Commissioned in 2024, the African American Museum of Rhode Island is holding its grand opening this weekend. The museum, located at 500 Broad Street in South Providence, will feature exhibits showcasing the history, stories and culture of the African Diaspora.
Its co-founders are hoping the museum will be informative and educational, while fostering a sense of pride for African-Americans in Rhode Island. Curator Melaine Ferdinand-King spoke with Ocean State Media morning host Luis Hernandez to discuss what museum visitors can expect to see.
“I think what’s most important is that African American history and culture is not peripheral to the overall American story or the overall Rhode Island narrative,” Ferdinand-King said. “It’s central to that narrative.”
Interview highlights
On how the museum was created
Melaine Ferdinand-King: The museum began in roughly summer of 2024, established by a number of community members from (state) Sen. Tiara Mack, to officials in the legal (profession), higher education and housing who felt like we needed an entirely-led Black museum for and by Black community members. The eventual goal was to establish a permanent collection and a home for Black history and Black arts in a physical space focused on Black life in the contemporary era, but also in the 20th century and even 19th-century black Providence, Black Rhode Island. And so we wanted to develop a model that puts youth at the center, that puts history at the center, placing community members in rooms with elders from the community, but also with really precious objects and giving people an opportunity to see themselves differently in the state.
On the creation of a ‘living’ museum
Ferdinand-King: When it comes to history, folks think it is static. Our call to action is that history is always being written and rewritten by everyday storytellers. The emphasis for this museum is to let people know that they can contribute to history, that it is not some kind of hierarchy and an imposition of knowledge from some curator or some executive director who feels that they know what the story has been. It is something that is always in flux. And that it needs to be edited and currently revised.
We really need to question what history with a capital H is at the onset in order for people to realize that the stories that matter to us can be reshaped, they can be recentered, and we can add revisions to the stories that we think we know. Oftentimes when it comes to black history, there’s been a lot of information that has been marginalized that has not been at the center. And so we have an opportunity to recreate what our sense of history is, but also to expand our understanding of what Rhode Island history is on a very micro scale.
On the exhibit ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood: Mapping Black Providence’
Ferdinand-King: “Mapping Black Providence” is an exhibition that begins at the mid-20th century of Providence, and it focuses on urban renewal and displacement of Black neighborhoods and communities beginning roughly in the late 1940s. My vision for this exhibition, especially as someone from New Jersey, was to think about where Black Providence is and where Black Rhode Islanders are. There is a common myth that there really aren’t many Black people in Rhode Island, and that’s just not true.
What we find is that Black people organized constantly. There were hundreds of Black community organizations, political and legal organizations, (and) fraternal organizations, that contributed to Black political infrastructure, but also Black community life. Black homes and these Black communal infrastructures were disrupted in order to make way for new commercial buildings, (the) University Heights shopping center, less affordable housing. And then when black people tried to find other places to live, they were turned away because they were Black.
The exhibition traces and maps how shifts in geographical terrain, how shifts in housing legislation, ultimately impacts the bread and butter of a community in the heart of the community when people are dispersed throughout the rest of the state or can no longer find housing, which causes them to be less involved in their community organizations.
On the goal of the museum
Ferdinand-King: I think what’s most important is that African American history and culture is not peripheral to the overall American story or the overall Rhode Island narrative. It’s central to that narrative. What we don’t often see is how Black culture and Black history has profoundly influenced every aspect of the way that we define what it means to be an American from the music, to language, to cuisine. And so the African American Museum of Rhode Island holds that history – particularly Black history – not as a niche institution or a niche history, but it’s a correction to its omission.
We have organizations like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is a Smithsonian institution in D.C. It set the standard for what a 21st century Black museum is and could be. And so we follow that model. That museum – the huge Smithsonian; it took at least 10 to 15 years for it to be seen in all of its glory. And we’re really still in our early beginnings. In our love for Rhode Island, we hope that not just Black community members, but anyone who considers themselves a Rhode Islander or someone who’s interested in Rhode Island history joins us in this journey and helps us build.
