A bill to take out the last three words of the state's official name - "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" - has been introduced several times over the past quarter of a century, but if state Rep. Joseph Almeida, D-Dist. 12 gets his way, this year Rhode Islanders will finally vote in a referendum on whether to remove the contentious phrase from the state's name and constitution.
Almeida, who introduced the bill April 9, contends that the word "plantation" harkens to a time when Rhode Island was a major hub in the slave trade. More than ten percent of Rhode Islanders were enslaved at the middle of the 18th century, according to the report of the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. Plantations in South County were an integral part of the economy, and slaves were abundant in Newport.
According to Almeida, a Democrat and District 12 representative, his district is 95 percent people of color. "You name it, we have it. We are the rainbow of America," Almeida, a former police officer, said. "This bill is our way to say that we're also Rhode Islanders." Almeida's district is made up of Providence neighborhoods Washington Park and the South Side.
"The word 'plantation' is insulting to us as African Americans," Almeida said, "because generations of us were brought against our will. Because we built Rhode Island."
Almeida has been proposing the bill every year for the past eight years, but the House Judiciary Committee has not approved it yet, he said. Former Rep. George Castro was the first to propose the bill and Mayor David Cicilline '83 continued the tradition while a member of the state house of representatives, Almeida said. But it has never made it to the voters' ballot. Cicilline did not respond to inquiries regarding the bill.
Travis Rowley '02, vice-chairman of the Rhode Island Young Republicans, responded to the bill on behalf of the organization in an e-mail to The Herald. "Almeida is a small-minded champion of political correctness," Rowley wrote. "If he wishes to continue his obsession with what happened a long time ago, to people he did not know, he should do it on his own time." Rowley argued that the state's name is a historical fact and that altering it would make people more ignorant of history, not less.
House Majority Leader Gordon Fox has not taken an official position on the bill, according to spokesman Larry Berman. "He sees both sides of the issue," Berman said. "He is waiting to see what comes out in the hearing."
The Providence branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is also undecided on the bill, but branch president Clifford Monteiro said the organization would "generally support" it.
"It's important to people who grew up being told that we never had slavery in Rhode Island," Montiero said. "But concern about the mortgage crisis, the price of gasoline, unemployment - there are a whole lot of issues that may be more important."
Corey Walker, assistant professor of Africana studies, pointed out that the state name brings up a variety of issues about the relationship between European settlers, enslaved blacks and the indigenous population in Rhode Island. "Part of the contention surrounds the competing histories of people in this state," Walker said. "How can we use this as a teaching point?"
Gov. Donald Carcieri '65 and House Minority Leader Robert Watson, R-Dist. 30, did not respond to inquiries regarding the bill.
