There are opportunities for investment in the Caribbean that can benefit both the Caribbean and African-American communities, Saint Lucia Prime Minister Stephenson King said in a recent address at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in Harlem.
Speaking on forging closer ties between the Caribbean and African-American communities, King said the institution was a testament to the strong historical ties the two groups. At the function held on June 20, King noted that the centre was “named after a Black Caribbean man” and has been the home of Caribbean and African-American culture and history, and of all peoples of the African Diaspora since Arturo Alphonso Schomburg, a Black man from Puerto Rico, first became associated with it in the early part of the 20th Century.
“We are not now starting a new process,” the prime minister said, adding that to put the function into perspective one must recall “the historical legacy Harlem has bequeathed to us.” He said Harlem has marked significance to both the Caribbean community in the US and in the Caribbean as it was there that Caribbean migrants first made their mark on American society in general and on the African-American community in particular. The Caribbean community in the US is diverse though in the early history Caribbean the people were narrowly defined as citizens of the former British colonies – the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean, Belize in Central America and Guyana in South America. “Now, when we speak of the Caribbean in the context of Caricom we have become more diverse and we now include Dutch-speaking Suriname and some eight million French/Creole-speaking Haitians.”
King said the addition of Suriname and Haiti to the Caricom family has further enriched the Caribbean culture which is also reflected in ethnic and racial compositions.
Over the years, Caribbean immigrants and their descendants have assimilated into American society he said, adding that the US Census Bureau now counts most people of West Indian descent as African- Americans. King said too there are more than five million people of West Indian descent in the US, though the official census data has that number at just over 2 ½ million. He said there are at least one million in New York alone. “Except for those who migrated from the Caribbean and still retain a Caribbean accent, we speak a common language with the African-American community, descendants of Caribbean immigrants have adopted and shared in the African-American experience and our cultures have greatly influenced each other,” he added.
He recalled too that when Marcus Mosiah Garvey first set foot in the US in 1916 he settled in Harlem after travelling throughout the country. He said Garvey was vilified and prosecuted for his advocacy and his work to advance the lot of Black people everywhere and he inspired many African and Caribbean political leaders in “in removing their countries from under the yolk of colonialism in the second half of the 20th Century.”
Many Black leaders to follow were influenced by Garvey’s movement including Elijah Mohammed and Malcolm X, whose father, along with Mohammed, were officers in Garvey’s movement. King said it is from “here in Harlem that Garvey inspired many of our forefathers around the world to reach out for new levels of participation in their governance and economic advancement. It is here in Harlem that we now seek to forge closer ties between the modern Caribbean and the African-American community. Ties which we believe can benefit both of our peoples and the generation that follows.”
Since that time, Harlem has been home to many Caribbean nationals who have lived and contributed to its social, literary, cultural and economic history. “The great novelist, poet and freedom fighter Claude Mackay who preceded Garvey to Harlem by a few years contributed to what is often referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. Famed actors Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte built their early acting experiences in Harlem, right here on stage at the Schomburg,” he said. General Colin Powell, a son of Caribbean immigrants was born and grew up in Harlem, he added.
The prime minister said too over the years Caribbean people played important roles in the struggle for civil rights in the US. He said persons such as Belafonte provided considerable financial support to Dr [Martin Luther] King’s movement. He said throughout America’s history, thousands of persons of West Indian heritage have been serving side-by-side with their African-American brothers and sisters, in the segregated US military to today’s uniformed forces and many have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect the US homeland.
There are many unheralded Caribbean immigrants who made significant contributions to the development of the United States during the early part of the twentieth century, King said, though there are hardly any records of their works and deeds. Among these men and women was Richard Benjamin Moore, who became an active member of Garvey’s movement and was a business pioneer and was associated with a company that introduced the first Multigraph and Linotype machines to Harlem; WA Domingo who advocated for an end to colonialism and for Caribbean independence, while living in New York and, from here, significantly influenced the political development of the Caribbean.
King said too that between World War I and the Depression, about 100,000 West Indians settled in the United States, mostly in New York and Boston. When they arrived they suffered the same discrimination suffered by the African-American community though in recent years, there has been an increased demand for trained, skilled and experienced professionals from the Caribbean. He said the New York school system in particular, has been recruiting hundreds of Caribbean teachers. King said “New York has been and continues to be the area from which many of our West Indian compatriots have launched their careers.”
It was in New York that the Hon. James S. Watson successfully campaigned for Municipal Court Judge in 1930, becoming one of the first two justices of African descent elected to judicial office in New York City. Later, his daughter Barbara M Watson was the first woman and the first Black person to achieve the rank of Assistant Secretary of State – serving in the administrations of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter as Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs. Judge Watson’s son, James L. Watson, served as a Senior Judge on the United States Court of International Trade after serving in the New York State Senate and as a judge of the New York City Civil Court. His heroic military service in World War II earned him several medals including the Purple Heart.
This tradition of achievement by Caribbean-Americans is further exemplified by the illustrious political career of Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to seriously seek the nomination of a political party for president of the United States. And, the first Caribbean-born woman ever to serve in the New York City Legislature, the Hon. Una Clarke, is well known in modern New York politics for her civic activism which spanned more than three decades in fields including labour and early childhood education to immigrants rights and the struggle for empowerment of women and minorities. Her daughter Yvette Clarke, who succeeded her in the New York City Legislature, now serves in the US Congress. Also in New York, in Harlem, Basil Paterson was the first Black person to serve as Secretary of State for the State of New York, and his son David Paterson now serves as the first African-American Governor of the State of New York, the statement said.
In closing King said he hoped the two groups can build on their shared history and the legacies of their forebears. “In the same way we have worked together in the past we can share a common pathway to future prosperity that mutually benefits our two communities. We can take our relationship to another level. We can grow our relationship to advance the economic well-being of the Caribbean and the African-American community,” he said. King said the Caribbean brand enjoys great reputation and is known throughout the world. The spending power of the African-American community exceeds the budget of many of the islands of the Caribbean and the US is the Caribbean’s number one trading partner. There is a constant two-way flow of goods and services between the region and the US and markets for export and import are “wide open. Our capital markets offer opportunities for high returns on investments. Our laws protect foreign and domestic investments,” he added. He said the Caribbean hoped that African-American community will take advantage of the many investment opportunities offered in the diverse economies of the Caribbean.
