Providence Harborwalk at Fox Point and India Point - "Fox Point Cape Verdean Community" - Providence, Rhode Island - Human Migration Monuments on Waymarking.com

The historical marker Fox Point Cape Verdean Community is along the Providence Harborwalk at Fox Point and India Point. It is northeast of the Community Boating Center at India Point Park in Providence, Rhode Island. The content of this dual-sided marker focuses on the immigrants from Cape Verde, an island nation off the coast of West Africa, beginning from the 1800s. The south-facing sign gives historical accounts and the north side is a poem written by Alberto Torres Pereira in 1973.

South side includes ten historical photographs and the following narrative:

FOX POINT CAPE VERDEAN COMMUNITY
CAPE VERDEAN IMMIGRATION TO RHODE ISLAND

The Cape Verdean community in Fox Point originated from the Cape Verde Islands, a tiny archipelago lying 240 nautical miles off the coast of West Africa. Uninhabited prior to discovery by the Portuguese between 1460 and 1462, Cape Verdeans developed as a mix of Africans, Portuguese, and other European voyagers to the islands. Renowned mariners and seafarers, Cape Verdeans began making contributions to New England immediately after the Revolutionary War. Whaling ships from Nantucket and New Bedford, Massachusetts sailed to Cape Verde to enlist crew who were eager to take the dangerous and low-paying work, in order to escape the drought-stricken islands.

As the whaling industry declined in the late 1800s, Cape Verdeans moved to land-based employment, settling first in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The trickle of immigration turned into a flood at the turn of the 20th century. Cape Verdeans fleeing cycles of drought, starvation, and harsh colonial rule filled the need for cheap labor in the cranberry bogs, textile mills and factories throughout southeastern New England. By 1924, approximately 35,000 Cape Verdeans crossed the Atlantic on Cape Verdean-owned packet ships, arriving in the ports of New Bedford, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, the second oldest and largest Cape Verdean community in the United States. Cape Verdeans were the first people of African descent to migrate voluntarily in large numbers to the United States.

FOX POINT CAPE VERDEAN COMMUNITY

In Providence, Cape Verdeans settled in old wooden-frame houses along the waterfront and nearby streets running off South Main and Wickenden Streets. They worked on the nearby docks, in factories, at Brown University and in the homes of wealthy residents on the East Side. By the 1940s, the Cape Verdean community in Fox Point was thriving as the first American-born generation grew up and began raising their families.

URBAN RENEWAL

Urban Renewal in Fox Point began in the late 1950s with the construction of I-195, which cut through the community. Gentrification and the expansion of nearby universities by the late 1970s forced out most of the remaining Cape Verdeans. The displaced community scattered to other sections of the city or to nearby East Providence. Rosalia "Mamai" Alves, the matriarch of one of the oldest Cape Verdean families in Fox Point, fought to stay in her house on 88 Pike Street, with the assistance of Councilman John Murphy. They won. On April 4, 1998, Pike Street was renamed Alves Way in honor of the Alves family. The house stayed in the family until it was sold to Holy Rosary Church. On December 12, 2007, 88 Alves Way was torn down and turned into a parking lot.

CAPE VERDEAN INDEPENDENCE DAY
CELEBRATION AT INDIA POINT PARK

Cape Verde gained its independence on July 5, 1975 after 500 years of Portuguese rule. The Cape Verdean Subcommittee of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission has organized the annual Independence Day Celebration in Rhode Island since 1977. It is recognized as one of the oldest and largest celebrations in the United States of Cape Verdean Independence Day.

North side has a photo montage background with the poem superimposed in black lettering:

A FOX POINT CAPE VERDEAN MEMORY

Down by the old Colonial Line
Where the genteel people boarded boats,
We stole the show from big fat rats
That lived around the pier.
We shucked and trucked and winged
And bucked and waited for them coins
And when they flew, hunger flew,
Away from skinny loins,
And when they yelled, "Hey,
Come on, boy, dance,"
We worked like hell, sang like hell,
Told 'em all "Go to hell's
Out of our coal blackened lungs.
Not too loud though
We needed the dough
Didn't wanna steal more coal
For the stoves that never stayed lit,
For the houses that never stayed warm,
For our mommas
Who thought all they were born for
Was to scrub down old downtown stores
On knees, wet in the suds they hid in.
So we said, "Go to hell' through our teeth
And cheered ol' Sneaky Pete
As he dove from a hundred feet for a dollar
And we danced the coal yard step.

Alberto Torres Pereira
May 1973

Boys swimming in Providence River. About 1930. Photo courtesy of REFLECTIONS: CAPE VERDEANS IN RHODE ISLAND
Narragansett Electric. March 18, 1954. Providence Journal, Staff photo by William L. Rooney
Packet Ship, date unknown, Courtesy of SPIA Media Productions, Inc.

Panel by:
Claire Andrade-Watkins, PhD
Historian and filmmaker

Who placed it?: Uncredited When was it placed?: Undated Who is honored?: The Fox Point Cape Verdean Community of Providence, Rhode Island Website about the Monument: Not listed

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