Mobile Museum of Black Artifacts visits State House

STATE HOUSE – At the invitation of Rep. Joseph S. Almeida, the Mobile Museum of Black Artifacts rolled up to the State House
last week on the first stop of a weeklong tour from Rhode Island to Washington, D.C.

The Rhode Island State House was the first of seven stops Moniz-John made on a tour
that begins in Providence [Rep. Joseph S. Almeida (D-Dist. 12, Providence) speaks
during the program while local Girl Scouts hold the flag.] Nov. 10, and culminated
in Washington, D.C. a week later, where she planned to park the museum at the new
National Museum of African American History and Culture and near the White House.
At the State House, the museum was open to the public for free with guided tours,
and there was a program featuring speakers, poetry, the singing of the national
anthem by Belinda Phillips, and posting of the colors by Girl Scouts. The museum
featured a special exhibit called «Proud Patriots» paying tribute to black veterans
in honor of Veterans Day the following day.
«This is a great opportunity for us all to get up close and personal with wide
category of American history that often gets boiled down to a couple of chapters in
school books. There’s a lot more to black history than slavery and the civil rights
movement, and I hope Rhode Islanders will take advantage of this chance to check out
this collection and learn about our lives, achievements and culture. Onna has spent
her lifetime creating this collection, and I’m proud that she will now bring it to
the State House to share with all of Rhode Island,» said Representative Almeida
(D-Dist. 12, Providence), who helped facilitate the museum’s State House visit, in
advance of the event.
Following its State House visit, the museum (driven by Moniz-John’s husband, Alvin
J. John) rolled on to the Old State House in Hartford, Conn., the next day, then
made stops in Harlem, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and Maryland on its way to
Washington, where she plans to stay from the 16th through the 18th.
The museum has previously made visits to the St. Mary Academy Bay View, the East
Providence Heritage Festival, University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College,
where high school students from Central Falls and East Greenwich visited it.
Children who took part in the East Providence Recreation Department’s summer program
this year also toured it, and Moniz-John has brought it to places like a Smith Hill
barber shop whose owner also promotes greater understanding of black history.
«The collection shows not only the difficult parts of history but, at the same time,
highlights the strength of black people. I think that’s important,» said Moniz-John,
who said one of the exhibits, «Civil Rights: A Multiracial, Cultural and Religious
Event,» seeks to show how people from all walks of life, other races and various
religions worked alongside black people during the civil rights movement.