Bernie Grant; Among First Nonwhite Members of Parliament

Bernie Grant, 56, an outspoken native of Guyana who was among the first nonwhites to sit in British Parliament. A member of the governing Labor Party, Grant became the first black to head a municipal council, leading the north London borough of Haringey for three years. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1987, part of a group of black and Asian politicians who were the first nonwhites to win seats in 65 years. He emigrated from Guyana, a former British colony on South America’s northeast coast, in 1963. He burst into national prominence in 1985 when a police officer was killed during rioting in the Tottenham area of Haringey. Grant accused the predominantly white police force of sparking the violence. He insisted that he was not seeking to justify the killing but simply explaining how other blacks felt. But Home Secretary Douglas Hurd branded him “a high priest of race conflict.” In his maiden speech to Parliament, Grant said that unless young blacks were offered better prospects, “they will find other means of expressing their frustration.” On Saturday in London of a heart attack.