Gerald Talbot
Gerald Edgerton Talbot (born October 28, 1931) is an American civil rights leader, author, and politician from Portland, Maine.
[4][2] He was the eldest of five children[4] and an eighth-generation Mainer[5]; Talbot traced his ancestry to black Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Talbett.
[2] After graduating, Talbot worked at the Bangor House alongside his father and then moved to Cummings's hometown of Portland, Maine.
He has written and spoken about the experience's impact on his political goals and activism, and in 2013 he told Maine's The Free Press, "At the end, there were four or five things we had to do after.
Peers described him as a "logical choice" due to his reputation as an activist, his previous NAACP involvement, and the fact that he was born and raised in Maine.
Soon after its official organization, Talbot and chapter treasurer Linwood Young travelled to Washington, D.C., to represent it at the annual NAACP convention.
The bill passed the legislature, and in May 1965 Talbot and other key advocates stood beside Governor John Reed as he signed it into law.
[9] Throughout the 1960s, Talbot travelled the United States to help register voters and connect with other civil rights leaders, including an impactful trip to Laurel, Mississippi, in 1965.
[2] The 1972 Portland Democratic legislative ballot contained the names of more than twenty at-large[5] candidates in alphabetical order, of which Talbot was listed second-to-last.
[2] According to a New York Times article about his historic victory, Talbot won by about 1,700 votes "although his district, in Portland, could muster no more than 250 black voters.
[13][12] In order to keep his insurance and contract with his job at Gannett Publishing, Talbot was required to work at least five hours each night at the printing company while he served in the Legislature.
[5][3] Other notable legislation of Talbot's addressed conditions and treatment for migrant workers, indigenous tribal sovereignty, fair housing, and recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a state holiday.
[3] He also served on the Maine Vocational Technical Institute's Board of Trustees,[3][14] the Board of Trustees of the University of New England,[12] the Maine State Committee on Aging, and the Minority Affairs committee for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) on both the local and national levels.
[17] Regina Phillips is an adjunct professor of social work at University of Southern Maine, a nonprofit co-founder and a grant writer and community engagement coordinator for the Westbrook school department.
[19][20] Throughout his life, Talbot collected books, posters, photographs and other artifacts, as well as personal papers and records, to help document Black history in Maine and throughout the United States.
