LEWISTON, ME (October 25, 2022) — The 25th season of the Great Falls Forum continues on Thursday, November 10th, with a panel discussion entitled “Overlooked Stories and Histories: African Americans in Maine,” featuring Rachel Ferrante, Executive Director, Museum L-A; Bob Greene, retired journalist and historian, Trustee, Maine Historical Society; moderated by Leslie Hill, retired Professor of Politics, Bates College. This free, public program will take place from 12 noon to 1 PM in Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library and will also be streamed live via Zoom and the Lewiston Public Library Facebook page.

Maine is consistently described as the whitest state in the Union despite its increasingly diverse population. Even so, the state’s population diversity is not new. Multiple waves of migrants from distant shores have added to the long-standing Indigenous populations who lived, worked, celebrated, and worshipped on this land for thousands of years. Among those who came in more recent centuries with a variety of languages, ethnic sagas, religious, and cultural practices were people of African descent—enslaved and free—who contributed to amplifying the region’s economy, politics, social, and cultural life. Yet, Black people (and other people of color) have been invisible to many as the narrative of Maine as a racially unvarying place persists. Now, however, the narrative is changing. The story of the state’s diversity is enlarging as more recent migrants, from across the country and abroad, establish new lives here. What stories have been overlooked in accounts of the state’s historical diversity? How can learning those stories help us fashion the present and future?

This Great Falls Forum panel will share stories to advance our knowledge of African Americans in Maine. Along with building a more honest and inclusive narrative of the community’s racial-ethnic heritage, panelists offer creative ways to preserve and celebrate told and untold stories of work, community-building, and the region’s multifaceted heritage.

Admission is free to all Forum events and reservations are only required if attending via Zoom. The Zoom link will be posted to the Library website and Facebook prior to the event. The onsite program is a bring-your-own, brown-bag lunch event. For more information, please contact the Lewiston Public Library at 513-3135 or LPLReference@lewistonmaine.gov.

The Great Falls Forum speaker series is co-sponsored by Bates College, Lewiston Public Library, and the Sun Journal. The Lewiston Public Library is located downtown at 200 Lisbon Street at the corner of Pine Street.