Friday, September 27, 2024
The African American Museum of Rhode Island (AAMRI) on Thursday officially announced its new initiative, “Stories From Camp Street: Back Providence in the 20th Century.”
Led by Helen Baskerville-Dukes, the Executive Director of the Mount Hope Community Center, the project builds on existing efforts made to preserve black history in Rhode Island while strengthening the state’s economic stability and prosperity, particularly for young residents of color.
The first phase involves hiring cohorts of community youth for the project that enables the intergenerational transfer of knowledge from elders in the Black communities for all to know and celebrate.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE — SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
These oral history stories will be recorded, interpreted, and distributed via social media networks.
Six community icons from the neighborhood were identified, of which Baskerville-Dukes grew up and still resides in, for the first vignettes that the students will produce – Robert Lee Bailey Sr., Amy Elizabeth Pinder-Bailey, William H. “Dixie” Matthews, Captain Reeves Ramsey Taylor, William A. Taylor, and Roosevelt “Bells” Benton.
“We’re about to take this by storm,” said Bailey at the kick-off press conference on Thursday.
This phase will conclude with a showcase and presentation of the youth’s experience at a March 2025 breakfast.
Next Steps
According to AAMRI, additional phases are slated to include an exhibition-style panel display of their projects that can tour throughout Rhode Island; and more permanent structures within the neighborhood with QR codes to scan to learn more and introducing or replacing neglected street signs that celebrate the community’s history.
More phases will expand to additional people, neighborhoods and subjects, such as Black nurses who were educated and certified in the American South and migrated with their families to Providence in the post-WWII era. They served as the backbone of public-facing primary health care in the Black communities.
A museum to serve as a home for the work conducted is the goal of AAMRI.
“This is not [just] about a museum,” said AAMRI organizer, Wendy Wallace, who is Director of Civic Engagement for Brown University. “We want to tether these young folks, not handcuff them, to their community with knowledge and engagement. We want them to not only learn but receive technical skills and money in their pockets to launch them.”
Related Articles
