Portal:Rhode Island

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The flag of Rhode Island

Rhode Island (/ˌrd-/ ROHD) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound; and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020; but it has grown at every decennial count since 1790 and is the second-most densely populated state, after New Jersey. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though nearly all its land area is on the mainland. Providence is its capital and most populous city.

Native Americans lived around Narragansett Bay for thousands of years before English settlers began arriving in the early 17th century. Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. He founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations subsequently became a destination for religious and political dissenters and social outcasts, earning it the moniker "Rogue's Island".

Rhode Island was the first colony to call for a Continental Congress, in 1774, and the first to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776. After the American Revolution, during which it was heavily occupied and contested, Rhode Island became the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, on February 9, 1778. Because its citizens favored a weaker central government, it boycotted the 1787 convention that had drafted the United States Constitution, which it initially refused to ratify; it finally ratified it on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 states to do so.

The state was officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since the colonial era but came to be commonly known as "Rhode Island". In November 2020, the state's voters approved an amendment to the state constitution formally dropping "and Providence Plantations" from its full name. Its official nickname is the "Ocean State", a reference to its 400 mi (640 km) of coastline and the large bays and inlets that make up about 14% of its area. (Full article...)

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Ida Silverman in 1957

Ida Silverman (31 October 1882 – 1 November 1973) was a Jewish philanthropist, who with her husband helped found approximately 100 synagogues, mostly in Israel. She is the only woman to have served as vice president of the Zionist Organization of America and the American Jewish Congress.

A Russian immigrant, Silverman arrived in the United States before she was a year old. Her family settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where she completed her schooling, married, and had four children. While doing relief work during the First World War, she became aware of the depth of social problems and the effects of war on refugees. Joining the Zionist movement in the 1900s, within a decade she became a motivational speaker, advocating for the establishment of a permanent Jewish home in Palestine. (Full article...)
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Umberto "Bert" Crenca is an American artist, arts administrator, arts advisor and educator. He is known for being a founder and long-time artistic director of the non-profit arts organization, AS220, in Providence, Rhode Island. He has been credited with helping to "lay the groundwork for much of the cultural development that shaped the Providence imaginary in the 1990s and early decades of the 21st century" by scholar Micah Salkind, and in 2010 was identified as one of Rhode Island's Most Influential People by Rhode Island Monthly. (Full article...)
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The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

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The Rose Island Light (built 1870) is located on Rose Island in Narragansett Bay in Newport, Rhode Island in the United States. The Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation preserves, maintains, and operates the lighthouse.
The Rose Island Light (built 1870) is located on Rose Island in Narragansett Bay in Newport, Rhode Island in the United States. The Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation preserves, maintains, and operates the lighthouse.
Credit: Juliancolton

The Rose Island Light (built 1870) is located on Rose Island in Narragansett Bay in Newport, Rhode Island in the United States. The Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation preserves, maintains, and operates the lighthouse.

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