SPEAKERS BUREAU
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Ray Rickman
How Providence Became a City Because of the Hardscrabble and Snowtown Race Riots of 1824 and 1831
In the 1824 Hardscrabble Riot and the 1831 Snow Town Riot, working-class whites attacked African-American residents. The elite town fathers were unable to control the violent mobs and had to request that the Governor in send military troops. A race riot was not a rare event during the years between the American Revolution and the Dorr Rebellion. Ray Rickman gives a riveting talk about the confluence of class and race in early America. The talk is also centered on how the riots convinced the people of Providence to demand the creation of a city government with strong police powers.
The Life of William J. Brown and Race in 19th Century Rhode Island
William J. Brown was an African-American civic leader who may have authored the most thoughtful narrative by a free man of color in the 19th Century. Mr. Brown uses his autobiography to tell how his family came to America on a slave ship owned by Moses and John Brown and then touches on the entire sweep of 19th-Century Rhode Island history. Ray Rickman has studied Brown and his book for 20 years and uses the book to talk about culture, class, and race during an 80-year span of Rhode Island life.
Lydia Maria Child: Abolitionist and the First Woman in the Republic
Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) was the most important American female abolitionist of her age. Mrs. Child was also a leading women’s rights and Native American rights advocate. A renowned journalist and novelist, her unofficial title was “The First Woman of the Republic”. In 1833 she wrote An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans. She used the book to demand that African Americans be permitted to vote, hold public office, and serve on juries. Those were the most radical demands ever voiced by a woman. Mrs. Child was the first woman to edit Juvenile Miscellany (the first children’s magazine) and was the first female editor of a mass public newspaper. She was the only woman in America taken seriously as a writer, until Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Ray Rickman has collected all 20 of Lydia Maria Child’s books in first edition format and is one of the leading Child experts in America. Expect an informative and lively conversation with a man who thinks everyone in America should be introduced to Lydia Maria Child.
Ray Rickman is president of the Rickman Group, a consulting firm that raises funds and conducts management training for non-profits and small businesses. He is a former State Representative from College Hill in Providence and served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2000 to 2002. Ray is also a rare book dealer, is considered a leader in the promotion of African-American history, and conducts general and African-American tours of College Hill. He is a former president of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and was secretary of the Rhode Island Historical Society for seven years. He was also the first treasurer of the Heritage Harbor Museum. He and the late Posey Wiggins co-taught a class using the 1883 William J. Brown autobiography as a tool to teach about racial and cultural issues in 19th century Rhode Island. Ray is currently the senior consultant for Shape Up RI, the statewide wellness program.