Alice Green, a social worker whose experiences growing up in the Adirondacks during the civil rights movement inspired her to become a tireless advocate for racial equality and ultimately, founder of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, has died, city officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
One of the region's premier advocates for civil rights, Green served as executive director of the Center for Law and Justice, which has served low-income and disadvantaged communities since 1985, and took on high-profile cases of police violence.
Green also served as an adjunct professor at the University at Albany, and was previously a legislative director for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). She received a doctorate in criminal justice and master’s degrees in education, social work and criminology.
Green penned a memoir, "We Who Believe in Freedom: Activism and the Struggle for Social Justice," two years ago.
The Center for Law and Justice released a statement Tuesday, saying it was mourning the loss of a true champion for social justice and civil rights.
“The loss of our leader Dr. Alice Green is a significant loss to our organization and to our community. Dr. Green was known nationwide for her work and left a powerful legacy for all of us to remember,” Director of Operations Ta-Sean Murdock said.
In a statement, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said Green worked closely with the Albany Police Department to help create the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, and improve community policing.
"Our city has lost a giant today," city Councilman Owusu Anane said Tuesday. "Founding and leading the Center for Law and Justice in Albany's South End, she confronted discrimination and economic inequality head on. Dr. Green leaves a legacy of ensuring that the struggle for equality for continues in our city and beyond."
Green grew up in Witherbee, a small mining town in the Adirondacks. Her father fled from the segregated South, only to face many of the same hardships.
In an interview for Black History Month in 2023, Green shared how that experience helped form her as a fighter for social justice in the nonviolent method of resistance championed by Martin Luther King Jr.
“I made a pact with myself at that young age, saying that I will never allow white people to make me feel that way again,” Green told Spectrum News 1 in a 2022 profile.
Green founded the Center for Law and Justice in the wake of the 1984 shooting of young Black man. For nearly 40 years, she provided legal guidance and education on civil and criminal justice issues.
In 1981, Green served as legislative director for the NYCLU. Five years later, she was appointed deputy commissioner for the state Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives.
She also founded the African American Cultural Center, lectured at universities and wrote Albany’s longest running Black newspaper, the South End Scene.
Green said the most challenging moment of her career was in 1999, when she was arrested while silently protesting during a speech by former Gov. George Pataki.