Bahamas: Independence Movement

Organized opposition to colonial rule in the Bahamas took shape in the mid-twentieth century, when a small, mostly white merchant elite known as the Bay Street Boys dominated politics and the economy despite a Black majority population. The Progressive Liberal Party, founded in 1953, became the chief vehicle for demanding broader political representation, and the 1958 general strike and the 1965 "Black Tuesday" protest in the House of Assembly underscored growing pressure for reform, including expanded voting rights beyond property owners.

The turning point came in the January 1967 general election, when the Progressive Liberal Party under Lynden Pindling won enough seats to form a government, ending centuries of white minority control in what Bahamians came to call Majority Rule. Pindling became the colony's first Black head of government, and a new constitution in 1969 granted the Bahamas internal self-government, with Britain retaining responsibility for defense and foreign affairs.

Pindling's government pressed for full sovereignty, and after a final constitutional conference in London, the Bahamas Independence Order 1973 brought the process to completion. Independence was formally declared in Nassau on July 10, 1973, ending 325 years of British rule and making the Bahamas a sovereign member of the Commonwealth of Nations.