A True Maverick: The Political Career of Dr. Oswald E. Anderson, 1919-1944

Abstract This article examines the political career of the African-Jamaican Dr. Oswald E. Anderson from his entry into local politics in 1919 till his defeat in the first election under universal suffrage in 1944. It will demonstrate that Anderson differed from other black politicians at the time because of his criticism of Crown Colony government, commitment to the welfare of the masses, nationalist fervour and above all his outspokenness about racial discrimination. In addition to describing and explaining why Anderson was such a ‘true maverick’, the article will also demonstrate that Anderson was a highly ambiguous politician.

A "fearless critic of government," "staunch defender of the people," and "true patriot" were labels used by contemporaries to describe the black1 Jamaican politician Dr. Oswald E. Anderson. If he is remembered at all today, it is for his resignation as mayor of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) in July 1938 over an advert in the British Medical Journal for a health officer for Jamaica, who had to be "of European parentage." 2 The verbatim Gleaner reports of proceedings of the St. Andrew Parochial Board, the KSAC and the Legislative Council are more comprehensive than the official minutes. The government paid the Gleaner £600 a year for its Legislative Council reporters in order to economise on the costs of Hansard reporters. This and also the fact that the governor included in his correspondence with the Colonial Office mainly the reports from the Gleaner rather than official minutes suggest that they must be very accurate.
in order to pay for them. They were made up of a nominated custos, the elected member of the Legislative Council for the parish, and nine to fifteen elected others, most of whom were black by the late 1930s (Eisner 1961:373, Lewis 2004:92-7, Wrong 1923.

Alderman, Councilor, and Mayor Anderson
Anderson was born in 1881 in the parish of St. Catherine. A few years later, his mother Martha married a Baptist minister named James M. Gregory, with whom she had further children.3 Like many children whose parents wanted them to have a good education but could not afford to send them to a fee-paying secondary school-his family was "without any particular influence, wealth"-Anderson stayed on as a pupil teacher after finishing elementary school. Successful completion of the second of the three pupil teachers' exams allowed a pupil teacher to apply for a secondary school scholarship. Anderson succeeded in securing a scholarship for Wolmer's. After graduating from this prestigious school, he trained as a dispenser. He worked for a few years at the Buff Bay hospital and in 1907 moved to the United States, where he did a science degree, followed by a medical degree at Chicago Medical College. By taking his medical degree in the United States, Anderson mirrored many other Jamaican doctors. By the late 1930s, some 21 percent of them had studied in North America.4 Anderson returned to Jamaica in 1916 and started his own practice at Cross Roads in St. Andrew. That he did not apply to become a District Medical Officer-the most junior position in the government medical service-was not just because private practice was more remunerative but also the government medical service offered limited scope for promotion. Promotion usually involved transfer to another colony but various colonies were closed to nonwhite doctors. Soon after his return, Anderson joined black-led organizations that advocated far-reaching political and social reforms, including the Jamaica League, an organization set up in 3 Evidence suggests that Anderson was an illegitimate child. In one of his speeches, he acknowledged that his father's surname was Anderson. It was common practice for women to give their illegitimate child the surname of its father in an attempt to encourage him to financially support it. 4 Gleaner, 17 January 1938, 16 November 1938, and 10 September 1948 1914 that aimed to promote "patriotic sentiments and mutual interests and the encouragement of individual and cooperative efforts for the intellectual and economic improvement of Jamaica" (Richards 2002:349). He also participated in Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Progressive Negro Association, which was founded in 1916 by amongst others the Unitarian minister Ethelred Brown and equally aimed to instill self-respect and race pride. And Anderson also soon took part in election campaigns of black candidates for the Legislative Council, who dared to criticize the government for neglecting the interests of the poor, such as A. Bain Alves, a labor leader. In later years, Anderson also supported the candidature of D. Theo Wint, a school teacher, the Reverend George Lewis Young, J.A.G. Smith, a well-known barrister, and Erasmus Campbell, another barrister.5 5 See Gleaner, 21 October 1916, 28 November 1917, 17 February 1919 December 1919, and 3 January 1920. Considering his civic engagement, it is not surprising that Anderson was elected onto the St. Andrew Parochial Board as early as 1919. As he regarded the amalgamation of the St. Andrew Parochial Board and the Kingston City Council in 1923 a "retrograde step"-the new body had fewer elected members than the two boards combined-he refused to stand in the first election for the KSAC. In 1931, however, he agreed to be co-opted onto the body as alderman. In 1934, he was made deputy-mayor and in 1937 contested the KSAC elections on a ticket of the Kingston and St. Andrew Federation of Citizens Associations, which was not a political party but supported candidates in elections.6 He overwhelmingly won the election and was unanimously chosen as mayor.7 As a practicing doctor, Anderson of course regarded "the health of the community a matter of first importance."8 Like other British Caribbean colonies, Jamaica had a medical department run by a white "imported" Superintending Medical Officer. The department employed a number of District Medical Officers, who were expected to hold regular clinics in their area and make home visits but could also carry out private practice. If not in private practice, they charged a minimum fee of four shillings, which was double that charged by their counterparts in Trinidad and Guyana. Men and women unable to pay the fee could obtain a ticket for a reduced fee or free treatment. Yet it was not easy for the poor in Kingston and St. Andrew to use the services of a District Medical Officer as there were only two on a population of 118.000 and very few ticket distributors (Carley 1943:9-17).9 Although Anderson regularly highlighted the problems associated with the District Medical Officer and ticket system, his bête noire with regards to the health services of the corporate area was the Kingston public hospital and the Jubilee maternity hospital, both of which charged a fee but also 6 Citizens' Associations were first set up in 1908 and aimed to create and maintain public opinion on questions of public affairs. By 1910 most had ceased to exist. Attempts were made to revive them in the 1920s but it was not until the early 1930s before they were again a prevalent feature of Jamaican life. The Kingston and St. Andrew Federation of Citizens' Associations was set up in 1936. 7 Gleaner, 17 January 1938, and10 September 1948; "Personality of the month," Spotlight 1, no. 2 (1940): 32. 8 Gleaner, 6 November 1937. 9 Report of the West India Royal Commission, Cmd. 6607 (1944-45), 142-4 and 150-3. Because of the paucity of District Medical Officers, especially in rural districts, private doctors were very common in Jamaica and other parts of the British Caribbean. operated a ticket system. Like other urban and specialist hospitals in the British Caribbean, the Kingston public hospital and the Jubilee maternity hospital were set up in the late nineteenth century and by the early 1920s suffered from overcrowding, poor sanitation, and lack of staff.10 To demand an inquiry into conditions at the two hospitals, Anderson often listed cases in which patients, including some of his own, had been refused access or given poor treatment. His colleagues on the St. Andrew Parochial Board and the KSAC fully supported him in these efforts, which had varied success. In 1920, for instance, the Superintending Medical Officer granted a departmental inquiry but it only concluded that in future the rules would be more "strictly observed."11 Anderson was more successful in 1932, when his allegations of poor treatment mentioned in a KSAC meeting were reported on the front page of the Gleaner and led to a huge public debate as well as a commission to assess his "sensational revelations." Although the commission concluded that the specific cases of poor treatment mentioned by Anderson were "unfounded," it did confirm his more general claim of "neglect and carelessness." It found, for instance, that the Kingston public hospital had 120 beds but accommodated nearly three times as many patients and therefore recommended the enlargement of the hospital as well as an increase in the wages of nursing staff to raise the level of care.12 Because the Superintending Medical Officer, Dr. Hallinan, did not take up the recommendations made by the commission, Anderson continued to make "grave allegations" about the Kingston public hospital and the Jubilee maternity hospital. In March 1934, he even accused the white matron of the Jubilee of racial discrimination, when he stated in a KSAC meeting that it was not surprising that she turned away so many women because "they were only black people."13 Although the Superintending Medical Officer did not grant an investigation to assess Anderson's allegations, he did order the enlargement of the Kingston public hospital and the Jubilee maternity hospital and various other improvements.14 But this victory did not make Anderson less critical of the Superintending Medical Officer. In fact, he became even more outspoken about Hallinan's disregard for the welfare 10 See Report of the West India Royal Commission, 145-47. 11 Gleaner, 7 July 1920. 12 Gleaner, 15, 21, 29, 30 March and 27 May 1932. 13 Gleaner, 17 March 1934. 14 Gleaner, 7 May 1934 of the Jamaican people, culminating in a public meeting he organized in May 1937 that called for the removal of the Superintending Medical Officer from the colony for failing to provide the KSAC with an assistant officer for its public health department-which illustrates that the Jamaican government like those in other British Caribbean colonies was less concerned about preventative than curative medicine-and also more generally for the poor manner in which he ran his department.15 But Anderson was not only keen to provide the "inarticulate masses" with access to good medical services; he also wanted them to have the opportunity to move up the social ladder.16 White-collar jobs in interwar Jamaica required a secondary school certificate. Few children, however, were able to progress from elementary school to one of the twenty-three governmentaided secondary schools because of the fees charged and limited scholarships. In fact, by the late 1930s only 1 to 2 percent of all Jamaican children of secondary-school age attended a secondary school.17 This dual system of education-elementary for the lower classes and secondary for the middle and upper classes-was not unique to Jamaica. In all British Caribbean colonies, there were a few secondary schools set up or maintained by the government that offered only a limited number of scholarships. These schools used English examining bodies, employed mostly English staff and mirrored English public schools in terms of their curriculum, ethos, and organization (Hammond 1946:442-3).18 By charging a lower fee than the government-aided secondary schools, private secondary schools offered an important opportunity for poorer children to get the necessary qualifications for a white-collar job. In the late 1930s, the government made attempts to limit the growth of these schools, which Anderson fiercely opposed.19 But as he fully realized that this form of secondary education was equally out of reach for most Jamaican children, 15 Gleaner, 11 June 1937. 16 Except for industrial schools, local government had little responsibility for education. During his time as councilor and alderman, Anderson therefore voiced his opinion about the poor provision of education mostly in speeches for Citizens' Associations and other organizations.
18 Report of the West India Royal Commission, 92-96. 19 Gleaner, 7 July 1936 and25 January 1938. Anderson was very concerned to see that elementary schools offered children the best opportunities in life. Like their counterparts elsewhere in the British Caribbean, most of the elementary schools in Jamaica were set up by churches but government paid for the salaries and pensions of teachers, school supplies, and various other expenses. They were free but attendance was only compulsory in a few urban areas. As in other colonies, they were overcrowded and their quality of teaching was low. Most elementary school teachers had come up through the pupil teacher system. In fact, the pupil-teacher ratio (73:1) far exceeded that of Barbados (43:1), Trinidad (67:1), and many other British Caribbean colonies. What also lowered the teaching quality was, as the picture above illustrates, the practice of teaching children of all ages together (Hammond 1946:437-41, 447  To improve the quality of elementary education, Anderson first of all demanded, like the Jamaica Union of Teachers, a lowering of the school starting age from seven to five to bring the island more in line with its neighboring colonies. The Jamaican government had set such a high starting age in order to limit expenditure on education, which by the late 1930s made up 10 percent of total expenditure.21 And second, Anderson strongly criticized government proposals to teach agriculture in elementary schools at the expense of literary subjects, which increased in the 1930s and he interpreted as nothing but attempts to "curtail the education of the masses" and keep them in a serf-like status.22 Yet for Anderson elementary schools not only had to offer children opportunities for social mobility, they also had to instill in them pride in their country and heritage and prepare them for their future as Jamaican citizens. Like in other British Caribbean colonies, the curriculum of elementary schools in Jamaica was out of touch with the lives of the pupils and taught them about English flora and fauna, geography, history etc.23 Anderson therefore recommended, like various other staunch Jamaican nationalists, the inclusion of "national history and geography," and civics in the elementary school curriculum.24 Anderson's strong opposition to the teaching of agriculture in elementary schools did not mean that he was against vocational education per se. He in fact welcomed the government's attempts to develop post-elementary vocational education, as he deemed this essential for economic growth. By the late 1930s, there was a technical school in Kingston and three practical training centers and a farm school in the rural parishes. Jamaica mirrored in this regard other colonies in the region. In Trinidad, for example, a board of industrial training provided classes in several centers and there was a technical school in San Fernando (Hammond 1946:445).
Vocational and trade schools featured prominently in the three-day "All-Jamaica Economic and Industrial Conference" that Anderson organized in January 1938. This conference clearly illustrates that Anderson was not only a "fearless" but also a constructive "critic of government." He was convinced 21 Report of the West India Royal Commission, 111. 22 Gleaner, 24 October 1932, 9 July 1934, 14 February 1935, 30 June 1936, and 4 January 1938 23 Report of the West India Royal Commission, 109-10. 24 See, for instance, Gleaner, 14 February 1935. that unemployment in the corporate area and its concomitant problems, such as malnutrition, could only be dealt with on an island-wide basis and if there was close cooperation between local and central government.25 The conference therefore brought together some 200 delegates, including industrialists, agriculturalists, representatives from a wide range of voluntary organizations, and members of Parochial Boards and its various resolutions were forwarded to the governor. Although the need to develop local industry occupied a central place on the program, the conference also included sessions on land settlement, agricultural credit, poor relief, old age pensions, and even discussed issues less directly related to economic growth, such as the "personnel of nominated boards," "discrimination by steamship companies," and "how to foster a West Indian culture." The conference was extremely well received, with local leaders describing it as "the best effort put forward in Jamaica over a long period."26 Yet it did not lead to closer cooperation between local and central government; the governor did not act upon the resolutions.27 Hence, Anderson's frustration that in spite of the "enthusiasm shown by the people" to discuss Jamaica's economic and social needs, the resolutions had ended up in the "waste-paper basket."28 Like his insistence on the teaching of national history and geography in elementary schools, the "All-Jamaica" conference illustrates Anderson's nationalist feeling and sentiment. Like in other parts of the British Caribbean, nationalist feeling emerged in Jamaica in the late nineteenth century in response to the imposition of Crown Colony government and increased after World War I. After the War, numerous organizations were set up with the word "Jamaica" in the title and the slogan "Jamaica for the Jamaicans" became widespread. Amongst the various organizations set up was the Jamaica Imperial League, which had a predominantly white membership and demanded more autonomy and respect for Jamaica within the Empire. Far more numerous, however, were organizations set up by black 25 Gleaner, 6 November and21 December 1937. 26 Gleaner, 3 February 1938. On the papers presented, see Gleaner, 26, 27, 28, and 29 January 1938. Anderson deliberately excluded members of the government because he wanted them to be impartial when the conference's resolutions would be discussed in the Legislative Council. 27 Gleaner, 15 March 1938. 28 Anderson to Moody, 5 July 1938, CO 318/435/2, TNA.
middle-class men and women, such as the Jamaica Reform Club, which not only wanted Jamaica to have more autonomy within the Empire but also demanded far-reaching reforms that challenged the social, economic, and political status quo. Like the Trinidad Working Men's Association or the Grenada Representative Government Association, these anticolonial nationalist organizations expressed their discontent with the system of Crown Colony government that not only denied black middle-class men and women full participation in the political process but also blocked their upward mobility, as senior posts in the civil service invariably went to (white) expats. And they also criticized Crown Colony government for preventing social progress, as government spending was heavily biased toward the local (i.e. white) economic elite and foreign capital. Like their counterparts in other British Caribbean colonies, the Jamaican anticolonial nationalist organizations differed as to how far they went in criticizing Crown Colony government and their demands for constitutional and social reforms. By the late 1930s, for instance, the Jamaica Progressive Leaguean organization which Anderson supported and was set up by the aforementioned Unitarian minister Ethelred Brown and other Jamaican expats in New York-demanded self-government based on universal suffrage but many other organizations only demanded an extension of the franchise.29 Anderson's nationalist feelings and sentiment illustrate, as Gordon K. Lewis has argued, that anticolonial nationalism in Jamaica and other parts of the British Caribbean fought more the abuses than the idea of colonialism and did not articulate a defined set of ideas about nationhood. Anderson, for instance, claimed that the lack of power of the elected members of the Legislative Council negatively affected the welfare of the Jamaican people because it enabled government to pass "the most obnoxious laws" that led to nothing but "stagnation and lack of development." But he presented himself above-all as a "true patriot" by criticizing the practice to appoint expats to senior posts in government service. He argued that these men and also some women, like the matrons of specialist hospitals, were unable to advance the welfare of the Jamaican people because they only stayed for a few years before moving on to another colony and therefore did not devote "much time or energy to the service of the colony" and also easily shirked their duties because they were treated as "demigods" and were never asked to "give account of themselves."30 Anderson was far from the only black politician to criticize the practice of employing "imported" men and women rather than locals in senior posts in government service.31 He stood out from his colleagues, however, in that he did not hesitate to call the bypassing of African Jamaicans for senior posts racial discrimination. For example, in 1933 the governor refused to appoint the African Jamaican C.A. Adams for the post of assistant water engineer in the corporate area on the grounds that he lacked experience. According to Anderson, race was the real reason why the university-educated Adams, who had experience in building bridges and other major works in the corporate area, was not appointed: "Mr Adams was a Jamaican born and were it not for his skin, he would have got the appointment."32 With the exception of Marcus Garvey and the Reverend McLaughlin, who equally claimed that Adams was not appointed because "he was a man of colour," and a few others, most black politicians used a more neutral language to criticize the government for not appointing African Jamaicans to senior posts, calling it instead discrimination against "natives," "locals," or "Jamaicans." For instance, the government's decision in 1938 to advertise abroad to fill the position of superintendent of the mental hospital rather than promoting the acting black superintendent led C.A. Little, an elected member of the Legislative Council, to exclaim that "there is a feeling that wherever there is a position that calls for something like a decent salary, every effort is made to leave out the local talent."33 As more than 95 percent of the population was of African descent, it could be argued that black politicians did not have to bring up race in their criticism of the practice of "importing officials," as the government would have known implicitly that they were talking about discrimination against nonwhites. Yet a more plausible explanation is the precariousness of the black middle class during the period under discussion. Although there was no official color bar in Jamaica, black middle-class men and women could only rise to a certain level in the civil service and also in the private sector 30 Gleaner, 29 August 1921, 2 July 1934and 25 January 1938 Anderson to Moody 5 July 1938, CO 318/435/2, TNA. 31 See for example Gleaner, 26 March 1926. 32 Gleaner, 10 October 1933. 33 Gleaner, 18 May 1938 they faced a glass ceiling. So to gain and demonstrate a sense of superiority, these teachers, preachers, clerks, and others embraced white cultural norms and values and tried to deny their African heritage (Simey 1946:101-3, Stonequist 1961:29), a phenomenon, which as Eric Williams has succinctly shown in his The Negro in the Caribbean, was not restricted to Jamaica (Williams 1969:57-69). Many black politicians, then, shied away from raising what was called "the colour question" because to do so would not only have meant acknowledging their African heritage but also offend a (white) middle-class sense of propriety. For instance, it was editorial policy of the white-owned Gleaner and other newspapers that were read by the Jamaican middle and upper classes not to give "undue prominence to 'racial items' " (Henriques 1951:120, Richards 2002. Anderson, however, did not care for the social convention not to raise "the colour question" in public and fought a persistent campaign to end racial discrimination in government service, which climaxed in 1938. On June 30, J.A.G. Smith invoked the British Medical Journal advert in a Legislative Council debate to support his claim that the government was intent to bypass as much as possible "local candidates" for senior posts.34 The next day the advert was discussed in a KSAC meeting because the council thought it likely that the health officer asked for was the long-promised assistant officer for its public health department. Anderson described the advert as "race discrimination of the worst type" but the other councilors, with the exception of the Reverend McLaughlin, did not. Hence, the resolution passed by the meeting avoided any racial terms and merely stated that the KSAC deprecated "the terms of the advertisement" and asked the government to vary them so that "Jamaicans who are eligible may be included."35 On 4 July, Anderson had a meeting with the colonial secretary, who tried to assure him that the Jamaican government had not been involved in the drafting of the advert and that it had simply "followed a formula kept in 34 Gleaner, 30 June 1938. The full advert read: "A vacancy exists for a health officer in the Government Service. Candidates must be British subjects of European parentage under 35 years of age, must possess medical qualification registered in the United Kingdom or the dominions, in public health or special experience or training in public health work." 35 Minutes KSAC, 30 June 1938, 2/6, Jamaica Archives (JA), Spanish Town; Gleaner, 1 July 1938.
the Colonial Office."36 Not satisfied with this explanation, Anderson sent a telegram to Harold Moody, the Jamaican-born president of the League of Coloured People, in London, which stated that "some officials assume oligarchic rule," that "many Government Departments, especially the Medical [was] vile [and were] injecting colour discrimination," and that "race hatred [was] being fostered."37 Moody took the telegram to the Colonial Office. Because it arrived shortly after island-wide labor riots had been brought to an end, the Colonial Office decided to investigate.38 It asked Anderson to supply Moody with evidence to substantiate his claims.39 Anderson gave an interview to the Gleaner about the evidence he had sent to Moody, which along with the publication of his telegram in the paper led his fellow councilors to draw up a resolution that condemned his conduct as "quite out of order" and asked him to "refrain from uttering statements which are on the borderline of sedition." Anderson, however, resigned before the resolution was passed because he could no longer work with men who pretended there was no racial discrimination.40 Or as he wrote to Moody: "I had a principle to protect, and I had to protest against the spinelessness of the typical coloured Jamaicans who apparently were only waiting for crumbs that may yet fall from their masters' tables."41 Anderson's resignation caused a huge public debate with the white elite and also many black middle-class Jamaicans condemning his actions but with "the people" fully supporting him. On 15 July, a mass rally was held at the Kingston race course, which included speeches by amongst others Alexander Bustamante and not only condemned the KSAC's resolution but also expressed a vote of confidence in Anderson and asked him to stand in the bye-election that he had caused by resigning.42 This along with similar 36  requests from various local organizations convinced Anderson to stand. He overwhelmingly won the election, receiving nearly 70 percent of the votes.43 Although the secretary of state concluded that there was no foundation for the claim Anderson had made in his letter to Moody that "there is a clique formed by government officials whose desire is to do as they choose and pay little regard to coloured people," he did rule that public health positions should only be advertised abroad if there were no suitably qualified local candidates available.44 This ruling constituted a victory for Anderson and he capitalized on it along with his success in bringing about improvements at the Kingston public hospital and the Jubilee maternity hospital in the bye-election for the St. Andrew seat on the Legislative Council, which was held in January 1940. He ran this election, like the 1937 KSAC election, on a ticket of the Kingston and St. Andrew Federation of Citizens Associations.
Anderson's supporters held him up as the "people's friend" and fiercely attacked his opponents, especially PNP candidate Nethersole. Anderson himself also stressed that he defended "the inarticulate masses," promising them better health care and other services and was equally critical of Nethersole and his party.45 Although he supported many of the PNP's goals, such as universal suffrage and dominion status for Jamaica, Anderson strongly disapproved of the party. He accused it of being an undemocratic organization, even likening it to the Ku Klux Klan, and claimed, like many others in the island, that it had communist sympathies.46 That Anderson overwhelmingly beat Nethersole illustrates that by January 1940, party politics was not yet firmly embedded in Jamaica.47 The following section will illustrate that while Anderson's views on the degree of self-determination for Jamaica moved very closely to the PNP's, he remained highly skeptical of the party and party politics more generally. 43

The Honorable Member Anderson
Anderson lived up to his election promise to defend the interests of "the inarticulate masses." Although he now shared the same social space as the Superintending Medical Officer, he remained as critical about the health services as before. For instance, when the governor reprimanded him in his first Legislative Council speech for "base remarks" about Dr. Hallinan, he responded: "I have said nothing to be withdrawn. I am merely echoing the sentiments of the people of the country, and I am not going to be prevented from saying what the people feel."48 And what "the people" felt, according to Anderson, was that "the average man gets very poor care" because of the District Medical Officer and ticket system, the lack of well-qualified medical staff-in 1943 there was only 1 doctor per 6,000 of the population (Moser 1957:20)-, and a shortage of hospitals.49 In fact, Jamaica spent less on health care than other British Caribbean colonies. While health care made up 9.8 percent of its total expenditure in the late 1930s, in Barbados for instance it accounted for 11.3 and in St Lucia for 12.7 percent. Only Honduras, Trinidad and Montserrat spent less on health care than Jamaica.50 And Anderson also remained concerned to see that the educational system would allow "the people" to move up the social ladder. He supported elected member Erasmus Campbell's idea of a special tax for the benefit of education so that more children would have the opportunity to get a secondary education, while at the same time insisting on a lower school starting age and continuing his opposition to government attempts to curtail private education and include vocational subjects in the elementary school curriculum.51 Anderson, however, fully realized that a system of free health care and secondary education for all required the economic development of the island. At the time of the "All-Jamaica" conference, he saw the growth of local industry, such as fruit canning, as the main means to achieve this goal. But after his election onto the Legislative Council, he increasingly came to see, like the well-known Caribbean economist W. Arthur Lewis (Tignor 2005), the development of small-scale farming as an engine of growth. He 48 Gleaner, 9 March 1940. 49 Gleaner, 9 March 1940, 1 May 1941, 23 March 1942, and 15 April 1943 Report of the West India Royal Commission, 141. 51 Gleaner, 18 March 1942 and15 April 1943. asked the government for schemes to increase the number of peasant proprietors and provide them with instruction in cultivation and marketing.52 The government's limited spending on health care and education and lack of interest in the development of peasant small-holdings clearly conveyed, according to Anderson, its racial biases. Or as he said in his first Legislative Council speech, the government did not care about "the poor people, barefooted people, the little black people."53 His victory over the advert in fact did much to invigorate his fight against racial discrimination. He did not hesitate, for example, to describe a bill that would allow for flogging as a punishment for crimes of violence as a "bill of race and class and colour hatred."54 But above all Anderson was concerned about the discrimination encountered by African Jamaicans in government service. In 1926, black men were finally allowed to become sub-inspectors of police. The few who managed to attain this position, however, were never considered for the post of inspector. In March 1940, Anderson claimed that it was "an unwritten law in this country that if a man is of a certain peculiarity, though it was not his own fault, he must not go higher than the rank of staff sergeant-major" and demanded that a man from within ranks be appointed as the next inspector.55 It was demands such as these that led Governor Richards to exclaim in a confidential letter to the secretary of state that Anderson preached "racial hatred and the sterile gospel of Jamaica for the black Jamaican."56 Also his repeated demands that Jamaicans be sent abroad for training so they could replace "imported officials" illustrate that Anderson did not lessen his fight to achieve a "Jamaica for the Jamaicans" after he became an elected member.57 Such training was an important precondition for internal self-rule, a goal which Anderson fully came to embrace during his time on the Legislative Council. Various demands for a new constitution in the aftermath of the 1938 labor riots along with a desire to prevent major upheaval in the colonies while Britain was at war led Secretary of 52 Gleaner, 8 March 1940, 9 March 1942, 15 April 1943and 6 November 1944. 53 Gleaner, 9 March 1940. 54 Gleaner, 9 July 1942. 55 Gleaner, 15 March 1940 Confidential letter Governor Richards to Secretary of State Lord Lloyd, 28 September 1940, CO 137/843/1, TNA. 57 See, for instance, Gleaner, 9 and 28 March 1940. State Lord Moyne in March 1941 to propose a new constitution that would provide for universal suffrage and a reduction in official and an increase in elected members of the Legislative Council. Like other elected members, the PNP, the Federation of Citizens' Associations and other organizations, Anderson fiercely opposed the "Moyne constitution." He argued that "300 years of training, 300 years of intellectual development, 300 years of contact with the British empire" had more than prepared Jamaica for a bicameral legislature, with an executive committee that would liaise between the two chambers. And he called the "Moyne constitution" also "totally unacceptable" because the governor retained his reserve powers. It was in fact the latter that led him to question whether it was "race or colour" that prevented Jamaica from getting a constitution similar to that of New Zealand and other dominions.58 The islandwide attack on the "Moyne constitution" along with pressure exerted by the United States upon Britain to grant reforms and fear of a repetition of events of 1938 if reforms were withheld, led Oliver Stanley, the new secretary of state, in February 1943 to agree to a bicameral legislature and more checks to ensure that the governor would not abuse his reserve powers. It took until October 1944 before all provisions of a constitution were worked out that provided for a small privy council (dealing mainly with matters of defense), a nominated upper and elected lower chamber (the Legislative Council and House of Representatives), and an executive council (responsible for determining policy and introducing legislation) (Ayearst 1960:72-74, Zeidenfelt 1952. While Anderson did not deem this system of semi-responsible government "ideal," he did see it as "a step in advance" and therefore accepted it.59 The first election for the House of Representatives was held on 14 December 1944. Anderson was wooed by the PNP to stand as one of its candidates.60 He refused and also declined to stand for the other main party that contested the election-the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which had been set up in 1943 by Alexander Bustamante. In his election speeches, Anderson mentioned that he did not disapprove of party politics per se but felt that parties had not yet sufficiently developed to effectively work toward the 58 Gleaner, 23 March 1942. 59 Gleaner, 12 October 1944. 60 "Politics," Spotlight 5, no. 12 and vol. 6, no. 1 (1944 welfare of the people and that some were also "not above suspicion."61 Many Jamaicans feared that the Marxists on the PNP's general council were trying to push the party further toward the left. Also its anti-imperialism led the PNP to be viewed with much suspicion. And although the JLP was in favor of maintaining close and cordial relations with Britain, it was regarded as dangerous because of the central role played by Bustamante, who was also the "leader for life" of the party's aligned trade union (Munroe 1972:36-42, Wallace 1970:58-59, Zeidenfelt 1952. In the run-up to the election, there had been fierce rivalry between these two parties, even leading to outbreaks of violence (Sives 2010:12). Anderson hinted at this in his election speeches, stressing the need for cooperation to ensure that the five-year trial of the new constitution would be a success so Britain would grant full responsible government.62 Several other elected members of the Legislative Council also stood as independents. They, however, only made up one third of all candidates. But not only the legislators also the electorate had by 1944 come to embrace party politics; only 30 percent of all votes went to independents. That Anderson polled 6.9 percent of the votes in St. Andrew Central compared to 46 percent in the 1940 election and that JLP candidate Newman was returned with 51 percent of the votes clearly illustrates that the tide had turned in favor of party politics (Zeidenfelt 1952:529-33).63

Maverick Anderson
Dr. Oswald E. Anderson, then, was a true maverick and not only because he decided to stand as an independent, when the tide had turned in favor of party politics. While most of his colleagues on the St. Andrew Parochial Board, the KSAC, and Legislative Council were concerned about the interests of the small number of people in their constituencies who had voted them in, he was a "staunch defender" of the disenfranchised masses. He worked hard to provide them with a better medical service and an educational system that offered opportunities for social mobility and also tried to ensure that those who lived of the soil were able to support their families. 61 Gleaner, 6 and 23 November and 13 December 1944. 62 Gleaner, 23 November 1944. 63 See also Gleaner, 29 November and 15 December 1944 His concern about the welfare of the "inarticulate masses" along with his patriotism made him a "fearless critic of government" and also a fervent supporter of first representative and later responsible government.
But what made Anderson above all a maverick was his frankness about racial discrimination. His encounter with the American system of racial discrimination may have made him less compliant with the social convention not to raise "the colour question" than his fellow politicians. Although there was no official color bar in Jamaica or even such a deep gulf between the white minority and the black majority as in for instance Barbados, where many amenities, clubs, and societies were closed to nonwhites, there was certainly racial discrimination. As in other British Caribbean colonies, this took mainly the form of "shadism"; that is, the lighter a person's skin color, the better his/her social and economic opportunities and thus chances of a higher standard of life. It was, for instance, only lightskinned men and women, who were employed in shops, banks, and offices (Henriques 1951:18, Simey 1946. In the United States on the other hand, all shades of black were collapsed into the uniform and inferior category of "Negro." This system underpinned not only the Jim Crow laws in the South but also informal practices in Chicago and other northern cities. As Winston James (1998) has shown in his Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, exposure to this system of racial discrimination, even its de facto variant in the North, radicalized many light-skinned West Indian migrants, who no longer received beneficial treatment on account of their "shade." The leadership of many radical groups that were set up in the interwar years in the United States, such as the African Blood Brotherhood, were led by light-skinned West Indian migrants. Although Anderson never mentioned in his public speeches instances of racial discrimination whilst studying in Chicago, his participation in such race-first organizations as the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Progressive Negro Association, and his fierce public condemnations of the American system of racial discrimination suggest that like so many other light-skinned West Indian migrants he too had become "black" in the United States.64 Although Anderson strongly condemned the American system of racial discrimination, he also held America up as a model of progress. For instance, he mentioned that West Indians who had migrated to the United States had done well because of access to good schools and universities and the sheer amount of "cooperation" between and within classes and races.65 This is not surprising, however, as Anderson had studied in Chicago during the so-called progressive era, a period marked by political reforms that aimed to allow citizens to rule more directly, social activism and numerous social welfare initiatives, including many by African Americans.66 His encounter with American progressivism could explain, then, why Anderson joined the Jamaica Representative Government Association in 1921 and later worked to get responsible government and also the "All-Jamaica" conference and other initiatives he undertook to encourage government to improve social welfare.
During his long political career, Anderson kept abreast of developments in social welfare in the United States by regularly visiting relatives and friends. His half-sister Rhoda, a nurse, lived in the United States, as did his half-brothers Jim and Arnold. Jim was based in Detroit and practiced as both a dentist and lawyer, while Arnold was a minister in Wilmington. Both brothers were also actively involved in their local YMCA. During his various visits to the United States, Anderson not only met up with his half-siblings but also socialized with other West Indian migrants, in particular professionals like Dr. Lucien Brown, a well-known doctor in Harlem, and James S. Watson, one of the first black judges in New York state.67 Because of them Anderson was able to visit hospitals, community centers and various other institutions that provided him with ideas not only for his medical practice but also his work on the KSAC and Legislative Council. Or as he told the Gleaner, he visited these places with a view to gain information that he could use "in urging public reforms." 68 But like Marcus Garvey and other mavericks in Jamaican politics, Anderson too was an ambiguous politician. Although he defended the interests of the "inarticulate masses" and was involved in the early labor movement in Jamaica,69 he was, as his criticism of the PNP and admiration for Garvey's Black Star Line suggest,70 not a socialist. Anderson in fact fully embraced capitalism. Not only did he run a private medical practice but he also opened a convalescent hospital for private patients in 1927. And he also regularly expressed his admiration for African Jamaicans, who had established successful businesses at home or abroad.71 And while Anderson worked hard to uplift the lower classes, he also fiercely criticized lower-class culture, speaking very disapprovingly of the "unrestrained sexuality" of the lower classes and their recourse to obeah, an African-derived mixture of religion and folk medicine.72 Anderson did not differ in this regard from other members of the black middle class. To gain and demonstrate a sense of relative superiority, they not only embraced the white cultural norms and values that they had been exposed to in secondary school but also tried to distance themselves as much as possible from their lower-class brethren (Williams 1969:61).
Yet the black middle class could not completely cut itself off from the lower classes, not just because of family and other ties but also because their futures were closely entwined. Middle-class demands to modify Crown Colony government, for instance, were often rebuked by the government with the claim that "the people" had not yet sufficiently progressed. Many black middle-class Jamaicans therefore tried to defend the lower classes, stating that they were industrious, thrifty and embraced various other dominant norms and values or alternatively advocated reforms that would instill these norms and values in the lower classes (Simey 1946:101-03, Stonequist 1961. I would argue, however, that Anderson's attempts to provide the poor with health care, education, and other services were more than a strategy to advance the position of his own class in society. They were mostly genuine attempts to uplift the poor inspired by his Christian beliefs. Anderson grew up in a very religious household. When he returned from the United States, he became an active member of the Baptist church and even served as a lay preacher.73 70 Gleaner, 13 December 1919. The Black Star Line was a steamship company operated by Garvey and the UNIA from 1919 till 1922. It was part of Garvey's back-to-Africa programme and aimed to transport goods and people between North America, the Caribbean and Africa.
71 See Gleaner, 19 November 1927, 27 May 1931, 26 October and 15 November 1934 See for example Gleaner, 11 November 1936and 11 April 1938. 73 See, Gleaner, 12 June 1931, 11 November 1936, 11 April 1938, and 2 November 1948 Anderson's Christian-inspired concern for the poor, however, does not distract from the fact that he firmly identified as middle class. He was a lifetime member of the Phoenix Masonic lodge and worked hard to advance the status of the black middle class. Thus alongside demands for more and better hospitals, he also asked for higher wages for nurses, most of whom came from lower middle-class families.74 And he did not just object to the teaching of vocational subjects in elementary schools but also to the allocation of the Jamaican Scholarship-a university scholarship-to boys whose parents could easily afford to send them abroad.75 This and also his calls for higher wages and pensions for teachers, changes in income tax, opposition to the immigration of Syrians and Chinese, who by the late 1930s had come to occupy an important role in the island's economy, and above all his relentless efforts to replace "imported officials" by locals led J.A.G. Smith to tell an election meeting that Anderson was "strongly for the middle-classes."76 As class and color were closely entwined in colonial Jamaica, Anderson also displayed an ambiguous attitude toward racial discrimination. He spoke at meetings of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and other race-first organizations and never hesitated to accuse the government of discriminating against nonwhites but like so many other members of the black middle class never openly condemned "shadism." This system of attaching a higher value to white and light than dark skin, which had started during slavery when whiteness equaled freedom and interracial sex was prevalent, was not just practiced by white employers. In fact, it was more an intra-than an interracial phenomenon. Like in other parts of the British Caribbean, "shadism" in Jamaica took a variety of forms. For instance, mothers favored their lighter-skinned children over their darker ones; if possible, domestics chose white or very light-skinned employers; light-skinned men and women preferred to keep company with people of their own or a lighter shade; and many men and women aimed to "marry lighter" so as to offer their offspring the chances of a higher standard of life (Henriques 1951:115-19, Williams 1969. As he was a beneficiary of "shadism," it is not surprising that Anderson did not openly condemn it. 74 Gleaner, 9 March 1940. 75 Gleaner, 9 March 1940. 76 Gleaner, 10 January 1940 Yet by remaining silent about it, he did much to uphold the three-tier hierarchy, as this type of racial discrimination was a concomitant of the white-onblack discrimination and thus equally helped to sustain white superiority. And finally, although Anderson's insistence on a "Jamaica for the Jamaicans" earned him the epithet of a "true patriot," he was not just a staunch nationalist. For Anderson, self-government would lead to a stronger rather than lesser ties with the Empire. And he also expressed the wish that once Jamaica had received self-government it would become part of a West India federation.77 Like his defense of the interests of the "inarticulate masses" on the one hand and those of his own class on the other, the origins of Anderson's dual loyalty-toward Jamaica and the Empire-can be largely traced back to his education. As Ann Spry Rush (2011) has succinctly shown in her Bonds of Empire, secondary schools encouraged boys and girls not just to strive for (white) middle-class respectability but also instilled in them a sense of Britishness.
In spite of his ambiguities, Anderson helped to lay the groundwork for Norman Manley, Alexander Bustamante, and others who took Jamaica toward independence after 1944, through his criticism of Crown Colony government, especially its discrimination against people of African descent, his attempts to increase nationalist consciousness, such as the "All-island" conference, and his involvement in organizations such as the Jamaica Representative Government Association that made demands for representative and responsible government. That he is hardly remembered today is largely because he did not play a role in the founding of the two parties that emerged in the aftermath of the 1938 labor riots, the PNP and JLP, and which are seen as "the real origins of the modern Jamaican nation" (Bogues 2002:365). This study, however, has shown that this nation, which has recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, predates the 1938 labor riots and was largely the result of the efforts of many men and women like Anderson, who worked hard, within and outside numerous organizations and political bodies, to make the slogan "Jamaica for the Jamaicans" a reality.78 77 See, Gleaner, 14 April 1921 and23 March 1942. 78 Anderson, who died in 1948, is only briefly mentioned in Post (1981) in a discussion about the 1940 and 1944 elections. There is a growing literature on Manley and Bustamante, see for instance Sherlock (1980) and Nettleford (1971). And many other post-1944 political leaders have also received attention, see for example Johnson (2001). With the exception of J.A.G. Smith (Johnson 1991) hardly any interwar black politicians have received scholarly