Demystifying Bay Street

This article is an effort to trace the radicalization of Bahamian politics that occurred in the 1960s. Although scholars have argued that the United Bahamian Party led by the Bay Street Boys won the 1962 election by speaking to voters’ concerns about the Black led Progressive Liberal Party’s radicalism, the PLP responded to their defeat by intensifying rather than quieting their rhetoric and became increasingly radical in the run up to the 1967 elections. As such, we argue, it was widespread fear of Bay Street’s power that explains the PLP’s defeat in 1962, and it was the PLP’s ability to demystify that power that led to the party’s narrow victory in 1967 and their overwhelming victory in 1968.

Read the article at SSRN.