The degree of focus by all local media in observance of February 2013 as Black History Month has been unprecedented, stimulating and praiseworthy.However this writer could not let the month close without drawing the country’s attention to four indigenous sons of the soil, whose levels of greatness on both the local and international scene merit extraordinary citation. They give pertinence to the oft quoted Biblical text that ‘many are called but few are chosen.’Although February is the shortest month of the year; the endeavour of this historian in this, the first of a two-part series, is to broaden the tapestry that has narrowed us to the point of thinking of accomplished Black Bermudians, men and women as well, generally in the grove of civil rights, as opposed to the broader horizon, encompassing all aspects of life in which most significant contributions have been made.We cite today, Rt. Rev. Dr. Vinton Anderson, whose accomplishments unquestionably put Bermuda ‘on top of the world’ upon his election in Australia in 1991 as President of the World Council of Churches. Also the Hon. Mr. Justice Earle Seaton, Ph.D., who made a dramatic impact in the world of international and legal affairs at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and further afield. We have of more recent vintage 95-year old Dr. Earl Cameron, CBE. And there’s octogenarian Rev. Dr. Kingsley Tweed and his notable accomplishments in South Eastern Africa, before he settled in London, England, as an exile from his native land.Earle Seaton was born in on February 29, 1924, the second of four children to Dudley and Eva Seaton, emigrants from St. Kitt s. He was raids ed in Hamilton graduated from Berkeley Institute as class Valedictorian in 1941. We were fellow students at the Berkeley; his younger sister, Ruth Seaton (later James) who has also an indelible stamp in Bermuda’s history and this historian were Berkeley classmates. Earle excelled at the violin, earning spending money by playing for tourists at Bermuda hotels, and he also excelled at tennis. His tennis prowess earned him a full scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C. While at Howard, he became President of Howard University’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and he majored in Zoology. Also during his four years at Howard, Earle met Alberta Jones from Texas who would later become his wife and life-mate.Although he wanted to become a doctor, his father persuaded him to study law and so Earle enrolled at London University. At that time, pan-Africanism was gaining many adherents among Africans and West Indians from the myriad of European colonies. Earle learned Swahili and began a lifelong association with East Africans. He graduated from London University as a Barrister and he married Alberta Jones in 1948 (after she finished her doctoral dissertation in Biology at the University of Brussels. .The next year, the young married couple moved to the British colony of Tanganyika where he practised law. The year 1950 found him preparing to present a case at the United Nations in defence of the WaMeru people. Since Alberta was expecting their first child, he left her in Nairobi with Chief Koinange’s senior wife. Alberta gave birth to a girl who they named Elizabeth. That decade was a time of career preparation for Earle. After the birth of his second child, Dudley, in 1953 Earle moved to Houston and then to Los Angeles (1956) with his family. He was admitted to doctoral studies in International Affairs at the University of Southern California and completed his dissertation in 1961.Once his dissertation was completed, he returned to Dar es Salaam to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After a few years, he was appointed by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to serve as judge and later he served as Tanzania’s Legal Counsel to the United Nations. While in New York, Bermudians began to request his involvement in his beloved homeland and in 1972, he became the first black judge in Bermuda.In collaboration with Kirilo Japhet, Earle wrote a book entitled “The Meru Land Case”. This described their ground-breaking efforts, the first time for an indigenous people to plead before the UN’s Trusteeship Commission. (East African Publishing House, 1967) His other papers, written in collaboration with Dr. Giulio Pontecorvo, were concerning the Law of the Sea.After retiring from his post as Seychelles’ Chief Justice, Earle returned to his wife’s hometown of Houston, Texas in 1989. For two years he worked as an associate with a firm handling commercial reinsurance and commuted between Houston and Bermuda. Unable to resist one last call to serve the East Africa that he loved, Earle travelled to Kampala to work for the British Commonwealth as an Appellate Judge in 1991. In 1992, while en-route back to Houston for a well-deserved vacation, he suffered a heart attack and died in New York City. His memorial services at St. James Episcopal Church (Houston) and at St. Paul’s A.M.E (Bermuda) were attended by the Honorable Mr. Hyera (Tanzania’s Ambassador to the United States).Vinton’s journey in the ministry began on a Palm Sunday in 1946. We both attended the closing of the 60th Session of the Bermuda Annual Conference when the Presiding PrelateBishop R.R. Wright offered full scholarships to young men to desirious of training at Wilberforce University. There were four respondents, Anderson, Philip, Cyril Butterfield and Wesley Wharton. Becoming aware that the training was for the ministry, Ira backed out, feeling he would have missed his calling, being well on the road as a young Parliamentary Reporter for the Bermuda Recorder newspaper.The others stayed the course, Wharton and Butterfield eventuallybecoming outstanding Presiding Elders in their respective regions. Anderson equipped himself academically at Wilberforce University, graduating with a B.A Honors Degree. He went on to Payne Theological Seminary where he gained his Master of Divinity and a M.A in Philosophy from Kansas University. He was then pastoring St. Marks AME Church in Topeka, Kansas. He continued his postgraduate studies at Yale University Divinity School and gained honorary doctoral degrees from Quina College, Wilberforce University, Payne Theological Seminary, Temple Bible College, Morris Brown College, Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) and Eden Theological SeminaryIn 1972 he was elected and consecrated the 92nd Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he supervised the 9th and 3rd Episcopal Districts. He served as the Ecumenical Officer for the church, where he chaired in a magnanimous manner the A.M.E. Bicentennial Celebrations. Notable among his appointments was Presiding Bishop for th 15th District in South Africa, in a church named for him as the Cathedral of Vinton Anderson AMEHe was cited as a man of great intellectual power, and celebrated globally as a writer and scholar. He preached and lectured all over the world. His travels taking him to the Caribbean, South and West Africa, South America, Canada, Twaiwan and Australia.As a member of the General Commission of Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns from 1984 to 1988, he became first vice-president of the World Methodist Council for the North American region and a member of the executive of the World Council of Churches He became vice-chairman of the Faith and Order Commission, and a member of a peace pilgrimage of ecumenical leaders that went to the Middle East in 1990. He had served as a member of the Site Visit Team to New Zealand and Australia for the programme of the Historicaal Team to combat racism.Bishop Anderson was elected President of the World Council of Churches meeting in Australia in 1991. The Council headquartered in Geneva, had over 560 million members and represented 322 denominations. He served seven years in that office.The wind beneath his wings in his notable progression over the decades, has been his childhood sweetheart and close Somerset neighbour, the former Vivienne L. Chomondeley, a highly accomplished lady in her own right. They married in 1952 and are the proud parents of four sons, Vinton, Jr., Jeffrey, Carlton and Kenneth. Three grandchildren are Natina Louise, Carlton, Jr., and Jordan Isiah Anerrson . The Anderson homestead is in Missouri.Many organisations have honoured the Andersons. He was recognised by the Historic Calendar in 1993. The same year he received the scroll of Merit Award from the US National Medical Assoiation. The Daniel A. Payne Award for Ecumenical Leadership in the AME Church in 1992. He received the American Black Achievement Award in 1991; and was the distinguished alumni honoree of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education. The Bishop’s name appears in Profiles in Black under the heading of “100 Living Black Unsung Heroes”; and he’s listed in Who’s Who in America. He has made regular appearances in the media, with two most memorable moments being on Face the Nation and Tony Brown’s Journal.Part Two of this ‘Black History Month “Spill-Over” series in our next issue will feature more on Dr. Earl Cameron, Rev. Dr. Kingsley Tweed; and Dr. Olivia Tucker, who in 1925 made history as the first of her gender to qualify with a Ph.D. in Pharmacy; but because of rampant racial prejudice was denied the right to register and practice in her native Bermuda.