The New York Times Agency May 2010

(NYT50) BANGOR, Maine -- Dec. 27, 2007 -- MAINE-RACE-BIAS-2 -- Assata Sherrill in Bangor, Maine, in December 2007, organized a Kwanzaa celebration that had to be cancelled because of death threats. In October, the N.A.A.C.P. chapter for northern Maine got shocking news. A man from a nearby town had threatened to shoot "any and all black persons" attending the group's meetings at an old stone church here, and state prosecutors were worried enough to seek a restraining order. Such remarks are not unheard of in Maine, the nation's whitest state, which has fewer black residents -- 10,918 in 2006, or less than 1 percent of the population, according to the Census Bureau -- than some neighborhoods of Chicago or New York. But nor are they usually so blunt. The chapter has since held meetings at police stations and canceled its annual Kwanzaa celebration, which normally draws people from up and down the coast of Maine. (Linda Coan O'Kresik/The New York Times)