Hosted by Atlantic Black Box
Atlantic World Connections Speaker Series
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 at 6:00 pm ET online
This Wednesday, Atlantic Black Box is honored to host a presentation by Bill Grabin, who in 2020 joined a local effort to uncover the suppressed history of Wabanaki and Black residents of what are now the towns of Wells, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Arundel. Over the next five years, Bill led the research that culminated in the creation of the Just History Database.
In the course of his research, Bill Grabin has identified information about hundreds of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who lived in what are now the towns of Wells, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Arundel as well as information about the white settlers who were connected to them as enslavers or in other ways.
As The Just History Project progressed, Bill began to partner with Kennebunk’s Brick Store Museum in an effort to create a database that would detail what was known about these people, incorporating as many primary source documents as possible. The resulting Just History Database can be found on the Museum’s website at www.brickstoremuseum.org/justhistory.
The site tells the stories of individuals who lived in the region prior to European colonization and through periods of enslavement and oppression. It is designed as an educational resource for students, researchers, and community members alike. In this presentation, Bill will describe some of the research and programming that went into developing the site and will highlight a number of stories.
Bill Grabin has lived in Kennebunk since 1985, and for many years has been a member of a number of conservation and historical organizations. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, and co-founded Renaissance Greeting Cards. He served as President of the Kennebunk Land Trust, and continues to serve as President of York County Audubon. He has long been fascinated by history and genealogical research, and motivated to further the cause of social justice.
