The Second Hiker
From the colonial period, the area that is now Kennedy Plaza has been a transportation hub. Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) frames Kennedy Plaza, formerly known as Exchange Place, with bus stops facing out into the busy street. Trees run parallel within the Plaza, stretching lengthwise between City Hall and the Federal Building. On either side of Kennedy Plaza, there are two monuments: Kitson’s Hiker (1911) and Randolph Rogers’ Soldiers and Sailors (est. 1871).
The Hiker is of a violent nature, largely because the figure holds the rifle as if engaged in battle. The monument suggests movement; the soldier is prepared to lift his right foot forward, step down, and shoot. The gun, coupled with the rugged, masculine, figure of the soldier in the bare bones of a uniform, abides by and further establishes a dimension of intimidation through white manliness. He forces the onlooker to remember that there are authoritative figures who do not stand adjacent but above them.
Due to the nature of the plaza and the fact that it is not a place of recreation but of transportation, people are not there for a long time. This space often renders it in a particular paradigm of being visible and invisible. People who do stay for prolonged periods of time are unhoused. What does it mean for them to wake up and have a gun pointed in their direction? What does it mean for their home to be invaded by a colonial object? Even if other people did stay there for a while, all the bus stop benches are facing the street and not the center of the Plaza; the landscape does not encourage the public to engage with the Hiker and it is often rendered invisible. This invisibility allows for the monument to be ignored, discouraging people from acknowledging its racist and colonial origins. For those who do perceive the monument, its purpose is distilled to its appearance: a white man holding a rifle. If they read the medallion, then they are misled by its text as it was not solely dedicated to “Spanish War Veterans” nor was the Spanish-American War from 1898 to 1902. This monument is aggressively present, yet often disregarded—leaving it uncritiqued.
The Hiker’s lack of a full ceremonial uniform signals a desire to represent the "casual" soldier, insinuating that any onlooker could also be fighting for the nation’s cause in future battles.[9] Therefore, the monument serves as a recruiting agent by representing the common man. These notions of male gender performance were being informed by a new age of manliness championed by Theodore Roosevelt: the leader of the Rough Riders. This begs the question of who is allowed to see themself within this sculpture.
Was it only white male veterans who fought in any of these three events and their white descendants? Was it Capt. Allyn K. Capron Camp No. 1 and Sidney F. Hoar Camp No. 4 United Spanish War veterans who sponsored this Hiker? Was it Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Asian veterans from these global colonial disputes? Is it the Black and Brown populations who mainly frequent Kennedy Plaza for transportation? How do the monument’s ‘recruiting agent qualities’ speak to a history of racial profiling that such communities face?
With the Federal Building and City Hall on either side of Kennedy Plaza, there are patriotic and legislative qualities imbued within the physical space surrounding the monument. Such forces that have been created by white supremacists to systematically undermine and mistreat people of color, particularly Black people. The monument itself takes up these racist and exclusionary principles; it is situated within a context that he cannot escape from. The Hiker is a symbol of white supremacy, imperial conquest, and colonization.