CHARLES ROBERTS PRESERVING RHODE ISLAND’ S BLACK AND INDIGENOUS HISTORY.
C harles Roberts, founder and executive director of Rhode Island Slave History Medallions, remembers when he first learned about Christiana
Carteaux Bannister.
As a student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in the nineties, he began studying Black history in addition to art. The two interests converged when he came across Edward Bannister.
“ And because of him I learned who [ Christiana ] was, and I was shocked to learn that she was an Indigenous and Black woman, and that she really supported him. The work that they did together, to me, created a renaissance of Black art and history in Providence,” he says.
Roberts moved back to his home state in 2000, but over the years grew concerned about the lack of general awareness surrounding other important local BIPOC figures and historical events.
“ My family has been in Newport since 1889. They came here to escape persecution in the South. And what they’ ve done, since I was a child, really influenced me to give back to the community,” he says.
Most significant was his uncle, Paul Gaines, who became one of the first African American mayors in New England when he was elected to lead Newport in 1981. In fact, it was Gaines’ 2006 dedication of the first monument to honor the 1st Rhode Island Regiment( known as the Black Regiment) in Portsmouth that inspired Roberts to establish RISHM as a nonprofit in 2019.
The soul medallions— or Soul Effigies, as Roberts refers to them— are placed in historic locations across the state that have connections to the lives of enslaved and freed African Americans and Indigenous people, especially those whose stories have been widely ignored or overlooked.
More than just markers, they serve as public educational tools— each medallion features a QR code directing visitors to RISHM’ s website to learn more about the figure in question— as well as public acknowledgments of the state’ s deep involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. They’ re sculpted from bronze— a nod to the bronze work Roberts witnessed from the Berber tribesmen during his travels in Egypt— and set atop vertical cement slabs.
There are sixteen medallions installed across the state, from Providence to Newport to Coventry, with several more coming in the next five years. Roberts has also set up a guided Black History walking tour through the Newport Historic District, where many of the medallions are stationed. Tours generally take place Saturday and Sunday mornings, May through October, and are led by Roberts’ wife, public historian Margaret Baker. The tours and medallions not only help shift locals’ awareness but have also enticed visitors traveling to events like the Newport Jazz Festival.
“ It’ s important that we tell these stories so that everyone knows this is a famous person that contributed so much to the
building of America and the artistic culture that makes it possible,” Roberts says.
One such example is Charity“ Duchess” Quamino, who came to the area as a slave working for William Ellery Channery but was able to eventually buy her freedom by selling pastries. One of her customers was George Washington, who would seek out her plum cakes when he was in town.
“ You don’ t often hear about people like Duchess, or Christiana, even though she did so much, because the history has been told by rich white men in power,” says Roberts, who was invited to speak about gender equality at the United Nations earlier this year.“ But we make sure that everyone’ s story is told.”— Kaitlyn Murray
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2026 85