Isaac Barrant

'Do you remember Isaac Barrant? His appointment as minister of agriculture and lands in 1950 was surely the embodiment of Garvey's message that "people of African descent have a responsibility to define their own place in the world and the realisation that this is possible". Barrant was born in 1907 in Bath, St Thomas. He was forced to leave school early owing to the death of his father. He started his career as a labourer on parochial roads in St Thomas. It was also said that he was a truck sideman, whether true or untrue. He also worked as a linesman on a sugar estate and eventually a banana dealer for the United Fruit Company. With limited education, his only criterion for recognition, according to journalist Vivian Durham, was a profound faith in the common man and a devotion to the cause of helping to lift poor people out of the clutches of their degrading existence; this during the early part of the 20th century. For his trade union militancy, his strength of character, and his humble roots, Bustamante chose him to run for the Eastern St Thomas constituency in 1944 against a background of the pride and prejudices of the reactionaries of the day. His grass roots connection whipped up support for the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and the Jamaica Labour Party, and he beat the colonial stigma to become a member of the House of Representatives and then, shock after shock across the society, a government minister -- appointed by Bustamante in 1950.' http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Isaac-Barrant-would-have-made-Marcus-Garvey-proud_19121832