Author Lizzie Skurnick has embarked on a journey to discover the partially erased black history in New England through her travels. She has taken off to see several historic monuments to black existence and significance in the region, while educating herself on the true stories behind them. Among her stops was the new Newport Center for Black History, directed by Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, with whom she spoke and learned about the history of the historic home the center is housed in.

While the presence of Black people in Newport, RI, may be surprising to some, they have played a large role in its history. One that Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes knows very well. For this reason, she set out to develop the Newport Center for Black History, which has just been opened to transport people into the perspectives of the formerly enslaved in the region.

Recently, the Yale Group for the Study of Native America and the NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project organized a conference, First America: The Legacies of the Declaration of Independence for Native Nations, with several historians to explore America's 250th Anniversary through a different lens. Among them were author Chris Newell and Simmons Center Visiting Assistant Professor Mack Scott. They convened to discuss the history of Native Americans in the American Revolution.

Simmons Center Director Anthony Bogues and Visiting Scholar Akeia de Barros Gomes shared their insights on the impact of the new Center for Black History in Newport, RI. They both feel that it is an important aspect of teaching about the past, while remaining connected to the present and future of black history.

The Newport Historical Society hosted a ribbon-cutting for the opening of the Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History, where several Rhode Island leaders shared the importance of this center in bringing black history to this part of the state. Simmons Center Director Anthony Bogues participated in the ceremony and the Center for Black History is directed by Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Akeia de Barros Gomes.

Following the discovery of an nkisi, a bundle of spiritual objects that traveled with the enslaved across the Atlantic, in the attic of Newport's oldest surviving home, the home has been transformed into Newport's Black History Center. The Center is directed by Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Akeia de Barros Gomes.

Simmons Center Visiting Scholar and Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History Director, Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, was interviewed about the center's new opening in Newport, RI. She shared that the Center was intentionally designed to place visitors in the shoes of the enslaved who lived in the home and is already positively impacting the community.

Opening on Juneteenth, Newport’s new Center for Black History shares deep roots with the Simmons Center. Directed by Adjunct Lecturer Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, the Center for Black History features an African spirit bundle, once part of the Reimagining New England Histories exhibition “Entwined.” Brown Public Humanities Master’s students helped to conceptualize inaugural exhibitions and conduct research at the center.

This research cluster is reshaping scholars’ understanding of the history and growth of capitalism and brings together the best scholars on this subject in the world. This three-year project is co-led by the Simmons Center and the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).

This project fosters collaborative critical inquiry into the study of human trafficking, as well as cultivates an intersectional framework that acknowledges the ways in which race, class, gender, nation, and sexual forms of power and inequality govern contemporary anti-trafficking efforts.

This research cluster seeks to examine punishment and the U.S. carceral state through an interdisciplinary lens. The cluster operates from the frame that race and anti-Black racism are cornerstones to understanding the vast leviathan of punishment in America.

The making of the modern world was in part constituted by the historical injustices of colonialism and racial slavery. This research cluster is a joint project between the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs and the Simmons Center.

Reflections from Akeia de Barros Gomes, Ph.D., Steven Lubar, and Christina Young ’26 A.M.

Reflections from Zawdie Sandvliet and Ningxin Gao.