Head table guests at a birthday party celebration held for former president of the People's National Party, Mr. Norman Manley. Seated at the table from left are Mrs. Edna Manley, Senator P.J. Patterson, Mr. Manley, Mr. Florizel Glasspole, Ms. Sharon Clarke and Mr. O.T. Fairclough. The function was held at the National Arena. - FILE PHOTOS
ON SEPTEMBER 18, 1938, some of Jamaica's brightest minds gathered at the Ward Theatre in downtown Kingston to launch the People's National Party (PNP). Norman Manley, the respected lawyer, was named its first president and is usually recognised as the party's founder.
Not so. That distinction goes to Osmond Theodore (O.T.) Fairclough, a banker who decided to form the PNP to challenge the prejudices of British colonialism in his country.
Although starting the PNP was largely his idea, O.T. Fairclough is one of the forgotten men of Jamaican politics.
"He was very quiet...he didn't make a fuss about himself," said veteran journalist John Maxwell. "If he had survived when Michael Manley became Prime Minister he would have been Governor-General."
Maxwell knew Fairclough well, having done three stints with Public Opinion, the weekly newspaper Fairclough's City Printery Limited published.
Born in Westmoreland in October 1904, Fairclough left for Haiti in 1924 and worked with that country's National Bank for eight years. He started out as a credit clerk and rose to the position of assistant manager.
When he returned to Jamaica in 1932, racial and social prejudice was rife and Fairclough was unable to hold down a job that suited his qualifications. In 1937, he started Public Opinion along with the Hill brothers, Frank and Ken, and addressed the injustices in Jamaica with biting commentaries.
COAL-BLACK MAN
In a piece written in The Gleaner during the 1950s, Frank Hill described Fairclough as a "coal-black man who loved to wear white linen suits. He was feared, respected and loved by his workers."
One year after starting Public Opinion, Fairclough went one step further with the launch of the PNP, an intellectual machine that included persons like the Hills, writer Richard Hart and lawyer Noel Nethersole.
According to Frank Hill, Fairclough travelled across Jamaica recruiting members for the new party. Many came from the Jamaica Agricultural Society and the Jamaica Union of Teachers.
While Fairclough's ties to the PNP would remain strong, his commitment to Public Opinion was just as fierce. Over the years, the paper's roster included the Hills, Maxwell, Michael Manley, Terry Smith, Len Nembhard and Keeble McFarlane.
Maxwell left The Gleaner to join Public Opinion. He agreed with Hill that Fairclough was not the best newspaper man, but said he respected the ability of competent journalists.
NON-INTERFERING
"When I was editor (of the paper) we disagreed violently about certain things but he never interfered with editorial matters," said Maxwell who served as editor from 1963 to 1965. Maxwell says at its peak in the mid-1960s, Public Opinion had a weekly circulation of 12,000 copies.
O.T. Fairclough died May 29, 1970 at the age of 65. He passed on one year after Norman Manley died and his son, Michael, was elected PNP president. Manley described him as a "man of prophetic vision."
That vision, Maxwell believes, was broad enough for Fairclough to welcome a woman as leader of the party he formed.
"He wouldn't have had a problem with it (Portia Simpson Miller as party president)," said Maxwell. "He was a conservative but a liberated man."
- H. C.
