Randolph Stakeman's Maine African American archive

Randolph “Randy” Stakeman came to Bowdoin College in 1978. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Stakeman was well-versed in liberal arts education, and specifically the creation and development of an African American Studies Program. Stakeman’s arrival at Bowdoin aligned with John Walter’s last years as director of the college’s fledgling Africana Studies program. Stakeman was on the search committee for Walter’s replacement and helped convince the college’s administration in hiring Lynn Bolles, an anthropologist and first African American tenured professor at Bowdoin, in 1981. In 1989, Stakeman himself would take up the position as director of the program for an allotted three years. However, he would remain in the post for more than a decade. In the following years, Stakeman would serve, for a time, both as associate dean and director until his retirement in 2006.

During his time as a professor of Black history at Bowdoin College, Stakeman researched and wrote on the existence of Black families, communities, and lives in the state of Maine. This collection of Maine African American histories contains a portion of his files that help define the history of Black Mainers in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.