University honors Maine civil rights leader with fellowship

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine university is honoring the state's first African-American legislator through a new three-year fellowship.

The Portland Press Herald reports the University of Southern Maine is creating a new teaching fellowship dedicated to examining race in honor of 87-year-old Gerald Talbot.

Talbot attended the March on Washington in 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

He also served as president of Portland's NAACP chapter in 1964, when it was re-established after a five-year hiatus. Talbot was also instrumental in passing Maine's first law protecting fair housing and human rights.

Talbot was first elected to Maine's House of Representative representing Portland in 1972.