All Black History Month, at V 101.7 – Albany’s R&B Leader, we’re honoring our local heroes as Albany World Changers. Listen to V 101.7 to hear about more of our neighbors who have done amazing things for our community and our country, and read more below.
Here are just a few Albany World Changers:
ANTHONY DEION BRANCH, JR.
Anthony Deion Branch, Jr. was born in Albany in 1979. He attended Monroe Comprehensive High School where he lettered in both football and track and field, and then went on to play college football at Jones County Junior College and then the University of Louisville. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft. In his rookie season, Branch set an NFL record for the second-highest single-game total catches by a rookie. He went on to even greater success by being named Most Valuable Player by the New England Patriots in the 2005 Super Bowl where he had 11 catches for 133 yards. During his 14-year NFL career, he also played for the Seattle Seahawks, and the Indianapolis Colts. Albany native Deion Branch is currently the director of player development and alumni relations at the University of Louisville.
RAY CHARLES
American singer, songwriter and pianist Ray Charles Robinson Sr. was born in Albany in 1930. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history. Often referred to by his contemporaries as “the Genius” and by friends as “Brother Ray”, Ray Charles pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and gospel into his own unique style. The city of Albany opened Ray Charles Plaza to honor their native son on the banks of the Flint River in December of 2007. The plaza features a rotating sculpture of Charles seated at a baby grand piano, while his beloved melodies play in the background. Visitors can grab a seat on a piano key bench surrounding the plaza and enjoy the “concert”.
ALICE COACHMAN
The first African American female athlete to win an Olympic gold medal was from Albany. Born in 1023, Alice Coachman was unable to access athletic training facilities or participate in organized sports because of the color of her skin. She trained using what was available to her, running shoeless along the dirt roads near her home. At the age of 16, Coachman drew the attention of the Tuskegee institute and joined the Tuskegee Preparatory School where her sports career blossomed. Competing on a global stage at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, she won a gold medal in the high jump breaking the previous 16-year-old record by three quarters of an inch. Alice Coachman Davis was inducted was honored as one of the 100 greatest Olympians during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
OSCEOLA MACARTHY ADAMS
Osceola Macarthy Adams was born in Albany in 1890. Known by the stage name Osceola Archer, she was one of the first Black actresses to appear on Broadway in Between Two Worlds in 1934. Adams is also known as one of the co-founders of the Delta Sigma Thera sorority at Howard University in 1913, the same year as the women’s suffragette march on Washington, which Adams attended. Adams’ passion for the performing arts led to her graduating with a degree in the field. She became the Director of the Studio Theatre School at the American Negro Theatre where she taught students like Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. Osceola Adams’ career spanned radio, film, television and, above all, theatre. And in her later years she turned to commercials, where she continued to perform until age 88.
BOBBY WATKINS
Albany Native Bobby Watkins is an accomplished senior-level aerospace executive with NASA with experience in roles with increasing responsibility at NASA Headquarters, Johnson Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Michoud Assembly Center and currently Vice President of Huntsville Operations for Barrios Technology Ltd. As a young man, Bobby Watkins stocked shelves, helped keep the books and carried bags of groceries for customers in his family’s community grocery store in Albany. Over the years, Watkins has held a number of leadership roles with the Space Shuttle Program at Johnson and at NASA Headquarters in Washington. He was an assistant associate administrator in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate; served as chief of staff at Johnson. His work has earned numerous awards, including NASA’s Exceptional Achievement, Outstanding Leadership and Exceptional Service medals.
CHEVENE BOWERS KING
Albany native Chevene Bowers King was a prominent African American lawyer known for his courage, courtroom eloquence, and legal skills in the face of fierce and even violent opposition during the civil rights struggle in southwest Georgia. The first black lawyer in the area, civil rights protesters looked to C B King, who central to legal defense throughout the Albany movement and beyond, defending Freedom Riders, the Americus Four, incarcerated civil rights protesters, and others caught up in the struggle for equality. Among his more famous clients were Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Martin Luther King Jr., and William Anderson, leader of the Albany Movement. As a culminating tribute to C B King’s legacy, the federal courthouse in downtown Albany was named in his honor in 2002.
DR. WILLIAM G. ANDERSON
Dr. William G. Anderson was the first African American who was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Osteopathic Association. Born in Americus, he is best known for his role as the leader of the Albany Movement and for his work in civil rights. Anderson took part in hundreds of civil rights marches and worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. Following the Albany Movement’s dissolution in 1962, Anderson became the house physician at Art Centre Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, where he became the first Black surgical resident in Detroit’s history. He remained active in civil rights as a member of the board of the Southern Chrisian Leadership Conference, and in 1994 became the first African American to serve as president of the American Osteopathic Association.
SHIRLEY SHERROD
Shirley Sherrod is a former Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1969, Sherrod and her husband were in a group of civil rights and land collective activists that co-founded New Communities, a collective farm in southwest Georgia. Located in Lee County between 1969 and 1985, the project was one of the largest tracts of black-owned land in the U.S. Sherrod was hired by the USDA in 2009 as the Georgia Director of Rural Development, the first black person to hold that position. In 2010, she became a subject of controversy when parts of a speech she gave were publicized by Breitbart News, and she was forced to resign. However, upon review of the complete unedited video in context, the NAACP, White House officials, and the United States secretary of agriculture apologized for the firing and Sherrod was offered a new position.
