Norman Manley

The Right Excellent Norman Washington Manley
2nd Chief Minister of Jamaica
In office 1955–1962
Preceded by	Alexander Bustamante
Succeeded by	Alexander Bustamante
Personal details
Born	(1893-07-04)4 July 1893 Roxborough, Manchester, Manchester, Jamaica
Died	2 September 1969(1969-09-02) (aged 76) Kingston, Jamaica
Nationality	Jamaica
Political party	People's National Party
Spouse(s)	Edna Manley
Profession	Lawyer

Norman Washington Manley MM QC National Hero of Jamaica (4 July 1893 – 2 September 1969), was a Jamaican statesman. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. With his cousin, Alexander Bustamante, Manley was an advocate of universal suffrage, which was granted by Parliament to the colony in 1944.

Together with Bustamante, in 1938 he founded the left-wing People's National Party^{[citation needed]} which later was tied to the Trade Union Congress and the National Workers Union. He led the PNP in every election from 1944 to 1967.^{[citation needed]} Their efforts resulted in the New Constitution of 1944, granting full adult suffrage, previously limited to .

Manley served as the colony's Chief Minister from 1955 to 1959, and as Premier from 1959 to 1962. He was a proponent of the island's participation in the Federation of the West Indies but bowed to pressure to hold a referendum on the issue in 1961. Voters chose to have Jamaica withdraw from the union.

Biography

Norman Washington Manley was born to mixed-race parents in Roxborough in Jamaica's Manchester parish, on 4 July 1893. His father Thomas Albert Samuel Manley, the out-of-wedlock son of a former slave and an English merchant from Yorkshire, worked as an agricultural businessman; he sold Jamaican spices and fruit to the United States. Norman Manley's mother, Margaret Shearer, was the daughter of a mixed-race woman and her ethnic Irish husband, a pen-keeper.

Manley was a brilliant scholar, soldier and athlete, and studied law at Jesus College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He served in the Royal Field Artillery during World War I.

Return to Jamaica

After the war, Manley returned to Jamaica and served as a barrister.

During the labour troubles of 1938, in the years of the Great Depression, he identified with the workers, donating his time and advocacy to assist them. That year, Manley founded the left-wing People's National Party^{[citation needed]}, which later was tied to the Trade Union Congress and the National Workers Union. The PNP supported the trade union movement, then led by his cousin Alexander Bustamante. At the same time, Manley worked for universal adult suffrage.

After suffrage was approved in 1944, Manley had to wait ten years and two terms before his party was elected to office. He was a strong advocate of the Federation of the West Indies, established in 1958. When Sir Alexander Bustamante declared that the opposition Jamaica Labour Party would take Jamaica out of the Federation, Manley, already renowned for his commitment to democracy, called for a referendum, unprecedented in Jamaica, to let the people decide.

The vote was decidedly against Jamaica’s continued membership in the Federation. Manley, after arranging Jamaica’s orderly withdrawal from the union, set up a joint committee to decide on a constitution for separate independence for Jamaica. He chaired the committee and led the team that negotiated independence.

Achievements

As premier, Manley renegotiated a government contract with bauxite companies, leading to a sixfold increase in revenue. His government also set the dominant economic agenda for the future in Jamaica by establishing numerous statutory boards, government bodies, and quasi-government authorities to regulate and play an active role in industry.

Later years

Manley lost the next election to the JLP. He gave his last years of service as Leader of the Opposition, establishing definitively the role of the parliamentary opposition in a developing nation. In his last public address to an annual conference of the PNP, he said:

"I say that the mission of my generation was to win self-government for Jamaica. To win political power which is the final power for the black masses of my country from which I spring. I am proud to stand here today and say to you who fought that fight with me, say it with gladness and pride: Mission accomplished for my generation."

He added:

"And what is the mission of this generation?… It is…reconstructing the social and economic society and life of Jamaica."

^{[citation needed]}

Due to respiratory illness, Manley retired from politics on his birthday in 1969. He died later that year, on 2 September 1969. His tomb was designed by the critically acclaimed Jamaican sculptor, Christopher Gonzalez.

Marriage and family

As a young man, he married his cousin Edna Manley (1 March 1900 – 2 February 1987) in 1921. They had several children together. Their second son, Michael Manley, went into politics and rose to become the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica

Manley was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Manley's speech entitled, To Unite in a Common Battle was delivered in 1945 at the fraternity's Thirty-first General Convention in Chicago, Illinois. [1]

Legacy and honors

Shortly before his death, Manley and Bustamente were proclaimed National Heroes of Jamaica, joining the black nationalist Marcus Garvey, nineteenth-century rebel Paul Bogle, and nineteenth-century politician George William Gordon.

External links

• Norman Manley at Find A Grave

Bibliography

• Ranston, Jackie, Lawyer Manley: Vol. 1 First Time Up, University of the West Indies Press, 1999, ISBN 976-640-082-2

Preceded by Sir Alexander Bustamante

Chief Minister of Jamaica 1955-1962

Succeeded by Sir Alexander Bustamante (Position renamed to Prime Minister of Jamaica)