Area History
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Trinity Square is a district in South Providence distinguished by its vibrant cultural diversity, as well as its significant historical landmarks. Previously, the Trinity Square neighborhood was considered the cultural corridor of the city of Providence. The area has faced some socio-economic and infrastructural challenges in recent decades (many of which stem from destructive urban renewal projects of the 1960s), though Trinity Square remains a center of education, social activism, and local business.
Black History in Trinity Square
The gallery below is a compilation of documents that highlight Black History in and around Trinity Square. Collected by Caleb Horton, Providence City Archivist from the Pillars of Race exhibit.
![Civil Rights, Education, & the Flynn School
On August 30, 1967, Providence School Superintendent, Charles A. O’Connor, Jr., and the Providence School Department introduced the “Providence Plan.” The plan aimed to integrate and balance out the uneven racial distribution among the city’s public schools. While Providence had already begun integrating schools after the Civil War, Providence schools experienced an extreme imbalance of ethnic distribution due to district lines.
Statistics
Per the Providence Plan, 2,700, approximately 1/6 of the city’s schoolchildren, were to be reassigned to public schools in different neighborhoods. Two-thirds of the children that were chosen for the mandatory shuffling between participating South Providence and East Side schools were African American. Of the one-third of students that were white, none were moved into schools in South Providence, just to a different neighborhood on the East Side.
Ciriticism
It was not difficult to find critics of the Providence Plan. In an August 30, 1967, issue of the Providence Journal, education chairman of the Connecticut branch of the NAACP, Charles Tisdale condemns Providence lawmakers:
“To be candid [,] the politicians have a number of things to consider, and they count those votes. Politicians think that Negroes are conditioned and will accept this with less resistance. White parents will not permit their children to be bused to schools where they might get an inferior education.”(1)
While not mentioned by name, Tisdale’s quote referred to Mayor Joseph A. Doorley Jr. The mayor put his support behind the Providence Plan after rejecting a similar plan from the year prior. The “O’Connor Plan,” named after the Superintendent of Schools, set to integrate seven schools — four in predominately-black inner South Providence and three in mostly-white areas on the edge of the same area. Doorley opposed the plan after fierce oppostition from white families in the area claiming they were “bearing the burden of integration for the entire city” (2) to attend and participate in the school’s model program, but only 395 students would be selected.
(1) Providence Journal, August 30, 1967, page 31
(2) Providence Journal, September 17, 1967, page 241](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/291c23_f66875d4deb4439d8c97c815fc076427~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_991,h_1321,q_90/291c23_f66875d4deb4439d8c97c815fc076427~mv2.webp)
![At the center of the outrage from South Providence parents was Edmund W. Flynn Elementary School. In 1958, the construction of the Broadway Street School came at the cost of $1,500,000. At the time of the Providence Plan, the Flynn School was one of the “newest and best-looking schools” not only in South Providence but in the city as a whole.(3) As noted by the Providence Journal:
“Integrating Flynn was a move carefully avoided in the Providence Plan for integration developed several months ago, and still termed an ‘impossibility’ on a mandatory bass just days ago. The reason is that to do so meant busing several hundred white youngster into South Providence.” (4)
Flynn School’s absence as participating institution was a blatant example of why the Plan was nothing more than a pawn for political optics. The School Department excluded an arguably perfectly-equipped school from its vision because of its geographical location in a black neighborhood, and in doing gso, continued to perpetuate the notion that blacks had to go the mile (figuratively and literally) for equality. However, in creating a plan that, on the surface, looked inclusive, the School Department would gain good press during the Civil Rights Era.
South Providence parents and allies were well-aware of the injustice served to them and when the school year began in August of 1967, so did their protest. Protestors removed their children from schools and participated in a 350hour sit-in in O’Connor’s office and demanded to meet with the school committee.
Negotiations
In their meeting with the school committee, South Providence parents made a series of demands which included that the Flynn School reopen as an elementary school and a black principal hired to head it. After several bureaucratic roadbocks, the school committee reneged on their negotiations with the parents.
Implementation
On October 14, 1967, the South Providence parents, school department staff members, and educational consultants reached an agreement with the Providence School Committee after a two-hour meeting at Central High school. Over the next few weeks, representatives from the Providence Teachers Union would explore federal funding, student selection criteria, curriculum, the cooperation of nearby colleges and teacher selection before classes would begin in January. Students would have to apply to go to the Flynn
School with priority given to students that had previously attended. Beyond that, 3,000 letters were sent to white parents inviting their children to attend and participate in the school’s model program, but only 395 students would be selected. (5)
Aftermath
In February 1969 the Flynn School celebrated its first anniversary as a “model school” during a reception with 750 supporters in attendance, Keynote speaker and former director of the Providence Human Relations Commission, Herbert O. Edwards, “credited the birth of the school to ‘a small group of tired, black parents.’” Edwards went on to say “[Flynn is] an experiement in voluntary integration” and “owes its existence ‘to the fact that some people got tired.’” Guest in attendance included: Governor Frank Licht, civil rights specialist, Freeman M. Soares, staff educational coordinator, David S. Municucci, and acting superintendent of schools, Louis I. Kramer.
Notably absent from the celebration was Mayor Joseph A. Doorley Jr., which master of ceremonies and deputy director of the Concentrated Emplyment Program, J. Webb Mangum, didn’t let go unnoticed, “The mayor’s absence was rather conspicuous, since his appointed committee has the direct responsibility of providing the economic means for the education of the children of the City of Providence.”(6)
To meet the $110-million-dollar budget deficit, the City of Providence abruptly shut down several area schools, including the Flynn School, in 2011. At the time of is closrue, 600 students had attended the school, and 55 teachers taught inside its doors. In 2016 the Providence City Council voted to sell the site to a Massachusetts development company, the Aspen Group. (7)
(3) Providence Journal, October 8, 1967, page 202
(4) Providence Journal, October 8, 1967, page 202
(5) Providence Journal, October 14, 1967, page 26
(6) Providence Journal, February 3, 1969, page 8
(7) Providence Journal, May 24, 2016, page 3; Providence Journal, July 22, 2014, page MAIN_06](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/291c23_0755caeefabd408ea302ed97482225ff~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_991,h_1321,q_90/291c23_0755caeefabd408ea302ed97482225ff~mv2.webp)
