When Bermuda's education system was finally integrated in the 1960s there was at least one school which needed no prompting, legislative or otherwise.

The Berkeley Institute, under the direction of the Berkeley Educational Society (the Society), has never been, since its 1897 inception, a segregated school.

In fact, in 1879 the Society established 17 'Rules' outlining its mission, conduct and goals. Rule Number Two read as follows:

"The object of this Society shall be to raise and invest funds for the purpose of establishing a School or Schools for the better education of all people". Certainly an enlightened perspective for 19th century Bermuda, a place in which the 1881 census revealed 28 percent of the population could not read and 37 percent could not write.

And this mission was not merely words written on paper, the Society's founders were men committed to an integrated Bermuda.

In his 1962 book, The Berkeley Educational Society's Origins and Early History, Kenneth Robinson describes the 11 founding members the Founding Committee as "militant proponents of racially integrated schooling". This committee included men such as: school master Joseph Henry Thomas who actively opposed the 1870 Devonshire College Act that called for segregated schools; William Henry Thomas Joell, who would later become Bermuda's first black parliamentarian; and Samuel Parker Senior and his son, who were the publishers and printers of Bermuda's first 'coloured' newspaper, the Times and Advocate.

These members also foresaw the need for integration across all sectors of Bermuda's society and indeed reached out and recruited several prominent white Bermudians to join and participate in the Society. The most renowned being Rev. Mark James who sat as the chairperson for the Society's first constitutional Committee of Management.

Of course raising funds at the time was no small task and it was 18 years on, in 1897, before the Berkeley Institute held its first class in Samaritan's Hall on Court Street.

Five years later the school moved to St. John's road, onto a property procured through the funds raised and invested by the Society. The school stayed on this premise until 2006 when it was relocated just up the road to its present day facility.

Interestingly despite being part of the public education system the Berkeley Institute is still managed much the way it was from the very beginning. The Society's present day chairman, Austin Thomas, explains that the Society is in fact a private organisation:

"There is a public perception that the Board of Governors is in charge of the school because the Society has given authority to the Board to negotiate and do all of the management at the school. Initially (with the Berkeley Act of 1933) some of the Board were appointed by the Government and the others were elected by the Berkeley Education Society — the owners of the school. That was changed by a 1979 act of the Legislature so that the Berkeley Education Society now elects all the Board members and the Board answers to the Society through me every three months. We also have a Management Committee of 16 people who serve with me. At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) there is an election, first of all of the Management Committee, and then we elect the Board of Governors."

Mr. Thomas goes on to explain that anyone can pay $25 for a lifetime membership to the Society which, in addition to an annual subscription of $10, entitles them to attend the AGM and vote in the elections.

"This process has been working successfully for over 100 years," he smiles. "What we, what Berkeley, has actually done over these many decades, for more than 100 years, is provide Government with buildings to house the children, many thousands of children who needed secondary education."

That relationship has changed slightly as today the Government actually owns the Berkeley facility whilst the Society continues to manage the running of the school through a Board of Governors.

Mr. Thomas also explains that free education in the 'public' system is a relatively new development and he recalls having to pay a weekly fee to attend what is now the Victor Scott School.

"My parents paid (the Government) for all of my education, preschool, primary, secondary, my parents paid all the way," he says. "I remember I had to pay a schilling and if I did not pay my schilling every Monday morning and have the teacher put a check by name I would not be able to go to school. Free education did not always exist in this country. That came in the 1950s when it was hard fought for in our Legislature."

Despite a 130 year commitment to integrated schooling in Bermuda the Society's school, Berkeley, is tacitly renowned as Bermuda's premier school... for black students. There can be no doubt as the to the quality of its students, having produced many of Bermuda's leading figures including Government leaders on both side of the House of Parliament, but still the mission of an openly integrated school goes unfulfilled. This condition speaks to Bermuda's failure to fully embrace the notion of integration and interestingly Mr. Thomas says it was both white and black Bermudians who failed to support the cause.

"When integration came it caused a significant change at Berkeley," explains Mr. Thomas. "And you know what happened? Black folk who normally sent their best kids to Berkeley now sent them to Saltus to Warwick (Academy) and to the High School (BHS). In this community whenever there is an opening up socially blacks are always the first to move, we will go, particularly if invited, we will go, it's not the same with whites."

He says it would be presumptuous to speak on behalf of white people as to why they do not join black organisations as willingly.

"Whites will have to share with me honestly what causes that," he says. "I can't speak and say this is what white folks think."

Mr Thomas also concedes that at least some of the reason for black Bermudians' migration to previously segregated schools was because of a sense of upward social mobility and prestige.

"False or presumed many feel that way and many get disappointed along the way."

Ultimately though Mr. Thomas say the Berkeley Educational Society must keep moving toward its original goal of better education for all people. He says of the Society's founders and legacy:

"In the 1800s these men, black and white, got together and said, 'No, we're not going to be part of this racist system. We're going to be the initiators of an educational facility that will be for all Bermudians. We're not going to be a part of this segmented situation.' And they paid a heavy price back then but it was worth it. We're (today) not going to have anything done, or permitted, that would undermine that philosophy and that legacy."