Voters strip ‘Plantations’ from Rhode Island’s formal name

Voters have agreed to strip the words “and Providence Plantations” from Rhode Island’s formal name, approving a statewide referendum that had been revived amid the nation’s reckoning with racial injustice. Although the word “Plantations” in Rhode Island’s name does not specifically refer to a place where slaves labored, the measure’s backers insisted it elicits such imagery and offends many people. Officially, Rhode Island was incorporated as The S