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Demystifying Bay Street: Black Tuesday and the Radicalization of Bahamian Politics in the 1960s

2009; Volume: 43; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

0047-2263

Nona P. Martin, Virgil Henry Storr,

Caribbean history, culture, and politics

IntroductionThe United Bahamian (UBP) led by Street Boys, a group of White and near -White merchant-politicians, who had controlled Bahamas economically and politically since nineteenth century, soundly defeated Progressive Liberal (PLP) in 1962 elections. According to Michael Craton and Gail Saunders, the main reason for PLP's 1962 setback . . . was almost certainly fear of consequences of majority rule, shared not only by White minority and non- White middle classes but by many Blacks themselves.1 Craton and Saunders assert that PLP had engaged in a highly charged, racialized campaign and Bahamian voters rejected that message, opting for security and stability of familiar, ruling White oligarchy. Interestingly, PLP responded to their defeat in 1962 by intensifying rather than quieting their rhetoric and became increasingly radical in run up to 1967 elections, which PLP won narrowly. If Craton and Saunders's analysis of 1962 elections are correct, then PLP somehow managed to overcome voter's concerns about their radicalism by, paradoxically, becoming even more radical. We contend, however that it was widespread fear of Bay Street's power that explains PLP's defeat in 1962, and it was PLP's ability to demystify that power that led to party's narrow victory in 1967 and their overwhelming victory in 1968.Bahamian Blacks had begun chipping away at Bay Street's facade since 1942 riot.2 Black however, played a critical role in demonstrating to Bahamian Blacks that Bay Street could be resisted and defied. On Tuesday, 27 April 1965 a large noisy crowd gathered outside of House of Assembly. As Assembly continued debate over drawing of constituency boundaries, parliamentarians could clearly hear din of crowd below. After House rejected PLP's motion to have constituencies redrawn under direction of United Nations, Lynden Pindling, opposition leader, denounced Bay Street politicians as dictators, took hold of parliament's ceremonial mace and threw it out of window to waiting crowd below.3 Milo Butler, a leading figure in PLP, followed suit and tossed out quarter-hourglasses, used by Speaker to keep time. The PLP members of House then stormed out of parliament. It was a defiant act by PLP and ultimately a defining one for Bahamian people. Tuesday was definitive proof that Blacks in Bahamas were prepared and able to stand up to White ruling minority. It was evidence that Bahamian Blacks were no longer afraid of Bay Street oligarchy. They had been warned by Bay Street elite not to protest, and to stay away from parliament. Still, large numbers had gathered on Bay Street. Tuesday was also proof that PLP was Negro's Party (as its propaganda vehicle, Herald, repeatedly claimed).There is a surprising dearth of scholarship about this important period in Bahamian history and about Tuesday in particular; more so since scholars generally acknowledge its socio-political significance. Craton and Saunders, for instance, devote only four paragraphs to Tuesday in their two-volume general history of Islanders in Stream, but describe event as climax of parliamentary histrionics . . . [which] polarized Bahamian politics as never before.4 Albury's general history, The Story of likewise contains only a paragraph describing events of that day, calling it a dramatic form of protest.5 Similarly, Colin Hughes devotes only a few pages to events in is his Race and Politics in but does stress that the 1965 mace incident was one of five events that came to symbolize Bahamian majority's quest to wrest political and economic power from Bay Street politicians and their colonial masters.6 Although noting that throwing down mace impacted social consciousness and social realities of all people in Bahamas, Scott Sherouse does not offer much more in way of analysis. …