Erasure on the East Side

This Archive is largely devoted to the little remembered Urban Renewal Projects on the East side of Providence, except by the people and families that lived there, which spanned from the late 1950s to 1979. Over which period 729 homes and dwellings were destroyed through the Lippitt Hill Renewal Project, 650, and Mount Hope Rehabilitation Project, 79. The purpose of this archive is to make evident the interplay between Federal, State and local governments to remove Black Families, one story in the continuous process of displacing and denying Black Families the capacity to build and maintain wealth.

We started telling the stories of Mount Hope in 2017, starting with the Music Mural on Cypress street, as few, other than the many generations of families who lived there, know of the community that lived, had businesses and thrived there. Many of the stories got through to others in an adhoc and anecdotal manner. This archive was started as a way to document not only the places lost but the contributions of the community to the city of Providence that deemed it expendable, see the community stories, but also a site, place, platform that invites the community to add and develop on the story so that it is not lost or hidden, see our comments and contribution pages.

Rhode Island’s relatively small capital, and its influence magnifies the social and economic impacts of its presence.Many aspects of the city’s development, particularly on Providence’s East Side, are shaped according to the interests of the university. As the case would be anywhere in America, the harmful consequences of growth and development in Providence are disproportionately borne by those marginalized by race, class, gender identity, sexuality and by indigenous people and documented and undocumented immigrants. The consequences of structural social determinants of health in lower income neighborhoods and communities of color are each consequences of a highly functional and deeply unjust system. These consequences are never coincidental, nor are they naturally occurring. It is no coincidence that new buildings with minimal affordability requirements rise along high-value waterfronts while social housing programs are continually defunded; it is the normal, day-to-day activities of local, state, and federal governments, of the real estate and development sector, and of large institutions and corporations that produce and reproduce these patterns of uneven urban development.

As we began the process of documenting the Urban Renewal devastation of the community, we looked to put it in context of the colonial beginnings of the State of Rhode Island. The Black community on the East side was established at the end of the slave trade in Rhode Island. Upheaval and destruction of the community is seen in the riots of 1824, Hardscrabble, and 1832, Snowtown. The latter led to the establishment of the City of Providence and the Wards we see today. However, the philosophy that allows for the continued patterns of disruption on communities of colors starts with the founding philosophy.