Uncovering Black History and Structural Racism in Bermuda
This presentation to The Commission of Inquiry into Historic Land Losses in Bermuda delves into the historical context of racial injustice and land theft in Bermuda, shedding light on structural racism and ongoing societal implications. The timeline presented highlights key events from 1609 onwards, revealing the deep-rooted challenges faced by people of color. Recommendations are made to address issues like the Tucker's Town grave site, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and rectifying past wrongs.
Uploaded on Oct 06, 2024 | 0 Views
Download Presentation
Please find below an Image/Link to download the presentation.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author. Download presentation by click this link. If you encounter any issues during the download, it is possible that the publisher has removed the file from their server.
E N D
Presentation Transcript
Black History in Bermuda A presentation to The Commission of Inquiry into Historic Land Losses in Bermuda presented by Cordell W. Riley & Lynne Winfield The Grotto Bay Hotel October 23rd, 2020
Opening Remarks The Commission has been on a journey, one that has the aim of unearthing a past racial injustice land theft. We see our role here today as setting the historical and legal context that not only created but sanctioned the environment for the crime to take place. In addition, we shall highlight some of the current manifestations of a society still steeped in structural racism. We also offer some recommendations that deal mostly with the Tucker s Town grave site. Nelson Mandela remarked that it is a long walk to freedom. And Confucius reminds us that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Let us continue on this journey. 2
What is structural racism? Structural racism: maintaining a system that benefits one race , with the system allowed to endure and adapt over time. (The Aspen Institute, June 2004) 4
Faced with a collective forgetting, we must fight to remember. reni eddo-lodge 5
Timeline 1609 Shipwreck Permanent settlers arrive. First arrival of people of colour 1612 1616 1619 1623 1626 (Packwood, C. Chained on the Rock p2) Capt. Elfrith arrived with 60 Angolans* (Packwood, p5) An Act to restrayne the insolencies of the Negroes - forbidding to buy, barter or sell (Packwood, p 7, Bernhard, p30) Chattel Slavery established by decree of Gov. Woodhouse (Robinson, Heritage p312) First Pequots sold to colonists 1644 1656 Aborted Slave uprising - free Blacks banished 6
Timeline continued 1661 Slaves & Irish conspiracy* 1663 Miscegenation prohibited 1664 Gov. forced all free Blacks to leave 1673 1675 Eye of All Trade) 1678 Uprising branded, noses slit, executed Act prohibiting importation of slaves*(Jarvis, In the Salt Trade established in Turks Island 1678-80 Pequots enslaved and sent to Bda (King Phillips War) 1690 Act to prevent Buying, Selling, Bargaining with Slaves 7
Timeline continued 1704 An Act to legislate the punishment for the insolence of Negroes , allowing for castration. Repealed 1705. (Robinson, p292) 1705 Forced banishment of all free negroes (Smith, p68) 1718-30 The Poison Plots - slave rebellions 1729 Act to prevent home meetings * 1730 Sally Bassett is burned at the stake and all free Blacks banished or sold into slavery 1729 An Act levying a 5 tax on imported Blacks.* (Packwood, p77) 8
Timeline continued 1743 Act to prevent buying, selling or bargaining with negroes and other slaves. 1755 Act - striking a white person could result in death, loss of ear(s) and banishment. 1761 Slave Revolution, over half the population. All free negroes, mulattoes banished or be sold. * 1779 No retailing for Blacks whether enslaved/free* 1781 Bermudian Capt. John Vesey acquires 390 slaves from St Thomas to sell to St Domingue* 1795Slave Conspiracy Instigated by the Haitian mulattoes. 9
Timeline continued 1800 14-year old Mary Prince witnesses the murder of Hetty. 1806 Act to prevent Blacks from owning/ inheriting land; (Packwood, p120). An Act to tax all free Blacks in the mechanics trades (joinery, coopering, etc) (Robinson, (p13) 1807 An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade* 1810 Construction on RN Dockyard begins using Blacks and Freemen. 1824 Convict Labour. 1831 Act for the use of tread wheels (whites exempted) 1833 Total Pop: 9,195: White: 4,297; Slaves: 3,612; Free Blacks: 1,286 10
Timeline contd 1834 - Slavery abolished. Slave auctions continued right up to July 31st. Slave owners were paid 20M, 40% of UK s annual budget, through a loan. The loan was paid off in 2015. 11
Aggressive White Affirmative Action begins 1834 Act to fix qualifications for jurors, voters, electors, candidates and positions of trust. Voting property qualification doubled 40 to 100& to run for the House from 200 to 400 (Robinson, p197) 1835 Enterprise carrying 78 American slaves 1842Act to Encourage [U.K.] Emigrants [White]* 1847 400 for 1st vessel to bring in Portuguese settlors. 1849 Labourers from Madeira arrive on Golden Hind 12
Timeline continued 1853Protests against government s plan to use taxpayers money to import Portuguese labourers. (Philip, 3-4) 1855 Petition Against Immigration resolves that would have negative effect on Black Bermudians. (Robinson) 1881 Only 800 voters registered in Bermuda (Smith) 1883 William H. T. Joell MCP 1894 West Indian migration begins in earnest 1902 Riots in Dockyard - Rev d Monk charged w/libel. 13
1919 First trade union BUT - beginning of long struggle to raise salaries and working conditions 1920 Petition against appropriation of Tuckers Town* Development Company Act (McDowall, Trading Places p28) Gov. instructed white police officers be recruited from UK Bermuda chapter of UNIA formed. 1920s Huge influx of white immigration.* (Census) 1928 Marcus Garvey denied permission to land in Bda. 1930 Hotel Keepers Protection Act; Separation of races/Portuguese schools 1937 Margaret Sanger proponent of sterilization and eugenics invited to Bermuda; Marcus Garvey denied permission to land twice. 14
1939 99-year Lease granted by the UK to the USA for land bases at St. David s Island, and Morgan and Tucker s Islands. (Bermuda Timeline). Only white American civilians to build bases.St. David s required the expropriation of 118 privately owned properties, home to sixty-five families. Those residents being displaced were mainly fishers, farmers and small business owners. St. David s was a center of commercial farming in Bermuda, including Bermuda lilies. (High, Base Colonies in the Western Hemisphere). 1940 Oligarchy turn down UK funding to finance projects if colony enacts social reforms. Despite the tremendous pressure brought to bear, Bermuda [oligarchy] refused to implement any of these social and labor reforms. There was no trade union act. No compensation for workplace injury. No minimum wages. No child labor laws. No pensions. No labor dispute conciliation. No reduction in the fifty-four hour work week. Base Colonies in the Western Hemisphere 1940-1967 (Steven High 119). 15
1944 BWA formed*, later the BIU (1947); The Parliamentary Committee on Emigration issues a report noting that due to overpopulation, Government should look for places where [Black] Bermudians could emigrate. 1945 Importation of cheap labour - Since World War II the aristocracy brought in West Indians as cheap labour, indentured Portuguese to perform Bermuda s most menial work and to function as a buffer group between the races, accelerated white expatriate immigration as a countermeasure to universal suffrage, and excluded working class whites from privilege while insisting that they keep separate from blacks. (Frank Manning 27). 1946 Dr. E. F. Gordan takes petitions to UK protesting racial and economic conditions in Bermuda, noting only 7% of the population could vote* He said the system gave the monied classes a distinct and definite control over the election results. (Philip, The History of the BIU). 1953 Select Committee on Race find segregation an economic and social necessity. Black doctors not allowed at KEMH. (Swan, p16) 16
1940 -1967 Ruled by and for a white oligarchy, Bermuda was one of the most reactionary colonies in the British Empire. There was no income tax. No inheritance tax. No luxury taxes of any kind. Property taxes were nominal at best. Without a system of direct taxation, the colonial revenues were largely derived from custom receipts. The great beneficiaries of Bermuda s reliance on customs duties were landowners who paid nominal taxes and merchants who paid none. The great loser, by contrast, were working people who paid the price of higher living costs. As virtually everything had to be imported . (Steven High). 17
One-way Integration 1956 Bermuda Immigration & Protection Act introduces the Grant of Status* 1959 Theatre Boycott/Progressive Group; Longshoreman strike led by Joseph Mills; Majority white Police Force called out to subdue the strikers. 18
1960 Racialised immigration policies saw concerted effort to encourage whites from Commonwealth nations through the 1990s (Brown, p103) 1962 Law passed making it illegal to deny service to Black Bermudians in restaurants. 1963 The Parliamentary Election Act - Universal, but not equal suffrage, i.e. Landowners plus vote; voting age raised to 25. (Brown, p 103) 19
1963 The Commonwealth Voting Act giving Commonwealth citizens the right to vote after 3 years. Stayed in place to 1979 (Brown, 103) 1963 Muhammad Speaks newspaper banned. 1965 BelCo Strike over not allowing BIU to represent workers.* The strike acerbated tensions with the police, who were mostly British citizens and had served in colonies such as Palestine, Cyprus, South Africa and Rhodesia. 1965 Highly successful Howard Academy has government funding withdrawn and closes. 1966 Trade Union Act (restricting Union actions) 20
Base Colonies in the Western Hemisphere 1940-1967 For a hundred years concluded the American vice consul, a small group has made Bermuda its own paradise by controlling legislations and by seeing that taxation policy kept all but themselves in strict economic subjection. While they themselves accumulated fortunes subject to no taxes whatsoever . Ruled by and for a white oligarchy, Bermuda was one of the most reactionary colonies in the British Empire. There was no income tax. No inheritance tax. No luxury taxes of any kind. Property taxes were nominal at best. Without a system of direct taxation, the colonial revenues were largely derived from custom receipts. The great beneficiaries of Bermuda s reliance on customs duties were landowners who paid nominal taxes and merchants who paid none. The great loser, by contrast, were working people who paid the price of higher living costs. As virtually everything had to be imported . For over a hundreds years, the U.S. Vice Consul in Bermuda noted the attitude of the ruling class composed exclusively of merchants and landowners who effectively control the legislature may be summed up in such expressions as We may have to give the negro equal political rights, but we keep him so poor it makes no difference. (High 119) 23
Timeline continued 1967UK Hansard: 706 were granted status under BIPA, 700 white/6 black, and by 1960 census, 3,845 acquired status (73% white);* Public servants banned from serving*; resignation of George Ratteray MP* 1968 General election, new Constitution. Troops sent to quell youth disturbances in April. 1968 Wooding Commission root causes of the riots: racial prejudice; economic system and immigration policy favouring whites; established interests; failures in the education system; voting franchise; lack of employment opportunities; substandard housing - mostly among black families. (CURB website www.uprootngracism.org) 24
Wooding Report 1968 the roots of the civil disorders lie deep in the history of Bermuda's society. The society was typically white plantation in character and the history, in the years before the forties, was of accepted white supremacy with all the concomitant evils of segregation. (CURB Website www.uprootingracism.org) 25
Recommendations Wooding Report (1968) Black men and women must be and must be seen to be in truly authoritative positions in Govt., commerce; hotel industry; professions, everywhere. the system of relying upon import duties for almost all of the colonies revenues bears unfairly upon the less wealthy... and the time was ripe for direct taxation. 26
Recommendations contd Wooding Report (1968) the Government whole heartedly endorses the Commission's opinion that what is urgently needed, is a new and true understanding, a deep conviction of the essentiality of building a single community providing common opportunities for all and an unyielding commitment to promoting the democratic values of equality and fraternity in a society that is free in all respects. 27
Timeline continued 1970 Census shows 66% increase in foreign-born population to14,496. 1971 Primary schools desegregated 1977 Riots - hangings of Buck Burrows & Larry Tacklyn 1978 Lord Pitt Commission (1977 Riot)* 1981 Bermuda s first General Strike. 1985 Louis Farrakhan is banned by government. 1989 Moratorium on discretionary status. 1994Newman Report Bermuda s Stride toward the 21st Century highlights racial discrimination and institutional racism. 28
Recommendations contd Pitt Report (1978) The importance of sharing the wealth and opportunities. The importance of substantially reducing immigration and assisting the promotion of Bermudians. in the long run it will prove essential to regulate the transmission of inherited wealth. 29
Timeline contd 2007 Workforce Equity Bill (later shelved) 2009Columbia University s (Mincy) Report. After accounting for differences in education, the racial differences in the predicted unemployment rates of Bermudian males were unchanged. Race accounts for 29 percent of the racial gap in predicted earnings between young Black and White Bermudian males.* (Mincy p26) 30
TTHS & CURB successfully advocate for Tuckers Town free Black cemetery to be made into an Historic Preservation Area (2007). 31
The protected gravestones at the Tuckers Town free Black cemetery are bull-dozed to the horror of descendants (October 2012) 32
Years of oppression 218 yrs codified in law +137 yrs codified in culture 348 years of physical and psychological oppression 33
CURRENT MANIFESTATIONS 34
Unemployment rates 12% 11% 10% 9% 9% 8% 8% 8% 7% 7% 6% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 0% 2009 2010 2012 2013 2016 2018 2019 Total Black White *Source: Censuses and the 2009 - 2019 Labour Force Surveys 35
Non-tertiary schooling by institution & race 100% 80% 78% 80% Black 60% White 40% 24% 22% 20% 0% Public Private Source: 2000 Census. Does not include children abroad or other races. 36
Bermudian-born population by college degree & race 2000/10 White 2,260 2000 Black 2,844 White 2,825 2010 Black 3,966 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 Source: 2010 Census 37
Skill proficiency by race 277 Problem Solving 273 272 White Black Numeracy 271 281 Documents 281 292 Prose 291 260 265 270 275 280 285 290 295 Source: 2006 Literacy in Bermuda Report 38
Annual Personal Median Income $65,338 2018 $90,416 $59,006 $64,250 2017 $88,577 $58,204 $58,113 2016 $77,539 $53,730 $58,700 2012 $71,750 $50,800 $58,360 2010 $73,730 $54,710 $0 $10,000 $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 $80,000 $90,000 $100,000 Total White Black 39 Source: Employments Briefs 2019
Employment income in Administration/Management 1991 $3,147 No Formal Qualification $2,330 White Black $4,110 College Degree $2,960 $0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 A White person with no formal educational qualification could earn more than a Black person with a four-year college degree. Source: 1991 Census of Population & Housing 40
Employment income in Administration/Management 1991-2010 $5,439 White & Other $9,265 2010 $5,074 Black $8,464 $4,012 White & Other $6,329 2000 $3,346 Black $4,799 $3,147 White & Other $4,111 1991 $2,333 Black $2,964 $0 $2,000 No Formal Papers $4,000 $6,000 $8,000 $10,000 College Degree Source: 2010 Census of Housing and Population 41
High Blood Pressure 19% Other 20% White 30% Black 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% Source: Steps to a Well Bermuda 2016 42
Diabetes Other 11% White 8% Black 16% 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% Source: Steps to a Well Bermuda 2016 43
Obesity Obesity Other 12% White 15% Black 32% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% Source: Steps to a Well Bermuda 2016 44
Incarceration rates 98% 2% 2016 11% 2012 89% 7% 2010 91% 9% 2006 91% 8% 2002 92% 11% 1991 89% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% White Black Sources: Royal Gazette, Profiles of Bermuda, and Census data. 45
Recommendations Academic research into the history of Tucker s Town, including archaeological research into the size of cemeteries and the location of all grave sites and church sites(s); Funding for a Black Bermudian researcher to write a research paper (book), arising out of the above historical research to be created on Tucker s Town; Unfettered access to the Tucker s Town Free Black cemetery; Protection of the Tucker s Town Free Black cemetery, including legislative protection. Once archaeological research is complete at the cemetery, in collaboration with the descendants of Tucker s Town, the graves to be rebuilt in the traditional manner and a memorial to those who are buried there, but whose graves are no longer marked, be erected. Driving range moved to a location away from the cemetery. Creation of a dedicated park at the Warwick Rubber Tree Black cemetery. Funding for research into the history of St. David s Island and the historic land loss. Memorial to all those thousands of enslaved African Bermudians buried across Bermuda, whose graves have been lost to sight and memory. 46
