Democracy on display at Phillips Memorial Library
By Michael Hagan ’15, ’19G
Just in time for the presidential election, Providence College Archives and Special Collections curated a political history exhibit displayed this semester in Phillips Memorial Library. The exhibit, You’ve Got the Power: A Brief History of Elections & Civic Engagement, illuminates the history of voting rights and electoral politics in and beyond Rhode Island in the 20th century. Much of the campaign memorabilia on display is drawn from collections donated by Colonel John V. “Jack” Brennan ’59 and longtime Democratic staffers J. Lyons Moore and Marian Gilmore Moore.
This exhibit highlights the importance of civic engagement and the ongoing efforts to safeguard our democratic values.
PC Archives and Special Collections
The exhibit includes a button from the unsuccessful 1970 campaign of Judge Frank Caprio ’58, ’08Hon. for Attorney General of Rhode Island. Caprio was elected to the Providence City Council in 1962 at age 25. He served six years on the council and has been a delegate to five Democratic National Conventions. He became a judge on the Providence Municipal Court in 1985, retiring from the role of chief judge in 2023.
Col. Brennan was the Marine Corps aide to President Richard Nixon. Through this role, which included “carrying the football” — codes with which the president could order a nuclear strike — he joined Nixon on historic diplomatic visits to China and the Soviet Union. Brennan accompanied Nixon as he resigned his office and departed the White House on August 9, 1974, and he left active duty to become the former president’s chief of staff in 1975. He later served as a civilian in the administrations of presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Brennan donated documents, oral histories, and ephemera from his White House service and political activities to Providence College in 2004 and was a longtime donor to PC Athletics. He died in October 2023.
J. Lyons Moore and Marian Gilmore Moore married in 1951 and served the Democratic Party and Democratic elected officials in several roles from the 1940s until J. Lyons’ death in 1969 and Marian’s retirement in 1971. A Rhode Island native, Marian donated correspondences and ephemera connected to approximately 200 prominent Democratic officials to Providence College in 1972.
Also exhibited are materials donated by the Urban League of Rhode Island from voting rights and voter advocacy campaigns in the 1960s. Founded in 1939 as an affiliate of the National Urban League, the organization works to eliminate discrimination and for “the achievement of parity for Blacks, other minorities, and the poor in every phase of American life.”
