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“As demonstration ends, civil rights marchers at the State House in Providence join hands and sing.” Journal – Bulletin photo by Lawrence B. Millar [March 25, 1965]. Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, RHiX17391

African American Civil Rights in Rhode Island

Essay by Geralyn Ducady, Director of the Newell D. Goff Center for Education & Public Programs, Rhode Island Historical Society¹

Towards the end of the 19^th century, two actions taken by the United States Supreme Court led to major setbacks in the rights of African Americans. The first occurred in 1883, placing the power to determine anti-discrimination laws with the states, not the federal government. The second was in 1896, which made pro-segregation laws easier to pass. The Rhode Island General Assembly subsequently set forth legislation that would counteract these decisions at the state level.

Newspaper Advertisement for “runaway slave”

Read about early civil rights and self-determination here

The federal Civil Rights Act of 1875 attempted to give Blacks equal access to and protection against discrimination in public places. However, in 1883, the Supreme Court declared that the Act was unconstitutional and asserted that Congress did not have the authority to regulate the rights of states in this matter. African Americans in Rhode Island responded in an attempt to preserve their hard-fought civil rights within the state. Reverend Mahlon Van Horne and George T. Downing led action alongside White leaders to encourage the Rhode Island General Assembly to enact General Law, Chapter 508 which was passed in 1885 and declared that “no person within the jurisdiction of this state shall be debarred from the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of any licensed inns, public conveyances, on land or water, or from any licensed places of public amusement, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” That same year, Reverend Van Horne became the first African American elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly.²

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal facilities satisfied the equal protection requirement as set forth in the Fourteenth Amendment, which had granted citizenship to all Black Americans born or naturalized in the United States, including those formerly enslaved, in 1868. This decision prompted many pro-segregation legislatures to enact state and local laws that limited Black freedoms. These laws became known as Jim Crow Laws in many Southern states. Although Northern states did not explicitly include Jim Crow practices into their laws, there was still systemic racism, discrimination, and segregation, which had similar effects on African Americans living there. Rhode Islanders responded again through the passage of the 1896 General Law, Chapter 277, “that all persons within the jurisdiction of this state shall be entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of any place of public accommodation, resort or amusement.”³

Payments for the Removal of Non-Citizens

Read about how marginalized people were 'warned out' of towns here

Despite these actions taken by the Rhode Island General Assembly, Black Rhode Islanders continued to face discrimination in their daily lives. At the turn of the 20^th century, the Black population remained relatively small within the state. Rhode Island’s Black population increased from 3,952 in 1860 to 9,092 by 1900.⁴ Although the Black population in Providence nearly doubled, it still only represented 2% of the overall population.⁵ Despite small numbers, African Americans formed civic and church organizations that strove to fight unfair policies and increase their representation within the state government. The Sumner Political Club was organized in 1898 by Downing, Reverend Van Horne, and others and “comes into being because a part of the body politic, colored citizens of the city of Newport, state of Rhode Island, are aggrieved. We suffer under the indignity of the policy so many of our fellow citizens who dominate in numbers cast upon us in the management of public affairs.”⁶ In other words, the club was formed because Black Rhode Islanders felt that they did not have adequate representation in the politics of Rhode Island and, thus, were being denied their rightful voice in determining the policy and laws being enacted by the majority of White politicians, which often disadvantaged the Black minority community. The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW) was formed to tackle issues such as women’s suffrage, lynching, and Jim Crow Laws. Local women’s clubs included the Women’s Newport League, founded by Mary H. Dickerson. She later established a regional association of the National Association of Colored Women, called the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (NFCWC).⁷ The Providence branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1913 by civil rights attorney Joseph G. LeCount with Dr. Julius Robinson as the first president and Roberta J. Dunbar as Secretary.⁸ These organizations and clubs, especially those still in existence like the NAACP, provided the foundation for civil rights efforts that continued into the 20th and 21st centuries and led to local and national anti-discrimination laws, some of which are mentioned below.

World War I served as a turning point in the fight for civil rights. Over 350,000 African American men and women served in the war in every branch of the military. At home, when women flooded the workforce while men served abroad, African American women were prevented from taking these wartime jobs. The New York Age, a leading African American newspaper, reported on November 9, 1918, that Gorham Manufacturing Company, located in Rhode Island, would not hire Black women because the White women employees refused to work with them due to their racial prejudice. During the war, Mary Elizabeth Jackson, a Black woman, worked for the YWCA War Work Council as a statistician. She analyzed employment trends, wrote about poor working conditions for women in factories, and reported on the inequality of wages between men and women and between White and Black employees. Returning home from the war, veterans expected equality, employment, and respect after serving their country. Instead, they found that racial tensions had increased. White supremacists increased domestic terrorism in Black neighborhoods throughout the country during the summer of 1919. Some Black activists fought back, leading the season to be known as the “Red Summer.” During this period, lynchings increased, and membership in the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), an organization that promotes White supremacy, grew. A branch of the NAACP was organized in Newport to help combat similar activity, including that of the KKK, in Rhode Island.⁹

Harry Fearson and Black Baseball

Read about the relationship between Black baseball and racial integration here

In the period between World War I and World War II (1920-1940), with the first wave of the Great Migration, African Americans continued to come to Rhode Island from the South to find jobs in factories and shipyards or as domestic servants in wealthy households. Immigrants from Cape Verde,¹⁰ many of whom were of West African descent, also arrived during this period. Despite this, the population of African Americans within the state declined to about 1.5% since there was also a large number of White immigrants arriving during this period.¹¹ African Americans encountered discrimination in employment and housing. New Deal reforms to increase homeownership were awarded to Whites, leading to further segregated neighborhoods.¹² African Americans continued to be excluded from professional employment and most factory jobs. For example, men were excluded from higher-paying factory positions, such as machinists and carpenters, and were only assigned to menial manual labor in certain positions, such as janitors, without much choice.¹³ Lack of employment opportunities and the restrictions on access to higher-paid professional work further limited access to better housing. Although technically, the state had passed an act guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, restaurants, hotels, recreational facilities, and theaters, as stated earlier in this essay, these places were often segregated anyway in what is referred to as de facto segregation. De facto segregation occurs despite the law. This is in contrast to de jure segregation, which occurs because it is mandated by a government. The Providence Urban League was established in 1939 in response to conditions like de facto segregation, for “improving race relations and to better living conditions of the Negroes generally.”¹⁴

World War II proved to be the next transformative event that affected the struggle for civil rights in America and Rhode Island, as large numbers of African American men joined the still segregated military and attempted to obtain defense jobs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 in 1941, which banned discriminatory practices in federal agencies and unions involved in work for the war effort, and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee to enforce it. Despite this, labor disputes and unfair employment practices continued, even in Rhode Island. In 1944, Rhode Island Civil Rights attorney Joseph LeCount, President of the Providence branch of the NAACP John F. Lopez, and Providence Urban League member James Williams joined with Thurgood Marshall and the national NAACP to successfully bring suit against the Boilermakers Union. This led to more than 500 African American men in Rhode Island joining the union and successfully working with union representation at the Kaiser Shipyard in Providence. Also, in 1944, Mrs. S. Foster Hunt¹⁵ with the Providence Urban League secured an agreement with the Nursing School Council at Rhode Island Hospital to accept Black applicants to the nursing school for the first time.¹⁶ After President Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practices Committee dissolved after the war, individual states worked on laws to guarantee fair employment.¹⁷

Rhode Island’s Fair Employment Practices Act was enacted in 1949, and the Rhode Island Commission against Discrimination was formed.¹⁸ Also in 1949, the Federal American Housing Act paved the way for urban renewal and made the issue of fair housing prominent. Black communities were often the most affected by decisions to tear down houses, businesses, and schools for more expensive alternatives and were blocked from living in newly developed neighborhoods by racist housing practices.¹⁹

Photograph of Lippitt Hill Redevelopment Project

Read about urban renewal here

The Modern Civil Rights Movement in Rhode Island

The passing of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964 by the federal government were major turning points that led to the modern Civil Rights Movement. The 1957 Act was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and created the United States Commission on Civil Rights, established a civil rights division in the Justice Department, and created penalties for voting rights violations. It also eliminated state laws that prohibited groups like Native Americans the right to vote. This was the first major act taken by the federal government with regard to Civil Rights since the Era of Reconstruction after the Civil War.²⁰ ²¹ The Voting Rights Act of 1965 served to eliminate poll taxes and literacy tests that were designed to prevent Black and economically distressed people from voting. The 1964 Civil Rights Act granted the federal government more power over the states to enforce civil rights, prohibited discrimination in most public places and accommodations, and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in an effort to end discrimination in hiring practices and employee treatment.

The Housing Act of 1949, mentioned earlier, was meant to improve housing standards and reduce housing costs and led to urban renewal projects around the country and locally, in Providence and Newport. Major projects in Providence included the Willard Avenue Center Redevelopment Project in South Providence in 1954, the Lippitt Hill Project in 1959 in Providence, and a project in Newport in the city’s West Broadway Neighborhood. These “urban renewal” projects destroyed whole neighborhoods and displaced hundreds of residents. The aims of the renewal projects were to demolish houses that were in disrepair and replace them with newly constructed housing, shopping centers, and schools. Since the residential populations of the demolished neighborhoods were often all Black due to unfair housing practices that led to de facto segregation, as defined earlier, the majority of those displaced were African American. The construction of Highway 195 through Providence, finished in 1958, also displaced Cape Verdean and Portuguese residents in the neighborhood of Fox Point. The newer housing that was constructed was often unaffordable to the original residents. In response, organizations such as the Urban League, which had local branches in Providence and Newport, were formed to fight for fair housing legislation. Irving J. Fain, a Providence businessman, formed a group called Citizens United for a Fair Housing Law. The group proposed a bill to the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1959, but attorney Robert B. Dresser led a protest at the State House against it, claiming that the law “would infringe on private property rights, legislate social progress, lower property values, and increase racial tension in the state”²² and the bill was blocked by the legislature. The Rhode Island chapter of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), organized in the early 1960s, staged sit-ins at the State House in 1964. In 1965, over 2,000 residents protesting race-based housing discrimination marched from Providence City Hall to the State House. As a result, Governor John Chafee signed the Rhode Island Fair Housing Practices Act on April 12, 1965.²³ The act allows those who believe they have been discriminated against in housing, whether buying or renting a home, to file a claim against the accused violator in court, giving people recourse if they face discrimination. The law has been amended several times and now extends protections based on “race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, military status as a veteran with an honorable discharge or an honorable or general administrative discharge, servicemember in the armed forces, country of ancestral origin, disability, age, familial status, or regardless of the fact that a tenant or applicant or a member of the household is, or has been, or is threatened with being the victim of domestic abuse, or that the tenant or applicant has obtained, or sought, or is seeking, relief from any court in the form of a restraining order for protection from domestic abuse.”²⁴ A 2020 report by the State of Rhode Island notes that, unfortunately, some people who are protected under this law may not understand that they do have recourse if they face discrimination. The report also notes that between 2015 and 2020, most cases of housing discrimination were due to the failure of landlords to make reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities and 18.1% of the cases filed were for discrimination based on race.²⁵

An important federal court case also paved the way for change. The 1954 Supreme Court decision made in Brown v. Board of Education ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. This decision directly impacted the schools in the Southern United States, where separate White and Black-only schools had been created. However, the decision also impacted schools in the North. Since public schools were neighborhood schools, and neighborhoods were segregated due to housing practices, neighborhood schools also found themselves segregated via de facto segregation. In 1967, the mayor of Providence, Joseph A. Doorley, Jr., formed a committee to try to solve this issue of de facto segregation in the public schools. The committee proposed busing Black students to schools that had a majority of White students and busing White students to schools that had a majority of Black students. In addition, the Flynn and Temple Schools, both public neighborhood elementary schools, were to be used for specific alternative programs. This was called the Providence Plan and was met with resistance by some parents.²⁶

Film Still of Student Clash Outside of Central High

Read about civil rights in education here

Still, northern cities like Providence continued to be heavily segregated along racial lines in the mid-1960s. A 1965 University of Rhode Island survey found that residential segregation in Providence was pronounced compared to other New England cities and maintained that the city was “as segregated as many cities of the Deep South.”²⁷ The Executive Director of the National Urban League, Whitney M. Young, spoke in Rhode Island and reiterated that Providence was “one of the most segregated cities in the nation, having all of the ingredients for a riot.”²⁸ The tensions that had been building in Providence erupted in 1967 when a large riot broke out near the Willard Avenue Shopping Center on Prairie Avenue following Emancipation Day celebrations in August. Although there were no fatalities or major property losses, the event made national headlines and resulted in Providence Mayor Joseph A. Doorley instituting a curfew in South Providence and prohibiting large gatherings.²⁹

Unfinished Business

Local civil rights leaders and organizations continued their focus on improving youth education, increasing job training, and fighting against employment and housing discrimination throughout the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s and 1970s. The work continues. The trends and patterns of the African American civil rights movement that evolved over the twentieth century still define the movement today. It has grown to include the voices of other people of color to address remaining challenges in areas such as affordable housing, income gaps, criminal justice, and immigration reform. In 2013, following the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, who had shot the seventeen-year-old while he was walking to a relative’s house from a convenience store in Florida, the Black Lives Matter movement was founded by three Black women, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. At the time of this writing (July 2020), there are Black Lives Matter chapters across the United States, all aiming to illuminate the issue of police brutality against Black people and ignite justice reforms to address the issue. Racial justice protests erupted again this year throughout the nation (including Rhode Island) in the wake of the murders of countless unarmed African American men and women.

In Rhode Island and across the country, the civil rights movement “brought America face to face with the gap between its egalitarian ideals and its racial realities—a gap that, many argue, still needs addressing today.”³⁰³¹ Keith Stokes, a local independent scholar, writes that “the challenge as we enter the 21st century is the recognition that civil rights in America and Rhode Island is still an unfinished business. Poverty, access to affordable housing and higher education, along with criminal justice and immigration reform, are all issues that impact far too many. The Rhode Island African heritage community struggled mightily from enslavement to freedom and through all types of discrimination, but they persevered through collective movements to establish civil rights laws that would ultimately benefit all. … [I]f we take the time to appreciate the deeds and legacies of previous generations have left us, we can continue to shape the path to prosperity for future Americans and Rhode Island citizens in their shared steady climb to public progress.”³²

Terms:

Discrimination: treating a person unfairly because they are in some way different from oneself. Society-wide discrimination also occurs. See “systemic racism”

Race: a social construct which groups people together based on physical or other attributes. Skin color is an example

Jim Crow laws: laws set by state and local governments that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. The laws were enacted after the Civil War and into the 20^th century and enforced until 1965

Systemic Racism: a form of racism so embedded into a society that it becomes normal and often goes unnoticed by some

White supremacy: a racist belief that those with White skin color or whose ancestors were from Europe are naturally superior than others and therefore should dominate over them

Ku Klux Klan (KKK): a White supremacist hate group. It began in the 1860s after the Civil War in the south but has spread throughout the United States. The group has had periods of increased membership and suppression. The group is known for violent tactics, even murder

Great Migration: a period in United States history when about six million African Americans migrated out of the rural southern to urban northern states. This occurred between 1916 and 1970

New Deal: a series of programs, projects, and financial reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939 to provide recovery after the Great Depression

De facto segregation: this term refers to when people are separated, usually by race, even if it is not in the law. This can occur in schools, in neighborhoods, in employment, and elsewhere. “De facto” means “by fact”

De jure segregation: this term refers to when people are separated, usually by race, because it is in the law or is mandated by a government. “De jure” means “by law”

Negro: a term used to describe people of African descent or with dark-colored skin. During the Civil Rights Movement, this word was used often whereas it is now considered disrespectful. However, some people still self-identify with this term. You may also come across the terms African American, Black, person of color, colored person, or colored. Colored person or colored are also considered outdated terms

Urban renewal: consists of tearing down and clearing out neighborhoods deemed as run-down or slum-like to build “higher class” housing and businesses, often making the area too expensive for the former inhabitants to be able to continue to live there, leaving them to search for new places to live, and dismantling the former community

Emancipation Day: a day celebrating the emancipation of enslaved people. It was traditionally celebrated on August 1 in Rhode Island in recognition of the freedom of enslaved people in the British West Indies. The celebration was moved to June 19^th late in the 20^th century to mark the date when the Union soldiers brought news of the end of the Civil War (June 19, 1865). Because of this, the celebration is sometimes called Juneteenth

Questions:

What reasons do you think parents had for not wanting their kids bused to schools outside of their neighborhoods at the time of the Providence Plan?

Why do people refer to civil rights as an “unfinished business”? What civil rights issues are still prevalent today?

What civil rights issues do you see in your community? What successes have you witnessed?

What can you do to support the continuation of civil rights successes in your community?

1
Much of the research for this chapter was completed by researchers and staff at the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., and the Rhode Island Historical Society through a project funded by the National Park Service 2017-2020, The Struggle for African Heritage Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The 20th Century [link]
2
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018; The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019; Rhode Island G.L. 1885, ch. 508; United States Senate. Landmark Legislation: Civil Rights Act of 1875. [link]
3
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018; Rhode Island G.L. 1896, ch. 277, § 27
4
Irving, Richard F. Toward Equal Opportunity: The Story of the Providence Urban League in the 1940s. Urban League of Rhode Island, Providence, RI. 1974:9
5
Grover, Kathryn and Neil Larson. College Hill Historic District (Additional Documentation). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. On file, Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, Providence, RI. 2018
6
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018:8
7
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
8
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018; The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
9
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018
10
For more information about Cape Verdean immigration, please see our Encompass essay [link]
11
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
12
Richard Rothstein. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. New York: Liveright. 2017; Keenaga Yamhatta-Taylor. Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership. Chapel Hill: UNC Press. 2019
13
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
14
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019; Rouzeau, Edgar T. “Providence ‘No Land of Providence’ for Race: City Allows Them Few Civil Rights and No Work At All.” The Pittsburgh Courier, 13 August, p. 24. 1938
15
Many women during this time period were known by their husbands’ names. For example, “Mrs. John Smith”
16
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018
17
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
18
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018; Rhode Island Public Law P.L. 1949, ch. 2181; The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
19
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018; The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
20
See RI PBS for tools about teaching the Reconstruction Era [link]
21
United States House of Representatives. The Civil Rights Act of 1957. June 18, 1957. [link]
22
quoted in Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018:15
23
Antonucci, Carl. Machine Politics and Urban Renewal in Providence, Rhode Island: The Era of Mayor Joseph A. Doorley, Jr., 1965–74. Ph.D. dissertation, Providence College, Providence, RI. 2012:114; Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018; and The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
24
RI Gen L § 34-37-2 (2015) [link]
25
State of Rhode Island. 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice: Draft for Public Display & Comment. May 2020. Electronic Document. Accessed November 30, 2020: p 212-215
26
Holden, Anna. The Bus Stops Here: A Study of School Desegregation in Three Cities. Bronx: Agathon Press. 1974; The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
27
quoted in Grover, Kathryn, and Neil Larson. College Hill Historic District (Additional Documentation). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. On file, Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, Providence, RI. 2018:44
28
quoted in Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018:16
29
Antonucci, Carl. Machine Politics and Urban Renewal in Providence, Rhode Island: The Era of Mayor Joseph A. Doorley, Jr., 1965–74. Ph.D. dissertation, Providence College, Providence, RI. 2012:129–130; The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019:19
30
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Survey Report African American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The Twentieth Century: Statewide Survey and National Register Evaluation. Report submitted to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the National Park Service. Providence. 2019
31
Dudley, William, ed. The Civil Rights Movement: Opposing Viewpoints. Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego, CA. 1996.:19
32
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in 20^th Century Rhode Island: A Narrative Summary of People, Places, and Events. Report for the National Park Service. Providence. 2018: 19

Next to Primary Sources

EnCompass

African American Civil Rights in Rhode Island

The Modern Civil Rights Movement in Rhode Island

Terms:

Questions: