Alfred A. Thorne
Alfred Athiel Thorne, LLD, MA (August 14, 1871–April 23, 1956) was a statesman, educator, advocate, and key contributor to the history of human rights and equal educational access in the Americas. A.A. Thorne became famous for championing human rights during the nineteenth century by establishing one of the first human rights organizations in the Western Hemisphere. Dr. Thorne broke new ground for educational access by establishing the first co-educational private secondary school for children regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion or financial status, in British Guiana in 1894. The school provided educational access for hundreds of students who would otherwise have been excluded from the existing preparatory schools due to high tuition fees and social class-based admissions. Thorne was an elected official, served in public office for more than fifty years, including as Mayor of British Guiana's capital city Georgetown. A prolific writer and columnist, Thorne authored numerous published articles and editorial columns for the British colony's influential newspapers "Echo" and "Outlook", as well as notable articles published by the "Boston Transcript" in Massachusetts. Born in Barbados, Dr. Thorne attended Durham University where he became the first person of African descent to earn both a Bachelor's degree and advanced degree from a British University.
He first visited the United States in 1904 at the special invitation of the New York City Mayor. During this visit, Thorne delivered an address to the President and Alumni of Wilberforce University, where the Senate conferred upon Thorne the degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD), a distinctive honor which had only been conferred previously on two men: United States President William McKinley, and Frederick Douglass.
The Middle School
Dr. Thorne served many decades as an educator, writer and elected official in British Guiana, creating positive and lasting impact for generations by advocating for the principles of freedom, democracy and self-determination.[1] He founded the country's first private coeducational secondary school offering equal access regardless of gender, ethnicity, color, or socio-economic status
After graduating with advanced degrees from University of Durham in England, Thorne moved to British Guiana, where in 1894 he founded the country's first coeducational private secondary school that enrolled children regardless of gender, ethnicity or socio-economic status, called The Middle School. The school provided a high quality level of education that rivaled the standards previously available only to students privileged enough to attend the prestigious Queen's College and Bishop's High School and wealthy enough to afford their high tuitions.[1][2]
Dr. Thorne served as the school's Headmaster. The school broke many barriers, enrolling both boys and girls and providing children from underprivileged and moderate-income families access to reduced tuition and tuition-free education comparable in quality to the educational level previously available only at the leading elite private educational institutions such as Queens College -- thereby creating educational access for the first time across gender lines, ethnic lines, and socio-economic classes in an era long before gender rights and civil rights were protected by anti-discrimination laws and equal opportunity laws of the land.[3] The private school became known for the high-quality education it provided. It was on par with Queen's College and Bishop's High School.[1][2]
Dr. Thorne served numerous elected offices including as an elected Legislator and Town Councillor. He is recognized for "throwing open certain avenues of employment to Guianese".[3]
Influential Statesman and Writer
He served a prominent role in public service for more than 50 years in British Guiana, serving the Georgetown City Council for 47 years starting in 1902. Thorne was elected to the Combined Court in 1906. He also served as Deputy Mayor in 1921, 1922 and 1925, and elected to the national post of Financial Representative for the North West District and New Amsterdam (1906-1911 and 1916-1921).[1]
Trades Unionism
Thorne led the British Guiana Labour Union, the country's first worker's union, and subsequently founded and led the country's second trade union, the British Guiana Workers' League, in 1931.[17] He served as the League's leader for 22 years.[1] The League sought to protect basic human rights and improve the working conditions of people from all ethnic backgrounds including workers of West African, East Indian, Chinese, and Portuguese descent—many of whom had originally been brought to the British colony under a system of forced labor (slavery) or indentured servitude.
A.A. Thorne also served as President of the British Guiana Trades Union Council.[4] The union represented the human rights interests of a variety of workers including laborer on sugar plantations, municipal workers in Georgetown, and ward-maids at the Georgetown Hospital.[5] His work laid the foundation for the formation of the Man Power Citizens' Association (MPCA), which he also co-led.
A.A. Thorne was first elected to the City Council of the British colony's capital city Georgetown in 1902.[2][6] As a member of City Council, he was active in reform efforts of the colony. Two years after joining the council, in 1904, he published an article in a Boston, MA newspaper about the dominance of the sugar plantation and the sugar industry over all other economic sectors in the country.[2] After the Argosy newspaper in Georgetown retaliated, A. A. Thorne was awarded $500 by the courts in a successful claim of libel. The now famous court case is documented in Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926.[7][8] Thorne entered national politics in 1906 with his successful election to the national Court of Policy post and won re-election again in 1916.
Public Service
- Georgetown City Council, 1902-1949
- British Guiana National Court of Policy, 1906-1911, 1916-1921
- Georgetown Deputy Mayor, 1921, 1922, 1925
- The Education Commission, 1924-1925
- The Cost of Living Survey Committee, 1942
- The Franchise Commission, 1942-1944
- The Education Development Committee, 1943-1945
- British Guiana National Trade Council - Executive Officer, 1945
- The Georgetown Fire Advisory Committee, 1945
- The Georgetown Pure Water Supply Board, 1945-1946
Lasting Social Impact
Dr. Thorne recognized that the 1919 Colonisation Scheme created friction and negative racial feelings in the colony of British Guiana. He was instrumental in advocating for fair wages for all citizens, and led the way for passage of increased wages for East Indians, who were introduced to the colony as cheap labor. [9] Dr. Thorne helped to make the country's agricultural industry more internationally competitive by demonstrating how colonial control over rice production, a staple sustenance crop in the colony at the time, had led to unwise pricing practices, resulting in rice being priced higher in British Guiana than neighboring countries and islands. One of his sons, Alfred P. Thorne, built on this information in reference to the issues of maintaining a supply of low-cost labor in developing countries in his book Poor By Design.
Although no formal biography of his life exists yet, A.A. Thorne has been widely referenced as a pivotal historical figure in connection with the spread of social justice, democracy and other transformational changes across the Caribbean region during the 19th century.[10][11][12] His perspectives were included in Nancy Cunard's Negro: An Anthology in a chapter titled 'The Negro and his Descendants in British Guiana' [13] In it, he describes the social and economic conditions of black people living in the plantation colony of Guiana under Dutch, French and British rule.
Early Life, Education, and Family
Alfred Athiel Thorne was born on the island nation of Barbados. Barbados at the time was a British colony. Thorne was the son of Louisa Jane Alleyne and Samuel Athiel Thorne, a schoolmaster in Barbados.
A.A. Thorne graduated from the Lodge School and Codrington College in St John, Barbados, and subsequently earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in England at the University of Durham in England.
Thorne completed his secondary education at the Lodge School in St John, Barbados. After graduating from Lodge School, Thorne graduated at the top of his class from Codrington College, the leading preparatory college in Barbados which was traditionally attended by sons of local gentry prior to attending an English university. Codrington College was founded in 1710, and its current campus was built in 1745. Codrington College's graduating students took the national British exams, which determined their qualification for admission to a university in England. The highest-scoring graduate received a national scholarship to attend Durham University. Dr. Thorne achieved the highest score on the national exam. However, no person of color had ever received the prestigious national scholarship and the scholarship committee decided to offer the scholarship instead to the second-place scoring student on the national exam instead of following the rules as written for the national scholarship. Revealing what would prove to be a lifetime of standing up for justice as an individual against powerful forces and tremendous odds, A.A. Thorne stood up to the national college committee. He sued in the British colonial courts -- and won. Thorne became the first person of African heritage from across the British Empire to earn not one, but two degrees, from a university in England. And he graduated with Honors.
After earning advanced degrees from Durham University, A.A. Thorne returned to the Caribbean and resided in British Guiana. He married a schoolteacher and accomplished artist named Eleanor Amanda McLean, but became a young widower due to the untimely death of Eleanor. Thereafter, Thorne met Violet Janet Ashurst, a Classical Greek and Latin scholar and accomplished artist who was born and raised in British Guiana, the daughter of Charles Ashurst and Elizabeth Jane Alexander, whose family was from Belfast, Ireland. A.A. Thorne remained happily married with Violet for the rest of his long life. A.A. Thorne had 10 children, five with Eleanor including Alfred Hubert Thorne (editor of the Argosy and Chronicle Newspapers in Guyana, who himself had four daughters, Thelma, Joyce, Winifred and Iva) the oldest daughter of Alfred Hubert Thorne was named Patricia Thorne; followed by twins Albert Athiel Thorne, a Chartered Accountant (who had two children, Daphne and Leila) and Alfred McLean-Thorne, who studied law in the UK and worked as a justice of the peace in Guyana (and had six children: David, who likewise studied in the UK, where he settled, John, who settled in the Netherlands; Lynn and Barbara, who both settled in New York, and Patrick). A.A. Thorne's fourth and fifth children were twins: Alfreda attended college in Barbados, and Elfreda (who had two children: Audrey Maud and Dennis Fields, who slso settled in the UK). Thorne also had five children with his wife Violet, each of whom subsequently migrated to the United States: Alfred P. Thorne, PhD from Columbia University, an accomplished economist, college professor and Fulbright Scholar; Duncan John Vivian Thorne, DMD from University of Pennsylvania, a New York City-based orthodontist and entrepreneur who married Audrey Pauline Odell; Arthur George Thorne, who provided care for his mother Violet as she entered her 100th year; Aileen Roselle Callender, who became the first black female manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and whose office was in the World Trade Center; and the youngest of Thorne's 10 children was Cecil Michael Thorne, MD (married to Sandra Janette Marsh of Ohio with whole he had four children, all distinguished alums of Harvard University), an accomplished physician (earned his medical degree in Germany at the prestigious Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center in Mainz and also conducting medical training in France and Denmark, then completing his residency in Massachusetts, and earned his Bachelor's degree with high honors in two years and was named Salutatorian of his graduating class at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, after receiving his secondary education at the prestigious Queen's College in Georgetown, British Guiana), who served as Chief of Staff and was named Physician of the Year at a leading private hospital in the state of Ohio, served on the teaching faculty at the Ohio State Medical School, chaired a major local charitable foundation, and served as a Rotary International Member for more than 50 years.
Publications
- 'On Industrial Training in British Guiana', Timehri, 1911 & 1912
- 'Education in British Guiana, Part I', Timehri, 1911 [14]
- 'Education in British Guiana, Part II', Timehri, Vol. 11, (third series), (1912).
- 'British Guianese Progress and Limitations', Timehri, Vo1. II, (third series), (1912).
- 'The Negro and his Descendants in British Guiana', Negro: An Anthology, N. Cunard (Ed.), 1934
- 'A.A. Thorne v. The Argosy Co., Ltd. and W. Macdonald' (BiblioLife Network, Harvard Law School Library), 1905
References
- ^ a b c d e History Today: Alfred Athiel Thorne, Stabroek News, Monday, Feb. 10, 1997.
- ^ a b c d History of the Republic of Guyana, http://www.guyana.org, Chapter 8, last accessed on January 18, 2013.
- ^ a b Norman E. Cameron, 150 Years of Education In Guyana (1808 - 1957) with special reference to Post-Primary Education, last accessed January 18, 2013].
- ^ The Guyana and Caribbean Political and Cultural Center for Popular Education, Guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com, last accessed January 18, 2013.
- ^ History of the Republic of Guyana, http://www.guyana.org, Chapter 6, last accessed on January 18, 2013.
- ^ CORPOKATE BODIES. TOWN COUNCIL,— GEORGETOWN, in Ordinance 28 o/ 1898.
- ^ Thorne v. the Argosy Co., Ltd., et al in Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926.
- ^ Libel Action A.A. Thorne v The Argosy Co., Ltd. and W. Macdonald, last accessed on January 18, 2013.
- ^ Clement Toolsie Shiwcharan, INDIANS IN BRITISH GUIANA, 1919-1929: A STUDY IN EFFORT AND ACHIEVEMENT, A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK CENTRE FOR CARIBBEAN STUDIES, OCTOBER 1990.
- ^ Norman Faria, Review, Outstanding history of Caribbean labour , Guyana Chronicle, February 9, 2003
- ^ Winston James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century America
- ^ Joyce Moore Turner, W. Burghardt Turner, Caribbean Crusaders And The Harlem Renaissance
- ^ A. A. Thorne, The Negro and his Descendants in British Guiana, in Negro: An Anthology collected by Nancy Cunard, New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Group, 1934.
- ^ TIMEHRI: THE JOURNAL OF BRITISH GUIANA. Joseph J. Nunan, B.A. et al. (Eds). Education in British Guiana, Part I. Vol. I. (Third Series), 1911. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto, last accessed January 18, 2013.