Seven years after it closed, the Portland chapter of the Maine NAACP is on the way to reopening.
Speaking at the Maine NAACP’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day events on Monday, state Rep. and former Portland chapter President Rachel Talbot Ross talked about the importance of the organization in Maine.
“I grew up in the NAACP. I grew up going to this breakfast, and feeling proud of my community in every which way it was possible,” she said. “It was the only time throughout the entire year as a young girl where I saw and was able to communicate with and share bread with people who looked like me. It gave me an immense amount of pride.”
Talbot Ross is one of the racial justice advocates working on reopening the chapter, which closed in 2013 after falling out of compliance with national rules. The chapter will need at least 100 membership inquiries to reopen, and supporters tweeted on Jan. 8 that they were halfway to that goal.
1of2 Good morning, everybody. We are halfway towards the objective collecting membership inquiries we need to reactivate the Portland NAACP branch.
— Maine NAACP (@MaineNAACP) January 8, 2021
Correction: The Portland chapter of the NAACP closed in 2013, not 2007.