Mary Morris Knibb

Mary Morris Knibb, MBE (28 February 1886 – 21 September 1964) was a Jamaican teacher, social reformer and philanthropist. She founded the Morris Knibb Preparatory School and donated a building which is used as the headquarters of the Moravian Church in Jamaica as well as land for construction of a community center. Morris Knibb was a women's rights activist and the first elected councilwomen in Jamaica. She was the first woman to vie for a seat in the House when Universal Suffrage was granted to all Jamaicans.

Mary Morris Knibb
Born
Mary Lenora Morris

(1886-02-28)28 February 1886
Carmel, Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica
Died21 September 1964(1964-09-21) (aged 78)
Woodford Park, Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica
NationalityJamaica
Other namesNora Morris, Mary Knibb
Occupationteacher, social reformer, philanthropist
Years active1907–1960
Known forfirst elected woman to the city council in Jamaica.

Early life

Mary Lenora Morris[1] "Nora" was born on 28 February 1886[2][3] in Carmel, Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica. In 1893, Morris began teaching as an assistant teacher at the Moravian Day School,[1] in the customary pupil-teacher system of recruitment. Throughout the Caribbean prior to the 1950s, the most promising primary students, began working as assistant teachers to offset the cost of their further education. In some cases, they became full teachers upon passing an examination and in others were sent after their pupil-teacher contractual period to normal schools for additional training.[4][5] Morris, followed the latter path and attended the Shortwood Teachers' College. While attending the college, Morris became one of the founders of the Alumni Students' Association.[1]

Career

Between 1907 and 1917, Morris taught at the St. George Girls' School[1] and then taught for almost two years at the Central Branch School. She then became the headmistress of the Wesley School, where she remained until 1928.[6] In 1931, the now married Morris, opened her own school, the Mary Morris-Knibb Preparatory School in Kingston, at 3 Hector Street, Saint Andrew Parish, which she had inherited a few months previously upon the death of Frances Morris.[7][8] Catering to the middle-class, Morris-Knibb was known to provide an excellent education and stern discipline.[1] Students were required to study geography, history, Latin, math, reading, spelling, and writing, earning the school the reputation as "one of the leading preparatory schools in the nation".[9]

In 1936 or 1937, she co-founded, along with Amy Bailey, Eulalie Domingo and Edith Dalton James, the Jamaica Women’s Liberal Club (LC).[10][11] The organization was mostly made up of teachers and their goal was to agitate for women's inclusion in government service, including such posts as serving on the school board and civil service. Most of the women were black and middle-class women who wanted to advance the position of women in society on both socio-economic and political levels.[10] One of the social protections for which Morris Knibb advocated was marriage. In part because of morality concerns, but in part because common-law arrangements did not protect children adequately, she favored even holding mass weddings so that the costs of the ceremony would be reduced and participation greater.[12][13] When black women, like Morris-Knibb wanted to participate in the Child Welfare Association of Jamaica, they were told they were not welcome.[14][15] The upperclass women of the Child Welfare Association suggested that the black women set up an auxiliary for women of their "shade".[16] In response, Morris-Knibb joined Amy Bailey, May Farquharson, Dr. Jai Lal Varma, and Dr. Pengelley and others in founding the Save the Children Fund in 1938.[14][15]

Morris Knibb was one of the leaders in the fight for Jamaican suffrage[17] and as it had been a long-practiced method for women to gain a foothold and show their readiness to vote,[18] she was in favor of women running for local offices.[1] In 1939, the LC organized women and ran a campaign with Morris Knibb as their candidate for parish council. She won the seat for the Kingston/Saint Andrew Parish seat on the council,[19] becoming the first woman to serve as an elected official in Jamaica.[20] Her work on the council focused on education and social services. She advocated for creation of after school programs, night schools, and trade education, utilizing existing school and government buildings for the purpose.[21] She donated property located at 15 Byrnes Street to the Lower St. Andrews Citizen's Association to facilitate creation of a community centre[22] and was active in programs to care for the poor and the aged.[23][24]

When universal franchise was granted to Jamaicans in 1944, Morris Knibb immediately opened a campaign to run for a seat in the House, becoming the first woman to contest a general election in Jamaica.[1][25] Though she didn't win, she was undaunted, becoming one of the first women sworn in as Justice of the Peace in 1945[1] and continuing to serve as a councilwoman through the early 1950s.[24] In 1953, she was honored with the Order of the British Empire for her years of social service.[2][26] Throughout the 1950s, she continued her work with the Moravian Church and served several terms as the vice-chair of the school board.[17][27][28]

Mary Morris-Knibb Hall 1963

Death and legacy

Morris Knibb died on 21 September 1964 in Woodford Park, Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica.[29] She donated the building which is used as the headquarters of the Moravian Church, 3 Hector Street, Kingston, Jamaica, to the organization.[30] Generations of students have been educated at the Morris Knibb Preparatory School, including many prominent Jamaicans. In 1984, the school was relocated, from its original location next to the Moravian Church, to 1 Miraflores Drive on Molynes Road in St. Andrew Parish, teaching kindergarten to grade 6.[1] In 2004, as part of the Moravian Church's 250th anniversary, the church worked to have the Postal Corporation of Jamaica issue commemorative stamps of important leaders in their organization. Morris Knibb was one of three honorees recognized in the commemorative stamp series.[17]

References

Citations
  1. Bell 2002, p. 179.
  2. The Daily Gleaner & 28 February 1953, p. 13.
  3. The Daily Gleaner & 10 April 1953, p. 18.
  4. Miller 1999, p. 11.
  5. Steward & Thomas 1996, pp. 40–41, 133.
  6. The Daily Gleaner 1928, p. 10.
  7. The Daily Gleaner & 28 March 1931, p. 21.
  8. The Daily Gleaner & 27 May 1931, p. 21.
  9. Trouth Sr. 2015, p. 37.
  10. Reddock 1990, p. 67.
  11. De Barros 2014, pp. 161–162.
  12. Cooper 1995, pp. 50–54.
  13. The Daily Gleaner & 13 September 1939, p. 1.
  14. Hemming 1976.
  15. De Barros 2014, p. 118.
  16. Altink 2011.
  17. Jamaica Information Service 2004.
  18. Ray 1918, pp. 469-474.
  19. Reddock 1990, p. 74.
  20. The Daily Gleaner 1939, p. 1.
  21. The Daily Gleaner & 11 August 1939, p. 27.
  22. The Daily Gleaner & 28 August 1939, p. 7.
  23. The Daily Gleaner 1943, p. 3.
  24. The Daily Gleaner 1947, p. 10.
  25. The Daily Gleaner 1944, p. 10.
  26. The Daily Gleaner & 27 February 1953, p. 16.
  27. The Daily Gleaner 1956, p. 8.
  28. The Daily Gleaner 1959, p. 18.
  29. Brown 2004.
  30. Tyson 2005, p. 2.

Bibliography
  • Altink, Henrice (2 October 2011). "Black History Month: Mary Morris-Knibb accuses the Child Welfare Association of discrimination, 17 November 1938". Women's History Network. London, England. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Bell, Klao (10 February 2002). "Mary Morris-Knibb--social champion". Kingston, Jamaica: The Sunday Gleaner. p. G8. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Brown, Jeremain O. (24 December 2004). "Mary Morris Knibb: c1881-1964". Jamaican Information Service. Kingston, Jamaica: Government of Jamaica. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Rootsweb Genealogy Freepages.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Cooper, Carolyn (1995). Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and the "Vulgar" Body of Jamaican Popular Culture. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-8223-1595-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • De Barros, Juanita (2014). Reproducing the British Caribbean: Sex, Gender, and Population Politics After Slavery. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-1605-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hemming, Wilbert (14 November 1976). "Amy Bailey: always working for improvement of Jamaicans" (PDF). Daily News. Kingston, Jamaica. Retrieved 31 March 2016.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Miller, Errol (1999). "Teacher Development in the Caribbean". Organization of American States. Washington, D. C.: Inter-American Collaboratory for the Teacher Profession. Retrieved 2 January 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Ray, P. Orman (August 1918). "Woman Suffrage in Foreign Countries". The American Political Science Review. Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association. 12 (3): 469–474. doi:10.2307/1946097. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1946097.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Reddock, Rhoda (1990). "Feminism, Nationalism, and the Early Women's Movement in the English-Speaking Caribbean (with Special Reference to Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago". In Cudjoe, Selwyn Reginald (ed.). Caribbean Women Writers: Essays from the First International Conference. Weseley, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 61–81). ISBN 0-87023-732-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Steward, Lucy; Thomas, Elwyn, eds. (1996). Caribbean Issues and Developments: Teacher Education in the Commonwealth. London, England: Commonwealth Secretariat. ISBN 978-0-85092-460-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Trouth Sr., Cloyd Ovid (2015). Times are Changing and the Struggle Continues: The Struggle. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: FriesenPress. ISBN 978-1-4602-7737-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Tyson, Vivian (February 2005). "Moravians Celebrate 250 Glorious Years in Jamaica". Onward (the magazine of Moravian Missions). Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Bethabara Moravian Church. 24 (2). Retrieved 2 January 2017reproduced from The Jamaica Gleaner, 26 December 2004CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "Ground for New Community Centre Dedicated Yesterday". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 28 August 1939. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "The honour is not mine alone". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 10 April 1953. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "KSACC Informed Estimates May Have to Be Reduced". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 11 March 1947. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Legal". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 28 March 1931. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Mass Wedding Will Involve Twelve Pairs". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 13 September 1939. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Mills back as KSB Head". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 16 January 1956. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Moravian Church Honours Three Pioneers". Jamaica Information Service. Kingston, Jamaica: Government of Jamaica. 23 December 2004. Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  • "Morris-Knibbs School Opened Yest Afternoon". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 27 May 1931. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Mrs. Aitken Welcomed by Women's Auxiliary". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 11 August 1939. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Mrs. Knibb's Services". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 17 March 1943. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Mrs. Knibb to Open her Campaign Tomorrow Night". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 25 September 1944. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Mrs. Morris Knibb Takes Oath and Seat as Member of Corporation Council". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 14 March 1939. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com. and "Lady Councillor's Plea". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 14 March 1939. p. 7. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Oratorio by Moravian Choir August 17". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 7 August 1959. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Portrait to be presented Mrs. Knibb". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 28 February 1953. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "'Start doing something for somebody else...'". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 27 February 1953. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Wesley School Presentation to Miss Morris". The Daily Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. 1 September 1928. Retrieved 2 January 2017 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
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