The Civil Rights Movement in Maine: Background information when reading Promise

The Civil Rights Movement in Maine

This article relates to Promise

Rachel Eliza Griffiths' debut novel Promise is set in Maine at a time when the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was spreading to that state. Racial tensions were rising as white folks who resented calls for equality began viewing the presence of Blacks, no matter how few, as a threat to their existence.

Although racism in Maine might have been more subtle than in many other states, it was still expressed through the constant reminder of Blacks' second-class citizenship that denied them rights, including access to equal housing and employment. Black students also experienced ridicule from teachers who felt Blacks didn't deserve to attend the same schools as white folks.

With the post–World War II arrival of Black military personnel in areas like Bangor and Portland and the spread of the Civil Rights Movement across the country, resistance to segregated USOs (United Service Organizations) and other types of discrimination intensified. The Greater Bangor Area Branch of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was founded in the early 1960s in response. Gerald Talbot, a civil rights pioneer who served as the president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP in 1964 and in the Maine Legislature from 1972 to 1978 as the first Black legislator in the state, recalled his experience while job hunting: "I'm a light-skinned black, and people that hired me did not know what I was, but when they found it out, they said 'What are you?' Two days later, I was gone. I didn't have a job anymore."

A similar experience was recounted by Clarence Roberts, who went hunting for a place to live when he retired in 1940s Buxton: "One place I remember…was a beautiful house, had ten rooms, had four fireplaces in it. Now I felt, 'Here's a lovely place to retire.' The real estate man left my wife and myself there. He went down the road to find the owner. And they came, just laughing and talking in the car, but the minute [the owner] saw me, he said, 'I'm sorry. I can't sell it. My neighbors would object if I sold it to him.' The nearest neighbor to that house was five miles down the road!"

Many similar stories of struggle spurred civil rights activists to fight for equality, eventually resulting in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made illegal discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and national origin. The struggle wasn't over, however, as NAACP chapters in Lewiston, Brunswick, Bangor, and Portland continued agitating to get the legislature to pass a fair housing bill until 1965, when it finally passed. Since much of the NAACP's work in Maine involved securing Black residents places to live and work, this was a huge achievement for the movement in Maine. According to Talbot, some white Mainers helped push the movement forward in this predominantly white state.

This support dates back over a century prior to the Civil Rights Movement, since Maine also played a crucial role in the movement of enslaved people from America to Canada through the diligent work of the conductors of the Underground Railroad. Places in Portland like the Abyssinian Meeting House, Lloyd Scott's second-hand clothing store, and Reuben Ruby's hack stand at Temple and Federal Streets, which formed part of The Maine Freedom Trails used as transit points, can still be visited today.

The struggle for civil rights in Maine did not end in the 1960s; another major achievement of the movement was the 1971 creation of the Maine Human Rights Commission, amid strong opposition from those who argued that such an institution was unnecessary because there wasn't any racism in Maine. It took two decades for this commission to be created, and when it was, it was tasked with protecting and promoting the rights of all citizens in Maine after the task force created by Governor Curtis in 1968 uncovered a pattern of discrimination against Blacks in housing, employment, and education. Its creation was the result of multiple agitations from activists, who used court litigation, mass protests, lobbying, and publicity to get their message across.

Mainers (Gerald Talbot stands far left) who took part in the 1963 March on Washington pose on Portland's Market Street, courtesy of Portland Public Library Special Collections and Archives

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to Promise. It originally ran in August 2023 and has been updated for the August 2024 paperback edition. Go to magazine.