Repairing the damage of racial injustice

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. 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.“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,...