Captain Allan Michael

Captain Allan Michael (1958 - 2020) was honored in 2020.

Captain Allan Michael was the fifth maritime Captain of color in the New York Harbor and the first Black Captain at New York Circle Line Sightseeing Line, where he worked for 37 years.

He worked for 10 years as a deckhand, was unfairly passed over for promotion many times before finally being promoted to Captain in 1987. He sailed as Captain with the Circle Line for 27 years. He was responsible for up to 600 passengers at a time, both day and night. He piloted both single screw and twin-screw vessels while with the company. He retired as the number one Captain in 2014.

After “9-11”, he received a citation and proclamation of gratitude from the Mayor’s Office for transporting  hundreds of people, completely covered in white ash, with no way to get home, to safety from Ground Zero in NYC to NJ. He did this for seven straight hours.

The systemic racism that he experienced in his life and career made him extremely angry at the world. Then he discovered Aesthetic Realism, the education founded by Eli Siegel, which he believed is the knowledge that can end racism. His study of what Eli Siegel explained is the fight in all people between contempt (the addition to self through the lessening of something else) and respect (wanting to know and be fair to the world) was central to his success as a mariner, husband and person. Speaking about the principles of Aesthetic Realism and what he learned, he said: “It was through the thoughts of Eli Siegel, a white man, that I was able to understand the deepest things in myself; and this points to a fundamental hope for all races. Humanity will thank him, as I do, for teaching in Aesthetic Realism how all people can honestly see each other with depth, kindness, and respect.”

He wrote important articles on how racism can change through the study of Aesthetic Realism. In addition, together with his wife, educator, and public speaker Monique Michael, he took part across the nation in performances of the stirring anti-racism production, by Alice Bernstein, of “The People of Clarendon County”. A play by Ossie Davis based on the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. There are many places the event took place, including a performance done on Capitol Hill. Allan Michael was also a photographer and his work has been exhibited in many galleries on the East Coast. He has given talks at art foundations, libraries and schools, including the New York Harbor School, on what he has learned about photography and the maritime industry from Aesthetic Realism. 

Prior to Allan becoming an OBMG Board member, he was the Keynote speaker at the SUNY Maritime Cultural Club 2017 Black History Month Dinner. The video of Captain Michael’s 2017 keynote, is on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTSBCaktUiI.

The OBMG was honored to welcomed Captain Michael to the Board of Directors in 2018 until his untimely passing in 2020. His passion, quiet courage, kind heart and inimitable spirit are a model to be emulated and will be sorely missed.