Carter, John

January 27, 1919

The politician and diplomat John Patrick Carter was born in the village of Cane Grove, British Guiana. He received his secondary education at Queen's College from 1931 to 1938, after qualifying at the Government County scholarship examination that determined who would be eligible to attend that elite school. Carter's political awakening occurred in the 1920s when his mother took him to meetings of the Negro Progress Convention (NPC), a group that aimed to uplift black people, whom NPC leaders felt were oppressed like crabs in a barrel. As a student in London, where he studied law and qualified as a barrister with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1942, Carter's experience with the "English landlady" who refused to rent rooms to nonwhite students sensitized him to racial injustices in England and was the most significant reason he became involved in political activity. During his sojourn in England, Carter also joined the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP), whose membership at the time included all races, especially whites, as well as students from the colonies of Britain, all of whom were fighting for racial integration in Britain. Eventually, the aims of the LCP expanded to include self-government for the colonies.

Upon returning to British Guiana, Carter entered politics, became a member of the colony's Labour Party, and was elected to the Legislative Council in 1947, after Hubert Critchlow, the original winner of the constituency in question, was unseated as a result of a libel suit brought against him by the wife of a prominent attorney, whom Critchlow had accused of mistreating a black employee. In any event, Carter pursued a labor line as a politician, and although he and later People's Party Progressive (PPP) leader Cheddi Jagan supported each other initially, in the Legislative Council their paths eventually diverged as Jagan's more radical politics began to obtrude.

Carter also became assistant secretary of the LCP in Guiana, which at the time was seeking not merely to sensitize African Guianese regarding the issue of political independence but was also concerned with promoting their social, economic, educational, and political interests. Indeed, one manifestation of this concern occurred in January 1953, when along with other LCP leaders Carter protested against the appointment of a Guianese Royal Air Force Officer, who had served in World War II and had later qualified as a barrister, as a sergeant-major in the police force. This incident, which clearly involved a gross injustice as the disjuncture between academic qualifications and the occupational status of the job was one that was clearly based on race, was taken up with the attorney general, as a result of which the individual in question was seconded to the attorney general's office.

Also with fellow LCP leaders, Carter was involved in the formation of the National Democratic Party (NDP)—subsequently becoming an executive member of the party—which contested the 1953 general elections, the first to be held under universal adult suffrage, and which was won by the PPP. After the PPP ministers were dismissed, the constitution was suspended in October 1953, and a struggle for the leadership of the party ensued between Cheddi Jagan, the party leader, and Forbes Burnham, the chairman. Carter, who reportedly had heard the news of the suspension "with a heavy heart," traveled to England with a delegation of prominent political figures to consult with Colonial Office officials and to express the group's disenchantment with the PPP. While there, British officials suggested that although they were sympathetic to the delegation, it was in the latter's interest to organize politically to present a stronger opposition to the PPP and thereby enhance the prospects of democracy in Guiana. Perhaps with that in mind, and because Carter felt that he had more in common with the more moderate Burnham than with Jagan, and since the NDP and the People's National Congress (PNC), which came into being in 1958 with Burnham as its leader, were not too far apart on the issues, the two parties merged.

As a diplomat from 1966 to 1970, Carter was accredited to the United States as Guyana's first ambassador to that country, with additional accreditation to Canada and the United Nations; from 1970 to 1976, he was accredited to Great Britain as Guyana's high commissioner, with additional accreditation to France, West Germany, Netherlands, Austria, the Soviet Union, Sweden, Yugoslavia, and India; from 1976 to 1981 he was accredited to the People's Republic of China as Guyana's ambassador, with additional accreditation to Japan and North Korea; and finally from 1981 to 1983 he was accredited to Jamaica as Guyana's ambassador. For his services to the Guyana government, Carter was knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth.

See also Burnham, Forbes

Bibliography

Seeraj, Sandra. "Sir John and Lady Sara Carter: A Story of Sterling Accomplishment, Distinguished Service and Enduring Love." Guyana Chronicle (November 21, 2004).

St. Pierre, Maurice. Anatomy of Resistance: Anti-Colonialism in Guyana, 1823–1966. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

maurice st. pierre (2005)