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Sir Edward Richards • (1908-1991)

Sir Edward Trenton Richards was the first Premier of Bermuda, but that was just one
of many “firsts” he achieved in his long life.

Commonly known as “ET”, he was the first black Bermudian to receive a knighthood,
and the first black leader of the Bermuda Government. He was also the first black
Bermudian to be a magistrate.

Before he achieved these firsts, he was a teacher, editor and lawyer, and he fought
tirelessly to end segregation and racial discrimination in Bermuda.
Although less controversial and outspoken than some of his colleagues in the 1950s
and 1960s, this “Peaceful Warrior” never gave up and saw his vision of a Bermuda
where all men and women were treated equally come to fruition, largely without violence
or confrontation.

Sir Edward was born in 1908 in Guyana. He came to Bermuda in 1930 when he was
21 years old to teach mathematics at The Berkeley Institute, and seven years later he
became a Bermudian citizen.
In 1933 he started a second job working as an editor at the Bermuda Recorder where
he was a vocal critic of segregation, writing often of racial injustices. In 1943, he decided courtesy the bermuda news bureau
to study law, and went to England. He returned to Bermuda in 1947 and practised law
for the rest of his working life.

A year after becoming one of Bermuda’s first black lawyers, he was elected to the
House of Assembly, representing Warwick. In those days, only people who owned a
certain amount of property were allowed to vote or run for Parliament, and Sir Edward
was one of the few black MPs in Parliament for the next 20 years.

By 1968, thanks to the efforts of politicians like Sir Edward and activists like Roosevelt
Brown, the old property vote was abolished and the principle of one person-one vote
was fully implemented. At the same time, political parties were established, and Sir
Edward, who was conservative by nature and committed to bringing harmony to the
races, joined the United Bermuda Party, which until then was largely led by white politicians.

Sir Edward was elected Deputy Government Leader and Deputy Leader of the UBP
in 1968 and three years later in 1971, he became Bermuda’s first black ‘Government
Leader’, a post which later became known as Premier - a change he negotiated with
the British Government.
Sir Edward’s election by his UBP colleagues as Government Leader to replace Tucker
was unanimous. Sir Edward became the first black Bermudian to lead a political party
to election victory when the UBP was returned to power in the June 1972 election.
As a native of what is now Guyana, Sir Edward was often confronted by anti-West
Indian sentiment. However he reminded his audiences, often to laughter, that: “I am a
Bermudian by choice, you are a Bermudian by accident.”

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