First Black female Maine State Representative, Assistant House Majority Leader, and longtime activist and public servant Rachel Talbot Ross is an 8th generation Mainer and daughter of Gerald Talbot and Anita Cummings Talbot. Rachel carries her father’s passion for racial equity and fairness for Blacks and People of Color in Maine. She chairs the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Maine Tribal Populations who are analyzing how policies impact communities of color in Maine. The commission is authorized to provide advice and guidance to all three branches of state government: the governor’s office, the judicial branch and the legislature. They are recommending lawmakers pass 46 bills to help address racial disparities in the state. The Commission has provided recommendations for how future bills could be crafted with racial justice in mind after working with 55 state lawmakers from different parties. Over 400 active bills were assessed for their impact on racial disparities in the state.

“For far too long, we have allowed our laws to uphold a system that produces disproportionate outcomes for racial, indigenous, and Maine tribal populations,” Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, said at a commission news conference. “Legislation alone will not end these disparities, but it plays a critical role.”

Rachel sheds light on racial disparities as a representative of Portland’s Bayside neighborhood and President of the Maine NAACP. She has been proactive in promoting awareness that Black Mainers are six times more likely to be incarcerated and 20 times more likely to contract COVID-19. She goes beyond awareness by working to garner the funds and human resources to drive toward change.

Rachel is the director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Fellows, a leadership program for high school students of color in the Greater Portland area which she founded with Portland City Councilor Pious Ali. She is also involved in leadership development to get more adult women of color involved in politics. She is president of Maine Freedom Trails. She serves on the Maine State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and is chair of the African American Collection Advisory Committee at the University of Southern Maine. She has been the President of the Portland Chapter of the NAACP and a leading advocate for correctional facility reformat sure the justice system does not favor a particular class, race, or gender.