Student and community groups, labor unions, churches, and Black rights organizations formed an ad hoc "Many and One" coalition that secured the Bates College gymnasium in Lewiston for a rally that reached capacity well before the 1:00 p.m. starting time. Hundreds stood outside in the sub-freezing weather, listening to speakers outside. A musician who opened up the rally stated, "We are here not for the Somali refugees, but for the Somali residents."

Nathalie White, 20, a student at the University of Maine in Machias, said she came "to show support for the cause because we were outraged about the other rally across town," referring to the gathering at the city armory of a few dozen people organized by the World Church of the Creator, a self-avowed white supremacist group based in East Peoria, Illinois.

In response to the events the state and city deployed what media reports said was the largest police presence for any event in the history of Maine.

Over the past two years some 1,100 Somalis have come to Lewiston, a mill town of 36,000, to live and work. Last October Lewiston mayor Laurier Raymond issued a letter asking Somali community leaders to "exercise some discipline" and to discourage friends and family from relocating in the city, citing a "drain" on city resources. Some residents put up anti-Somali yard signs and drive-by hecklers insulted Somali-born residents in their neighborhoods.

The controversy around Raymond’s letter received national press attention and provoked an ongoing debate reflected in newspapers and radio talk shows throughout the region.  
 
White supremacists
On November 24, World Church of the Creator leader Matthew Hale announced his group would organize a January 11 rally in Lewiston. "I want to rally the white people of Lewiston for their own interests, and those interests do not tolerate the invasion of Somalis in their city," Hale told reporters. "The Somalis are unwelcome there, and they shouldn’t be there."

The World Church proclaims the goal of a "whites only" United States that would bar Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Jews, and all immigrants. World Church cadres have had a presence in New England several times over the past year, including at a protest at the dedication of the Zakim bridge, named for a Jewish man.

Hale was unable to deliver his scheduled speech, titled "The invasion of Maine by Somalis, and how we can end it," because he had been arrested in Chicago several days earlier, accused of soliciting the murder of a federal judge. His chief deputy, Jon Fox, took his place.

Another rightist group, the National Alliance, recently distributed flyers denouncing Blacks and Jews in Lewiston and nearby Portland, including in a working-class district where some Somalis live.

The city council in Holyoke, Massachusetts, voted last October to turn down $1 million in federal funding for the resettlement of 300 Somali refugees. Holyoke mayor Michael Sullivan justified the rejection of the immigrants based on the anticipated "strain" on city resources, and a Boston Globe editorial endorsed his stance, stating "the burden of living up to America’s welcoming image should not be dropped solely on the most vulnerable populations."  
 
Big turnout of students
Some of the speakers who addressed the rally included: Winston McGill, president of the Portland branch of the NAACP, and Joyce Williams, president of the New England Area Conference of the NAACP; Jose Soto, an organizer for the Maine Rural Workers Coalition; Fatuma Hussein, director of the United Somali Women of Maine; James Carignan, dean of Bates College; and Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

"I am surprised to see, with so many schools, that there are some people who are still so ignorant," said Safia Nur, a Somali, who was one of several high school students who spoke. "Who are they to tell me Cara [her friend on the platform] can’t be my friend because she is white?"

"When anyone is attacked, you shouldn’t sit back," said Sarahbelle Marsh, 20, a sophomore at Bates College. Students from the college prepared a banner for the brief march after the rally, and streams of people entering the hall lined up to sign their names.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali sent a message to the meeting, recalling that he knocked out Sonny Liston in Lewiston in 1965 and therfore had fond memories of the town. Responding to the mayor’s letter to the Somali community Ali said, "Somali Americans, like all, have an inalienable right to live anywhere they want. You have my wholehearted support in fighting racism."

Several speakers whose ancestors were French-speaking people from Quebec and other parts of Canada made the connection between discrimination against the Somalis and against French-speaking immigrants. Rachel Rodrigue recalled how her forebears had faced signs reading "No French need apply," how some local Catholic churches had barred French speakers from attending masses held in English, and how they had also faced attacks by the Ku Klux Klan.

Among the crowd were the governor, John Baldacci, who spoke, and both senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who had taken some heat from the Portland NAACP for refusing to call for the resignation of Sen. Trent Lott. Also present were the state attorney general and several former Lewiston mayors. The mayor was conspicuously absent. Many people wore stickers asking, "Where’s the mayor?" and some speakers demanded his resignation.

Across town at the armory, where a heavy police presence guarded the meeting of 45 supporters of the white supremacist organization, several hundred counterdemonstrators protested their presence.

Laura Garza contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home