Beverley Manley

{{short description|Jamaican public figure (born 1941)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = The Most Honourable | name = Beverley Manley | image = Mrs. Michael Manley, Prime Minister Michael Manley and Jimmy Carter during an Oval Office meeting. (retouched A).jpg | alt =  | caption = Beverley Manley and Michael Manley with US president Jimmy Carter in 1977 | birth_name = Beverley Lois Anderson | birth_date = {{birth date and age text|8 November 1941}} | birth_place = Jamaica | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Broadcaster, women's rights advocate | education = University of the West Indies, Mona<br />Howard University | years_active = | known_for = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Michael Manley|1972|1993|end=div}} * {{marriage|Donald Keith Duncan|2012|2020|end=died}} }} | children = 2 | website = | notable_works = ''The Manley Memoirs'' (2008) }}

'''Beverley Lois Anderson-Manley'''<ref>{{Cite web|date=1 February 1990|title=Names in the News: Jamaican Chief Divorced Again|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-01-vw-1853-story.html|access-date=14 April 2021|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref> (born 8 November 1941) is a Jamaican public figure and Former First Lady of Jamaica between 1972 and 1980. In the 1970s, she emerged as a leader in women's rights advocacy, leading a campaign for a maternity leave. From 1972 to 1993, she was married to Michael Manley, who was Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980. Manley was known for being more radical than her husband and helping him connect with Jamaica's black population. She was a popular figure among the majority of Jamaicans. Manley also co-founded a radio show, The Breakfast Club, with Eric Anthony Abrahams in 1992. After divorcing Michael, she published ''The Manley Memoirs'' in 2008, and in 2012 she married Donald Keith Duncan.

== Early life == Beverley Lois Anderson was born on 8 November 1941, to Esmine Anderson {{Nee|Pearson}} and Eric Anderson,<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NF1sAAAAMAAJ&q=%22MANLEY+,+Beverley+Lois+(+Mrs+.+Michael+Manley+)+,+B+.+A+.+;+wife+of+Leader+of+the+Opposition+.+Born+Nov+.+8+,+1941%22|title=Manley, Beverly Lois (Mrs. Michael Manley)|magazine=Personalities Caribbean|date=1983|volume=7|page=483|publisher=Personalities Limited|language=en}}</ref>{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=213}} and she grew up in "meager" surroundings in a working-class family.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Porter|first=Christopher|title=Personal Politics: 'The Manley Memoirs'|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2008/08/05/personal_politics_the_manley_memoirs/|date=5 August 2008|access-date=13 April 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>{{Sfn|Bedasse|2017|p=103}} She had African ancestry.{{Sfn|Bedasse|2017|p=103}} Her father was a clerk for the Jamaica Railway Corporation.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=21}} Manley started her career as a model and a public broadcaster,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Infantry|first=Ashante|date=23 September 2008|title=Jamaica's ex-first lady reveals it all in memoirs|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2008/09/23/jamaicas_exfirst_lady_reveals_it_all_in_memoirs.html|access-date=13 April 2021|website=The Toronto Star|language=en}}</ref> becoming a popular figure known for favoring Jamaican music over music from other countries.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=136}} In the 1970s, she attended the University of the West Indies, Mona.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=213}}

== Marriage to Michael Manley == She married Michael Manley in 1972, and they had two children: the first in 1974 and the second in 1980.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=21}} Michael Manley was 17 years older than her, and she was his fourth wife. He became Prime Minister of Jamaica in 1972, holding the role for eight years. Manley was First Lady of Jamaica for the duration of his term, advocating on behalf of women and children.<ref name=":0" /> She was also president of the PNP's women's movement in at least 1979, advocating for maternity leave,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reddock|first=Rhoda|date=1998|title=Women's Organizations and Movements in the Commonwealth Caribbean: The Response to Global Economic Crisis in the 1980s|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1395723|journal=Feminist Review|volume=59|issue=59|pages=57–73|doi=10.1080/014177898339451|jstor=1395723|s2cid=144898132|issn=0141-7789|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and a leader of the movement throughout the 1970s.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=21}} A law that granted maternity leave was signed in 1979.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Beverley Anderson Manley|url=https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/www/aw/beverley_anderson.html|access-date=13 April 2021|website=The Jamaica Observer}}</ref> Biographer Michael Darrell E. Levi wrote in 1989 that Beverley Manley "played a major role in sensitizing her husband to women's concerns". In 1974, she spoke to UNESCO about women's rights.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=163}} She also visited Moscow and Cuba and was a vocal anti-imperialist, for which she was attacked by ''The Gleaner'' newspaper.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=215}} She was more politically radical than her husband.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=216}}

Manley also worked to help her husband "connect" with Jamaica's black population{{Em dash}}while his skin was light, she had dark skin, an Afro reminiscent of the Black Power movement, and often wore "African attire" such as a dashiki{{Em dash}}and developed a reputation for being involved with gender-related issues. She later said she helped Michael with his public speaking.{{Sfn|Bedasse|2017|p=103}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dunkley|first=D.A.|date=2011|title=Hegemony in Post-Independence Jamaica|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23050526|journal=Caribbean Quarterly|volume=57|issue=2|pages=1–23|doi=10.1080/00086495.2011.11672400|jstor=23050526|s2cid=142211299|issn=0008-6495|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Manley was not universally accepted by wealthier and more powerful Jamaicans; for instance, some told her to straighten her hair. However, she was widely supported and admired by the general populace.{{Sfn|Bedasse|2017|p=103}} Manley was Jamaica's patron of International Women's Year in 1975 and attended the International Women's Year Conference that year.{{sfn|Interamerican Commission of Women|1980|p=113}} She sought to establish forms of day care and education for infants.{{sfn|Interamerican Commission of Women|1980|p=113}} In 1975, Manley was fired upon while she and her husband led a funeral procession for the politician Winston Blake.{{Sfn|Levi|1989|p=165}}

Manley has also represented Jamaica in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.<ref name=":2" />

== Later life == She attended Howard University from 1985 to 1986, working towards a Doctor of Philosophy.<ref name=":0" /> Their marriage fell apart after both she and her husband were unfaithful. They divorced in 1993.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The year before, Manley and Eric Anthony Abrahams had created a radio show that focused on current events, ''The Breakfast Club''.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Cunnincham|first=Anastasia|date=18 August 2011|title=Anthony Abrahams laid to rest|url=https://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110818/lead/lead6.html|access-date=10 April 2021|website=The Jamaica Gleaner|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=A Killing Shocks Jamaicans Into Soul-Searching|first=David |last=Gonzalez|date=18 October 1999|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/101899jamaica-politics.html|access-date=13 April 2021|website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref>

She entered into a relationship with Donald Keith Duncan, who had been a minister in her husband's cabinet. In 2008, she published ''The Manley Memoirs'', an autobiography of her childhood and marriage.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xBwWAQAAMAAJ|title=The Manley Memoirs

|publisher=Ian Randle Publishers|date= 2008|pages=247|isbn=9789766373139|via=Google Books}}</ref> In a review of the work, Christopher Porter for ''The Washington Post'' wrote: "In some ways, Beverley was to Prime Minister Michael Manley what Hillary Clinton was to Bill Clinton — with everything that implies: a strong, smart woman married to a brilliant but human leader, whose philandering caused pain in the marriage{{nbsp}}... (And she had her own dalliances, too.)"<ref name=":0" /> On 21 January 2012, Manley and Duncan were married after a 32-year affair.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ellington|first=Barbara|date=29 January 2012|title=At last{{nbsp}}... DK & Bev make it official|url=https://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120129/out/out1.html|access-date=13 April 2021|website=The Jamaica Gleaner|language=en}}</ref> The two were together until Duncan's death in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|date=25 October 2020|title=DK Duncan remembered as an advocate for social and economic justice|url=https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20201025/dk-duncan-remembered-advocate-social-and-economic-justice|access-date=14 April 2021|website=The Jamaica Gleaner|language=en}}</ref> Manley is the subject of and appeared in a four-part film documentary titled ''Beverley Manley Uncensored'' in July 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-31 |title=New doc lays bare life of Beverley Manley Duncan |url=https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20220731/new-doc-lays-bare-life-beverley-manley-duncan |access-date=2022-09-08 |website=The Jamaica Gleaner |language=en}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

* {{Cite book|last=Bedasse|first=Monique|url=|title=Jah kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania, and pan-Africanism in the age of decolonization|date=2017|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-4696-3360-2|location=Chapel Hill|oclc=1000520466}} *{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/librodeoro0000unse|title=Libro de oro|date=1980|publisher=Interamerican Commission of Women|isbn=978-0-8270-1066-6|ref={{harvid|Interamerican Commission of Women|1980}}}} *{{Cite book|last=Levi|first=Darrell E.|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9766050880|title=Michael Manley: the making of a leader|date=1989|location=Kingston, Jamaica|publisher=Heinemann Publishers (Caribbean)|isbn=978-976-605-088-7}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manley, Beverley}} Category:Living people Category:1941 births Category:21st-century memoirists Category:Howard University alumni Category:Jamaican radio presenters Category:Jamaican women radio presenters Category:Jamaican women activists Category:Spouses of prime ministers of Jamaica Category:University of the West Indies alumni