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  Emma Jackson on Employment

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Emma Jackson Full Interview

  Emma Jackson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1941. She and her husband John Isaac Jackson had three children, and at the time of the interview she had been living in the Lewiston-Auburn area for forty five years. She spent the first ten years of her life in Maine doing domestic work, and then worked in the nursing field for thirty years, at a number of different facilities owned by Central Maine Medical Center. She discusses her life in Lewiston, challenges in finding housing she and her husband faced when they first moved to the area, prominent African American citizens and businesses in Lewiston, her husband’s career in area shoe factories, and her religious life and family history with Christ’s Temple Church.

  On Employment:

  Quote 1

  Interviewer: Does anyone else come to mind?

  Emma Jackson: “I didn't know that many -- no, because we were church people.” Interviewer: Right. Emma Jackson: “So we were involved a lot in the church and, ah –“

  Interviewer: Anyone you remember through the church who had their own businesses or, um, prominent in--

  Emma Jackson: “I can remember the Richardson's but they were in Portland. They owned some kind of a cleaning service.”

  Interviewer: Right. The Kippy's.

  Quote 2

  “But, ah, they seemed to be prominent. But I don't -- don't really know because we really didn't know that many blacks at that time…“there wasn't that many. And we didn't -- we only knew that were involved mainly in church…One of our members owns a, ah, beauty shop…Crystal. Uncle Q's. Do I know any other black owned – you know, I don't know any other black-owned businesses.”

  Quote 3

  “So that worked out. And my husband was in the shoe factory. To get in the shoe factory -- you could get in the fact -- or get in the mills. But any other jobs, they weren't that plentiful.”

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  Mr. Edgar Anderson on Education

  Amber Panzella

  Mr. Edgar Anderson Full Interview

  Edgar Anderson was born in Chicago in 1950, the second-oldest of six children. On his mother’s side, he has black, German, and Cree Native American ancestry; on his father’s side, he is descended from sharecroppers and former slaves from Mississippi. He attended high school in Chicago, and then went to the Military Academy at West Point in 1968, where he was one of ten black cadets in his class of 1200. He spent time in the Army as a basic training officer, and then received a graduate degree from Yale in business management and human resources. He moved to Portland, Maine, in 1985. He has one son from his first marriage, and two children from his second; at the time of this interview he also had three grandchildren. At the time of this interview, he worked in human resources for UPS. He served as the vice president of the NAACP New England Area Conference, as well as serving on the Portland NAACP’s executive committee.

  On Education:

  “…My parents were divorced when I was ten, so I grew up in a house with six women: my mom and my five sisters. So, I learned to do everything that women traditionally do. I can cook, clean, sew, bake. I grew up doing all that. Clean house and doing all of those things.”

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  Mr. Edgar Anderson on Employment

  Amber Panzella

  Mr. Edgar Anderson Full Interview

  Edgar Anderson was born in Chicago in 1950, the second-oldest of six children. On his mother’s side, he has black, German, and Cree Native American ancestry; on his father’s side, he is descended from sharecroppers and former slaves from Mississippi. He attended high school in Chicago, and then went to the Military Academy at West Point in 1968, where he was one of ten black cadets in his class of 1200. He spent time in the Army as a basic training officer, and then received a graduate degree from Yale in business management and human resources. He moved to Portland, Maine, in 1985. He has one son from his first marriage, and two children from his second; at the time of this interview he also had three grandchildren. At the time of this interview, he worked in human resources for UPS. He served as the vice president of the NAACP New England Area Conference, as well as serving on the Portland NAACP’s executive committee.

  On Employment:

  “…We've been able to come here and raise our family, and have decent jobs, and enjoy what Maine has to offer…”

  “I work for UPS… The people that drive these brown trucks, the delivery trucks. I hire the people that do those jobs?”

  
  

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  Mr. James Mathews on Education and Employment

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Mr. James Mathews Full Interview

  James Mathews was born at Maine General Hospital in Portland, Maine, in 1941. He had four siblings; his father, Oscar Mathews, Jr., was a cook for the railroad that ran between Portland and Boston, and his mother, Llewena Hill Mathews, was one of the first graduates of the Gorham Normal School. His father’s family emigrated from Nova Scotia. As a child, he lived with his aunt and uncle in South Portland; the family moved to another home in South Portland when the state took their home to build I-295. Mathews graduated from Portland High School in 1960, and graduated from Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute with an associate’s degree in electronics. He worked for AT&T for thirty seven years. He married Lorene Mathews and had five children. At the time of the interview, he had been a member of the NAACP for thirty five years, serving as the president in the early 1970s, and was an active member of the Green Memorial AME Zion Church. He discusses raising children, family traditions, and what makes the Portland African American community special.

  Quote transcript:

  Quote 1 “My father's name was Oscar Mathews, Jr., and he worked for the railroad. Not like a chef, but he was a cook on the railroad, and he traveled between Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland for a number of years. And my mother, her name was Llewena Hill Mathews, and she was one of the first graduates of Gorham Normal School which is now the University of Southern Maine. And she was an accomplished pianist, and she also was attempting to become a school teacher, but at the time Black school teachers were not hired.”

  Quote 2

  “I believe as far as their schooling is concerned, they did not choose to go to school. Like my son is a firefighter, so when he finally decided what he wanted to do, he was able to go to school on his own to become qualified. I have another daughter that when she was living in Florida she went to school down there. In fact, I have two children that lived in Florida for a while and they went to school in Florida for other education, to gain knowledge in that sense. So basically I haven't really provided college education for them because they at the time didn't require it or didn't seem to be needing it at the moment.”

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  Mr. James Mathews on Employment

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Mr. James Mathews Full Interview

  James Mathews was born at Maine General Hospital in Portland, Maine, in 1941. He had four siblings; his father, Oscar Mathews, Jr., was a cook for the railroad that ran between Portland and Boston, and his mother, Llewena Hill Mathews, was one of the first graduates of the Gorham Normal School. His father’s family emigrated from Nova Scotia. As a child, he lived with his aunt and uncle in South Portland; the family moved to another home in South Portland when the state took their home to build I-295. Mathews graduated from Portland High School in 1960, and graduated from Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute with an associate’s degree in electronics. He worked for AT&T for thirty seven years. He married Lorene Mathews and had five children. At the time of the interview, he had been a member of the NAACP for thirty five years, serving as the president in the early 1970s, and was an active member of the Green Memorial AME Zion Church. He discusses raising children, family traditions, and what makes the Portland African American community special.

  On Employment:

  “…I guess, you know, life is a challenge. Coming up as a child, you know, we had a problem with a lack of finance. My uncle acted as my father. He was held back financially because he had the skills of an electrician, but he wasn't able to use them. And so I believe that that would be a challenge; you know. We were held back from being financially able to fund our needs on his standpoint.”

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  Mr. James Mathews on Employment

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Mr. James Mathews Full Interview

  James Mathews was born at Maine General Hospital in Portland, Maine, in 1941. He had four siblings; his father, Oscar Mathews, Jr., was a cook for the railroad that ran between Portland and Boston, and his mother, Llewena Hill Mathews, was one of the first graduates of the Gorham Normal School. His father’s family emigrated from Nova Scotia. As a child, he lived with his aunt and uncle in South Portland; the family moved to another home in South Portland when the state took their home to build I-295. Mathews graduated from Portland High School in 1960, and graduated from Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute with an associate’s degree in electronics. He worked for AT&T for thirty seven years. He married Lorene Mathews and had five children. At the time of the interview, he had been a member of the NAACP for thirty five years, serving as the president in the early 1970s, and was an active member of the Green Memorial AME Zion Church.

  On Employment:

  
  “I lived with my aunt and uncle; their names were Hope Matthews and Kenneth Matthews. My uncle was an electrician, and he had problems getting electrical jobs until he finally had to go to work for C.H. Robinson, which is a paper company.”

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  Mr. James Sheppard on Education and Employment

  Sanela Zukic

  You can listen to the full interview and read a transcript HERE.

  
  James Sheppard was born in New York City in 1924, to parents who had just emigrated from Antigua. He was the eldest of four siblings. He graduated high school in 1942, and served in the Army during World War II. He worked as an aviation mechanic after the war; in 1957 he was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration as an inspector, a job he continued until he retired in 1985. He married twice, and had five children and seven grandchildren. His family moved to Westbrook, Maine, in 1971, when the FAA transferred him to work at the Portland Jetport. He was an active member of the Lions Club, and mentored local students. He discusses raising children, his family history in the Caribbean, discrimination he has faced as an African American throughout his life, Portland’s growing community of African immigrants, and cultural differences between Maine and New York City.

  Mr. James Sheppard on Education and Employment

  “My experiences raising children? Well, seeing to it that they attended school and seeing to it that they did their homework. That sort of thing. That's standard I guess; regular stuff, I guess. I don't know how to answer that. Between my wife and I, we saw to it that they did a lot of reading. And we did a lot of traveling. We did a lot of traveling to the Caribbean and South America, and we took them with us. In addition to seeing to it that they did their work at school. And they excelled, especially the one that's a professor now. The youngest one gained. You know, you learn a lot. You don't know anything with your first son; you get better as you have more children. By the time number five was born, we knew exactly how to channel things. And I think that's why he came out number one. With my first son, I didn't learn anything. [laughter] I shouldn't say that; he's the horticulturalist in New York.”

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  Mr. Richard Terrence on Education and Employment

  Rachel Talbot Ross

  Mr. Richard Terrence Full Interview

  Richard Tarrence was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945, the second-oldest of seven siblings. His parents moved to Ohio from the South in the 1930s; his maternal grandfather was a bishop in the AME church, and his paternal grandfather was a sharecropper. He was drafted in 1965 and spent four years in the Air Force, including time in Vietnam. He married his ex-wife, Loretta Wilson, who was from Maine, and they moved to Portland in 1975. He completed a degree in Criminal Justice at USM in 1979, and spent twenty-two years working for Allstate Insurance. The family lived in Portland, South Portland, and eventually settled in Gorham. At the time of this interview, Tarrence was the chairman of the board of Green Memorial AME Zion Church, and was involved with the Health 2000 AIDS awareness program there.

  Quote Transcript:

  “There is no question that my upbringing and my background is a solid rock in my life. I mean, my mother’s words of wisdom, my father—very gentle people. Very loving and honest people, and they had a drive and a stick-to-it-iveness that I inherited obviously. I’ve never been one to waver a lot. You see that from my job histories; I stay on one job, pretty loyal to that. I just taught my kids to maintain a course, to not fight back in anger, but to fight back if threatened or injured or something like that.”

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  Mrs. June McKenzie on Education

  Aretha Williams

  Mrs. June McKenzie Full Interview

  June McKenzie, a fifth-generation Mainer, was born in Portland, Maine, in 1929, one of twelve children. Her mother, Florence Eastman Williams, was a Portland native; her father, a truck driver, was a graduate of Tuskegee Institute. She graduated from Portland High School in 1947; she attended Northeastern Business College for one year, and took several classes at the American Institute of Banking while employed at People’s Heritage Bank, where she worked for twenty-two years. She married and had eight children, and at the time of this interview had two grandchildren. She is a longtime member of the NAACP in Portland, and an active member of Green Memorial AME Zion Church. She has been active in the civil rights movement in Maine, including organizing and participating in protests and marches.

  On Education:

  “Well, growing up, when I was growing up you didn't hear much about Black history, only from my Dad. When were bad, he wouldn't punish us-you know-spank us or anything. He'd make us read poetry and read about Black historians and about Black history. And he always told us, you have to be better than everybody else. If you do something-as well as somebody, you always have to be better because, you know, they tend not to give you credit for what you do…”

  "Well, first of all, I had really good kids, so I was lucky that way. You have to train a child when they're small, values and things. And when they go to school, you have to be a part of whatever they do and be a part of the PTA and things like that because if you don't take an interest in what your kids are doing, then the people at school won't take an interest in them, either. I mean, if they know you're there for your children, then they get better care, you know. And I work a lot with the NAACP and I try to tell parents that if your child is in school, even if you can't speak the language, go and let them know that you're interested in your child's future, you know. Like when my daughter was in the seventh grade and she was getting ready to figure out what she was gonna be and she applied. She was gonna go to college, and the teacher told her, 'You can take that off of there, because you're not college material.' And she came home and told me and I said, 'If she's willing enough to work hard to go to college, you have no right to tell her that she can't.' But otherwise if l hadn't been interested in what she was doing, then I would never know that that happened. And it happens today all the time, you know. They try to put kids of color in one group and so parents have to vigilant. I mean, they say even though the civil rights movement cleared up a lot of that stuff, you still have to be vigilant.”

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  Mrs. June McKenzie on Education and Employment

  Aretha Williams

  Mrs. June McKenzie Full Interview

  June McKenzie, a fifth-generation Mainer, was born in Portland, Maine, in 1929, one of twelve children. Her mother, Florence Eastman Williams, was a Portland native; her father, a truck driver, was a graduate of Tuskegee Institute. She graduated from Portland High School in 1947; she attended Northeastern Business College for one year, and took several classes at the American Institute of Banking while employed at People’s Heritage Bank, where she worked for twenty-two years. She married and had eight children, and at the time of this interview had two grandchildren. She is a longtime member of the NAACP in Portland, and an active member of Green Memorial AME Zion Church. She has been active in the civil rights movement in Maine, including organizing and participating in protests and marches.

  Quote Transcript:

  
  Quote 1

  “You have to train a child when they're small, values and things. And when they go to school, you have to be a part of whatever they do and be a part of the PTA and things like that because if you don't take an interest in what your kids are doing, then the people at school won't take an interest in them, either. I mean, if they know you're there for your children, then they get better care, you know. And I work a lot with the NAACP and I try to tell parents that if your child is in school, even if you can't speak the language, go and let them know that you're interested in your child's future, you know. Like when my daughter was in the seventh grade and she was getting ready to figure out what she was gonna be and she applied. She was gonna go to college, and the teacher told her, 'You can take that off of there, because you're not college material.' And she came home and told me and I said, 'If she's willing enough to work hard to go to college, you have no right to tell her that she can't.' But otherwise if l hadn't been interested in what she was doing, then I would never know that that happened. And it happens today all the time, you know. They try to put kids of color in one group and so parents have to vigilant. I mean, they say even though the civil rights movement cleared up a lot of that stuff, you still have to be vigilant.”

  Quote 2

  “Well, just like I said, I always taught the children to do the best they could and be the best that they could. And, you know, sometimes they'd say, 'Well, I don't want to do this.' And it was good when the younger children were young because my daughter taught at Jack when they were there, and my son worked for the City of Portland at the police athletic league and he worked here in City Hall. And I guess they knew a lot of people, so we knew where they were all the time. You know. After school they'd go and play sports at the police station or they'd be in sports at school. And they had a system. You had to be home every night for dinner. You know. And there wasn't any screaming and yelling; if you had a problem, we had family council meetings. And it was sort of diplomatic. You know. I worked two jobs a lot of times when they were growing up. It was hard, but we told them that education was important, and so, therefore, five out of the eight graduated from college. And three have their master's-no, four have their masters. And one is working for the Ph.D. And everywhere I go I hear nice things about them, because they'll say, 'Your kids are so nice to everyone.' And it makes me proud. They've never given me any trouble; they've never been in jail. So they're nice productive kids. I have to brag…”

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  Mrs. Rose Jackson on Education

  Hamida Suja

  Mrs. Rose Jackson Full Interview

  Rose Jackson was born in Louisville, Mississippi, to Willie O Clayton Hathorne and Bertha Ophelia (Young) Hathorne; she had three sisters and three brothers. She left school at fifteen to marry her first husband, with whom she had five children; after his death, she married John Jackson, with whom she had another daughter. She worked as a cleaner and hairdresser, and received her diploma from Portland High night school. At the time of this interview, she had been living in Maine 40 years; her family moved here because she had a brother-in-law who had been a freedom rider.

  On Education:

  “And my baby boy. I lived right by a school. And when he growed up old enough to go to school I walked him to school and he's, 'Mom, I'm old enough to go on my own.' So we lived by some woods. So what I would do, I would let him go down this trail and I'd tell him, 'Now don't ever go through the woods.' And I would slip through the woods so he wouldn't see me. I would hide over in the woods behind a tree and watch him until he go in the door. And then he got big enough to go the neighborhood store to get a loaf of bread or whatever, and I would go round the trail, up the other way, and watch him. So then one day he caught me. He's, 'Mama, please, when is I gonna get old enough for you to let me go?' Then finally I let him start going. He talked about that the other night. 'Mom, why were you like that?' 'Well that's why I was too overprotective; cause you were my baby.' When he would get out of school at lunchtime, me and him would go to Grant's department stores. Well, we would go up there to the lunch counter and have lunch. Oh, that was a good time. Me and my boy had lunch.”

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  Mrs. Rose Jackson on Employment

  Hamida Suja

  Mrs. Rose Jackson Full Interview

  Rose Jackson was born in Louisville, Mississippi, to Willie O Clayton Hathorne and Bertha Ophelia (Young) Hathorne; she had three sisters and three brothers. She left school at fifteen to marry her first husband, with whom she had five children; after his death, she married John Jackson, with whom she had another daughter. She worked as a cleaner and hairdresser, and received her diploma from Portland High night school. At the time of this interview, she had been living in Maine 40 years; her family moved here because she had a brother-in-law who had been a freedom rider.

  Quote Transcript:

  “Because I didn't want nobody looking down their nose at me; I'm a very independent person. And my children come to me and they wanna work. And the guy that lived at Portland Public Housing helped all my children start working at age 12 and 13. Doing the grounds. One of them was cleaning up around the projects, the other was working at the armory in South Portland. Those kind of things. You raise them to be independent, not always, 'Mom, can I have this? Mom, can I have that?”

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  Ms. Beverly Bowens on Education

  Vanessa Saric

  Ms. Beverly Bowens Full Interview

  Beverly Bowens was born in Portland, Maine, in 1934, and grew up on Munjoy Hill. She had one older brother. Her father was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin; her mother’s family had been in Portland for generations. She graduated from Portland High School, attended Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, and then moved to New York City to attend Teacher’s College at Columbia University; as of this interview, she had a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a master’s degree in nursing administration, and a master’s degree in institutional education. She married a surgeon and they had one daughter; her husband died when their daughter was eighteen months old. As of this interview, she had two grandchildren. She had a long career in nursing.

  On Education:

  
  “I think just living was a challenge. My parents both were children of the Depression, so there was that challenge right there. I think being Black was a challenge, although not as much in my mind as a child. It was when I grew up that it was a challenge. Just getting through, getting through college was a challenge. Every day is a challenge.”

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  Ms. Beverly Bowens on Education and Employment

  Vanessa Saric

  Ms. Beverly Bowens Full Interview

  
  Beverly Bowens was born in Portland, Maine, in 1934, and grew up on Munjoy Hill. She had one older brother. Her father was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin; her mother’s family had been in Portland for generations. She graduated from Portland High School, attended Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, and then moved to New York City to attend Teacher’s College at Columbia University; as of this interview, she had a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a master’s degree in nursing administration, and a master’s degree in institutional education. She married a surgeon and they had one daughter; her husband died when their daughter was eighteen months old. As of this interview, she had two grandchildren. She had a long career in nursing.

  Quote transcript:

  “My family background. I have one brother who's older than I am. I was born in Portland. I grew up on Munjoy Hill. I went to the local schools, graduated from Portland High School. After graduation from high school, I went to Mercy Hospital School of Nursing where I completed my nurse's training, after which time I left and went to New York for the purpose of going to college.”

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  Ms. Beverly Bowens on Employment

  Vanessa Saric

  Ms. Beverly Bowens. Full Interview

  Beverly Bowens was born in Portland, Maine, in 1934, and grew up on Munjoy Hill. She had one older brother. Her father was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin; her mother’s family had been in Portland for generations. She graduated from Portland High School, attended Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, and then moved to New York City to attend Teacher’s College at Columbia University; as of this interview, she had a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a master’s degree in nursing administration, and a master’s degree in institutional education. She married a surgeon and they had one daughter; her husband died when their daughter was eighteen months old. As of this interview, she had two grandchildren. She had a long career in nursing.

  On Employment:

  
  “My own family. I was married to a surgeon who died shortly after I was married; three years after I was married.”

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  Ms. Lucille Young on Employment

  Anah Osman

  Ms. Lucille Young Full Interview

  Lucille Young was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1928. Her father and her five brothers and sisters lived on eight different plantations throughout Mississippi during her childhood; her mother became ill and died when she was an infant. Lucille attended school up to tenth grade, then worked at the Swift Packing Company, a box factory, and as a house cleaner and nanny. She married and had eight children, seventeen grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren.

  She moved to Portland, Maine, in 1967, after her eldest daughter got a JobCorps position in the city.

  On Employment:

  “Well, I'd have to start from way back, you know. I'd have to tell some of the story the way I really know it. I was born on a plantation they called the Latham Plantation, and my mother got sick and went into the hospital. And my mother died, and we never saw her again. So we don't know what happened-where they buried her or what happened. So we had to leave from that plantation. We moved to another plantation called the Chamber plantation, and we lived there for quite a few years, I don't remember. And the man came and told my father, says 'Your wife has died.' Then my father came back inside and told us that 'Your mom has died, but we can't bring her home-we don't have money.' So that's all we know-we never heard from our mother again. So we lived on the Latham plantation, to the Wallace plantation, to the Walker plantation, to the Armstrong Plantation, and to the Johnson Plantation. I lived on about eight different plantations from the late 20s to the late 40s…”

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  Quote Transcript, We Exist Series 5: Stories of Education and Employment in Maine

  University of Southern Maine Digital Projects

  Accompanying materials for We Exist Series 5: Stories of Education and Employment in Maine.

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  Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson on Education

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson Full Interview

  Rev. Albert Jackson was born in Slabfork, West Virginia, in 1942. At the time of this interview, he had been living in the Lewiston Auburn area for around forty three years. Clemmie Jackson, Rev. Jackson’s wife, was born in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1948; at the time of this interview, she had been living in Lewiston Auburn for around three years. The couple had three sons. Rev. Jackson graduated from high school in Lewiston Auburn; Mrs. Jackson graduated high school in Alabama, and received a degree in sociology with a minor in social work from Miles College, where she worked as a counselor for a number of years after her graduation. Rev. Jackson served as an assistant pastor at Christ Temple Church, and as of this interview had just been installed as the church’s pastor.

  On Education:

  “Harrison loves it…He don't want to live in no place but in Maine…And, ah, my son Randy was born here and, ah, he --he's been exposed to Maine I guess ever since -- he's born here. Ah, he doesn't know any other place that, ah, -- or actually he hasn't moved but he has, ah, been here. He went to high school here, went to college. And, ah, he's, ah -- he's raising two children, him and his wife. And he -- he seems to be very satisfied -- very stable. So, you know.”

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  Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson on Employment

  Maureen Elgersman-Lee

  Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson Full Interview

  (Clemmie not pictured)

  Rev. Albert Jackson was born in Slabfork, West Virginia, in 1942. At the time of this interview, he had been living in the Lewiston Auburn area for around forty three years. Clemmie Jackson, Rev. Jackson’s wife, was born in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1948; at the time of this interview, she had been living in Lewiston Auburn for around three years. The couple had three sons. Rev. Jackson graduated from high school in Lewiston Auburn; Mrs. Jackson graduated high school in Alabama, and received a degree in sociology with a minor in social work from Miles College, where she worked as a counselor for a number of years after her graduation. Rev. Jackson served as an assistant pastor at Christ Temple Church, and as of this interview had just been installed as the church’s pastor.

  On Employment:

  
  Interviewer: Okay. And are there other types of jobs that you have held? You're also pastor of –

  Rev Jackson: “Yes...” Interviewer: -- Christ Temple Church? Can you talk about that? How recent that has been? A little bit of that history? Rev. Jackson: “It's been about a couple of weeks ago…that I was installed.”