The pioneering woman who transformed gender equality during the Grenada Revolution and paid the ultimate price
Phyllis Coard was much more than the “only woman among the Grenada 17” – a label that reduced her revolutionary legacy to a single tragic moment. She was the architect of unprecedented advances in women’s rights in the Caribbean, a visionary who helped transform a small island nation into a beacon of gender equality before her life was forever altered by the tumultuous events of October 1983.
Early life and formative years
Born Phyllis Evans on November 2, 1943, in Jamaica, she came from a brown-skin middle-class family despite modest circumstances, and had connections to Jamaica’s business elite – her uncle, Ken Evans, founded the renowned Tia Maria coffee liqueur company. Her father worked as an accountant while her mother held a clerical position, and though the family lived comfortably, they were far from wealthy in Jamaica’s complex colour and class hierarchy.
Phyllis’s journey toward revolutionary activism began in England, where she met Bernard Coard while both were students. They married in 1967 during their time at university – Bernard was studying political economy at the University of Sussex while Phyllis pursued her own academic interests. Both joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, laying the ideological foundation for their future revolutionary work.
Partnership in revolutionary thought
The couple’s intellectual partnership became evident early on when Phyllis assisted Bernard in writing his groundbreaking 1971 publication, “How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System: The Scandal of the Black Child in Schools in Britain.” This seminal work exposed systemic racism in British education. It led to the development of the supplementary school movement among African-Caribbean parents. This legacy continues to influence educational activism today.
After working as teachers in London and running youth organisations in South London, the Coards travelled throughout Latin America and the Caribbean before taking teaching positions at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago and later Jamaica, where Phyllis taught sociology. During this period, they started their family with daughters Sola (born 1971) and Abiola (born 1972), with son Neto arriving in 1979. The Coards moved to Grenada in 1974.
Building the foundation for women’s liberation
In December 1977, two years before the revolution, Phyllis became one of the founders of the National Women’s Committee of the New Jewel Movement (NJM). Working alongside fellow organisers, including Claudette Pitt, Faye Thompson, Tessa Stroud, Scotilda Noel, Gail Francis, Edlyn Lambert, Maureen Cuffey, Catherine James, Meryl Wyse, Maureen St Bernard, and Rita Joseph, she began laying the groundwork for what would become a transformative women’s movement.
This early organising was crucial, as women in Grenada under Eric Gairy’s rule were treated as second-class citizens with limited rights and opportunities. The women’s committee of the NJM represented a deliberate effort to ensure that any future revolutionary government would prioritise gender equality from its inception.
Revolutionary leadership and achievements
When the New Jewel Movement successfully overthrew Eric Gairy’s government on 13 March 1979, Phyllis Coard was positioned to lead one of the most comprehensive women’s liberation programs in Caribbean history. As Minister for Women’s Affairs in the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG), she became the driving force behind the National Women’s Organisation (NWO), which grew from a handful of members and six groups to over 10,000 members across 30 groups nationwide – representing nearly half of all adult women in Grenada.
The scope of her achievements during the four-and-a-half-year revolution was remarkable:
Legal and policy reforms:
- Secured equal pay legislation for women
- Established maternity leave in law
- Introduced People’s Laws to strengthen the rights of women and children
- Advanced comprehensive childcare programs
Economic empowerment:
- Mobilised women’s cooperatives across the island
- Encouraged women’s involvement in non-traditional occupations, including driving heavy construction equipment
- Established the River Road Day Care nursery as part of the NJM’s “Economic Enterprises of the People” program
Social and educational programs:
- Provided free school meals and free milk for children
- Promoted political education for women
- Brought more women into leadership positions outside the home
- Encouraged greater respect for women within relationships and families
Media and communications:
- Served as Deputy Minister of Information
- Led Radio Free Grenada’s development, bringing in seasoned media professionals for training
- Revived and helped develop the Free West Indian newspaper
- Organised systematic journalism training programs
International recognition and solidarity
Phyllis’s work extended beyond Grenada’s borders. In 1981, she successfully applied for and secured Grenada’s admission to the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) at its 8th congress in Prague. With a membership of 200 million women across 161 countries, WIDF was dedicated to championing women’s rights and campaigning for peace and democracy. As Grenada’s representative, Phyllis elevated the island’s women’s movement to the international stage, sharing experiences and learning from women’s liberation movements worldwide.
The revolution’s tragic end and its aftermath
The promise of the Grenada Revolution came to a devastating halt in October 1983. Following internal political conflicts within the NJM leadership, Maurice Bishop and seven others were killed on 19 October 1983. Six days later, the United States launched “Operation Urgent Fury,” invading Grenada and overthrowing the revolutionary government.
Phyllis Coard, along with 16 other leaders of the NJM, was arrested and charged with the murder of Maurice Bishop and his associates. As the only woman among the “Grenada 17,” she faced particularly brutal treatment from the invading forces and their Caribbean allies, including beatings and denial of basic hygiene products.
A flawed trial and international condemnation
The trial of the Grenada 17, conducted between 1985 and 1987, has been widely criticised by international legal authorities. The court was described as “unconstitutional in structure” and “highly prejudiced.” Key concerns included:
- The court operated as a “court of necessity”, with judges hired and paid by the United States
- The selection of the jury was highly irregular
- Most documentary evidence seized by US forces was never made available to the defence
- The trial failed to meet international human rights standards
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, in a 1997 affidavit, stated that “from my review of the record, there was no credible evidence that the members of the Central Committee of the New Jewel Movement ever ordered or even had the opportunity to order the murders of which they were found guilty.”
Amnesty International condemned the proceedings in their report “The Grenada 17: The Last of the Cold War Prisoners?” noting that the trial did not meet international norms. Tellingly, the written judgment was never produced by the hired judges.
Prison years and survival
Initially sentenced to death, Phyllis’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1991. She endured 17 years in prison under terrible conditions, including extended periods of solitary confinement, torture, and denial of medical care. As the only woman prisoner, she faced unique hardships and was subjected to what many described as a systematic psychological campaign designed to break her spirit.
During her imprisonment, she was kept in what visitors described as “a tiny cage placed within a cell” and denied sanitary products and other basic necessities. Despite these conditions, she maintained her dignity and continued to advocate for women’s rights even from behind bars.
Release and final years
In March 2000, Phyllis was released on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with colon cancer, requiring urgent medical treatment. The New National Party government of Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell granted her release for medical care abroad, though she never returned to Grenada.
She spent her final years in Jamaica with her husband Bernard, who was released from prison in September 2009 after serving 26 years. During this period, she wrote her memoir, “Unchained: A Caribbean Woman’s Journey Through Invasion, Incarceration and Liberation,” providing her own account of the revolution, invasion, and imprisonment.
A legacy beyond the headlines
Phyllis Coard died on 6 September 2020, at age 76, in a Kingston hospital, with Bernard by her side. Tributes poured in from around the world, celebrating not just her survival of unimaginable hardships but her lasting contributions to women’s rights in the Caribbean.
Professor Anne Hickling-Hudson of the Queensland University of Technology wrote: “My schoolfriend Phyllis was more than a friend, a wife, a mother and a sister. She was a distinguished Jamaican woman who fought for the rights of women and children in the Caribbean.”
Her friend Lambert Brown noted: “She was a powerful presence and was part of the founding of the National Organisation for Women in Grenada… She was hard-working and dedicated to the advancement of Caribbean women and children.”
Enduring impact
The women’s programs Phyllis Coard helped establish during the Grenada Revolution created lasting change that continues to benefit Grenadian women decades later. The legal frameworks for equal pay and maternity leave, the cooperative movement, and the culture of women’s political participation all trace their roots to her revolutionary work.
In a message sent to a London commemoration event in 2019, shortly before her death, Phyllis reflected on this legacy: “Despite the US invasion of Grenada, many Grenadian women still possess the skills, confidence and pride they acquired during the revolution. Today, we must maintain solidarity with women all over the world.”
Historical perspective
Phyllis Coard’s story represents both the promise and tragedy of the Grenada Revolution. In just four and a half years, she helped create one of the most progressive women’s rights programs in the Caribbean, demonstrating what was possible when women’s liberation was made a central priority of revolutionary change.
Her life also illustrates the human cost of Cold War politics, as the United States’ determination to stop socialist influence in the Caribbean led to the destruction of these progressive programs and the imprisonment of their architects. The controversial nature of her trial and conviction continues to raise questions about justice and the true story behind the end of the Grenada Revolution.
As Caribbean societies continue to grapple with gender inequality, violence against women, and economic marginalisation, Phyllis Coard’s vision of comprehensive women’s liberation remains remarkably relevant. Her belief that revolutionary change must include the transformation of women’s status in society offers important lessons for contemporary social movements.
Phyllis Coard was ultimately a woman who refused to accept the status quo, who believed in the possibility of fundamental social transformation, and who paid dearly for those convictions. Her legacy challenges us to remember that behind every political upheaval are individuals who believed deeply enough in change to risk everything for it.
In her own words from her final message to supporters: “It is up to women – and conscious men – to assist both our sisters and our brothers, to make a world that works for everyone!” This remains her enduring call to action, echoing across the decades from a small Caribbean island that briefly dared to reimagine what was possible for women and society as a whole.
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