Four decades ago, Ewart Brown was an outspoken and high-profile student activist in Washington, DC.

Last night he returned to the American capital as leader of his island home - on a mission to raise Bermuda’s profile with high-ranking politicians on Capitol Hill. The 61-year-old Premier has come a long way since he helped to organise the student occupation of the administration building at Howard University, where he was an undergraduate in the 1960s.

Back then, he was a vocal campaigner for student and civil rights, unafraid of ruffling the feathers of some of his professors and well-known for his passionate, radical speeches at campus rallies. Today, as he embarks on an intense two days of talks with a host of Senators and Congressmen and a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he will be hoping to win and foster friendship for Bermuda.

He told The Royal Gazette last night: “This is truly an auspicious time to be in Washington. Any time you can get face-time with key US political leaders and opinion makers of the stature of those that we will be meeting in this US-Bermuda bilateral visit it is important and beneficial for Bermuda and her interests.

“I see continuous diplomatic engagement to further Bermuda’s interests as vital and clearly this is a defining moment for me as it is my first in this capacity as Premier in these US-Bermuda bilateral meetings.”This year’s visit to Washington follows the Progressive Labour Party Government’s first bilateral visit here last year, when Alex Scott led the party.

Mr. Scott met a raft of Republicans, thanks to US Consul General Gregory Slayton’s contacts within the party.

Dr. Brown - who is leading a Government delegation which includes Deputy Premier Paula Cox - has this year slated in a series of talks with a number of leading black Democrats, including Congressman John Lewis, once dubbed the “conscience of the Congress”, and James Clyburn, the Majority Whip in the House of Representatives.

Dr. Brown said: “Although I continue to foster strategic linkages with those who can help enhance Bermuda’s interests and I number both as my good personal friends and friends to Bermuda, a number of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that does not diminish my pleasure at being here to fly the flag for Bermuda at this second annual US-Bermuda bilateral visit.”

He added that he would get to personally thank those Congress members who had passed a resolution to honour Dame Lois Browne Evans, the former PLP leader who died last month.

The Premier, a former resident of the US, has previously said that moving to Washington as a young man was a life-changing experience for him.

He told the Howard University magazine last autumn: “Howard was just a mind-blowing experience. I had no idea about the cultural enrichment that I was about to experience and the political exposure that was available on the campus. I immersed myself into Howard and by the end of the first year my political fire was lit.”

Dr. Brown earned a bachelor of science in chemistry from Howard and got his medical degree there. The College of Medicine has since twice given him an award for distinguished service to the institution. His personal ties to the city remain strong: he told the magazine that his son Kevin graduated from Howard’s College of Medicine in 1992 and that his son Ewart III was now studying there.