8 Facts You May Not Know About the Bahamas

The Bahamas: 'Forward, Upward, Onward, Together' Each color on the Bahamian flag has meaning: Gold represents the sun and sand, blue stands for the sea, and the black triangle symbolizes united Bahamian people moving forward together. The Lucayan National Park in Freeport, Grand Bahamas, encompasses one of the longest known underwater cave systems in the world. The world’s deepest blue hole (water-filled sinkhole) is Dean’s Blue Hole, located west of Clarence Town, Long Island. The Women’s Suffrage Movement in the island nation was led by Doris Johnson, Bertha Issacs, Eugenia Lockhart and Georgina K. Symonette. With intense perseverance, the women finally gained the right to vote in 1961. They were all members of the prominent Progressive Liberal Party that was responsible for most of the nation's social reform. Lynden Oscar Pindling is regarded as the "father of the nation" in the Bahamas. He led the country to majority rule on Jan. 10, 1967, and to independence from Britain on July 10, 1973. Legendary actor Sidney Poitier has Bahamian roots. His parents were from the Bahamas and they traveled between their home and Miami, selling produce. Poitier lived with his family on Cat Island until he was 10 years old and moved to Miami at 15. Poitier is best known as the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1964. On Jan 24, 2014, Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. He is the fourth person from The Bahamas to be honored on the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame. In 1830, an enslaved African named Pompey led a slave revolt against British oppressors in Exuma, Bahamas. Pompey's bravery was memorialized with a statue in Nassau during the 1960s. The Black Seminoles are Black-Native American people who live on Andros Island in the Bahamas. They are descendants of the indigenous Seminole people and escaped African slaves from the United States who took refuge in the Bahamas where slavery was outlawed.

The Bahamas: ‘Forward, Upward, Onward, Together’

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