The Tragedy of White Rule over Virgin Islands Blacks

Muhammad Speaks

By: Nathaniel 10X

Chicago - The arrest and jailing of five Black Virgin Islands citizens and their subsequent trial focuses worldwide attention on this area, white America’s playhouse in the Caribbean. Only the “white man’s version” of the case, however, has reached the U.S.

Despite this apparent white censorship, the inhumane treatment of the Black men charged in the Fountain Valley killings was featured in last week’s edition of Muhammad Speaks.

The courageous young woman responsible for the M.S. exclusive report was Asia Labeet, who left the Islands and traveled to the U.S. At that time Miss Labeet and a young Virgin Islands man, who asked to not be identified, also revealed other wretched conditions that white dominance and minority rule has fostered on the Islands. This week Muhammad Speaks will cover that part of the report.

Double Standard of Justice

Showing the severity of the double standard of justice, Miss Labeet and her companion cited case after case where Blacks were murdered by whites. However, as in the U.S., it is very, very rare for whites to receive punishment for crimes against Blacks.

A white man raped and murdered Martha Blyden, a 17-year-old Black girl, a few years ago. The man was convicted and given 125 years in prison, they pointed out. Now, although the murderer is “considered” to be serving time, most Black Islanders know that he works for the government, and has more freedom than most Blacks.

“When they killed Dale Blyden, a 14-year-old child – he was shot down by a white man. The man was arrested, but he was soon released, because of “lack of evidence,” she said.

They told of Gwenette Webster, a 10-year-old girl murdered by a white, and they also told of the hatchet murder of a 13-year-old Black girl around the same time. Nevertheless, these murders were ignored and are still “unsolved” Miss Labeet declared.

Despite the large majority population of Blacks, the top law enforcement officers are white Americans, the two Islanders pointed out. “The Attorney General is white, the Asst. Attorney General is white and the District Attorney is white,” Miss Labeet said.

“The Governor, Melvin H. Evans, is “supposed” to be Black– but his Lieut. Governor is a white ex-FBI agent,” she added.

The stranglehold that U.S. “law and order” backers have on the Island is becoming more and more obvious to Black citizens. Miss Labeet cited the recent passage of a law that will give U.S. President Nixon the “right” to send the national guard to the Islands as the most alarming failure of the law and order program.

“But the thing that hurts the people the most,” she adds “is the local Black policemen– they (often) are left to do the dirty work– they are the ones who perform the brutality,” she said.

“The Black police have no power when it comes to white tourists or other whites who live in the Islands,” she said. “If a white person is arrested they are back on the street in less than a minute.”

‘It’s not slavery– yet’

Looking at the deteriorating situation in the Islands, the young Black man decalred, “Its not really slavery– but you can see its coming.”

“Poor housing, poor education, lack of ownership of land, and business– we are headed toward a time when Black people will have no rights whatever,” he said.

A few years ago some land was owned by Black people in the Islands. But the land was stolen and sold to white people at reasonable prices. Now the price is so high the land can only be bought by rich whites.

Whites own whole islands in some areas, Miss Labeet explained. “On one island– right off St. Thomas (Water Island) Black people are not allowed– those who go there are run off with shotguns, no native people live there,” she said. She pointed out, however, that Black domestic workers are allowed on the island to work.

The Rockefellers own (Rockesort Inc.) 2/3s of St. Thomas, Miss Labeet told M.S. and they also own the Fountain Valley golf course, where the Blacks were taken and tortured. Like the slumlords of the ghettos of America, they also own the lawmen.