When you think of African American students breaking the color barrier, it's easy to remember the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

But Albany had something similar 150 years ago.

Tucked away on Second Street in the city's Arbor Hill neighborhood sits an unassuming home. Built in 1870, it's seen its fair share of residents, but there was one that helped change the course of Albany's history.

Rewind to 1845 and the Wilberforce Academy had just opened its doors on Chestnut Street. It was the first major school in Albany built for educating African American children. Prior to that, they were mostly taught in the basements of churches.

In 1853, Wilberforce moved to its permanent location on what was once Hudson Avenue, and is now the Empire State Plaza. For almost 20 years, the academy operated generally on the tightest of shoestring budgets.

In December 1871, William H. Johnson, a prominent African American Albanian, among others, petitioned the Board of Public Instruction to allow the students of Wilberforce into the Albany Free Academy. Today, we call it Albany High School.

In the spring of 1872, the state resolution was passed with a bit of a catch. While African Americans could now attend the high school, the Wilberforce school would need to close its doors.

The Black students would integrate into the public schools and make it into the high school, but they needed to pass the same entrance exams as the white students.

In early 1873, tests were administered to the eighth-grade students at the soon-to-be-closed Wilberforce Academy, and one lone student passed: Arabella Chapman. She was as musically talented as she was intelligent.

Albany High School at the time sat at the corner of Eagle and Columbia streets across from Academy Park. In September 1873, Chapman became the first Black child to walk up the steps and enter high school.

She broke Albany’s color barrier — and she did it alone.

So, how did she do in school? Pretty good, actually.

Chapman graduated in 1877 near the top of her class and went on to become a music teacher. She married and moved to Massachusetts for some time.

She ended up at 247 Second St., in a home she and her family lived in from 1914 until her death in 1927. It’s the only one left of any building she’s lived in for any length of time.

To honor Chapman on the 150th anniversary of breaking Albany’s color barrier, the Historic Albany Foundation has started a new roadside marker program to properly recognize the history of buildings, people and events in underrepresented neighborhoods.

The first one will be right here on Second Street.