Voters have agreed to strip the words “and Providence Plantations” from Rhode Island’s formal name, approving a statewide referendum that had been revived amid the nation’s reckoning with racial injustice.
Although the word “Plantations” in Rhode Island’s name does not specifically refer to a place where slaves labored, the measure’s backers insisted it elicits such imagery and offends many people.
Officially, Rhode Island was incorporated as The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations when it declared statehood in 1790.
Calls to cut “Plantations” out of the state’s name have intensified as protesters nationwide demand racial justice.
