Racist graffiti hits close to home for Smithfield family
Three generations of the Porter family trace the townâs steps forward and backward on race
By Edward Fitzpatrick Globe Staff,Updated February 5, 2021, 6:00 a.m.
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Kim Ziegelmayer, her son Ray Porter, and her former husband Kevin Porter stand next to the pillars of the bridge along the Stillwater Scenic Trail in Smithfield, R.I., where Ziegelmayer found racist graffiti, which has since been painted over.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
SMITHFIELD, R.I. â Hattie Mae Burroughs-Porter remembers the day, back in the 1940s, when she passed by two women while walking to school in Greensboro, Alabama. By the time she arrived home, someone had told her older sister that the young Black girl had refused to step off the sidewalk for the two white ladies.