(EDITOR’S NOTE: This commentary was originally published in BAHAMAS CHRONICLE in November of 2018. For obvious reasons I have decided to re-run it today, the 54th anniversary of the Progressive Liberal Party’s historic general election victory on January 10, 1967 that ushered in The Bahamas’ first Majority Rule Government.)
By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 10, 2021 — I am now really beginning to fully appreciate the recent cavalcade of historic photos being posted on Facebook by Lionel F. Evans Sr. and Monte Pratt. As I noted previously, they represent a wonderful opportunity for the powers-that-be at the Ministry of Education to develop a history course on political developments in The Bahamas for inclusion in the curricula of our schools.
One of the pictures posted recently was of particular interest to me because it included an individual who over the years has not received the kind of appreciation he fully deserves for his involvement, dedication and commitment to the struggle for majority rule.
By Bahamian standards, George A. Smith is a white man and he easily could have been a prominent member of the United Bahamian Party (UBP) had he chosen to align himself with the Bay Street Boys, who only decided to establish themselves as a political party after the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) made such a strong showing in the 1956 general election by winning six seats.
George is extremely smart and he has a “good head for business.” It was in this capacity that he made tremendous contributions to the progressive struggle in the 1960s as a young member of the National Committee for Positive Action (NCPA), the activist group within the PLP that essentially was the “power base” of then PLP leader Lynden Pindling.
When Arthur A. Foulkes and a group of other NCPA members established the Bahamian Times in the early 1960s after Foulkes lost his bid for a seat in the House of Assembly in the 1962 general election and resigned as News Editor of The Tribune, George subsequently joined the staff of Bahamian Times ostensibly as General Manager.
As Foulkes recalled in an article he wrote back in 2005, “I met George Smith when he was a young insurance agent back in the early 1960s. Mr. Smith’s complexion would have made it easy for him to find acceptance on the white side of the Bahamian racial divide at the time. But he chose to throw in his lot with the struggle for majority rule. He frequently stopped at the office of Bahamian Times on Wulff Road – which was a little hothouse of political ferment – to help with the newspaper and join in the debates.”
George and I became extremely close friends after I left The Tribune in 1965 and joined the staff of Bahamian Times, having received my early training in journalism, under the tutelage of Foulkes and the late Sir Etienne Dupuch, the Tribune’s Publisher and Editor. I had joined the staff of The Tribune as a trainee reporter in May of 1960.
Following the historic January 10, 1967 general elections, in which both the then governing UBP and the opposition PLP won 18 seats, the PLP was able to convince the lone Labour Party winner Randol Fawkes and Independent Alvin R. Braynen to support the PLP and formed The Bahamas’ first black-led majority-rule government.
One year later, however, members of the PLP were faced with making a crucial decision of holding a bye-election to fill the Shirlea seat left vacant following the death of Uriah McPhee, but it was decided instead to “go back to the people” in a general election on April 10, 1968. It turned out to be the right decision, with the PLP winning by a landslide, capturing 29 seats, while the UBP won just 7. Randol Fawkes was re-elected as a Labour candidate, as was Alvin R. Braynen as an Independent.
George Smith’s family roots are in Exuma, and naturally when he decided to embark on a political career, he chose to run as a PLP candidate for the Rolleville constituency in The Exumas and was among the winning candidates in the 1968 general election.
I was very much involved in George’s campaign, and every Saturday after Bahamian Times had been published, we would head to Exuma. It was during this time that I fell in love with the islands that comprise The Exumas, which the tourist brochure describes as “an archipelago of 365 cays and islands, beginning just 35 miles southeast of Nassau.” That “love affair” continues even to this day. Although I have not visited The Exumas in more than two decades, I developed some lasting friendships during those campaign years.
My friendship with George Smith has remained “rock-solid” over the years as a result of the strong foundation on which it was established during our years as co-workers at Bahamian Times, even though we took “different sides,” so the speak, when there was a “political split” in the PLP in 1970. I was best man in George’s wedding at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral to the late Mavis McCartney Smith and I am godfather to their daughter Gina.
Likewise, George and Sir Arthur Foulkes also maintained a close friendship after Sir Arthur became one of the Dissident Eight that broke away from the PLP in 1970 because of disagreements with the leadership of Sir Lynden Pindling, whom George still strongly supported.
When I returned from London in November of 1969 after one year’s on-the-job advanced training in journalism at the London Evening Standard, my mentor Sir Arthur had just been fired a couple months earlier as Minister of Tourism by Sir Lynden, so there was no question as to whom I would be “loyal” to, even though it was Sir Lynden who had arranged for me to go to London on the training course.
I was appointed Editor of Bahamian Times, but my tenure in that position was not very long after I was fired by Sir Lynden for writing an editorial supporting the Dissident Eight. If my memory serves me rightly, members of the Board of Directors of Bahamian Times, which at the time was poised to become a daily publication, were Sir Arthur, George Smith, Jimmy Shepherd, Bazel Nichols and I.G. Stubbs. I subsequently found out that both Sir Arthur and George were opposed to me being fired.
Of course, after the Dissident Eight made the split official and joined moderate remnants of the disbanded UBP to form the Free National Movement (FNM), I became a founding member of the FNM and founding editor of its newspaper, The Torch of Freedom.
So, when I saw the photo that I decided to publish with column of a young George Smith among the leadership of the PLP following the split, I realized that many Bahamians really are not fully aware for his stalwart commitment to the progressive cause. He is still very much active in politics today and deserves to be recognized as one of the most committed Bahamian politicians to a cause that he believes in.
Oswald T. Brown was Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager at the Embassy of The Bahamas for four-plus years prior the change of government in The Bahamas in May of 2017. Having previously lived in D.C. for more than 21 years and as a naturalized American citizen since 1982, when his diplomatic appointment was rescinded, he decided to remain in D.C.
