32 Facts About Maurice Bishop

Maurice Rupert Bishop was born on 29 May 1944 on the island of Aruba, then a colony of the Netherlands as part of the Territory of Curacao.

Until the age of six, Maurice Bishop was raised in Aruba with two older sisters, Ann and Maureen.

Maurice Bishop was sent to study at the Wesleyan elementary school, but after a year Maurice Bishop was transferred to the Roman Catholic St George primary and high school.

Maurice Bishop was already quite tall at age nine and was teased because his height made him look much older.

Maurice Bishop was elected president of the Student Council, of the Discussion Club, and of the History Study Group, along with editing the newspaper Student Voice and participating in sports.

Maurice Bishop was an ardent supporter of the West Indies Federation, established in 1958, and the ideas of Caribbean nationalism.

In 1962, Maurice Bishop graduated with a Principal's Gold Medal for "outstanding academic and overall ability".

In 1966, Maurice Bishop received a Bachelor of Law degree at Gray's Inn in London.

Maurice Bishop often worked in the city as a postman or vegetable packer.

In 1964, Maurice Bishop participated in the UK's West Indian Standing Conference and Campaign Against Racial Discrimination.

Maurice Bishop visited socialist Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic.

Maurice Bishop was particularly impressed by Julius Nyerere's Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism and the Arusha Declaration of 1967.

From 1967 to 1969, Maurice Bishop worked on his thesis, "Constitutional Development of Grenada".

Maurice Bishop was arrested along with 30 other strike supporters.

In 1972, Maurice Bishop helped organize a conference in Martinique that strategized actions for liberation movements.

The philosophy of Julius Nyerere and his Tanzanian socialism were guiding elements for the Movement for Assemblies of the People, which Maurice Bishop helped organize after the elections of 1972.

Nine people, including Maurice Bishop, were captured, arrested and beaten "almost to the point of death" by Belmar's police aides and by the paramilitary Mongoose Gang.

Maurice Bishop joined a mass demonstration against Prime Minister Gairy on 21 January 1974.

On 6 February 1974, the day before the proclamation of the independent state of Grenada, Maurice Bishop was arrested on charges of plotting an armed anti-government conspiracy.

Two days later, Maurice Bishop was released on $125 bail, and fled briefly to North America.

In 1976, Maurice Bishop was elected to represent St George's South-East in Parliament.

Maurice Bishop travelled there with Unison Whiteman as leaders of the NJM and guests of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with People.

In 1979 Maurice Bishop's party staged a revolution and deposed Gairy, who was out of the country addressing the United Nations.

Maurice Bishop became Prime Minister of Grenada and suspended the constitution.

Maurice Bishop initiated a number of projects in Grenada, most significantly, the building of a new international airport on the island's southern tip.

Maurice Bishop has been quoted at length on the dynamics of democracy:.

Maurice Bishop therefore revived the old project of constructing "Grenada's first proper international airport" and asked his friend Fidel Castro for help.

Maurice Bishop defended his country's revolution, comparing it to the American Revolution and Emancipation Proclamation, and then spoke of "the continued economic subservience of the developing world, of the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government in Chile, and the brutal Contra interventions against the Sandinistas".

Maurice Bishop considered the matter for a couple of weeks, but ultimately rejected the proposal.

The protesters numbered as high as 30,000 on an island of 100,000, and even some of Maurice Bishop's guards joined the protests.

Angela emigrated to Toronto, Canada with both children in 1981 while Maurice Bishop was still prime minister.

Maurice Bishop fathered a son, Vladimir Lenin Creft-Bishop, with his longtime partner Jacqueline Creft, who was Grenada's Minister of Education.