Learie Constantine

Trinidadian cricketer and politician

• Born: September 21, 1901
• Birthplace: Petit Valley, Diego Martinez, Trinidad
• Died: July 1, 1971
• Place of death: London, England

The outstanding West Indian cricketer of his time, Constantine used his influence to promote racial justice and West Indian independence. He became the first black member of the British House of Lords.

Early Life

Learie Constantine (KAWN-stan-teen) was born in Trinidad in the West Indies. When he was three his family moved to Maraval, near Port of Spain, and then moved in 1908 to the nearby village of St. Ann’s. His father, Lebrun Constantine, was overseer of a cocoa estate and was a fine cricketer who toured England with West Indies teams in 1900 and 1906. His mother, née Anna Pascall, also took a keen interest in the game. Cricket was the family’s passion, and Constantine learned the game from his father, who always insisted on high standards of play. Repeated parental urging to concentrate, to “pay attention,” were taken to heart: It was unflagging concentration that was to make Constantine one of the most brilliant fielders the sport of cricket has ever known.

Constantine was educated at a public elementary school and (from age twelve) at St. Ann’s Roman Catholic School. He then took a job as a clerk in a solicitor’s office (he already cherished the hope of becoming a lawyer), moving to minor clerical posts in government offices before going to work for an oil company, Trinidad Leaseholds. He joined his father’s club, Victoria (later renamed Shannon), one of the leading Trinidad cricket teams, playing with and against all the island’s stars, many of whom, like his father, had international experience.

Although Constantine was acquiring a reputation as a promising player, he had not yet achieved real distinction, so it was a surprise when he was chosen as one of the West Indies team that toured England in 1923. His batting and bowling performances in England were again relatively modest, but he astonished both crowds and opponents by his spectacular fielding. Continued improvement as a fast bowler and an aggressive, hard-hitting batsman earned for him further honors in Trinidad in the mid-1920’s and a second tour of England in 1928. In another otherwise disappointing season for the West Indies team, Constantine emerged as the most dynamic and exciting black cricketer the Caribbean had yet produced. Not a big man for a fast bowler he was about five feet, ten inches tall he was solidly built, agile, and always beautifully balanced. Some of his performances in 1928 were electrifying, including the brilliant batting and bowling by which he helped to achieve victory over the Middlesex XI at the famous Lord’s ground in London. At the end of the tour he signed with the Nelson club in the Lancashire League, becoming the first West Indian to play as a professional in England.

Life’s Work

At Nelson, a small, mainly working-class mill town, Constantine soon became immensely popular both as a cricketer and as an individual. His leadership and skill carried his team to seven league championships in nine years, but he also continued to play in Trinidad during English winters. He went on the first West Indies tour of Australia in 1930-1931 and played against a touring English side in the Caribbean in 1934-1935. When West Indies were in England again in 1933, he could join the team for only a few matches, but during the next tour, in 1939, he showed all of his old form, notably in some astonishing hitting in the final game against England shortly before the outbreak of World War II.

By the time he had come to Nelson, Constantine was quietly becoming more political. He had always spoken out against racial prejudice, questioning, for example, the unwritten rule that although West Indies representative teams were largely composed of blacks, the captain always had to be white. He had grown up on an island where cricket, like everything else, was part of a social system determined by the hierarchies of race and class. The island’s major clubs played against one another, but each was drawn from a different social and ethnic group, from the aristocratic and white Queen’s Park to the working-class and black Stingo Club, with Constantine’s own middle-class Shannon somewhere in between. Behind Trinidad cricket lay the realities of British colonial rule: of white government over a mainly black population.

At Nelson, Constantine set out to advance the cause of West Indian identity and potential nationhood. He served as a role model for other blacks, showing that they could succeed even in the face of racial injustice, both on the cricket field and elsewhere. Equally important, he spread the message among white English people that racial equality and West Indian independence were causes worth supporting. In this he was aided by the many friendships that he and his wife (he had married Norma Cox in Trinidad in 1927) made in the town. Virtually the only black people in the area after an initial period of awkwardness in which occasional racial taunts were heard they quickly conquered all hearts in Nelson. Soon Constantine was in almost as much demand as a public speaker as a cricketer, lecturing to church groups and workingmen’s clubs on West Indian politics, quietly countering prejudice and bigotry wherever he went. He also helped other West Indians in England with money and personal support, among them a struggling young author named C. L. R. James, whose first book, a plea for West Indian self-government, was published with Constantine’s financial backing.

When war came in 1939, Constantine stayed in England to help his adopted country. Minor administrative posts at Nelson were followed by a more important job, the ministry of labour’s welfare officer for the entire northwest of England, with special responsibility for West Indian immigrant workers. He continued his career as a public speaker, now often to military audiences, and was a regular radio broadcaster. Yet his interests both in cricket and in race relations were unabated. He still played as a league professional until 1948 and appeared in wartime exhibition matches. It was during a visit to London in 1943 for one of these that he and his wife were denied a room at the Imperial Hotel because of their color. Constantine promptly sued the hotel and was awarded damages, achieving both valuable publicity and an important legal precedent against discrimination. In 1945, he captained an otherwise all-white Dominions XI against England at Lord’s in a match celebrating the end of World War II, an honor that contained some irony in view of the continuing prejudice against having a black captain in the West Indies team.

After his retirement from cricket, Constantine moved to London, where he wrote an important book on race relations and resumed the legal studies that he had intermittently pursued at Nelson, passing his bar examinations in 1954. He then returned to Trinidad and entered politics, joining Eric Williams’s People’s National Movement in 1956 as the island moved toward self-government. As chair of the party, he showed great skill in reconciling conflicting factions and was also a fluent speaker in the Legislative Council, to which he was elected for the Tunapuna constituency. Some thought him too modest and straightforward to be an effective politician, but when Williams became prime minister, Constantine was a successful member of his administration, piloting a much-needed road-building program as minister of works and transport.

Constantine was one of the Trinidad and Tobago delegation that negotiated the islands’ independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, and he remained in London as the new nation’s high commissioner (ambassador). It was a popular appointment, and Constantine’s work for better race relations quickly received national recognition. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1962 and was made a Freeman of his hometown of Nelson in the following year. In 1964, he resigned his post as high commissioner after differences with Williams over his allegedly undiplomatic criticisms of British immigration policies. He stayed in London, active in public affairs. He was appointed to the government’s Sports Council in 1965, to the Race Relations Board in 1967 (the same year in which he was elected to the honorary post of rector of St. Andrew’s University), and to the governing board of the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1969 came the final honor in the form of elevation to the peerage as Baron Constantine of Nelson and of Maraval: In choosing the title, Constantine proclaimed both his Trinidad origins and his British friendships.

The first black member of the House of Lords, Constantine was sometimes criticized in the West Indies for having joined the white establishment. His response was that he had accepted the honor not for himself but for his countryfolk, and as a further opportunity to serve them. Yet he had little time to enjoy his new status. His health was failing, and after a heart attack he died in London on July 1, 1971. His body was flown to Trinidad for a state funeral in Port of Spain’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Significance

Constantine was the first of a line of great West Indian cricketers whose achievements did so much to contribute to their countryfolk’s pride in their national identity. His performances in international cricket are not statistically impressive, yet he had the touch of genius, in both batting and bowling, that could snatch victory for his team from the most unlikely situation. Throughout his career, Constantine’s superb fielding was always acclaimed. His greatest successes occurred in local Lancashire league competitions, both for Nelson and for the other clubs he represented after leaving there in 1938. As his many books attest, his cricketing philosophy was always based on attack, an approach that ensured that cricket was never boring or defensive when Constantine was playing.

More than any other cricketer, Constantine was important for what he did off, rather than on, the field. He used his cricketing fame to advance the two causes in which he passionately believed: racial justice and West Indian nationhood. He had plenty of experience of racial prejudice: in Trinidad, in England, and in New York, where he had been ejected from a Catholic church in 1929 because of his color. He was, however, never bitter. Disarming opponents with his intelligence and tact, he wrote and spoke with a restraint that was all the more effective because it never disguised the force of his convictions. Honors from a British establishment that admired his integrity without always heeding his message did not undermine his concern for black people less fortunate than himself. By the end of his life, his moderate style of leadership was beginning to seem old-fashioned, and racial injustice still remained widespread. In his time, however, more than many other more vehement spokespersons, Constantine did much to make West Indian independence possible.

Bibliography

Constantine, Learie. Colour Bar. London: Stanley Paul, 1954. A survey of race relations in Great Britain, the United States, and other parts of the world, prefaced by discussion of sociological, anthropological, and historical studies of the subject. An eloquent argument for racial equality, in the interests of both white and black people.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Cricket and I. London: Philip Allen, 1933. Autobiographical, following the author’s career through 1933, with useful hints on cricketing technique. Somewhat reticent about racial prejudice, but Constantine’s views are already becoming visible.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Cricket in the Sun. London: Stanley Paul, 1945. Carries the story to World War II; excellent on Constantine’s life in Lancashire. More explicit in its criticisms of racism, though still mild by later standards.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Young Cricketer’s Companion. London: Souvenir Press, 1964. The last of several books by Constantine on how to play cricket. Hints on batting, bowling, and other aspects of the game are infused with the author’s characteristic emphasis on offensive, positive cricket.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. Living in Britain. London: Virtue, 1970. A collection of essays containing advice and information for immigrants about social services and other aspects of British life, some by Constantine himself.

Giuseppi, Undine. Learie Constantine. London: Thomas Nelson, 1974. Rather gushing in style, but contains the essential facts of Constantine’s life. Especially useful on family life, politics, and race relations.

James, C. L. R. Beyond a Boundary. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. Perhaps the best book ever written on cricket. Splendid discussion of the place of cricket in West Indian culture and the racial and political context. Several chapters on Constantine’s career and personality, written by a friend and admirer.

Williams, Jack. Cricket and England: A Cultural and Social History of the Inter-War Years. Portland, Oreg.: F. Cass, 1999. This cultural and social history includes discussion of Constantine’s legacy.