Clement Payne

Clement Osbourne Payne was born in 1904 in Trinidad to Barbadian parents and grew up in Barbados. Deeply influenced by Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Payne returned to Barbados in 1937 to awaken the exploited laboring masses suffering under Great Depression conditions.

Delivering electrifying public lectures in Lower Green, Bridgetown, Payne called upon workers to 'Educate, Agitate, but Do Not Violate!' When the colonial governor ordered his arrest and summary deportation back to Trinidad in July 1937, outrage ignited the nationwide 1937 Barbados Rebellion. The ensuing British Moyne Commission directly recommended legalizing trade unions and expanding political enfranchisement.