Gov. John Baldacci is expected to join civil rights groups, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and others at a "Rally Against Hate" at the University of Southern Maine Portland campus Friday afternoon.

The rally is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. at the Woodbury Campus Center. Representatives from the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, Maine Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-Portland Branch, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, as well as Baldacci, Attorney General Steve Rowe, Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion, Mayor-Elect Jill Duson and others are expected to speak about several high-profile events that followed the election of President-elect Barack Obama.

The incidents include a sign posted inside the Oak Hill General Store in Standish asking customers to place bets on an assassination of Obama, racial slurs aimed at the president-elect by a Gray-New Gloucester High School student and black cardboard cutouts hung by nooses on Mount Desert Island.

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