Creating Home in Rhode Island

9 Locations | Curated by Rhode Island Humanities staff

History offers context that helps us understand our world today and the ways communities plant roots and build connections. In 2024, the National Endowment for the Humanities launched United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture , a nationwide initiative to combat hate-based violence. Through this initiative, Rhode Island Humanities gathered together pins from existing Rhode Tours that illustrate the Ocean State’s long history as a place where communities can find refuge, create home, and build legacies that have spanned generations. Through the creation of these safe spaces, marginalized communities that face barriers to participation demonstrate resilience and indeed joy in the face of hate, helping to disarm misunderstanding through the preservation of cultural practices.

Places of worship that have served successive waves of immigrants; an orphanage with a mission to keep life as normal as possible for young children suffering loss of stability; beauty parlors that provided safety, joy, and comfort when marginalized communities felt unwelcome elsewhere; natural spaces that have been activated by diverse communities for spiritual practices; a restaurant with a mission to maintain traditional culinary practices; and a neighborhood market that provided ties to home and strengthened connections in a new home – these are just some of the stories that can be explored through this tour.

All the stories in the tour were created for other tours by community scholars and historians. We gratefully acknowledge their work and encourage you to explore these full tours as well:

- Latinos in Rhode Island, based on Marta V. Martinez’s Latino History in Rhode Island: Nuestras Raíces (History Press, 2014) as well as the oral and visual histories at www.nuestrasraicesri.net. Molly Kerker and Jane Lancaster contributed research, content development, and editing. Translation by Roxana Mercado.

- Mashapaug Pond, curated by Brown University students in "Oral History and Community Memory," Spring 2014

- Jewish Rhode Island, curated by Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association (Cynthia Benjamin, Ruth Breindel, Geraldine Foster, Kate-Lynne Laroche, and Linda Lotridge Levin

- West Side of Providence, curated by Taylor M. Polites

- LGBTQIA+ Histories in Rhode Island, curated by Casandra Inez, United We Stand Engagement Coordinator and RI Humanities Staff in collaboration with Community Content Partners: Janaya Kizzie, Selene Means, and Mev Miller

- First Peoples of Rhode Island, curated by Katharine Kirakosian, PhD and Tomaquag Museum

- Providence’s Vacant Spaces, curated by Angela DiVeglia as Part of Providence Public Library’s Exhibition and Program Series, 41.8219° N, 71.4171° W, Spring 2019

If you are interested in contributing stories to Rhode Tour on this topic or any other, please contact us at info@rihumanities.org . We will be glad to hear from you.

When Ferris Babcock Dove (1915-1983) and Eleanor Dove (1918-present) opened the Dovecrest Restaurant in 1963, it was the first Native American restaurant in New England. Perched on Summit Road, the restaurant gained national attention for their Indigenous cuisine, including johnnycakes, succotash,…
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When it came to getting your hair done on Broad Street, Kandy’s Of Course Beauty Salon was the place to go. The owner, Kandy Rainey, lived above her beauty salon in a building named the Lola Apartments. Together, these two spaces bravely created an important nexus of community and a safe haven for…
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If we had to find one person who represents Dominicans in Rhode Island, it would have to be Josefina Rosario. “Doña Fefa” is loved, respected and celebrated as the "Mother of the Dominican Community." Dominicans are now the largest group of Latinos in Rhode Island. But in 1955, when…
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In the summers, Providence residents waded into Mashapaug Pond to get clean – or, more precisely, for spiritual cleansing. "The choir would sing and the Word was preached before the candidate entered the water to have his sins washed away," recalled Ralph Simmons, a member of the Pond Street…
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At 43 Camp Street, passers-by see a school playground, shaded by a stand of pine trees and surrounded by a chain link fence. During recess, children's excited shouts reach the sidewalk. The adjoining playing field is flat and grassy, belying the fact that, in decades past, the block was filled with…
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Completed in 1892 to serve the wealthy Episcopalians of Broadway, and home for ten years to the African-American Church of the Savior, this Alpheus C. Morse-designed Romanesque Revival church has been Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church since 1940. Armenians found refuge in the United States…
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Development of this tour was supported by “United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture,” a nationwide initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities focused on combating hate-motivated violence.

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