Today In History: June 17th

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GRAND BAHAMA, BAHAMAS – On June 17th, 1968 in Freeport, Grand Bahama, a demonstration was held by black Bahamian workers against the unfair hiring practices by hotels in the city.

The event turned violent when a group of persons broke off from the protestors and entered four hotels in the city, injuring several staff and guests.

Fast forward to 2013, parents of students in the St. John’s College Class of 2013 lawyered up after that year’s graduation and prom were canceled.

The Anglican Central Education Authority said it cancelled both events due to students’ “gross insubordination and deceit”.

Attorney Christina Galanos told reporters that day that the school has no legal basis to unilaterally deny students the right to walk across a stage and collect their diplomas in front of friends and family.

Galanos would later file a lawsuit in the case.

After months of making its way through the courts, the case ended in August that year when then Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett ruled that while contracts did exist between students and the authority, the ACEA did have the discretion to cancel the graduation ceremony and prom.

Then, in 2019, the cabinet office announced that then Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling would be taking on the role.

Later that month on June 28th, the Hon. Cornelius A. Smith was sworn in as the nation’s 11th Governor General before a large audience of Bahamians from all walks of life.

Smith was born on Long Island on April 7, 1937 to Silvanus and Susan smith.

He was an educator by profession.

Smith entered front-line politics in the early seventies, and is a founding member of the Free National Movement.