The month of June has been declared National Caribbean-American Heritage Month. Let's take a look at a notable Caribbean figure—Sir W. Arthur Lewis.

Lewis's Achievements

• First Black person appointed to an academic post at the London School of Economics
• First Black professor at the University of Manchester
• Served as economic adviser to Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the newly independent nation of Ghana
• First Black person to serve as vice chancellor at the University of the West Indies
• First Black person to be a full professor at Princeton University
• First and still the only Black Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences

Perhaps one of the greatest honors on earth is the international acclaim received from winning a Nobel Prize. Awarded since 1901 and currently covering six categories, there have been approximately 962 Nobel Prize winners. Recently I decided to investigate the number of Nobel laureates from Africa or its diaspora. I learned that 16 of the 962 were Black Nobel laureates. These recipients fall into three categories:  peace, literature, and economic sciences. There were multiple laureates in the categories of peace and literature but only one in the category of economic sciences. Who was this outlier in this group? It was West Indian Economist Sir William Arthur Lewis. I wanted to further explore the life of W. Arthur Lewis.

Early Life

W. Arthur Lewis was born on January 23, 1915 in the verdant West Indian colonial outpost of St. Lucia (the birthplace of two laureates including literary great Derek Walcott also born on January 23 fifteen years later). The island of St. Lucia is world renowned for its beauty, particularly its towering Pitons, but life for a Black boy born in 1915 on this idyllic isle would probably be one of hard labor.

Careers of the mind (academic or white collar careers) were highly unlikely for citizens of far flung British colonial outposts, that was certainly true for the majority of British West Indians. Following emancipation in 1838 there was a small rising class, many of whom were teachers, like Lewis's parents, but the general path for an island resident was hard labor either in agriculture or other forms of manual labor. The islands overflowed with nature's bounty: bananas, sugarcane (perhaps the primary reason for colonizing the isles) and much more. However, there were few opportunities for advancement beyond the cane fields.

W. Arthur Lewis became a shining star of the British West Indies. He was a sickly child who was taken out of school due to an ailment. Lewis, the son of two teachers, would be homeschooled by his father. His father did such a stupendous job that upon reentry to school young Lewis was advanced two grades.

Lewis excelled at his studies which assured his path to tertiary education. It was an arduous journey that one took to earn a university admission. In that era you had to earn a scholarship to a university, usually in Britain. Since he was a student who skipped two grades, Lewis naturally graduated early, but as a result had to wait two years to sit the exam that would lead to a scholarship. In the interim he took a job with St. Lucia's Department of Agriculture.

Finally, in 1932 Lewis won the coveted scholarship by successfully passing the London Matriculation Examination. This scholarship covered all undergraduate fees at any university in the United Kingdom (Mosley and Ingham 2013, 9). Lewis chose the London School of Economics.

Life in England

Lewis dreamed of becoming an engineer, but in those days under the Union Jack it was highly unlikely that a Black man could pursue a career in that field. He entered the London School of Economics in 1933 with the intention of earning a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Lewis, Nobel bio.). Economics, a field new to him, was a required course for the degree.

As expected, Lewis excelled at his studies and graduated with high honors. He searched for employment in a variety of places such as the renowned magazineThe Economist and at Britain’s Colonial Office where he hoped to secure a position in the West Indies. Unfortunately, his efforts did not bear fruit. Only The Economist offered an explanation as to why he was refused a position. “They said that they could not hire a black journalist since he would have to interview people who might refuse to see him because of his color” (Tignor 2006, 19).  In spite of these disappointments, his alma mater was so impressed with his exemplary academic performance that they recommended him for a PhD.  

While pursuing his PhD, the staff at the London School of Economics offered Lewis an opportunity that would be one of the many “firsts” in his life. The institution extended an opportunity to join the faculty. He would be the first Black man hired for an academic post at the London School of Economics. The school cautiously offered a one-year deal as an assistant in the economics department and wouldn't allow him to take on any student advisement. Lewis excelled in the position, so this one-year deal was followed up with a four-year contract and a promotion. His duties expanded to include advisement and it was quickly revealed that his color, as previously feared, was not a deterrent to the students. In fact, he was quite popular.

It was during those years that Lewis planted the seeds for what would later be known as development economics. Lewis’s interests lay in the plight of his far flung home and the persistent economic hardship that plagued his region of the world as well as the solutions and paths taken by developing nations to improve their  economic situation. Coincidentally, similar interests were held by many of the students—many of them from less developed countries. He offered his first course in Colonial Economics in 1943-44 (Tignor 2006, 22) and continued to climb the academic ladder.

In addition to his work in academia, Lewis consulted for the Colonial Office which afforded him an opportunity to better grasp the economic situation of Britain’s numerous far flung economically challenged colonies. Much of the consulting work would provide the data for the growing subfield of development economics and his many published works.

In 1947, Lewis was appointed to an academic post at the University of Manchester. The following year he was appointed a full professor and remained with the university until 1957. During his tenure at the University of Manchester, Lewis was most prolific. He produced numerous publications on economics including his highly praised work, published in 1954, “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour.”This article was key to his Nobel Prize nomination 25 years later.

In "Unlimited Supplies of Labor": 

“Lewis started from a premise that most noneconomists accepted without question. The poor countries of Asia and the Caribbean were characterized by two separate and distinct economic sectors—a traditional agrarian sector and a capitalist industrialist sector. The agrarian or traditional sectors were burdened by a large pool of surplus or redundant workers who contributed little or nothing to output. Indeed, in some cases, their output was thought to be negative. This situation of stagnation, however, had a silver lining since workers could move out of this sector with no loss of agricultural output and at near subsistence rates into the modern sector, turning the latter into an engine of economic change. Critical to this process of labor transfer were the activities of a nascent entrepreneurial class or an emergent interventionist state, so long as both groups were capable of recognizing the opportunities that an ‘unlimited supply of cheap rural labor’ created for rapid industrialization (Tignor 2006, 82)".

Lewis’s knowledge in the field of economics and the foundation he laid for the newly created subfield of development economics made him an internationally known development expert.

Side Note: Lewis as Activist

While teaching at the University of Manchester, W. Arthur Lewis took note of the impoverished post war Manchester community that was within view of the university. Many West Indians were immigrating from their homelands to the UK at this time and they often ended up in communities like the neighborhood Lewis observed.

This new wave of immigrants coming to fill positions in a post war labor boom were dealing with housing issues, were largely unskilled, and unaware of welfare benefits available to them. In response to those needs, Lewis took on the role of activist in Manchester. He believed in mass education as a key to development, so within this community he carried out a plan to launch programs that would improve the lot of Manchester’s residents.

Lewis, with the help of others, created a space that would address the diverse needs of the community. The first community space that opened was called the South Hulme Evening Centre. The center offered training in “English language, arithmetic, music, art, handicrafts, needlecrafts, physical training, folk dancing and ballroom dancing (Mosley and Ingham 2013, 124)." A second institution was formed and named the Community House Social Centre. Lewis joined the board, serving as Vice President. Though there were many challenges along the way, the Afro-Caribbean community over a period of time experienced an increase in real earnings (Mosley and Ingham 2013, 136).

The Newly Independent Ghana, 1957-1958: Economic Theories Put to the Test

The next chapter of Lewis’s life led him to the continent of Africa, where he would serve as chief economic adviser to the newly independent nation of Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). He was personally recruited by the president of this new nation, Kwame Nkrumah, who had worked with him previously on a short term project in 1952. Nkrumah needed the counsel of the now highly regarded and respected economist, W. Arthur Lewis, to lead the new nation on the correct economic path.

This opportunity allowed Lewis to put his economic theories into practice and also introduced him to the political and economic challenges of a new nation. This, along with other projects he took throughout the years, would provide him with experience in public affairs.

West Indies: First Black Vice Chancellor for the University of the West Indies, 1959-1963

Lewis continued to explore new paths. After decades in academia as a professor with a stint as economic advisor to Ghana and consultant to the British Colonial office, he accepted a post as an academic administrator. He would serve in his home region at long last as the principal and ultimately as vice chancellor for the University College of the West Indies based in Jamaica. The university was on the verge of becoming a wholly independent institution severing ties from the University of London.

He took the position at a time when the British colonies of the Caribbean embarked on a journey for full nationhood as the multi-state Federation of the West Indies. Lewis wholeheartedly supported federation as he thought it would be vital for the economic prosperity of the islands and the survival of the university.

Securing adequate financing for the university from the disparate states was one of many challenges he faced as he simultaneously championed the federation, meeting with various heads of state during his tenure as vice chancellor.   Unfortunately, the federation did not survive, but he was successful in securing the needed finances for the university, launching it on an independent path and overseeing the university's  expansion to the nations of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

Princeton University, Caribbean Development Bank, and the Noble Prize in Economic Sciences

Lewis’s intention to leave the University of the West Indies was known to Princeton University which recruited him to join the Woodrow Wilson School. His experience both as an academic and in government/public affairs appealed to the recruiters. At this point Lewis was well known as the father of development economics, so in 1963 he became the first Black full professor of economics at Princeton, where he  remained for over 20 years. Within those years he left for four years to establish the Caribbean Development Bank.

His research during much of the '70s explored Economic History, particularly between 1870-1913. Lewis theorized that at that point in history the world divided into rich and poor nations.

It was in that decade that Lewis was recommended for consideration for a Nobel Prize for his work on development economics. Several of his writings were cited by the Nobel committee including: his 1954 article “Unlimited Supplies of Labour,” The Theory of Economic Growth, Aspects of Tropical Trade, and Growth and Fluctuations, 1870-1913.

In 1979, Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences—an award he shared with economist Theodore Schulz from the University of Chicago. Lewis retired from Princeton in 1983. Although he vowed to do “nothing” in retirement, he split his time between his Caribbean home and the home he and his wife owned in Princeton. Lewis continued to give classes on development at least until the late '80s and in the islands he participated in organizations or presented at affairs that he deemed worthy.

Lewis died at his home in Barbados on June 15, 1991. 

The tremendous output of Dr. W. Arthur Lewis can be found in collections of The New York Public Library and our partner institutions. 

References

• Mosley, Paul and Barbara Ingham. Sir Arthur Lewis:  A Biography. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
• Sir Arthur Lewis -- Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2021. Accessed May 24, 2021. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1979/lewis/biographical/>
• Tignor, Robert L. W. Arthur Lewis and the Birth of Development Economics. Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 2006.

Works by Lewis in The New York Public Library Catalog

Works about Lewis in The New York Public Library Catalog

Other Sources

• Barry, Ellen. "How Kamala Harris's Immigrant Parents Found a Home, and Each Other, In a Black Study Group."The New York Times, September 13, 2020.  Note: This article mentions Lewis's role in the academic path taken by a future West Indian economist Donald Harris.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/13/us/kamala-harris-parents.html
• Binder, Sarah M. "Legacy of Nobel Laureate Sir W. Arthur Lewis Commemorated at Robertson Hall." Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, April 19, 2018.  Note: School name changed in 2020. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2018/04/19/legacy-nobel-laureate-sir-w-arthur-lewis-commemorated-robertson-hall
• University of the West Indies. "The UCWI/UWI Timeline: First West Indian Principal and Later First Vice-Chancellor - October 1, 1959." Accessed May 31, 2021. https://uwi.edu/timeline/