We Exist Series 2: Audio Recordings

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  Activism and Civil Rights: Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie, (age 66; born 1937 in Newark, New Jersey; lived in Maine for 8.5 years

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee: "Now, how does -- how do you go from being a flight attendant to being -- working in affirmative action at -- at an institution with, um, Bates kind of stature in the academia?"

  Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie: "You know, people ask me how did you do this. So I tell them when I was a flight attendant I was interested in traveling internationally and that's why I did that. Um, when I finished doing that, I worked as an art teacher. All of my work as an art teacher was done with teaching students art forms of other cultures. So if we did print making, our designs were connected with designs from other cultures. We would do, um, urn, pieces of art that were directly from those cultures such as weaving that are worn by Guatemalan women and Adinkra cloth which is a cloth in Ghana. So that it was all culturally based. And, ah, so when I went into affirmative action what I did was I put that part of my life together with my years spent in the civil rights movement which, urn, really prepared me more for my job than my teaching. But, uh, I believe since affirmative action is moving close to, uh, dealing with diversity, uh, the cultural pieces have been easily transferred into what I do as well."

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  Activism and Civil Rights: Ms. Wahidah Muhammad

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Ms. Wahidah Muhammad (born 1948 in Chicago, Illinois; lived in Maine since December 1991)

  
  

  Ms. Wahidah Muhammad: “Well, um, it's -- it's nice to sit here and -- and -- and talk about yourself, but, um, I can remember when I was going to school for, um -- at the University of Southern Maine and getting my bachelor's. Um, United Way, the president of the United Way – Larry Marocux, M A R O C U X, came to our class and was recruiting people to work within the community. They needed someone to do a survey. And, um -- well, he didn't actually ask for a survey, but that's what myself and three other students decided to do. And what we did was we surveyed, uh, the teams. We had a, uh -- a survey that went through the community from 12 to 21 year olds. And what this information gave was the assets and the, um, um, needs of the teams in the community and it gave them a venue to talk because -- knowing that these kids are being abused and ain't nobody listening and so they becoming addicts. Um, that's why we chose the teams. And it went out very well. Um, and we also did a team summit where we had a powwow, literally, set around and the teams got a chance to voice what they were going through and how they -- and what they liked and what they dislike.”

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee: "Do you have a date for that, or a particular year?"

  Ms. Wahidah Muhammad: "That must have 2000, 2001. Let me see. I was a student. I graduated in 2001. Maybe 2000. Yes. I think it was in 2000. And, um, it was successful. So successful was it, Maureen, that they took that survey and they used it for community -- in the community agencies now, you know, like, urn, New Beginnings and -- and United Way, and they share that information from that survey.”

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  Activism and Civil Rights: Ms. Wahidah Muhammad

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Ms. Wahidah Muhammad (born 1948 in Chicago, Illinois; lived in Maine since December 1991)

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee: "Do any events in the time that you have lived in Lewiston – are there any events in the local history that stand out in your -- in your memory?"

  Ms. Wahidah Muhammad: “Recently, um, the mayor of Lewiston made a statement that was detrimental to the population, and, um -- particularly the Somalian and African Americans here, uh, which brought on the Many and One rally. And I had to get involved in it because I have a voice, you know. And I -- so, to make a long story short, um, he never apologized for that and now I'll never forget it, you know. He had the opportunity to make amends and to explain that he didn't mean it the way that it came out because we all make mistakes. But he meant everything that he said and that's why he never apologized for it. And, um, the irony of it all though is the fact that he is Franco-American. And when the Franco-Americans came here, they were dehumanized and, um, um-- put down, so to speak. And here he is doing the same thing. It's almost like, uh, oppression -- the oppressed become the oppressor. So, urn, -- plus the other thing that went along with what the mayor said was, it wasn't true in the sense that, uh, the Somalis were a burden community. When the Somalis came they came with thousands of dollars in grant monies that helped the city. But he didn't say that. So because of, um, the hypocrisy, I would never vote for him.” And what role did you play in -- in the rally “Oh, um. Well, there were several committees that I was on in putting together what the actual event would look like. And some -- because -- because many people don't understand what to do in time of crisis, because the city went into crisis behind that. And, um -- um, some people, non-black people or non-African people, in their way they thought that they should have a big party and rally and say that we want to love the Somalis, and blah, blah. And I said no. This is not the time to party, this is not the time to celebrate. What we should do is blah, blah, blah and -- and in that way I had a voice. But in order to get my voice heard, I had to get on those committees. And every week -- and go to those committee meetings and see to it that, um, um, our desires or our wishes were heard and brought into fruition.”

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  Civil Rights and Activism: Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie, (age 66; born 1937 in Newark, New Jersey; lived in Maine for 8.5 years)

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee : "Okay. Well, now can you -- can you talk about any of the committees that you -- that you have (inaudible) locally?

  Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie: “Uh, I work with the, uh, City of Lewiston. There are two committees, um, both of them are diversity committees, one of them under, uh, Mayor Kaileigh Tara that was the beginning of the diversity committee. And then, um, there's another committee that has -- was put together, amazingly, just before the, um, uh, -- the, um, march in January when the white supremists came. We were trying to set up some workshops for the city to help people to – to resolve the issues they had with the Somalians being here. And it was perfect timing because we were able to then concentrate our efforts on the, um, rally at Bates. The "Many and One" group, sort of -- many of the people on this, uh, city committee also served on the "Many and One" committee. So, we've worked together. Uh, I did training for the Lewiston and Auburn Police Department. I serve on the "Hate Bias Taskforce" committee which is, uh, a state committee, but each city has its own small organization that is part of the larger group. Uh, and then the other kinds of committee are the Jubilee Center at Trinity Episcopal Church. Um, not so much for diversity and gender, but here it's class. We -- we work with the -- the, uh, poorer and unemployed people in the city, um, those kinds of things.” Now, how would that work differ -- when you -- when you work in class issues, how is that different from the work you do around race and gender? “Actually, there is not a whole lot of difference. I think the reason why there is a lot of class -- more class issues in this area than issues of race have to do with the fact that it's pretty a homogeneous community. And, so, the same kinds of, um, um, derogatory statements, um, the treating people differently, uh, looking down on others comes out based on your status within the community. So, we do find that poor people, poor white people are treated by each other in the same way as people of different races are in more diverse cities.” And the "Many and One" rally in January of this year, January 2003, uh, was held at Bates, and your committee worked – how did it feel (inaudible) -- uh, in -- in the middle -- so to speak, how did it feel to be working with the city, how did it feel to be working on these committees in the mists of what -- what was some turmoil? “Well, you know, at first it was kind of frightening because – and our small committee, we were talking about how do we protect our community from what could happen with the white supremists coming in. Um, and so we were thinking of workshops and things that we would actually do after the rally was over because the police were going to take care of controlling the environment. And then the "Many and One" committee, which I was not a part of, but that committee started working on having the rally at Bates which was a wonderful thing because it gave people who wanted to do something a positive place to go. So, um, it was almost like two things at one time. What has happened since the rally is that, um, the "Many and One" committee and the committee from the Lewiston government have, more-or-less, come together to begin the dialogue. And so there have been workshops and dialogues and meetings since February. And there is, um -- there is going to be a report that is coming out, they are working on it now, about the outcomes of the various workshops that they have been having. So the two groups have been overlapping after the events.”