The '50s - complexions, migration and political change

IN THE '50s, it might be a good idea to indicate the colour of your skin in applying for a job. So, ads. like these appeared in The Gleaner of 1950:

"Young girl, fair, from the country seeks position as mother's help..."

"A decent and honest half-Chinese girl, lately from the country seeks position in any business place..."

A journalist found it necessary to make this quote, at great length, in her column: "If American women want the English complexions they envy, they should use soap and water, good cleansing and foundation cream, drink eight glasses of water a day and eat green vegetables, says Ms. Barbara Grant, beauty consultant". There must have been a very large white population here at the time.

Many things remained the same in post-War Jamaica, but there were others which were rapidly changing. There was also fear of the future and some wrong predictions:

"Two years ago, before Tower Isle was built, I recall talking with a group of Americans in Montego Bay. They had shied away from the Sunset Lodge in all its new luxuriousness, and although wealthy and able to afford the £50 a day charged, preferred to ensconce themselves in Montego Bay's modestly apportioned hotels. One gentleman said to me, 'The future of your tourism trade depends on your keeping it just as it is... quiet, restful, simple'."

­ Vere Johns in The Daily Gleaner, January 1950

The end of the War was still being celebrated, its effect lamented:

"Never before, within so short a while, have so many human beings been killed in war, maimed for life, tyrannised over, imprisoned, tortured and enslaved. Never has mankind's production in art, literature, music or philosophy been more meagre or in a lower standard. Never has the dismal failure of humanity been more apparent."

­ Sir Duff Cooper, from his New Year column reflecting on the past decade published January 3, 1950.

For Jamaicans, the decade of the '50s were most distinguished by political change and the lure of migration. While the middle class was entranced by the promise of more and more self-rule, the masses left for England by their thousands. Democracy and independence were concepts to be played with by the intelligentsia. For the 'lumpen proletariat' what went on under the belt, indeed, in the belly, had a more urgent appeal. For those who marched on the middle ground, there was no contradiction between having faith in the emerging nation, and going to live in the 'motherland', to milk it for just a little bit more.

In 1949 new general election under the recently-implemented system of self-government was held. The Jamaica Labour Party again won, but by a greatly reduced majority in the House of Representatives.

Hurricane
Charlie, Olympics

Then in August, 1951, the most severe hurricane in 70 years, Hurricane Charlie, swept over the island. It did great damage in Kingston. Port Royal was destroyed for the third time in its history. Morant Bay was hard hit. The loss of life was in excess of 150.

A lifting of the national spirit came by way of the Olympics, held in Helsinki, Finland, where Jamaica's team of Arthur Wint, Leslie Laing, Herbert McKenley and George Rhoden won the Olympic 4 X 400 metres relay in world record time, as did Rhoden in winning the gold in the 400 metres. McKenley won the silver in the 100 and 400 metres and Wint the silver in the 800.

Federation

In 1956 a conference was held in London of representatives of the West Indian island territories to discuss Federation. A three-man Commission was appointed to tour the region and proposed three locations from which the capital would be chosen. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II gave her approval on the 23rd February.

In the middle of the decade, migration to England, which for some years since the Second World War had been rising from almost a trickle, gathered momentum and over 17,000 Jamaicans went to England to seek work in this year. By 1956 migrants to England in this year numbered 13,087. By 1960, migrants to the United Kingdom reached the figure of 32,060.

Early in 1957 a final Federation Conference took place at Mona, St. Andrew. The name "West Indies" was adopted for the Federation. The Commission on the capital recommended Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad in the order named. By vote of the regional delegates, Trinidad was selected.

Education

In 1957, Government policy on education was revised. One thousand, five hundred free places in secondary schools and 50 scholarships and bursaries to the University College of the West Indies were to be granted annually.

On November 11, Jamaica received full internal self-government which meant a complete change of the political structure that had existed for almost three centuries. This change gave control of all internal matters to a Council of Ministers called the Executive Council, nominated by the Governor on the recommendation of the Chief Minister, who now became known as Premier. This Parliamentary system was modelled on that of the United Kingdom. There were now 10 Ministers instead of the nine under the 1953 Constitution.

Sir Kenneth Blackburne, formerly Governor of the Leeward Islands, arrived on December 18 to take over as Governor from Sir Hugh Foot, who had left the island.

Federation

In 1958 Jamaica became a member territory of the West Indies Federation when it was proclaimed on February 23. During this year the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Board was established to improve and control the conditions of workers and their dependents on sugar estates and cane farms. In December, Government set up the Jamaica National Trust Commission with power to take steps for the purchase and preservation of National Monuments.

In Federal Elections held in April, the Bustamante-led Democratic Labour Party won 12 seats in Jamaica to 5 won by the Federal Labour Party, led by Norman Manley.

On June 14, the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, run by a Government Statutory Board, started operations, thus bringing a second broadcasting station to the island.

On July 4, important changes in the Constitution of Jamaica were proclaimed. The Council of Ministers established by the 1957 Constitution was replaced by a Cabinet with a Premier

A. U.

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