Woonsocket Radio News Room

A new guide, "On The Rhode to Freedom" created by the nonprofit group, Stages of Freedom, is a roadside guide to African American sites in Rhode Island.

 

Spearheaded by co-founder Rob Dimmock, the guide "explores the rich and compelling contributions of African Americans on the landscape and cultural heritage of Rhode Island." Many of the sites featured in the guide can be found right here in the Blackstone Valley. Here are a few examples taken from the guide.

 

  • Woonsocket - Woonsocket City Hall, 169 Main Street. Built by abolitionist Edward Harris, this site hosted Abraham Lincoln's unprecedented second visit to Rhode Island in March 1860. He spoke to a packed audience, defending his position that the nation could not endure half slave and half free. (See plaque located in entryway.)
  • Cumberland - Abolitionist Elizabeth Buffum Chace moved to Valley Falls in 1839 when her husband, Samuel, took over management of the Valley Falls Mills on the Blackstone River. There in the Currier House (no longer standing) they established the main stop on the Underground Railroad in Rhode Island. 
  • North Smithfield - Banneker Industries, 582 Great Road. Named for the great Black mathematician, Benjamin Banneker, Cheryl Snead founded Banneker Industries, a world-class provider of supply chain solutions, specializing in third and fourth-party logistics services, in 1991.

 

The Project is funded by RI Humanities and is truly full of interesting information and couldn't be more timely. As Dimmock noted in an article published by the Valley Breeze, “We really do feel like now is the time to recognize black lives have always been here, and continue to be here. And here are ways to touch those lives that came before us in a powerful and meaningful way." Read on.

 

House Speaker Mike Johnson is demanding the president of Columbia University resign unless she reigns in anti-semitic protests. Speaking on the campus steps of the New York school with other GOP lawmakers, Johnson said no Jewish student should have to live in fear. His comments come as pro-Palestinian protests continue against Israel's war with Hamas.       A new poll shows President Biden and former President Trump currently in a dead heat in the upcoming presidential race. Quinnipiac University's latest national poll found registered voters evenly split in their choice for president with 46 percent supporting each President Biden and former President Trump. In a five-way matchup including independent and Green Party candidates, Biden and Trump are still tied with 37 percent support apiece, while independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. drew 16 percent support.       A Civil War-era abortion law is a step closer to being repealed in Arizona. Democrats in the state House of Representatives successfully pushed through a bill that repeals the 1864 that banned nearly all abortions. The bill now heads to the state Senate where it is expected to be passed early next month.        Former President Trump is asking a judge to dismiss two more charges in his Georgia election interference case. In a filing Wednesday, Trump requested for the conspiracy to commit filing of false documents and the filing of false documents charges against him to be dismissed. Trump currently faces ten counts in the case after three were dismissed in March.       A new reports shows how much someone needs to be making to be considered middle class. Finance site SmartAsset analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center to determine the middle class salary range in all 50 states. The national middle class salary range is 49-thousand-271-dollars to 147-thousand-828-dollars.        Two teams will look to take two-nothing leads in their NBA Playoffs series tonight. In the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat will take on the Celtics in Boston for game two of their series. In the West, the New Orleans Pelicans will square off against the Thunder in Oklahoma City for game two.       

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