Unveiling Sign for Liberty Square Slave Trade Memorial

Newport Daily News – Aug. 24, 2018

Sign of Remembrance

Newport Mayor Harry Winthrop and Victoria Johnson, chairwoman of the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Committee, unveiled a sign at the future site of the Newport Slave Trade Memorial in Liberty Square, Farewell and Marlborough streets.

Mayor Harry Winthrop and Victoria Johnson of Newport Middle Passage Project. At left are City Council members Lynne Underwood Ceglie, Susan Taylor and Marco Camacho. At right are Project members Benedict Leca, Patricia Petit and Peter Fay.

At left are City Council members Lynne Underwood Ceglie, Susan Taylor and Marco Camacho. The planned historical monument will honor and memorialize Africans who lost their lives on slave ships as well as the survivors and their descendants. The local project is part of a national effort to research and identify all 48 port sites in the present United States that were ports of entry for Africans during the 300-plus years of the trans-Atlantic human trade. Local communities have been encouraged to hold remembrance ceremonies at each port and place some type of marker. City officials, community leaders, committee members and many others gathered Thursday to commemorate the future site of the Newport Slave Trade Memorial in Liberty Square.

[PETER SILVIA PHOTOS] – (Courtesy of Newport Daily News, Copyright ©2018 GateHouse Media Inc.)