The A. Philip Randolph Institute - Maine Chapter has a number of free fun and interesting coming up and all are welcome to join us! Sign up here for more information, Zoom links and updates!
“Black Mainers and the Struggle for Freedom and Equality in the 19th Century” Presentation with Andy O’Brien – March 20
Since the Colonial era, African Americans in Maine have fought for liberation, first by resisting their enslavement and petitioning for their emancipation and then by joining national movements for abolitionism and civil rights.
Join Maine AFL-CIO Communications Director Andy O’Brien on Wednesday, March 20 as he traces the roots of Maine’s racial justice movement from slavery to its formal abolition in 1865, covering the role of Black Mainers in electoral politics in the antebellum period and grassroots organizing in the abolitionist and National Colored Convention movements. Learn about influential Black Mainers like activist Reuben Ruby, intellectual Robert Benjamin Lewis, pioneering journalist John Brown Russwurm, abolitionist George H. Black, and the radical preacher Reverend William C. Monroe, who joined the militant abolitionist John Brown’s movement to establish a revolutionary government of formerly enslaved people in the Appalachian Mountains.
O’Brien will also be giving the same presentation this Saturday, March 16, at 1:30 pm on the 7th Floor Event Room, Glickman Library, Bedford Street, USM Library as part of the Spirits Alive Winter Lecture Series.
Read & Discuss “Class, Race and Gender” by Michael Zweig
Michael Zweig, author of Class, Race and Gender, the book the Maine AFL-CIO Labor Reading Group will begin reading in April, will give a presentation for labor activists on Tuesday, April 9 from 6-8 pm at the Maine Irish Heritage Center, 4 Gray St. in Portland. You are also welcome to join the Labor Reading Group as we read our way more carefully through Zweig's book in the next few months, comparing what he has to say against our own shared experiences.
Chinese History Walking Tour in Portland — June 2
Join APRI-Maine as take self-guided Portland Chinese-American History Walking Tour in Portland on Sunday, June 2. Chinese people have lived in Portland since 1858 and have a fascinating story of overcoming prejudice and establishing themselves in Maine. Many of the historic buildings have been lost to history but the tour takes you to the site of early Chinese restaurants and teashops, places of worship, Chinese laundries, tenements where Chinese families lived and more. Stay tuned for more details.