NASSAU, Bahamas — When the Bay Street Boys banned Sidney Poitier’s film “No Way Out” in 1950, a movement started, The Nassau Guardian reported on January 11, in an article written by Travis Cartwright-Carroll.
The Citizens Committee, formed by the late Cleveland Eneas and Maxwell Thompson, lobbied for the reversal of the decision.
In the film, Poitier played a doctor who must treat a racist patient. In it, the kindly, earnest, and intelligent doctor must confront racism head-on. It was unheard of at the time and it was considered “subversive”.
Its impact in The Bahamas — still a British colony at the time, and under the thumb of the elite and white Bay Street Boys — was significant.
Former Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes said the film had a major impact on the movement toward majority rule.
“The movie, ‘No Way Out’, was really almost cataclysmic because for the first time it portrayed a Black actor in a role that you seldom, if ever, saw Black actors in,” he said yesterday. “Not only that, the movie dealt with the issue of race, which was even less frequent at the time.”
Sir Arthur added, “The impact of the movie itself was really incredible. First of all, the people here in Nassau, the authorities, decided that it was too sensitive to be shown in The Bahamas. They banned the movie. Then, in response to that, there was a movement, the Citizens Committee was formed to force the authorities to show the movie but then they developed a broader agenda for social and political equality.
“What happened was the Bay Street Boys, as they were called at the time, they relented and the movie was shown in the theaters.”
Sir Arthur noted, “…it is “very difficult for people today, for younger people, to understand the mindset back then. ‘What’s all of this about? Black doctor? So what?’ Back then, in a movie, that was extraordinary.
“That had a tremendous impact on the Bahamian psyche and added impetus to the movement…
“You can say the Citizens Committee was a sort of forerunner of the PLP. It didn’t last long but they did some agitation.”
Prominent attorney Sean McWeeney, QC, agreed.
In a statement,e said, “…there is a line that can be drawn from Sidney Poitier to his film ‘No Way Out’, to the banning of it here, to the Citizens Committee, to the organized struggle for majority rule, to the attainment of majority rule.” See complete article in The Nassau Guardian at https://thenassauguardian.com/sir-sidneys-bahamian-ties-were-enduring/
