RI Republican Splinter Group Urges Voters to Keep 'Providence Plantations' in State Name

RI Republican Splinter Group Urges Voters to Keep 'Providence Plantations' in State Name

A group that bills itself as Rhode Island’s “premier Republican resource” — but is not the official state GOP — is urging voters to reject Question 1 on the ballot, which would remove “Providence Plantations” from the state’s official name. 

“Rhode Island Republicans” posted on social media their view on the ballot initiative, which this past week saw the launch of an official campaign in support of the removal of “Providence Plantations.”

“Reject question one on the ballot — keep the state’s name ‘The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,’” wrote RIRepbulicans.us on their Facebook page. 

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GOP Group Takes Stand

“We are not the state Republican Party — posts are our own,” says the group, which has just over 3,000 Facebook page likes and roughly the same number of followers on Twitter. 

Republican campaign strategist Mark Dosdourian is the administrator of the RIRepublicans.us site.

In 2014, Dosdourian -- and members of RIRepublicans.us faction -- supported Moderate Party founder turned Republican Ken Block, who lost the highly contested -- and often bitter -- GOP Gubernatorial primary to Cranston Mayor Allan Fung. Dosdourian

In 2010,  Rhode Island voters overwhelmingly rejected changing the state’s name, with 77.9% against to 22.1% in favor.

 

Supporters of "Yes on 1" -- Campaign Launched Last Week

The campaign in support of the passage of Question 1 on the General Election ballot launched last week.  The theme for the effort to remove “Providence Plantations” from Rhode Island's official state name is “It’s Rhode Island. Period.”

Read the story about the supporters' efforts

According to the supporters, "In the wake of escalating racial and justice tensions that followed the horrific killing of George Floyd in June, support for the Black Lives Matter movement set record participation for protests and marches in Rhode Island. It also put a spotlight on Rhode Island’s long and prominent history with slavery and the slave trade."

The campaign for passage has the support of both Governor Gina Raimondo and Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza who both signed executive orders removing "and Providence Plantations" from signage, seals, and stationary.

One supporter of changing RI's name links the term "plantation" to slavery in RI. "Yes. There were slaves on those Plantations… and a lot if not most of them were American Indians. Enslavement started after the Pequot Wars of 1637 and picked up again after the King Philip’s War of 1675/76," said Raymond Two Hawks Watson.

"They like to refer to them as 'indentured servants', but they were slaves… and they were American Indians… and they were my ancestors. So why remove ‘Providence plantations’? Because it’s a terrible part of the State’s history and it shouldn’t be celebrated or honored by being a part of the official name of the State. Rhode Island is better than that. It’s time we started to act like it," added Watson.