Albert F. Gordon Freedom Rider Collection

Albert Forrest Gordon was born to Evelyn and Jack Gordon on June 18, 1934 in Antwerp , Belgium . The family escaped from the Nazis after the beginning of World War II; they arrived in New York City a few days after Pearl Harbor . He received his BA from City College of New York (CCNY) and his MA from Columbia University . He returned to Europe and completed one additional year of study at the University of Paris before returning to New York to teach high school (Stuyvesant, among others).

Gordon joined the fledgling teachers' union in New York City (NYC) in 1960 and was a strike captain during the breakthrough that established the United Federation of Teachers. He likewise participated in the first picket lines at NYC hospitals led by Leon Davis, which resulted in establishing Local 1199 of the Hospital Workers' Union . During the Vietnam War, he helped organize the national movement in opposition to that war and was arrested several times at demonstrations.

Gordon joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) after the first civil rights protests in Greensboro , North Carolina in 1960. He was a history teacher at Tilden High School in Brooklyn, New York when, in 1961, CORE financed his trip, along with nine other people, from NYC to Jackson, Mississippi by bus to participate in the "Freedom Ride." The project involved riding desegregated buses from Montgomery , Alabama to Jackson , Mississippi , and integrating the bus terminal facilities to protest the unfair treatment of African Americans in the South. During this period, much violence was directed at such activists, often with police collaboration. Gordon recalled the fear all the "riders" felt when confronted by crowds of threatening segregationists; above all, he remembered the magnificent camaraderie and passion of the black and white demonstrators.

He was arrested at the Trailways Bus Depot along with fellow Freedom Riders in Jackson , Mississippi on July 9, 1961 . According to arrest records, the group of white passengers (including Gordon) entered the "colored" waiting room and refused to leave when police asked them to do so. After their arrest, the Freedom Riders were charged with "Breach of the Peace," and sentenced to six months in jail. After a thirty-nine day incarceration at the state penitentiary at Parchman, Gordon was released on bond on August 8, 1961 . His conviction was ultimately reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States .

During his civil rights activist and labor organizing days, as well as semesters of teaching history, Gordon traveled widely. Between 1962 and 1968 he hitchhiked across Europe and Africa , where he first encountered African art. He then opened Tribal Arts Gallery in Manhattan , where he became the first wholesaler of African art in the United states . A second gallery, adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art , dealt with individual collectors. He continued to travel throughout the years, making more than fifty trips to Sub-Saharan Africa to obtain the sculpture for his galleries.

Gordon closed Tribal Arts in 1985 and began a "semi-retirement." During this time, he ran a presidential primary campaign in New Hampshire for Larry Agran, published a Peace Dividend newsletter, began writing a book on collecting African art, worked on a documentary film in Mali , established art trade relations with Vietnam , and served in the Peace Corps in West Africa .

In 1998 Gordon reentered the art scene by becoming the co-owner of Origins Gallery in Stockbridge, Massachusetts . He currently divides his time between Stephentown , New York and Manhattan , and continues to spend several months a year traveling.