Recognizing that diversity is our strength, Mary Santos Barros (1923-2018) was a strong and tireless advocate for equal education for all, Cape Verdean advancement, and many other causes in New Bedford. She demonstrated how others can build an inclusive community that treats all people with respect and dignity.

Mary’s concern for her own children and the children of others informed her active advocacy through Parent Teacher Associations (PTA)—coalitions of parents and teachers that advocate for public education and serve as a resource for community families. During the mid-20th century, many women used PTAs to organize on their children’s behalf. Mary often served as president of these PTAs. She also served on the executive committee of the Committee of Concerned Parents for New Bedford schools and was instrumental in the building and dedication of the Alfred J. Gomes Elementary School in 1977, named for a local Cape Verdean attorney and leader.

Using her experiences working in the PTA as a launching pad, Mary became more politically involved. Mary recognized that in order to accomplish certain objectives, one has to be active on many levels. Through a grassroots campaign, going door-to-door, to meet and listen to her constituents, she was elected to the New Bedford City Council in 1989 and served two terms as Ward 4 councilor. Upon her election she remarked that she would be “in the City Council for all the people of Ward 4.” Mary, like Rosalind Poll Brooker before her, brought her knowledge of the community to the Council to fight for changes from within City Hall. Her time in political office was marked by her support for affordable housing, drug rehabilitation programs, anti-poverty efforts, and continued educational advocacy through legislation.

She also brought her advocacy to the state level as a social worker for the Massachusetts Department of Social Services and as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education from 1975-1979. She was recognized “for her distinguished service through the establishment of increased opportunities for the youth and exemplary parent participation.” She was also elected as a city and then a state Committeewoman to the Democratic Party Conventions.

Mary was a strong advocate for all people, particularly people of color, and especially Cape Verdeans. Her own Cape Verdean heritage was important to her and she did much to help Cape Verdeans in New Bedford and the land of her parents. When natural disasters assaulted Cape Verde, Mary, using her organizing skills, worked with others to lobby on state and federal levels to raise funds and send needed supplies to the islands. A believer in political empowerment as well, Mary helped many Cape Verdean immigrants become American citizens and served as a voice for immigrant parents, often taking them to school committee meetings and interpreting for them.

Her legacy is a powerful example that served as a role-model for her own children and all community members, as she spread the knowledge that they can empower themselves and strengthen the community.

Thank you to the family of Mary Santos Barros for their contributions to Mary’s biography and providing photographs. Their stories showcased Mary’s special qualities and tireless efforts on behalf of her family and community.

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With careers marked by a series of firsts in New Bedford politics, Rosalind Poll Brooker (1928-2016) and Rosemary Tierney (1932-2020) were trailblazers for women in law and politics. Rosalind, the first woman elected to the City Council, the first female City Council president, and the first female City Solicitor; and Rosemary, the first and only woman to be elected mayor, as of 2021, used political office to mobilize change from within the walls of City Hall.

Rosalind Poll Brooker overcame every obstacle to make her community a better place. Not only did Rosalind enter the fields of law and politics at a time when women were expected to focus on home and family, she also did not let polio, which left her using crutches, hold her back. She began her public service career in 1969 when she was elected to the New Bedford City Council. Although she was first passed over to be City Council president, Rosalind was elected to the role at the next opportunity. Her colleagues described her as tough, kind, fair, and tenacious.

Mayor John Bullard, who named Rosalind as New Bedford’s first female City Solicitor, the chief legal officer of the city, stated “As a city councilor she had a strong personality. She was a great lawyer and a dynamic person.” Former New Bedford City Solicitor Irene Schall remembered Rosalind as an intelligent leader dedicated to advancing women attorneys. Shortly after her 1969 election, Rosalind stated, “I’m not going down in history, I’m going up.” She continued to rise up throughout her life bringing other women with her.

Committed to public education, Rosemary Tierney was elected to the New Bedford School Committee in 1971, where she served for several years. Beginning in 1984, she was elected to the Massachusetts Governor’s Council three times. Rosemary’s trademark grassroots campaigning style, which she perfected in these early elections drove her to victory in the 1991 mayoral race. Former Mayor Scott Lang remembered Rosemary as someone who "understood that door-to-door neighborhood campaigning and personal relationships drove public policy. No one in the City has ever built coalitions to drive an issue like Rosemary Tierney."

Rosemary succeeded in the arena of male-dominated politics by working hard to create programs and policies that included all New Bedford residents. During her first year in office, she unveiled her “Cornerstone for Change” plan to rebuild New Bedford. Perhaps her most important accomplishment was restoring New Bedford’s financial stability through tough budgetary controls.

As firsts in their offices in New Bedford, Rosalind and Rosemary encouraged other women to be politically active by supporting female lawyers and harnessing the networking power of women and women’s groups to strengthen grassroots campaigning. They brought traditional community-based organizing into the formal halls of city government, opening new avenues for women to enact change in areas dominated by men.

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While Samuel Ward King, as Rhode Island’s other governor, was Dorr’s most obvious rival, his opponents were many. One of these opponents, John Brown Francis, had himself served as governor of Rhode Island a decade before King and Dorr. Francis, like Dorr, had been born to an illustrious family. His grandfather, John Brown, had been a merchant of immense wealth, and Francis’ father, John Francis, had gone into the profitable family business when he married Francis’ mother, Abigail. Unlike Dorr, however, Francis supported the status quo as codified by Rhode Island’s state charter.

Francis was part of the three-man delegation sent by Samuel Ward King to D.C. in April 1842 to meet with President Tyler. King had charged this select group--Francis and Elisha Potter, Jr., conservative rural Democrats, and Whig attorney John Whipple--to seek the President’s support for the Charterite cause. Tyler assured the group that he would not hesitate to send military assistance should the need arise from a Dorr-led insurrection. 

The two opposing parties indeed appeared headed for conflict when they both attempted to take what each believed to be their rightful seat as the governing body of Rhode Island. On May 3, 1842, Dorr and the officials in his new administration paraded through the streets of Providence, from Hoyle’s Tavern eastward to the State House on North Main Street. Unfortunately, the Charterites had thoughtfully locked the building, barring Dorr and his followers from assuming power there. Instead, they had to convene in an unfinished building on Eddy Street.

In a move to quell growing frustrations on both sides, moderates from both parties began to push for a new constitution that would serve as a compromise. Conservative John Brown Francis had come around, too, in the face of potentially more violent conflicts. Francis declared: ‘We must have free suffrage or civil war.”

This site at 150 Benefit Street is the location of the Old State House.

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Though the area around it has changed over the years, Providence City Hall remains a constant in downtown Providence. Constructed in the 1870s, the cast iron and masonry structure witnessed the evolution of Exchange Place into Kennedy Plaza, two hurricanes, and multiple cycles of economic depression and growth. Initially, Providence’s municipal government was located in the crowded Market House, across the Providence river. Needing a bigger space, alderman were split on where to put a new city hall. Half of the council lived on the east side of the river, and half on the west, causing a thirty-year struggle over where to put the new government building. Eventually, the west side won and the cornerstone was laid on June 24, 1875. In the 1950s the city’s downtown master plan called for the demolition of City Hall, but it was saved and restored, reflecting the city’s pride in its historic roots.

Just outside of City Hall is a home for America’s oldest food cart: Haven Brothers Diner.  Despite the misleading name, no brothers were involved in the founding of the Haven Brothers. Indeed it was founded in 1893 by Anne Haven, an immigrant widow who used her husband’s life insurance policy to purchase the horse drawn wagon that became the legendary lunch cart. Assisted by her daughter, Catherine Gannon, the cart grew into a legendary Providence food establishment. The Haven family sold their food cart in 1953 to the Mollicone family; the cart is still open for business every day at 5:00pm. Truly a Rhode Island institution, it has only left once since opening for operation. In 2009, the cart traveled to visit Today Show hosts Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira in New York City. Both Lauer and Vieira frequented Haven Brothers while working for Channel 10 Providence.

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At the crest of Smith Hill, once pastureland for a sleepy colonial town, sits a marble giant, the Rhode Island State House. Designed by the renowned architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, responsible for the design of the Boston Public Library (1895) and renovations to the White House (1902), the domed building fitted in white Georgia marble was built (1895-1904) during a period of industrial prosperity for Rhode Island. In fact, thanks to the successes of textile, machine-tool, and jewelry manufacturing, to name only a few, Rhode Island emerged as one of the most prosperous states in the nation at the turn of the twentieth century. The State House stands as a testament to that wealth.

Inside the State House, a Royal Charter Museum showcases the Colonial Charter granted in 1663 by King Charles II of England. The Charter represents the first official sanctioning by a monarch of a colony that guaranteed religious liberty. In addition to the Charter, the Museum also displays materials that tell the fraught story of early relations between Rhode Island’s indigenous people, the Narragansetts, and English colonists. These materials include the original deed to Providence secured by Roger Williams and signed by Narragansett sachems Canonicus and Miantonomo. Thanks to his friendship with the Narragansett leaders, Williams would claim that, unlike other colonial land deals, “It was not price or money that could have purchased Rhode Island. Rhode Island was purchased by love.” Many assume that the statue atop the State House dome depicts Williams. However, the gold-covered bronze figure actually represents Rhode Island's Independent Man, embodying the spirit of freedom of thought and action that Williams espoused.

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