On Thursday, May 14, Wilbur T. Aldridge will be honored at the 66th Annual NAACP Freedom Fund Gala at the Pearl River Hilton, a fitting recognition for a man whose life has been dedicated to civil rights, public service, and the advancement of others.
As past Regional Director of the Mid-Hudson Westchester Region of the NAACP, Aldridge has spent decades confronting discrimination, opening doors for people of color, mentoring younger generations, and reminding communities that progress requires both courage and persistence.
The courage and deep commitment that radiates from Wilbur when engaged in the civic arena was forged in segregated Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was born in 1945. Wilbur came of age during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. As a teenager, he marched against segregation and was jailed for participating in demonstrations in the years following the Woolworth sit-ins.
His memories of Jim Crow America are not abstract history lessons, but lived experiences: separate schools, racial intimidation, and the daily indignities imposed upon Black Americans in the South. Yet Aldridge speaks about those years not only with pain, but with wisdom, humor, and a deep belief in the possibility of change.
After moving to Rockland County in 1964, Aldridge built a distinguished career in New York State’s mental health system while becoming one of the county’s most influential civic leaders. He helped found Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland County and became a leading voice within the NAACP throughout the Hudson Valley. His leadership always reflected the values instilled in him by his family and community: education, dignity, fairness, and service to others.
If you don’t know Wilbur, or want to hear that voice that always packs a powerful nonviolent civic punch, Aldridge’s recollections have been preserved for future generations through the Nyack Record Shop Project. Created in 2018, the project collected oral histories from members of Nyack’s African American community in an effort to preserve stories that might otherwise be lost with time. Inspired by Carrie Mae Weems’ Beacon Project, the initiative transformed individual memories into a forum for local history and cultural preservation. Aldridge’s interview stands among those recordings as both testimony and teaching.
Oral histories matter because they capture more than dates and accomplishments. They preserve tone, emotion, reflection, and hard-earned understanding. They remind us that history is not only made by famous figures in textbooks, but by neighbors, organizers, parents, workers, ministers, veterans, and community leaders whose lives shaped the places we call home. Thanks to the Record Shop Project, Wilbur Aldridge’s contributions will not fade into memory alone. His story has been recorded, archived, and shared — ensuring that future generations will hear not only what he did, but why it mattered.
Click here to buy tickets to the 66th Annual Nyack Branch NAACP Freedom Gala.
Click here to read and hear Bill Batson’s interview with Wilbur Aldridge.
About the Nyack Record Shop Project
The project was the result of a collaboration of arts, civic, religious and local history organizations initiated by Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center and the Historical Society of the Nyacks, and led by Bill Batson. Special thanks to Amy Bezunartea and Jennifer O’Connor of Main Street Beat for hosting the project.
Before this initiative, the Nyack Library had approximately 65 oral histories on file; of those, only eight were from African Americans. Now there are 92 oral histories in total with 36 from the African American community. According to the 2010 census, Nyack was 23% African American. As a result of the Nyack Record Shop Project, 30% of the archived oral histories on record are from the African American community, a rare example of social equity skewing in favor of a marginalized group.
The Nyack Library also has oral histories of past Nyack Branch NAACP leaders such has Walter Blount and Dr. Frances Pratt.
Read the LoHud coverage here.
Read more about the Nyack Record Shop Project here.
An activist, artist and writer, Bill Batson lives in Nyack, NY. Nyack Sketch Log: “Wilbur Aldridge” © 2026 Bill Batson. Visit billbatsonarts.com to see more.
Sketchmob 250
On May 16, join my Sketch Mob for all ages and skill levels to create a crowd-sourced landscape of the GARNER Historic District in celebration of GARNER Arts Festival’s 25th anniversary and America 250.
A Sketch Mob is a mass plein air event, with the goal of documenting and commemorating the built and natural environment. Over the last 14 years, I’ve organized dozens of public art events with over 1,000 Sketch Mob participants.
I conceived of the sketch mob in an essay Nyack Sketch Log Vs. Google Maps in October 2011. You can see the artwork by the 100 participants of the first sketch mob on June 16, 2012 here.
$25 per person (children 12 and under FREE)
$20 students
$15 residents of Haverstraw
Inquire about group rates at info@sketchmob.org.
