NASSAU, Bahamas — Her Excellency Dame Marguerite Pindling, Governor General of The Bahamas, paid a visit to legendary political activist Ms. Effie Walkes at her home in Yellow Elder Gardens on Thursday, March 28, 2019. Ms. Walkes, who celebrated her 95th birthday on February 27, and Dame Marguerite were both champions for women’s rights during the struggle for majority rule and they no doubt reminisced about those weekends in the 1960s when they fried fish and conch fritters side-by-side at events held to raise funds for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).
More likely than not, they may have also discussed their involvement as political activists on Tuesday, April 27, 1965, that historic day generally referred to as Black Tuesday when Dame Marguerite’s husband, Lynden Oscar Pindling, leader of the PLP, while speaking in the House of Assembly, interrupted his speech and threw The Mace – the symbol of the authority of the Speaker of the House – through a window to the hordes of PLP supporters who had blocked off Bay Street with massive demonstration against the oppressive, racist policies of the then United Bahamian Party (UBP) Government. Effie Walkes was one of those demonstrators.
So, although their life’s journey may have taken them to different heights socially, that common bond Dame Marguerite and Effie Walkes forged decades ago as political activists fighting against racial injustice was one of the reasons why the Governor General of The Bahamas took time out of her busy schedule to visit Ms. Walkes and present her with a bouquet of flowers. (BIS Photos/Letisha Henderson)
