R.I. civil rights leader Clifford Montiero honored as ‘History Maker’
R.I. Historical Society recognizes former NAACP Providence branch president for activism ranging from sleep-ins at the State House to the famous march in Selma, Alabama

PROVIDENCE — In the black-and-white news footage from 1968, a television reporter asks Clifford R. Montiero an intriguing question.

“If you had your way, what three things would you do or have done to help not just South Providence but the entire parts of Providence that are suffering from under-employment, inadequate housing?”

Montiero, then a 31-year-old emerging civil rights leader from Providence, provided an answer that seems just as timely and relevant today as it did 53 years ago: He called for decent and affordable housing, job training and opportunities, plus education about Black history.