Blacks New England

John Tucker is sticking it out in Vermont, but he isn't urging his three grown children to join him. "Would you be interested in being Jackie Robinson?" asked Tucker, a rare black in northern New England. The region's three states are the whitest in the country, according to 2000 census figures: Maine is 96.9% white, just ahead of Vermont (96.8%) and New Hampshire (96%). The number represents white-only responses divided by the state's overall population.