Stuart McPhail Hall was born on February 3 1932 in Kingston, Jamaica, into a middle class family which subscribed to what he called “the colonial romance”. His father, Herman, was the first non-white person to hold a senior position – chief accountant – with United Fruit in Jamaica. Both his parents had non-African components in their ancestry, though as he recalled: “I was always the blackest member of my family and I knew it from the moment I was born.”
Growing up in what he called the “pigmentocracy” of the colonial West Indies had a profound effect on Hall’s childhood and outlook. His mother forbade him from inviting black school friends home, even though to white eyes he was black himself. When his sister fell in love with a black medical student, their mother barred her from seeing him. As a result she suffered a mental breakdown.
“Stuart Hall – obituary,” The Telegraph, (London: February 11, 2014). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10629087/Stuart-Hall-obituary.html.
Tags: Stuart Hall, Stuart M. Hall, Stuart McPhail Hall, The Telegraph