Fond d'Or Bay
Body of water of Saint Lucia
Fond d'Or Bay is a bay on the east side of the island of Saint Lucia, in the center of the coast. The Fond d'Or River has its mouth in the bay.
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Saint Lucia
Country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea
Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of with an estimated population of over 180,000 people as of 2018. The nation's capital and largest city is Castries.
The first proven inhabitants of the island, the Arawaks, are believed to have been the first to settle on the island in 200–400 AD. In 800 AD, the island was taken over by the Kalinago. The French were the first European colonists to settle on the island, and they signed a treaty with the native Caribs in 1660. The English took control of the island in 1663. In ensuing years, England and France fought 14 times for control of the island; consequently control over this immensely valuable geopolitical position changed frequently. Eventually, the British took complete control in 1814, shortly after the victory over French Emperor Napoleon I. Because the island switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the "Helen of the West" after the Greek mythological character, Helen of Troy.
Representative government was introduced in 1924 with universal suffrage being established in 1951. From 1958 to 1962, the island was a member of the West Indies Federation. On 22 February 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state, while remaining as a Commonwealth realm.
Saint Lucia is a member of the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the World Trade Organization, CARICOM and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). It is also a member of .
Etymology.
Saint Lucia is named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse (AD 283 – 304). Saint Lucia is one of two sovereign states in the world named after a female and is the only one named after a woman (Ireland is named after a goddess). Legend states that French sailors were shipwrecked on the island on 13 December, the feast day of St. Lucy, and therefore named the island in her honour.
A globe in the Vatican from 1520 shows the island as Sancta Lucia, indicating that the island was instead named by early Spanish explorers. Saint Lucia was first known as "Louanalao" by the Arawak Indians in 200 AD, meaning "Island of the Iguanas," and then as "Hewanorra", in 800 AD, meaning "there where iguanas are found," when the Carib Indians arrived and assimilated their culture into Saint Lucia.
History.
Pre-Columbian.
The first proven inhabitants of Saint Lucia were the Arawaks, though there may have been other native peoples prior to them. The Arawaks are believed to have come from northern South America, sometime around AD 200–400, as there are numerous archaeological sites on the island where specimens of their pottery have been found.
The Kalinago (Island Caribs) arrived around AD 800, and seized control from the Arawaks by killing their men and assimilating the women into their own society.
Early European exploration and colonization.
It is possible that Christopher Columbus may have sighted the island during his fourth voyage in 1502, but he does not mention the island in his log. Juan de la Cosa noted the island on his map of 1500, calling it "El Falcon", and another island to the south "Las Agujas". A Spanish cédula from 1511 mentions the island within the Spanish domain, and a globe in the Vatican made in 1520, shows the island as Sancta Lucia.
In the late 1550s, the French pirate François le Clerc (known as "Jambe de Bois", due to his wooden leg) set up a camp on Pigeon Island, from where he attacked passing Spanish ships. In 1605, an English vessel called the "Oliphe Blossome" was blown off-course on its way to Guyana, and the 67 colonists started a settlement on Saint Lucia, after initially being welcomed by the Carib chief Anthonie. By 26 September 1605, only 19 survived following continued attacks by the Carib chief Augraumart, so the settlers fled the island. The English tried to settle the island again in 1638, but the Caribs continued to be hostile. Eventually, the French successfully claimed the island in 1650 and they signed a treaty with the Caribs in 1660. In 1664, Thomas Warner (son of Sir Thomas Warner, the governor of St Kitts) claimed Saint Lucia for England but the English fled again in 1666, with the French gaining full control of the island after the signing of the Treaty of Breda. Saint Lucia was made an official French crown colony in 1674, as a dependency of Martinique.
18th and 19th centuries.
After the slave-based sugar industry developed, both the British and the French found the island attractive. During the 18th century, the island changed ownership, or was declared neutral territory, a dozen times, although the French settlements remained and the island was a de facto French colony well into the eighteenth century.
In 1722, George I of Great Britain granted both Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent to the 2nd Duke of Montagu. Montague appointed Nathaniel Uring, a merchant sea captain and adventurer, as deputy-governor. Uring went to the islands with a group of seven ships, and established settlement at Petit Carenage. Unable to get enough support from British warships, he and the new colonists were quickly run off by the French.
During the Seven Years' War, Britain occupied Saint Lucia for a year, but handed the island back to the French in 1763, under the Treaty of Paris. Like the English and Dutch on other islands, in 1765, the French began to develop the land for the cultivation of sugar cane as a commodity crop on large plantations. The British occupied the island again in 1778.
From 1782 to 1803, control of the island switched multiple times. In January 1791, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly sent four "commissaires" to St Lucia to spread the revolutionary philosophy. By August 1791, slaves began to abandon their estates and Governor Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat fled. In December 1792, Lt. Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse arrived with revolutionary pamphlets, and the impoverished whites and free people of colour began to arm themselves as "patriots". On 1 February 1793, France declared war on England and Holland, and General Nicolas Xavier de Ricard took over as Governor. The National Convention abolished enslavement on 4 February 1794. On 1 April 1794, St. Lucia was captured by a British expeditionary force led by Vice Admiral John Jervis. Morne Fortune was renamed "Fort Charlotte". Soon, a combined force of French Revolutionary Army soldiers and maroons, "L'Armee Française dans les Bois", began to fight back, starting the First Brigand War.
A short time later, the British invaded the island as a part of the war with France that had recently broken out. On 21 February 1795, French forces under the nominal control of Victor Hugues, defeated a battalion of British troops at Vieux Fort and Rabot. In 1796, Castries was burned as part of the conflict. Leading the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment, General John Moore retook Fort Charlotte in 1796, after two days of bitter fighting. As an honour, the Fusiliers' regimental colour was displayed on the flagstaff of the captured fortress at Morne Fortune for an hour before being replaced by the Union Jack. Upon the capture of the fort, Moore's superior, Ralph Abercromby, departed the island and placed Moore in charge of the British garrison. Moore remained at this post until falling ill with yellow fever, leading to his return to Britain before 1798.
In 1803, the British regained control of the island. Many members of the "L'Armee Française dans les Bois" escaped into the thick rainforest where they evaded capture and established maroon communities.
Slavery on the island continued for a short time, but anti-slavery sentiment was rising in Britain. The British stopped the import of slaves by anyone, white or coloured, when they abolished the slave trade in 1807.
France and Great Britain continued to contest Saint Lucia until the British secured it in 1814, as part of the Treaty of Paris, ending the Napoleonic Wars. Thereafter, Saint Lucia was considered one of the British Windward Islands colonies.
The institution of slavery was abolished on the island in 1834, as it was throughout the British Empire. After abolition, all former slaves had to serve a four-year "apprenticeship", to accustom them to the idea of freedom. During that period, they worked for their former masters for at least three-quarters of the work week. Full freedom was duly granted by the British in 1838. By that time, people of African ethnicity greatly outnumbered those of ethnic European background. People of Carib descent also comprised a minority on the island.
20th century.
Saint Lucia's first representative government was introduced in 1924, with the first election taking place in 1925. Many Saint Lucians served during the Second World War, and the conflict visited the island directly during the Battle of the Caribbean, when a German U-boat attacked and sank two British ships in Castries harbour on 9 March 1942. The United States used the island as a military hub during the war, including setting up a secondary naval base in Gros Islet and using what is now the island's international airport as an air force base.
Universal suffrage was introduced in 1951 and elections were held the same year. In 1958, Saint Lucia joined the West Indies Federation, although the federation was dissolved just a few years later in 1962. In 1967, Saint Lucia became one of the six members of the West Indies Associated States, with internal self-government. Independence was peacefully gained in 1979 under Sir John Compton of United Workers Party, with the island remaining within the British Commonwealth, keeping then-Queen Elizabeth II as Monarch, represented locally by a Governor-General.
Post-independence era.
Despite leading the country to independence, Compton's initial term as prime minister lasted only a few months, being defeated by the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) under Allan Louisy in the 1979 Saint Lucian general election. In 1980, Hurricane Allen struck the island, destroying much of its infrastructure and reducing economic growth. Compton returned to power after the 1982 Saint Lucian general election after much instability during the labour government's term. During Compton's second term as the island's leader, banana exports significantly increased and became the nation's main source of revenue. There were improvements to infrastructure, and education was expanded to rural areas. Saint Lucia was key to the US invasion of Grenada. During the 1990s and 2000s, the nation's economy began shifting from agriculture to tourism under the leadership of Kenny Anthony. The 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001 killed two Saint Lucians, and caused an economic slowdown, although moderate growth continued until the Great Recession. The recession, as well as the landfall of Hurricane Tomas in 2010, led to slow economic growth during the early 2010s, although the economy picked up during the later part of the decade and avoided contraction until 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic caused major economic issues globally.
In June 2016, the United Workers Party (UWP), led by Allen Michael Chastanet, won 11 of the 17 seats in the general election, ousting the St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) of the incumbent Prime Minister Kenny Anthony. However, Saint Lucia Labour Party won the next election in July 2021, meaning its leader Philip J Pierre became the ninth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia since independence.
Geography.
Saint Lucia has a total area of 617 square kilometers (238 sq mi). As a volcanic island, Saint Lucia is very mountainous, with its highest point being Mount Gimie, at above sea level. The Pitons, two mountainous volcanic plugs, form the island's most famous landmark. Saint Lucia is also home to the world's only drive-in volcano, the Sulphur Springs. There are a number of small islands off the coast, the largest of which are the Maria Islands, located in the south-east of the island.
Saint Lucia lies at latitude 14° N and longitude 61° W. The population tends to be concentrated around the coast, with the interior more sparsely populated, due to the presence of dense forests.
Flora and fauna.
Many species are endemic to the island, including "Anolis luciae", a species of lizard, and "Boa orophias", a species of boid snake.
Ecoregions.
Saint Lucia has five terrestrial ecoregions: Windward Islands moist forests, Leeward Islands dry forests, Windward Islands dry forests, Windward Islands xeric scrub, and Lesser Antilles mangroves. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 6.17/10, ranking it 84th globally out of 172 countries.
Climate.
Saint Lucia has a tropical climate, specifically a tropical rainforest climate (Af), moderated by northeast trade winds, with a dry season from 1 December to 31 May, and a wet/rainy season from 1 June to 30 November.
Average daytime and nighttime temperatures are around , and respectively. Being fairly close to the equator, the island's temperature does not fluctuate much between winter and summer.
Geology.
The geology of St. Lucia can be described as composing three main areas. The oldest, 16–18 Ma, volcanic rocks are exposed from Castries northward and consist of eroded basalt and andesite centres. The middle, central highlands, portion of the island consists of dissected andesite centres, 10.4 to 1 Mya, while the lower southwest portion of the island contains recent activity from the Soufriere Volcanic Centre (SVC). This SVC, centred about the Qualibou depression, contains pyroclastic flow deposits, lava flows, domes, block and ash flow deposits, and explosion craters. This depression's perimeter includes the town of Soufriere, Mount Tabac, Mt. Gimie, Morne Bonin, and Gros Piton. At in diameter, though the western portion is open towards the Grenada basin, the depression formed as recently as 100 kya. The depression is noted for its geothermal activity, especially at Sulphur Springs and Soufrière Estates, a phreatic eruption in 1776, and recent seismic activity (2000–2001).
Eroded andesitic stratovolcanoes to the north east of the depression include Mt. Gimie, Piton St Esprit, and Mt. Grand Magazin, all greater than 1 Ma in age. Andesitic and dacite pyroclastic flows from these volcanoes are found at Morne Tabac dome (532 ka), Morne Bonin dome (273 kya), and Bellevue (264 kya). Avalanche deposits from the formation of the Qualibou depression are found offshore, and in the massive blocks of Rabot, Pleisance, and Coubaril. The dacitic domes of Petit Piton (109 kya) and Gros Piton (71 kya) were then extruded onto the depression floor accompanied by the Anse John (104 kya) and La Pointe (59.8 kya) pyroclastic flows. Later, pyroclastic flows include pumice-rich Belfond and Anse Noir (20 kya). Finally, the dacitic domes of Terre Blanche (15.3 kya) and Belfond (13.6 kya) formed within the depression.
Government.
Like most Caribbean countries, Saint Lucia is a unitary state with a parliamentary system. It is a Commonwealth realm and a constitutional monarchy, with the current monarch being Charles III, who is represented on the island by a governor-general, currently Errol Charles. The prime minister (currently Philip J. Pierre) is the head of government, the head of the cabinet, and is normally the leader of the largest party in the House of Assembly. The house has 17 seats, with each member being elected via a plurality of votes in their constituency. The upper chamber of Parliament is the Senate which has 11 appointed members, the majority of which are appointed by the prime minister.
Administrative divisions.
Saint Lucia is made up of 10 districts. The districts were created and named by French colonials, and the British chose to keep the names in an anglicised form. The largest district in both size and population is Castries, where the nation's capital of the same name is located. The following are the 10 districts placed in alphabetical order:
Law and crime.
Saint Lucia is a mixed jurisdiction, meaning that it has a legal system based in part on both the civil law and English common law. The Civil Code of St. Lucia of 1867 was based on the Quebec Civil Code of 1866, as supplemented by English common law-style legislation. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was Saint Lucia's final court of appeal until 2023, when a constitutional amendment transferred this to the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Saint Lucia's homicide rate has hit record highs in recent years. There were 75 homicides in 2021, a 34.5% increase compared with 55 homicides in 2020. 2021 saw the island record the most homicides in its history, and also its highest murder rate in its history, at 40 murders per 100,000 people.
Foreign relations.
Saint Lucia is a member of the Caribbean Community, OECS, the Organization of American States and La Francophonie. As a Commonwealth Realm, Saint Lucia has relatively friendly relations with United Kingdom and Canada. France is also a major ally, in part due to Saint Lucia's border with Martinique. The United States is the island's largest trading partner, and Saint Lucia was key to the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, and voted against condemning the invasion. Saint Lucia became the 152nd member of the United Nations on 18 September 1979.
Saint Lucia does not have a military although the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force has a Special Service Unit (SSU) and a Coast Guard. The island signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2018.
Economy.
Saint Lucia is a Small Island Developing State, a designation similar to a developing country with a few substantial differences due to Saint Lucia's island nature. The service sector is the largest sector of the economy, accounting for 86.9% of GDP in 2020, followed by industrial and agricultural sectors at 10.9% and 2.2%, respectively.
Saint Lucia has been able to attract foreign business and investment due to its educated workforce and improvements in roads, communications, water supply, sewerage, and port facilities. Like most small islands, Tourism and offshore banking are Saint Lucia's main sources of revenue. Agriculture, specifically the banana industry, was previously the largest sector of the economy, although its importance has declined significantly. The island's manufacturing sector has been called the most diverse in the Eastern Caribbean, with goods such as plastic being produced on a large scale.
Saint Lucia's currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (EC$), a regional currency shared among members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECU). The country's main trade partners are the US, UK, EU and other CARICOM countries.
Tourism.
Tourism is the largest contributor to Saint Lucia's economy. Tourist numbers tend to be more substantial during the dry season (January to April), often referred to as the tourist season. Saint Lucia's tropical weather, scenery, beaches and resorts have made it a popular tourist destination, with 1.29 million visitors arriving in 2019.
Some of Saint Lucia's tourist attractions include the Sulphur Springs, the Botanical Gardens, Pigeon Island and The Pitons.
Agriculture.
The agricultural sector was once the main contributor to Saint Lucia's economy. This was especially thanks to the exporting of bananas. However, its importance to the economy has declined significantly, in part due to increased competition from South American countries in the banana industry. Nevertheless, agriculture is still an important part of the country's economy, providing 7.9% of jobs and contributing to 2.2% of the GDP in 2021.
About 18% of land is used for agricultural practices. Bananas remain the main agricultural product grown in Saint Lucia, as well as coconuts, cocoa beans, mangoes, avocados, vegetables, citrus fruits, and root crops such as yams and sweet potatoes.
Saint Lucia also has a small livestock sector, which is dominated by poultry. The island is self-sufficient in egg production and production of poultry and pork has increased in recent years. Fishing has also been of considerable importance to the nation's economy.
Infrastructure.
Saint Lucia has a wide-ranging public bus network which covers most of the island. Busses are owned by private individuals, whilst the government is responsible for setting up routes and hubs. The road network covers most of the island, although some rural areas still lack access to proper roads.
The island has two airports, including one International airport. Cruising and yachting are very important to the country's economy, with the main sea port being located in Castries, while the main marina is located in Rodney Bay which is also home to the St. Lucia Yacht Club. Meanwhile, the nation's main oil refinery is located in Bexon.
The main source of electricity in Saint Lucia is oil through its sole power station, the Cul De Sac Power Station, although solar energy is also a major source. There have also been attempts to introduce geothermal and wind energy to the island.
Demographics.
A census is normally held in Saint Lucia every 10 years. In the 2010 census, Saint Lucia reported a population of 165,595 in 58,920 households. This was a 5.1% increase from the 157,490 recorded at the previous census in 2001. Ages 0–14 made up 24.1% of the population whilst those 65 and over made up 8.6%. Nearly 40% of the island's population lived in the District of Castries, where the nation's capital of the same name is located.
Saint Lucia had a fertility rate of 1.4 children per woman in 2021, the lowest in the Americas. This is much lower than in 1990, when the birth rate was 3.4 children per woman, and significantly lower than in 1959, when the birth rate peaked at 6.98 children per woman. Most emigration from Saint Lucia is primarily to Anglophone countries, with the United Kingdom having almost 10,000 Saint Lucian-born citizens, and over 30,000 of Saint Lucian heritage. The United States is home to many Saint Lucians, especially areas such as Miami and New York City. Canada is also home to many Saint Lucians, and especially in the French-speaking province of Quebec in the city of Montréal. The median age of Saint Lucians was 33.1 years in 2021.
Ethnic groups.
Saint Lucia was originally populated by Amerindian peoples. However, European colonisation led to a significant drop in the indigenous populations. Most residents of the island were white planters, but African slaves and indentured servants brought by the Europeans eventually came to outnumber them. Because of this, Saint Lucia's population is predominantly of African and mixed descent. As of 2010, 85.3% of the population are black and 10.9% are of multiracial descent. Other groups include Indo-Caribbean persons (2.2%), whites (0.6%), and Indigenous Persons (0.6%). A small number of Kalinago live in the Choiseul region and in other towns on the western coast. There is also a small population of Lebanese and Syrians.
Languages.
The official language of Saint Lucia is English, though Saint Lucian French Creole (Kwéyòl) is widely spoken. Referred to colloquially as "Patois" ("Patwa"), it is spoken by a majority of the population. It is a dialect of Antillean Creole and is also related to Haitian Creole, though it nonetheless has a number of distinctive features from the latter. The Creole language developed during the early period of French colonisation and is derived chiefly from French and West African languages. There have been some attempts to make the language official, but they have not yet been successful.
Religion.
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In the 2010 census, a majority of Saint Lucians identified as Christians. This can be traced back to the nation's colonization by French and British settlers. Due to heavy French influence, most Christians on the island are Catholics, with 62.5% of the island's residents identifying as such. 24.5% of the island's residents identify as Protestants. In addition, 1.9% of the population identified as members of the Rastafari movement and 1.4% of the population practice Hinduism. The number of residents claiming no religion stood at 5.9% in 2010.
There is no state religion in Saint Lucia. The nation's constitution guarantees freedom of religion and prohibits forcing persons to take oath to any religion in which they do not follow. Religious groups are also guaranteed the freedom to establish places of education.
Education.
Most primary and secondary schools in Saint Lucia are operated by the government. Education is free and compulsory for children aged five to fifteen. This includes seven years of primary school and three to five years of secondary school. In the last two years of secondary school, students are allowed to choose the subjects that they would like to do, in preparation for regional CSEC examinations. In 2020, public spending on education was at 3.6%.
Tertiary educational facilities on the island are normally private institutions. These include Monroe College and International American University. However, there are still a few public institutions, including the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and the University of the West Indies.
Healthcare.
Health services in Saint Lucia are split between the government and private institutions. The island is served by 2 public hospitals and multiple health centers, although most dental and vision services are private. Public expenditure on healthcare stood at 2.1% in 2019.
In 2021, life expectancy was at 71.1 years (67.8 for men and 74.7 for women). This was compared to 73.4 years in 2019. The drop in life expectancy was largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Culture.
The culture of Saint Lucia has been influenced by African, East Indian, French, and English heritage. The main secondary language of the island is Saint Lucian Creole (Kwéyòl), a French-based creole spoken by most of the population. The island boasts the highest ratio of Nobel laureates produced with respect to the total population of any sovereign country in the world. Two winners have come from Saint Lucia: Sir Arthur Lewis, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979, and the poet Derek Walcott, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
Saint Lucia has two flower festivals, the La Rose festival, celebrated on 30 August, and the La Marguerite festival, celebrated on 17 October. Every summer, the island hosts a carnival as a way to present the country's culture and music. Annually, there are normally many festivals, most of them being music related.
Music.
Saint Lucian music is heavily influenced by elements of African music, especially rhythmically. The most popular music genres in Saint Lucia are calypso, soca, dancehall, reggae, zouk, and folk music. Dennery Segment, a genre influenced by Angolan Kuduro, Saint Lucian Solo music and Dancehall was developed on the island. The internationally renowned Saint Lucia Jazz Festival is held annually, and the festival is a major source of revenue for the country's economy.
Food.
Saint Lucian cuisine is a mix of African, European, Indian and Caribbean dishes. Some common dishes include macaroni pie, stewed chicken, rice and peas, roti (Indian flatbreads) and soups packed full with fresh locally produced vegetables. All mainstream meat and poultry are eaten in St. Lucia; meat and seafood are normally stewed and browned to create a rich gravy sometimes served over "ground provisions" (vegetables) or rice. Johnny Cakes (known as bakes) are also common, and are served with different sides, such as saltfish. The national dish of Saint Lucia is green figs and saltfish.
Sports.
As with most Caribbean islands, cricket is the most popular sport in Saint Lucia. The Windward Islands cricket team includes players from Saint Lucia and plays in the West Indies regional tournament. Daren Sammy became the first Saint Lucian to represent the West Indies on his debut in 2007, and was made captain in 2010. The Saint Lucia Kings is a T20 franchise playing in the Caribbean Premier League based in this said island nation. Sailing is also a major sport in Saint Lucia, with the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) race beginning in the Canary Islands and ending on the island. Other sports that are popular on the island include football, basketball, tennis, golf and volleyball. Karate and boxing have also seen increased popularity in recent years.
Julien Alfred won the nation's first-ever Olympic medal, when she won the women's 100 meters event in 10.72 seconds at the 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris, France.
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Fond d'Or River
River of Saint Lucia
The Fond d'Or River is a river in Saint Lucia. It rises in the centre of the island, flowing north and then east to its mouth in Fond d'Or Bay, close to the village of Dennery on the central east coast.

East Bay Hills (Nova Scotia)
The East Bay Hills refer to a 'fault ridge' of ancient rock on the south side of the East Bay of the Bras d'Or Lake, located on Cape Breton Island, Canada, and are an extension of the Appalachian mountain chain. The East Bay Hills lie in Cape Breton County.
The East Bay Hills rise to little more than , forming low ridges in an otherwise lowland landscape. These hill are largely uninhabited (by humans), and include the highest elevation point on Cape Breton Island south of the Bras d'Or Lake at Sgurra Bhreac with a commanding view of the Mira area and Atlantic Ocean to the south.
Geology and landscape development.
The East Bay Hills are an elongated block of Precambrian rocks and is composed of two rock types: primarily volcanic deposits of the Fourchu Group (ash and lava interleaved with marine sediments), but also granites. They are elongated northeast–southwest in accordance with the same prevailing trend of faults which dominates the geological structures of the North Bras d'Or Uplands. The southeastern margins are also faulted, in this case bringing the resistant Precambrian strata against late Carboniferous sandstones and siltstones. On the northeastern side the contact is with easily eroded Carboniferous Windsor Group strata, which were deposited directly against the blocks when they stood as islands in the Carboniferous Sea.
In form and structure the relief and elevations of the East Bay Hills reflect not only their geological setting, surrounded by rocks of varying resistance, but also their position on the low side of the planation surface. Precambrian rocks of equivalent resistance have created dominant uplands further north in Cape Breton, but here, where there was little uplift during the Tertiary, there was also minimal rejuvenation of erosional action and limited exposure of this hard core of old rocks.
The steepest slopes are found on the northwest side of the East Bay Hills, where soft Windsor Group rocks form a narrow band along the shore. The valley of Breac Brook, at the north end of East Bay Hills, appears to be an ancient coastal valley which was filled by Windsor Group deposits and is now being exhumed. The fault line on the southeastern margin can be seen in some areas (e.g., northeast of Oban) but in general does not form a prominent scarp slope.
In this part of Cape Breton south of Bras d'Or Lake, glaciation more than geological structure appears to have influenced drainage patterns. South of East Bay Hills the glacial direction is strongly northeast–southwest, in this case parallel to the fault which defines their southern boundary.
Fresh water.
The East Bay Hills have relatively flat plateau-like crests which are poorly drained. Most streams are located on the margins and are aligned northeast, reflecting the glacial direction. The hills contains several lakes and a few scattered raised bogs.
Soils.
Heavily podzolized Thom soils with a thick iron humate B horizon cover most of the hills. They are associated with Arichat soils (poorly drained, mottled, sandy loams), found where the relief is gently undulating or depressional. There are also small areas of peat.
Plants.
These hills are somewhat lower than the North Bras d'Or Hills and shade-tolerant hardwoods, although present, are not dominant. The East Bay Hills support instead mixed stands of Red Maple, White Birch, Yellow Birch, American Beech, Balsam Fir, and White Spruce.
Animals.
There are few moose in this area. Deer are found on side slopes in winter yards. There are a large number of eagle nests in stream ravines.
Tourism.
The hills offer views north over Bras d'Or Lake, for example, where Highway 4 climbs above shore level near Irish Cove and Middle Cape. Ben Eoin Provincial Park lies along the north edge of the hills. The Ben Eoin Trail (1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi) return) starts at the Ben Eoin Provincial Picnic Park and leads to a well cleared look-off of solid ground and large flat stone on a ridge of the East Bay Hills with a panoramic view of the East Bay of the Bras d'Or Lake 165 metres (541 ft) below.
Cultural environment.
Small-scale farming is practised in some areas of the East Bay Hills. Fishing the waters of the Bras d'Or Lake and sporadic forestry have been economic activities in the past. Much of this area is now cottage country, and tourism plays a significant role in the local economy. In the early 1900s the mineral springs at Glengarry in Irish Cove were well known for their perceived healing properties, which drew local people as well as distant travellers.
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Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Abitibi-Témiscamingue () is an administrative region located in western Québec, Canada, along the border with Ontario. It became part of the province in 1898. It has a land area of and its population was 147,082 people as of the 2021 census. The region is divided into five regional county municipalities (French: "municipalité régionale de comté", or MRC) and 79 municipalities. Its economy continues to be dominated by resource extraction industries. These include logging and mining all along the rich geologic Cadillac Fault between Val-d


Gracie (film)
2007 film by Davis Guggenheim
Gracie is a 2007 American sports drama film directed by Davis Guggenheim. It stars Carly Schroeder as Gracie Bowen, Dermot Mulroney as Bryan Bowen, Elisabeth Shue as Lindsay Bowen, Jesse Lee Soffer as Johnny Bowen, and Andrew Shue as Coach Owen Clark.
"Gracie" takes place in New Jersey in 1978, before 1972's Title IX had taken much effect in women's college sports and when organized women's soccer was still very rare in the United States. Gracie, the film's central protagonist, overcomes the loss of her brother by convincing her family and school to allow her to play varsity soccer on an all-boys team. The story is partially based on the childhood experiences of Elisabeth Shue, who was one of the producers in addition to being the wife of Davis Guggenheim, the director, as well as a cast member.
The novelization of "Gracie", written by Suzanne Weyn, was released in June 2007.
Plot.
In the year 1978, Gracie Bowen, a 15-year-old tomboy who lives in South Orange, New Jersey, is crazy about soccer, as are her three brothers and their former soccer star father. Although Gracie wants to join her brothers and neighbor Kyle in the nightly practices her father runs, she is discouraged by everyone except her older brother, Johnny.
Johnny, Gracie and Kyle attend Columbia High School, where Johnny is the captain and star player for the varsity soccer team. After missing a shot at the end of a game, the despondent Johnny drives off with a friend's car and dies in a traffic accident.
Struggling with grief, Gracie decides that she wants to replace her brother on the team. Her father does not believe that girls should play soccer, telling her she is neither tough nor talented enough. Her mother is a nurse who lacks the competitive drive of the rest of her family and fears for Gracie's safety. Her mother later tells Gracie that she would have liked to become a surgeon, but that option had not been available to her as a woman.
Rejected and depressed, Gracie begins to rebel; she stops doing her schoolwork, is caught cheating on an exam, and experiments with wild and self-destructive behavior. She is finally caught by her father almost having sex with a guy she met near the docks after telling her friend, "I want to do something that I've never done before." This serves as a wake-up call for her parents, particularly her father. He quits his job to work with her on her soccer training.
When the school board rejects her request to play boys' soccer, Gracie files an appeal. Citing the newly passed Title IX, Gracie argues that since a girls' soccer team does not exist, she should be allowed to play on the boys' varsity soccer team. The school board allows her to try out for the team. After a very rough tryout, she makes the junior varsity team and has to decide if she is willing to settle for playing at that level. She decides to make the most of playing on junior varsity.
One of the coaches asks her to come up to the main team for their championship game. After saying no at first she finally goes. Gracie watches from the bench as the game goes to sudden death overtime. New captain Kyle gets hurt and Gracie goes in for him, scoring the winning goal with a move that her dad taught her.
Cast.
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>*Carly Schroeder as Grace Bowen
Historical background.
The premise of the film rests upon the conflicting expectations of two different American generations. As Gracie's parents were most likely both products of what is now referred to as the "Silent Generation" of children born during the Great Depression and World War II, they would have been raised to adhere to traditional gender roles. This would have included discouraging a girl from participating in "boys' sports" such as soccer, as opposed to "girls' sports" such as cheerleading or gymnastics. Gracie, on the other hand, came of age during the 1970s, when new and controversial ideas about gender were being introduced.
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, critic for the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," noted an additional generation gap between those in the film and those in the audience, many of whom grew up with the United States women's national soccer team (which played its first game in 1985) as a reality:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />Not so long ago – 1978, actually – girls were not treated equally with boys when it came to school sports ... what happens in "Gracie" must seem like a tale from the Dark Ages to today's young athletes, something akin to slaying a dragon or housekeeping for seven dwarfs. But think of it this way: In 1978, future gold medalist and World Cup star Mia Hamm was only 6 years old.
Other critics have also noted the multiple generation gaps. Kevin Cahillane observes in the "New York Times" that, "this being 1978 (before Title IX turned a generation of girls from onlookers into athletes), her desire goes against the wishes of the coach, the principal, the other players and her heartbroken parents." In another article for the "New York Times," Jeannette Catsoulis further argues that, "[Gracie] is accustomed to having her abilities overlooked ... When tragedy strikes, and Grace channels her grief into a resolution to play on the all-male varsity team, even her best friend is horrified. As everyone knows, only lesbians play soccer."
The film closes with the following remarks: "Thanks to Title IX and brave girls like Gracie, there are over 5 million girls who play soccer in America. Since 1991 the U.S. Women's National team has won Soccer's World Championships four times." (FIFA Women's World Cup Champions 1991, 1999, 2015, and 2019)
Production.
Development and casting.
The film is loosely based on life events concerning the Shue family. Former "Melrose Place" star Andrew Shue, who developed the film, was one of its producers, and acted a supporting role in the film, initially conceived of it as a story about his late brother William, the oldest Shue sibling, who was the captain of the Columbia High School soccer team that won the New Jersey state championship in 1978; he had died in an accident in 1988. As Andrew developed the idea with his brother-in-law Davis Guggenheim, the director of "An Inconvenient Truth," the storyline began to shift towards Guggenheim's wife, Elisabeth Shue, Andrew's older sister. She became the model for Gracie, and William became the model for Johnny. As Andrew Shue noted in an interview:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />... It was going to be about my older brother, originally. It was really Davis, my sister's husband, who pointed out to me that my sister was the real underdog in our family. I didn't know the emotional turmoil of a girl in an all-boys family trying to get some credit for the fact that she had this courage to play with boys. She has gone from being a girl who was scared, to being this brave girl who could stand up and play with boys, and [went] into acting before any of us and inspired all of us in many ways. So I wanted to celebrate her and her journey.
This refers to Elisabeth Shue's own decision in 1972, at the age of nine, to play soccer on an all-boys team, making her the first girl in the South Orange and Maplewood areas of New Jersey to do so. Shue explained her reason for doing so in a 2007 interview. "There was no other choice back then," she pointed out to the interviewer. "There was no girls team to play on." Shue continued to play on the team until 1976, when she turned 13. Of her decision to leave the team, Shue stated, "the movie is really what would have happened if I hadn't quit [playing soccer]. I quit because of what people would think of me. The pressure from the boys. The awkward development of my body. I really, really regret it. I wish I'd been brave enough."
Andrew, Elizabeth, their brother John (who was also a producer on the film), and Guggenheim then engaged in an extensive search to find the right actress for the role of fifteen-year-old Gracie; they promoted the search on the website "findinggracie.com." The role eventually went to athlete-actress Carly Schroeder. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat argue that Schroeder "puts in a stellar performance as the teenager who becomes a warrior when most of her peers are cheering from the sidelines."
Filming took partial place at Columbia High School, both the setting of the events of the film and the actual high school the Shue family members had attended. Filming also took place in various locations in South Plainfield, New Jersey.
Andrew Shue chose to honor his former Dartmouth and Columbia High School teammate Chris Colasanti by naming the story's coach after him. Colasanti, who had been the captain of Columbia's 1985 state championship team, was killed in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
Reception.
Reviews.
"At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper" gave "Gracie" "Two Thumbs up", stating, "You've seen it before, but you'll rarely see it better." "Gracie" is a "New York Times Critics' Pick." Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis described "Gracie" as "a familiar underdog story told with unusual sensitivity ... "Gracie" connects the adversity-drama dots – the beat-down, the bounce-back, the last-minute support from an unexpected quarter – with a subtle awareness of the shock waves of bereavement. Balancing the emotional complexity is Chris Manley's refreshingly unaffected cinematography; the drama of a free kick, like that of a good movie, is best viewed through a steady lens." Bill Zwecker, of the "Chicago Sun-Times," stated, "It's a sweet and uplifting film, and though quite predictable, gives us a family drama that showcases simple truths about overcoming seemingly impossible odds and leaves you with a warm and very satisfying feeling deep down. It's a solid, hopeful and inspiring story that reminds us of what we might call 'old-fashioned' values about perseverance and making your dreams come true. Old-fashioned? Not at all."
Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" argued that "in 1978, a high school girl playing competitive soccer wasn't just novel – it was barely heard of. This amiable rouser, based on the experiences of Elisabeth Shue and her family, tries to convey how gutsy and role-smashing it is for ... Gracie to cleat her way onto an all-boys soccer team. So why is Gracie as processed as an after-school special? You miss the knockabout edge of "Bend It Like Beckham" – though the ending, in its Pavlovian sports-flick way, pumps you up." Scott Tobias of "The A.V. Club" suggested that "though "Gracie" fashions Shue's story into ready-made inspirational formula, it's nonetheless vivid in its particulars, from the looks and sounds of late-'70s New Jersey to the portrait of a soccer-driven family reformed by loss." Lael Loewenstein of the "Los Angeles Times" stated that "Gracie" is "an earnest, well-acted, poignant drama that nevertheless runs afoul of sports movie clichés."
The film received a 62% rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The consensus reads, "Gracie can be rousing and touching in spots, but is ultimately undone by its predictable story arc and a lack of nuance."
Box office.
On a budget of $9 million, the limited release film made about $4 million at the box office and over $3 million in rentals.
Soundtrack.
The soundtrack contains a number of popular classic rock songs, many of which are from the year 1978.
Songs included in the CD.
The CD was released in 2007 by Lakeshore Records.
Soundtrack.
Lakeshore Records also released a CD of the film's score, composed by Mark Isham.
References.
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Davis Guggenheim
American film and television director and producer
Philip Davis Guggenheim is an American screenwriter, director, and producer.
Active in television and film's directions and productions since the 1990s, from 2006 Guggenheim has specialized in making documentaries, ranking the top 100 highest-grossing documentaries of all time with three works: "An Inconvenient Truth", "It Might Get Loud", and "Waiting for "Superman"."
Guggenheim's cinematographic projects received several awards and nominations, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film for "An Inconvenient Truth", the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Documentary Feature for "He Named Me Malala" and two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program.
His credits include "NYPD Blue", "ER", "24", "Alias", "The Shield", "Deadwood", and the documentaries "It Might Get Loud", "The Road We've Traveled", "Waiting for "Superman"", "".
Early life.
Philip Davis Guggenheim was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Marion Davis (née Streett) and filmmaker Charles Guggenheim. His father was Jewish, whereas his mother was Episcopalian. He graduated from the Potomac School, Sidwell Friends School and Brown University.
Career.
Guggenheim joined the HBO Western drama "Deadwood" as a producer and director for the first season in 2004. The series was created by David Milch and focused on a growing town in the American West. Guggenheim directed the episodes "Deep Water", "Reconnoitering the Rim", "Plague" and "Sold Under Sin". He left the show at the end of Season 1.
The documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" was produced and directed by Davis Guggenheim. "An Inconvenient Truth" won the Academy Award in 2007 for Best Documentary Feature. The film, released in 2006, featured former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and his international slideshow on global warming.
Then-candidate Barack Obama's biographical film, which aired during the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, was directed by Guggenheim. Their infomercial, which was broadcast two months later, on October 29, 2008, was "executed with high standards of cinematography", according to "The New York Times". In 2012, he released "The Road We've Traveled", a 17-minute short film on the president.
Guggenheim directed and was an executive producer of the 2009 pilot for "Melrose Place".
In 2008, he released "It Might Get Loud", a documentary that glimpses into the lives of guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White.
Guggenheim's 2010 documentary "Waiting for "Superman"", a film about the failures of American public education sparked controversy and debate. Guggenheim knew his film would lead to this and said, "I know people will say this movie is anti-this or pro-that. But it really is all about families trying to find great schools". This film received the Audience Award for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Its public release was in September 2010.
A documentary film about the band U2 directed by Guggenheim titled "From the Sky Down" opened the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival in September.
In 2013, he directed "The Dream is Now", a 30-minute documentary about four undocumented students in the United States as they deal with the U.S. immigration system.
In 2015, he directed a documentary film "He Named Me Malala" about Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by Taliban gunmen, shot in the head and left wounded.
In 2019, he created and directed a documentary miniseries titled "". The series explores the mind and motivations behind the captain of industry and philanthropist Bill Gates, the rise of Microsoft, and the past and current pursuits of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2020, Guggenheim and Jonathan King launched production company Concordia Studio.
In 2023, the documentary "", directed by Guggenheim, was released on Apple TV+. Featuring read excerpts from Michael J. Fox's own books, the biopic stars Fox himself as both interviewee and narrator, recounting his career and experience contending with Parkinson's disease. The feature received seven Emmy Nominations.
Personal life.
Guggenheim married actress Elisabeth Shue in 1994. They have three children together. He is the first cousin of actress Patty Guggenheim.
References.
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Rorion Gracie
Brazilian martial artist
Rorion Gracie (; born January 10, 1952) is a Brazilian-born Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Grand Master, a prominent member of the Gracie family, writer, publisher, producer, lecturer, lawyer and the co-founder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is the oldest son of Hélio Gracie and one of the few people in the world to hold a 9th degree red belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and is widely recognized as one of the men responsible for introducing Gracie/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the United States and the world.
Early life and education.
Rorion started Jiu-Jitsu at a young age, doing demonstrations and classes. He spent his youth learning how to teach under the tutelage of his father, Grand Master Hélio Gracie. In December 1969, he travelled to the United States for a vacation returning to Brazil in the end of 1970. He attended the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, graduating with a degree in Law.
Career.
In 1978, Rorion Gracie moved to Southern California where he worked as an extra in movies and television. Attempting to spread Jiu-Jitsu culture, he laid some mats in his garage in Hermosa Beach and invited people he met to try the sport. In 1985, Rorion invited his 18-year-old brother, Royce, to move to America.
In America, Rorion and his brothers continued the tradition of Gracie Challenge, where they would invite fighters from different martial arts in order to challenge them in a no-rules Vale Tudo match in order to promote Gracie Jiu-Jitsu as the superior martial art, and to get new students to join them.
Rorion was a technical adviser for the 1987 movie "Lethal Weapon" providing training to actors Mel Gibson and Gary Busey. The director Richard Donner wanted Gibson's character to have a unique style of fighting never seen onscreen before with the second assistant director Willie Simmons, who was interested in unusual forms of martial arts, choosing BJJ and two other martial arts styles to use in the movie.
In 1988, Rorion produced the documentary "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu In Action", the documentary contains footage of fights using jiu-jitsu, especially from Gracie Challenge and Vale Tudo fights. In 1989, Rorion with brothers Royce, Rickson and Royler, opened the first Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Torrance, California. In 1991, he produced "The Basics of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu", a five volume training video series together with a special edition volume.
Rorion was also a technical advisor, a fight scene choreographer for "Lethal Weapon 3" in 1992, providing training to Rene Russo together with martial artist Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon and a Karate instructor. The Karate instructor immediately went on to rehearse spectacular ura-mawashi high kicks, which resulted in Russo pulled groin muscles the very first day, and was so frustrated with learning the technique, that Richard Donner asked Gracie not only to teach her, but also to attend the film set for filming sequence as a technical advisor. Gracie was so proficient and pliable in an uke role, that Russo refused to do the throw with whoever else excluding Gracie, and insisted him to step into the action as a stuntman for a fight scene.
In 1993, inspired by countless exhibition matches termed the "Gracie Challenge", a tradition that started with his uncle and Gracie jiu-jitsu co-founder Carlos Gracie, Rorion teamed with promoter and business executive Art Davie in the creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Davie had always dreamed of an inter-discipline contest, pitting various martial arts against one another to determine the most effective. Rorion was only interested in showcasing his father's style, and demonstrating its dominance. Through this pay-per-view spectacle, he hoped to show that, in a "no time limit - no rules" setting, Gracie jiu-jitsu was the only system of self-defense that would give someone a realistic chance of defeating a larger, more athletic adversary. Davie recruited seven martial artists of different styles to participate in a single-elimination tournament. Rorion enlisted his brother Royce to represent the family style in the competition. Due to his smaller frame and relatively low body weight, Royce was the smallest competitor, making an excellent example of the powers of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
In 1994, following UFC, a small group of high-ranking military personnel, from the most elite unit in the US Army Special Operations Forces, contacted Rorion and asked him to develop an objective hand-to-hand combat course based on the most effective techniques of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. The result was the Gracie Combatives military course that was taught to US Special Operations Forces, conventional US military units and the CIA. In January 2002, the techniques were the foundation of the official US Army Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP). The Gracie Resisting Attack Procedures for Law Enforcement (GRAPLE) was also concurrently developed with the combatives course, following a similar request from law enforcement for a defensive tactics training course, that was adopted by virtually all US law enforcement. The two courses were later merged to create the Gracie Survival Tactics (GST), a combative and defensive tactics course, for both military and law enforcement.
Personal life.
He is the father of martial artist Rener Gracie.
Documentary.
On July 6, 2023, it was announced that ESPN Films is producing a documentary series on the Gracie family directed by Chris Fuller and produced by Greg O'Connor and Guy Ritchie.
Books.
Rorion wrote and published the book "The Gracie Diet" in 2010.
Awards and honors.
"Black Belt Magazine" named Rorion Gracie the 2006 Instructor of the Year.
Instructor lineage.
Kano Jigoro → Tomita Tsunejiro → Mitsuyo "Count Koma" Maeda → Carlos Gracie → Helio Gracie → Rorion Gracie
References.
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James J. Higginson
American stockbroker and surgeon (1836–1911)
James Jackson Higginson (June 19, 1836 – November 11, 1911) was an American stockbroker and soldier who was imprisoned at Libby Prison for nine months during the Civil War.
Early life.
Higginson was born in New York City on June 19, 1836. He was a son of Boston merchant George Higginson and Mary Cabot (née Lee) Higginson. He was a brother of George Higginson, Jr., Henry Lee Higginson (who married a daughter of professor Louis Agassiz and founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Mary "Molly" (née Higginson) Blake (wife of Samuel Parkman Blake) and Francis Lee Higginson, Sr. (whose daughter Barbara married banker Barrett Wendell Jr.).
His maternal grandparents were Henry Lee and Mary (née Jackson) Lee. His paternal grandparents were George Higginson and Martha Hubbard (née Babcock) Higginson. He was also a cousin of historian Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Higginson graduated from Harvard University with the class of 1857 and then studied law in Berlin but returned to the United States before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Career.
After the War, he started his career as a stockbroker and continued working until his retirement and the sale of his seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1892. He worked for Lee, Higginson & Co., which had been founded by his father and John Clarke Lee in Boston in 1848.
He served as a vice president and a director of the Nome-Montana-New Mexico Mining Company, a trustee of the Greenwich Savings Bank, and a director of the Atchinson and Eastern Bridge Company. He was also a founding trustees of the Metropolitan Trust Company in 1881.
Military service.
During the U.S. Civil War, he entered service for the Union Army as a Second Lieutenant of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment. He was imprisoned at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia for nine months. A month after his release, he was brevetted a Major of Volunteers on April 9, 1863, but resigned his commission about a month later.
Personal life.
Higginson was married to Margaret Bethune Gracie (b. 1846), a daughter of Archibald Gracie Jr. and Elizabeth Davidson (née Bethune) Gracie. Margaret was a granddaughter of Archibald Gracie and a sister of Confederate Gen. Archibald Gracie III and James King Gracie (who married Anna Louisa Bulloch, sister of Martha Bulloch Roosevelt). Together, they were the parents of two sons and three daughters, including:
He was a president of the Eye and Ear Infirmary, president of the Harvard Club, and a member of the Century Association, the City Club, the University Club and the Riding Club.
Higginson died of pneumonia at 16 East 41st Street, his residence in New York City, on November 11, 1911.
References.
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Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
American activist and author (born 1940s)
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (born October 25, 1946), often referred to as Miss Major, is an American author, activist, and community organizer for transgender rights. She has participated in activism and community organizing for a range of causes, and served as the first executive director for the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project.
Griffin-Gracy has contributed to oral history collections, including "Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex", "The Stonewall Reader", and "The Stonewall Generation: LGBT Elders on Sex, Activism, and Aging". Her memoir, "Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary", was released by Verso Books in 2023.
Biography.
Chicago.
Griffin-Gracy was born in Chicago in the 1940s, and assigned male at birth. She was raised on the South Side of Chicago, while her father worked for the post office and her mother managed a beauty shop. She has said after she came out to her parents around age 12 or 13, they responded by enrolling her in psychiatric treatment and taking her to church.
Griffin-Gracy came out in Chicago as trans in the late 1950s, and has described drag balls at the time as places where "You had to keep your eyes open, had to watch your back, but you learned how to deal with that [...] We didn't know at the time that we were questioning our gender. We just knew it felt right." She has also described the influence of Christine Jorgensen, who became well known in the 1950s for having gender-affirming surgery; according to Griffin-Gracy, "After Christine Jorgensen got her sex change, all of a sudden there was a black market of hormones out there," and she was familiar with how to obtain illicit hormones in Chicago.
Griffin-Gracy has said she was expelled from college for having feminine clothes, and she lost her home with her parents after they refused to accept her gender. She has described working as a showgirl at the Jewel Box Revue in Chicago and New York, and how she developed her name to add "Griffin" to honor her mother. She has also discussed how becoming a sex worker provided the steadiest available income. She recalls that after an incarceration in a psychiatric facility in lieu of jail in Chicago, she moved to New York.
New York.
In a 2014 interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Griffin-Gracy said that after moving to New York City, she found the Stonewall Inn "provided us transwomen with a nice place for social connection" and that few gay bars otherwise allowed entry to trans women at the time. She has said she was a regular patron of the Stonewall, and that she was there on the first night of the 1969 Stonewall rebellion. Police raids were common for LGBT bars, and Griffin-Gracy has said, "This one night, though, everybody decided this time we weren't going to leave the bar. And shit just hit the fan."
Griffin-Gracy has described the impact of the death in 1970 of her friend Puppy, a trans woman who was determined by authorities to have died by suicide while Griffin-Gracy strongly suspected she was murdered by a client. She has said, "Puppy’s murder made me aware that we were not safe or untouchable and that if someone does touch us, no one gives a shit. We only have each other. We always knew this, but now we needed to take a step towards doing something about it. [...] We girls decided that whenever we got into a car with someone, another girl would write down as much information as possible. We would try not to just lean into the car window but get a guy to walk outside the car so that everyone could see him, so we all knew who he was if she didn’t come back. That's how it started. Since no one was going to do it for us, we had to do it for ourselves." She has described this as the start of her activism.
Griffin-Gracy has also discussed her years of experience in prison and her experience on parole, including after Stonewall, when she received a five-year sentence following a robbery arrest. She has described Frank "Big Black" Smith, a leader of the Attica Correctional Facility riots of 1971, as a mentor, after meeting him while incarcerated at the Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora. She says he encouraged her to learn about African-American history and politics, organizing, and the prison industrial complex. She has recalled being released from prison around 1974.
Over twenty years, Griffin-Gracy also experienced homelessness, received welfare, and mostly found hormones through the black market.
California.
Griffin-Gracy began work in community services after moving to San Diego in 1978. She worked at a food bank and then in direct community services for trans women. Her work expanded into home health care during the AIDS epidemic in the United States. In the 1990s, Griffin-Gracy moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and worked with multiple HIV/AIDS organizations, including the City of Refuge in San Francisco and the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center.
In 2004, Griffin-Gracy began working at the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), shortly after it was founded by Alex Lee. She became the executive director of the organization, which is focused on providing support services to transgender, gender variant, and intersex people in prison. Her work included visiting trans women and men in California prisons to help coordinate access to legal and social services, and testimony at the California State Assembly and United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva about human rights violations in prisons.
While she was the executive director, she gave an interview to Jayden Donahue that was published in "Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex", and described in a review by Arlen Katen in the "Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice" as "bluntly and powerfully stat[ing] that being trans* is an extension of the prison-industrial complex; even if not all trans* people end up in prison, their gender identities are constantly policed through other social and state mechanisms."
In an interview with Jessica Stern published in a 2011 "Scholar and Feminist Online" article, Griffin-Gracy described a sense of exclusion from the broader LGBT movement, described by Stern as for "herself and others, especially transgender people who are low-income, people of color, or have criminal records." In 2013, she was part of a campaign to revise wording on a Stonewall commemorative plaque; she advocated for "inclusive language to honor the sacrifice we as trans women displayed by taking back our power." In 2014, when she was honored as a community grand marshal for the San Francisco Pride Parade, she said, "We're finally getting some recognition. I'm proud it finally happened and I'm alive to see it because a lot of my girlfriends haven't made it this far. I'm trying to get as many girls as possible together at the parade so people can see we're a force to be reckoned with; we're not going anywhere."
Arkansas.
Griffin-Gracy moved to Little Rock, Arkansas after visiting the city for a screening of "MAJOR!", the 2015 documentary about her. She developed a property she initially called the House of GG into an informal retreat center for trans people. The property includes a guest house, pool, hot tub, merry-go-round, various gardens, and over 80 palm trees. In 2023, she renamed the property to Tilifi, an acronym for Telling It Like It Fuckin' Is.
Documentaries.
A documentary titled "Major!" was released in 2015 and portrays Griffin-Gracy's role as an activist and mentor in the transgender community since the 1960s.
Griffin-Gracy was also the subject of the 2016 film "Personal Things", by Tourmaline. She is an executive producer for the 2021 docu-series "Trans in Trumpland".
"Miss Major Speaks".
In May 2023, Verso Books published "Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary", a memoir composed of interviews with Griffin-Gracy by journalist Toshio Meronek. Meronek is Griffin-Gracy's former assistant and also wrote a biographical overview of her for the book. In the memoir Griffin-Gracy reflects on her early life, education, experience as a sex worker, the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, incarcerations, knowing Frank "Big Black" Smith as a mentor, and her years of activism and community organizing, including during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, as well as her work as the director of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP).
In a review for "Gender & Development", Haley McEwen writes, "Beyond an opportunity to learn about the life of a leader and elder in the Black transgender community through vivid personal accounts of activism and survival, listening to Miss Major speak is to subvert systems that have worked to erase and silence Black transgender women throughout history and in present reality." According to Vic Parsons in "Huck", "Miss Major has herself has been a crucial source of hope and support to many trans people. [...] In some ways, this book is a new version of the community building and emotional support that is Miss Major’s life’s work."
"Miss Major Speaks" was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.
Personal life.
Griffin-Gracy has five sons. Her eldest son was born in 1978, and she later adopted three more sons. In January 2021, Griffin-Gracy and her partner announced the birth of their son.
References.
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The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show cast list

"The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show", was an American situation comedy television series that ran for 2