(cheerful music) - [Narrator] Tonight on Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

- [Narrator] Seth Magaziner, Rhode Island's new congressman says, "For many, the American Dream has been just that, a dream."

He's determined to help change that.

- People are working harder and harder and having a tougher time paying their bills and keeping up.

We gotta bring back manufacturing jobs, we gotta lower the cost of healthcare, lower the cost of energy, we've got to improve public education so that everybody can send their kid to a great school.

- To me, skating is freedom and joy and passion.

It's everything under the sun.

It feels like flying.

And when you land with just as much speed as you had going in, it's the best feeling in the world.

- First time really Providence has a black professional baseball team in '31.

Their home field is Kinsley and they pack Kinsley and they showcase some of the best baseball talent period black or white.

(upbeat music) - Good evening.

Welcome to Rhode Island PBS Weekly, I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

Representative Seth Magaziner is just weeks into his first term but soon will be the Senior Congressman from Rhode Island.

- That jump in line, of course, comes as representative, David Cicilline made a surprise announcement that he's stepping down this May.

Magaziner has his work cut out for him as he joins a bitterly divided Congress.

But he told us recently that he's up to the challenge and inspired by generations of his family, both old and new.

- Congratulations.

You are now members of the 118th Congress.

- Representative Seth Magaziner joined a history making Congress before he even took the oath of office, but not for the reasons he had hoped for.

- I was not expecting to be sworn in at 2:00 AM on a Saturday morning, but it just shows that under the Republican leadership in the House unfortunately there's a lot of chaos and division.

- Congress finally has a new house speaker, Kevin McCarthy won early this morning putting an end today's of Rockus debate.

- Magaziner says, the Rockus debate that played out on the house floor throughout 15 rounds of voting likely foreshadows what the next two years will look like on Capitol Hill.

(audience cheering) - Let me give you anybody, who doubts it contact my office.

- President Biden's State of the Union may have offered a glimpse of that too - But it's being proposed by individuals.

I'm not politely not naming them but it's being proposed by some of you.

Look.

(audience cheering) - There's so much disarray on the Republican side of the house that in order to consolidate his support for the speakership Kevin McCarthy had to essentially give the keys of the House over to the most radical members of his party.

- The January 6th attack on the US Capitol highlighted the polarization within the country.

As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, Magaziner says, "Stopping domestic terrorism "is a top priority."

- Well, first we have to make sure that law enforcement have the tools and the encouragement and the support of Congress to continue to combat extremist groups, whatever their ideologies may be whether it's far right, far left, or something else.

- The Congressman says another major threat facing national security is the rise of authoritarianism around the world.

He points to leaders like Hungary's Prime Minister, Victor Orban, the former president of Brazil, Jaire Bolsonaro and Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

It's one of the reasons why Magaziner says, "It's critical that the United States "continue providing aid to Ukraine."

(guns shooting) The war recently reached its one year mark.

- The biggest risk that we have is that Ukraine falls to Vladimir Putin and that Putin doesn't stop there.

So I've been clear from the beginning we should not commit US troops to the war in Ukraine.

This is the Ukrainians war to fight and they know that.

But military supplies, humanitarian aid, intelligence support, we should continue to provide.

- Is there any reason you can think that you would support having US troops get involved in the war in Ukraine?

- I think that's an absolute last resort, but Russia needs to know if they were to attack US military facilities in Europe or our NATO allies, there will be severe consequences.

I rise today to offer my first general remarks on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

- During his speech, Magaziner talked about his two grandfathers, veterans and working class men who came of age during the depression.

One was a steel worker, the other a bookkeeper.

- Neither of them worked very glamorous jobs, but with a lot of hard work and a little help from their GI Bill these two children of immigrants were able to buy houses for their families, put their kids through school, and earn a ticket to the middle class.

That's the way it's supposed to work in this country.

- The first speech that you recently gave on the House floor you alluded to both of your grandfathers and you talked about how they were able to accomplish the American Dream.

I think if you ask most middle class Americans, they'll tell you the American Dream is becoming harder and harder to attain.

- Absolutely, and that's why I'm doing this.

I mean, you're right.

People are working harder and harder and having a tougher time paying their bills and keeping up.

We gotta bring back manufacturing jobs.

We gotta lower the cost of healthcare, lower the cost of energy.

We've got to improve public education so that everybody can send their kid to a great school.

- Magaziner splits his time between Rhode Island and Washington DC - 9 or 10 days a month in DC and the rest of the time here.

- He looks forward to being home with his wife Julia and their 16 month old son, Max.

- I was able to bring Max my son onto the floor of the House with me, which was a really special experience.

He made a lot of friends with members of Congress from around the country.

And it was a very special day.

- Magaziner joined the Congressional Dad's Caucus.

He wants to advocate for issues like paid family leave, universal preschool, and childcare funding.

- Particularly for my generation the millennial generation that's coming up, I think there's rightfully an expectation in our generation that fathers play an equal role in raising children as mothers and advocating for things like childcare and paid leave and preschool shouldn't just be left to women members of Congress.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you so much.

- The 39-year-old Democrat recently welcomed his constituents to his new office in Warwick including former Congressman Jim Langevin.

- What I really wanna talk about for just a moment today is the important work that's gonna be happening in this office.

- Magaziner may be new to Congress but Rhode Island's former state treasurer has been around politics his whole life.

His father, Ira Magaziner was a policy advisor under President Bill Clinton.

- The dinner table conversations when I was a kid were terrific.

They were mostly about policy, less so about politics.

It was more how do we make schools better?

How do we make healthcare better?

How do we make sure that everyone has opportunity regardless of their race, religion?

It sounds wonky and it sounds nerdy, but that's the stuff we talked about when I was a kid and that left a real mark on me.

- Did that start to pique your interest in pursuing a career in politics?

- I always knew I wanted to do some kind of service.

I didn't necessarily think that I would run for office one day until I was well into adulthood.

- Magaziner spent two years teaching elementary school students in Louisiana through Teach for America shortly after Hurricane Katrina.

It was during that time that he says he decided he wanted to run for public office.

- I wanted to be part of fixing these structural things that were holding back working people.

I mean, these kids, you know most of their parents worked hard, worked two or three jobs and just couldn't break out of this cycle of poverty - One way out of this cycle says Magaziner is to bring more manufacturing jobs to the United States.

It would also reduce dependency on other countries.

- Remember when the pandemic first came and there were a lot of empty shelves.

You couldn't get hand sanitizer, you couldn't get toilet paper, you couldn't get all kinds of stuff.

That I think was a wake up call that we need to make more stuff in the United States again instead of relying on places like China.

- You have some ambitious ideas.

How do you hope to accomplish that given that you're in the minority party and you're a freshman legislator?

- One of the concessions that Kevin McCarthy made in order to become speaker was agreeing to something called a discharge petition.

Under a discharge petition, 218 members of the House can sign a letter saying we want a bill to be voted on by the full House and he is required to allow that vote to occur.

What that means practically is that we only need to find five Republicans to join with the Democrats to force a bill to the floor for a vote on almost any issue.

- And Magaziner says, he doesn't have to look far for encouragement.

- Being a new dad, it's motivating.

I mean, that's why I'm doing this.

That's why I'm working so hard in Congress to fight for working people is because I want Max and all children to have a future where everyone who's willing to work hard can do the right thing, where every kid can go to a good school, where everyone can retire in dignity, where we've turned the page on climate change and gun violence.

Looking at him when he wakes up in the morning is a reminder of why I do this work.

(gentle music) - Up next, Olympic figure skating medalist, Vincent Joe is spending a lot of time in Rhode Island seeking something more than a high score from the judges.

Joe is a full-time student at Brown University.

Following a tumultuous year at the 2022 Olympic games it was filled with drama that has yet to be resolved.

Tonight, Joe shares with us some of the fortunes and fates of a life on skates.

- There's always something new to be discovered every time you step out on the ice.

In skating, we are doing things that are on the edge of what's possible physically for humans.

- 22-year-old Olympic figure skater Vincent Joe has been on the cutting edge of his sport since childhood.

He was the first to successfully land one of the most difficult jumps, a quadruple lutz at the 2018 Olympics.

We recently caught up with him at Brown's Main Auditorium where he makes it all look so easy.

- What you don't see is the hours and hours of pure physical training that we're doing.

It takes years and diligence and hard work to make just three or four minutes out there in front of the sparkling lights look perfect.

- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our next skater.

- Joe began seeking perfection as a five-year-old boy growing up as a first generation Chinese-American in California.

He quickly began compiling top awards.

- I was this fearless kid who would stack tables on top of tables and chairs on top of those tables and then boxes on top of those chairs to get to the Lego box at the top of the bookshelf.

It's kind of the same thing later on.

(upbeat music) I'm stacking tools I have on top of each other to try and build a great foundation so I can reach the ultimate dream one day.

(upbeat music) - Joe came in sixth at the 2018 Olympics, in 2022 in Beijing he was a silver medalist in the team event.

- The moment I realized I was going to be an Olympic medalist was emotional and fulfilling in a way that's difficult to put into words.

Something that I sacrificed 17 years of my life for was finally being fulfilled and all that time, all the hardships and the struggles and all the small victories along the way.

- But taking silver would turn into a hollow victory tarnished by another team's substance use.

- The Russian doping scandal remains the biggest topic of conversation.

- It's now been confirmed that Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance before the games started.

- After the team event, it was discovered that 16-year-old Russian skater, Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned drug.

Russia won gold, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport is still deciding the case.

A year later, there's been no ceremony and athletes have no medals, just empty boxes.

- It feels like a slap in the face.

It's not just a slap in the face to me, it's an insult to the meaning of sport and to the meaning of Olympics.

The Olympics are the pinnacle of the pinnacle of sport, fair sport, clean sport, a great event that symbolizes unity and peace, and to have cheaters, to compete with people who dope, it's an insult to all the hard work that we've put in.

It invalidates all of that.

- If Russia is disqualified in the illegal substance review team USA will move to the top of the podium and take the gold medal something Joe says would help bring the sport back to a level playing field.

- It would feel like a step in the right direction in terms of the fight for clean sport.

- The doping controversy is not the only heartache Joe had to face at the Olympics.

- Hey everyone, I have no idea how to start off this video properly, so I'm just gonna get started.

- The night before he was to skate in the men's competition he tested positive for COVID.

- I will have to withdraw from the individual event.

- That spiraled into a dark time for him.

Joe says he didn't want to go to the world championships after the Olympics and considered a complete halt to skating.

- It was devastating for me.

It was like losing...

It was like losing a loved one.

As soon as I got home from Beijing, then it actually hit me like that's when the full weight of what had happened actually settled in.

And then I just felt like...

I just felt like an empty shell.

There was this vast chasm with nothing inside me.

I had no motivation to skate.

At one point my mom told me that it was okay to withdraw from worlds.

It was okay to give up and that's something that I've never heard come out of her mouth because she's always been that tough love, like iron-willed mother who's drilled perseverance and grit and never giving up into me since I was a kid, and that kind of made me rethink it a little.

Would you be able to live the rest of your life knowing that you allowed yourself to give up in the most critical moment?

- And he didn't.

Joe, with very little time for training competed at the world's in France making a comeback from COVID and winning bronze.

- I don't really believe in magic or all that, but it was like magic.

It was highly emotional.

It was basically the victory that I could... That I didn't get the chance to achieve at the Olympics.

- Joe is now attending Brown University majoring in economics and business.

- It's like starting over all again and having to be a beginner.

The motto is, in practice beat yourself, in competition, be yourself.

So I just have to put myself into this completely different mindset of accepting that I'm a beginner and accepting that I have so much to learn.

- And as far as his future in skating, Joe says he's conflicted about competing in the 2026 Olympics.

- I have three more years here at Brown.

I'll be studying full-time, and you can't study full-time and train full-time.

There aren't 48 hours in a day but there is a short window after that where if I was extremely motivated to make a comeback and if I saw an opportunity, then it's possible.

- For those of us who will never know what it's like to be out on the ice with the grace and the speed and the strength, is it possible for you to describe that sensation?

- To me skating is freedom and joy and passion encapsulated into one activity that can be so simple yet so complex and so difficult, yet so rewarding.

It's everything under the sun.

It feels like flying.

And when you land with just as much speed as you had going in, it's the best feeling in the world.

(gentle music) - Finally, tonight on a warm summer day back in July of 2021 contributing producer and editor, Dorothy Dickey asked Rhode Island artist April Brown to take us on a tour of Kinsley Field, home of the Providence Colored Giants.

The team played integrated baseball years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the Major Leagues in 1947.

- So here we are at Kinsley and Acorn Street.

Imagine in 1919 this was a huge field.

- What was this field used for back then?

- So this was the place where community could come and see fireworks and see boxing, soccer, and football.

- And what about baseball?

- In the 1920s, this location was where you could see amateur and professional baseball events.

This was the location you could see black teams playing against white teams.

And in 1931, this became the home field of the Providence Colored Giants, Rhode Island's first professional black baseball team.

(gentle music) - Kinsley Park was built in the early 1920s.

The geographic significance really rests with an old trope in sports history, which is there's a lot of ballparks which are built on railroad property, large pieces of property which railroads no longer use and they become ball fields.

Kinsley Park is probably synonymous with Rhode Island's featured minor league baseball team, the Grays and really the park is built with the Grays in mind, and that's where you see incredible professional teams coming in and out.

Babe Ruth and Lou Garrick played there in an exhibition game.

Kinsley Park had always been an enclosed stadium which was what made it so special.

Professional teams or semi-professional teams almost exclusively sought out, stadiums where people had to pay to enter.

Daniel Whitehead or Big Dan Whitehead is oftentimes referred to as the father of black baseball in Rhode Island.

He's referred to that because in 1905 he establishes the original Providence Colored Giants.

In 1908 he incorporates the team and it becomes Rhode Island's first moneymaking African-American team.

Arthur Daddy Black comes to Rhode Island in the early 1880s from South Carolina.

He becomes involved in what was then called the numbers.

This is as early as 1924.

The numbers racket was in illegal gambling scheme based on lottery numbers and he's incredibly successful at that.

So that by the early 1930s he is the numbers king of Rhode Island.

So he has a significant amount of income.

But one of the things that Arthur Black became involved in very early, in fact, as early as 1924 is supporting African-American baseball teams.

And then in 1931, full owner of the Providence Colored Giants.

Arthur Black was very much interested in creating a professional team with professional players.

In 1931, there were players who were scrambling for contracts.

The Professional Negro Leagues as they were called back then went under because of the Great Depression and because of the death of Rudd Foster who had organized the league back in 1920 Arthur Daddy Black is able to sign some of the most incredible black baseball talent along the East Coast to play up in Providence again, because he can promise them a weekly check, and those payments, from what I gather, were pretty good.

And for the first time, really Providence has a black professional baseball team in '31.

Their home field is Kinsley, and they pack Kinsley and they showcase some of the best baseball talent, period, black or white.

One of the most talented players that Arthur Black was able to sign for the Providence Color Giants was Oliver Marcel.

Marcel had established himself as a premier third baseman in black baseball.

I mean to the point where in 2006 he was shortlisted for reduction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

But one of the interesting things about African-American baseball in Rhode Island during this time is the way in which African-American negotiated segregation or the racial barrier.

In baseball you see integration occurring much sooner than you see it occurring in other walks of life.

The white teams were happy to have the black team because the black team was always a draw.

People came to see the incredible black talent.

It also opened up a fan base, the African American fans.

Folks would go to church and then they would come back from church and they would go right to the game.

Sometimes wouldn't even change out of their Sunday clothes.

It was a wonderful sort of social and cultural event for the community.

When we're talking about the 1920s baseball and money sort of go hand in hand and integration in money go hand in hand.

So essentially what happens in 1931 is that, Daddy Black's professional team doesn't do as well as he had expected.

In fact, he has a major disappointment at the Polo Grounds in New York when his team doesn't do all that well against Bill Bojangle's team, the Harlem Stars which would later become the New York Black Yankees.

And Arthur Black walks away from that team in '31 and Dan Whitehead comes in to take over the Providence Coloured Giants in 1932.

Arthur Black was very much in favor of a contract in which players were paid regularly.

Daniel Whitehead had always agreed that the players should split the gate and when Daniel Whitehead informs the players that they're no longer getting a regular paycheck as they did under Daddy Black, in fact they're gonna have to split the gate the players (indistinct) that they refused to play and as a result of that, the team falls apart.

The fans want their money back.

For Black the game was important but the game was a business opportunity.

But for Whitehead, that was his life.

Whitehead was a player.

Whitehead back in 1905 shared time on first base or Wright Field and very close to his players very different sort of relationship than the business relationship that Black had.

And so when the players mutiny in '32 Whitehead walks away from the game and dies a year later pretty much brokenhearted really in a boarding house (indistinct) separated from the game that I think he loved so much.

And in 1932, prohibition is coming to an end and money streams for organized crime are drying up and as a result of that people are looking to take over territories and Black is murdered for his territory.

Whitehead passes, Daddy Black is murdered, and Kinsley Park, this sacred ground is torn down and it all ends by the early 1930s.

(crowd cheering) Sports is oftentimes an avenue which can not just mirror what's going on in the broader society but can also change what's going on in the broader society.

Rhode Island does experience integration at least in baseball a lot sooner or a lot quicker than its neighboring states.

Baseball has always been a local game, enjoyed by local fans as much as integration is needed and desired and fought for, it's bittersweet because all black baseball games on a Sunday afternoon had meant so much to the community, that celebratory event.

And the men who who lived in those communities and played that local game who no longer existed but Kinsley Park was the place where they showcased their talent.

(lighthearted music) - And 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.

Until then, please follow us on Twitter and Facebook and visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Thank you and goodnight.

(lighthearted music)