HISTORY shows that during every generation or two there's a Bermudian impacting on the international scene who puts Bermuda on the world map in a stellar way.

To name a couple, at the beginning of the 1900s we had Dr. Francis Langley Patton, who soared so high in academia that he became President of Princeton University. When he retired from Princeton in 1923, The Royal Gazette, in banner headlines, hailed him as 'Bermuda's Greatest Son'.

In the mid-1900s we had Dr. Eaton Burch, of St. George's. He became head of the Department of English and History at Howard University in Washington, DC, and was recognised as the world authority on Daniel Defoe.

Next we had Bishop Vinton Randolph Anderson, the 92nd Bishop and first Bermudian of the AME Church. Bishop Anderson really stamped Bermuda on the world map, when in 1991 in Sydney, Australia he was elected to a seven-year term as President of the World Council of Churches, the highest and most prominent office among all religious faiths in Christendom. It is an organisation with offices in more than 100 countries, representing 318 religious groups and 500 million constituents.

While we have thumbnail sketches on the foregoing scholars (see profiles below), we mentioned them in order to get my main subject, who is the Rev. Dr. Goodwin Douglas. He was born and bred in Somerset, received his early education in the island before going off to Kitrell College in North Carolina and Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. He holds honorary degrees of Doctor of Divinity from Monrovia College in Monrovia, Liberia and the B.F. Seminary in Tallahassee, Florida.

Dr. Douglas has not been consecrated a bishop. He is in a sense the power behind the throne that makes or breaks bishops in the lofty position he was elected to in 2000 as chairman of the Episcopal Committee of the AME Church which examines and assigns bishops, be it to districts in Africa, the Americas or Isles of the Seas.

No less significant is the fact that Dr. Douglas has the dual positions of Pastor of Turner Memorial AME Church with more than 1,000 members in the heart of the US capital, Washington, DC, along with being Presiding Elder of the Capitol District, the Washington Conference.

After an absence of over 40 years, Rev. Douglas was signally honoured recently when he returned to Bethel AME Church in Farmville, Virginia, which was his second pastorate and the scene of a gigantic civil rights struggle in the 1960s.

He was invited to the church to be preacher at its 137th anniversary. Many dignitaries from the county attended the service and recalled how their then 23-year-old pastor led civil rights marches to gain equal education rights for the black children of Prince Edward County.

They called forth memories of a hard struggle, undertaken amidst violence and threats of violence; and how they confronted the forces of anti-black segregationists led by then Senator Harvey Byrd.

Byrd was the architect of the "massive resistance" movement that dictated that black children would never attend integrated schools in Prince Edward County. They went so far as to close all public schools, providing private schools for white children and leaving black children out in the cold with no means of education.

The Prince Edward County Case eventually became a part of the landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" case before the US Supreme Court. The case resulted in the outlawing of segregated public schools in the United States. Notwithstanding, Prince Edward County proved to be a hard nut to crack, and it fought and evaded the ruling for years, until finally capitulating in 1964 when schools reopened on an integrated basis.

PROFESSOR Martha E. Cook, curator of the Robert Russo Moton Museum, noted: "It was in this turbulent era that Goodwin Douglas became a leader in organising and executing marches and other protest activities in Farmville and Prince Edward County."

At the anniversary service, Dr. Douglas took as the theme of his sermon "Do Not Forget to Remember," from the old Irving Berlin love song.

Some of the former students, who are now mature adults, who marched with the young Bermudian preacher, attended the worship service and greeted Dr. Douglas with grateful hugs and handshakes. Others who were adults at the time were also present and expressed joyful gratitude.

One of the former students, who marched with him when she was 13 years old, recalled how she was moved to tears during the march out of gratitude for the courageous work of Pastor Douglas.

The efforts of Dr. Douglas have been immortalised by the Civil Rights Education Memorial Trail, which has erected a large memorial obelisk near the entrance to Beulah AME Church, designating the church as a site in the struggle for equality in education. The memorial features a picture of Rev. Douglas leading black students in a protest march.

After the service Prof. Cook escorted Dr. Douglas and his family and friends on a personal tour of the museum of which she is curator. It is housed in the old school where black children began their fight for quality education in 1951.

Rev. Douglas was accompanied from Washington by his wife Cynthia, daughter Beth and younger son Matthew and granddaughter Summer. Another son, 'Dougie', and a son-in-law Albert were unable to attend because of job commitments.

Also attending the service and tour were the parents-in-law of Beth, the Rev. and Mrs. Arthur S. Jones of Richmond, Virginia. It should be noted that Rev. Jones was the pastor of Dr. Douglas' mother Mrs. Rosie Douglas and family during his tenure as former pastor of Allen Temple AME Church in Somerset. He is now among other things a noted author and CEO of the Arthur S. Jones Religious Enterprises, of which his wife Emma is vice-president.

PROFILES OF THREE STALWARTS

FRANCIS Landey Patton is the scholar after whom Francis Patton School in Bailey's Bay is named. He was born in Warwick on February 22, 1843 and died on November 25, 1932. His estate is situated just east of the old Belmont Hotel on the main road in Warwick.

He was an educationalist and theologian who studied at Knox College, at the University of Toronto and graduated at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1865. The same year he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, appointed pastor of the 84th Street Presbyterian Church in New York and churches in Brooklyn and Chicago.

Dr. Patton had the honour and distinction of becoming Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1878. From 1881-1888 he was Staurt professor "of the relation of philosophy and science to the Christian religion", a chair founded for him in Princeton Theological Seminary. He was president of the College of New Jersey from 1888-1902. In 1896 the college became Princeton University and in 1902 the Bermudian became president of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Dr. Patton gained national prominence when he brought charges against the Rev. David Swing and was prosecuting attorney at Swing's trial. Patton charged Swing with serious departures from the faith. Patton lost his case before the Presbytery, but gained a great reputation as the eloquent champion of orthodoxy, leading to his election as Moderator of the General Assembly in 1878.

For nearly ten years he was one of the main editors of the Presbyterian Review; and was author of The Inspiration of the Scriptures and a Summary of Christian Doctrine. He was a leading opponent of the revision of the Confession of Faith.

Dr. Patton's offspring carry his distinguished name and legacy to this day, being prominent in the fields of law, medicine and public service.

CHARLES Eaton Burch was one of the five Burch brothers who were students at Howard University at the same time. They included former Member of Parliament Collingwood Burch and pharmacist Philip Burch of St. George's.

He was born in 1891 and died at a relatively young age in 1948. He was an educator, author, school administrator and, most significantly, chairman of the English Department at Howard University. His voluminous correspondence, writing and research notes and photographs, his extensive library of 18th-century English literature, including his works on Daniel Defoe of the era of 1661-1731 is housed in Howard University's Founders Library.

The author Henry Louis Gates, Jr., had some pertinent observations about Dr. Burch in his publication Redrawing the Boundaries. Focusing on what he termed the Transformation of English and American Literary Studies, Gates stated that students like himself or professors of African- American literature in the 1960s through the '70s behold in wonder the various ways the field has moved.

Few, if any scholars of African-American literature encounter today the hostility, scepticism and suspicions the field elicited a quarter of a century ago. We have come a long way since the early 1920s, when Charles Eaton Burch introduced into the curriculum at Howard, University a course entitled Poetry and Prose of Negro Life.

BISHOP Vinton Randolph Anderson, BA, MA, ,MDiv, PhD, and his wife Vivienne made a lightning visit to their native Bermuda just before Christmas. It was to preside over the dedication of renovations and extensions to Bethel AME Church in Shelly Bay, where the Presiding Elder of AME Churches in Bermuda, the Rev. Malcolm Eve, is pastor.

Although Bishop Anderson retired from the Bench of Bishops two years ago, from his home and office in St. Louis, Missouri, he and his wife maintain hectic schedules for their respective boards and other commitments.

Since he left Bermuda in 1947 at age 19 seeking broader horizons, Bishop Anderson's ascendancy has been described at phenomenal. He is an internationally-acclaimed theologian, philosopher, writer and church builder. He was Chancellor of Wilberforce University and Payne Theological Seminary during one of its most spectacular growth periods. His own oratorical skills have put him in a class by himself.

Among the many distinctions accorded this Bermudian was his selection as one of the individuals highlighted in the prestigious 1993 African-American history calendar produced by the Tanquery Corporation of American. Titled African-Americans of Integrity and Influence, the calendar featured Bishop Anderson on its November page. Other pages showed famous astronauts, scientists cabinet ministers and Martin Luther King, Jr.