Supporting Materials for
SOMETHING ABOUT AMERICA by Maria Testa
Excerpts from the Documentary
THE LETTER directed by Ziad Hamzeh
Typecast Films/Arab Film Distribution
http://www.arabfilm.com/item/300/
The documentary, THE LETTER covers the same Maine incident that Maria Testa writes about in her novel, SOMETHING ABOUT AMERICA.
The film clips below open with comments from the hate group / Nazi group , The World Church of the Creator. This group scheduled a rally in Lewiston, Maine for January 11, 2003. They choose Lewiston because of a letter that Lewiston Mayor Raymond sent to the city's Somali elders the previous October. That letter asked the elders to stop new immigrants from coming to Lewiston. Some found the letter embarrassingly ill-informed while many others found the letter openly racist. The World Church of the Creator thought the letter signaled that Maine would be a good recruiting ground for white supremacists.
Tensions in Lewiston grew in the lead up to January 11th. The city of Lewiston forced by free speech provisions to allow The World Church of the Creator, prepared in the best way they could. Those preparations involved anticipating riots and violence. January 11th would be the biggest police action in Maine's history.
Churches, social groups and many others came together to hold a counter rally called the Many and One Rally which would be held across town to stand up against bigotry, stand up for peace and celebrate the community's cultural diversity.
In the end on January 11th only 30 people showed up for the World Church of the Creator rally while across town over 3,000 people showed up to celebrate diversity and justice at the Many and One rally.
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Other Supporting Documents (downloadable PDF files)
Portland Press Herald Articles about the events in Lewiston, Maine
Documents from the Many and One Rally
SOMETHING ABOUT AMERICA Study Guide 1
SOMETHING ABOUT AMERICA Study Guide 2