FACTS IN CARIBBEAN-AMERICAN HISTORY

1697: The British Caribbean is more valuable to Britain than her North American colonies – Barbados trade is more than Carolina, New England, New York and Pennsylvania combined.

1751: George Washington and his brother Lawrence visit Barbados to recuperate. (The only place outside the 13 American colonies Washington visited.)

1827: A Jamaican, John B. Russwurm, together with Rev. Cornish, a Presbyterian pastor, establishes African American newspaper, Freedom Journal.

1942: Hugh Mulzac who was born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines becomes the first black to captain a ship in the U.S. Merchant Marine.

1974: Mervyn Dymally, Trinidad & Tobago born and raised becomes one of the first two blacks elected as Lieutenant Governor since the Reconstruction era. Dymally was elected in California.