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Famous West Indians

Jamaican Americans are Americans of Jamaican heritage or Jamaican-born people who live in the United States of America. American citizenship is not a prerequisite of being a Jamaican American as permanent residents are also given this title. The largest proportion of Jamaicans live in New York City which has various of other Caribbean cultural elements such as food and music. There is also a community of Jamaican Americans residing in South Florida and Connecticut.

After 1838, European colonies in the Caribbean with expanding sugar industries imported large numbers of immigrants to meet their acute labor shortage. Large numbers of Jamaicans were recruited to work in Panama and Costa Rica in the 1850s. After slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, American planters imported temporary workers, called "swallow migrants," to harvest crops on an annual basis. These workers, many of them Jamaicans, returned to their countries after harvest. Between 1881 and the beginning of World War I, the United States recruited over 250,000 workers from the Caribbean, 90,000 of whom were Jamaicans, to work on the Panama Canal. During both world wars, the United States again recruited Jamaican men for service on various American bases in the region. In comparison, the Jamaican American population is larger than the Jamaican Canadian and Jamaican British populations.

Person of the month

Yvette Diane Clarke (born November 21, 1964) is a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 11th congressional district. She is the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology.

Rep. Clarke won the Democratic primary election on September 12, 2006, defeating David Yassky, Carl Andrews and Chris Owens in the September Democratic primary. In a heavily Democratic district, Clarke won the general election with 89% of the vote and filled the seat vacated by retiring Representative Major Owens and once held by Shirley Chisholm. The district includes much of central Brooklyn, including Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Park Slope. Clarke was formerly a member of the New York City Council, representing the 40th council district in Brooklyn.

The daughter of successful Jamaican immigrant parents, Clarke has lived all her life in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. Upon graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School, she earned a scholarship to Oberlin College in Ohio, where she completed most of her education, before transferring to Medgar Evers College for her final semester. She is two credits short of fully completing her degree. According to her Congressional home page, she was also a recipient of the "prestigious APPAH/Sloan Fellowship in Public Policy and Policy Analysis".

Clarke worked as Director of Business Development for the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and was the second Director of the Bronx portion of the New York City Empowerment Zone.^[

Brooklyn's 40th council district elected Clarke to the New York City Council in 2001. She succeeded her mother, former City Council member Una S.T. Clarke, who held the seat for more than a decade.

As a member of the Council, the younger Clarke instituted an HIV/AIDS Task Force, a Sanitation Task Force, a Youth Task Force and organized an Ad Hoc Clergy Committee. She was chair of the Contracts Committee and was also co-chair of the Council's Women's Caucus. She also served on the Education; Fire & Criminal Justice Services; Health; Land Use; Planning, Dispositions & Concessions; and, Rules, Privileges & Elections committees.

Clarke is an advocate for the empowerment of women and minorities and introduced legislation that resulted in the Council's Minority & Women-Owned Business Empowerment (MWBE) study that that found women and minority-owned businesses are not awarded their fair share of city contracts. This finding forced New York City to end its system of economic discrimination. As co-chair of the New York Council's Women's Caucus, Clarke secured $9.5 million in funding for organizations that addressed the issues of domestic violence prevention, breast cancer awareness, housing and HIV/AIDS counseling for women.

She cosponsored City Council resolutions that opposed the war in Iraq, criticized the federal USA PATRIOT Act, and called for a national moratorium on the death penalty. She was a frequent critic of the Bush administration's policies, and opposed budget cuts by Bush and the Republican Congress on several programs addressing women's rights and poverty.

In 2000, Una Clarke ran a Democratic primary against U.S. Congressman Major Owens, losing to the incumbent. In the 2004 election cycle, Yvette Clarke, with only two and a half years’ service as an elected official, ran for Owens' seat in the 2004 election cycle, narrowly losing. Yvette Clarke ran again in the next cycle.

In May 2006, another Caribbean-American candidate, Assemblyman N. Nick Perry, withdrew from the race to succeed Congressman Major Owens, leading some observers to contend that Clarke's chances for winning the race would improve now that another candidate from the same community was no longer competing.

On August 24, 2006, Clarke made a public disclosure revealing that her prior claims to have graduated from Oberlin College were false, asserting that her previous erroneous statements were the result of a faulty memory. Her campaign website for the 2004 elections had made the statement that she was an alumna of Oberlin, a claim that was repeated in her campaign biography submitted for the Campaign Finance Board Voter Guide the following year.

The Campaign Finance Board requires that candidates running for office in New York City sign "sworn statements that the information in their profiles is true to the best of their knowledge."

Aides to Yvette Clarke maintained that she did in fact attend Oberlin, but completed her degree-bearing program at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. Clarke further explained that, though she had recalled finishing her degree, school officials informed her that she remains "two classes short of the requirements" for her diploma.

In the days following this revelation, it was disclosed that in 1996, the New York State Office of Higher Education — now known as the Higher Education Services Corp. — sought a court injunction forcing Clarke to begin to repay outstanding student loans, $4,268 was still in arrears, according to state officials. A spokesman for the Clarke campaign, Stefan Friedman, maintained that Clarke had "redeemed her loan from the Higher Educational Services Corporation in 1996," and that "she has consistently paid down those loans in accordance with an agreed-upon payment schedule."

On September 12, 2006, Clarke won the nomination to Congress with just 31.20% of the vote. (In multi-candidate congressional elections in New York, a plurality is sufficient to nominate.)

In the general election on November 7, Clarke was elected to the House of Representatives with 89% of the vote against token Republican opposition in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. She was re-elected on November 4, 2008 by a similar margin.

 In April, 2007, Clarke was the sole member of Congress to oppose a bill that renamed the Ellis Island Library after British-born Bob Hope.

On September 29, 2008, Clarke voted in support of HR 3997, the Emergency Economic Stability Act of 2008. The act failed, 205-228. There was also legislation written by Clarke to improve the process of getting names off the No Fly List. It was passed 413-3 on February 3, 2009. In November of 2009 she was one of few members of Congress that refused to condemn the Goldstone Report concerning Israel. Her vote caused many voters to pledge to unseat her.

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 PSA (Public Service Announcement)

  (Click on link below to access web-site)

                 The New York Council on Adoptable Children would like to raise awareness among foster care youth ages 12 and older, case workers, extended family members, and prospective adoptive parents that permanency is possible and that an open adoption may be an option.

Many foster teens await a permanent, safe and stable home with loving parents. If you are interested or know anyone who would benefit from this service, please call The New York Council on Adoptable Children @ (212) 475-0222 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (212) 475-0222      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm . Mention you were referred by Jamaicantube.com.

PSA (Aviso Del Servicio Publico)

El Concilio para Niños Adoptables de Nueva York quiere informar a los jóvenes en cuidado ‘foster’ de 12 años en adelante, a sus familiares, trabajadores sociales, y personas interesadas en adoptar, que una familia permanente si es posible y que la adopción abierta es una opción que permite la continuación de contacto familiar.

 Muchos adolescentes ‘foster’ están esperando un hogar permanente, estable y seguro. Su usted está interesado o conoce a alguien que  puede beneficiar de este servico,  llame al (212) 475-0222 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (212) 475-0222      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, lunes a viernes de 9am-5pm.

Urban Strategies, Inc.

Urban Strategies, Inc. (USI), a community based, non-profit social service agency began its mission in 1970. The agency is multi-faceted and services both youth and adults. USI serves the under served and hard-to-reach populations in the Brooklyn communities of Oceanhill-Brownsville, East New York, Central Brooklyn, and Bedford Stuyvesant.

During the past twenty-eight years, USI has operated programs and addressed the critical issues of poverty, homelessness, day care, runaway youth, teenage pregnancy, and literacy. It works in a milieu that is client-driven, culturally and community relevant, and keenly attuned to the development of independent living skills. The organization works to address, and has implemented many projects that target the social, educational, economic, psychological, cultural, health, and housing needs of community residents. Contact Rhonda Jones @

(718)519-7300

Urban Strategies, Inc. (USI) es un programa  sin fines de lucros que comenzó su misión en el año 1970. La agencia especializa en servicios para adolescentes y adultos.  USI sirve a las comunidades menos servidas en Brooklyn.  Las comunidades son Oceanhill-Brownsville, East New York, Brooklyn Central, y Bedford Stuyvesant.

Durante los últimos 28  años, USI  ha usado programas que ayudan el problema crítico de los desamparados, cuido infantil,  embarazo entre juveniles, y jóvenes fugados.