- [Pamela] Tonight, a controversial statue gets a new home in Johnston.

- I don't know if Columbus was a good guy or a bad guy, and I'm glad he made it easier for my family and your family to live here.

- [Michelle] And growing up Native American in the Ocean State.

- You know, if Rhode Island got started by taking land from my people, well, why should I be proud of being a Rhode Islander, and yet when I go to school, everything great about Rhode Island?

(upbeat music) - [Pamela] Then a look at one group's effort to put a musical genre ahead of the rest.

- I think that rhythm and blues and Rhode Island go together.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly".

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

Few figures in history have generated more controversy than Christopher Columbus.

- His journeys marked the beginning of centuries of exploration and colonization.

But for many people, it is that very exploration that led to the devastation of indigenous populations throughout the Americas.

Statues of Columbus in cities around the country have been removed, and the city of Providence is no exception.

Its Columbus statue has been sitting in storage for two years, but contributor David Wright reports that on this Columbus Day, that is all about to change.

- [David] When Christopher Columbus was finally removed from this Providence street corner, a few activists stood by to applaud.

- [Activists] Take it down, take it down!

- [David] Protestors had repeatedly defaced the statue.

- It was a shocking sight for many this Columbus Day, vandals target a statue of Christopher Columbus in the capital city.

- [David] Splattered with red paint from head to toe, the message, "Stop celebrating genocide," chained the base.

So in June of 2020, Providence officials finally ordered Columbus to be carted away.

- I would be fine if the statue got destroyed or turned into something else.

I support taking down any Christopher Columbus statues.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- [David] Even if it's an historic statue that stood there for 100 years and is important to the Italian community?

Doesn't matter?

- That's okay with me.

- He was a colonizer.

What he did was terrible for the sovereignty of indigenous nations.

So it's good that we are moving past monuments that celebrate.

- What's happening in society today, I mean, it's crazy.

I mean, it's part of history, Christopher Columbus.

- [David] Former Providence mayor, Joe Paolino, wasn't happy about that at all.

- Look, I don't know if Columbus was a good guy or a bad guy.

I'm glad he made it easier for my family and your family to live here.

And you know, we don't have a lot of symbols, Italian Americans, but Christopher Columbus is one of them.

- Cast originally in solid silver right here in Providence by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, and later recast in bronze, the statue has artistic significance.

It was made by the same French sculptor who made the Statue of Liberty, commissioned for the Colombian exposition of 1892, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the explorer's arrival in the new world.

For more than a century, the statue stood here in the Elmwood section of Providence, not far from the Gorham manufacturing plant where it was cast.

In fact, if you pull up Google Maps, this little park is still called Columbus Square.

It's since been rebranded as Reservoir Triangle.

And this is where the statue once stood.

An empty platform now.

You might say the future of this space has yet to be discovered.

Some neighborhood residents miss the old statue.

- It was a landmark for people to get off from the bus, and for me to tell people where to get off.

- So it was practical?

- It was practical.

And now what I have to use is, "Stop on Subway or Walgreens."

- Columbus, meanwhile, was in storage for two years while the city of Providence decided what to do with him.

Finally, city officials auctioned him off, and former Mayor Paolino bought him.

How much?

- It was $50,000.

- $50,000?

- Yeah, it was a lot of money.

- Wow.

Paolino offered Columbus to the city of Johnston, Rhode Island.

Nearly half the population there is Italian American, including Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. - I think Columbus is an important historical figure.

And I understand the controversy that comes with him, but he can still be celebrated for the good things that he did.

(protestors cheering) - [David] The removal of the Providence statue came at a time when protestors were tearing down Confederate monuments across the country.

But Polisena says Columbus is in an entirely different category from the Confederates.

- What happened with Columbus happened more than a half of a millennium ago.

It was 500 years ago.

And I do not judge people who lived 500 years ago based on today's standards.

- [David] He's given Columbus a new home in a public park on an island, still under wraps until its unveiling Columbus Day.

Do you think he'll be safe here?

- Oh, I think Mayor Polisena picked a great location for it to be at.

It's gorgeous.

The setting's lovely.

The people in Johnson are just great.

And I think the community's gonna make sure it's protected.

- [David] The great explorer will even get to look out over water for the rest of his days.

- By bringing the Christopher Columbus statue here to the town of Johnston, we're enhancing Johnston, Johnston's enhancing us, and if Providence didn't want it, you know, that's their business.

I get it.

I understand it.

Let's not argue about it, let's just move on and go in another direction.

- In fairness, this is a much prettier spot.

- Much prettier, yeah.

No, I think it's great.

I hope all Rhode Islanders can come here and enjoy this beautiful memorial park that they have in Johnston and be able to also celebrate Columbus.

I have a feeling Columbus Day celebrations are now going to be right here in the town of Johnston.

- [David] Do you think they'll rename it Columbus Park?

- [Joe] May be a good name for it.

- Up next, this Monday is also now known as Indigenous Peoples' Day.

An estimated 144,000 Native Americans once lived here in Southern New England before settlers arrived.

That population was nearly wiped out in the early 1800s and has slowly grown.

According to the 2020 US Census, there are 4,300 Native Americans living in Rhode Island.

Tonight we hear from two members of that community on the struggles they faced and continue to face.

This story was originally broadcast in March of 2021.

(gentle music) - My name is Deborah Spears Moorehead.

In my Wampanoag language, it's (speaking in foreign language).

So I would say, "Hello," (speaking in foreign language).

And that would be, "Hello, my name is Deborah Talking Water.

How are you?"

I grew up the youngest of six.

We lived in the area called Lincoln Park.

We were the only... Maybe there was one other family of color in our neighborhood.

Grew up with mostly, like, non-native people.

And most of my neighbors were wonderful people.

They were the greatest people you'd ever meet.

Well, it was really difficult because I didn't...

There wasn't anybody that looked like me.

So I had a really hard time relating.

- Raymond Two Hawks Watson, principal chief of the Mashapaug Nahaganset Tribe, and a part of the Rhode Island community.

So, my grandmother who raised me always sought out educational experiences where there were a diversity of people, and that's just kind of how it is in Providence generally, unless you're going to one of the very expensive sort of private schools.

So even, like, in daycare, I went to Mount Hope Daycare, which is a few blocks from here, and they were all kids from all different backgrounds.

My grandmother, Christian woman, she then put me in a Lutheran school, small Lutheran school, but once again, such a diversity of students.

We had Laotians in there, Guatemalans, other Indians from different tribes.

I think there was a Haitian young lady in there.

So always through my educational sort of experiences, my grandmother was very, very specific about making sure I was in certain environments where there would be a diversity of people that were there.

- In the fourth grade, my teacher, he was Hispanic, he asked everyone to...

He went around the room and asked everyone to tell their ethnicity, so I just said Black because everybody was calling me Black all the time and calling me the N word, so.

Mr. Blanco, he said, "What are you doing?"

So I said, "Well, I know"...

I said, "I know I'm Indian, but nobody will believe me."

And he said, "Well, I know you're Indian," and he said, "And you don't have to just say what other people are saying about you."

So, he was the only person that actually validated who I was.

- I learned from a very, very early stage that there were lots of different people around and that not everyone was like me, and that that wasn't a bad thing.

So that definitely colored in terms of how I attempted to engage as I grew up.

You're really trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong, because if, you know, if Rhode Island got started by taking land from my people, well, why should I be proud of being a Rhode Islander?

And yet when I go to school, everything great about Rhode Island.

So it's like you're consistently in this space where you're not quite sure how to even deal with society around you.

And at a very young age, being sort of introduced to that sort of conflict.

- Well, it seemed to me like society kept trying to put this message that if you weren't of a certain look, style, status, then you were less than.

So I had the self-esteem that it was like, well, I don't have, you know, white skin, I don't have blond hair, I don't have blue eyes, I don't have a Mercedes in my yard, I don't have a big car.

I didn't have all those status symbols that said that you were supposed to have self-esteem.

I didn't feel my value was really high then, and it was a very difficult time in my life because that was when I needed to think that my value was very high.

So, I made it through, but it was difficult.

- Especially growing up here in Mount Hope, because if anyone's familiar with the Narragansett Indian tribe, the reservation and the federally recognized community's all the way at the other end of the state.

So, like, middle school and into high school, yeah, I know I'm an Indian, but you know, I'm a Black man, I'm an African-American.

And I'm here in the city.

I'm gonna go be an NBA player.

I'm gonna be, you know.

We'll go to a powwow once a year if my grandmother brings me down there, that's cool, and you know, we'll eat some Johnnycakes or some chowder, but I'm here in the city, so I gotta focus on what I need to do here in the city and where I'm trying to go.

And then of course, you know, my grandmother raising a quote, unquote, Black man in an urban environment, she was always fearful of, you know, potentials for things just in society that could be harmful to me.

So her sort of advice to me and sort of grooming for me growing up was trying to figure out how I fit into this structure that's around, because you know, things aren't easy for a Black man.

That was kind of the conversation that we would have.

But then once again, juxtaposed to, "But don't forget you're a Narragansett Indian, and this is your land, and your people are still here," so very, very, now that I'm thinking about it in this conversation, very complex during those younger ages, trying to figure all that out.

- The first time I saw racism was like my first walk to school.

I don't know if it was a Monday or a Tuesday.

I was leaving my house and walking to school with my sister, and my friend's brother came by, and he was walking to school, and he just picked up a stick and started hitting me and calling me... And I took, like, two hits, and then I just got angry and turned around and got a stick and hit him back.

And that was the end of him hitting me.

And he never hit me again because, you know, I was somebody that fought back.

How dare I have color in my skin?

(laughs) It just seems so silly to me now.

And that the people that did that, they must feel so awful that they did something like that.

- I had just turned 12.

I had just turned 12.

And I finally felt like I was almost a teenager, you know?

So, "Nana, can we go to the mall?

Some of my friends wanna go hang out at the mall."

And the mall wasn't worried, this is before Providence Place was there.

"We're gonna go hang out, you know, 'cause I'm almost a teenager, and you know, we want"... "Okay, you can go there."

So I remember I'm there, there's about three or four of my friends.

And I actually touched base with one of my good friends.

He grew up a couple blocks from here as well.

And he remembered it vividly, us being at the mall and then getting approached by security, and telling us that, you know, we were just hanging around and we weren't buying anything, so we had to leave.

But here I am with my CD in my hand from the CD store.

I'm looking around and we're, like, probably some of the very few brown faces that are there.

And one of my friends asked, "Well, how come the rest of the kids don't have to leave?

We're seeing them hanging," and no real answer, just escorted to the door.

So, you know, I called my grandmother, like, "Nana, they just kicked us out of the mall.

They said we weren't"...

So she gets upset, but I'm not really processing why she's so upset.

And you know, come to find out years later, she had made several calls to the administration, like, you know, "Why is my grandson treated that way?

And there were other"... No return phone calls or anything.

As I got older, I understood, oh, okay.

- Why do I have to put away who I am?

Why do I have to put it away?

I think that colonial techniques were set up from the government to try to make native people believe that, you know, they should just become assimilated so that they don't...

There's no way that they can say that, you know, that we've been done wrong, that the treaties have never been addressed, they've never, you know, honored our treaties.

They've taken all our land, they've murdered our ancestors, all of that.

Disrespected us.

So, if the social constructs that were made from the government through colonization techniques set it up so that it's so much easier or comfortable to just say, "Okay, I won't be who I am.

I'll just be part of the melting pot.

I'm American, so it doesn't matter who I am."

And growing up in Warwick, a lot of people were like that.

They were like, "It doesn't matter who you are."

But a lot of people were like, "You have to be considered less than because you have color."

- It's an everyday struggle.

I think different of us deal with it in different ways.

I think one of the ways you see people coping with it, and this is why it's such a big problem in the American Indian community, is self-medicating.

You know, because you know that something's not right here and you can't figure out how to address it.

So I think that there's a lot of that, but then you also see the other side, where people will go, and I think that this is where I've really tended towards as I've gotten older, fully embracing their culture and wanting to get away from this thing, because you know it's not real.

I know this isn't real.

I know what happened to my people, I know what you did, I know what you're still doing, so I'm gonna deal with that in as much as I have to.

And when I don't have to, I won't.

And I think the best way to kind of capture it was in the words of my uncle, Chief Sunset, one of the last full blood Narragansetts, lived right in this neighborhood right here.

He said he's an Indian of today, a modern man who forgets not the faith of his forefathers.

- I would tell a native girl who was a teenager to always know that you have your own voice, and to use your own voice and to write your own story.

Don't let anybody write your story for you.

That's good.

- Finally tonight, in the late 1940s, rhythm and blues came north with the great migration of African-Americans leaving the South.

In the Ocean State, still a segregated society, it captivated both Black and white audiences.

Last July, contributing producer, Elena Manis, introduced us to one group that's on a mission to make R&B the state's official music.

(upbeat music) (performer singing faintly) (upbeat music continues) - When I was a kid, all my cousins were musicians.

And I started picking up the guitar, and then the terminology R&B came out.

(upbeat music continues) And it just affected me, you know?

It affected me a lot because I felt like, is it some sort of magic?

You know, I mean, really, you know, is it some sort of magic that they got that they can do this?

And no, it's not magic.

You're just around it all the time where it's just natural.

- Here we go, baby.

Here we go.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) - What grabbed me most about R&B is, I guess, the feeling.

Everybody always said, "Well, it's the feeling.

it's the feeling, it's the feeling."

I don't really know.

It's in my blood somehow.

(upbeat music) My name is Cleveland Kurtz.

I'm the president of the Rhode Island Rhythm and Blues Preservation Society.

We are doing what we can to preserve the music, doing what we can to celebrate the music, and to record the history of the music.

I think that rhythm and blues and Rhode Island go together, they belong together.

Rhode Island was the place where freedom of religion originated, one of the places, probably the most important place.

And what that did was that destroyed boundaries between people.

Rhythm and blues does the same thing, right?

And so that's why I think they belong together.

♪ Woman, I've got to, come on ♪ ♪ That's what you do to me ♪ ♪ That's what you do to me ♪ - The thing that is very unique about rhythm and blues is it makes, it brings people together, people who are not ordinarily gonna hang out together.

When you start piping out the music, they will show up, they will sing, play, and dance together, an art form that destroys barriers like they don't even exist.

♪ That's what you do to me ♪ - It's not white music per se, it's African-American music, and it really, the rhythm and blues was a term that was coined, really, I think by the record industry.

There's two types of music, good and bad.

It was really good.

And then people heard it, and didn't matter what color you were, you liked it.

- Rhythm and blues started in the '40s according to most people.

♪ We'll be happy as we can be ♪ ♪ When we start jumping in the jubilee ♪ - [Cleveland] I guess one of the premier tunes was Louis Jordan singing jump blues with his seven piece band.

♪ Good golly, Miss Molly ♪ ♪ Sure like to ball ♪ - [Cleveland] You had Little Richard.

♪ Well, I said, shake, rattle, and roll ♪ - [Cleveland] Later on, Elvis Presley showed up.

♪ Well, shake it up, baby, now ♪ ♪ Shake it up, baby ♪ - It snuck across the English Channel, and groups like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones start to practice on it.

In Rhode Island, we had a club called the Celebrity Club.

And that was the place where most people, I think, think that the races started to mingle, and people started to get along because the music lent itself to that.

People from everywhere came to see the club, came to the club, white and Blacks and everybody else in between.

And the music was the heart of it.

People came there because they love hearing the music.

Nothing could suit that kind of thing better, if we're gonna select a music for our state, as rhythm and blues, because it's the one that people go to to hear the most, people play live the most.

We contacted Representative Bennett and told him that we thought it was a wonderful idea, and he agreed with us.

- The way I got into rhythm and blues was through Cleveland Kurtz.

And he called me and started talking to me about, you know, the history of rhythm and blues and how it brought people together.

You know, I guess somebody told him I was a musician at one time.

You know, and he wanted me to run a bill to see if we could get this to be the state music.

And I said, "Sure, I'd do that," because it makes sense.

You wanna blend in what you're gonna capture all of Rhode Island.

♪ You're never gonna have to kiss me first ♪ ♪ I'm not your sugar daddy ♪ ♪ Not your sugar man ♪ ♪ Not your sugar daddy, wrap my lid on my love ♪ - Rhythm and blues is a blend of cultures and a blend of styles.

You know, you have your jazz, you have your blues, you have your rock.

Well, there's all touches of that in rhythm and blues.

It's kind of a dance kind of music.

And it appeals.

You know, Spanish, you know, the Blacks, the whites, they all like that kind of music.

(upbeat music) ♪ I'm a rocking sugar daddy, wrap my lid on my love ♪ - Paul Filippi, he started the Celebrity Club back in the '40s.

(upbeat music) I mean, he had some great people play there.

Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald.

People would go there to listen to the music.

And because it attracted the different races, they would blend in and have a good time.

And you know, back in 1940, 1950, that wasn't too much heard of.

- I mean, you name it, he was bringing in rhythm and blues stuff that you wouldn't believe.

But Paul lives as a legend in Rhode Island, especially in the color community.

The color community tends to see him as someone who actually integrated the clubs here.

- You have to thank Mr. Filippi for doing this for Rhode Island, bringing that kind of music into our state.

And that's why I feel it should be, you know, the state music, because it crosses so many genres.

♪ It's just a matter of time ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Time will tell, time will tell ♪ ♪ I don't leave it, anybody know ♪ - You wanna blend in what you're gonna capture, all of Rhode Island.

- The story is that because of the music, people from everywhere came to see the club, came to the club, white and Blacks and everybody else in between.

And that happened long before that was a common thing in Rhode Island.

And so the music overcame the barriers, and I think that that's the thing that is significant.

And I believe that you can credit rhythm and blues with doing that on a worldwide basis.

R&B is everywhere.

It's sneaky, in a sense, that right now, one of the world's favorite rhythm and blue singers is Adele from England.

♪ We could've had it all ♪ - So it's everywhere, and everybody is doing it.

♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Can you find yourself ♪ ♪ Find yourself ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Just listen to my tune ♪ ♪ Listen to my tune ♪ ♪ In the same old ♪ - So, rhythm and blues is here to stay.

It's always gonna sneak in there, it's always gonna tear down barriers, and it's always gonna sound good.

♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ That's what the blues can do for ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ You ♪ (audience applauding) - The bill to make R&B Rhode Island's official music genre did not make it out of committee this legislative session, but will be reintroduced in the next.

That's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly".

Goodnight.

(upbeat music)