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.

 

The Israeli military has launched a retaliatory strike against Iran. U.S. officials confirm missiles have struck a number of locations inside Iran, with no word yet on whether there were any casualties. This all comes after Israel vowed to respond to Iran's missile and drone attack earlier this week.        Donald Trump is set to appear in court today after 12 jurors were selected for his hush money criminal trial in New York City. The judge in the case announced Thursday, "We have our jury." Now six alternates must be selected       The FAA is investigating after a Southwest flight and a JetBlue plane nearly collided at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, DC. It happened Thursday morning when a plane crossed the runway as another was starting its take off.        Taylor Swift's new album has finally dropped. The first single off the "The Tortured Poets Department" is called "Fortnight," featuring Post Malone. The album is getting praise from critics, who are calling it "wildly unguarded," a "cathartic confession" and "unapologetically dramatic."        Less than one in ten young Americans think the United States is headed in the right direction. That's according to a new poll from Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics. It says that just nine-percent of voters between 18-and-29 say the nation is generally going in the right direction. Meanwhile, 58-percent of respondents said the country is going the wrong way.        Prince William is returning to public duties for the first time since his wife's cancer diagnosis. William has been absent from official engagements ever since Kate Middleton revealed last month that she was undergoing chemotherapy for an unspecified type of cancer.        

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