One day in the summer of 1992, a couple of guys from a white supremacist group called the American Front stopped by the Democrat-Herald. I interviewed them, learning that they were planning a march in downtown Albany.
Later, I wrote an editorial saying they had the right to march, but nobody had to like it.
After hearing about the march, Gene Belheumer went beyond words. He organized a “Diversity Day” event, scheduled for Monday, Aug. 31, three days before the proposed American Front march.
Gene, who died Monday at age 66, was a longtime owner of Snooky’s tobacco and candy shop in Two Rivers Market.
He looked at race relations from a unique perspective. He was white. His wife Frances, who survives him, is black.
In an Aug. 29, 1992, story in the DH, Gene said the Diversity Day event, called “Celebrate Everybody’s Neighborhood,” would be Albany’s way of showing that “we respect people for who they are and embrace the diversity found through this community.”
He said then that his family had seen an improvement in race relations since he and Frances first came to Albany in November 1979.
“Honestly, this town has been very good,” he said. “That’s not to say we’ve put our defenses down, but anyone with an attitude about who we are gets a little attitude back.”
It was attitude, DH reporter Jeff Keating noted in the story, that helped the Belhumeurs win a court case. The couple had been married only a short time when Gene went apartment hunting one day in Santa Monica, Calif., while Frances was at work.
Gene found an apartment and brought his wife back to see it that evening. He said the couple’s arrival caused a stir.
“The landlady couldn’t believe I hadn’t told her my wife was black,” Gene said. “She was just floored.”
The Belhumeurs didn’t get the apartment, but took the landlords to court. “It was a rare case,” Gene said. “I claimed I had been discriminated against because of her skin color. And I won.”
And Gene won with “Celebrating Everybody’s Neighborhood.” Five hundred people showed up Aug. 31, 1992, in front of the Linn County Courthouse to hear prayers, songs, readings and speeches celebrating the city’s diversity.
After the event, people moved down Broadalbin Street to sample a variety of ethnic foods.
Among those in the crowd that day were three members of the American Front. They said their event had been postponed. It never happened.
Gene described the diversity day event as awesome. “It makes me feel good to know that when you ask people to come together for a good reason, they do it.”
Gene was elected mayor of Albany that fall. He served one term.
A few years ago, a number of Albany residents, myself included, formed a grassroots group whose aim was to establish a human rights commission in Albany. Remembering that day in 1992, we called the group Everybody’s Neighborhood Network.
Gene didn’t attend the group’s meetings, but he supported our efforts and was delighted when the Albany Human Relations Commission was formed in 2007.
In honor of Gene and one of the proudest days in Albany’s history, it would be fitting for the city to designate Aug. 31 as “Everybody’s Neighborhood Day.”
