Abyssinian Meeting House

Over the past three years, I have been honored to serve on the board of the Committee to Restore the Abyssinian. Since 1997, this Black-run community organization has worked to restore one of Portland’s finest and most neglected historic landmarks: the Abyssinian Meetinghouse.

Today, Juneteenth, is a day to remember the end of chattel slavery in the United States and to resolve to right the wrongs produced by this horrible system. In June 2020, I wrote about Portland’s long ties to slavery in the Portland Press Herald and called on government officials to commit to fully funding the restoration. In 2022, after years of lobbying efforts, the Committee received a federal grant to finish renovations. However, because of governmental delays and inflation, this amount will no longer cover all of the repairs necessary to restore this landmark building and turn it into a historic site and community space. We need to raise $1 million dollars in order to make it handicap accessible and open to the entire public.

Please join me in donating to the Committee to Restore the Abyssinian!

Very interesting virtual event. Please join in!

Please join us for this virtual Black History Month event on February 29, 2024, from 2:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. This event will feature several NPS presenters from the Northeast Region (including our own Superintendent Deanna Mitchell) and will delve into the rich intersections of African American history, the arts, and the enduring legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education.

This event will be hosted via Microsoft Teams and can be accessed at https://bit.ly/3OYx0bl

Black History Fact.

The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (author of The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois) poetically illuminates the life of Phillis Wheatley Peters, the enslaved African American whose 1773 book of poetry was one of the first books by a woman (of any race) to be published in the American colonies: https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/book-reviews/the-age-of-phillis-by-honoree-fanonne-jeffers-a-review/