HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!

We hope you enjoy our #VRABlackHistory Series 2025 with the theme

"Facing Extremism: How Our Ancestors Successfully Fought For Our Rights and #WeWillToo"

From the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance

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Please note, if you'd like to opt out from only the upcoming daily Black History Month Voting Rights Alliance #VRABlackHistory series, please email carnwine@tjcoalition.org. Unsubscribing at the bottom of this email unsubscribes you to all Transformers, not just from this special February Series.

The Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance, in honor of Black History Month, are continuing the annual tradition of our daily special series devoted to sharing the legacies and stories of the sheroes, heroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage. This series was created in 2017 and will introduce many new articles this year. In addition to these daily newsletters all February long, this series also incorporates daily social media posts; an interactive calendar; and, website blog posts to spread the word broadly.

This year, the Voting Rights Alliance’s #VRABlackHistory Series will take readers through the most difficult fights for our African-American voting rights- and how we won.

The 2025 #VRABlackHistory Series #WeWillToo Edition will connect our history to modern times to show just how our ancestors beat the odds. Every day, this series will detail in chronological order the fights for Black suffrage, and will feature articles on the Fugitive Slave Laws and the parallels to the present day mass deportation raids conducted by ICE; the fight for same day voter registration; how our ancestors worked with hostile presidencies and courts to achieve rights; how Juneteenth has been used to mobilize voters; the amazing achievements of the Reconstruction Era; why birthright citizenship began and how the 14th Amendment has been interpreted throughout history; how DEI initiatives started in the 1860's; the 15th Amendment; how we achieved the first anti-lynching laws in Georgia and how lynching was used to suppress the vote; how we moved past the Jim Crow Era; how Black youth mobilized to lower the voting age to 18; how the Tuskegee Airmen went on to fight for voting rights after their service; how boycotts were used to fight for voting rights; the "Souls To The Polls" voting initiatives of the Black churches in the 1950's- 1990's; how Black people fought for voting rights for disabled people; how Black people fought for equal access to the ballot for the LGBTQIA community; how the Brunswick, Georgia community banded together after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 to vote out their District Attorney; the history of voting rights for Black women and how Black women continue to vote and lead voter efforts at amazing rates; how we have historically used the Black press to fight for our right to vote; and, more.

Our ancestors faced much greater opposition than we do today, even as we face a new hostile federal Administration- and they persevered. The sentiment felt by some African-Americans post-election is to sit back, sit out, and a general feeling of frustration and hopelessness. This Series targets those feelings: we can win! This Edition of the Series is also a tribute to all of those fighting back, especially against efforts to ban DEI and our history. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” – so let us learn from our history, our beautiful, strong, resilient, Black History.

Feel free to publish on your social media outlets and teach these lessons, with credit given to the Transformative Justice Coalition. Please let us know if you do share the series so we can publicly recognize and thank you. Be sure to send any publications to carnwine@tjcoalition.org so we can repost!

We encourage everyone to share this series to your networks and on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory and to use this series for school projects. You can also tweet us @TJC_DC to share your own facts or connections to this history,

Others can sign up for the daily articles at VotingRightsAlliance.org. 

Reporting by: Caitlyn Arnwine (formerly Caitlyn Cobb). This article was written in 2025 with a complete source list at the bottom. Sources are also cited throughout the article.

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Introduction

Today, February 3rd, 2025, we are celebrating the major 1842 victory of Black activists to secure voting rights in Rhode Island. Black people in Rhode Island pulled off an incredible feat against two anti-Black administrations at the same time. From 1822- when voting rights were taken away from property owning freed Black men and after horrendous massacres of Black people - until 1842, Black men and women in Rhode Island never wavered in their fight, petitioning the government; banning together; changing public sentiment through illustrations, written word, speeches, and newspaper articles; organizing and fundraising through the Black church; attending all political events; and, engaging in acts of civil disobedience and protests-- all until their ultimate goal was achieved: voting rights.

While researching for a future article of the history of Black activists that fought for homeless peoples' voting rights, I came across this powerful story of the successful, brave effort of Black abolitionists in Rhode Island to secure voting rights. I just had to highlight this story that so, in detail, jumped off the screen with a roller coaster of perseverance; that showed so beautifully the power of Black peoples' organizing to achieve voting rights even when everything went against them.

The Back and Forth Nature of Black Suffrage Between the 1770's - 1860's

Vermont in 1777 became the first state to adopt a constitution that granted all men over the age of 21, regardless of race, property ownership, or wealth, the right to vote. "Not only did Vermont's legislature agree to abolish slavery entirely, it also moved to provide full voting rights for African American males. On November 25, 1858, Vermont would again underscore this commitment by ratifying a stronger anti-slavery law into its constitution." (Vermont 1777: Early Steps Against Slavery, n.d.,, NMAAHC )

“[In 1860], Five states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Massachusetts) allowed free blacks to vote…[By 1790,] six states (Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Vermont) permitted free African-Americans to vote…[In 1792,] The constitutions of Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, excluded blacks from voting, but expanded white male suffrage.” (Voting Rights Timeline)

And in 1822, Rhode Island would follow suit when it disenfranchised the freed Black people who could vote by adding the word "White" to its existing property requirements. Before this, freed Black men who had enough wealth and owned property could vote. (Rhode Island Constitution of 1842, Zuber, 2022a)

The Whitewashing of History: The Truth Behind the Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island

Historians state the following accounts of why Rhode Island changed its Constitution:

“In some states, powerful elites stubbornly clung to property restrictions that benefitted them…Rhode Island’s voting laws remained unchanged despite decades of activism. In 1833, Seth Luther joked that the Declaration of Independence be revised to say, ‘all men are created equal, except in Rhode Island.’ It took a popular revolt in 1841 led by Thomas Wilson Dorr to secure a more democratic state constitution for Rhode Island.” (Who Voted in Early America?, 2024)

“One by one, from 1792 to 1856, states said you didn’t need to own land to vote, but things got dramatic in Rhode Island. In 1841, the Ocean State still operated under a 17th-century charter that dictated less than half of its adult white males were qualified to vote. Thomas W. Dorr organized a ‘People’s Party,’ that followed a new constitution and abolished voting restrictions. For a time, there were two competing governments, but eventually, the governor had Dorr was arrested. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to a life of hard labor and solitary confinement. In light of public outcry, the governor pardoned Dorr the next year, and in 1843, the state adopted a new constitution that extended the vote to all tax-paying native-born adult males, including African-Americans.” (These American Fought Like Hell for Your Right to Vote, n.d.-a)

That’s what history says changed the Rhode Island Constitution in 1842. I am not minimizing the role that Dorr played in 1840’s Rhode Island, but history is minimizing the role that Black people played in 1840’s Rhode Island. In fact, it would be more honest to say that the Bourn Amendment – which fully removed property requirements for voting for native-born citizens although not all financial requirements- to the Constitution in Rhode Island in 1888 was more attributable to Dorr than that of voting rights for Black people. Property restrictions were not completely removed from Rhode Island in 1843, although real estate requirements were. While the new constitution extended voting rights to all native-born adult males, including Black men, it still required voters to meet property holding and residency requirements. Specifically, voters needed to own personal property worth at least $134, which today would be $5,139.84.

The property requirement was a carryover from the old royal charter and remained in place until it was eventually overturned by the Bourn Amendment. And yet, that important distinction and contribution by the legacy of Dorr is usually left out, while giving him all the credit for and in place of the efforts of Black people are usually left in.

But here's the truth:

“It might be said that the state Constitution that came out of the Newport convention was forged rather than framed. In the wake of Thomas Wilson Dorr’s short-lived rebellion in the spring of 1842, the state’s conservative leaders, many of whom belonged to the aptly named Law and Order Party, came to the realization that suffrage needed to be expanded, otherwise political and social unrest would again be on the horizon. The question remained, however, as to who exactly would receive voting privileges under the new Constitution.

“African-Americans and immigrant laborers, two groups disenfranchised under the archaic governmental system in place, had been petitioning the General Assembly for the right to vote for decades. In June 1842, at the height of the Dorr Rebellion, African-Americans mobilized against Dorr’s militia because they had been shut out of the so-called People’s Constitution. As Henry Bowen Anthony, the editor of The Providence Journal, commented at the opening of the convention: the ‘conduct of the colored population, during the late insurrection, has entitled them to the right of suffrage; and we hope it will be extended to them.’

“The fate of voting rights for black Rhode Islanders was still, however, very much up in the air and outside observers wrote petitions to persuade the delegates to extend the franchise. ‘The undersigned citizens of Providence represent that they have noticed with concern and unqualified regret that a disposition seems to have taken place in your honorable body to establish a difference in the suffrage qualification consequent upon color — a distinction not known to the constitution of the United States, nor to many of the free states of this Union,’ read a petition signed by both black and white residents.

“For decades, black civil rights activists led by Ichabod Northup and James Jefferson had been petitioning for the right to vote. White citizens, including future governor James Y. Smith and Crawford Allen, now joined their effort. As historian J. Stanley Lemons has noted, many leading whites ‘were more prejudiced against the foreign-born,’ namely the Irish, ‘than they were against’ African-Americans.

“When the new constitution was put before the public in November 1842 a ballot question asked if the word ‘white’ should be inserted. Voters rejected the restrictive wording by a margin of almost three to one, making Rhode Island the first state before the Civil War to restore suffrage to African-Americans.

“While black males received the right to vote, naturalized citizens, mainly Irish Catholics, remained largely disenfranchised. As historian Patrick T. Conley has noted, ‘Rhode Island’s new basic law’ was the ‘most nativistic in the nation from the moment of its inception.’ Under the new Constitution, thousands of naturalized citizens remained disenfranchised because of a high property qualification they could not readily meet.”

Dorr’s rebellion, outlined in more detail below, evolved into a “Dorrism” that took the form of the Equal Justice Movement. As the industrial revolution began and voting was noticeably lacking despite the substantial increase in Irish non-Protestant potential voters who were disenfranchised, the Rhode Island Constitution was amended to include these White non-property owners. (The Law & Order Constitution – Dorr Rebellion, n.d.-a) (Rhode Island Suffrage since the Dorr War, Williamson, 1955) That is the true legacy of Dorr.

But the true driving force of the 1842 Rhode Island Constitution – which went into effect in 1843- that granted Black men (if they met the property requirements and were native-born) the right to vote was the Black church, petitions moved for by Black people, a Black militia formed to stand against Dorr for not being inclusive of Black suffrage; appeals and attendance at all conventions held by all parties; and, the courageous protest attempt of Alfred Niger to be the first Black man to vote in Rhode Island after 1822 and test why the new Constitution in 1842 needed to explicitly state all men could vote and should not include a "White" provision.

"Thomas Dorr, who agitated to allow men with one year's residence to vote in Rhode Island in the early 1840s, originally supported the black vote but changed his mind under pressure from white immigrants. He led an unsuccessful rebellion and was later arrested and jailed." (Voting Rights Timeline)

It has to be noted that Dorr was not a strict advocate of Black suffrage- he only was so far as did not compete with the rights of White men who didn’t own land; so, how did his movement for White males who didn't own property end up helping Black people? Because of Black peoples’ organizing efforts, of course! Some articles incorrectly credit this success to Dorr. Even more maliciously and erroneously, the articles hail him as the lone hero, like a lesson made for teachers to teach, complete with a quiz, in a history curriculum by the Bill of Rights Institute which states "Long before young adults, women, and African Americans fought for the right to vote, Thomas Wilson Dorr and the working white men of Rhode Island saw a political imbalance in the voting system in their state and took the initiative to change it. While their efforts were limited by a lack of federal support, they demonstrated the lengths to which a group can go to secure a voice in government. The work of these early Rhode Island suffragists foreshadowed the demand for voting rights by women and freed slaves. The rebellion signaled that the old voting rules would not stand unchallenged." (Thomas Wilson Dorr: Thomas Wilson Dorr: The Working Class Right to Vote – Handout A: Narrative, Bill of Rights Institute, n.d.)

As with most things in American History – because American History is Black History- there is more to the story, and it’s Black peoples’ too-often erased contributions. 

"Traditionally, the defeat of the Dorr Rebellion has been attributed to either the zealous overreach of the suffrage activists and their once-reluctant leader, Thomas Wilson Dorr, or the strength of the state’s conservative establishment. By the early 1840s, one needed to be a white man and own $134 worth of real estate in order to vote, a provision descended from the state’s 1664 royal charter, which still reigned in the absence of a state constitution. Periodically, beginning in 1811, white men left off the voter rolls and their wealthy allies petitioned the state government to relax this onerous requirement. Following the spirited national election of 1840, white male suffrage gained enough momentum to become a full-scale movement, which erupted into rebellion, brought about an illegitimate government under Dorr, and ended in disaster when the state crushed a small, Dorr-led military campaign.

"One result, often mentioned as an afterthought in most of the historiography, was that Black men were given the right to vote when the state implemented a new constitution in 1843. Their re-enfranchisement was the only instance in which the vote was extended to Black men prior to the Civil War; most states, like Rhode Island, passed laws to disfranchise them in the first few decades of the nineteenth century.

"Historians have recognized that the role Black men played in defending Providence when rebels seemed poised to attack played a significant role in their enfranchisement. Only recently, however, has the literature about the Dorr Rebellion acknowledged the larger role Providence’s Black community leaders played in the overall struggle. Erik Chaput’s work, notably his book The People’s Martyr and an article he co-wrote with Russell DeSimone, has offered a more well-rounded view of the importance of race in the development of events. Black leaders, in fact, had been carefully crafting their own case for the right to vote since they were formally disfranchised by the insertion of the word 'white' into the state’s voter eligibility statute in 1822. Alfred Niger was a crucial part of this movement.

"In 1819, a committee of Black city leaders had come together, with the help of Quaker philanthropist and abolitionist Moses Brown, and built the African Union Meeting House. From this space, the Black community formed several of their own church denominations, opened a school, formed mutual benefit societies, and met in committees to petition the city and state. This major development, however, was clouded by, first, the state legislature’s addition of the word “white” into the state’s voting qualifications in January of 1822.

"That was followed by a night of horrific violence on October 18, 1824, in which a white mob, incensed by a group of Black people refusing to yield the sidewalk to a group of white people, tore down several buildings in a largely Black neighborhood known colloquially as “Hard-Scrabble.” The Hard-Scrabble riot killed no one, but one white rioter was shot by someone defending his home. Further, one Black man who had his home torn down chose to live with the roof over his basement rather than accept the aid offered by a white women’s benevolent society, signaling a resilience that became a hallmark of Black Providence during the antebellum period." (The “Mustard Seed”: Providence’s Alfred Niger, Antebellum Black Voting Rights Activist, Martin, 2020)

Early Black Activists Were Up Against A Hostile Time Period: 1770's - 1840's, the Slave Trade, and Life for Black People

"...[W]hile it is important to note the intent of the Vermont legislature when it banned slavery — to send a message of independence from the original colonies — it is equally important to understand that the lives of free black men and women in Vermont and elsewhere in New England remained harsh and unfair." (Vermont 1777: Early Steps Against Slavery, n.d.,, NMAAHC )

"Earlier, in 1774, New England-area colonies Rhode Island and Connecticut had outlawed overseas slave importation, but still allowed inter-colony slave trade. Regardless of the good legal intentions of New England legislators, black Americans continued to be treated with disdain and cruelty in the North. While Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut abolitionists achieved laudable goals, each state created legal strictures making it difficult for “free” blacks to find work, own property or even remain in the state. Rhode Island, while legally ending slave importation from overseas, continued to have the highest number of slave auctions in the New England states. Additionally, Rhode Island's laws governing the treatment of African Americans — free or slave — were continually revised and updated and were among the harshest in the colonies. If free blacks associated with slaves, both could and would be whipped. Anyone giving an African American a cup of hard cider was leveled with a heavy fine, whipped or both...The harshest treatment for free blacks in New England was found in Connecticut. Through a series of different legislative acts created before and after the Revolutionary War, it became nearly impossible for free African Americans to live in the state. For example, free blacks could not walk into a business without the proprietor's consent, nor could free blacks own property. In fact, Connecticut lawmakers were so strident in their efforts to push blacks out of their state, the property law was rewritten to be retroactive. The few free African Americans who did own land were forced to void their titles and return property ownership to the town. More often than not, New England emancipation declarations provided cover for more covert laws that ultimately sought to force African Americans into leaving their states. Whether free or not, black Americans clearly understood that their day-to-day welfare was dependent on their ability to both challenge and accommodate the racism they faced. African Americans during this period were more often treated — at least physically — better than their kinsmen and women in the South. But they remained discriminated against, unwanted, and, at times, subjected to harsh treatment similar to that suffered by enslaved Africans in the South." (Vermont 1777: Early Steps Against Slavery, n.d.,, NMAAHC )

"Slavery was the most contentious and inflammatory issue Vermonters confronted in this era...Many Vermonters were initially content to leave the south alone and only supported the Free Soil Movement which prohibited the expansion of slavery into new western territories. Other Vermonters supported colonization, the resettlement of freed slaves to the African country of Liberia. Immediate abolition of slavery was seen as a radical movement that was divisive to the Union. Abolitionist meetings were sometimes disrupted. In 1832 abolitionist Samuel May was driven off the stage while trying to speak in Montpelier. But attitudes began to change in the 1830s. Antislavery societies, supported by some churches, organized throughout the state and worked tirelessly to educate the public about the horrors of slavery. When more churches began to preach the view that slavery was a sin, people were finally convinced of its evils. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the vast majority of Vermonters believed that slavery should be abolished throughout the United States." (Building Communities: Abolition — Vermont Historical Society, n.d.)

Against these odds, against this extremism, our ancestors' situation was much more dire than our current one. So how did they achieve such brazen success and what can we learn?

How Abolitionists and Black voting rights activists, like Alfred Niger, secured the right to vote for (property owning) Black men in 1842 Rhode Island

"Abolitionists used illustrations like [the one below] to show the horrendous conditions under which slaves lived." (Building Communities: Abolition — Vermont Historical Society, n.d.)

Abolitionists and its movement helped change public sentiment and that of elected officials to secure voting rights in Rhode Island in 1842. While it's true Dorr did advocate for Black suffrage, he did so after being pressured and would let the cause go to the background in order to advance the interests of only White men who didn't own property.

And, in a similar fashion, Black people of the time also went against Dorr for their own interests, although their intent was never to be exclusionary to White people. Black people used Dorr's Rebellion and the political divide much how the political divide was used against Black people after Bacon's Rebellion. They attended both conventions, protested both conventions, and capitalized upon every opportunity they saw to advance their cause.

“Alfred Niger, a Black voting rights activist from Providence, may have provided the final straw that broke the back of the Dorr Rebellion. His attempt to vote in an 1841 election sanctioned by the Suffrage Association, the band of activists who perpetrated the rebellion, forced the suffragists to choose once and for all whether or not to allow Black men to vote alongside whites. Their denial of Niger at the polls set in motion their ultimate downfall.

…

“Niger’s first apparent foray into community leadership was in 1826 when he, George C. Wyllis, Ichabod Northup, and Peter Browning formed a Prince Hall (Black) Mason Lodge in Providence.

...

“Over the next few years, frustrated by disfranchisement and the Providence Town Council’s refusal to create a school for children of color as mandated by an 1828 General Assembly directive, Black leaders came up with the idea to petition the General Assembly directly. One petition submitted at the General Assembly’s fall 1829 session, whose text has not been recovered, asked for Black Rhode Islanders’ relief from taxation because they could not vote, could not educate their children in the public school system, and could not take out licenses to open certain businesses or sell liquor. It was most likely written, at least in part, by Niger; though the petition was not attributed to any writer, the fact that his effective writing ability would later become part of Black Providence’s arsenal in the fight for full Black citizenship makes his contribution a near certainty. The petition died quietly in the Assembly’s committee on finance.

…

“Beginning in 1830, and for six straight years, he represented Providence (alongside Wyllis and, for one year, Nathan Gilbert) as the community’s elected corresponding secretary to the Conventions of People of Color, annual meetings of Black leaders from around the North who discussed ways to improve the conditions for Black communities.

…

“Dorr drifted into Locofoco Democrat circles, and though he continued to champion Black citizenship rights, his abolitionism abated somewhat as the fight for getting the suffrage extended to more whites took off. The Rhode Island Suffrage Association, born in the wake of the raucous 1840 presidential election, aimed at abolishing (or reducing) the property requirements for voting. Throughout most of its existence, it’s leaders remained ambivalent to including Black leaders who, sensing potential allies, made overtures toward partnering in the fight…In early October 1841, just before the opening session of the People’s Constitutional convention, Rev. Alexander Crummell, the young black minister of Christ Church in Providence, presented to Thomas Dorr a petition from members of the Providence black community, protesting the commitment of many of the delegates to universal white male suffrage. As an educated minister Crummell often served as the de facto scribe and spokesman for the city’s black community. The petition was signed by Ichabod Northup, Samuel Rodman, James Hazard, George Smith and Ransom Parker, all leading members of the black community.

...

“Though the Suffrage Association continued to rebuff Black leaders and some of its members’ calls for eschewing a color provision, its call for an election of delegates to a ‘People’s Convention’ in October asked for ‘all American citizens’ to vote. It did not include the word ‘white’ before the term ‘citizens.’ The election was to be held August 28, 1841.

…

“Niger and RIASS allies saw an opportunity. By his attempting to vote, Niger could force the Association to confront whether it would extend Black men the right to vote. The Association would be on the record for all to see.

…

“Niger showed up to the polling place in Providence’s Sixth Ward, where he would have been assigned to vote. At first matters looked promising. The election supervisor permitted him to vote; and other ‘light-skinned’ people of color were apparently voting elsewhere. However, the supervisor soon overruled himself, declaring that people of color were not allowed to vote. In a move that was probably planned, Niger’s white abolitionist ‘friends’ then declared that if Niger could not vote, then neither would they.

“Niger’s action quickly wreaked havoc upon the conscience of the white suffrage movement. The event became a spectacle, resulting in one of the polling clerks resigning in protest and, over the next few weeks, unleashing a torrent of criticism directed at the Suffrage Association for its failure to adhere to the rules it set for its own election. The Suffrage Association’s president, in a reflection of his organization’s crippling inability to define its principles, warned that Niger’s action would, in maritime terms, be the ‘rock’ on which the movement would split and sink.

…

“At a meeting on September 24, one anti-Black member of the Suffrage Association tried, in an antic designed to make the organization’s position on race clear once and for all, to nominate Niger as its treasurer (with or without his knowledge). This ‘firebrand’ threw the meeting into chaos, with many noting that the longer they called for ‘all’ and not ‘white’ citizens to participate, the more they opened themselves up to ridicule regarding the Niger incident. The president ended the meeting in short order without resolving the issue.

…

“As the Suffrage Association met in October of 1841 with the goal of writing a new state constitution, a group headed by Ichabod Northup handed a petition to Thomas Dorr, the most influential delegate to the People’s Convention. The petition remonstrated in harsh language against potential proposals to include the word ‘white’ in the voting statute, claiming the word would be a ‘poisoned chalice’ that would come back to haunt the Association. Dorr passionately defended the Black petitioners, but ultimately settled in favor of the majority’s will. The ‘People’s Constitution,’ as it was called, did contain the word ‘white,’ but promised to reconvene in a few weeks to decide other loose ends.

…

“The legitimate state government, becoming popularly known as that of the ‘Landholders,’ met on November 4, a few weeks after the Suffrage Association’s convention with the intention of taking up suffrage reform. To this convention, the same Black leadership team under Northup offered a much more deferential petition, asking the state government on the grounds of their historical loyalty – from when their fathers and grandfathers fought in its defense in the American Revolution through the current agitation – to abolish the color distinction in the right to vote. Dorr, one of a few men present at both the Landholders’ and People’s conventions, duly moved to strike ‘white’ from the voting requirement, but this was quickly rejected.

…

“Black leaders had been rebuffed by both conventions. When the subsequent winter and spring saw the Landholders and People at an impasse, however, they saw an opportunity to break the stalemate.

…

“The abolitionist movement had been jolted awake by both the blatant rejection of Black rights and a passionate call to action from the Black-owned New York newspaper The Colored American. The National Anti-Slavery Standard lambasted defenses of the ‘white’ provision as ‘the old scape-goat of Satan,’ and the Liberator called out the People’s constitution ‘meanness, hypocrisy.’

“A few days after the Landholders’ convention broke up, from November 11-13, the RIASS held its annual meeting. Alfred Niger served as one of the meeting’s Vice Presidents, and saw the fruits of his action on August 28 explode into a movement. Several of the most famous abolitionists like up-and-comer Frederick Douglass and young star Charles Lenox Remond from Newport were in attendance.

…

“Further, more than $1,000 was raised, much of it by Black men and women present, to sponsor a speaking tour across the state meant to urge Rhode Islanders to reject any proposed constitution – legitimate or otherwise – that included a ‘white’ provision. Sensing they held the balance of power, the RIASS hoped a public opinion campaign focused on the color line would force either the state government or the Suffrage Association to see that the only path toward victory ran through Black voting rights.

…

“When the People’s Convention met again later in November, the Black-led movement had some effect. A clause was added to the People’s Constitution that punted the question of Black voting. It provided that should the constitution be implemented, a referendum would be held the following year letting the white voters (including those newly enfranchised) to decide the fate of the ‘white’ provision. Though later defended by some white abolitionists, this clause made a mockery of principle and was seen by Black leaders and the RIASS as nothing but token outreach. In December 1841, Frederick Douglass, Abby Kelley, and other abolitionists spoke at churches and auditoria around the state, often having to dodge flying eggs, snowballs, and bricks. Still, neither the Suffrage Association nor the state government budged, but the speakers at a minimum helped keep alive the fire that Niger had started in August, and made those who resisted Black voting now look like an unrepublican mob violently suppressing free speech.

…

“The General Assembly held its own constitutional convention in February 1842. The document it produced left intact the ‘white’ provision. Its constitution was rejected narrowly by voters in a March referendum in which more people voted on it than the People’s Constitution. 

…

“The so-called ‘People’s Government’ held an election in April in which Thomas Dorr was chosen as governor and a slate of candidates selected to fill ‘General Assembly’ positions. The contest for legitimacy reached a climax when, in May, Dorr raised a militia force that he led in an attack on the state arsenal. When his men failed in an attempt to fire their cannon, he and his militia fled to Chepachet where they plotted their next move. The state government, now united under the banner of the ‘Law and Order Party’ moved to more forcibly secure its legitimacy, declaring martial law in Providence in advance of a planned attack on Dorr’s forces in Chepachet in June. Concurrently with the declaration of martial law, the General Assembly announced that yet another constitutional convention would be held in September.

…

“Black Providence leaders saw victory in sight. They held meetings across the city and offered 200-400 men to help the Law and Order government capture Dorr and defend the city. Voting to eschew forming their own militia units in favor of joining white soldiers in integrated units, they were eagerly accepted. Black men also served in the campaign on Chepachet and as firefighters and peacekeepers inside city limits. Their service, like that of their fathers and grandfathers in the Revolutionary War’s First Rhode Island Regiment, was a public relations boon. The abolitionist and pro-Law and Order press published editorials praising Black Providence men for their keeping the city safe and offering their services to a government that had unduly spurned them for the past two decades.

…

“When the Law and Order constitution was drafted in September, Providence delegates especially fought for exclusion of the word ‘white’ in the voting statute. They were only able to secure an odd blank space in the statute, with voters in a referendum deciding on, first, the implementation of the constitution itself, and secondly, whether or not the blank space should be filled with the word ‘white.’ When it came time to vote in November 1842, the ‘white’ provision was voted down handily, largely due to Providence voters rejecting it by a 13:1 margin. From a movement begun gingerly by Niger and his cohort of leaders in the 1820s, then accelerated by the spark he provided at the polls in August 1841, came victory – Black Rhode Island men were now voters." (The “Mustard Seed”: Providence’s Alfred Niger, Antebellum Black Voting Rights Activist, Martin, 2020)

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RECOMMENDED READING

·      A history of social justice. (n.d.). Ford Foundation. Retrieved February 2, 2025, from https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/about-ford/a-history-of-social-justice/

·      Abolition and Anti-Abolition in Newport, 1835-1866. (2020, June 8). Newport Historical Society. https://newporthistory.org/abolition-and-anti-abolition-in-newport-1835-1866/

·      Artz, M. (1600, January 27). Colonial Authority (1600-1775). Understanding RACE. https://understandingrace.org/history/government/colonial-authority-1600-1775/

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