What Is No Longer In A Name: Rhode Island Official Docs Shed Racially Loaded Moniker

The official name of the smallest U.S. state is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Spurred by weeks of local protests over the death of George Floyd, the Black Minnesotan who perished after a white policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced that the offensive phrase would no longer appear on official state documents.

"This morning I signed an executive order removing the phrase Providence Plantations from gubernatorial orders and citations, all executive branch agency websites, all official correspondence, and state employee pay stubs and paychecks," said Raimondo, a second-term moderate Democrat who is the state's first female governor.

Ironically, it was the theologian Roger Williams — an advocate of religious tolerance and the abolition of slavery — who, as the founder of the Rhode Island colony in the 17th century, is believed to have included the Providence Plantations phrase in the name of what was then a newly established British colony.

Rhode Island's Democratic-led Senate has already passed a resolution that would put the permanent removal of the "and Providence Plantations" phrase on the ballot in November, and its Democratic-led House is expected to follow suit.

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