Sir Randol Francis Fawkes (20 March 1924 – 15 June 2000)
[Biography - Randol Fawkes fansite]
/ref>[Strike that stirred the nation - ''Tribune'' - 23 February 2009]
/ref> was a Bahamian politician, trade unionist
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
and lawyer.
He served as Member of Parliament for the St. Barnabas constituency and for a short time as a Cabinet Minister in the first Pindling government. Fawkes was knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity.
The concept of a knighthood ...
by the Queen in her 1977 Birthday Honours
The 1977 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours were announced on 11 June 1977 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee and Birthday in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Barbados, Mauritius, Fiji, the Bahamas, Grenada, and ...
.
Career
Fawkes is best remembered for the part he played in swinging the Bahamas' 1967 general election
A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...
to bring about black "majority rule".
In 1967, the Bahamas was a British colony
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by England, and then Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English and later British Empire. There was usually a governor to represent the Crown, appointed by the British monarch on ...
ruled, despite its approximately 85% black population, by a white elite known as the Bay Street Boys.[Bad News for the Boys - ''Time Magazine'' - 20 January 1967]
/ref>
The predominantly white United Bahamian Party
The United Bahamian Party (UBP) was a major political party in the Bahamas in the 1950s and 1960s. Representing the interests of the white oligarchy known as the Bay Street Boys, including Stafford Sands, it was the ruling party between 1958 and ...
(UBP) government called a snap election
A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Snap elections in parliamentary systems are often called to resolve a political impasse such as a hung parliament where no single political party has a ma ...
in January 1967. Of the 38 seats contested, the ruling UBP won 18 seats and the black Progressive Liberal Party
The Progressive Liberal Party (abbreviated PLP) is a populist and social liberal party in the Bahamas. Philip Davis is the leader of the party.
History
The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton ...
(PLP), which had previously only won six seats, won 18 seats.[Majority Rule Remembered - ''Nassau Guardian'' - 11 January 2012]
/ref> Alvin Braynen, an independent, won 1 seat and Fawkes, leader of the Labour Party (which had fielded four candidates), won one seat.
References
External links
"The Quiet Revolution and the Man who Made it Possible"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fawkes, Randol
Members of the House of Assembly of the Bahamas
1924 births
2000 deaths
Knights Bachelor
Labour ministers of the Bahamas
Trade ministers of the Bahamas
Labour Party (Bahamas) politicians
20th-century Bahamian lawyers