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Remembering Albert Gordon
March 14th
By Martin T Tyler,
JBL! Vice-President and Board Member
John Brown Lives! (JBL!) received the regrettable news that our friend, Albert F. Gordon, has departed this world. In these difficult times, it is almost inconceivable that the arrival of “sad news” by email could result in further despondency, but the unexpected news of Al Gordon’s death is accompanied by the realization of the loss of one who spent over 40 years in the battle against social, cultural, and racial injustice.
Al Gordon, an educator, freedom fighter, and an African art collector, passed away on 13 March 2022. He cemented his friendship with JBL! and supporters on 18 and 19 March 2018, when he joined JBL! for a tour of several historic sites in Montgomery, Alabama.
His quiet and humble presence on the Montgomery tour quickly evolved over the two days, as the group visited the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Rosa Parks Museum, the King Memorial Baptist Church, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Most significant was the visit to the Freedom Rides Museum, where Al presented the audience with superb personalized details of his traumatic ride through the south preceding his arrival on that historic day when an unwelcomed bus of Freedom Riders arrived in Jackson, Mississippi in July of 1961.
Al’s early adult life was devoted to civil rights via the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) during the important and hectic area of the 1960’s. As one of the original Freedom Riders, his involvement in the fight against racial injustice resulted in countless arrests and culminated in 39 days of detainment in Parchman Farm, the notorious penitentiary in Mississippi. His unlawful imprisonment was eventually overturned.
Al Gordon’s involvement in the anti-war protests, which opposed the war in Vietnam, immediately followed his active involvement in civil rights in the late 1960’s. Even though he started his New York City gallery of African art in 1969, where he made over 40 trips to the interior of the African continent, he remained active in the fight against injustice.
It would be simplistic not to mention that Al Gordon was involved in picket lines defending teachers, hospital workers, and all forms of injustice that he encountered.
Al often stated that as a Jewish White male, whose family escaped the Nazis with him in Belgium after the beginning of World War II, he wrestled with two fundamental questions until his death. They were why some people are deeply motivated to take action against injustice and others with the exact background and experiences are not. The other question was how people who have been victims of racism can escape harm, only to turn and adopt the dominant American racist attitude.
Life’s journey is very short for unusual freedom fighters like Albert Gordon. He was sorely missed by JBL when he was not able to attend the cancelled celebrations at the John Brown Farm due to the pandemic, but as with the abolitionist and freedom fighter, John Brown, his soul keeps marching on!
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