The Rt. Excellent Norman Washington
Norman Washington Manley MM QC National Hero of Jamaica was born in Manchester, Jamaica on July 4th, 1893. He was a Rhodes Scholar and athlete, and became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley identified himself with the struggle of workers in the labour troubles of 1938 and took on the challenge to fight for their cause. Along with his cousin Alexander Bustamante, Manley was an advocate of the Universal Adult Suffrage that was granted in 1944.
In September 1938, Manley founded the People’s National Party (PNP) which was tied to the trade union movement then led by Alexander Bustamante. Norman Manley led the PNP until his retirement in 1969.
Norman Manley was also a strong advocate of the Federation of the West Indies that was established in 1958. When Sir Alexander Bustamante and the Jamaica Labour Party, in opposition, declared that they would take Jamaica out of the Federation, Manley called a referendum. The vote was 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.
Manley lost the following general election to the JLP. He spent his last years in politics 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".
