Barbadian American - Politics and Government

Politics and Government

As early as the 1670s, Barbadians have contributed to American government. Many prominent Barbadians immigrated to Carolina during that decade, among them was Sir John Yeamans, who became governor of the colony that is known today as South Carolina.

In the twentieth century, Shirley Chisholm, born in 1924 to Barbadian parents, became a politician of great stature in America. Although Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, New York, she spent the first ten years of her life in Barbados, where she received much of her primary education under the strict eye of her maternal grandmother. She gave credit for her later educational success to the well-rounded early training she received in Barbados. In 1964 Chisholm ran for the New York State Assembly and won the election. She fought for rights and educational opportunities for women, blacks, and the poor. She served in the State Assembly until 1968, then she ran for the United States Congress. Chisholm won the election to the U.S. House of Representatives and became the first black woman ever to be elected to the House, where she served with distinction from 1969 to 1982. In 1972 Chisholm made an unprecedented bid for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. She was the first black and first woman to run for the presidency. She is also the founder of the chair of the National Political Congress of Black Women.

Eric Holder, the 82nd United States Attorney General, has roots in Barbados. His father Eric Himpton Holder, Sr. (1905-1970) was born in St. Joseph, Barbados. His mother, Miriam, was born in New Jersey to parents who were immigrants from Saint Philip, Barbados.

The Barbados government also maintains diplomatic and consular representation in a handful of American cities and towns. These include an Embassy in Washington, D.C., two Consulates-General in: Miami, New York City; a Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City; and is also further supported by a collection of Honorary Consulates in: Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Louisville, New Orleans, Portland, San Francisco, and Toledo.