Videos

In 2022, at the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol break-in, CBS was searching for an upbeat story and decided to write about the Tuskegee-South Berwick Sister City and its spin-off newspaper column, Color Us Connected.

During a visit to South Berwick in 2022, Mayor Haygood tell what the Sister City relationship means to him at a community picnic.

South Berwick's town manager, Tim Pellerin, unveils a special Common Ground Sister City wall to honor the Maine town's relationship with Tuskegee. The unveiling took place in July 2022 during a visit by Mayor Tony Haygood and other residents of Tuskegee to South Berwick.

In a join civic celebration of the bicentennial of both states, folks in the sister cities of South Berwick, Maine, and Tuskegee, Alabama, reached out to voters in each community to talk about the importance of voting an obstacles. The result was a book of 200 interviews; a 9-minute video with highlights and this Zoom celebration drawing the communities together. The project spotlighted our common dedication to voting and our very different experiences as part of the American electorate.

In this virtual ceremony, a letter written by Booker T. Washington in 1898 to a resident of South Berwick was presented from the people of South Berwick to the people of Tuskegee, their sister city. Descendants of Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee Univ. founder Lewis Adams were among those who spoke before the National Park Service formally accepted the letter.

The 200th anniversaries of Maine and Alabama triggered excitement about a way to share the bicentennials. What emerged was the Together We Vote project. Organizers collected 200 interviews, divided equally in Maine and Alabama (100 in each state) with people presenting their thoughts on the importance of voting. The majority of people felt voting is essential, citizen participation in the political process. However, organizers respected and included dissenting opinions from people who oppose voting. This video captures the spirit of the Together We Vote project. It was a two-year experience that engaged citizens in South Berwick, Maine and their counterparts in Tuskegee, Alabama. Selected interviews were included in the video. All 200 statements are published in a book, entitled Together We Vote. This idea grew out of the sister city relationship formed by South Berwick and Tuskegee in 2017. This video originally aired in September 2020. It was uploaded to this Youtube channel in February 2021.

With this video, we are inviting everyone to a ceremony that strengthens the bonds between Tuskegee and South Berwick. The ceremony concerns a letter written by Booker T. Washington in 1898 as a fundraising appeal. The letter, discovered in South Berwick, has been donated to Tuskegee. The formal acceptance of this gift will happen on Friday, February 12, 2021 at 6:00pm CST. To request the ZOOM Link, email letterlinking2towns@gmail.com.