On 6 August 1962, Jamaica became an independent state, ending formal British responsibility for governing the country. The locally drafted constitution came into effect, and the Jamaican flag was raised as the Union Jack was lowered. Independence followed decades of worker resistance, political organizing, expanded suffrage, and constitutional negotiation. It transferred state authority to Jamaica, while the new state retained the British monarch as head of state and inherited economic structures shaped by slavery and colonialism.
On 18 September 1938, Norman Manley and fellow organizers launched the People’s National Party (PNP) at Kingston’s Ward Theatre, in the wake of the island-wide labor unrest. The party connected...
On 8 July 1943, Alexander Bustamante launched the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), closely linked to the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and the labor movement formed amid the 1938 upheavals. The party...
On 20 November 1944, Jamaica’s new constitution came into effect and universal adult suffrage was introduced. Adults aged 21 and older could vote without the property qualifications that had...
On 14 December 1944, Jamaica held its first general election under universal adult suffrage. The vote brought a much broader electorate into political life and elected the first House of...
On 19 September 1961, Jamaicans voted in a referendum on whether to remain in the West Indies Federation. A majority voted against remaining, and the result set Jamaica on a separate path toward...
👉 Jamaica becomes independent
Current
6 August 1962
On 6 August 1962, Jamaica became an independent state, ending formal British responsibility for governing the country. The locally drafted constitution came into effect, and the Jamaican flag was...
On 20 October 1969, Jamaica first celebrated National Heroes Day, formally honoring figures whose work included resistance to slavery, anti-colonial struggle, labor organizing, and nation building....
On 1 August 1997, Jamaica reinstated Emancipation Day as a national public holiday, after the observance had been discontinued when independence celebrations replaced it in 1962. Restoring the date...
On 22 January 2009, Jamaica’s Cabinet approved the establishment of a National Commission on Reparations. Its remit was to consider proposals seeking reparations from countries involved in the slave...
On 17 September 2013, the first CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations concluded by constituting the CARICOM Reparations Commission. The conference followed a unanimous decision by Caribbean heads...
On 18 March 2014, CARICOM announced that its Heads of Government had accepted the Caribbean Reparatory Justice Programme as a basis for discussions on reparations for slavery and Indigenous...
