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 Jean
Byers Sampson was the founder of the first chapter of
the NAACP in Maine, was local and state chair of the
League of Women Voters, and served as a member and subsequent
chair of the University of Maine System Board of Trustees.
As chair, she upheld academic freedom by supporting
the right of gay students to hold a conference on the
University of Maine campus. When then Governor James
Longley asked all members of the Board to resign, Mrs.
Sampson led the Board in refusing to do so. As a result
of this action and her commitment to academics, she
received the Andrew Mikeljohn Award presented in recognition
of an outstanding contribution to academic freedom.
In accepting the award in 1975, Mrs. Sampson said, “The
decision permitting the holding of a homosexual conference
was not an easy one, and after many hours of rational
and strenuous discussion, the Board reached a unanimous
decision reaffirming its previous policy approving the
greatest amount of freedom of speech and dissemination
of ideas.” In commenting on the Board’s
refusal to resign, she said, “The University must
be accountable to society, and it must be responsive
to its needs. It must also operate efficiently and
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economically.
However, at the same time, the University must remain
free and autonomous."
Jean Byers Sampson moved to Maine in the early 1950s
with her husband, Richard Sampson, a Bates College
mathematics professor, and played a unique and critical
role in the state until her death in 1996. She believed
deeply in the right of all people to a free and unbiased
life, and she devoted her adult life to that accomplishment.
At the local level she founded a NAACP chapter; at
the state level she was a member of the Maine State
Board of Education and executive director of the Maine
Civil Liberties Union; and at the national level she
was founder and director of “Catalyst in Education”
an organization which assisted adult women with education
and training to enter the work force. Moreover, she
conducted and wrote the study of the “Negro
in Military Service,” which contributed to President
Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed
forces.
Jean
Byers Sampson devoted her life to those issues which
dealt with the civil liberties and freedom of all
people. We in academia as well as in the general community
owe her much. Now that her life has ended, it is our
intent to pay tribute to her by continuing her work
through the Center that is named in her honor.
[Photo courtesy of Loring Studios, 1978]
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