Newport’s Center for Black History Opens this Juneteenth Weekend

The attic of the Center for Black History is where enslaved individuals likely resided, and is the site where an nkisi spirit bundle was discovered under the floorboards in 2005. (Photo by Jennifer Manville Photography)

A long-awaited hub for scholarship and education in Newport is opening its doors wide over Juneteenth weekend.

The Edward W. Kane & Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History, an initiative of the Newport Historical Society, officially opens with a ribbon cutting this Friday, June 19. The center was developed in partnership with the city’s Black community and aims for a more inclusive and representative telling of Newport’s history.

Akeia de Barros Gomes, the center’s director, notes the importance of the collaboration that went into the project, the result of a yearslong fundraising effort that launched in 2024.

“Creating this center in collaboration with Newport’s Black community has been a deeply meaningful and fulfilling journey,” she says. “The experiences of Black Newporters are fundamental to Newport life and culture — throughout history and today — and we are so excited to share this reimagined space with the community for the first time.”

The center was supported by a capital campaign that raised nearly $5 million, including a lead gift from donors Ed Kane and Marty Wallace.

According to NHS Executive Director Rebecca Bertrand, the center will feature two permanent galleries focused on Newport and its role in the transatlantic slave trade and the African diaspora, as well as more localized stories focused on African American and Indigenous people living in Newport. The building also features changing exhibition space and a backyard sculpture garden and will host educational programs as well as ongoing research and special events.

“Through this dynamic new space, we will explore voices and histories that have been too long overlooked and put them at the center of our conversation. We hope to inspire dialogue, deepen understanding, and help preserve and share the enduring contributions of Black Americans,” Bertrand says.

The center is located in the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, the seventeenth-century house on Broadway originally built for merchant Stephen Mumford. In 2005, representatives of the NHS working on the home found an nkisi bundle hidden beneath an attic floorboard. The bundle was likely owned by Cardardo Wanton, an enslaved man who lived in the house in the 1770s. It consisted of buttons, nails, shells and other items and likely held a spiritual significance connecting its owner with his African ancestry.

As part of this weekend’s celebrations, the center will host a family day and open house on Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., featuring free family-friendly activities on the lawn. Activities will include storytelling, crafts and a dance performance by Soul Value, an innovative program celebrating the country’s 250^th anniversary through rigorous historical research and creative interpretation that foreground New England’s role in shaping the ideals of freedom, equality and independence.

That evening, the NHS will host an opening celebration at the Great Friends Meeting House, featuring keynote remarks from Heather McGhee, scholar, expert and author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. The event will also include a fireside chat with de Barros Gomes, with proceeds supporting the center.

The weekend concludes with an interfaith celebration at the center on Sunday at 1 p.m. After this weekend, the center will be open regular visiting hours Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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