Improved racial relations an elusive goal in Maine
A former Bostonian familiar with racial strife, the Rev. Kenneth Lewis, pastor of Green Memorial AME Zion Church, says old racial concepts can remain unchallenged in Maine, sometimes for generations.
Rev. Kenneth Lewis, who has lived in Maine since he was appointed pastor in 2003 at the Green Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Munjoy Hill, grew up in Boston in the 1960s and 1970s when racial tensions were high. In Maine, he said, old racial concepts sometimes remain unchallenged, sometimes for generations, and can limit Mainers’ understanding of a more diverse, larger world.
“People in Maine still use the phrase ‘colored,’ ” Lewis said. “I’ve heard it before. It means you’re stuck in a time warp. So if you’re not forced to confront any other way, it can be difficult” to change.
Lewis said he has watched as refugees from African nations, for whom the American history of slavery and race is alien, resettle in Portland and endure treatment that African-Americans who moved to Maine from elsewhere would protest.
“Someone who is (African-American) from Cleveland or New Jersey might not be as docile,” he said. “So I will correct one person at a time, every single time, and I think … as the community ‘browns’ over time, might there be some level of change in the wiring?”
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