PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Two bronze plaques were stolen from the grave of one of the most celebrated Black artists in the United States, located in Providence.
Community members have put up a $5,000 reward to get them back.
The plaques were removed from the grave of Edward Bannister, the first Black man to win a major art prize in the U.S. in 1876 and one of the most well-known painters in Rhode Island.
“It was an immediate galvanization of our community,” Stages of Freed Co-founder Robb Dimmick said. “It was not an issue for any of the people who’ve committed funds, and more people want to assist.”
Former Secretary of State and Stages of Freedom Executive Director Ray Rickman said that, even if the theft wasn’t targeted, the timing is oddly specific.
“This is the year of Edward Bannister,” he said. “You finish talking about Lovecraft and Roger Williams, you know we’re about done. And there are, in the Black community, 20 people who are on Lovecraft’s level and in the white community there are 300 people, and nobody ever thinks about them.”
Stages of Freedom is working on putting up a plaque for his wife Christina Bannister, a known entrepreneur and abolitionist in her own right, in May.
No matter how this investigation goes, a plaque will go up at the gravestone.
“We’ll go out and raise $25,000 to go anew, and it will not be hard,” Rickman said.
No arrests have been made, and Providence police are still investigating.
“This is somebody in need of cash, but that’s a problem, that somebody is so low in their resources that they would do this in a sacred ground,” Rickman said. “It really is, and this is not religious, but this is unholy. It really is. We shouldn’t be doing this in America at this time. And to the Bannisters? Absolutely not.”
Anyone with any information about the theft is encouraged to call the Providence Police Department at 401-272-3121.
