Sam Brown was an associate of Mortimo Planno. Together they were responsible for establishing an association called the Rastafari Movement in 1960 in Kingston, as a politically oriented action group in West Kingston. This became the main arm for organizing protests and facilitating meetings among the brethren. Sam Brown ran for public office in 1962 for the Western Kingston seat in Parliament. He received just a few votes. His greater achievement however was using the political platform to sensitize the wider population about the principles and ideas of Rastafari through his "Twenty One Points".

 

This document laid down some of the cardinal philosophies and opinions of Rastafari, particularly focusing on how these views represented the majority poor or whom he described as "under-privileged...another name in Jamaica for poor Black people".

 

Extract from Sam Brown's 21 point political platform:

 

1. Members of the Rastafari Movement are an inseparable part of the Black people of Jamaica.

 

2. The Rastafari Movement consists of the most advanced, determined and uncompromising fighters against discrimination, ostracism and oppression of Black people in Jamaica.

 

3. Many deplore and accuse the Black people of raising the colour questioning this island. But white supremacy was the official policy of this island for hundreds of years and white supremacists never regarded Black men as good as the dogs in their yards.

 

4. Time has removed some of the grosser aspects of white and brown man supremacy; but discrimination, disrespect and abuse of the Black people are still here in many forms.

 

5. In their housing policy, they have houses for the rich, housing for the middle class and housing for the under-privileged. "Under-privileged" is only another name in Jamaica for poor Black people.

 

6. The Rastafarian Movement stands for Repatriation and power and for the fullest co-operation and intercourse between the governments and people of Africa and a free and independent people of Jamaica.

 

7. Suffering Black people of lamaica, let us unite and set up a righteous Government, under the slogan Repatriation and Power.

 

Sam Brown journeyed with the ancestors in 1998 while attending the inaugural gathering of the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation (CRO) in Barbados,