Sunday, October 09, 2016
The exhibit, “Do Lord Remember Me,” on the 250 year history of the Black church in Rhode Island, opens Tuesday, October 11 at 5 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in America located at 75 North Main Street in Providence.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will include a keynote address by Reverent Doris Hooks at 6 pm.
About the Exhibit
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The exhibit tells the story in images and text of American firsts: the first free Black church – Newport; the first Black Episcopal delegation to the Diocesan Convention – Providence; the first piece of sacred music by an African – Newport Gardner; and more.
Robb Dimmick, who is the exhibit curator, says it “shows how African ritual merged with European ceremony to form a powerhouse of freedom, service and survival,” with accounts of burial rites, music, foodways, politics and pride, and evidence of African Americans’ unique way out of slavery and religious restrictions to form houses of worship in Providence, South County, Newport, Bristol and Woonsocket.
National figures incuding Alexander Crummell, Rev. Samuel Proctor, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Moses Brown “emerge as major players in promoting, preserving and protecting basic civil rights in Rhode Island,” according to the exhibit’s release.
Additional Locations
Congdon Street Baptist Church circa 1950, Providence’s oldest standing black church. Photo: Rickman/StagesFreedom
The exhibit is funded by The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, the Rhode Island Council on the Arts, the Rhode Island State Council of Churches; Providence College; sponsored by Opera Providence; and mounted by Stages of Freedom, the exhibit moves to and opens at the Museum of Work & Culture, Woonsocket, on Sunday, October 16 at 1 p.m., and the Redwood Library & Athenaeum, Newport, on Monday, October 24 at 5 p.m.
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