EDITORIAL: More Bannister, Less Lovecraft

Monday, September 11, 2023

EDITORIAL

 

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The Bannister statue. PHOTO: GoLocalProv

The City of Providence is declaring September 10 as “Edward Mitchell Bannister Day.”

It is a much overdue recognition of the 19th-century artist of African descent who was a prominent member of the Providence art community. 

He was one of the founders of the esteemed Providence Art Club and a significant figure in the history of American landscape painting.

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As GoLocal reported in 2021, Bannister’s “Palmer River” garnered over $277,000 at Sotheby’s, a 1500% increase over its prior sale. 

A statue of Bannister was recently installed in Market Square along the Providence River. On Sunday, there will be a parade from the Michael Van Leesten Pedestrian Bridge to the bench where Bannister’s likeness is now situated.

Bannister — and Van Leesten, the noted late civil rights activist and community leader — have rightfully been recognized for their significant contributions to Providence. 

Meanwhile, the city continues to allow public commemorations of H.P. Lovecraft, a talented horror writer, and documented anti-Semite and racist. 

Statues and plaques currently adorn the corners of Angell Street along the intersections of Elmgrove Avenue and Prospect Street on the East Side in honor of Lovecraft. 

“The Negro is fundamentally the biological inferior of all White and even Mongolian races, and the Northern people must occasionally be reminded of the danger which they incur in admitting him too freely to the privileges of society and government,” wrote Lovecraft, who published a political journal called “The Conservative” from 1915 to 1923.

“Just as some otherwise normal men hate the sight or presence of a cat, so have I hated the presence of a Jew,” also wrote Lovecraft. 

Any arguments that Lovecraft’s writings were in a “place and time” are disingenuous. There simply is no excuse for continuing to honor someone who embraced such sentiments.  

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The plaque to Lovecraft at Brown University. PHOTO: GoLocal

These weren’t the "antiquated" musings of America’s slave-holding founding fathers; nor were they of the Civil War era. 

They were the beliefs of a documented racist and anti-Semite well into the 20th century, at the very moment the seeds were being sewn for the Second World War and the Holocaust.

You can actually play "Hitler or Lovecraft?" online to guess who said which anti-Semitic phrase. 

Providence is a community in which Ivy League Brown University has personally profited, and has also acknowledged that the founding of the college was rooted in direct ties to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. 

A plaque commemorating Providence native Lovecraft's birth is featured prominently on campus. 

With the celebration of African Bannister’s contributions to the city’s vibrant art community, Providence, once, and for all, needs to sever any and all official ties to Lovecraft.

To not do so undermines the city’s efforts to celebrate its racially and ethnically diverse past and present. 

An editorial is the opinion of a publication — specifically, the ownership.

While based on facts and news reporting, it is an opinion intended to discuss critical community issues. Often, the opinion is written with the intention of positive change.

GoLocal editorials have sparked conversations, change, and even the naming of a bridge.

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