Timeline part 6 (1957-1961)
Grace Lee and James Boggs visit C.L.R. in London.
Ghanaian independence.
(left) Vice President and Mrs. Pat Nixon, pictured here with Ghana’s finance minister, K. A. Gbedeman, at the Ghana independence celebrations in 1957. Image public domain.
March: C.L.R. James joins George Padmore in Ghana to see its independence and promises book in Ghana.
(left) George Padmore. Image public domain.
24 March: Back in London, with his wife Selma and the Barbadian novelist George Lamming he meets with Martin Luther King to discuss the Montgomery bus boycott.
Facing Reality (with Cornelius Castoriadis and Grace Lee Boggs) Detroit: Correspondence (1958).
Former student of C.L.R. James, Dr Eric Williams becomes the prime minister of Trinidad.
September: George Padmore, James’s close childhood friend and comrade dies
C.L.R. James has written the majority of Beyond A Boundary (up to Ch. 17) and the first half of his book on Ghana by this point.
December: Returns to Trinidad to edit the PNM Weekly newspaper (which he reorganises and renames as The Nation) for the pro-independence People’s National Movement (PNM) party alongside sitting as secretary of the West Indian Federal Labour Party (following an invitation from PNM leader Eric Williams).
Writings from The Nation (articles written by James from The Nation 1958-60). Published in the C.L.R. James Reader.
C.L.R. accepts party-imposed discipline in his editorship of The Nation.
28 February: James publishes his first editorial in The Nation on the subject of the captain of the West Indies cricket team, with the headline, ‘Frank Worrell Must Captain’. It argues for an end to the colonial policy that the captain of the West Indies must be white, and instead puts forward that the Barbadian batsman Worrell should become the first appointed black captain of the team. Between now and April 1960, James campaigns from the pages of The Nation for this goal.
1 January: Cuban President Batista resigns and flees—Fidel Castro takes over.
Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar, and Zaire (Belgian Congo) gain independence.
Modern Politics (a series of lectures on the subject given at the Trinidad Public library, in its Adult Education Programme). Port of Spain: PNM Publishing Co.(1960).
March: Writing in The Nation, as part of his growing campaign to appoint Frank Worrell the West Indies captain, James states “The Board should know that the eyes of the world are upon them. Yes, the eyes of the world. Not to select Worrell would be an act of war.”
April: Frank Worrell is appointed captain of the West Indies cricket team ahead of the team’s Australian tour. Although they lose the tour 2-1, the matches are close and aggressively fought and the Australians honour Worrell’s side with a parade in Sydney at the end of the tour.
A convention appraisal: Dr. Eric Williams: first premier of Trinidad & Tobago: a biographical sketch. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, W.I.: PNM Publishing Co. (1960).
C.L.R. breaks from PNM-imposed discipline.
Eric Williams makes clear his disapproval of James and other ‘fellow travellers’.
C.L.R. breaks alliance with Dr Eric Williams after a series of disagreements over James’s advocacy of the movement for West Indian Independence and Federation. Resigns as editor of The Nation.
Visits Nkrumah in Ghana. Speaks at CPP party event in Accra
C.L.R. accused of mismanaging and possibly stealing PNM party funds.
Modern Politics confiscated by order of Williams government.
Grace Lee and James Boggs visit C.L.R. in Trinidad for 5 weeks.
3 January: U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.
17 April: Cuba invaded at Bay of Pigs by an estimated 1,200 anti-Castro exiles aided by U.S.; the invasion is crushed.
A car accident leaves James weakened for over 2 years. Requires round-the-clock attention from Selma for almost a year.
13 August: East Germans erect Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin.