Sept. 21, 2002 – Crucian lawyer, fashion designer and historian Wayne James says he's campaigning for election to the 25th Legislature as a write-in candidate.
That wasn't his initial plan, according to a release he distributed to the media, but it's the option he was left with when "a trusted friend" failed to deliver his completed and notarized documents to the Board of Elections in August while he was abroad.
James won international attention several years ago for the Middle Passage Monument Project he undertook to memorialize the millions of Africans who lost their lives while being transported from their homelands across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold into slavery.
Recently, through his Homeward Bound Foundation, he has been working with contacts in Denmark to bring historic documents of the Danish West Indies, as the Virgin Islands was formerly known, to the territory.
In his release, James said he received a telephone call from Denmark on Aug. 8 that required that he fly to Copenhagen at once "to view some rare documents and film footage pertaining to sugar cane production on St. Croix at the turn of the last century." The material consisted of "items that have never been seen by the general public before," he said, "and I will unveil them to the people of the Virgin Islands later this year."
James said he left his candidacy documents with a friend who assured him they "would be hand-delivered to the Board of Elections." But in the first week of September, while still abroad, he said, he learned that the material was not received by the board by the Aug. 13 filing deadline.
But he said it was a "minor setback" and that he remains "committed to serving and improving my community" and so will run as a write-in candidate for the Senate.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Croix Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
