Dr. Joseph Robert Love was the grandfather of the late Vera Love and great grandfather of the late Cynthia Love, who were both lifelong active members of St. Agnes Church. Another of Dr. Love’s great granddaughters, Gloria Archer, lives in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Dr. Love was born in Nassau in 1839. He grew up in Grant’s Town and was a member of St. Agnes Church. He moved to the United States in the 1860s and became a priest in 1877.
In 1879 Dr. Love became the first black medical graduate of the University of Buffalo. He went to Haiti in 1881 as a medical missionary. In the 1880s many black West Indians went to Haiti in search of work as they felt more comfortable living in a Black Republic, where they would not be discriminated against by Colonialists. Dr. Love was among a number of foreigners who became involved in Haitian politics. He later moved to Jamaica where he also became active in politics and published a weekly paper the Jamaica Advocate. He was elected to the Legislative Council in 1906 and served in other high offices in Jamaica. Dr. Love was a proud black man and he always encouraged black Jamaicans to become involved in politics. Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican Black Nationalist Leader, was influenced by the writings of Dr. Robert Love, who died in Kingston, Jamaica in 1914.
The bust of Dr. Love was created and photographed by Andret John.