Interactive: Maine's slow gains in racial diversity

In the 1970 Census – the first population count after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act – Maine's population was over 99% white, and only 2,800 Mainers identified as black or African American.

Today, Maine is still one of the nation's whitest states. Nevertheless, the black and African American population has grown fivefold – there were an an estimated 14,865 black Mainers in 2014 – and every single Maine county has grown more diverse since 1970, according to data from the U. S. Census Bureau.