Other Voices

Merton D. Simpson has always had a sense of his African ancestry and his Blackness.

He was born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Brooklyn so he says he’s always known the deep divisions in the United States.

“My mother has just turned 89 years old and she’s a master teacher,” says Simpson in this week’s podcast.

As a first-born son, he has his father’s name. “My father was one of the foremost African art dealers in the world. He also was at the vanguard of the expressionist art movement with Picasso and Romare Bearden,” says Simpson. His father was an artist himself and also a jazz musician.

Simpson is an Albany County legislator, representing Arbor Hill, Sheridan Hollow, Washington Park, and West Hill.

He came to Albany in 1978 “for a job” — as a senior minority group personnel specialist for Civil Service.

“My job was to get employment in New York State government for Blacks and Hispanics who had been traditionally neglected by Civil Service,” said Simpson. 

As a lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit, Simpson v. New York State Department of Civil Service, Simpson won a long legal battle, securing a $45 million settlement for more than 4,000 Black and Hispanic state workers and job applicants who claimed a Civil Service test was biased.

The litigation stretched from 1997 to 2010. “It was a long but historic and necessary fight ….,” said Simpson. “People were promoted on the basis of a test that didn’t legitimately test their knowledge, skills, and abilities and also was tremendously discriminatory.”

He also said, “Had I not stopped that test, it would have been used in every state in the country.”

While a friend continually encourages Simpson to run for Congress, he said, “I can do more in the Albany County Legislature in real terms than I could in Washington because of the tremendous gridlock.”

He recently spoke passionately at a legislative committee meeting on expanding the county’s version of the CROWN Act and elaborated on that with The Enterprise. (See related editorial.) CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural hair.

“When it comes to the CROWN Act, what we see is another manifestation of the denial of the legacy of racism in America,” said Simpson. The committee was discussing adding headcoverings to the list of protected hairstyles, which Simpson described as “a longstanding feature of Black people in America and that’s a cultural transition from our history in Africa.”

He went on, “We actually have present situations here in Albany County where people have been denied employment rights or been treated in an inappropriate way because of their hair preferences, which has nothing to do with their ability to do their job.”

He recognized there could be jobs where certain hairstyles would present a hazard but said, “When it comes to a question of: well, you just think it’s nice to have short hair, then that’s a problem.”

Traditional black hairstyles can help some people do their jobs better, says Simpson, stating that the New York City Police Department for many years has not had restrictions on how Black officers wear their hair.

“In many communities, to see people who have sort of indigenous hairstyles endear them to the community,” said Simpson.

He’s an advocate of community policing done by people who are part of the community “because there’s a knowledge, understanding, and a commitment to that community.”

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What began as a path traveled by Native Americans became a plank road for European settlers and now is suburban Guilderland’s major thoroughfare — Route 20.

Route 20 seemed long to Bryan Farr when he was kid, traveling with his family every summer from the Fingers Lakes where they lived to the Darien Lake, an amusement park near Buffalo.

But, as a young man, he embraced the entire length of the historic highway, driving through 12 states from Boston, Massachusetts to Newport, Oregon in two weeks: 3,365 miles from coast to coast, America’s longest highway. Farr describes it as a once-in-a-lifetime trip on this week’s podcast.

Farr, a meteorologist with a penchant for photography, took pictures along the way and planned to put together a book. He wrote to the towns he had traveled through and asked them to write three things about the town. He was sent three-page emails in return.

As his interest in the history of the route burgeoned, Farr founded the Historic U.S. Route 20 Association, a labor of love.

Farr will be speaking, through Zoom, to the Guilderland Historical Society at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18. The public is invited to the free event. Details on how to join the meeting are posted at www.guilderlandhistoricalsociety.org.

Farr knows the history of the route intimately. The stretch between Albany and Buffalo, he says, almost became defunct in the 1850s because the Erie Canal was so popular.

As automobiles started replacing horse-drawn conveyances in the early 20th Century, Farr says, “Good roads were hard to find.” In 1921, the Federal Highway Act allocated funds to states; each was to pick their best roads.

Leaders met regionally and then, in 1925, Farr said, all the regions met to connect the dots. The act laid the groundwork for a national highway system.

That’s when the numbering system for highways was developed, with the lowest numbers for roads running north and east and the highest for roads going south and west. Even numbers were for east-to-west roads; odd numbers for north-to-south roads. A zero at the end of a route, as in Route 20, means it’s a cross-country highway.

Such a numbering system was useful, Farr notes, before the age of GPS when travelers had to find their own way.

Once the roads were numbered, roadside motels and cabins popped up, Farr said, noting motorists could travel only 100 or 150 miles a day and would stop along the way at the mom-and-pop businesses, often with a shop, restaurant, and gas station — and sometimes a kitschy attraction.

“Roadside architecture really started to bloom,” said Farr, as a landlocked lighthouse or a giant teapot beckoned to travelers.

By the 1950s and ’60s, traffic became so intense that, in some places, it could be backed up for a mile or more. Once superhighways, like New York’s Thruway, were built, some of the towns along the old Route 20 dried up almost overnight, said Farr.

Cherry Valley, west of Guilderland, became a ghost town, Farr said, describing the Thruway as “the nail in the coffin.”

One of his association’s goals is to highlight small towns so visitors return there. Recently, Iowa gave Route 20 an historic designation, which took several years to secure. There are now 250 signs across Iowa to help travelers follow the historic Route 20 there.

Farr and his association were following a similar approach in New York State. Both the Guilderland Public Library and Gade Farm in town posted signs, noting they stand along Route 20.

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Gary Kleppel is a sheep farmer who likes coyotes.

He is perpetually aware of the ecological balance of which he is a part.

Every morning, Kleppel and his border collie bring their 30 sheep from barn to pasture and then, every night, return them to the barn.

Overnight, coyotes eat all the vermin in the pasture. There are no rats in the Kleppels’ barn.

In ecology, Kleppel explains in this week’s podcast, there is no competition; rather, there is co-opetition. “We cooperate and we compete,” says Kleppel.

Kleppel, who has a Ph.D. in biology and, for 15 years, directed the graduate program of Biodiversity Conservation and Policy at the University at Albany, came to farming by way of oceanography.

When he and his wife, Pam, who is now retired from her job as a business manager for Albany Law School, bought Longfield Farm in Knox, it wasn’t farmed. There were just five plant varieties on their 16 acres; now there are 51 varieties.

He rotates the places where his sheep graze, perpetually creating fresh pastures.

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In 1914, John Daniels wrote “In Freedom’s Birthplace; a Study of the Boston Negroes.” Eighty-five years later, his son, Jack Daniels, wrote “Discovering the Forgotten History of African Americans in Schoharie County.”

The language like the location had changed, but the mission was the same: To uncover and tell a largely unwritten part of American history.

Jack Daniels writes in the introduction to his 1999 book, “I hope there will be others who wish to add to or amend the historical record; also to keep it up to date.”

Starting today, Oct. 21, the Schoharie County Historical Society is hosting a series of discussions on Jack Daniels’s book.

Katherine Hawkins is leading the first session and says one of the goals of the series is to inspire what Daniels had requested 22 years ago — that the history of Blacks in Schoharie County be updated and added to.

She stressed that anyone is welcome to come to the free sessions, which will be held at 7 p.m., starting Oct. 21, and will continue monthly through April at the Schoharie Presbyterian Church.

Daniels died in 2012 at the age of 96.

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Two creative men from Altamont have gathered ghost stories from village residents and surrounding areas into a book. Neither is a stranger to imagination and yet they have labeled these stories as true.

Tom Capuano, a retired professor, once wrote a book-length narrative poem on the founding of Altamont, grounded in history but with imaginative creation of characters. He raises sheep now in an 18th-Century barn on land that both figure prominently in some of the ghost stories.

Thom Breitenbach, an artist who lives in a castle he built on the hillside above the village, wrote and produced a musical about Hieronymus Bosch, a 15th-Century Dutch artist who, like Breitenbach, creates imaginative creatures. In Breitenbach’s musical, those creatures come alive.

So where does each draw the line between imagination and reality?

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“The cool thing is agriculture is everywhere,” says Michaela Kehrer.

She has been teaching about agriculture and its many related subjects at Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s secondary school since 2017. That year, she also founded a chapter of Future Farmers of America in the rural community.

Now, Kehrer has been named Outstanding Agriculture Educator for the FFA Region VI National Association of Agricultural Educators. She is one of just six finalists across the United States; the winner will be named in December.

Kehrer started her journey as an ag teacher when, growing up in Rhode Island, her father’s best friend urged her to attend an FFA meeting — she had been more interested in marine biology or history at that point — telling her he wouldn’t mention it again if she didn’t like it.

She loved it, especially the camaraderie.

A vibrant woman, Kehrer has always been drawn to male-dominated fields, she says in this week’s podcast at altamontenterprise.com/podcasts.

She studied landscape design — like farming, another male-dominated field — for a degree at Cobleskill before earning a master’s degree in ag education at Cornell University.

Kehrer serves as a role model at BKW where a lot of girls were initially attracted to her classes; she is also enthused about teaching boys.

Among the many grants Kehrer has helped secure is the most recent one, for $5,000, that the FFA chapter is using to buy life-size fiberglass models of a cow, horse, and pig. Students will research, design, and paint the internal organs of each species on one half of the models; on the other half, they will paint the markings for a given breed standard.

The BKW chapter of Future Farmers of America is active on many fronts. Next month, 30 students will go to Oswegatchi, a camp in the Adirondacks, Kehrer said, noting the trip is booked to capacity.

Members compete in contests and career development events; they also do public speaking and learn about leadership. Until COVID-19 intervened, the group made an annual trip to Indianapolis for the national FFA convention; BKW’s participation will be virtual this year.

Kehrer repeatedly credits her BKW colleagues and other FFA chapters for her many initiatives.

“I’m a constant learner. I’m always watching what others are doing,” she says.

She also urges everyone: “Support your local farmers.”

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Donald Hyman brings history to life by portraying people from the past.

Albany hotelier Adam Black Jr.; James Matthews, the state’s first African-American judge; and James Dickson, a New Scotland native and general manager for the Slingerland family, will be reborn on Oct. 5 for those attending the New Scotland Historical Association meeting.

 “They come back to me like I’m listening to lyrics in a song,” says Hyman in this week’s podcast.

Hyman researches the often-forgotten men he portrays both online and through original documents like letters and church records. “I try to find in their own words things they would say,” he says.

He likens it to being a coffee or wine taster — finding the subtle differences, the idiosyncrasies that distinguish one from another.

Hyman concludes of these 19th-Century African Americans, “If the door were open, they would definitely go through it.”

Hyman, who grew up in Brooklyn, has a particular fondness for Harlem and its rich history. He studied fashion design at Parsons, focusing on styles during the Jazz Age of the Roaring Twenties, and on the rock-and-roll era of the 1950s.

A world traveler, Hyman embraces all of history. Travel, he says, “keeps you from being brainwashed.”

He has written plays for the State Museum and portrayed enslaved people at the Schuyler Mansion.

Hyman says of the Capital Region, “I just stumbled upon it, like a gold mine.”

When he first arrived in Albany, Mary Liz and Paul Stewart, who have restored the home of abolitionists Harriet and Stephen Myers for their Underground Railroad Education Center, walked him around the neighborhood and he felt its richness.

Hyman likens what he does now to prospectors who pan for gold, sifting through the debris to find the nuggets.

Rather than celebrating baseball players or rappers, he likes to portray individuals who prevailed and overcame. In Jamaica, Hyman said, they would say of these individuals, “They overstood.”

“It’s not about me,” he concludes of his work. “It’s about their legacy.”

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“We’ve only got one planet,” says Edna Litten. “We’ve got to take care of it.”

Litten, who grew up in Queens and lives now in Altamont, remembers going to a teach-in for the first Earth Day in 1970. Since then, over the last half-century, she has hung her laundry out to dry; she’s never owned a clothes dryer. Litten is part of a local group focusing on the dangers of synthetic turf. 

As The Enterprise has reported at length over the last several months, part of the Guilderland school district’s proposed $21.8 million capital project includes a $2.5 million plan to build a synthetic playing field at the high school. The public vote on the project is Oct. 7.

In July, athletes, coaches, and sports boosters spoke enthusiastically to the school board about the need for a turf field. David Austin, the district’s director of Physical Education and Athletics, said, “I don’t think it’s a luxury. We’re at a disadvantage.” He said that, before the year is out, 10 of the 15 Suburban Council schools will have turf fields, which puts Guilderland players at a disadvantage.

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Kristopher Williams is now in his third career, as the coordinator for the Capital Region PRISM, Partnership for Regional Invasive Species.

Monitoring species that don’t belong is “a never-ending job,” he says, but worthwhile. “This is the greatest threat to endangered species and our ecosystem as we know it today,” said Williams on this week's podcast.

The Capital Region PRISM, hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County, serves 11 counties, including Albany, with a staff that includes an aquatics coordinator, a terrestrial coordinator, and an educator.

New York State has eight PRISMs, each involved in early detection and control of invasive species.

“We train citizen scientists,” said Williams. Capital Region PRISM has partnered with iMapInvasives so that volunteers, each responsible for a grid, report on invasive species they’ve seen through an app.

Invasive species can cause huge economic effects. It is thought the spotted lantern fly can cost losses of $400 million in New York State, Williams said. They start their life cycle in the tree of heaven, a Colonial invasive, he said.

When they leave their host tree, they feed on stone fruit, like plums and peaches, and are attracted to vineyards and hops. They excrete a sticky honeydew-like substance that makes fruit inedible because of the mold it causes.

“No native pest will eat them,” says Williams.

Williams, who is a gardener himself, urges gardeners to plant native, resilient species and to diversify their plantings.

“I love showy plants,” says Williams but he notes, “Quite often, they come from other countries.”

Individuals can make a difference for the good. Other than planting wisely in their own yards, Williams said, they can adopt a favorite park or preserve to work on identifying and removing invasive species.

People, he concludes, need to become more conscious of their goods and services and actions.

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“We try to protect our little neighborhood,” says Ellen Manning, president of the McKownville Improvement Association. The association, which is almost a century old, is on the brink of achieving a new form of protection —  having part of McKownville listed on the state and national registers of historic places. Manning hypothesizes in this week’s podcast that what has kept the association active since 1924 is that McKownville is sandwiched between commercial and institutional development. An early Albany suburb, McKownville runs from the city line to the Northway, on both sides of Guilderland’s major thoroughfare, Route 20.

The historic district will encompass about 106 properties, Manning said, including some on the north side of Western Avenue, most of Waverly Place, and parts of Norwood, Glenwood, Parkwood, and Elmwood streets. The architectural styles are typical of popular home construction in the early 20th Century, ranging from Colonial revival to Arts and Crafts bungalows. The streets are lined with century-old trees and the neighbors know one another, Manning said.

She called research conducted by McKownville volunteers “remarkable” as they documented the history and wrote descriptions of individual buildings. Manning noted such work is often done instead by hired consultants. On Sept. 14, residents whose homes would be in the historic district are invited to a public meeting, which will be held virtually. Details are posted to the association’s website. Manning herself moved to McKownville in 1998. She had lived in Albany all of her life and was always aware of the neighborhood, having gone to McKown’s Grove as a child to swim. She describes her Arts and Crafts style home, built in 1914, as having “a lot of charm, inside and out.” She likes the simple lines, rustic feel, and natural features of the Arts and Crafts style, which replaced the fussiness of the Victorian period. Manning also appreciates the intimacy of the neighborhood with the houses close together and enjoys walking the tree-lined streets. She has noted, since the onset of the pandemic, many more walkers. “It’s bringing more people out,” she said.

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