Newport Gilded Age in Color
February 8, 2022 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Griswold House
Lecture with Keith Stokes
We are pleased to welcome back Keith Stokes of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society for Newport Gilded Age In Color. This talk focuses on the persons and families that lived, worked, and worshipped in 19th and early 20th century Newport during the Gilded Age sharing cultural, social, educational, political, and personal discourse with fellow families of color and means. Presenting biographies of many of the most interesting men and women along with artifacts and primary source documents that illustrate the African heritage social, religious, and political life during that era, Stokes will explore the untold and sometimes mis-told stories of life in the historic city by the sea. These include images of people taking part in civic events, bike riding along Bellevue Avenue, bathing at Easton’s Beach, fishing on Cliff Walk, and meeting in some of America’s earliest African heritage tennis and literary clubs. The lecture will also reconstruct the significant African heritage neighborhoods in Newport with historic names including Top of the Hill, Historic Hill, and West Broadway.
History Through Art
The Rhode Island Black Heritage Society is proud to announce plans for a “call and response” exhibition, where emerging artists are invited to experience and interpret the rich history of African heritage people in Rhode Island’s Gilded Age. Artists will have access to the Society’s rich collection of photographs, artifacts, and textiles, to which they will respond with their own artworks. Collection works and original works will then be exhibited together.
The lecture will be followed by audience Q&A and reception.
PLEASE NOTE: Proof of vaccination will be required at check-in for all in-person guests. Masks must also be worn inside at all times except for actively eating and drinking.
About Keith Stokes
Mr. Stokes is the newly appointed Director of Business and Development for the City of Providence and is also the Vice President with the 1696 Heritage Group. The 1696 Heritage Group is a historical consulting firm dedicated to helping persons and institutions of color to increase their knowledge and access to the light of truth of their unique American heritage. The firm draws on extensive knowledge and experience in ethnic American historical research, interpretation, program, and product development.
Mr. Stokes has a long and distinguished career in business and community development, with degrees from Cornell University and the University of Chicago. His past professional positions have included Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and Executive Director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce.
He has also been an Advisor for Rhode Island with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and served on numerous regional and national historic preservation boards, including Chairman of the Touro Synagogue Foundation, Vice President & Trustee of the Preservation Society for Newport County, and Newport Historical Society. Mr. Stokes is a frequent national, state, and local lecturer in community & regional planning, historic preservation, and interpretation with expertise in early African and Jewish American history. Mr. Stokes frequently appears on national historical programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News Legends & Lies, and Ted Talk. Mr. Stokes has traveled to Ghana, Africa, to deliver a lecture as part of the 400th Anniversary of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Recently, he was the lead researcher and author of “A Matter of Truth” report for the examination and documentation of the role of the City of Providence and State of Rhode Island in supporting a “Separate and Unequal” existence for African heritage, Indigenous, and people of color.
He has been the recipient of numerous local, state, and national awards, including the United States Small Business Administration – Rhode Island Small Business Advocate of the Year Award, American Sail Training Association Leadership Award, Rhode Island Black Heritage Society’s Fredrick Williamson Award Historic Preservation Award, Rhode Island Martin Luther King Keeper of the Dream Award and along with his wife, is the recipient of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities Prize for Creative Achievement in the Humanities.
About the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society
The Rhode Island Black Heritage Society is constituted for the purpose of procuring, collecting, and preserving books, pamphlets, letters, manuscripts, prints, photographs, paintings, and any other historical material relating to the history of the Blacks of Rhode Island; encouraging and promoting the study of such history by lectures and otherwise; and publishing and diffusing information as to such history.
Its founding mission statement has been expanded to include the preservation of African Diaspora descendant’s historical artifacts – books, art, papers, and images, as well as facilitating the interpretation of history to enlighten others about African heritage.
RIBHS has continued its commitment to focus on a more inclusive program of exhibits, research, and events that will share history and open insights into the future that creative survival has made possible for African descendants – from former slaves to immigrants and to native-born descendants.
Beyond educating the public, the Society is responsible for advancing the culture and documenting the contributions of the African Heritage Community in Rhode Island.