Family and Friends of Michael Van Leesten Clean Graffiti Off Providence Pedestrian Bridge
GoLocalProv News Team
Family and Friends of Michael Van Leesten Clean Graffiti Off Providence Pedestrian Bridge
Earlier this week vandals spraypainted Black Lives Matter on the bridge. The vandalism was disavowed by organizers of the BLM effort in Providence. SEE VIDEO HERE
Van Leesten’s daughter Jill and his close friends Ali Cabral and Terry Cannon visited the bridge at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning to remove the graffiti from the bridge.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCabral and Cannon were friends with Van Leesten for more than 50 years and the two were co-captains of the Community College of Rhode Island basketball team back in the late-1960s.
“We went down to the Bridge this morning at 8:00 am and tried to clean it up.,” said Jill Van Leesten.
“This bridge, like Michael Van Leesten, is all about the people of Providence. It’s connecting the city. A place of peace. We need to protect it,” said Cabral.
As GoLocal wrote in an editorial first suggesting the Pedestrian Bridge be named after Van Leesten on August 29, 2019:
"We recommend the bridge be named for the ultimate bridge builder -- Michael Van Leesten.
A man, who just out of college was in the South and in danger fighting for freedom and civil rights in his early 20s.
A man, who at 80-years-old, was still working to build an enduring organization that trains workers and uplifts spirits.
Van Leesten, like the bridge, was smooth — cool like a New Orleans sax player. He was the mix of those juxtaposing features. A man who not only could work and live with every community, but far more importantly could bring diverse people together.
He lived an amazingly accomplished life — athlete, civil rights advocate, community leader, entrepreneur, father, friend, and mentor. He did them all with an elevating touch.
His talents were immense. His passion was unwavering. He touched everyone. To not have met Van Leesten and enjoyed his leadership, vision, and energy for the community, would be to never have visited a beach in Rhode Island. You really missed out on one of the state’s best experiences."
Van Leesten burst on to the public sphere as a star basketball player at Rhode Island College. His athletic success put him among the best basketball players in Rhode Island history. He graduated in 1965 from RIC.
Upon graduation, Van Leesten became active in the civil rights movement. “I participated in SCLC SCOPE project in Choctaw County, Alabama with six other college students doing community organization and voter registration work. It was a defining point in my life,” Van Leesten said.
"Mike Van Leesten was my age and one of my closest friends. He spent a summer in the Movement in Alabama and I spent two years as a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi," said Malcolm Farmer -- a former Providence City Councilman and top corporate attorney in Providence.
"We often talked about how those experiences made us better persons, fathers, community leaders and husbands. It was an unbelievable treat to work with Mike at OIC and in other efforts to combat the ill effects of Amèrica’s original sin which are stronger than ever. Mike fought for social justice without ever seeking credit and with humanity. He remains one of Rhode Island’s greatest citizens. Every American has suffered a great loss," said Farmer at his passing.
This story was first published 6/20/20 3:38 PM