Jamaican History February 2004

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Jamaican History February 2004

Link to the site of

Jamaicans for Justice

Today is:

Click here for my newest site - Jamaican History February 2007

. . . I also started a site in 2005, but finished less than half of it; what is there may be worth a look!

FEBRUARY 2005

'Tomorrow people, where is your past?
Tomorrow people, how long will you last?'

Click here for the music of 'Tomorrow People' by Ziggy Marley and the Melodymakers.

Click here for the words of 'Tomorrow People' by Ziggy Marley and the Melodymakers.

I hope this site will be helpful in making the people I have written about better known to today's Jamaicans, and to others interested in Jamaican history.

Joy Lumsden.

A note on some of the people featured on this site:

Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Vol 1 page 102

[report of UNIA meeting Collegiate Hall January 12 1915]

An important item of the evening’s agenda was the election of the following gentlemen as representative menof the race whose biography and autobiographies are to be used as requested by persons in America, for publication in the historical works of Dr. William Ferris, M.A. of Yale University, entitled “The African Abroad or His Evolution in Western Civilization.” All Western Negro communities have submitted names of the worthy men of their countries, and the association was asked to make a selection.

After a lengthy nomination the following gentlemen were elected by fairly large majorities, except in two cases where the casting vote decided the election: Mr. Hector Josephs, K.C. representative of the law; Dr. J. Robert Love, M.D., JP., (deceased) representative of literature and oratory; Rev. T. Gordon Somers, religion; Mr. Charles P. Lazarus, mechanics; Dr. J. J. Edwards, medicine;Hon. David Corinaldi, politics;Mr. Walter B. Parker (deceased) journalism; Mr. B. de C. Reid, music.

Daily Gleaner 1915 January 14

I have been working for some time on biographical accounts of Gordon Somers, Corinaldi and Reid; I have been able to do some work on Walter Benjamin Parker in the Gleaner archives. I hope all these men, with many others, will be included in a forthcoming publication.

WEEK 1

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

In medical professions:

In school and church:

In law and politics:

In various careers:

Dr J J Edwards

Mr Matthew Joseph

Mr H M Spencer Joseph

Mr C P Lazarus

Dr R M Stimpson

Mr T B Stephenson

Mr H A Josephs

Miss Adeline McDermott

Dr E E Clark

Mr A L Walcott

Mr Philip Stern

Mr W A Stephenson

Dr E C Kinkead

Mrs W A Burris

Mr A A Fleming

Mr B M Clark

Dr Cicely Williams

Rev E E Brown

Mr W Kelly Smith

Mr Ernest Clarke

Dr A E Forsyth

Rev I N D Gordon

Mr J M Gordon

Mr George Goode

Mr A F Berry

Rev Augustus Cole

Mr Alexander Dixon

Mr T Ellis Jackson

The Primrose Cricket Club

Note re use of terms:
In Jamaica at the period during which the people shown on this site were living it was usual to describe people who were, or appeared to be, of pure African ancestry as Black; those of mixed 'ethnic/racial' ancestry as Coloured; those who were apparently of European ancestry as White (qualified as 'Jamaican White' if their ancestry was probably not entirely European). Also in the population there were Jews, 'East Indians' from India (not Indonesia), Syrians/Lebanese and Chinese.
One of the problems of research in this period is that of identifying the 'ethnicity/racial origins' of people mentioned in the sources; then it was not considered polite or proper to mention colour or 'race' in most public situations; surnames are also of little help as, for instance, a person with the surname 'Williams' could be equally well English, Welsh, African, Chinese or Indian in origin, and surnames which were clearly Jewish in origin could also belong to Black, White and Coloured Jamaicans.
Robert Love was a great help in this regard as he used colour terms, especially Black and White, without any inhibitions, since he wanted people to be proud of their colour. The other factor that helped with identification of 'ethnic/racial origins' was the increasing use of photographs in the press as the first decade of the 20th century progressed.

I am happy to share my research with you, but if you choose to use any material from this site, please acknowledge the site as your source. Thank you. The URL is http://www.joyousjam.info/jamaicanhistoryfebruary2004/

This is a strictly non-profit site. No copyright infringement is intended. If there are any questions or concerns, please contact me at joyousjam@jamaica.la

Joy Lumsden

Sunday, February 1st, 2004

Joseph Robert Love

Journalist Orator Patriot

He Loved Justice

(On his tombstone, formerly in the St Andrew Parish Churchyard - destroyed by vandals.)

Dr. J. Robert Love: clergyman, doctor, politician, author, journalist, patriot.

Early life:

Joseph Robert Love was born in Nassau, Bahamas, in either 1835 or 1839, of pure African ancestry. He grew up in Grant's Town, in the community of St. Agnes' Anglican Church. From the late 1860s until 1881 he lived in the United States, where he was ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1871, and priest in 1877. In 1880 he graduated as a doctor from the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo, probably the school's first Black graduate. From 1881 to 1890 Love was based in Port-au-Prince where he worked as an Episcopal missionary and doctor, and latterly became deeply involved in Haitian politics.

[University of Buffalo Timeline]

Robert Love in Jamaica:

In 1890 Robert Love settled in Kingston, as a refugee from extreme political danger in Haiti. While at first he hoped to return to Haiti, he gradually became more and more involved in Jamaican politics. From 1894 to 1905 he edited the weekly paper the Jamaica Advocate as the voice of Black Jamaicans; he worked for the election of Black candidates to the Legislative Council (Alexander Dixon was the first in 1899); he was elected to the Kingston City Council, and in 1906 to the Legislative Council; he established the 'People's Convention' in 1898 to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of 'Full Freedom', and it met annually until 1903. He was the most significant figure in Jamaican politics between 1890 and 1910. He established a great reputation as a public speaker and was involved in almost all major public events and activities in the period. He died in November 1914, still active as a member of the St Andrew Parochial Board until a month before his death. Marcus Garvey acknowledged his debt to the ideas of Robert Love.

__________________

Robert Love in the 1880s

Click on the photo above to see

the first page of a web site on

Robert Love which I hope to

continue working on this summer.

Bookmark the URL and

check back from time to

time to see if I am

making any progress!

Further information on Dr J Robert Love can be found in Six Great Jamaicans by Adolphe Roberts; my thesis on Love - Robert Love and Jamaican Politics - is at present only available at the Libraries of the University of the West Indies. You can e-mail for help in accessing the thesis, which I hope to put on the web some time in the future. J.L.

I shall be grateful for corrections and additional information for any of the items on this site. I hope especially that relatives and descendants of people mentioned will supply further information.

Joy Lumsden (click here)

Click here to find out about my other web sites!

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. . . people to remember

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