By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 21, 2018 — I was absolutely shocked and saddened when I saw a post on Facebook by Michelle Thompson, who lives in Grand Bahama, with the following caption: “It’s was about this exact hour last week Sunday when my mother’s brother slipped away from us and now he is singing with the Angels in heaven. Rest in Peace Eternal Uncle Joseph Hollingsworth. We love you, but God loves you best. Please do remember my family in your prayers.”
Joe Hollingsworth and I were very good friends from boyhood days. We were in London at the same time in the late 1960s when he was in law school and I was at the London Evening Standard on a training course in journalism from1968-69.
I have told the story on more than one occasion about a debate Bahamian students in London had a student union hall in London in 1969 on the topic of “Why The Bahamas should seek Independence from Great Britain,” with Joe and former Prime Minister Perry Christie presenting arguments against the proposition and Michael Turner, who has been a prominent lawyer in The Bahamas for many years, and myself presenting arguments in favour of the proposition.
As a law student, Perry Christie had a well-earned reputation as an excellent debater, so did Joe. Despite that fact that, in my view, Michael Turner’s arguments were equally as strong, the British judges determined that Joe and Perry won the debate. I later blamed myself for having lost the debate because my presentation included a number of anti-British colonialism remarks – influenced by my commitment to the Black Power Movement at the time — totally disregarding the fact that the judges were British.
After graduating from law school and being called to the Bar, Joe returned to The Bahamas and practiced law for a number of years. He was originally from West End, Grand Bahama, and he and I would often hangout whenever I visited Freeport.
When I previously lived in Washington, D.C. for 21 years, Joe and his very close friend Nigel Bowe visited D.C. in the 1980s and we had a fantastic time at a club called “Foxtrap” on 16th Street. I never understood why Joe abandoned practicing law in The Bahamas, but I later found out that he had moved to Chicago and apparently remained there until his death. Farewell, my friend. MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE.
