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Joseph Robert Love's life exemplifies the lives of many African descendants who far exceeded expectations for the breadth of accomplishments they achieved during their lifetimes. Love was born in Nassau, the Bahamas in 1839. He was educated at St. Agnes Parish School and Christ Church Grammar School in Nassau. He worked as a teacher before moving to Florida in 1866. Love married but was widowed early. He and his wife had a daughter, who according to the 1880 census was 13 years old.

In 1870, Rev. Love was deputized by the Independent Grand Lodge of New York to organize lodges in the South. He organized the first Independent Grand Lodges of Florida and Georgia. From 1870 to 1872, he served as the 1st Most Worshipful Grand Master of Prince Hall Freemasonry in Florida and from 1873-1875 as the Most Worshipful Sovereign Grand Master in the Georgia Lodge. After the Delaware conference in 1878 to dissolve the National Grand Lodge both states agreed upon a merger between the Most Worshipful Sovereign Grand Lodges and Union Grand Lodge of Compact National Grand Lodge organized in June 25, 1875 Florida/Georgia. In Florida the Prince Hall Affiliated body is known as the Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity, Free and Accepted Masons, State of Florida and Belize, Central America, Jurisdiction, Incorporated Prince Hall Affiliated and Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Georgia Free and Accepted Masons. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Robert_Love )

In 1871, he was ordained an Episcopal Deacon and the following year he was placed I charge of St. Augustine's Mission in Savannah, Georgia by the Board of Missions of the Episcopal Church. He was appointed deacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. He also worked to establish a training school to serve the thousands of freedmen in Savannah.

He moved to Buffalo, New York from Savanah, Georgia, soon after he was ordained, to become the rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in July 1876. St. Philip's was organized as an African American congregation in 1861 and continues to the present. While in Buffalo, Rev. Love also enrolled in medical school at the University of Buffalo. He was the first verified African American to graduate from the medical school on February 25, 1880. A thesis was a requirement in those years; his was titled "Philosophy of Practical Medicine Versus Empiricism."

As described by Christopher Densmore in a 1996 unpublished paper ("A Heritage of Diversity: Notes from the History of the University of Buffalo"), Love responded to a toast offered at the graduation dinner to "Our Colored Fellow Citizens" with the hope that "the time was fast coming...when the colored American citizen would emerge from his social ostracism of the past and meet his white brothers on the equal plain of education and merit."

In 1881, Love moved to the Episcopal mission in Haiti under the director of Bishop James Theodore Holly, the first African American consecrated as a Bishop by the Episcopal Church. He served as the rector of an Anglican church in Port-au-Prince. He also worked in the country's medical department. He began to advocate vocally for pan-Africanism. Ultimately, he had a conflicted relationship with that country's leader and was deported in 1889.

Rev. Dr. Love moved to Jamaica in 1889. He became fully engaged in political advocacy and black self-help. He founded and published the "Jamaica Advocate", which became an influential newspaper and an instrument to share his support for universal education and the improvement of living conditions for the Black population on the island and throughout the world.

In 1906, he was elected to the Jamaican House of Representatives. He also served as the chairman of the St. Andrew Parochial Board; was a justice of the peace in Kingston; the Kingston General Commissions and a trustee of Wolmer's schools. He published two books; "Romanism is Not Christianity" (1892) and "St. Peter's True Position in the Church, Clearly Traced in the Bible" (1897).

Today, scholars consider Love to be one of the important Pan-African nationalists of the later 19th century and an inspiration to black nationalist Marcus Garvey. Garvey wrote, "One cannot read his "Jamaica Advocate" without getting race consciousness...If Dr. Love was alive and in robust health, you would not be attacking me, you would be attacking him."

In 1906, at age 67 Love's health began to fail. He was forced to give up his political career in 1910. His death occurred on November 21, 1914. He is buried in the parish church yard at Half Way Tree, near Kingston, Jamaica.