By Raymond Hainey

The Royal Gazette, June 15, 1999, pg 1

The first crack in the wall of ´genteel apartheid´ in Bermuda is to be celebrated this week.

And -- for the first time -- the leaders of the secret group which stood off theatre owners in a boycott over segregated seating will reveal their identities.

Yesterday, Glenn Fubler, organiser of the 40th anniversary of the theatre boycott which spelt the beginning of the end of Bermuda's racist social set-up, unveiled plans to mark the occasion.

An outdoor church service will be held at City Hall tomorrow at noon.

And Mr. Fubler praised the Bank of N.T. Butterfield for shutting down between 11.45 p.m. and 12.45 p.m. to allow its staff to take part in the multi-faith service.

Churchmen from both the Catholic and the Anglican faiths joined Mr. Fubler to back the commemoration plans.

Anglican Bishop Ewen Ratteray said: ´This will be a wonderful occasion for all of us to reflect on these wonderful men and women who brought about such significant change in our lives.´

And Catholic priest Fr. Glen Baptiste described the group behind the boycott as ´ordinary people engaging in extraordinary acts´ to help end injustice on the Island.

Canon Thomas Nisbett -- the Island's first black Anglican priest -- added that the boycott helped break down the barriers set up for black people in hotels and restaurants in Bermuda.

Bishop Ratteray described the social conditions in Bermuda in the late 1950s as ´genteel apartheid´.

He said: ´People take things for granted now -- they don't know what it was like.´

Bishop Ratteray admitted that -- when he was a young priest -- he would have laughed if anyone had suggested he would wear the purple of the episcopacy in Bermuda.

And he admitted he turned down a curates' job in Pembroke in the early 1970s in favour of a parish priest's post in England because he knew he could never expect to get his own parish in Bermuda.

But he added that the aim of the day was not to open old wounds, but to encourage people to accept the history of the Island and learn from it.

Bishop Ratteray said: ´It's part of our history and history, that which is bad, that which is good, has helped to make us what we are.

´If we don't take note of what's going on in the past, we won't understand the present, never mind the future. For that reason, it's worth doing.´

But Bishop Ratteray said: ´There is no sign of triumphalism, no sign of lording it over other people.

´It's about why we're different and why we are the way we are now - it didn't happen all at once, it was progressive and gradual.´

Bishop Ratteray added that a commemoration could have been held ten years ago - but that even 20 years ago, the subject was still too sensitive for people to admit their part in the boycott.

Mr. Fubler added: ´It's all about healing our community -- as history is unfolding, it's just happening that it's coming out now.´

The event was organised by Beyond Barriers, the Human Rights Commission, the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality and leaders of religious communities.

If the weather takes a turn for the worse, the alternative site for the service is St. Paul Centennial Hall on Hamilton's Court Street