Norman Manley Museum

 In his last public address to an annual conference of the PNP, Norman Manley declare:

"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."

Norman Manley

"Among the things I will always remember is Norman Manley's towering intellect, his passion for selfless service, his energy which was boundless, and his enduring stamina."

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, and was awarded the Military Medal (M.M.).

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. 

Norman Manley Museum, Jamaica

 Manley founded the left-wing People's National Party, which later was tied to the Trade Union Congress and the National Workers Union.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.