Today marks the 60th anniversary of a milestone on the road to desegregation in Bermuda.

On May 5, 1966, the first Inter-School Sports track meet took place before a record crowd at the National Stadium.

It was hailed by many as “the greatest sports meet ever to take place” at the time, with a total of 35 records being broken and five others equalled.

However, the athletes’ outstanding exploits on the track were overshadowed by racial tensions between the organisers and participants that threatened the future of the historic event.

According to a report published in the former Fame Magazine, some of the Black schools that participated subsequently threatened to withdraw from the formerly all-White Bermuda School Sports Association.

Some Black teachers also took initial steps towards forming their own schools sport association.

The racial dispute flared when the Department of Education attempted to integrate schools sport after attempts had already been made to do the same in terms of academics.

In previous years, the BSSA had taken steps to ensure that schools sport were contested only by so-called “White schools”.

However, with a number of those schools now enrolling Black students, the Department of Education advised the BSSA, Bermuda Secondary Schools Football League and the Non-Vested Schools Sports Committee that they would recognise only one schools sport organisation moving forward.

There were some Black teachers who felt joining the BSSA had its advantages as they were equipped to run a wide variety of sports among the island’s schools for boys and girls, but others felt they were being asked to disband their organisations while nothing was being done to offer them equal rights within the BSSA.

Apart from changing one item in the constitution to allow all schools on the island to join, no changes were made in either the BSSA’s executive, its officers, its name or its constitution.

Although at one point it seemed as if the BSSA would change its name to All-Bermuda School Sports Association, it was at this point that tensions escalated.

It was suggested that as a concession to the Black schools, a new slate of records be drawn from the best of the BSSA and Black schools, which was rejected by the BSSA. It also refused to hold an election to give Black teachers the opportunity to serve on their executive.

“The White school sports association wanted to take over everything,” former Sandys Secondary School athlete Valdon Caesar [formerly Valdon Williams] told The Royal Gazette.

“They wanted their standards accepted over Black standards because they seemed to have some doubt as to credibility of the Black schools’ records, so they adopted their own standards for the Inter-School Sports in 1966.

“Our Black school records were dispensed of, so we had to go by their records and their rules, which led to some dissension and increased the intensity of the racism so that you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.

“It just increased that intensity because these guys had inferior records to us and had suggested that our records were not accurate because of who we are as Black people.

“Bermuda was highly racist, a segregated community and we were like second-class citizens back then. There was a lot of pushback, but in the end the White organisation prevailed and won the day.

“Their records were established as the marks for Inter-School Sports but before that the Black schools had their own records which were far superior.”

Sandys Secondary School and St George’s Secondary strongly objected to joining the BSSA, but eventually did so just before the registration deadline expired.

However, a number of schools which had agreed to stay out of the BSSA alongside St George’s and Sandys, discovered about their last-minute change of heart too late and were left unable to participate in the meet.

But the news his school would participate in the event was met by overwhelming joy and great anticipation from Caesar and his Sandys Secondary schoolmates.

“We were ecstatic,” he said. “Generally speaking, Whites had this sense of superiority about their way of life, so the anticipation that we were going to do well and put to bed the myth that they were superior to us was great.

“They used their standards but just about every record we either equalled or broke, and some of us smashed them, like the one that my team achieved [4 x 110 yard relay]. That was a record for men and our schoolboys smashed it, which was the highlight of the whole event.

“We not only beat their schools record but we beat the Bermuda record for men, which also upset a lot of people.”

Despite the controversy and racial tension surrounding the event, Caesar said he and his fellow student-athletes were proud to be part of history.

“It was a very proud moment to be involved in the first integrated school sports in Bermuda,” he said.

“Bermuda was desegregated at the time and the Department of Education and others were making efforts to integrate the schools and we were the first to do that.

“Before the schools were fully integrated they had the sports day first, so this was what I call a milestone in social interaction between Blacks and Whites in Bermuda.”

While public spaces began integrating in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, formal legal desegregation of Bermuda’s public schools did not occur until 1971.

This marked the official end of institutionalised segregation in education, ensuring equal access for all students regardless of race.

The Bermuda School Sports Federation replaced the BSSA in 1981 and remains in existence.