The Hudson Area Library will host “History of the Black Community in Hudson: A Discussion of the Black Legacy Association of Columbia County (BLACC) Collection,” an introduction to the library’s website dedicated to the Black Legacy Association of Columbia County (BLACC) Oral History Project Collection set for Thursday, March 3rd.
BLACC is a collection of local oral histories, images, and documents from the 1980s gathered by the now defunct Columbia County Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) under the auspices of Columbia Opportunities. It has been organized, digitized, archived, and made accessible by the Hudson Area Library. The evening includes video and audio segments from the oral history interviews of local Black residents. Discussion of the history of the Black community and images from the collection will also be a part of the evening.
Columbia Opportunities, Inc. donated the collection to the Hudson Area Library in 2018. In 2019, the library was awarded an Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a collaborative project with Oral History Summer School (OHSS) to create interplay between this collection, the library’s oral history collection, and the 500+ life histories in the OHSS collection.
The program will be led by Hudson Area Library Director Emily Chameides, Quintin Cross, Senior Policy Advisor of Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition, and Tiffany Garriga, founder/executive director of Black Entrepreneur Market.
Emily Chameides is the Library Director at the Hudson Area Library. Emily grew up taking excursions to cemeteries on vacations with her father who was an avid genealogist and who researched and wrote The Loop Family in America; Emily’s great-great-grandmother was a Loop and several Loops lived in Columbia County, dating back as far as the 1740s (including some who were buried in the Hudson City Cemetery).
Quintin Cross was the founder and Executive Director of SBK Social Justice Center and is a founding board member of Hudson/Catskill Housing Coalition. He was the youngest member ever elected to the City Council in Hudson, NY, rising to the position of Majority Leader.
Quintin founded the Hudson African American Leadership Alliance (HAALA) and in 2016, he joined the Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His experience gives him unique insight into the challenges and barriers that marginalized folks experience in stepping into positions of leadership, and navigating systems that were never built for us. Quintin brings both a deep network of local relationships and accountabilities, as well as a broad, national network of organizational partnerships and relationships. Quintin is a queer father of three brilliant and fierce daughters.
Tiffany Garriga served for many years as the City of Hudson Alderwoman of the 2nd Ward as well as Majority Leader of the Common Council. She is business owner of Moisturize Me, founder and executive director of Black Entrepreneur Market, and co-founder of the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition.
The event will begin at 6 pm and will be held via Zoom. Registration is required and can be completed online. For more information email history@hudsonarealibrary.org.
Photo: photos of the Green family. J.R. Green is wearing his World War I uniform. The other photos are his wife, Ruth Green and their three children. Photo found in a trunk at 433 State St., Hudson, NY.
Leave a Reply