The Black Church as Civil Society: Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie
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Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie (age 66; born 1937 in Newark, New Jersey; lived in Maine for 8.5 years)
Interviewer: Okay. Well, now can you -- can you talk about any of the committees that you -- that you have (inaudible) locally?
Mrs. 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 supremacists 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.”
You can access the complete interview and transcript by visiting this page.
Publication Date
6-4-2003
Keywords
African American, Oral History, Maine, Church, Faith, Family
Recommended Citation
Elgersman-Lee, Maureen, "The Black Church as Civil Society: Mrs. Joanna Boley-Lee McKenzie" (2003). We Exist Series 3: Audio Recordings. 3.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/we-exist-exhibit3-audio/3
