Graphics and Text

1) The Port of Providence

The Port of Providence was an essential part of Fox Point’s Cape Verdean community. Many men worked there, and it was an important social space. The Port also provided a connection to Cape Verde–many Cape Verdeans traveled back and forth frequently. Changes in the Port of Providence starting after World War II – more mechanization, the decline of the coal docks–helped contribute to the dispersal of the Fox Point Cape Verdean community of the 1960s and 1970s.

Object: Timeline (this is a screenshot, to be printed, mounted)

Text: Courtesy of Olivia Ildefonso ‘09

2) Working on the Waterfront

Longshoring—loading and unloading cargo from ships—was one of the few jobs available to immigrants in Providence. By the turn of the 20th century, most longshoremen at the port were Cape Verdean.

Men arrived at the docks early in the morning and hoped that their social ties would be enough to get them on one of the “gangs” of men who would be hired that day. The cargo could be anything from live ammunition to pig iron to lumber. Unloading it involved rigging booms, propping open the heavy hatch doors, and working in the hatch to bundle the cargo and lift it out. The men did all this using little more than their physical strength, screws, pulleys, and winches—and, of course, a longshoreman’s hook. It was dangerous work, made more dangerous by long shifts, night work, bad weather, even glare from the sun.

The need to work together to stay safe on the job complemented Cape Verdean traditions of kinship and community cooperation, and led to close familial ties among many longshoremen. Eventually, these ties helped further the formation of the longshoremen’s union.

Object: Longshoreman's Hook

Text: Courtesy of Tony Britto

Image: Photograph of John Vincent Britto (uploaded as attachment, see below)

Text:Portrait of John Vincent Britto, a longshoreman from the Fox Point community. Courtesy of Lou Costa

Image: Four Longshoremen from Fox Point (uploaded as attachment, see below)

Text: Four Longshoremen from the Fox Point Community. Peter DeSilva, Peter Brown, Rick Reis and Tony "Black Jack" Soares photographed on Wickenden Street. Circa 1950. Photo Courtesy of Lou Costa.

Image: Longshoremen at work. (Image will be available after 4/24)

Text: Courtesy of Johnny Costa.

Text: (to be printed, mounted)

Interviewer: And how did you get into being a longshoreman?

Harold Fontes: Well mostly that was because I was a Cape Verdean local and my father and my uncle and cousins. It was almost like a family thing. I myself, I was pretty fortunate. I didn't have any problems getting in because of my father and my uncle and my best friend; his father was a big boss on the waterfront. So when I came out of the service. I went into the service from '18 to '22, when I came out of that I didn't have much of a problem getting into the union.

Excerpted from the Fox Point Oral History archive.

Text: (to be printed, mounted)

Harold Fontes: The work was mostly bull work: lumber, steel, cement. It was manual labor; most of it was manual labor. It was really hard work at the time. At night I worked. When I first started I worked a lot of nights. Outside, cold. You had to dress well. Everyone was working outside. It wasn't working inside. Even in the warehouse it was cold.

Excerpted from the Fox Point Oral History archive.

3) Local 1329

Organizing a union meant risking jobs. But by 1933, I.L.A Local 1329 (a part of the International Longshoreman’s Association) was organized, becoming one of the first unions organized by persons of color and also one of the only non-segregated unions in the country. Being a part of a national union meant the stevedore companies who employed the longshoremen were held to the ILA’s master contract, and so for the first time, the men received set wages and were paid extra for overtime and for working with dangerous cargo. They also received vacation days, healthcare and a pension plan, all firsts for many Cape Verdeans.

While the I.L.A. handled many of these negotiations on the national level, Local 1329 handled port-specific issues, and also eventually instituted a rule dictating that available work was distributed on the basis of seniority rather than social connections. The men in the Union did not always agree, of course, but the Union helped to solidify an existing sense of brotherhood and solidarity among port workers.

Object: 1937 Union Contract (laminated document measuring approximately 8 1/2" x 11")

Text: Courtesy of Steve Bento and Claire Andrade-Watkins

Image: Group Photo of Men in the Union (uploaded as attachment, see below)

Text: Courtesy of Claire-Andrade Watkins

Image: International Longshoreman's Association Annual Clambake (uploaded as attachment, see below. can be reproduced, Claire's friend?)

Text: International Longshoreman's Association Annual Clambake. Photograph taken at Francis Farm, 1956. Courtesy of Steve Bento and Claire Andrade-Watkins.

OR

Image: Series of Longshoreman's Association Annual Clambake photos.

Text: International Longshoreman's Association Annual Clambakes at Francis Farms. September 23, 1956; August 2, 1960; September 4, 1961; September 3, 1962. Courtesy of the Cape Verdean Museum.

*I am thinking that the second option of showing the clambake photos as a series would be a more popular option for the community members.

Image: I.L.A. Dinner

Text: International Longshoreman's Union Dinner at the Infantry Hall. February 20, 1958. Courtesy of Claire Andrade-Watkins.

Object: Union Charter

4) (im)migration

Water has been central to the formation of Cape Verdean community, identity, and economic stability. During the early 19th Century, Cape Verdeans were famed for their skill as seamen, mastering the difficult tasks of whaling and large-scale fishing. Drought and poverty led many Cape Verdeans to immigrate to the United States. In southern New England, many Cape Verdean men found work as longshoremen. Others worked in fishing, and in the blueberry and cranberry industries. In the 20^th century, many Cape Verdeans traveled back and forth between the American shore and the islands. Water became the channel, and the packet ships the ‘life-line,’ through which Cape Verdeans established a home away from home, a new world view, and a Cape Verdean diaspora.

Image: Madalan photograph (attached below but will be re-scanned)

Text: "The Madalan" packet ship pulling away from the pier on South Water Street in Fox Point. This photograph was taken by Joseph "Budh" Latham in the 1950s. . Courtesy of Lou Costa.

Text: The Ernestina

Captain Henrique Mendes was the Captain of the Ernestina. The ship was originally built as a fishing schooner in 1894. Mendes purchased, repaired and named the ship after his daughter in 1948. The Ernestina traveled back and forth between Providence and the Cape Verde Islands up through the 1960s.

Object: Captain Henrique Jose Mendes’ Certificate of Service to Able Seaman. (original to be framed and mounted)

Text:Captain Henrique Jose Mendes’ Certificate of Service to Able Seaman. This license is dated and signed March 1937. Courtesy of Claire Andrade-Watkins

Object: Portrait of Captain Mendes (original to be framed and mounted)

Text: Portrait of Captain Henrique Jose Mendes Courtesy of Claire Andrade-Watkins

Object: Visa from Cape Verde to Providence (laminated paper, approximately 8 1/2 x 13")

Text: This document is a Visa that indicates permission to travel from Cape Verde to Providence. Courtesy of Claire Andrade-Watkins.

Object Model of Ernestina (approximate dimensions 2 x 3 x 4 feet)

Text: Courtesy of Rhode Island College