Inductees in African Americans

Christina Carteaux Bannister
Inducted in 2003

Christina Carteaux Bannister was born Christina Babcock in Rhode Island’s South County sometime between 1820 and 1822. Details concerning her birth and background are obscure, but she appears to have been of mixed native American and African-American parentage and was undoubtedly descended from slaves that worked the plantations of South County during the eighteenth century. As a young woman she moved to Boston and took up the trade of hairdressing. During her twenty-five year residence in Massachusetts she owned salons both in Boston and Worcester and prospered as an independent businesswoman and self-styled “hair doctress. Read more >
Andrew J. Bell, Jr. (1907-2000)
Inducted in 2007

Andrew J. Bell, Jr. was born in Providence in September 1907, the son of Andrew J. and Beatrice J. Read more >
Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (1813-1876)
Inducted in 2003

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis was born in Bloomfield, New York on August 7, 1813, the daughter of Captain Ebenezer Kellogg and Polly Saxon. After the death of both parents, Paulina was raised by a strict orthodox Presbyterian aunt. After a brief immersion with religion, Paulina married Francis Wright, a wealthy Utica merchant, in 1833. The couple became very involved in various contemporary reforms, especially abolitionism and women’s rights. Read more >
George T. Downing (1819-1903)
Inducted in 2003

George T. Downing, abolitionist, businessman, and civil rights advocate, was born in New York City on December 30, 1819 into a prominent, well-to-do African-American family. His father Thomas Downing was a restauranteur, whose Oyster House was a gathering place for New York’s aristocracy and politicians. Under his father’s guidance, young George participated in the Underground Railroad and lobbied to gain equal suffrage for blacks. Read more >
Joseph Gomes
Inducted in 1988

Mr. Gomes was the only Rhode Islander to play baseball in the Negro Major Baseball League, and was named an all-star in each of the seven years he played. He compiled a 362-41 pitching record, with a 1.74 earned-run-average in the Majors. Read more >
Lloyd T. Griffin, Jr. (1940-1999)
Inducted in 2006

Lloyd Griffin died on November 24, 1999, at the age of fifty nine. His memorial Mass on December 1 at Holy Rosary Church in his native Fox Point was well attended for an ordinary man; but Lloyd was not an ordinary man, and the church was far from over flowing. A few black community leaders were present- notably Cliff Montiero, Mike Van Leesten, and John Rollins--but white politicians were few. The only politico of stature was Fred Lippitt, with whom Lloyd had allied in the hotly contested Providence mayoral election of 1990. Read more >
Matilda Sissieretta Jones
Inducted in 1977

Ms. Jones was a famous concert singer of the 19th century. After becoming the the first African-American artist to perform at the Wallack's Theatre in New York, she toured South America, Europe and Canada. Ms. Read more >
George S. Lima, Jr. (1919-2011)
Inducted in 2012

George S. Lima, Jr. (1919-2011) spent his adolescent years in Harlem, Fall River, and Providence with his Cape Verdean family. His life changed dramatically when he enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University in 1939 on a football scholarship. Read more >
William H. Matthews
Inducted in 1985

Mr. Matthews was the former First Deputy City Clerk of Providence, and considered by many as hte finest athlete the state has produced. "Dixie", as he was known to all, was considered by leadersof the city's black community as their 'first but unofficial' City Councilman. Born in Providence, he retired after thirty-eight years of City employment, culminating in his appointment to the highest City post ever held by an African American. Read more >
Reverend Mahlon Van Horne (1840-1910)
Inducted in 2005

Reverend Mahlon Van Horne (1840-1910) had a career that ranged from minister of the Gospel at the black Union Congregational Church at Newport to minister of diplomacy as United States Consul to St. Thomas in the West Indies. He was at heart always a teacher.

Bom in Princeton New Jersey in 1840, Van Horne was graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Read more >
Michel S. Van Leesten
Inducted in 2001

MICHAEL S. VAN LEESTEN, of Providence, Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, is the former director of the Department of Planning and Development for the City of Providence, former director of the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Rhode Island, former chairman of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, and a prominent real estate developer. He has held leadership positions in the NAACP, Urban League, the Black Repertory Company, and the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. As a youth, Mike was a star schoolboy and college athlete, excelling in basketball. Read more >
William D. & Olive F. Wiley
Inducted in 1985

Mr. & Mrs. Wiley were husband and wife for more than sixty years, many of which were devoted to their fellow man. William edited R. Read more >
George A. Wiley (1931-1973)
Inducted in 2010

Warwick’s George Wiley (1931-1973) compiled a record of service to his country which equals the sacrifices and service of his fellow hometowners, Nathanael and Christopher Greene. Like those men of the Revolutionary War generation, George, too, became a champion of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Whereas the Greenes took direct military action against Britain’s King George by snatching the scepter from a tyrant’s hand, George Wiley took direct action to ensure that the rights forged by the American Revolution were extended to those of the least station in American society, the poor.

Born in 1931 to a middle-class black family with a deeply held religious tradition, George A. Read more >

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Inductees in African Americans

Christina Carteaux Bannister

Andrew J. Bell, Jr. (1907-2000)

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (1813-1876)

George T. Downing (1819-1903)

Joseph Gomes

Lloyd T. Griffin, Jr. (1940-1999)

Matilda Sissieretta Jones

George S. Lima, Jr. (1919-2011)

William H. Matthews

Reverend Mahlon Van Horne (1840-1910)

Michel S. Van Leesten

William D. & Olive F. Wiley

George A. Wiley (1931-1973)

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