PUAR

People United Against Racism

People United Against Racism (PUAR) is a grassroots, Lincoln-County coalition of

community groups, formed to stand against systemic racism in the Midcoast area

and beyond. With our partners, we are committed to Internal study and reflection

about privilege and racism, fostering dialogue in our community about

dismantling racism, and holding public witness.


People United Against Racism and our partners are committed to: 


  • Internal study and reflection about privilege and racism
  • Fostering dialogue in our community about dismantling racism and 
  • Holding public witness 


Our work includes: 


  • Communication of anti-racism events through our email list, Facebook page, and monthly online calendar
  • Promoting and periodically sponsoring dialogue circles, book studies, film showings, public speakers, and other events 
  • Promoting yearly Martin Luther King, Jr. Day events
  • Periodic anti-racism vigils in Newcastle’s Veterans Memorial Park 


Email us at peopleuar@gmail.com to join our mailing list.

Facebook page: bit.ly/PUARFacebook

Monthly calendar of anti-racism activities: bit.ly/PUARCalendar



PUAR was formed in 2016, both in response to local racist incidents and in solidarity with the national Black Lives Matter movement. The Second Congregational Church in Newcastle and the Midcoast Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Damariscotta first partnered and started holding meetings to plan a response.


When the Midcoast Outreach & Peace Center of Midcoast Friends Meeting and The Bahá’í Faith became partners, together we hosted the first-ever, interfaith Martin Luther King Jr. Day service in the area in 2017. Held at The Second Congregational Church in Newcastle, clergy from other area denominations participated and 200 people attended the first year. At the service, the community signed up for a series of small group meetings around book reads, a movie showing, and community discussions.


We created an email address peopleuar@gmail.com and an email list which we still use to keep the community informed of anti-racist events, actions, and gatherings. Community members can email us information for anti-racism events they want publicized. Eventually, we also created a PUAR Facebook page. The early meetings also resulted in a weekly anti-racist vigil held every Monday at noon in the winter and at 5 pm in the summer, in Veterans Memorial Park, Newcastle. The vigil has waxed and waned over the intervening years. Currently it is on pause, but People United stands ready to reawaken it on an “as needed” basis. Anyone may email PUAR to suggest holding a vigil in response to unfolding events and we can send out the call via our email list and Facebook page.

Participation beyond faith groups was always the intent of People United, and after the first MLK service, we started partnering with the Lincoln Theater and Lincoln Academy, jointly publicizing a larger schedule of MLK weekend events. There were community-wide MLK weekend celebrations every year after that, through 2020 when they were brought to a halt by the onset of COVID.


People United has partnered with the Lincoln Theater and other community groups to present other events with a focus on antiracism. In 2018 a group of concerned citizens, which had evolved from a Wabanaki Reach group, gathered several organizations, including PUAR, to host two events at the Lincoln Theater: an in-person talk with Sherri Mitchell (Indigenous activist and author) and a showing of the movie Dawnland, with a discussion with Dawn Neptune Adams (who is featured in the film).

In 2019 and 2020, the Midcoast Outreach & Peace Center of Midcoast Friends Meeting presented an anti-racism film series in conjunction with People United Against Racism: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am and Indian Horse. And People United continued to publicize anti-racism events hosted by other groups via our email list and Facebook page.


Several of our partners and friends have offered ongoing, anti-racism book reads and discussion series over the years, including those held by the Midcoast Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at the Second Congregational Church. All of these efforts were suspended during COVID. Happily for all of us, our friend, Leigh Anne Keichline, started an online anti-racism book group through Skidompha Library in 2020, soon after the start of the pandemic, and has been offering groups ever since—most recently some in person. In late 2022, Leigh Anne reached out to People United and we have begun meeting about how we can continue the good work together in an intentional way and we started publishing a monthly online antiracism calendar.

We hold open meetings periodically to empower the larger community to learn about the ongoing anti-racism efforts already happening, discuss new initiatives they might want to see, and encourage working together to find ways to develop them. If there is one thing we have learned at People United over the years, it is

that collaborations are key to the success of any of these efforts. People United offers a hub for this kind of discussion and an umbrella under which initiatives can unfold. We are a coalition of groups and individuals, not a non-profit. Put another way, People United is YOU—community members committed to countering

racism, in ourselves and our community.

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