Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SELF-RULE BEGINS
In 1934 President Franklin D Roosevelt visited the islands and saw the potential that Hoover
had missed. Soon, the US instituted programs in the Virgins to eradicate disease, drain
swamps, build roads, improve education, create hotels for tourists, attract cruise ships and
even sell rum under a label that Roosevelt himself designed. In 1936 the US Congress passed
the Organic Act, which gave the territory its first steps toward self-governance by letting
islanders vote in local elections. WWII, the associated sugar boom, and the construction of
naval and military bases in the islands brought full employment to the US islands for the
first and only time since European colonization.
During this era, social conditions in the BVI lagged behind the improvements in the
USVI, and citizens from the sparsely populated British colony migrated to work in the
USVI, particularly St Thomas - a trend that continued through most of the 20th century.
Following WWII, both British and US citizens in the islands clamored for more independ-
ence. In 1949 BVI citizens demonstrated for a representative government and got a so-called
presidential legislature the next year. In 1954 the US Congress passed the second Organic
Act, which established an elected legislature in the USVI. During the 1960s Britain's admin-
istrative mechanisms for its Caribbean colonies kept changing shape, and by 1967, the BVI
had become an independent colony with political parties, its own Legislative Council and an
elected chief minister. The next year, the USVI won the right to elect its own governor, Cyril
King (after whom the airport is named).
