By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Several black Bates College students walked out on an African-American speaker and a few others got into a near-shouting match Wednesday with the man during a speech that was supposed to honor Black History Month.

“The African-American people who were in this room were very embarrassed and upset tonight,” said a Jamaican Bates student who declined to give her name.

Ted Hayes, a 54-year-old conservative activist for the homeless, was brought to campus by the Bates College Republicans, a student group. His lecture, “Back to Our Roots: Blacks and the Republican Party,” was expected to focus on his work with the Los Angeles homeless, the conservative principles he’s used to right social ills and why the modern Republican Party best represents African-Americans.

“His message will surely be an enlightening one for members of the Bates community,” said Nathaniel Walton, president of the student club, in a statement before the event.

About 50 people,, most of them white and college-age, showed up for the speech.

Hayes, who wore dreadlocks and a small U.S. flag on his belt, touched on the plight of poor African-Americans, the status of the dome village he created in Los Angeles to help the homeless and the name-calling he’s taken when people find out he’s black and Republican.

“When people resort to that kind of action, that means you’re touching something,” he said.

Then, animated and loudly enthusiastic, he trumpeted Republicans and lambasted Democrats, calling them a party born of plantation-owners.

“This is the party that held us as slaves. But we went running back to master, Massah!” he shouted.

He said African-American society fell in the 1960s when it embraced Democrats and accepted welfare.

“Forty years later, one whole generation later, we are devastated. We are destroyed,” he said.

Hayes repeatedly referred to rappers and other people he doesn’t like as “Negroes.” He also theorized that African-Americans were fighting and killing each other because their genetic memory predisposed them to it.

Throughout his speech, several black women snickered, groaned and loudly commented from the back row. As he predicted that African-Americans would retreat en masse from the Democratic Party over the next two years, they got up and left.

When Hayes opened the floor to questions, several white students praised his speech. Black students condemned Hayes and two got into a heated debate with him, nearly shouting that he was perpetuating stereotypes.

“You generalize the way we talk. You generalize the way we walk. You generalize that Democrats are against us,” said Teodoro Barros, a junior majoring in political science and philosophy. “You come here today and just throw things out (without facts to back them up).”

When Barros and other black students left, Walton, the Republican club president, followed and apologized tho thos who might have been offended by Hayes.

After the 90-minute speech, several white students gathered around Hayes to shake his hand.

“I thought he gave people a great dose of history,” said Jonathan Browher, a sophomore majoring in history.

Lois St. Brice, a junior from Trinidad, also stayed to talk with Hayes. But she was one of the black students who loudly argued with him. She wasn’t ready with compliments.

After several minutes of private debate, the two shook hands. They agreed on one point: many African-Americans could use help.

Hayes didn’t like the fact that some black students judged him because he didn’t go to college and he didn’t like the snickering he heard from the women in the back row. But the debate he enjoyed.

“I love that stuff,” he said. “I like to get young people to think.”

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