Residents of South Berwick and Tuskegee, Alabama, stopped at the Nubble Lighthouse in York while touring the Maine seacoast during a trip the Alabama visitors made in 2018. Courtesy of Common Ground Sister Cities
It’s hard for Karin Hopkins to sum up the anticipation of crossing the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama, with her friends from Maine.
The solidarity walk on Sunday marks the 59th anniversary of a watershed day in the Civil Rights movement and the fight for equal voting rights known as “Bloody Sunday.” It is the first time residents from the sister cities of South Berwick and Tuskegee will be there together.
“To walk across that bridge, with that history, it is almost mind-blowing. It’s one of those moments that I know will be stamped on my heart forever, just linking arms with my sister city friends, marching both literally and figuratively in the name of history, but also into our own history,” said Hopkins, a retired journalist from Tuskegee.
Tuskegee is about 90 miles from Selma. The city is home to the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), a pioneering institution for African-American education, and was at the center of a landmark 1960 Supreme Court decision that found an electoral district that had been created to disenfranchise African Americans violated the 15th Amendment.
During World War II, the city was home to the famed Tuskegee airman, the first squadron of African American pilots trained by the military.
Ten South Berwick residents have traveled to Alabama for the walk across the bridge, the site where white state troopers beat Black voting rights marchers on March 7, 1965. The attack galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act and drew international attention to the struggle for racial equality.
While in Alabama, the South Berwick delegation also will visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and the Tuskegee History Center. The Tuskegee hosts organized a moderated dialogue on issues of race in America.
“We are thrilled to welcome our friends from South Berwick,” said Tuskegee Mayor Tony Haygood, who helped coordinate the visit. “These exchanges foster mutual understanding and forge a bridge that diminishes geographic distance and also eases racial tension.”
The sister city relationship – believed to be the first domestic city relationship in the country – began in 2017 when South Berwick approached Tuskegee hoping the communities could help bridge the racial divide in the country.
“Through this relationship we have learned how much we have in common, as well as how different our experiences as Americans can be, just because of the color of our skin,” said Rachel Martin, of South Berwick, who will participate in the march on Sunday.
Separated by more than 1,200 miles, the two communities are similar in size and have overlapping histories. South Berwick, one of Maine’s oldest towns, was home to textile mills in the 19th century, while Tuskegee had cotton plantations. Today, more than 95% of South Berwick residents are white. In Tuskegee, 95% of residents are Black, according to U.S. Census data.
When the relationship first took shape, the Common Ground Joint Committee was formed with white residents of South Berwick and Black residents of Tuskegee. Hopkins learned about the effort right after what she felt was a troubling presidential election and was eager to be involved.
“What I was seeing in our country was disturbing and I knew we could do better,” she said. “This sister relationship felt like a step in the right direction in terms of us coming together as fellow Americans to be civil toward one another and to address differences, be they racial or political.”
Over the past seven years, South Berwick and Tuskegee residents have held dozens of forums about racial challenges in America, hosted visits to each other’s communities and developed deep friendships. They published a book about the importance of voting that is based on interviews with 100 residents of each community.
Residents of South Berwick and Tuskegee, Alabama, outside the Great Works School in South Berwick after a breakfast at the school during a visit by the Alabama group in 2018. Courtesy of Common Ground Sister Cities
When the Tuskegee delegation first visited Maine, the South Berwick committee brought them on history walks and to see Nubble Light. They had a lobster bake and went kayaking.
Amy Miller, of South Berwick, said it’s been satisfying to watch people in her community be exposed to a different culture and to Black people outside of just those they’ve seen on TV, she said.
“There’s a lot of fear in our country about what the African American world is. When you make friendships with people and stay in their home and have dinner with them, it takes away all the stereotypes and all the things on TV,” she said. “It’s been wonderful to live through that and watch the fear disappear.”
After the delegation from South Berwick visited Tuskegee in 2017, Miller and Hopkins started writing a bimonthly newspaper column called “Color Us Connected.” They tackled topics from their own perspectives – Miller’s as a white woman from the Northeast and Hopkins’ as a Black woman from the Deep South.
They bonded over their column and shared professions as journalists, but soon found other connections that deepened their friendship. This weekend, Miller will stay with Hopkins and they’ll walk together in Selma.
“To think it was birthed out of a racial strife, it is just so sweet,” she said. “Have we solved the race problem? No, it’s too big for either town or us collectively to solve. But are we determined that we’ll do better than we have seen throughout our country? The answer to that is yes.”
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
