Rock Rest, a former travel inn in Kittery that served Black Americans in a manner similar to “Green Book” travel guide (2018) [See below.]
John Brown Russwurm was Bowdoin College‘s first black graduate, in 1826. The third black to graduate from an American college, he went on to become the co-founder and co-editor of the country’s first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal.
A white resident of Maine, Oliver Otis Howard, Civil War General and Congressional Medal of Honor winner born in Leeds, founded the predominantly black Howard University in Washington, D. C. after the war.
James Healy (1830-1900), Bishop of Portland in 1875, was the first African American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and the first African American ordained a Catholic priest.
Klan Members Pose
One of the more shameful episodes in Maine history is the treatment of the black residents of Malaga Island, in the New Meadows River just off Phippsburg.
The Ku Klux Klan was a political force in Maine in the 1920’s, opposing the rights of Catholics, Jews, and immigrants generally, in addition to African Americans.
In 1972 Gerald Talbot of Portland, whose family had been in Maine since the mid-eighteenth century, became the first African American elected to the Maine State Legislature. He served until 1978 and was also a member of the State Board of Education.
Abyssinian Meetinghouse @
Anchor of the Soul is a 1994 movie about African American history in northern New England told through the story of the Abyssinian Meeting House in Portland. Details about the significance of the Meeting House are in the Portland Historic Register. More about the movie may be found on Youtube.
The 6,760 black residents of Maine*, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, constituted about one-half of one percent of the total population. By 2010 that number and proportion had more than doubled to 15,707 and 1.2 percent (12.6 percent nationally).
The story of the Sinclair family in Kittery during the post World War II period recounts the ambition and success of one Black family during a period of discrimination in Maine. The discussion below is “part 2” of their story, excerpted from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission 2007 nomination of their home for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. See the Kittery article for “part 1.”
While the hotels and motels in Maine were not officially segregated by color, there was a great reluctance in many places to rent rooms to African Americans. Much of this discrimination was hush-hush, but one blatant incident made the newspapers in 1962 when an African American actress performing with a touring company at the Ogunquit Playhouse was refused accommodations at seven local hotels. After the initial report, one innkeeper wrote a letter to the editor in which he proudly proclaimed his prejudicial intent not to provide rooms for African Americans. After several further news articles, the State Attorney Generals office investigated the event, but later declined to pursue court action, stating that the State’s anti-discrimination laws had not been breached!
A similar service was also happening in Old Orchard Beach. The Cummings family moved from Massachusetts to Old Orchard Beach in in 1917. In 1923 the family remodeled their farmhouse and opened their doors to African American travelers, an enterprise that was to bring them business for the next 70 years. . . . See the Old Orchard Beach article.
The 1946 edition of the The Negro Motorist Green-Book included a listing for tourist homes in Augusta, Gardiner, and Bangor, and one hotel and two tourist homes in Portland. Although they did not advertise in the Green-Book, the Sinclairs owned a copy, that they used when they took their annual vacations in the fall. It is important to understand and evaluate the significance of Rock Rest within a national context. The economic boom that occurred in the years after the second World War did not bypass African Americans; as with other Americans the economy provided them with an increased standard of living. This is not to say that segregation had been eradicated – it had not, especially in the southern states – but for many of those who lived in the north, the Midwest and the west, the post War years were accompanied by steady employment at decent wages. The guests at Rock Rest ran the gamut from civil servants to domestic servants to professionals; what they shared among themselves and with a great percentage of the American population was a desire to visit Maine.
A member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen was an all Black aviation unit in the U.S. military during World War II. James Sheppard, Jr., a resident of Westbrook and South Portland. In 2007, he was one of 300 awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his service. Sheppard worked on fighter aircraft. He was portrayed in the 2012 movie “Red Tails” about the Tuskegee Airmen. He died August 19, 2018 at age 93.**
The 2018 motion picture “The Green Book” portrays the difficulties that Black Americans had traveling in post-war period. The Negro Travelers’ Green Book identified welcoming “tourist homes” in the decades after World War II when many African American families had purchased automobiles and decided to tour the country. Five such destinations were in Maine in Augusta, Dixfield, Old Orchard Beach, Portland, Robbinston. Rock Rest in Kittery did not list in the book, but advertised by sending postcards to friends, friends of friends, and former guests.
Additional resources
*reporting “Black” or “African American,” in Maine: 2000, Census 2000 Profile, http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kprof00-me.pdf (accessed July 24, 2011); in 2010, http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_SF1_QTP5&prodType=table.
The African American Collection of Maine, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity, University of Southern Maine, Library’s Special Collections.
The following are from Visible Black History at http://www.visibleblackhistory.com/index.htm (accessed September 20, 2005).
Adams, Herbert, “African-Americans on The Steamship Portland,” Portland, Winterguide. 1998.
Barry, William David, “From the Collections: African-Americans and Maine,” Maine History, Vol. 38, No. 1, Summer 1998.
Barry, William David, ” The Shameful Story of Malaga Island,” Down East, November 1980.
Burrage, Henry S., “A Fugitive Slave Case in Maine, 1837-1841,” Maine Historical Memorials, 1922.
Champagne, Roger, with photography by Stephen O. Muskie, “Clarence Roberts: I Don’t Feel Color,” SALT, Winter 1982, Issue No. 19 http://www.salt.edu.
Chiteenden, Elizabeth, “John Brown Russwurm/1799-1851: Bowdoin’s First Black Graduate,” Down East Magazine, June 1972.
Connolly, Michael C., “Black Fades to Green; Irish Labor Replaces Aftican-American Labor along a Major New England Waterfront, Portland, Maine, in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, ” Colby Quarterly 37 (December 2001).
Donaldson, Leigh, with interviews and photos by Diane Hudson, “The Prime of David Driscoll,” Portland Monthly, September, 2001.
Donaldson, Leigh, “The W.E.B. DuBois Files,” Portland Monthly, Summerguide, 2001
Dubrule, Deborah, “Evicted: How the State of Maine Destroyed a ‘Different’ Island Community,” Island Journal, Vol. 16.
Elliott, Rosy, with photography by Lynn Kippas, Jr., “I’m Singulah!”, Interview with John Gaskill, SALT, Winter, 1984, Issue No. 24 http://www.salt.edu.
Frick, Jim, “On the Road with Wynton Marsalis,” Maine (University of Maine Alumni Magazine), Fall 1999. Article is about Nathan George.
H.E.H., “John Brown Russwurm, A Credit to Two Races,” Hebron Academy Semester Magazine, Fall, 1974.
Lumpkins, Charles L., “Civil Right Activism in Maine, 1945-1971,” Maine History, Vol. 36, Nos. 3-4, Winter-Spring. 1997.
Miller, Eben Simmons, “Resistance in ‘Pioneer Territory’: The Maine NAACP and the Pursuit of Fair Housing Legislation,” Maine History, Vol. 36, Nos. 3-4, Winter-Spring. 1997.
Parris, Percival J., Edited by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., “Pedro Tovookan Parris,” Old-Time New England, January-March, 1973.
Price, H.H., “Blacks in 19th-century Maine,” Maine Archives and Museums (MAM) Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 4, November 2001
Price, H.H., “Genealogy shows blacks were early Mainers,” Maine Archives and Museums (MAM) Newsletter, Vol. 3, No.2, May 2000
Price, H.H., “Herbert Heughan ’40: He quietly paved the way for black men at UMaine,” Maine (University of Maine Alumni Magazine), Vol. 82, No. 2, Summer 2001.
Price, H.H., “Maine’s Black History Comes to Light,” Maine Archives and Museums (MAM) Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 1999.
Price, H.H., “Maine’s black history documented through interviews,” Maine Archives and Museums (MAM) Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 4, November 2000.
Price, H.H., “Maine blacks and the Maritime Provinces,” Maine Archives and Museums (MAM) Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 3, August 2000.
Price, H.H.and Talbot, Gerald E., “Black Remains in Maine: Proof of Presence,” Maine Archives and Museums (MAM) Newsletter, Vol. 5, No.3, August 2002.
**Quimby, Beth. “Crew chief with Famed Tuskegee unit to be buried.” Portland Press Herald. August 27, 2018. pp.B3-B4.
Sherrer, Geneva McAuley, photography by Heather Joy Lane, “Black Child of Maine, SALT, Winter 1984, Issue No. 24 http://www.salt.edu.
Stakeman, Randolph, “The Black Population of Maine, 1764-1900,” New England Journal of Black Studies, No. 8, 1989.
Stakeman, Randolph, “Slavery in Colonial Maine,” Maine Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2, Fall, 1987.
Talbot, Gerald E., “Black Sports in Maine’s Past,” Maine Archives and Museums (MAM) Newsletter, Vol. 5, No. 3, August 2002.
Talbot, Gerald E., contributions to “The Millennium Issue: Important Events in Maine’s History,” Portland, December 1999.
Terrison, E. Mark, Esq., “Macon Bolling Allen – A Milestone for Maine,” Maine Bar Journal, 2000.
“The Green Book Guides African-Americans to Safety in New England (and Elsewhere)”
http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-green-book-guides-african-americans-to-safety-in-new-england-and-elsewhere/ (accessed January 14, 2019)
Watson, Elwood, “William Burney and John Jenkins: A Tale of Maine’s Two African- American Mayors,” Maine History, Summer 2001.
Please see the new book, LIVES OF CONSEQUENCE: Blacks in Early Kittery & Berwick by Patricia Q. Wall (Portsmouth Marine Society Press, Portsmouth, NH 2017)
Contents of book provide important corrections to this website regarding the era of slavery in Maine. I’m sure you’ll agree it high time for the truth to be told.
Please e-mail me if you would like more info.
Dear Mrs. Wall, I am interested in learning about my family’s history regarding slaves, particularly the Libby line. I believe they arrived in 1632. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I would be interested in obtaining a copy of your book, Lives of Consequence. Thank you.