Dear Editor,

On June 7, 2012, the last of a small caucus of mulattos, who at a time in this country when racism was at its height saw the need to form a political entity (the Progressive Liberal Party) to combat the scourge of racism, victimization and intimidation of the downtrodden citizens of color in this country, died.
Whether coincidentally or by design, the movers and shakers of the movement were all mulattos, Henry Milton Taylor, Cyril St. John Stevenson, William (Bill) Cartwright, Clement Pinder, Urban Knowles and Charles Rodriquez. The officers were Taylor, chairman, Stevenson, secretary-general, and Pinder, treasurer. At the time of the formation of the party (1953), both Taylor and Cartwright (Long Islanders) were sitting members of the House of Assembly, Taylor as the junior member for Long Island and Cartwright as the member for Cat Island, both having won their seats in the general election in 1949. There was no party government so they had to continue as independents in the assembly.
The sheer audacity of such a move in this country at that time was to the ruling oligarchy (Bay Street Boys) like the waving of a red flag in front of a raging bull. Taylor was only a lowly bookkeeper employed by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC); but Cartwright was a realtor and the rest were like the remainder of the country at the time, trying to keep afloat. Cartwright became the target of the powers that be and, contrary to statements made to the media by others that he served for seven years (a full term), had to resigned his House seat in April of 1956 a few months before the life of that assembly ended. It was the last of the seven-year terms of the House of Assembly and the beginning of the five-year term as we now know it.
In an article published in the June 8 issue of The Punch by P. Anthony White, he said that Cartwright fared better than the rest. I beg to differ. Cartwright, fared worse than all the rest and paid bitterly for the stand he took.
It is ironic that the leaders of the group, Taylor, Cartwright and Stevenson, were all ostracized and with the exception of Cartwright, who was targeted by the Bay Street Boys, eventually driven from the party by the very persons whom they sought to help.
After usurping the party, the group led by L.O. Pindling never rested until they hounded Taylor and Stevenson out of the party, using their (Taylor and Stevenson's) pigmentation against them; Taylor for attending a Board of Tourism function in England with Stafford Sands and Stevenson for visiting a group of Cuban refugees on Cay Lobos with a contingent of white reporters from the United States. Taylor fared better than the rest, as Pindling tried to salve his conscience by giving him a job and later making him governor general when he, Taylor, had one foot on a banana skin and the other in the grave. Cartwright was given a helping hand by Perry Christie when he was PM in 2002; but Hubert Ingraham saw fit to take it from him in 2007 and allowed him to wander the streets as a wanton until the Rev. Kendal Capron took him in at his facility.
In the June 15 edition of The Tribune was an interesting and well-written letter by one Kevin Evans, a regular contributor to that daily under the heading, "Cartwright deserved an honor"; save for a few inaccuracies, I entirely concur with his summation.
Both Pindling and Milo Butler joined the party quite some time after it was formed and along with others wasted no time in wrestling its leadership and disposing of the mulatto segment of the party. They eventually, because of dire necessity, ran two white candidates, Edison Key in Marsh Harbour and John Purkiss (an Englishman) in Clarence Town. Key eventually won a seat; but Purkiss, who started the Tall Pines Sub-division, like Cartwright, suffered a bombardment of victimization so great that he had to pack up and leave the country. For Evans' enlightenment, the PLP did not win any election in 1967. It won by a landslide in 1968. The 1967 election was a tie, both the United Bahamian Party got 18 seats as well as the PLP. The 1967 government was a coalition one, which was brought about by Randol Fawkes of the Labour Party and Alvin Braynen, an independent, throwing their support behind the PLP.
Political leaders tend to honor their cronies and supporters who in actual fact did nothing more than shout slogans, wave flags and vote for their party. This, Mr. Evans, is the modus operandi of the political entities in our nation. To the countless number of William Cartwright's relatives surviving and the hundreds of them who differed with him on his choice, to this day they have not supported the PLP; and who says that the party's record of victimization, cronyism and ingratitude are the reasons for their disagreement, I say that it took grit and fortitude for one to do what he did.
I do not think for one moment that any of them were in search of glory. They did what they had to do for the betterment of their brothers and sisters and the good of this nation as a whole. They are the real national heroes of this nation. May the great architect of the universe forgive them of their shortcomings and grant them peace and eternal rest while we as a nation say: "Well done thou true and faithful servants".
William is the last of that gallant band, his family should be proud of him.

- Errington W. I. Watkins

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