Keith & Theresa Stokes

Theresa Guzman Stokes is a free-lance writer and a passionate researcher of ethnic American history, having dedicated the past twenty years as a writer and web site designer specializing in multi-cultural topics and history (fiction and non-fiction).

Formerly an editor of Newport Life Magazine and columnist for Reunion, her professional career covers 20-plus years in the creative and historic research areas, having written numerous articles on the history of the early African American and Jewish communities of Newport and New England. She recently designed and published the “God’s Little Acre” web site portraying the oldest free and enslaved African cemetery in America. She is currently working on a novel “Eyes of Glory” based on the Civil War experience of the Forrester family, one of America’s earliest free families of color.

Keith Stokes is the former Executive Director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce and is a past national advisor representing Rhode Island with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Touro Synagogue Foundation and has served on the boards of the Newport Historical Society and Preservation Society of Newport County. Keith is a descendant of Newport’s early African American and Jewish families and has ancestors buried in God’s Little Acre.

Together, they have lectured extensively on the early experiences of ethnic American families. The Stokes’ possess an extensive personal collection of rare books, documents, furniture, and other artifacts that date back over 200 years of ethnic American family experiences.

Keith and Theresa reside in historic Newport, Rhode Island. Together they are the founders of 1696 Heritage Group.