The Bahamas - The Vendetta Group writes, "January
10th is Majority Rule Day,
a very substantial day in Bahamian history. A miracle happened that
day we had a bloodless transition of power unheard of in this world so
we all as Bahamians should be proud of such a accomplishment.
."
Enclosed is a tribute video created by Sasha Dunn of the Vendetta Group.
Learn more about local activities within The Bahamas within the following articles:
Lynden
Pindling was born on March 22 1930 to Arnold and Viola Pindling in his
grandfather's home in Mason's Addition, Nassau, Bahamas. He grew up on
East Street in Nassau and attended the Government High School from
1943-1946. At the age of 16 he took a job as a junior clerk in the Post
Office Savings Bank before travelling to London to study law. He
received a Bachelor of Law (LLB) from King's College London in 1952 and
was called to the English bar at the Middle Temple in February 1953 and
to the Bahamas Bar in June 1953.
At his call to the Bahamas Bar,
Pindling dedicated himself to the service of the Bahamas and the
Bahamian people 'within and without the realm of pure law',
demonstrating his eloquence but also revealing his political agenda.
By
the end of 1953, Pindling had joined the Progressive Liberal Party
(PLP) as its legal advisor and later became treasurer of the party and
parliamentary leader.
On 5 May 1956, he married Marguerite McKenzie
(of Long Bay Cays in Andros at St Ann's Parish on Fox Hill Road in
Nassau. The following month, he successfully contested Nassau's
Southern District constituency in the 1956 General Election.
Then
PLP chairman, Henry Taylor, was defeated in the 1956 general election,
and Pindling became the party's parliamentary leader over the dynamic
and popular labour leader Randol Fawkes. He led the PLP from 1956 until
his retirement from politics in 1997, winning election victories in
1967, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1982 and 1987.
He was elected to the House
of Assembly on 10 consecutive occasions due, in part, to his ability to
build a coalition with influential Bahamian clergymen, primarily
Baptist pastors, such as H. W. Brown, R. E. Cooper, Sr., and A. S.
Colebrook who became strong supporters of the PLP and its policies.
On
27 April 1965 (a day known in Bahamian history as "Black Tuesday")
Pindling delivered a speech in the House of Assembly accusing the
government of the day of gerrymandering. In a calculated move to drum
up popular support and shock the establishment, he took the Speaker's
Mace and threw it out of a window onto the streets (where PLP
supporters had gathered) exclaiming, "this is the symbol of authority,
and authority in this island belongs to the people... Yes, the people
are outside, and the mace belongs outside, too!"
On January 10 1967,
the PLP and the governing United Bahamian Party (led by Sir Roland
Symonette) each won 18 seats in the legislature. Sir Randol Fawkes (the
lone Labour MP) voted to sit with the PLP, and Sir Alvin Braynan, an
independent MP, agreed to become Speaker enabling Pindling to form the
first black government in Bahamian history.
The Bahamas had
previously been governed by an oligarchy of white merchants known as
'the Bay Street Boys'(and formally constituted as the UBP in 1958) who
had suppressed the black majority under a system of segregation and
racial prejudice similar to that in the southern United States.
Pindling
went on to lead Bahamians to independence from Britain on 10 July 1973.
He is considered one of the chief architects of the modern Bahamas, and
is credited with achieving significant social change in a democratic
and orderly process, as well as the introduction of social security
measures and the formation of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.
