A Juneteenth celebration in 1880. Source: Newspapers.com
Newport Juneteenth 2024. Photo courtesy of Cocoa & Co.
RISHM invites the public to attend a free, family-friendly celebration to honor our new national holiday, Juneteenth (aka “Freedom Day”), on Saturday, June 21st from 11 AM – 4 PM in historic Washington Square. The program will feature a parade of reenactors and an honorary musket salute (beginning at 11:30 am), tributes from elected officials, comments by historians and storytellers, live music and dance performances, youth activities, craft vendors, and food trucks.
Juneteenth is a national holiday that commemorates the day that Union General Gordon Grange entered Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to enforce Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – two years after the proclamation was enacted – which set all enslaved people free as of January 1, 1863.
This year, RISHM has collaborated with the RI Secretary of State’s office to bring the famous painting “Brave Men as Ever Fought” by American painter Don Troiani, to be temporarily displayed at the Colony House, as an extension of the outdoor celebration. Troiani’s painting depicts the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, often referred to as the “Black Regiment” because it was comprised mostly of Black enlistees, and some of the Indigenous tribal nations.
RISHM will also honor Algernon Ward, Jr., a New Jersey-based historian, reenactor, and longtime community activist who had participated in each previous Newport Juneteenth celebration as part of the Trenton Black Regiment, who recently passed.
Juneteenth guests can look forward to enjoying colonial music by Bristol Fife & Drum Corps; a traditional Indigenous dance performance by the award-winning Narragansett folk artist Thawn Harris and family; a drum performance by master African artist Sidy Maiga and his band; and a gospel performance; and much more.
To volunteer or be a vendor at Juneteenth, please contact info@rishm.org. We welcome your participation!
RISHM’s “Newport Black History Walking Tours: Lost Stories of Resistance and Freedom,” will take place on weekend mornings from May 24th – October 26th, 2025. These expert-guided tours meet near the Pilot House on Bowen’s Wharf every Saturday and Sunday (and some Mondays) at 10 am. Guests are led on a 75-minute tour through Historic Hill to visit numerous interactive granite and bronze medallion sites and follow in the footsteps of – and learn the real-life stories of – enslaved and free colonial Black Americans. Guests can sign up for tours at RISHM’s website, at www.rishm.org, or in-person at the Juneteenth celebration.
In late March, RISHM and The Historic Hill Association of Newport hosted New York-based public art sculptor Vinnie Bagwell at the private home of Michelle and Bob Drum. Historic Hill residents and RISHM friends got an early peek at Bagwell’s plans for the design of the life-size monument to 19th century entrepreneur, activist, and abolitionist George T. Downing. The event was lively and well attended, and guests enjoyed fresh oysters and fine catering in honor of the Downing’s 18th & 19th century family businesses. To learn more about the planned monument or to donate, visit www.rishm.org.
The legacies of the Black men and women who shaped our nation, as well as our own cities and towns, should always be celebrated, and never forgotten. This is why I am thrilled to share the voices and legacies of these exceptional Rhode Island women this month.
L-R: (1) Charles Roberts with Vinnie Bagwell, (2) Michelle Drum and Veronica Mays, (3) Guest looking at planned sculpture design
The event was featured in Newport This Week on April 10, 2025.
Recently published in What’s Up Newp “Voices” Series by Charles L. Roberts, April & May 2025:
Black women continue to make history in Rhode Island – March 23, 2025
How the current political landscape is affecting Rhode Island’s fledgling non-profit organizations – April 4, 2025
More voices from Rhode Island’s non-profit community – April 18, 2025
I dream of my mother on Mother’s Day – May 4, 2025
Let’s Make History Together Annual Campaign
Together, all things are possible! Your gift this spring/summer season, in any amount, is urgently needed so we continue our programming and help to foster greater understanding and bridge cultural divides.
Thank you so much for your tax-deductible contribution. To donate, please visit the DONATE page on our website, www.rishm.org, or send your check to:
RI Slave History Medallions
PO Box 2505, Newport, RI 02840
We extend our deepest appreciation for your continued support of our work in 2025!
In addition to our private donors and sponsors, we extend our sincere gratitude to these supporters:
RI State Legislators, RI Commerce, Black Philanthropy Bannister Fund, Bank Newport, Prince Charitable Trusts, Gruben Charitable Foundation, Heritage Harbor Foundation, RI Foundation’s Newport County Fun and Community Gift Fund for their generous grant support last year.
Our mission is to tell the forgotten stories of Rhode Island’s free and enslaved African-American and Indigenous peoples. Through our statewide initiative to install interactive markers at historic sites, we engage in research, present public education programs, and build community partnerships to bring awareness to our state’s dominant role in the institution of American slavery and to the effects of that legacy today. www.rishm.org
Rhode Island Slave History Medallions invites the community to a special Juneteenth Semiquincentennial Living History Celebration at Fort Adams State Park in Newport.
Held on the parade grounds inside the fort, this family-friendly event will commemorate Juneteenth while also honoring the anniversary of the Revolutionary War and the history of the Battle of Rhode Island.
We invite all visitors to learn more about RISHM’s events and accomplishments in 2025 and support our Annual Campaign, from Giving Tuesday (Dec. 2, 2025) through 401 Gives Day (April 1, 2026).
RISHM relies on the generous support of private donations to continue the underrepresented but important work of marking the landscape of where slave history happened in Rhode Island.
