THE echoes of grief still resonate deeply for Ivy Joseph, whose brother Basil Davis was killed on April 6, 1970 at a meeting at Woodford Square in Port of Spain.
Davis, 24 , was shot at point-blank range by police officer Joshua Gordon after pleading with Gordon not to arrest another young man.
In an interview with Newsday, Joseph said decades later, her family has not received justice, as Gordon, now dead, was never arrested, charged or brought to trial to answer for what she believes was the blatant murder of her hero brother, who lost his life defending a comrade.
As Trinidad and Tobago celebrates its 60 years of independence on August 31 and reflects on major post-independence historical events like the Black Power Movement– the effects of which has woven their way into the tapestry of today’s society – Joseph hopes the significance of her brother’s death is also recognised. Especially, as the years passed, any hope she had that her brother would get justice withered away.
[caption id="attachment_972610" align="alignnone" width="576"] Basil Davis who was killed in 1970 during a Black Power Movement meeting. -[/caption]
“I would like it to be recognised why he died, when he died and what came out of it after that, because it was one of the first such killings in this country…It (Davis’s story) needs to be part of our history told to younger generations,” Joseph said.
“Most of us are moving on in life unaware of the sacrifices and what took place in the past and it is impacting our life now…Our history that brought about certain changes in this country is not being taught, and the younger generations don’t even know about it.”
Davis’s killing is largely credited as a catalyst that increased the Black Power Movement’s momentum which eventually culminated with Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams declaring a state of emergency on April 21, 1970.
Khafra Kambon, then the co-leader of the National Joint Action Committee (alongside Makandal Daaga), the student-led group at the helm of the revolution, said they aimed to even the socioeconomic playing field for oppressed peope of TT who were not white.
“It wasn’t just a class thing in TT. It had a very strong racial characteristic to it. It was ownership, control, as well as discrimination in jobs which was very visible. You had to push a lot if you were dark-skinned especially to be able to rise in society, and that continued even though the African group in society came to take over the politics of the society. And even Dr Williams, as much as he did a lot of good in the society, he did not challenge that structure of the society,” Kambon explained.
“Once (Trinidad-born) Stokely Carmichael in 1966 declared that term, 'Black Power" in the US, it immediately connected in this society.
"It didn’t need NJAC – in fact NJAC was not born yet. It had an immediate, deep emotional connection because of what people were seeing and experiencing in the society. All it took now was for an organisation like NJAC to be born that had a capacity to organise people en
