COVERAGE YOU CAN COUNT ON MORNING TO NIGHT
REPORTER
COVERAGE YOU CAN COUNT ON MORNING TO NIGHT
MELISSA SARDELLI // PATRICK LITTLE // KAIT WALSH // T . J . DEL SANTO
KAYLA FISH // TONY PETRARCA // SHANNON HEGY // MIKE MONTECALVO // KIM KALUNIAN imizing or erasing the roles of slaves who made their ostentatious displays of wealth possible .
In Rhode Island , the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project has been working since 2016 to erect a monument to the Africans who landed in Newport on their way to lives as slaves . For years , the group had settled on Liberty Square , the old Colonial mustering ground between Farewell and Meeting streets , as a location . The site had been approved by the City Council in 2017 , and the group regularly held events there in anticipation of a ribbon cutting . A year ago , the Aquidneck Island Daughters of the American Revolution and the Artillery Company of Newport , a ceremonial militia with its own armory museum , publicly opposed it as inappropriate . In a newspaper editorial in Newport This Week , the DAR argued that Liberty Square should remain “ a memorial to the first American veterans who sacrificed so much for the freedoms we have today .”
The irony of defending a space dedicated to Colonial freedom fighters against a monument to those who had none seemed to have escaped notice , but their remarks nonetheless stung the project committee , which was scouting a new location as of January .
“ Their remarks got to the point where they were very discouraging for me , and for the members of the committee ,” says Victoria Johnson , a project founder and the state ’ s first female African American high school principal . “ We said to the City Council , we will relinquish our position at Liberty Square , but you ’ re going to have to help us find a spot which will be acceptable for all so that people know that the organizations in the city of Newport work together .”
Despite the apparent setback in Newport , Rickman has seen progress in his appeals for donations for Stages of Freedom .
“ We ’ ve gone to half a dozen foundations who had never given a dime for Black culture or history , and they have a better attitude . You have to sit and dialogue and stare at ’ em . And often they would say ridiculous things ,” he says . “ And now they don ’ t say those things , and I hope their belief pattern has changed .” 🆁
46 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I FEBRUARY 2025