Gerald Talbot

Gerald E. Talbot (born 1931) is a former state legislator in Maine. In 1972, Talbot became the first African American member of the Maine House of Representatives when he was elected to represent part of Portland, Maine as a Democrat. He was a member of the legislature until 1978. In 1980, Governor Joseph Brennan appointed him to the Maine Board of Education. He also helped reorganize the NAACP in Maine. In 2006, a 240-seat auditorium at the University of Southern Maine was named in honor of him.

History

Much of Talbot's family came from Harlem, Maine, which was incorporated in 1818 as the town of China. Talbot was born and grew up in Bangor, Maine, where he attended Bangor High School. Talbot’s father was chef for 35 years at the Bangor House Hotel, and his mother and grandmother ran a catering service. He served in the United States Army from 1953–1956, and was then a printer at the Portland Press Herald for 11 years.. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington along with other African American activists as part of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1972, in a crowded field, Talbot won a democratic primary and eventually won the election for the House of Representatives. Talbot went to court three times in housing discrimination suits. He also sponsored a bill to remove the word “nigger” from 12 Maine place-names.

Books

• Maine's Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People by H. H. Price and Gerald E. Talbot, with 42 contributing writers | Tilbury House Publishers | ISBN 978-0-88448-275-8