[2] Maureen Warner-Lewis writes that the fact that "Lazare appropriated, or condoned the use of, an overtly African designation....was a symbol of his identification with black people and the poor.
He was a defender of their rights, joined the Pan-African Association founded in 1901 in England by fellow Trinidadian Henry Sylvester Williams, and became a moving spirit behind democratic political reforms at the turn of the twentieth century.
[8] Very successful in his law career, Lazare wanted to make a wider contribution to his country and to encourage racial pride among his people.
He became involved in local politics, and played a leading role in the campaign against Crown Colony government that culminated in the 1903 Water Riots in Port of Spain in 1903.
[2] In 1947, in protest about the treatment of black people in Bermuda, parliamentarian and civil-rights activist Dr Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon changed his name to "Mazumbo", saying that this new name derived from "a famous West African chieftain, who had once been received by Queen Victoria".