28 Facts About Norman Manley

Norman Manley was an advocate of universal suffrage, which was granted by the British colonial government to the colony in 1944.

Norman Manley led the PNP in every election from 1944 to 1967.

Norman Manley served as the colony's Chief Minister from 1955 to 1959, and as Premier from 1959 to 1962.

Norman Manley was a proponent of self-government but was persuaded to join nine other British colonies in the Caribbean territories in a Federation of the West Indies but called a referendum on the issue in 1961.

Norman Manley then opted to call a general election even though his five-year mandate was barely halfway through.

Norman Manley was born to mixed-race parents in Roxborough in Jamaica's Manchester Parish.

Norman Manley's father, Thomas Albert Samuel Manley was a small businessman born in Porus, Manchester, Jamaica in 1852.

Samuel Norman Manley later married Esther Anderson Stone, a black woman of St Elizabeth.

Thomas Norman Manley was initially successful in citrus farming, but soon squandered his earnings through litigious activities.

Once he died in 1899, Margaret Norman Manley moved her family of four children to the Belmont estate, near Spanish Town.

Norman Manley later won a full scholarship and studied at Jamaica College where he won six medals in the Jamaican schoolboy championships in 1911, including the 100 yards in 10 seconds, an island schoolboy record not broken until 1952.

Norman Manley arrived in the UK shortly after World War I had begun, and visited a number of relatives, including his white cousin, Edna Norman Manley.

Norman Manley had won the Rhodes, nearly died of typhoid, had a hundred yards record which was a world record for a schoolboy.

Norman Manley served as Assistant Secretary of the Caribbean Labour Congress from 1945 to 1946 and Assistant Secretary from 1947 to 1953.

Norman Manley was appointed Jamaica's first premier on 14 August 1959.

Norman Manley's government set the dominant economic agenda for the future in Jamaica by establishing statutory boards, government bodies, and quasi-government authorities to regulate and play an active role in industry.

The Norman Manley Government showed that it meant business by passing a Land Bonds Law that gave powers for the compulsory acquisition of land and provided the means for compensation.

Norman Manley was a strong advocate of the Federation of the West Indies as a means of propelling Jamaica into self-government.

When Bustamante declared that the opposition JLP would take Jamaica out of the Federation, Norman Manley, already renowned for his commitment to democracy, called for a referendum, unprecedented in Jamaica, to let the people decide.

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.

Norman Manley chaired the committee and led the team that negotiated independence.

Norman Manley took Jamaica to the polls in April 1962, to secure a mandate for the island's independence.

Norman Manley gave his last years of service as Leader of the Opposition, establishing definitively the role of the parliamentary opposition in a developing nation.

Norman Manley died later that year, on 2 September 1969.

Norman Manley's tomb was designed by the critically acclaimed Jamaican sculptor, Christopher Gonzalez.

The elder son, Douglas Norman Manley, became a university lecturer, politician and government minister.

Norman 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.

Norman Manley, being the former Premier and Chief Minister of Jamaica, can be seen on the Jamaican Five Dollar Coin, being portrayed as the country's national hero.