Maine's Black Future

Episode 8 opens with the story of Moses Samuel Green, who arrived in Portland in 1888. Moses was a longtime bootblack in Portland’s Union Station, as well as a wealthy real estate leader and supporter of Portland’s early African Methodist Episcopal churches. Green Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church is named after him, and stands today as the state’s oldest historically Black congregation.  The episode th...

Episode 7 starts with Genius Black telling the story of Randolph Stakeman, who came to Bowdoin College in 1978 to teach African history.  Later in the episode, Genius and photographer Sean Alonzo Harris connect about growing up in Cambridge, Mass., his introduction to photography, and how it was inspired by his family.

Episode 6 opens with Genius Black telling the story of John D. Carter, who lived in Augusta during the 19th century. In the 1830s and 1840s, Carter and his wife Mary lived above his barbershop. Carter was a successful businessman, and a vocal opponent of slavery, which he considered a sin. He proposed anti-slavery resolutions that challenged First Baptist Church of Augusta’s commitment to act agai...

Host Genius Black opens the fifth episode of the Maine’s Black Future podcast with a brief history of Gerald E. Talbot, civil and human rights activist, Maine state legislator, and author.  Later in the episode, Genius sits down with Bangor resident Angela Okafor, Bangor's first person of color and immigrant elected to the Bangor City Council.

Host Genius Black opens the fourth episode of the Maine’s Black Future Podcast with a story of Sherman Kentucky Ferguson, a Lewiston resident and boxer who in 1931 was denied a marriage license to his white fiancée, outside of legal parameters. Sherman’s denial was noted by Black owned publications across the country, displaying the municipal level segregation some interracial Maine couples faced....

Host Genius Black opens episode 3 with a look at John Brown Russuwurm, a Jamaican born bi-racial man who came to Maine in 1812 with his English father. John lost both his parents at an early age, but grew up with a caring stepmother who eventually helped him enroll into Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.  Russwurm became Bowdoin’s first African American graduate, and the third inside the United...

Host Genius Black opens the second episode with a look at Pedro Tovookan Parris, who came to Portland to take part in the trial of Cyrus Libby, who was arrested in Rio De Janeiro for illegally transporting enslaved Africans. Later in the episode, Genius sits down with Portland resident Junes Thete, a Congolese-born cinematographer, producer, and fashion consultant working in Maine. Junes shares hi...

Host Genius Black opens the first episode of The Maine Monitor's new podcast, Maine's Black Future, with a historical look at the life of London Atus, a Machias resident in the late 1700s that purchased his freedom and fought in the Revolutionary War. Atus would help create the settlement of Atusville.  Later in the episode, Genius sits down with Portland resident Alfine Nathalie, a holi...