Norman Manley - Biography

Biography

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

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, and afterwards returned to Jamaica to serve as a barrister. He identified with the workers at the time of the labour troubles of 1938, donating his time and advocacy to assist them.

Manley and the PNP supported the trade union movement, then led by Alexander Bustamante, while leading the demand for universal adult suffrage. When Suffrage came, 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, but when Sir Alexander Bustamante declared that opposition Jamaica Labour Party would take Jamaica out of the Federation, Norman Manley, already renowned for his integrity and commitment to democracy, called a referendum, unprecedented in Jamaica, to let the people decide.

The vote was decidedly against Jamaica’s continued membership of the Federation. Norman 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 himself chaired the committee with great distinction and then led the team that negotiated Jamaica's independence from Britain.

The issue settled, Manley again went to the people. He lost the ensuing election to the JLP and 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".

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

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.

Shortly before his death he was proclaimed a National Hero of Jamaica, along with Bustamante, to join the black nationalist Marcus Garvey, nineteenth century rebel Paul Bogle, and nineteenth century politician George William Gordon. Due to respiratory illness, Manley retired from politics on his birthday in 1969, and he died later that year, on 2 September 1969. His tomb was decorated by critically acclaimed Jamaican sculptor, Christopher Gonzalez.

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 fraternty's Thirty-first General Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

He married his cousin Edna Manley (1 March 1900 – 2 February 1987) in 1921. His second son, Michael Manley, went on to become the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica