BEGIN AGAIN – Reckoning With Intolerance in Maine – an Exhibition at the Maine Historical Society, Portland, Until December 2021.
A “Pussy” Hat Worn by Many Anti-Trumpers in Past Years is on Display in the MHS Exhibition.
Pearlware Sugar Bowl circa 1830. By 1860, Portland Was a Top American City in the Sugar Refining Industry and Complicit in the Atlantic Slave Trade According to MHS Literature.
A Print in the Exhibition by Local Artist Daniel Minter Shows the Abyssinian Meeting House, 75 Newbury Street, on the East End of Portland, Full of Life and Activity. Someday This Historic Building, That Survived the Great Fire, Will Return to This Level of Activity and Life.
It’s compelling. It’s powerful. It’s sobering and at times overwhelming. And it’s not to be missed by anyone interested in the state of affairs here and now and across the nation. That’s a description of the current exhibition, BEGIN AGAIN, at the Maine Historical Society, Portland. It runs Wednesday – Saturday, now until December 2021.
Political unrest, race-based violence and drastic economic inequities from last year were some of the issues that spurred conversations about intolerance in America and in Maine according to one of the four curators for this exhibition Lilly Taskey. A team of curators worked for over a year collecting material from sixteen experts in the various fields in the exhibition.
The Begin Again exhibition is so inclusive that it could easily be broken up into numerous smaller exhibitions that delve even deeper into each intolerance. Or put another way, there are many voices speaking in this exhibition; Indian voices, women’s voices, and Black voices for example.
At the entry to the exhibition is a mission vision that states in part: Pope Alexandria VI issued a Papal Bull back in the 1400s. It legalized “stealing indigenous land in what is now known as the Americas” according to the statement. In effect, it justified the genocide of non-Christians. In an earlier proclamation, the enslavement and murder of African people was approved. The “Doctrines of Christian Discovery and Domination” became the foundation of settler supremacy in every aspect of colonization in America.
Ironically to say the least, the framers of the US Constitution, wrote that “all men are created equal,” while suppressing women’s rights, living on stolen land and profiting from slavery.
The Abyssinian Religious Society was formed after Black parishioners of the Second Congregational Church in Portland refused to be segregated on balcony seating and expressed animosity by white members who discouraged their attendance. They built the Abyssinian Meeting House, 75 Newberry Street, at the corner of Mountfort and Newbury Streets on Munjoy Hill. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad and operated until 1916. It was a place for worship, but also hosted abolition and temperance meetings and the Portland Anti-slavery Society.
Leonard W. Cummings, his wife and daughter Debra, are responsible for reclaiming the Abyssinian Meeting House from the city after it was taken for taxes. At one point, it was used unsuccessfully for housing. Finally, it fell into such disrepair that entry into the building was banned by the city. Years ago the City returned the deed for the Abyssinian Meeting House to Debra Cummings just after midnight at a late night city council meeting for $1.00. It largely survived the Great Fire with a few burn marks on one side of the building, but thanks to the dedication and perserverance of Leonard W. Cummings and his patient family, it has a future.
Considerable space is devoted to women’s suffrage in the State of Maine, complete with a “pussy hat” on display. Most people will recall how they were used in the nationwide marches opposed to the election of Donald J. Trump as president back in January of 2017. Pussy hats took on a life of their own. Available in the book store is a wonderful paperback book, “Voting Down the Rose,” by Anne B. Gass. Ms. Gass is also one of the curators of the current exhibition.
The name of the MHS exhibition – BEGIN AGAIN – comes from a book written by writer James Baldwin. “The United States has always been shadowed by practices that contradict our most cherished principles. The genocide of native peoples, slavery, racial apartheid, Japanese internment camps and the subordination of women reveal that our basic creed that ‘all men are created equal’ was a lie, at least in practice. These weren’t minor events in the grand history of the ‘redeemer nation,’ nor were they simply the outcomes of a time when such views were widely held,” wrote Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a Professor at Princeton University and a frequent contributor to cable news, in his book “Begin Again.” It is available at the MHS bookstore, 489 Congress Street, Portland, for $27.00 and was published last year. Members get a discount.
The MHS is the third oldest in the country. Retired head librarian Bill Barry is currently writing its history to be available for its upcoming 100th anniversary in 2022.
Please go to: mainehistory.org to schedule your exhibition visit and learn much more.