1 00:00:04,090 --> 00:00:19,060 I don't have any. OK, good afternoon, everyone. 2 00:00:19,060 --> 00:00:23,930 What I'm presenting today is sort of a discussion that's based around my doctor 3 00:00:23,930 --> 00:00:29,530 research where I look at the relationship between broadcasting and national identity, 4 00:00:29,530 --> 00:00:35,410 and I look at various media forms between the 1940s and the nineteen sixties and Bermuda. 5 00:00:35,410 --> 00:00:40,030 So I look at initially I started off with television and through my research, 6 00:00:40,030 --> 00:00:46,540 discovered that it was imperative that I also examined radio and then go even further to newspapers. 7 00:00:46,540 --> 00:00:51,070 I do want to point out that I focus quite a bit on the Royal Gazette in my research, 8 00:00:51,070 --> 00:00:57,940 and I do talk about that today because the Royal Gazette newspaper is the oldest media form in Bermuda today. 9 00:00:57,940 --> 00:01:05,390 It was in Bermuda during slavery, during the emancipation of slaves, during segregation, during the desegregation of the colonies. 10 00:01:05,390 --> 00:01:22,630 And today in Bermuda is the only daily newspaper which is actually kind of amazing to try and navigate the microphone, the clicker and papers. 11 00:01:22,630 --> 00:01:27,190 Through a brief analysis of Bermuda's 1959 theatre boycotts, 12 00:01:27,190 --> 00:01:34,750 this paper will demonstrate how internal contestations of identity between Bermuda's white colonials and members of the 13 00:01:34,750 --> 00:01:42,040 black community played out in the colonial Royal Gazette newspaper and the anti-colonial newspaper The Bermuda Recorder. 14 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:47,260 During the most racially charged non-violent protests in Bermuda's history, 15 00:01:47,260 --> 00:01:55,600 it will highlight how Bermuda's colonial colonial media traditionally represented black Bermuda ants and the role that the black owned 16 00:01:55,600 --> 00:02:05,530 Bermuda recorder played in supporting protesters in their demand for an immediate ending to racial segregation in the island's cinemas. 17 00:02:05,530 --> 00:02:11,170 The illustrations presented here serve to provide an understanding as to how media was 18 00:02:11,170 --> 00:02:18,280 used as a tool that helped to orchestrate articulations of black identity in Bermuda. 19 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:24,490 June 1959 while celebrating Bermuda's British colonial heritage. 20 00:02:24,490 --> 00:02:26,290 Reports of protests, 21 00:02:26,290 --> 00:02:34,660 picketing and boycotts began to overshadow the festivities of the island's three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of British colonialism. 22 00:02:34,660 --> 00:02:40,510 The anonymous progressive group had organised hundreds of young black protesters, 23 00:02:40,510 --> 00:02:47,050 armed with placards demanding an immediate end to racial segregation in Bermuda cinemas. 24 00:02:47,050 --> 00:02:55,360 Reports of the boycotts covered the front pages of Bermuda's newspapers and as the groups gathered outside of Bermuda's theatre houses, 25 00:02:55,360 --> 00:03:00,370 the group refused to buy tickets for segregated seating. 26 00:03:00,370 --> 00:03:09,730 The British Overseas Office was concerned as word quickly spread of disturbances in the small, normally docile island of Bermuda. 27 00:03:09,730 --> 00:03:14,860 In the House of Commons, it was reported that there had been a series of problems in the island's cinemas, 28 00:03:14,860 --> 00:03:20,740 which bar citizens of African blood from certain parts of the auditorium. 29 00:03:20,740 --> 00:03:30,730 But Bermuda's colonial secretary gave assurance that that that there had only been a few minor incidents with no reports of violence. 30 00:03:30,730 --> 00:03:36,370 However, the extent of Bermuda's racial climate had been downplayed. 31 00:03:36,370 --> 00:03:45,970 In actuality, racial tension on the island had increased as a result of the boycotts and consumed discussions within local parliament. 32 00:03:45,970 --> 00:03:54,850 Members of Bermuda's House of Assembly were fearful the protests would escalate, with some arguing that the boycotts were potentially explosive. 33 00:03:54,850 --> 00:03:59,290 House members suggested to the Bermuda General Theatre President James Pearman 34 00:03:59,290 --> 00:04:03,850 that some small incident could touch of riotous consequences that would do 35 00:04:03,850 --> 00:04:15,670 this country a great deal of harm and encouraged him to accelerate the pace of racial integration in the cinemas before the damage destroyed from U2. 36 00:04:15,670 --> 00:04:19,930 Yet the president's position on immediate integration remained unchanged. 37 00:04:19,930 --> 00:04:25,270 He was adamant that the seating arrangement within the theatres, which saw black patrons sitting in the low, 38 00:04:25,270 --> 00:04:34,300 congested hot area of the cinema and the white patrons sitting in the spacious balconies was not going to happen any time soon, 39 00:04:34,300 --> 00:04:36,970 although they promised it would change. 40 00:04:36,970 --> 00:04:45,100 He argued that the protesters were making an unnecessary fuss about something that they decided to alter months ago, 41 00:04:45,100 --> 00:04:51,640 and this was just a mild annoyance and merely a storm in a teacup. 42 00:04:51,640 --> 00:05:00,250 Wesley Tucker, the island's only black parliamentarian and whose family had personally boycotted the sex segregated cinemas for 20 years, 43 00:05:00,250 --> 00:05:07,960 told the House of Assembly In my opinion, in this country, we are sitting on what might be called a keg of gunpowder. 44 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:15,730 Dismissing Freeman's description that the boycotts were merely a storm in a teacup, with numbers of protests increasing, 45 00:05:15,730 --> 00:05:21,280 with numbers of protesters increasing daily in the local government trying to mediate the situation, 46 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:28,090 Pearman defiantly told the House of Assembly that he will shut down all the cinemas 47 00:05:28,090 --> 00:05:32,740 on the island rather than to give in to the demands of the progressive group. 48 00:05:32,740 --> 00:05:43,240 And as a direct attack against the protesters, he told the House of Assembly that they had behaved badly and he does not propose to be coerced by 49 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:51,460 a crowd of what is largely hoodlums into doing something which he believes is sensible and right. 50 00:05:51,460 --> 00:05:59,920 The impact of Pearson's words was more damaging as his comments of hoodlum behaviour appeared throughout the local headlines. 51 00:05:59,920 --> 00:06:05,260 The use of Bermuda's colonial newspaper to reinforce black Bermudian as being 52 00:06:05,260 --> 00:06:11,080 inferior had been common practise since the newspaper's inception in the 1830s. 53 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:20,140 Name-Calling and negative descriptions were often stereotypes of Bermuda's black youth seen within the island's white media. 54 00:06:20,140 --> 00:06:27,830 It had also become common. In practise to not acknowledge a person's professional title in local news reporting, 55 00:06:27,830 --> 00:06:39,770 Dr Even Hutson argues that the daily paper often underscored its contempt for coloured people by refusing to attach any title in reference to them. 56 00:06:39,770 --> 00:06:45,230 These acts of identity construction used by white colonial media to represent Bermuda's black 57 00:06:45,230 --> 00:06:52,160 community was an essential tool in maintaining hegemony within the small British territory. 58 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:56,450 Chris Barker states that the use of stereotypes, as we're discussing here, 59 00:06:56,450 --> 00:07:01,220 involves the attribution of negative traits to persons who are different from ourselves, 60 00:07:01,220 --> 00:07:09,560 which he argues is a staple mechanism of racism and points to the operation of power. 61 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:19,280 Barker argues black people were represented as naturally incapable of refinement of white civilisation based upon this idea. 62 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:25,100 Not only were Bermuda's blacks not good enough to sit in the balcony with the white patrons, but they were, 63 00:07:25,100 --> 00:07:34,400 as Pearman alluded to, not even civilised enough to exert patience in the opening of the soon to be desegregated theatre. 64 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:43,700 However, the use of the term hoodlum on this occasion was was a blatantly false description of the progressive group and sparked even further protest. 65 00:07:43,700 --> 00:07:50,000 What Pearman had not factored in was that the protesters were not badly behaved hoodlums, 66 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:56,090 but in fact, members of the progressive group were well-educated, financially able, 67 00:07:56,090 --> 00:08:02,690 and most importantly, they controlled their own newspaper, the Bermuda Recorder, 68 00:08:02,690 --> 00:08:07,280 which was formed in the early 1920s to be a voice of the black community. 69 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:14,930 In 1959 became an instrumental tool in the fight against racial segregation. 70 00:08:14,930 --> 00:08:19,340 The anti hegemonic newspaper provided an outlet for the progressive group to 71 00:08:19,340 --> 00:08:25,460 communicate directly to the protesters as it printed messages of solidarity. 72 00:08:25,460 --> 00:08:29,570 As the theatre boycotts continued at the same time, 73 00:08:29,570 --> 00:08:39,130 the Bermuda recorder allowed the anonymous progressive group to refute false claims and counter accusations of being hoodlums. 74 00:08:39,130 --> 00:08:47,980 The June 24th, 1959 edition of the Bermuda Recorder had numerous articles criticising the theatre president, 75 00:08:47,980 --> 00:08:53,680 and you can see some of the articles that were going up in the newspaper at that point. 76 00:08:53,680 --> 00:09:00,040 Members Also Express expressed their displeasure of the comments in the letters to the editor column, 77 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:06,760 and both black and white Bermuda fans became participants in the national debate on segregation, 78 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:16,150 with the letters to the editor columns becoming a battlefield of words for and against Bermuda Social Revolution. 79 00:09:16,150 --> 00:09:19,930 One writer who signed their name, good luck, wrote in the Royal Gazette. 80 00:09:19,930 --> 00:09:24,820 I'm trying to encourage the white folk of Bermuda to counteract the boycott of the Bermuda 81 00:09:24,820 --> 00:09:37,200 cinemas by going to as many moving pictures as are necessary to keep the cinema on its feet. 82 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:42,900 Another writer such as a person called Disgusted Citizen, attacked not only the theatre officials, 83 00:09:42,900 --> 00:09:47,100 but also those who were in support of maintaining the island segregation policy. 84 00:09:47,100 --> 00:09:54,000 And these are some of the letters that were in support of the protests, both in the Royal Gazette and the Recorder. 85 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:59,310 Yet it was the progressive groups partnership with the Bermuda Recorder that allowed four members to effectively 86 00:09:59,310 --> 00:10:07,290 renounce the claims of the theatre president and reaffirm their demand for the immediate desegregation of the cinemas. 87 00:10:07,290 --> 00:10:11,370 They wrote Now that the theatres are closed, the cry goes out. 88 00:10:11,370 --> 00:10:13,380 There must be negotiations. 89 00:10:13,380 --> 00:10:22,980 But there is nothing to negotiate, and it goes on to say as long as it's dissent, as long as it's segregated, the the boycotts will continue. 90 00:10:22,980 --> 00:10:25,020 Sign the progressive group. 91 00:10:25,020 --> 00:10:33,210 Paramount's closing of the cinemas and discrediting of the progressive group was anticipated to have weakened the impact of the movement. 92 00:10:33,210 --> 00:10:42,330 Instead, through the discourse of newspaper gave Bermuda Social Revolution even more ammunition as it became apparent that 93 00:10:42,330 --> 00:10:49,080 the protesters were not going to back down and with significant financial loss with the cinemas being closed. 94 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:54,870 The Bermuda Theatre Company ended their practise of racial segregation and Bermuda Cinemas 95 00:10:54,870 --> 00:11:01,170 were opened fully integrated in fear of financial loss to their own establishments. 96 00:11:01,170 --> 00:11:07,260 Bermuda's hotels and restaurants immediately shifted their segregation policies, 97 00:11:07,260 --> 00:11:15,030 with Bermuda entering racial integration overnight, while black Bermuda ants had won a victory. 98 00:11:15,030 --> 00:11:24,480 With the success of the 1959 theatre boycotts, there remain significant racial inequality between white Bermuda and black Bermuda, 99 00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:33,750 and these relationships continue to be negotiated and navigated within colonial Bermuda and its media industries still today. 100 00:11:33,750 --> 00:11:42,302 Thank you.