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==Early life and education==
Roland "Pop" Symonette was one of nine children of Methodist minister Edwin Lofthouse Symonette and his wife Lavania Alethia (née Weech)<ref name=":0" /> on the small island settlement of Current, [[Eleuthera]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Saunders |first=Gail |title=Race and Class in the Colonial Bahamas 1880-1960 |date=2016 |publisher=University Press of Florida |pages=119 |quote=Capt. Roland T. Symonette, a poor, light-skinned mixed race man from Current, Eleuthera. His adventures during Prohibition laid the basis for one of the largest Bahamian fortunes, earning him entry into the Bay Street oligarchy and its eventual leadership.}}</ref>
Although he had only six years of formal education, he became one of the wealthiest men of his generation.
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He was a school teacher early in his career. Later he tried to make his way as a fisherman and a tomato farmer in [[Riviera Beach, Florida]], and then during [[Prohibition]], Symonette transported whiskey to the United States.
During prohibition, liquor was legal in the Bahamas but not in the United States. Bahamian citizens could legally buy and transport alcohol as long as they stayed outside US territorial waters. Symonette was among the most successful of Bahamian [[Rum-running|bootlegger]]s.<ref name=":2" /> With the profits from bootlegging, Symonette invested in real estate, hotels, and a shipyard which built boats for the British Navy during WWII.
== Politics ==
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