Maine lawmakers urge colleagues to prioritize bills aimed at ending systemic racism

In mid-June about 28 percent of the Maine’s positive COVID-19 cases were among Black residents – who make up just 1.4 percent of the state’s total population.

In 2019, the progressive Maine Center for Economic Policy, which also holds a seat on the new commission, released a fact sheet on racial disparities in Maine that showed, among other things, that people of color – even if they had equal levels of education – earned far lower wages, owned far fewer homes and businesses and were six times more likely to be imprisoned for the same crimes as their white counterparts.

Click here to read the full story, first published July 2, 2020, in the Portland Press Herald.