NBC 10 I-Team: Changes coming to State House after voters changed state name in 2020

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — Three words.

"And Providence Plantations."

Stricken from Rhode Island's name, because of the last word.

“The pain, the trauma that that is associated with, of course, with our original sin in history,” says Harrison Tuttle, President of Black Lives Matter RI PAC, of the word “Plantations.”

It was part of Rhode Island's name for centuries.

But by a 6% margin, Rhode Island voters in 2020 dropped it from the official state name.

What exactly that meant for the State House was unclear.

If you take some time to look around the State House, you'll see the words still on display.

“We would like for slavery to be acknowledged, for ‘Plantations,' where it makes sense, to be removed. They're making progress on that,” Tuttle tells NBC 10 News.

What kind of progress?

“Gov. McKee is committed to ensuring that the will of the people is actualized,” says Pastor Chris Abhulime, the governor's deputy chief of staff.

“Whatever is part of the building, we keep as part of the building. And whatever we can remove and replace, we will,” Abhulime said while giving NBC 10 News a tour of where the words are in the State House and how they’re being addressed.

“The guiding principle here in doing this work is really to preserve the past, represent the present, and do no harm,” he said.

For example, the seal on the floor of the State House rotunda, which most visitors walk past or can see at the heart of the capitol, though it's been covered with a rug for a while.

“We're affecting the legacy here,” says Christopher Velleca of Federal Hill Group Architects, hired to figure out what to do with the rotunda seal.

“We're not allowed to, nor would we advise, pulling up the original seal or the words. This is a record of its time and place,” Velleca said.

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Instead, his plan is to place a new object on top of the part with the state name, recreating it, using marble from the same quarry and identical brass letters, minus “Providence Plantations.”

It will be a raised ring with a beveled edge.

That project is soon going out to bid for construction.

This year's state budget includes $2.5 million to address the name change.

How’s it being spent so far?

A new rug for the State Room has been ordered at $65,000 to replace the current one, which has two of the old state seals in its fabric.

A granite seal on the ground outside the basement entrance door used by lawmakers and staffers is being replaced for roughly $30,000.

New seals for elevator doors, six of them on each of the two elevators on each floor, have been ordered at a cost of $240,000.

The solution for signage is cheaper.

Blue and yellow stickers were recently placed over the old seal on all room door plates and other signs, instead of replacing them.

But in some spots, “Plantations” is not going anywhere.

“They're etched into the building itself. So to remove them potentially will harm the building,” Abhulime says of seals at the top of the entrance foyer walls.

They will stay, uncovered.

So will the engraving above the main entrance of the State House, for the same reason.

Asked by NBC 10 if leaving the word “Plantations” in some areas defeats the purpose of eliminating it in others, Abhulime replied, “No. I don't think it defeats the purpose. I think what is important is the spirit behind the work that we're doing and the effort that is going into this.”

“It's not an erasure, because when you say erasure you're talking, that's history you're erasing. And that's not the point here,” says Theresa Stokes, executive director of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society.

Stokes was on the committee of preservationists, historians, designers, and state officials that's been working on the issue for the past 18 months.

She says leaving “Plantations” in those certain spots will invite discussion and learning.

“Stationery, banners, the seal, those things needed to be changed. But the things like historic buildings, historic artifacts, we can't change those. Those are things, it would cause harm to do that. And it causes a harm to our history,” Stokes told NBC 10.

A history that is changing, over time.

“If they had done it any faster, I think they would have caused harm, and it would not have been a thoughtful approach,” Stokes said when asked by NBC 10 about how long it has taken since voters made the name change. “Anyone who thinks that we can change a state's name that is hundreds of years old overnight is not thinking it through. Then it becomes a cover up.”

Tuttle said, “Certainly, when we look at how long it's taken, it's more than just four years. We should have done this a long time ago, but I don't want to dwell on that. I think the most important thing is we're making progress right now.”

And Abhulime tells NBC 10, “I'm absolutely satisfied where we're at, the decisions that we collectively made, the implementation of it, and the time that it took.”

Some of the work is expected to be completed this summer, the rest will take longer.