Celebrating our literary ancestors
Eric Walrond (1898 – 1966)
Norman Cameron (1903 – 1983)

By Petamber Persaud

WITH Barack Obama becoming the first African-American to take office as President of the United States of America, it would be useful to examine the life and work of two Guyanese writers who may have contributed to that celebrated event.

Eric Walrond, born in Guyana in 1898, was destined to write ‘The Great Negro Book’. Walrond was by then a member of the ‘Harlem Renaissance’, and had just published a collection of short fiction, ‘TROPIC DEATH’ (1926). ‘TROPIC DEATH’ was valued alongside ‘THE QUEST OF THE SILVER FLEECE’ by W E B Du Bois; ‘THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-COLORED MAN’ by James W Johnson; and ‘HARLEM SHADOW’ by Claude McKay.

It was indeed an honour for Walrond to be singled out to write the ‘Great Negro Book’ from among other notable writers, including Langston Hughes. But Walrond was a one-book wonder. Although he gained a Guggenheim fellowship to produce that certain work, Walrond failed to produce any substantial literary work after ‘Tropic Death’. And it was not for the want of trying. Marvel Cooke, a female admirer of Walrond’s, disclosed how their friendship suffered when he went to Jamaica for six months to concentrate on his book; she said he extended his stay for another six months, within which time he disappeared from the public’s eye, ending up in Britain.

Walrond’s death, from a heart attack, in 1966 on a London street attracted little attention in the UK, the USA, Barbados, Jamaica, Panama or in Guyana – all places where he lived at one time or another.

While one Guyanese writer failed to write the ‘Great Negro Book’, another could claim that distinction; a distinction that fell to Norman Cameron, who published his magnum opus, ‘THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEGRO’, in 1929.

‘THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEGRO’ was published when the subject was shunned by thinkers on the British colonial portion of the world. The production of this book was remarkable. It was produced during a time of economic depression, due to the Wall Street crash; money was scarce, and so was paper. Cameron self-published this book right here in British Guiana with his own money, and then went from door to door to sell copies, accounting for 500 in three months.

‘THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEGRO’, according to Joycelynne Loncke, was ‘well-thought-out and constructed. First, the author would deal with ‘classical’ Africa, before the advent of the European colonisers. Next, he would examine the various aspects of colonisation and the slave trade; then he would discuss Emancipation and its eventual implications for the youth’.

Apart from his magnum opus, Cameron wrote other valuable books including, ‘THOUGHTS ON LIFE AND LITERATURE’, ‘ADVENTURES IN THE FIELD OF CULTURE’, ‘HISTORY OF QUEEN’S COLLEGE’, and ‘150 YEARS OF EDUCATION IN GUYANA’. Cameron edited ‘GUIANESE POETRY’ a collection of a century of Guianese poetry from 1831 to 1931, making him the first Guyanese to do so.

Educationist, mathematician, historian, poet, dramatist, sportsman, cultural activist and social reformer, Norman Eustace Cameron was born in New Amsterdam, Berbice, on January 26, 1903, not far from the birthplaces of Edgar Mittelholzer and Wilson Harris. Although Cameron was blessed with a “light but pleasant tenor voice,” he was a trailblazer, pioneer and pacesetter. All of this due in no small way to the fact that his father’s great thirst for knowledge rubbed off on him, and his mother’s wonderful organising ability grounded in religious tenets was foisted upon him.

Many honours and awards lit up his life. In 1962, he was made a Member of the British Empire. Ten years later, he was awarded the Golden Arrow of Achievement by the Government of Guyana. In 1976, he gained the Sir Alfred Victor Crane Gold Medal for outstanding contribution to education.

And a few days before he died in 1983, he received the country’s highest award, the Cacique Crown of Honour.

Respect and Rememberance to those who used their skill, determination and efforts to advance the just and good.

Frederick Douglass was born in a slave cabin, in February, 1818, near the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Separated from his mother when only a few weeks old he was raised by his grandparents. At about the age of six, his grandmother took him to the plantation of his master and left him there. Not being told by her that she was going to leave him, Douglass never recovered from the betrayal of the abandonment. When he was about eight he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master. It was shortly after his arrival that his new mistress taught him the alphabet. When her husband forbade her to continue her instruction, because it was unlawful to teach slaves how to read, Frederick took it upon himself to learn. He made the neighborhood boys his teachers, by giving away his food in exchange for lessons in reading and writing. At about the age of twelve or thirteen Douglass purchased a copy of The Columbian Orator, a popular schoolbook of the time, which helped him to gain an understanding and appreciation of the power of the spoken and the written word, as two of the most effective means by which to bring about permanent, positive change.
Returning to the Eastern Shore, at approximately the age of fifteen, Douglass became a field hand, and experienced most of the horrifying conditions that plagued slaves during the 270 years of legalized slavery in America. But it was during this time that he had an encounter with the slavebreaker Edward Covey. Their fight ended in a draw, but the victory was Douglass', as his challenge to the slavebreaker restored his sense of self-worth. After an aborted escape attempt when he was about eighteen, he was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld family, and in early September, 1838, at the age of twenty, Douglass succeeded in escaping from slavery by impersonating a sailor.
He went first to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he and his new wife Anna Murray began to raise a family. Whenever he could he attended abolitionist meetings, and, in October, 1841, after attending an anti-slavery convention on Nantucket Island, Douglass became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and a colleague of William Lloyd Garrison. This work led him into public speaking and writing. He published his own newspaper, The North Star, participated in the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, in 1848, and wrote three autobiographies. He was internationally recognized as an uncompromising abolitionist, indefatigable worker for justice and equal opportunity, and an unyielding defender of women's rights. He became a trusted advisor to Abraham Lincoln, United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds for Washington, D.C., and Minister-General to the Republic of Haiti.

James Sayers Orr (aka "Angel Gabriel")
http://www.guyana.org/features...story/chapter58.html

Sir George Alleyne


http://www.un.org/events/women...004/bio_alleyne.html

BOB MARLEY

"I love the development of our music, that's what I
really dig about the whole thing. How we've tried
to develop, y'know? It grows. That's why every day
people come forward with new songs. Music goes on
forever."

http://www.niceup.com/bmbio.html

Introduction



Rosemary Brown (1930-2003) was a social worker, academic, politician, and feminist who with "unwavering single mindedness" fought for justice for both women and minorities across Canada (photograph by Barbara Woodley/Labatt Breweries of Canada/Library and Archives Canada/PA-186871).



African-Canadians have contributed to all areas, enriching the Canadian educational, political, business, religious, and cultural landscapes. Early contributors worked within the Black community, without much public recognition. Sometimes, a Black person would gain high office due to their skill, experience, wealth, or commitment that made their race less of an issue. Later, as more opportunities were fought for, or opened up, more African-Canadians could enter a wider range of public positions.

Those who tread where no other African-Canadian had before broke ground for others. As co-workers, colleagues, and the broader community interacted with the new "coloured" person, the process allowed them to face head-on their own preconceived notions based on race and possibly replace them with realistic knowledge about the individual's ability, interests, and strengths.

African-Canadians were at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement in the 1800s and were equally involved in human rights struggles in the 1960s and 1970s. Following the Black Power movement and the many incidents of violence directed at the African-American community through church bombings, and violent reactions to non-violent protests, African-Canadians were also compelled to look critically at this society and to seek justice. Canadian segregation was addressed, and dealt a severe blow through the Viola Desmond incident, but more work had to take place across the country to loosen the hold of negative laws, behaviours, and practices. Those who worked to create change and who have taken a risk on behalf of the rights of others have helped to recast Canadian society.

Rosemary Sadlier

Introduction



Image: After the War of 1812, over 500 Black people were settled at Hammonds Plains. This painting, c1835, shows a Black family on the Hammonds Plains Road, with Bedford Basin in the background. (watercolour by Robert Petley, courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-115424).



The earliest Black communities were established in the Maritime Provinces; Birchtown became the largest settlement of free Africans outside Africa. The first large wave of Africans to arrive in Canada were free Black Loyalists invited by the British government and promised land, provisions, and freedom for their support during the American War of Independence. Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, invited all male slaves owned by Rebels to join the British cause, promising them freedom. As losses mounted, Henry Clinton, the British Commander-in-Chief, invited all slaves to join the British, again promising freedom. At least 3500 Blacks supported the British and were landed in Canada, 10% of all Loyalists.

Blacks were the last to receive plots of land, often waiting years. Part of the problem was the amount of land to be surveyed, with too few surveyors. Land was usually remote, rocky, and too small to feed a family. Those who came into Canada on the Underground Railroad faced different obstacles. Initially, they were seen as valuable workers. Then the trickle became a flood of Black arrivals. By the 1840s and following the American Civil War, they were not as welcome, since immigration from Europe had increased. They were expected to return to the United States, but the former enslaved Blacks did not necessarily have a place to return to. Free Blacks, some of whom had been born in Canada, would have had to forfeit their homes and businesses. But they had established themselves here; Canada was their home

Reprinted from Political Affairs Magazine, the magazine of the Communist Party USA.



Editor's note: Henry Winston is the former chair of the Communist Party USA (1966-1986). Jarvis Tyner is the executive vice chair of the .




PA: In his book, Strategy for a Black Agenda, published over 30 years ago, Henry Winston postulated that a new stage of struggle had been reached, one that combined the struggle for civil rights with the struggle for economic rights. In your view, are we still at this stage?

JARVIS TYNER: Strategy for a Black Agenda first came out in 1973. The book was and remains a fundamental contribution to the struggle. The issues that Henry Winston raised centered on the unity of the class and national questions. In his book, he stressed the need for the Black liberation movement to come to grips with the long-term economic crisis faced by our community, and to direct the struggle against racism toward a broader struggle against the power of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. I think that message is still very powerful. I also think that we are still in that stage of the struggle, although the situation today is more complex in a lot of ways.

PA: There is a story that Henry Winston actually met with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Is that true?

TYNER: I was there when they met. It was when King came to speak at the centennial celebration of W.E.B. Du Bois and made that sterling speech against anti-communism as he paid tribute to Du Bois. Winston asked me and a couple of other comrades to be with him backstage. When Dr. King came in they shook hands and he said, “Mr. Winston, I’m so glad to meet you!” They exchanged a number of appreciations, and Winnie (as he was affectionately known) mentioned that he had two Southern brothers. Winnie was from Mississippi originally, so he and King had that kind of rapport. It only lasted about 10-15 minutes, but it was a very nice exchange. At that time if your remember King was meeting with Malcolm X. He was trying to bridge the gap that had been artificially imposed on the movement – that the nationalists couldn’t talk to the civil rights people – the integrationists – and that the Left was a pariah in the civil rights movement. He was challenging all of that near the end. He was coming out against the Vietnam War. So the meeting between Winston and King meeting was very appropriate in that context, and it went very well. As we know, King was not afraid to examine radical ideas. And Winnie was very brilliant on the tactics and strategy of the civil rights movement and the fight against racism. I think they both appreciated each other’s role very much. It was a very nice meeting, at which I sat back in awe of these two great Black leaders.

PA: On the issue of strategy and tactics, Winston wrote often about the important role of African Americans in the labor movement for galvanizing the entire labor movement behind the civil rights struggle. How would you characterize his assessment of the role of Black workers?

TYNER: Winston understood that Black people, in general, were 95-96% working class. In Detroit, for instance, you had a very high percentage of industrial workers who were African American, and although Detroit has been devastated by the decline in the auto industry, NAFTA, and all the other problems of globalization, nevertheless, those are the people’s roots.

Winston used to say that African American steelworkers, autoworkers, electrical workers, etc. had to be viewed in the context of the fight for civil rights. What he understood and what he taught us was that there was a link between the class and national questions, and that Black workers played a decisive role in that respect. In the history of our struggle, even in the antebellum slavery period, Black workers, freed and slave – the slaves themselves, of course, were workers, they just weren’t paid – comprised the largest number of abolitionists, in the sense that they were fighting for their own freedom.

Black workers played a tremendous role at that stage in the fight against slavery, and in the post-slavery period and during Reconstruction, Black farmers and working-class ex-slaves played a key role in the fight for a new democracy. That continued all the way through to the great upsurge of the 30s, when it was possible to organize workers in the Deep South on the basis of anti-racism, in which the Party played a big role, and again Black workers came to the fore. If look at who led the civil rights movement in the South, you can say that it was led by middle-class people like King and the preachers, but who was their constituency? The constituency was rural Blacks, farm workers, small farmers, and, of course, in the cities, workers in the mills and factories down there. Steelworkers in Birmingham played a huge role in this fight.

This was what Winnie always taught us. He helped the Party see the strategic role of African American workers, particularly the organized sector of the working class, in advancing the struggle for the liberation of our people, and indeed of society as a whole. He always talked about the advanced Black proletariat in different parts of the country, who had gone into industry and found their way into unions – who had to break their way in in many ways – and who played a very militant role in the rank-and-file.

These workers brought their skill and organization, and the power of the labor movement, into the African American fight for freedom and the civil rights movement, and in that sense their role was historic and critical to moving forward. Racism is rooted in capitalism, and therefore who was better able to fight capitalism and racism than the people who were producing that surplus value, who understood how the system worked, and could play a leading role? That is why the working class is always the most consistent fighter in the Black community for an end to racism.

PA: Given the fact that Winston placed the unity of the class and national questions so squarely in the foreground, and that early civil rights organizations like the Civil Rights Congress and International Labor Defense, led by William L. Patterson, unabashedly combined two forms of struggle, the economic and the civil rights struggle, do you think that Winston saw the civil rights movement in the 1960s as having gone off course?

TYNER: No, not at all – he hailed it. If you read the Party literature on the civil rights movement in the 60s or anything Winston wrote about it, it was hailed as a great struggle. Certainly it was centered on social questions, but you cannot foresee how the upsurge is going to come against injustice. It may seek a form that you didn’t foresee. The civil rights movement naturally arose on the basis of the apartheid situation in the South, the fact that people had to go to the back of the bus, that people had to attend segregated schools based on separate and unequal, and that people were not allowed to sit in the same meetings together, Black with white. They went to separate churches, to separate sections of movie theaters upstairs. I remember going down South as a child and sitting upstairs, and I asked my cousin why we were doing this. He said, “Don’t ask that question or we’ll get in trouble.” That was the way it was.

So these were the things that were up front and in your face every day. Those were the questions that the struggle was initiated on. In 1960 with the sit-ins in Greensboro, the Montgomery bus boycott before that, the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision regarding segregated schools, all that happened in Little Rock, that was the way it came about. But I think Dr. King understood – and this was something Winnie had done a lot of thinking and writing about – that it was indeed necessary for that struggle to now take on a more class-oriented approach and attack the economic roots of racism, that it was necessary to do this in order to structurally change the systemic racism that was linked so closely with capitalist profits and power, and the strength of imperialism around the world. Henry Winston wrote about that in his Strategy for a Black Agenda and other works. He brilliantly clarified people’s thinking and made them move forward.

He thought the 1960s were great, but it was the evolution that occurred in the 60s that brought people to that point. Remember that Dr. King went from Montgomery to Memphis to show his solidarity with the sanitation workers there, and that he felt that the need to build the labor movement in the Deep South was so important. He was very close to the labor movement and to the 1199 healthcare workers here in New York, which he called his favorite union – they named their center after him. He really understood those workers very well. It was the hard economic questions, as well, that brought him to oppose to the war in Vietnam. He saw the international role of imperialism, its racism, adventurism, and aggression abroad, as very much related to the fight against racism at home. Du Bois understood that too, and King stood on the shoulders of Du Bois and all the other greats before them.

They both knew about William L. Patterson, and about the Civil Rights Congress and its great role, and they knew how the process had developed. Back in William Patterson’s day it was Scottsboro and the blatant cases of racist lynching. W.E.B. Du Bois also fought against lynching. All of that culminated in the organization of labor in the South. But now there was a whole new cycle on a different level, and it was linking the class struggle with the national struggle into one powerful coalition. Both in terms of their membership and their programs, groups like the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) and before that the NALC (Negro American Labor Council) embodied that fight, making the link between the class and national questions. Winnie understood that connection very well and wrote about it brilliantly.

PA: What role did Henry Winston play in developing ties between the African American community here and the struggle for national independence on the African continent?

TYNER: At the end of the Vietnam War, the issue that was growing larger and larger was the fight for the defeat of apartheid in South Africa and solidarity with Africa in general. I remember discussing the national issue in the Party and saying that the next big international question was going to be solidarity with African liberation, particularly the end of apartheid in South Africa, which we felt was the kingpin, the key to opening up a new phase of liberation in Africa. I think that has proven true.

Winnie actually knew many of the African leaders and was particularly close to the SACP (South African Communist Party), whose status was illegal, of course, at that point. Therefore, many of its leaders were living in Eastern Europe and western capitalist countries, but they sought health care in the Soviet Union and the GDR (German Democratic Republic). Winnie had actually spent many hours with some of the top leaders of the South African Communist Party, because they met together in health clinics and hospitals. (Winston had suffered a brain tumor while imprisoned in a US federal prison for his leadership in the Communist Party. Before the tumor was treated, in Eastern European health centers, after his release in 1961, it had damaged his optic nerve and caused him to go blind.) They were more than comrades. They were comrades and close, close friends – and they literally had hours to talk over things.

When Winnie returned from abroad, he said that we had to do something on this question. He kept pushing it for many years. He helped initiate the formation of the National Anti-Imperialist Movement in Solidarity with African Liberation or NAMSAL. Henry Winston was the one who came up with the concept of isolating the racists, that is, of boycotting South Africa in every aspect of international diplomatic and economic exchange, to isolate the racists until they ended the system of apartheid. He was the one who raised the issue of freeing Nelson Mandela, and he was the one who knew all the leaders personally, such as Oliver Tambo, the head of the ANC, and Moses Mabhida and J.B. Marks, leaders in the SACP.

Winnie’s writings were extremely popular among the African leaders, because he had a deep, Marxist-Leninist scientific analysis of what was happening in Africa, and he reflected the best thinking that had come out of the African American community on how to liberate the continent. Kwame Nkrumah was associated with our Party when he was here. A lot of African leaders came to the United States to attend college. Some also went to Eastern Europe to school and came back with a Marxist analysis, and that helped to spur things on. Patrice Lumumba, who was murdered, was an advanced thinker and fighter against imperialism who fought to free the people of the Congo. His murder was clearly decided on in Washington and executed from there. And, of course, that sparked this whole movement.

Winnie had a great understanding of what was happening in Africa and conveyed that to us. I know that when African Americans would go to Africa, they would be asked, “Do you know Henry Winston?” And a lot of them didn’t know who Henry Winston was, so when they came back they said, “Who is this Henry Winston? I’ve got to get to know him.” Well, Henry Winston was the Chairman of the Communist Party, and many of them came knocking just to talk to Winnie and to get to know him. He had such prestige on the African continent, the same kind as Paul Robeson had.

The CIA did everything it could to try to block this kind of relationship with the new African leaders. They knew the power of it and what it meant, especially if it was on an anti-imperialist basis, if it was not simply about a color relationship, although that had its place and its reason – and is understandable – but the deeper meaning of Winston's message was anti-imperialism. From that perspective, all the socialist countries were rising and forging solidarity with the African liberation movements, and all the Communist parties around the world were doing the same. This made it possible for a comrade like Winnie, who had a special understanding and outlook, to bring his communist understanding to the struggle and help advance it.

Reprinted from Political Affairs Magazine, the magazine of the Communist Party USA.

Caribbean Blacks in America
by Dhanpaul Narine in the WEST INDIAN
One open door can lead to another. In 1872 Victoria Woodhull created history. She became the first woman to run for President of the United States. At that time Victoria was one of the most famous persons in the country. She was nominated by the Equal Right’s Party and her running- mate was Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist. Douglass went on
to become President Lincoln’s first Ambassador to Haiti. One hundred years later, history of another kind was written.
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman to seek the Presidency of the United States. She credited Victoria Woodhull for taking up the mantle for women and all those who wanted equality. At the Democratic Convention in Miami she explained that she was running for President because one day, “ others will feel themselves as capable of running for high political office as any wealthy, good looking white male.” If only Shirley Chisholm was around on January 20th 2009!
Shirley Chisholm was a product of the Caribbean. Indeed, Caribbean blacks have played a pivotal role in uplifting the consciousness of mainstream America.They have redirected the issues and concerns that confront America to policymakers so that laws can be written to redress injustice. Shirley Chisholm was in the forefront of the struggle for equality and justice. She was born on November 30th 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. Her father was from Guyana and her mother was from Barbados.
Shirley was sent to Barbados for her early education. She praised the
British-style education in Barbados for its discipline and for her early upbringing. Shirley graduated from Brooklyn College in sociology and later from Columbia University in child psychology. She married Conrad Chisholm a Jamaican, in 1949 and together they became involved in local politics. The focal point in their campaign was that minorities needed to be mobilized.
In 1960, Shirley Chisholm founded the Unity Democratic Club, the purpose of which was to organize minorities and to fight for better facilities in her district. Her efforts paid off handsomely when in 1964 she was elected to a State Assembly seat. She supported and won funding for child-care facilities and for schools. In 1968 Chisholm won a seat in Congress and served on the Education and Labor Committees.
A seat in Congress became a springboard for her to run for President in 1972. She did not win but 151 of the delegates voted for her, which was no mean achievement in those days. Shirley Chisholm paved the way for the others, including Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama.
Another Caribbean personality who made a major impact in New York was Bertram Baker. He was from Nevis. This island is famous for another son Alexander Hamilton who became our first Secretary of the Treasury. Bertram Baker became the first black to be elected in New York. He won a seat to the New York State Assembly in 1948. While in the assembly, he wrote laws to ban discrimination based on race. A great honor to come this way was in 1966 when he was appointed by majority whip of the state assembly. This happened to be the highest position achieved by a black politician at the time.
Baker’s interest was not only confined to politics. He was also the executive secretary of the American Tennis Association. The ATA helped to clear the way for players such as Althea Gibson to succeed. It is interesting to note that Baker’s granddaughter Diane Patrick ran for office in Boston and attributed her success to her ‘firebrand’ grandfather.
One of the most celebrated blacks from the Caribbean to live in the United States was Marcus Garvey. He is a national hero of Jamaica. His life was one of action and ideas and some of them ran counter to the period in which he lived. Garvey was born on August 17th 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. He died in London in 1940 at the relatively young age of 52. Garvey’s central message was that black people needed to redeem Africa. He became convinced of this idea based on his travels in Europe and Latin America.
By the time he reached America in1916 he had begun to promote the idea that, “ it was essential to unite all people of African ancestry of the world to one great body to establish a country and absolute government of their own.” Garvey traveled extensively in the United States and by August 1920 his Universal Improvement Association (UNIA) had a membership of 4 million persons. At its international convention that month more than 25, 000 persons listened to Garvey’s speech at Madison Square Garden.
Garvey proposed Liberia as the country of black repatriation and resettlement. This idea was abandoned when business interests in Liberia opposed it. In the meantime two powerful forces were against Garvey. Some black intellectuals in the United States saw Garvey’s campaign as mischievous. The scholar W.E.B Du Bois for instance, called Garvey, “ a dangerous enemy of the Negro race, who was either a lunatic or a traitor.”
The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, wanted to deport Garvey to Jamaica. When a mail charge of fraud stuck Garvey’s stay in the United States were numbered. He was jailed but was eventually pardoned by President Calvin Coolidge. Marcus Garvey was deported to Jamaica in November 1925.
The greatest accolade to be bestowed on Garvey took place on a warm day in Jamaica in June 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta were visiting the island. They laid a wreath at the grave of Marcus Garvey. Dr. King was moved to say the following, “ Marcus Garvey was the first man of color to develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody.”
Today, there are schools and colleges named after him. It is suggested that the ‘Black Star’ in the center of the flag of Ghana was inspired by Garvey. Apart from Chisholm, Baker, and Garvey there are countless blacks of Caribbean origin that have made a tangible contribution to America. Constance Baker Motley helped to write the laws to end segregation in schools. Her parents were from Nevis. General Colin Powell was the US Secretary of State and his parents were from Jamaica. The present Governor of New, York David Paterson, is of Jamaican and Grenadian ancestry.
New Yorkers will note that Una Clarke, from Jamaica, won a seat in the City Council and her daughter Yvette is in the US House of Representatives. In 1953 Hulan E. Jack from St. Lucia became the first black to be elected as Manhattan Borough President. The current President of the Borough of Queens is Helen Marshall who was born in Guyana.
In this Black History Month we should salute the contributions that blacks from the Caribbean are making to America. They have enriched greatly the quality of life in these United States and will continue to do so for many more years.

Eric Holder, the new US AG:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI...lations/#cnnSTCVideo

What he had to say is most profound. The nation must come to grips with its racial past.

From Dhanpaul Narine In "The West Indian"

Shirley Chisholm: Unbought and Unbossed

Whenever Barbados and Guyana get together, good things happen. In 1923, Christopher St. Hill arrived by boat from British Guiana and landed in New York City. Ruby Seale who was born in Christ Church, in Barbados, had arrived in New York two years earlier. Christopher and Ruby got married and they produced eight children. It was the height of the Depression and the family struggled to keep afloat. Christopher worked in a factory while his wife was a seamstress. Little did they know that one of their daughters, Shirley, would reshape politics in America and become one of the most admired women in the world.
Shirley St. Hill was born in Brooklyn New York on November 30, 1924. Life was tough and her parents felt that the discipline and the education system of the Caribbean might be good for her. Shirley was sent to Barbados when she was three years old. She lived with her grandmother. In her autobiography, she commented on her stay in Barbados. “Years later, I would know what an important gift my parents had given me by seeing to it that I had my early education in the strict, traditional, British-style schools of Barbados. If I speak and write easily now, that early education is the main source,” Shirley said.
Shirley returned to New York in 1934, and attended the Girls High School in Brooklyn. She was a bright student, and following her graduation, she enrolled at Brooklyn College to read for a degree in Sociology. While she was an undergraduate, Shirley experienced racism at first hand. Black students at Brooklyn College were denied memberships to certain clubs, and this prompted Shirley to form alternative clubs for these students. In 1945, Shirley graduated with Honors from Brooklyn College and went looking for a job. This too was not easy to get, but after a while she got a job at the Mount Calvary Child Care Center in Harlem. The year 1949 was a momentous one for Shirley because it was in that year that she got married to Conrad Chisholm. He was originally from Jamaica in the West Indies and worked as a private investigator.
The husband and wife team then did something that was revolutionary in those days. They took part in politics and helped to form the Bedford Stuyvesant Political League. Shirley combined her role in politics by working in day care. But she realized that a platform was needed to push her agenda of reform and change. In 1960, Shirley Chisholm formed the Unity Democratic Club and the aim here was to mobilize black and Hispanic voters. During the next four years, she worked hard to unite various groups by lecturing and meeting with the rank and file.
The natural upshot of such work was to run for political office. In 1964, Shirley ran for a State Assembly Seat. She won the seat. Her hard work had paid off and she pledged to devote herself to her constituency and to bring about constructive changes. For example, during the four years that Shirley served in the New York State legislature, she proposed a bill to help day care centers and she also voted for funding to be increased to schools. Shirley’s star continued to rise and in 1968 she broke new ground in New York and national politics. She decided to run for a seat in New York Congress. Her campaign slogan was, “Fighting Shirley Chisholm-Unbought and Unbossed.”
Her candidacy caught the imagination of the public as no black woman had ever been elected to Congress before. In addition, Shirley was running against a formidable Republican opponent in James Farmer. Shirley was inspirational during the campaign and defeated her opponent. She became the first black woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives. While in Congress, she was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. In her first term in office, Shirley hired and all-female staff. She spoke out against the Vietnam War and was one of the founders of the National Organization for Women. She said that, “women must become revolutionaries, we must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes.”
One of her most daring and radical acts as a freshman was to request reassignment of responsibilities in Congress. Since she came from a largely urban area, Shirley argued that assigning her to the House Agricultural Committee did not make much sense. In the end, she was reassigned to the Education and Labor Committee that was more suited to her interest. Shirley was re-elected to a second term in 1970 and continued to speak out against injustices. In January of that year, she announced her candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.
Shirley said at the time, “ I stand before you as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States and not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement in this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of the political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.” The 1972 Presidential Convention was a hotly contested affair. The Democratic National Convention was held in Miami. Some of the big names of that year were George Mc Govern, Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace and of course Richard Nixon. Shirley Chisholm campaigned in twelve states and that was not enough to win her the Presidency. However, she did manage to win 28 delegates and at the Convention Hubert Humphrey gave her his black delegates and that increased her total to 152 first ballot delegates.
During the campaign, Shirley showed that she was prepared to cross ideological boundaries and to mend fences with all to open dialogue on race issues. The Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was a controversial because of his racist attitudes. When the Governor was shot, Shirley visited him in the hospital. Her visit stirred a fierce debate in the media but she showed that racism could best be eliminated by kindness and compassion. As it turned out, Shirley Chisholm went on to sponsor a bill in Congress that would give domestic workers a minimum wage.
The Bill was experiencing problems as it lacked enough votes to succeed. The person who came to the rescue was no other than George Wallace. He campaigned around the clock so that Congressman from the Southern states could vote in favor of the bill. Shirley Chisholm retired from politics in 1982. She was the recipient of many awards including honorary degrees from colleges. After she left politics, Shirley became a professor at Mt. Holyoke where she taught women’s studies and politics. In 1996, Shirley was nominated by President Clinton to be the United States ambassador to Jamaica but she was unable to take up the position because of ill health.
Why is Shirley Chisholm relevant? She was a trailblazer at a time when women faced discrimination and when blacks were treated as second-class citizens. When Shirley entered Congress, she was conscious of her place in history. She said at the time, “only nine black people have been elected to Congress and those nine should be used as effectively as possible.” But the wind of change was blowing. Shirley Chisholm died in 2005. Three years later, an African American was elected President of the United States of America. The first black woman in the U.S. Congress must be smiling from above.

California mountain renamed in honour of black pioneer

Negrohead mountain near Malibu now bears name of former slave John Ballard

* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 February 2010 14.38 GMT

A peak previously known as Negrohead mountain in southern California's Santa Monica range has officially been renamed in honour of a black pioneer who settled the area in the 19th century.

The 619m (2,031ft) mountain near Malibu became Ballard mountain yesterday. The new name comes from John Ballard, a blacksmith and former slave who bought land on the mountain in 1869.

The name originally contained a more vulgar racial slur that even appeared on federal maps, but it was changed to "negro" in the 1960s.

Dozens of Ballard's descendants attended the renaming ceremony.

The US Geographical Survey approved the change last year after a request from the Los Angeles county board of supervisors.

Spokesman Zev Yaroslavsky said the government had taken advantage of a rare chance to right a historical wrong.

Dhanpaul said that when Guyana and Barbados team up together great things can happen. Never a truer word has been spoken.