Bob Marley's Connection to Wilmington

Move Your Dancing Feet

Delaware may never be thought of as the home of reggae, but for about a dozen years, it was home to probably the best known reggae musician of all: Bob Marley. Born in Jamaica, Marley, his young family and his mother lived at 2313 North Tatnall Street in Wilmington’s 9^th Ward, from the mid-1960s and lived there until 1977. His mother, Cedella Booker, also a Jamaican singer and writer, married a Wilmngtonian after her first husband, Marley’s father, died in 1955. She ran Roots, a music store located on Market Street that sold recordings by her son and other Jamaican musicians. She closed the store in 1976 and moved to Florida and the Marleys moved to Jamaica.

Bob Marley’s second son, Stephen Marley, was born in Wilmington in 1972. Stephen, his brother and sister attended the former George Gray Elementary School at 22nd and Locusts streets, which closed in 1992.

Although he was already singing with the Wailers when he lived in Wilmington, Bob Marley worked at DuPont as a lab assistant and on the assembly line at the Chrysler plant in Newark as a fork lifter operator under the name Donald Marley. His 1976 song “Nightshift,” which includes the lyrics “Working on a forklift/In the night shift,” may reflect on that experience.

Stephen and his older brother Ziggy (David) were encouraged by their father to be musicians and as children, performed alongside Bob Marley and the Wailers on several occasions. They also sang at Bob Marley’s funeral on May 21, 1981.

Seven-year-old Stephen and 11-year-old Ziggy, along with sisters Cedella and Sharon, had formed the Melody Makers, named after a British weekly pop/rock music newspaper, in 1979. The band’s debut recording, “Children Playing in the Streets,” was written by their father. Proceeds from the song went to UNICEF. The group was later renamed Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers with Ziggy generally performing the lead vocals although Stephen occasionally sang lead. The band became the youngest recipients of the Grammy for Best Reggae album for “Conscious Party.” The group would go on to win two more Grammys for Best Reggae album before disbanding in 2002. Stephen, sometimes known as Raggamuffin, has also won three Grammys as a solo artist and two as the producer of albums for his younger brother, Damien; Ziggy has won an additional eight Grammys.

In 2014, the name of Tatnall Playground, located across the street from Bob Marley’s Wilmington home, was changed to One Love Park in his honor. The name comes from his 1977   song with The Wailers, “One Love/People Get Ready.” Each year since 1994, Wilmington hosts the People’s Festival 4Peace Tribute in his honor.

Live for yourself, you will live in vain. Live for other, you will live again. (From “Pass It On” — Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer)