Lord David Pitt, Elder Statesman (1913-1994)

Lord David Pitt of Hampstead was a gentle, giant of a man, whose record of high political achievement and civil rights leadership was unparalleled in post-war Britain.

Born in Grenada in 1913, Pitt was part of the post-war migration of Afro-Caribbean servicemen, workers, students and professionals who established vibrant black communities in British cities.

He came to Britain in 1933 to study medicine at Edinburgh but always combined his medical career with political activity. In the Caribbean, while practising in Trinidad and Tobago, Pitt supported the cause of West Indian self-government by founding and leading the West Indian National Party. Upon his return to Britain in 1947 he brought a potent mixture of care and concern to his work as a London doctor.

Hard times

The focus of his concern was the tense social climate of black-white encounters. Racial discrimination was rampant and without hesitation he joined the League of Coloured Peoples founded in 1931 by Dr. Harold Moody, and supported the cause of anti-colonial sweeping the English-speaking Caribbean.

Pitt was no stranger to political controversy in his long career. In the 1960s awakening for black political self-organisation, Pitt led one of the more important campaigning groups of middle class blacks and white liberal professionals. Some blacks hailed him as a Martin Luther King figure for leading the American-inspired Campaign Against Racial Discrimination. Under Pitt's leadership CARD lobbied for change through legislation - like that enshrined in the US Civil Rights Act of 1964 - and for alliances with the establishment political parties and institutions..

Pitts moderate approach did not sit well with emergent Black grassroots and working class organisations of the period. Angry black activists led direct action, mass protests and campaigns for justice for black people. But few doubted the sincerity of Pitt's passion for positive change.

Labour stalwart

A tireless political strategist rather than a populist leader, Pitt was at the helm of the Community Relations Commission from 1968-1977 and helped shape the 1976 legislation outlawing racial discrimination in housing, jobs, training, education and services. He carried his concerns about medical ethics and racial justice into the prestigious halls of the British Medical Association of which he was President from 1985-88.

Throughout his life Pitt was a committed Labour Party campaigner; he believed that party, more so than the Conservatives, represented the best long-term chance for blacks and ethnic minorities to influence the direction of national policy. He is remembered as "one of the first prominent blacks in British political life," by former Labour Chancellor Lord Healey, a tribute shared by the Labour leader and prime minister Tony Blair.

Very early in his political career Pitt recognised that a strong voice for disadvantaged groups was needed. He was prominent in the London County Council and was the first black chairman of London's elected government, the Greater London Council, that replaced the LCC in 1965. Granted a life peerage in 1975 he joined with three of the first black members of Parliament, Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant, and Keith Vaz, to form the lobbying group, the Parliamentary Black Caucus.

His concerns

Pitt placed inner city issues at the top of his agenda when elevated to the House of Lords. During his peerage he chaired the Shelter National Campaign for he Homeless; the Race Equality Unit of the Institute of Social Work, and the Urban Trust, which provided pump-priming finance for projects in deprived areas.

In his final year, while critically ill, Lord Pitt reiterated his primary views. Racial equality and advancement was his goal. Broad anti-racist alliances with sympathetic groups in British society were necessary to bridge race, class and ideological grounds. In these efforts he was supported by his family and trusted colleagues, among them the trade unionist Bill Morris, head of the Transport and General Workers, and the media expert and BBC governor Dame Jocelyn Barrow. He remained a loyal son of Grenada and was buried there with full honours following his death in London December 18, 1994.

© Copyright 1997-2005 Chronicle World - first published 15/01/01
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