The more things change, the more things stay the same.
December 10th, 2007
Who’d a thunk it? Out-migration to Bangor, Maine?
Nearly all of Bangor’s black foreign immigrant population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was from Canada — Fredericton, Kingsclear and Woodstock, New Brunswick, according to Maureen Elgersman Lee in her book “Black Bangor: African Americans in a Maine Community, 1880-1950,” the second volume on Maine’s African-Americans to appear in 2006.
We used to go on an annual trip to Bangor for Basketball back in the day. From what I recall, there wasn’t one Afican-American on any of the teams we played for the ten years we made the trip.
Which makes me wonder if the numbers were all that significant?
Careful NBT, your letting out too many clues:) I suspect they left Bangor for much the same reason as they left New Brunswick-an inhospitable climate, shall we say.
I recall that Fredericton had (still has??) a well-hidden black community up off of St Marys street. Back in the 60s hardly any whites would even admit it was there, but it was a suburban ghetto nonetheless. Wonder if the climate was different from Bangor in more ways than one?