01/11/2021
Freedom Singer Rutha Mae Harris performing Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around, a song adopted by the Civil Rights Movement in Albany during the early 1960s.
Oral History Interviews
Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving, and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Through sharing memories, those interviewed for an oral history project reveal how past events impacted their lives and the lives of others. These interviews often provide information not captured in written histories. They add context to the past.
In July and August 2020, NSA reached out to the Albany community through email, print media, and churches, seeking individuals with personal knowledge of the area bordered by Commerce, South Jefferson, Highland Avenue and South Jackson Street. Ten individuals, ranging in age from mid-60s to 101 years old, were interviewed for the oral history project. The study area encompassed Trailways bus station, site of the 1961-1962 protests for desegregation of public transportation, and the Harlem business section, once the economic and social hub of Albany’s African American community.
Interviewees spoke of the area, with its mixture of private and rental homes and commercial buildings, as safe and as family and business-oriented. Many residents were business owners, skilled laborers, educators, U.S. postal carriers or clergy. Others engaged in domestic work or took employment as day or farm laborers. Church, education, community, and entrepreneurship were highly valued.
In reflecting on the past, interviewees spoke of Albany as a segregated city. They grew up in the era of white and “colored” entrances, seating, and public accommodations. One elder recalled being required to wait at lunch counters until whites were served, while another remembered how white employees were always paid more than Black employees for doing the same job.
Interviewees vividly recalled the Albany Movement in which local and national Black leaders, community members, and students demonstrated for civil rights. A number of them participated in the Movement by attending rallies, marching and even going to jail for challenging segregation. Churches, among them Mount Zion Baptist Church and Shiloh Baptist Church, were gathering places for the Movement.
They also spoke of the heyday of “Harlem.” Located in the 200 block of South Jackson, it was the social and business center of the black community. “You could find everything you needed in Harlem,” interviewees affirmed. Businesses included restaurants, doctors’ offices, a funeral home, night spots, photography studio, and the black-owned Southwest Georgian newspaper. Harlem also offered the Ritz Theatre, the only theatre in Albany where African Americans could sit where they wanted.
Despite segregation, many African Americans in Albany excelled in academic and career pursuits. Interviewees proudly recalled those who earned doctorate degrees, obtained high ranks within the military, and served as educators, business, social and political leaders and civil rights activists. They sacrificed personal comfort and gain for the Albany Movement. In these posts, interviewees share their memories of Black life in Albany, particularly in the Harlem business district and the communities that supported it.
Photograph Caption: African Americans Employed as Letter Carriers in Historic Albany. Image sourced from Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Archives, University System of Georgia
