Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore, First Unitarian Church Install "Owning Our History" Exhibit at Rhode Island State House

PROVIDENCE, RI – Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore and the First Unitarian Church of Providence today announced the opening of Owning Our History, an exhibit curated by Dr. Christopher West and inspired by the findings of A Church in a Triangle, a book-length report on the involvement of early church members in slavery and slavery-related businesses.

The original research contained in A Church in a Triangle was commissioned as part of the Church's 300th anniversary initiatives. The book, published in 2025, offers new insight into the relationship between Providence's white elite and the slave trade.

"The RI Department of State is committed to creating spaces to talk about Rhode Island history, including both the positive and difficult realities of our state's past," said Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore. "I have immense gratitude for our partners at the First Unitarian Church who have made their research and this exhibit available for us to share."

The exhibit is installed in the Lower Level of the Rhode Island State House. The exhibit includes the acrylic painting "Do You Feel Like Shouting?" by Renée Elizabeth Neely-Tanner, the 2024 Artist Research Resident of the RISD Museum of Art and the 2023 Heimark Artist in Residence for the Ruth J. Simmons Center at Brown University.

"Our congregation has been on a multi-year journey to uncover a past we knew little about: the deep involvement of many early members in the Rhode Island slave trade and anti-Black racism," said the Rev. Elizabeth Lerner Maclay, Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Church. "Reckoning with these truths is healing work that we believe in."

Peter Laarman, a church member who helps coordinate its history efforts, added that "the goal is to bring depth and detail to the story, both in this exhibit and in the research report that inspired it."

The Rhode Island State House is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The exhibit will remain on display until March 2026. To learn more about the exhibit, visit https://firstunitarianprov.org/owning-our-history/.

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