Yesterday evening during the Harbour Nights festivities, residents paid tribute on the success of the 1959 Theatre Boycott.

The brief event, which was collaboratively hosted by the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce and Imagine Bermuda and local personalities, saw several presentations that included speeches and dances.

It saw an entertaining expression of appreciation to the Progressive Group and others who in the summer of 1959 brought about that transformative shift, which organisers say “led to a significantly better Bermuda”.

The event under the flagpole on Front Street was held under the theme “We are Family”, and according to the organisers, the boycott affirmed “the intrinsic value of every member of society — locally and globally”.

Activist Glenn Fubler said racial segregation in theatres ended “after two weeks of secret organisation for a boycott”.

He told the large crowd, which included tourists, that a number of visitors, including two from Canada, were actively involved in the boycott.

Mr Fubler added: “Joining the rally which took place on Church Street that day were at least two or three US naval sailors that joined that effort, who happened to be White people.

“Why? Because it was not a matter of colour but a matter of justice, and that is what the world was calling for.”

Glenda Edwards, another activist, hailed the efforts of the late Edward Skinner, who was the principal of Cavendish Primary, which, she noted, was considered a segregated school at the time.

She said: “He responded to the call by Black parents whose secondary-aged were unable to get school access under segregation.”

She said Mr Skinner started teaching in his home, and when it became overcrowded, he moved into a one-room school building on Jubilee Road.

Ms Edwards said three of his alumni, Sir John Swan, the late Ottiwell Simmons and Roosevelt Brown, have “attained heroic status in Bermuda”.

The Theatre Boycott is considered a landmark in the fight for equality in Bermuda.