Patrick John

The second Important Historical Figure in Dominica we would like to introduce to readers was Patrick Roland John. He was Dominica's first prime minister. He was the head of the Waterfront and Allied Workers' Union and was responsible for Dominica's independence from the UK. Prior to being elected to the assembly in 1970, he served as mayor of Roseau.

John took over as Dominica's prime minister in 1974 following the resignation of Edward O. LeBlanc. The Labor-led administration of John established the Dominica National Development & Trade Bank and cleared Roseau, the island's capital, of many slums to make way for contemporary housing developments like Bath Estate and River Estate. John's administration also started the Dominican Social Security program and developed a new deepwater harbor at Fond Cole. The murder of numerous visitors in the middle of the 1970s and the advent of the black power movement, however, caused differences to widen in Dominica. John widened the scope of the rule such that it even outlined appropriate clothes. Then he clarified that revolutionary organizations would not be accepted. One of the most chaotic eras in Dominican history is thought to have occurred during his tenure as Prime Minister and Prime Minister. Patrick John is in charge of the Forbidden and Unwanted Society Act, sometimes known as the "Fear Act," which was created in 1974 and intended to stop the widespread criminal activity among young Dominicans.

John tried, with the support of white nationalist organizations, to topple Prime Minister Eugenia Charles' administration in 1981 when widespread protests forced him to quit (in what became dubbed "Operation Red Dog"). He was sentenced to twelve years in prison, five of which he served. John passed away at the age of 83 on July 6, 2021, in Roseau, Dominica, at the Dominica China Friendship Hospital.