MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: One outcome we know from this Election Day - a name change for Rhode Island. It will no longer be known as, quote, the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. A ballot measure removes Providence Plantations.
AILSA CHANG, HOST: That s right. A longtime proponent of the change, state Senator Harold Metts, says 10 years ago Rhode Islanders voted to keep the phrase because.
HAROLD METTS: People didn t understand at the time how hurtful the word plantation are to people of African American descent.
KELLY: Professor Linford Fisher of Brown University says the phrase goes back to the state s earliest days.