PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The smallest U.S. state has the longest name, and it's not sitting well with some in the George Floyd era.Officially, Rhode Island was incorporated as The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations when it declared statehood in 1790.
Now, opponents have revived an effort to lop off the plantations reference, saying it evokes the legacy of slavery.An online petition aims to ask the state to shorten the name to just Rhode Island, a nonbinding campaign intended to generate momentum toward an eventual ballot question this November.“In no way am I trying to erase history.
But we shouldn’t glorify our shameful past,” Tyson Pianka, a University of Rhode Island sophomore who organized the petition drive, said in an.