
Kameron Stanton, center, and his girlfriend Chevy Linear, right, both of Chicago, look on as a server pours them drinks during the welcome party for a Black Travel Maine MLK weekend event at Allagash Brewing on Friday night. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland
After a day ice fishing near Augusta, Kameron Stanton grooved to the beat and sipped craft brews at Allagash Brewing’s Cellars event space Friday night, looking forward to a weekend on the slopes at Sunday River.
It was a quintessential Maine trip for the Chicago-area resident, who said he would “never, never” have made it to the Pine Tree State without a little push.
“I came here with an unfortunate bias of what’s going to be here,” said Stanton. “I didn’t even know. I looked at the ticket: Portland, Maine. Where is that?”
The 32-year-old was one of dozens of Black visitors who trekked to Maine from Texas, Florida, New York and beyond for the long weekend leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, braving the state’s frigid winter and its reputation as one of the whitest states in the union.
The trip, organized by Black Travel Maine, was designed to offer a comfortable introduction for people who might never have otherwise considered vacationing in Vacationland. Lisa Jones, who founded the company two years ago, said she moved to the Portland area during the COVID-19 pandemic and was surprised to learn how much the state had to offer — and how little Black communities throughout the country seemed to know about it.
“I went on a mission to see what other Black people knew about Maine,” Jones said. She toured the state, posting photos of herself and her daughter on social media. “People started chiming in, ‘You’re in Maine? And it’s safe?'”
“I realized there was a false narrative with Black people” about Maine, she said.
Jones said the state’s tourism industry, with its emphasis on outdoor activities, has not been marketed toward visitors of color. So she put together an itinerary that joined classic Maine activities with moments of reflection on its Black community.

Lisa Jones, center, owner and founder of Black Travel Maine, mingles with guests Friday night during the welcome party at Allagash Brewing for an MLK weekend skiing. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald
The weekend included a day of skiing at Sunday River, the all-important L.L.Bean shopping trip and a walking tour of Portland’s Black history landmarks.
Sipping from a short glass, Jennifer Tinch, 52, said she and her husband, William Gunn, 54, “wanted to experience Maine through a Black lens.”
“We’ve never skied before, so we thought that this would be a perfect time and group to learn and experience Maine and skiing,” Tinch said.
Tinch, who lives in Washington, D.C., said Maine “was not on my radar” as a travel destination, but she was intrigued when she heard about the trip.
“I’ve always wanted a lobster roll,” Gunn said with a laugh, noting that he found one right away. “But I’m not sure when I would have ever come up.”
ORIGINS OF A NARRATIVE
As the Friday night crowd filled the brewery, those from away said they were pleasantly surprised at how exciting, and welcoming, Maine had been so far.
There are many reasons that Black people may not have been historically attracted to Maine as a travel destination, said Brian Purnell, chair of Bowdoin College’s Africana studies department. He noted that Maine is far from the country’s largest Black communities and has a reputation for whiteness that could push Black vacationers to look elsewhere when planning a trip.
“If somebody is going to go out-of-pocket for a new experience … they’re really going to want to make sure that they do it in a place where the entire experience is positive,” Purnell said. “Maine is Vacationland. But Black Americans have had other vacationlands.”
Purnell said people often ask their friends and loved ones for advice on where to travel, and Maine may simply not be a part of that conversation within Black communities.
“We can’t erase that there was a long history in which Black people were not welcomed in all parts of the country,” he said. “And those who could go on vacation probably gravitated toward a handful of places, and that’s where their kids went and their grandkids.”
Opening up the state, and changing its reputation nationally, is an inherently slow process, he said.
Purnell, who moved to Maine around 15 years ago, added that the state — with its “from away” terminology — has a distinctive culture of “who is and who is not” a Mainer, which can be intimidating for visitors of any race.
“I think Black people in Maine know what Black people outside Maine don’t know,” Purnell said. “I think Maine is a live-and-let-live kind of place.”

Local historian Bob Greene, of South Portland, gets a hug from a friend during the welcome party for the Black Travel Maine MLK weekend skiing trip at Allagash Brewing on Friday night. Greene says the first Black person known by name to arrive in Maine did so in 1608 when Mathieu da Costa traveled as a translator for a group of French explorers. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald
Despite its reputation as one of the whitest states in the nation, Maine has a long and nuanced Black history, said Bob Greene, a local historian and an eighth generation Black resident of Cumberland County.
Greene said that the first Black person known by name arrived in Maine in 1608. His name was Mathieu da Costa, and he traveled as a translator for a group of French explorers, Greene said.
“Blacks have been here, so to speak, for a long time,” Greene said. “When you start talking seaports in Maine, there’s always been a lot of Blacks going in and out. That does not mean that all of them stayed, that does not mean that Maine had a huge Black population.”
Black people currently make up only around 2% of Maine’s population, according to the U.S. Census. Greene said the state saw relative booms in Black immigration during the Civil War and World War II, drawn in by the promise of work at shipyards, but many newcomers left once those jobs dried up.
Jones, the trip organizer, said that history is a major draw for many attendees. She noted the state’s role as a site on the Underground Railroad, a final stop before Canadian freedom for formerly enslaved people.
“That (history) is the biggest draw, to be honest with you,” Jones said. “People don’t realize that the history of the South is also in the North. They only think the Black history is in the South.”
BACK FOR MORE?
This weekend was Black Travel Maine’s second ski trip, and the group has also hosted a pair of summer outings so far, Jones said. She hopes to make the MLK weekend getaway an annual tradition.
“I see so much potential for growth,” during the offseason and otherwise, she said. “Lots and lots of people want to come to Maine, and it’s not just in the summer.”
Portland Councilor Regina Phillips, a native Mainer, said the party — and the entire weekend — felt like a testament to Maine’s “thriving” Black community. Phillips joined a handful of influential Black Mainers, including Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, as guests of honor.
“We talk about how Maine needs to diversify, and Black Travel Maine is making that happen,” Phillips said. “This just highlights the fact that we are here.”
Phillips schmoozed with colleagues and old friends. A few feet away, New York resident Gloria Lee did the same.
Lee said this weekend was her third trip with Black Travel Maine after participating in both summer getaways. By now, she’s starting to recognize the familiar faces of other repeat visitors.
This time, though, Lee brought a few close friends to experience The Way Life Should Be.
“It’s just not a place that is top of mind, I don’t hear anything about it, I don’t see any advertising,” Lee said. “If it wasn’t for this, I would never come to Maine.”
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