R.I. divided over name linked to slavery
PROVIDENCE - George Lima is offended by his state’s full official name, and he wants it shortened.
“State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations’’ reminds him of the racial prejudice he encountered as a black man in the US military and that kept him seated in the back of Providence restaurants.
“What’s Rhode Island? Just backward?’’ said Lima, 90. “I mean, are we going to be the last state to give in to this idea of trying to get rid of all those things that remind you of slavery?’’
But Keith Stokes, who traces his ancestry to African slaves brought to Colonial Newport in the 17th century, says there’s no need to ignore history and that the full name should remain as is. He disagrees with dropping “Providence Plantations’’ from the name, which Lima supports.
After years of debate, Rhode Island lawmakers are getting closer to approving a referendum that would go before voters next year on whether to drop what some consider a painful vestige of slavery from the state’s official name.
“We have history, we know the history, and now we’re ready to make that change,’’ said Victoria Johnson, a member of the Newport County NAACP. The state NAACP also backs the name change.
Johnson rejected arguments, advanced by Governor Don Carcieri and others, that the name doesn’t need to change because the word “plantation’’ merely referred to farming settlements at the time the state was founded. She said that was like calling the swastika an innocuous South Asian symbol - and then ignoring how it became a hateful emblem of Nazi Germany.
“It’s what the connotation of the name became over the years,’’ Johnson said.
Rhode Island’s full name may not be listed on contemporary maps, but it is on the state seal and is uttered in courtrooms when a judge enters. Efforts to change the name had stalled over the years, but gained momentum this year after House and Senate lawmakers separately adopted bills permitting the referendum. Both chambers still have to pass each other’s bill to guarantee the referendum, which could happen when the General Assembly returns to session this month.
Lima’s relatives immigrated from Cape Verde to Fall River, Mass., during the late 19th and early 20th century. During World War II, he volunteered for an all-black air unit - the Tuskegee Airmen - in the segregated US Army Air Corps.
After the war, Lima settled in Rhode Island where he was refused service by an Italian store in Providence because he was black, he said.
Lima’s experiences caused him to become increasingly active in the civil rights movement, where he was president of the local NAACP and was elected a state representative.
Lima remains a hero to Stokes, now executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, although they’re on different sides of the debate over the state’s name.
“We should absolutely not revise history, ever,’’ Stokes said. “Removing the name does not remove the pain of racism, does not remove the history of slavery in the state.’’
