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The Forgotten "Little Drops" behind Big Change


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“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season’. Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

-Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” January 19, 2008

It seems that we often see the end result of social change yet do not see what it took to get there. I am of the persuasion that we often do not see what it took to get there mainly because we often do not look.

Oh how some of our people go on about FDR and how good he was to us negro folk. Even the president speaks of FDR with much admiration and that's okay, too. However, where is the mention of A. Phillip Randolph? He was instrumental in helping to mobilize the African American community and his threat to mount a protest rally in Washington in 1941 was major in terms of getting FDR (Foot Dragging Roosevelt) to stop slow footing on addressing discrimination in defense industries? A. Phillip Randolph's threat to mount this protest rally was instrumental in inducing the Roosevelt Administration to issue the executive order than barred discrimination in defense industries and appointing the first Fair Employment Practice Commission. (This has, by the way, benefitted many people of America, not just African Americans.)

If it were not for the African American community pointing out the hypocrisy of fighting a war in the name of democracy abroad while racism was being practiced domestically and standing up for themselves, it is very possible that black people would have merely had chicken broth in the pot while their white counterparts had their chicken.

"Many drops make a river."

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While "going on and on" about MLK, you neglected to mention that it was A. Phillip Randolph who organized the 1963 March on Washington, which was originally a demonstration for "jobs and freedom", not a showcase for King's oratorical skills. ;)

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I quoted MLK because of those particular words that he said.

It is not my intention to cover every single topic. That is the beauty of anyone else being able to add more info about "little drops" not just in reference to those names or events mentioned in my initial post but of anything one might feel to add.

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Dr. J.H. Clarke, also with excerpts from Lerone Bennet's tribute, on the significance of John B.Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish, pioneers of African American journalism:

In his series of articles entitled "Pioneers in

Protest," Lerone Bennett, Senior Editor of Ebony

Magazine, has written a capsule biography of John B.

Russwurm, the distinguished Jamaican who was a pioneer

in Afro-American journalism. As early as 1827,

Russwurm, also one of the founders of Liberia, was the

first colored man to graduate from an American college

to publish a newspaper in the United States. The

following information about Russwurm has been

extracted from Bennett's article, "Founders of the

Negro Press," Ebony Magazine, July 1964.

Day in and day out, the Negroes of New York City were

mercilessly lampooned in the white press. In the dying

days of 1826, the campaign of vilification and slander

reached nauseous heights. The integrity and courage of

Negro men were openly questioned. Worse, editors

invaded Negro homes and impugned the chastity of Negro

women … This was a time of acute crisis for all Negro

Americans and the New York leaders were agonizingly

conscious of the forces arrayed against them … More

ominous was the creeping power of the American

Colonization Society which wanted to send free Negroes

"back" to Africa.

John B Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish, two of the

youngest and most promising of the New York leaders,

were assigned the task of inventing a journal that

could speak forcibly to both the enemy and joint

friend without and the 'brethren' within the veil.

Samuel E. Cornish, who is virtually unknown today, was

born about 1795 in Delaware and raised in the

relatively free environments of Philadelphia and New

York. He organized the first Black Presbyterian Church

in New York City. Russwurm, was the son of an

Englishman and an African woman. His father neglected

to inform his white wife of "the sins of his youth";

but after his death, the widow learned of the boy's

existence and financed his education at Bowdoin

College where he was graduated in 1826.

Russwurm and Cornish made an excellent team, despite

the proposed paper they idealistically state:

We shall ever regard the constitution of the United

States as our polar star. Pledged to no part, we shall

endeavour to urge our brethren to use their rights to

the elective franchise as free citizens. It shall

never be our objective to court controversy though we

must at all times consider ourselves as champions in

defense of oppressed humanity. Daily slandered, we

think that there ought to be some channel of

communication between us and the public, through which

a voice may be heard in defense of five hundred

thousand free people of color…

On Friday, March 26, 1827, the first issue of

Freedom's Journal, the first "Negro newspaper" in the

Western World, appeared on the streets of New York

City. In their ambitious first editorial, Russwurm and

Cornish struck a high note of positiveness that still

has something to say to the Afro-Americans in their

present plight. It read in part:

We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others

spoke for us. Too long has the republic been deceived

by misrepresentations, in things which concern us

dearly, though in the estimation of some mere trifles;

for though there are many in society who exercise

toward us benevolent feelings; still (with sorrow we

confess it) there are others who make it their

business to enlarge upon the least trifle, which tends

to discredit any person of color; and pronounce

anathema and denounce our whole body for the

misconduct of this guilty one … Our vices and our

degradation are ever arrayed against us, but our

virtues are passed unnoticed…

The timeliness of this editorial, written over a

hundred years ago, and the dynamics of its

intellectual content, are far ahead of most editorials

that appear in present-day Afro-American newspapers.

During the later years of his life, John B. Russwurm

moved to a position that today would be called Black

nationalism. After receiving his master's degree from

Bowdoin College in 1829 Russwurm went to Liberia in

West Africa, where he established another newspaper,

The Liberia Herald, and served as a superintendent of

schools. After further distinguishing himself as

Governor of the Maryland Colony of Cape Palmas, this

pioneer editor and freedom fighter died in Liberia in

1951.

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Dr. J.H. Clarke (on Prince Hall and, in general) West Indians in the Afro-American Struggle:

Prior to the Civil War, West Indian contribution to

the progress of Afro-American life was one of the main

contributing factors in the fight for freedom and full

citizenship in the northern United States. West

Indians had come to the United States during the 18th

and 19th centuries and the most outstanding of them

saw their plight and that of the Afro-American as

being one and the same.

In the 18th century America, two of the most

outstanding fighters for liberty and justice were the

West Indians, Prince Hall and John B. Russwurm. When

Prince Hall came to the United States the nation was

in turmoil. The colonies were ablaze with indignation.

Britain, with a series of revenue acts, had stoked the

fires of colonial discontent. In Virginia, Patrick

Henry was speaking of liberty or death. The cry "No

Taxation Without Representation" played on the

nerve-strings of the nation. Prince Hall, then a

delicate-looking teenager, often walked through the

turbulent streets of Boston, an observer unobserved. A

few months before these hectic scenes, he had arrived

in the United States from his home in Barbados, where

he had been born about 1748, the son of an Englishman

and a free African woman. He was, in theory, a free

man, but he knew that neither in Boston nor in

Barbados were persons of African descent free in fact.

At once, he questioned the sincerity of the vocal

white patriots of Boston. It never seemed to have

occurred to them that the announced principles

motivating their action made stronger argument in

favor of destroying the system of slavery. The

colonists held in servitude more than a half million

human beings, some of them white; yet they engaged in

the contradiction of going to war to support the

theory that all men were created equal.

When Prince Hall arrived in Boston that city was the

center of the American slave trade. Most of the major

leaders of the revolutionary movement, in fact, were

slaveholders or investors in slave-supported

businesses. Hall, like many other Americans, wondered:

what did these men mean by freedom? The condition of

the free Black men, as Prince Hall found them, was not

an enviable one. Emancipation brought neither freedom

nor relief from the stigma of color. They were free in

name only. They were still included in slave codes

with slaves, indentured servants, and Indians.

Discriminatory Laws severely circumscribed their

freedom of movement.

By 1765, through diligence and frugality, Hall became

a property owner, thus establishing himself in the

eyes of white as well as Black people. But the

ownership of property was not enough. He still had to

endure sneers and insults. He decided then to prepare

himself for a role of leadership among his people. To

this end he went to school at night and later became a

Methodist preacher. His church became the forum for

his people's grievances. Ten years after his arrival

in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the accepted leader

of the Black community.

In 1788 Hall petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature,

protesting the kidnapping of free Negroes. This was a

time when American patriots were engaged in a

constitutional struggle for freedom. They had

proclaimed the inherent rights of all mankind to life,

liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Hall dared to

remind them that the Black men in the United States

were human beings, and as such were entitled to

freedom and respect for their human personality.

It was racial prejudice that made Hall the father of

African secret societies in the United States what is

now known as the "Negro Masonry." Hall first sought

initiation into the white Masonic Lodge in Boston, but

was turned down because of his color. He then applied

to the Army Lodge of an Irish Regiment. His petition

was favorably received. On March 6, 1775, Hall and

fourteen other Black Americans were initiated in Lodge

Number 441. When, on March 17, the British were forced

to evacuate Boston, the Army Lodge gave Prince Hall

and his colleagues a license to meet and function as a

Lodge. Thus, on July 3, 1776, African Lodge No. 1 came

into being. This was the first Lodge in Massachusetts

established in America for men of African descent.

Later, in 1843, a Jamaican, Peter Ogden, organized in

New York City the first Odd Fellows Lodge for Negroes.

The founding of the African Lodge was one of Prince

Hall's greatest achievements. It afforded Africans in

the New England area of the United States a greater

sense of security and contributed to a new spirit of

unity among them. Hall's interest did not end with the

Lodge. He was deeply concerned with improving the lot

of his people in other ways. He sought to have schools

established for the children of free Africans in

Massachusetts. Of prime importance is the fact that

Prince Hall worked to secure respect for his people

and that he played a significant role in the downfall

of the Massachusetts slave trade. He helped to prepare

the ground-work for those freedom fighters of the 18th

and 20th centuries whose continuing efforts have

brought the Black American closer to the goal of full

citizenship.

In his book Souls of Black Folk, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois

points to the role of West Indians in the

Afro-American struggle. They, he says, were mainly

responsible for the manhood program launched by the

race in the early decades of the last century. An

eminent instance of such drive and self-assurance can

be seen in the achievement of John W. A. Shaw of

Antigua, who, later in that century, in the early

1890's passed the Civil Service tests and became

Deputy Commissioner of Taxes for the County of Queens

in New York State.

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(From NACLA ) The Impact of the Cuban Revolution on Activism, Human and Civil Rights in North America, Africa, and the African Diaspora in General:

On July 26, 1953, Castro and other Cuban rebels launched the popular movement that would topple the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Earlier this week, Ike Nahem, one of the coordinators of the coalition, discussed with NACLA the significance of the anniversary, and its relevance to American activists in the United States.

What is the significance of the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks?

The anniversary ...celebrated... on July 23, is an annual event now that has been taking place since 2003, and it commemorates the July 26, 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks that became the spark for the revolutionary struggle that defeated and overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista government in 1959. It is a national holiday in Cuba, and supporters of the Revolution celebrate it in the United States. The July 26 Coalition brings together a lot of people every year, in spite of their political differences, to show their solidarity for Cuba, and their opposition to current U.S. policy.

What can activists in the United States learn from the July 26 anniversary?

Cuban revolutionaries were fighting against a military dictatorship that had destroyed the Cuban Constitution. There was no political space for a legal struggle because democratic rights had been abolished in Cuba by the Batista regime, which was backed by the United States, so they launched an armed attack. That would not be tactically relevant to activists in the United States. But leaving that aside, the fact that a group of young people—students and workers—came together and went to action against a regime is very inspiring. The most important example of activism shown by Cuban revolutionaries is the way they maintain that revolutionary perspective and solidarity with global causes in spite of the hostility of the U.S. government.

What connection can you make for Americans between Civil Rights and the Cuban Revolution?

The Cuban Revolution was a gigantic blow against racism and other injustices inside Cuba, and it had a big impact in the United States. This is part of the history that has not been publicized in the mainstream media. In fact, when Fidel Castro came to the United Nations in 1960, and stayed at the Theresa Hotel in Harlem, he made statements in solidarity with the Black struggle in the United States, and most importantly he explained what the Cuban revolution did, which smashed the Jim Crow system that existed in Cuba. He demonstrated his support later for African independence and liberation, as well as many activists like Malcolm X—who was a strong supporter of the Cuban revolution, Robert F. Williams, Leroy Jones, and many others. Many of the spokespeople against the beginning of U.S. hostility and aggression against Cuba in the early 1960s were Black activists. There has been an intimate connection between the Cuban Revolution and the struggle for Black rights since the beginning.

What do you think it is like in the United States today for supporters of the Cuban Revolution?

There has always been a layer of people in the United States who were sympathetic and supported the Cuban Revolution despite the huge demonization and propaganda against Cuba that dominated Washington and the media. In recent years, both in the overall population, and particularly amongst Cuban-Americans, the support for the end of U.S. sanctions, the freedom for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba without going through government restrictions has grown tremendously. We have found through our own experiences that the overwhelming majority of working people have no hostility towards Cuba; especially among my black co-workers, who are largely sympathetic for the role that Cuba played in helping defeat apartheid in South Africa. There is a clear contradiction now between the sentiment of the U.S. population on this question, and the overwhelming majority of politicians—both Republicans and Democrats—who support a U.S. policy that is aimed at destroying the Cuban Revolution and its government.

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Pam Ferrell

In 1978, Pam Ferrell lost her job for wearing her hair braided. Little did she know that her simple attempt to make sure this would never happen to any other woman would develop a much needed natural hair care industry.

Ferrell and her husband worked dilligently to bring national attention and change to dress codes that discriminated against African inspired hair styles. They were successful in lobbying the District of Columbia to amend an outdated (1939) cosmetology regulation to include license for the science of natural hair styling. "The vehement opposition we experienced during our 10 year battle with government bureaucracy was the driving force to make sure this change happened in my lifetime", recalls Ferrell.

"Today, major hotels, airlines, corporations, police departments, and the U.S. Army have, as a result, changed their policies. In addition, African Americans now can create business and educational institutions that promote our culture and the African aesthethic. These small but important changes will make it comfortable for black women to wear their hair in styles that are cuturally beautiful and healthy for the hair."

.

In her book "Where Beauty Touches Me", Pam Ferrell says, "My victory is not having to receive daily phone calls from women nationwide who are fearful of losing their jobs because of their African inspired hair style. The phone calls today are questions concerning the healthy way to care for our hair. I have compiled the numerous questions over the years and tried to answer as many as possible in this beauty book. I hope all women will find something inside that is helpful to their healthy and beauty evolution."

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Change is not automatically negative...and it is not always positive.

While it is definitely so that many individuals have contributed to positive change without these stories really being told, it is also definitely so that individuals have contributed to the downfall of some leaders and movements. A. Phillip Randolph, though it should not be denied that his involvement was used to get FDR to act, was also instrumental in helping to bring down Marcus Garvey and the UNIA and "The New Negro" movement in general.

I think that it is imperative that we strive to examine events of the past and the present more carefully and that we not continue to leave out important parts for the sake of maintaining distortions. Hopefully those of the generations to follow will examine us, keeping in mind our achievements and our setbacks so that they can have a better chance at knowing some of the things that might and might not be beneficial to them.

I think our greatest enemy comes from within, our disloyalty, our selfishness, our greed, our egoism, etc. are our greatest stumbling blocks.

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So tell me, Waterstar, have you ever thought about organizing to do what Marcus Garvey and the Black Muslims once advocated in regard to the diaspora picking up their tents and stealing away into their own country, someplace far away from "Babylon"? :ph34r:

To me, the way things exist in America is "normal". Unfortunately, justice is not an entitlement. People in power don't give up their power and are reluctant to even share it. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" And if the post racial scoffers think they are going to reform their "oppressors", they will be in a perpetual state of frustration. If black people were the majority in power, they would do the same thing to white people that is being done to them; in fact they do it within their own ranks to a degree, via colorism. It's the nature of the beast. :angry:

But - crusades do seem to fill a need for those in whose breasts "hope springs eternal". I've always found these cause embracers to be oxymorons: malcontented optimists. :wacko:

If I were so inclined, however, Cuba would be the last place I'd look to as a model. Who needs an ego-manical dictator, - a pseudo benevolent leader who subjects his people to the regimentation of a Spartan life. The thought that somebody else might take over his domain is what keeps the garrulous Castro alive. IMO ;)

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Though Marcus Garvey's aims and objectives have been both understudied and oversimplified, I lean more toward the supposition that you are not really interested in them anyway. If I leaned toward a different supposition, I'd be happy to go into details, but since that is not the case, I will simply leave it at that.

To me, the way things exist in this America is "normal

Okay.

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Have you given up the "perception" rationale for the "supposition" one? :D Actually, my supposition is that since these re-location plans can't be implemented, it's easier for you and those of your persuation to simply hide behind your words.

Ain't this fun? And I do appreciate your new-found brevity. :)

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Cynique, I am a malcontented optimist as much as you are a unique lemming. :D

Have you ever examined the teachings or deeds of Marcus Garvey fpr yourself?

I don't even want to ask you how my supposing something differs greatly from my perceiving something. Must be some very, very thin fingers.

“Grabbing at straws” (or “grasping,” today the more common form) comes from the very old proverb noted by Samuel Richardson in his novel Clarissa (1748): “A drowning man will catch at a straw, the proverb well says.” The “straw” in this case refers to the sort of thin reeds that grow by the side of a river, which a drowning man being swept away by a fast current might desperately grasp in a futile attempt to save himself. Thus “grasp at straws” has, since at least the 18th century, meant “to make a desperate and almost certainly futile effort to save oneself” (“Bob’s attempt to build a case that the contract was not valid because it contained a split infinitive was just grasping at straws”).

Until you actually examine these people and these movements that you are speaking about, you can debate, negate, grab straws and whatever else you feel to do in this thread and have fun doing it...without my adding anything different to it.

To some people winning is most important, even when there is nothing to win. Have fun with that.

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Did I malign Marcus Garvey, or anyone else other than those 2 pillars of vapidity, Madonna and Sistah Souljah??? Did I call you a "malcontented optimist"? Were we in a battle to determine winners and losers??? Ummmm. You might want to replace your ad hominem remarks with something other than petulance and mixed metaphors. :P

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Ernest Everett Just

----------------------------------------

Ernest Everett Just: Zoologist, Biologist, Physiologist, Research Scientist

just.gif

Born: August 14, 1883

Died: October 27, 1941

Birthplace: Charleston, SC

Ernest Everett Just was a true scholar. He sought to find "truth" using scientific methods and inquiry. Although Dr. Just was bold enough to challenge the theories of leading biologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, he was humble and unassuming. Dr. Just was passionately driven to understand the world of the cell. His tenacity and motivation led him to add to our understanding of the process of artificial parthenogenesis and the physiology of cell development.

Dr. Just was born August 14, 1883 in Charleston, South Carolina. At an early age, he demonstrated a gift for academic research. For example, in 1907, he was the only person to graduate magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a degree in zoology, special honors in botany and history, and honors in sociology.

Immediately after graduation, Dr. Just taught at Howard University where he was appointed head of the Department of Zoology in 1912. At Howard, he also served as a professor in the medical school and head of the Department of Physiology until his death. The first Spingarn Medal was awarded to the reluctant and modest Just by the NAACP in 1915 for his accomplishments as a pure scientist. In 1916, Dr. Just graduated magna cum laude from University of Chicago receiving his doctorate in experimental embryology.

Dr. Just received international acclaim for work he completed during the summers from 1909 to 1930 at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. At MBL, he conducted thousands of experiments studying the fertilization of the marine mammal cell. In 1922, he successfully challenged Jaacque Loeb's theory of artificial parthenogenesis, pushing the envelope. Using his research conducted at Wood's Hole, he published his first book entitled, Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Animals.

Although Dr. Just was considered a leader and authority for his work with cell development, as an African American, he experienced racism and prejudice. For this reason, Dr. Just decided to study in Europe in 1930. It was in Europe that he published his second book, The Biology of the Cell Surface. While in Europe in 1938 he published a number of papers and lectured on the topic of cell cytoplasm. Dr. Just died October 27, 1941 in Washington D.C.

Ernest Just's research made advancements in the following areas:

  • egg fertilization
  • experimental parthenogenesis
  • hydration
  • cell division
  • dehydration in living cells
  • the effects of ultraviolet rays in increasing chromosome numbers in animals
  • the effects of ultraviolet rays in altering the organization of the egg with reference to polarity

Memberships:

  • Vice-President, American Zoological Society
  • Recipient of the first Spingarn Medal (1915) for his research in Biology
  • National Research Rosenwald fellow in Biology (1920-1931)
  • Ecological Society
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Omega Psi Phi, Founder and faculty advisor, Howard University (November 17, 1911)
  • Editor, Protoplasm -- an international journal published in Berlin

    -- devoted to the work done on the physical chemistry of the cell --


    [*]Collaborator of Cytologia -- published in Japan.

    [*]Editor, Physiological Zoology

    [*]Editor, Biological Zoology -- official organ of the Marine Biological Advancement of Science

Selected Publications

Basic Methods for Experiments in Eggs of Marine Animals.

Ernest E. Just. (Philadelphia, PA: P. Blaikston's Son & Co.), 1939. 89 pages. QL 58 J88 Middleton Library

Biology of the Cell Surface.

Ernest E. Just. (Philadelphia, PA: P. Blaikston's Son & Co.), 1939. 329 pages. QH 581 J8 Middleton Library

Dr. Ernest E. Just published more than 50 papers between 1912 and 1937.

Bibliography:

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Sir_Eric_Williams.gif

Williams, Eric Eustace (1911-1981)

Historian, educator, and politician Eric Eustace Williams was born in 1911 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to working class parents. His family's struggles to survive economically introduced Williams to the brutal social and racial hierarchy of the British colony. As an adult, he gave up a faculty position at Howard University to return to his homeland, eventually becoming its prime minister.

Williams' childhood coincided with the development of a nascent black working-class consciousness as figures such as Marcus Garvey spoke out against institutionalized racism and imperialism and offered radical solutions. He studied at Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain before winning a scholarship to study in England at Oxford University where he earned a BA with honors in history in 1935. Three years later, he earned his PhD there, also with honors. During this period of international tension just before the outbreak of World War II, Williams experienced racism in Britain and Europe. His doctoral thesis, The Economic Aspects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and West Indian Slavery, argued against the notion that humanitarian and moral concerns gave rise to the abolitionist movement in Europe. Rather, Williams claimed economic and strategic concerns were at the heart of abolitionism in Britain and elsewhere. A similar argument was espoused by C.L.R. James whose seminal work, The Black Jacobins, was published that same year and influenced Williams' thinking.

Despite his academic successes, Williams was unable to find a teaching position in Great Britain and in 1939 joined the faculty of Howard University in Washington, D.C. He published Capitalism and Slavery in 1944, arguing that the British abolition of slavery grew from the realization that wage labor had supplanted slave labor in the global capitalist marketplace. His other major works include History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago (1962) and British Historians and the West Indies (1964).

Williams returned to the Caribbean in 1952 where he became involved in decolonization politics. He held open-air lectures for working-class people and spoke as a West Indian nationalist dedicated to ending imperialism in his region. In 1956 Williams helped found People's National Movement, Trinidad and Tobago's first modern political party, and became deeply-involved in the nation's political life after independence in 1962. Williams held numerous offices in the Trinidad and Tobago government, serving as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1981. Eric Williams died while in office on March 29, 1981, in Port of Spain.

------------

I was born here, and here I stay, with the people of Trinidad and Tobago, who educated me free of charge for nine years at Queen's Royal College and for five years at Oxford, who have made me whatever I am, and who have been or might be at any time the victims of the very pressure which I have been fighting against... I am going to let down my bucket where I am, right here with you in the British West Indies."

- Dr. Williams at a public lecture at Woodford Square, June 21, 1955.

Born on September 25, 1911, Eric Williams was the son of Elisa and Henry Williams, a minor Post Office official in Trinidad. He was educated at Queen's Royal College and won the Island Scholarship to Oxford University. At Oxford, he placed first in the First Class of the History Honours School and received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1938. His doctoral thesis, The Economic Aspect of the West Indian Slave Trade and Slavery, was considered an important contribution to research on the subject and was published in 1944 in Williams' Capitalism and Slavery. Much of Williams' educational pursuits at Queen's Royal College and Oxford University is documented in his book, Inward Hunger: The Education of a Prime Minister.

In 1939, Williams migrated to the United States to teach at Howard University. He became an assistant professor of social and political sciences and organised several courses, especially a humanities course for which he developed a three-volume work called Documents Illustrating the Development of Civilisation (1947). While at Howard, Williams began to work as a consultant to the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, a body set up after the war to study the future of the region. In 1948, he left Howard to head the Research Branch of the Caribbean Commission. Later, in 1955, he resigned from the Commission in protest against its crypto-colonialist policies.

Williams returned to Trinidad and Tobago and became more involved in politics. His first major political speech was titled "My Relations with the Caribbean Commission" (1955). A year later, Williams formed the People's National Movement (PNM), a political party of which he became the leader. In September of 1956, the PNM won the national elections and he became the chief minister of the country from 1956 to 1959, premier from 1959 to 1962, and prime minister from 1962 to 1981.

During his term as prime minister, Williams led Trinidad and Tobago into the Federation of the West Indies and to independence within the Commonwealth in 1962. Williams died in office on March 29, 1981. Often called the "Father of the Nation," Williams remains one of the most significant leaders in the history of modern Trinidad and Tobago.

Reference:Eric E Williams Speaks: Essays on Colonialism and Independence- Edited by Selwyn R Cudjoe. Distributed by the University of Massachusetts Press.

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