virtual last year.

She spoke about The Third Reconstruction, as laid out by the book by The Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (Beacon, 2016). The subtitle is How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear.

You know about the first, after the Civil War, until it was undercut by forces, starting with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. The second was the Civil Rights Era, starting with Brown v. Board of Education and the death of Emmett Till, undermined by the policies of Nixon, then Reagan.

The third, the authors argue, started with the election of Barack Obama, and was almost immediately sabotaged by forces that early on wanted him to be a one-term president.

Moral revival

The book is “Rev. Barber’s call for building and sustaining a movement for justice for all people.” From this Unitarian Universalist site: “The Third Reconstruction offers helpful, practical guidance for engaging with justice movements born in response to local experiences of larger injustices.

“Drawing on the prophetic traditions of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, while making room for other sources of truth, the book challenges us to ground our justice work in moral dissent, even when there is no reasonable expectation of political success, and to do the hard work of coalition-building in a society that is fractured and polarized.”

So when I asked Rev. Booth about how one gets over the disappointment of the Arizona decision, she noted that we have to keep doing the work of social justice, even when the short-term prospects may be bleak.

I’m reminded that many changes in our democracy have started with situations that seemed hopeless in the beginning. Consider joining the Third Reconstruction, a “revival of our constitutional commitment to establish justice, provide for the general welfare, end decades of austerity, and recognize that policies that center the 140 million are also good economic policies that can heal and transform the nation.”