Marcus Garvey

This article is about the political leader. For the album by Burning Spear, see Marcus Garvey (album).
Marcus Garvey

Garvey in 1924
Born Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr.
(1887-08-17)17 August 1887
Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica
Died 10 June 1940(1940-06-10) (aged 52)
London, England, UK
Occupation Publisher, journalist
Known for Activism, black nationalism, Pan-Africanism
Religion Roman Catholicism[1]
Spouse(s) Amy Ashwood Garvey (1919–1922; divorced)
Amy Jacques Garvey (1922–1940; his death)
Children Marcus Mosiah Garvey, III (born 17 September 1930) and Julius Winston (born 1933)
Parent(s) Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Sr.
Sarah Jane Richards

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940),[2] was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a proponent of the Pan-Africanism movement, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).[3] He also founded the Black Star Line, a shipping and passenger line which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands.

Prior to the 20th century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement and economic empowerment focusing on Africa known as Garveyism.[3] Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement (some sects of which proclaim Garvey as a prophet.)[4]

Garveyism intended persons of African ancestry in the diaspora to "redeem" the nations of Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave the continent. His essential ideas about Africa were stated in an editorial in Negro World entitled "African Fundamentalism", where he wrote: "Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality… to let us hold together under all climes and in every country…"[5]

Early years

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was born as the youngest of eleven children in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, to Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Sr., mason, and Sarah Jane Richards, a domestic worker. Only his sister Indiana along with Marcus survived to adulthood.[6][7] His family was financially stable given the circumstances of this time period.[6] Garvey's father had a large library, and it was from his father that Marcus gained his love for reading. He also attended elementary schools in St. Ann's Bay during his youth.[3][8] While attending these schools, Garvey first began to experience racism.[6] In 1907, he took part in an unsuccessful printer's strike and the experience kindled in him a passion for political activism.[9] In 1910 Garvey left Jamaica and began traveling throughout the Central American region. His first stop was Costa Rica, where he had a maternal uncle.[10] He lived in Costa Rica for several months and worked as a time keeper on a banana plantation. He began work as editor for a daily newspaper called La Nacionale in 1911. Later that year, he moved to Colón, Panama, where he edited a biweekly newspaper, before returning to Jamaica in 1912. Over time, Marcus Garvey became influenced by many civil rights activists of his time. He ultimately combined the economic nationalist ideas of Booker T. Washington and Pan-Africanists with the political possibilities and urban style of men and women living outside of plantation and colonial societies.[11]

After years of working in the Caribbean, Garvey left Jamaica to live in London from 1912 to 1914, where he attended Birkbeck College, taking classes in law and philosophy. He also worked for the African Times and Orient Review, published by Dusé Mohamed Ali, who was a considerable influence on the young man. Garvey sometimes spoke at Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner.

Organization of UNIA

In 1914, Garvey returned to Jamaica, where he organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). In an article titled "The Negro's Greatest Enemy", published in Current History (September 1923), Garvey explained the origin of the organization's name:

Where did the name of the organization come from? It was while speaking to a West Indian Negro who was a passenger with me from Southampton, who was returning home to the West Indies from Basutoland with his Basuto wife, I further learned of the horrors of native life in Africa. He related to me in conversation such horrible and pitiable tales that my heart bled within me. Retiring from the conversation to my cabin, all day and the following night I pondered over the subject matter of that conversation, and at midnight, lying flat on my back, the vision and thought came to me that I should name the organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League. Such a name I thought would embrace the purpose of all black humanity. Thus to the world a name was born, a movement created, and a man became known.[12]

After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and a national African-American leader in the United States, Garvey traveled by ship to the U.S., arriving on 23 March 1916 aboard the SS Tallac. He intended to make a lecture tour and to raise funds to establish a school in Jamaica modeled after Washington's Institute. Garvey visited Tuskegee, and afterwards, visited with a number of black leaders.

After moving to New York, he found work as a printer by day. He was influenced by Hubert Harrison. At night he would speak on street corners, much as he did in London's Hyde Park. Garvey thought there was a leadership vacuum among African Americans. On 9 May 1916, he held his first public lecture in New York City at St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery and undertook a 38-state speaking tour.

The next year in May 1917, Garvey and thirteen others formed the first UNIA division outside Jamaica. They began advancing ideas to promote social, political, and economic freedom for black people. On 2 July, the East St. Louis riots broke out. On 8 July, Garvey delivered an address, entitled "The Conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots", at Lafayette Hall in Harlem. During the speech, he declared the riot was "one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind", condemning America's claims to represent democracy when black people were victimized "for no other reason than they are black people seeking an industrial chance in a country that they have laboured for three hundred years to make great". It is "a time to lift one's voice against the savagery of a people who claim to be the dispensers of democracy".[13] By October, rancor within the UNIA had begun to set in. A split occurred in the Harlem division, with Garvey enlisted to become its leader; although he technically held the same position in Jamaica.

Garvey worked to develop a program to improve the conditions of ethnic Africans "at home and abroad" under UNIA auspices. On 17 August 1918, he began publishing the Negro World newspaper in New York, which was widely distributed. Garvey worked as an editor without pay until November 1920. He used Negro World as a platform for his views to encourage growth of the UNIA.[14] By June 1919, the membership of the organization had grown to over two million, according to its records.

On 27 June 1919, the UNIA set up its first business, incorporating the Black Star Line of Delaware, with Garvey as President. By September, it acquired its first ship. Much fanfare surrounded the inspection of the S.S. Yarmouth and its rechristening as the S.S. Frederick Douglass on 14 September 1919. Such a rapid accomplishment garnered attention from many.[14] The Black Star Line also formed a fine winery, using grapes harvested only in Ethiopia. During the first year, the Black Star Line's stock sales brought in $600,000. This caused it to be successful during that year. It had numerous problems during the next two years: mechanical breakdowns on its ships, what it said were incompetent workers, and poor record keeping. The officers were eventually accused of mail fraud.[14]

Edwin P. Kilroe, Assistant District Attorney in the District Attorney's office of the County of New York, began an investigation into the activities of the UNIA. He never filed charges against Garvey or other officers. After being called to Kilroe's office numerous times for questioning, Garvey wrote an editorial on the assistant DA's activities for the Negro World. Kilroe had Garvey arrested and indicted for criminal libel but dismissed the charges after Garvey published a retraction.

On 14 October 1919, Garvey received a visit in his Harlem office from George Tyler, who claimed Kilroe "had sent him" to get the leader. Tyler pulled a .38-caliber revolver and fired four shots, wounding Garvey in the right leg and scalp. Garvey's secretary Amy quickly arranged to get Garvey taken to the hospital for treatment, and Tyler was arrested. The next day, Tyler committed suicide by leaping from the third tier of the Harlem jail as he was being taken to his arraignment.

By August 1920, the UNIA claimed four million members. The number has been questioned because of the organization's poor record keeping.[14] That month, the International Convention of the UNIA was held. With delegates from all over the world attending, 25,000 people filled Madison Square Garden on 1 August 1920 to hear Garvey speak.[15] Over the next couple of years, Garvey's movement was able to attract an enormous number of followers. Reasons for this included the cultural revolution of the Harlem Renaissance, the large number of West Indians who immigrated to New York, and the appeal of the slogan "One God, One Aim, One Destiny," to black veterans of the first World War.[16]

Garvey also established the business, the Negro Factories Corporation. He planned to develop the businesses to manufacture every marketable commodity in every big U.S. industrial center, as well as in Central America, the West Indies, and Africa. Related endeavors included a grocery chain, restaurant, publishing house, and other businesses.

"Explanation of the Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association"
Complete 1921 speech
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Convinced that black people should have a permanent homeland in Africa, Garvey sought to develop Liberia. It had been founded by the American Colonization Society in the 19th century as a colony to free blacks from the United States. Garvey launched the Liberia program in 1920, intended to build colleges, industrial plants, and railroads as part of an industrial base from which to operate. He abandoned the program in the mid-1920s after much opposition from European powers with interests in Liberia. In response to American suggestions that he wanted to take all ethnic Africans of the Diaspora back to Africa, he wrote, "We do not want all the Negroes in Africa. Some are no good here, and naturally will be no good there."[17]

The UNIA held an international convention in 1921 at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Also represented at the convention were organizations such as the Universal Black Cross Nurses, the Black Eagle Flying Corps, and the Universal African Legion. Garvey attracted more than 50,000 people to the event and in his cause. The UNIA had 65,000 to 75,000 members paying dues to his support and funding. The national level of support in Jamaica helped Garvey to become one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century on the island.[18]

Marriage and family

At the age of 32 in 1919, Garvey married his first wife, Amy Ashwood Garvey. Amy Ashwood Garvey was also a founder of The UNIA-ACL. She had saved Garvey in the Tyler assassination by quickly getting medical help. After four months of marriage, Garvey separated from her.

In 1922, he married again, to Amy Jacques Garvey, who was working as his secretary general. They had two sons together, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, III, who was born 17 September 1930, and Julius Winston (born 1933 on the same date), Also had a son named Derrick H. Clowers (Born march 22, 1937). Amy Jacques Garvey played an important role in his career, and would become a lead worker in Garvey's movement.[16]

Political career

"Fundamentally what racial difference is there between a white Communist, Republican or Democrat?"

—Marcus Garvey[19]

Garvey is known as a leading political figure because of his determination to fight for the unity of African Americans by creating the Universal Negro Improvement Association and rallying to gather supporters to fight. With this group he touched upon many topics such as education, the economy, and independence. An important aspect of his career was his thoughts on communism. Garvey felt that communism would be more beneficial for whites by solving their own political and economic problems, but would further limit the success of blacks rising together. He believed that the Communist Party wanted to use the African-American vote "to smash and overthrow" the capitalistic white majority to "put their majority group or race still in power, not only as communists but as white men" (Jacques-Garvey, 1969). The Communist Party wanted to have as many supporters as possible, even if it meant having blacks, but Garvey discouraged this. He had the idea that communists were only white men who wanted to manipulate blacks so they could continue to have control over them. Garvey said, "It is a dangerous theory of economic and political reformation because it seeks to put government in the hands of an ignorant white mass who have not been able to destroy their natural prejudices towards Negroes and other non-white people. While it may be a good thing for them, it will be a bad thing for the Negroes who will fall under the government of the most ignorant, prejudiced class of the white race" (Nolan, 1951).[20]

Conflicts with Du Bois and others

On 4 October 1916, the Daily Gleaner in Kingston published a letter written by Raphael Morgan, a Jamaican-American priest of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, together with over a dozen other like-minded Jamaican Americans, who wrote in to protest against Garvey's lectures.[21] Garvey's views on Jamaica, they felt, were damaging to both the reputation of their homeland and its people, enumerating several objections to Garvey's stated preference for the prejudice of the American whites over that of English whites.[22] Garvey's response was published a month later: he called the letter a conspiratorial fabrication meant to undermine the success and favour he had gained while in Jamaica and in the United States.[23]

While W. E. B. Du Bois felt that the Black Star Line was "original and promising",[24] he added that "Marcus Garvey is, without doubt, the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and in the world. He is either a lunatic or a traitor."[25] Du Bois considered Garvey's program of complete separation a capitulation to white supremacy; a tacit admission that Blacks could never be equal to Whites. Noting how popular the idea was with racist thinkers and politicians, Du Bois feared that Garvey threatened the gains made by his own movement.[26]

Garvey suspected that Du Bois was prejudiced against him because he was a Caribbean native with darker skin. Du Bois once described Garvey as "a little, fat black man; ugly, but with intelligent eyes and a big head".[27] Garvey called Du Bois "purely and simply a white man's nigger" and "a little Dutch, a little French, a little Negro … a mulatto … a monstrosity". This led to an acrimonious relationship between Garvey and the NAACP.[28] In addition, Garvey accused Du Bois of paying conspirators to sabotage the Black Star Line in order to destroy his reputation.[29]

Garvey recognized the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and, after the Black Star Line was closed, sought to engage the South in his activism, since the UNIA now lacked a specific program. In early 1922, he went to Atlanta for a conference with KKK imperial giant Edward Young Clarke, seeking to advance his organization in the South. Garvey made a number of incendiary speeches in the months leading up to that meeting; in some, he thanked the whites for Jim Crow.[30] Garvey once stated: "I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying."[19]

After Garvey's entente with the Klan, a number of African-American leaders appealed to U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty to have Garvey incarcerated.[31]

Charge of mail fraud

In a memorandum dated 11 October 1919,[32] J. Edgar Hoover, special assistant to the Attorney General and head of the General Intelligence Division (or "anti-radical division")[33] of The Bureau of Investigation or BOI (after 1935, the Federal Bureau of Investigation),[34] wrote to Special Agent Ridgely regarding Garvey: "Unfortunately, however, he [Garvey] has not as yet violated any federal law whereby he could be proceeded against on the grounds of being an undesirable alien, from the point of view of deportation."[35][36]

Sometime around November 1919, the BOI began an investigation into the activities of Garvey and the UNIA. Toward this end, the BOI hired James Edward Amos, Arthur Lowell Brent, Thomas Leon Jefferson, James Wormley Jones, and Earl E. Titus as its first five African-American agents. Although initial efforts by the BOI were to find grounds upon which to deport Garvey as "an undesirable alien", a charge of mail fraud was brought against Garvey in connection with stock sales of the Black Star Line after the U.S. Post Office and the Attorney General joined the investigation.[36]

The accusation centered on the fact that the corporation had not yet purchased a ship, which had appeared in a BSL brochure emblazoned with the name "Phyllis Wheatley" (after the African-American poet) on its bow. The prosecution stated that a ship pictured with that name had not actually been purchased by the BSL and still had the name "Orion" at the time; thus the misrepresentation of the ship as a BSL-owned vessel constituted fraud. The brochure had been produced in anticipation of the purchase of the ship, which appeared to be on the verge of completion at the time. However, "registration of the Phyllis Wheatley to the Black Star Line was thrown into abeyance as there were still some clauses in the contract that needed to be agreed."[37] In the end, the ship was never registered to the BSL.

Assistant District Attorney, Leo Healy, who had been, before becoming District Attorney, an attorney with Harris McGill and Co., the sellers of the first ship, the S.S. Yarmouth, to the Black Star Line Inc., was a key witness for the government during the trial. Garvey chose to defend himself. In the opinion of his biographer Colin Grant, Garvey's "belligerent" manner alienated the jury. "In Garvey’s interminable three-hour-long closing address, he portrayed himself as an unfortunate and selfless leader, surrounded by incompetents and thieves....Garvey was belligerent where perhaps grace, humility and even humour were called for".[37] The lawyer defending one of the other charged men took a different approach, emphasising that the so-called fraud was nothing more than a naive mistake, and that no criminal conspiracy existed. "The truth is there is no such thing as any conspiracy. [But] if the indictment had been framed against the defendants for discourtesy, mismanagement or display of bad judgement they would have pleaded guilty."[37] Of the four Black Star Line officers charged in connection with the enterprise, only Garvey was found guilty of using the mail service to defraud. His supporters called the trial fraudulent.

At the National Conference of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1921, a Los Angeles delegate named Noah Thompson spoke on the floor complaining about the lack of transparency in the group's financial accounts. When accounts were prepared Thompson highlighted several sections with what he felt were irregularities.[38] But while there were serious accounting irregularities within the Black Star Line and the claims he used to sell Black Star Line stock could be considered misleading, Garvey's supporters contend that the prosecution was a politically motivated miscarriage of justice.[39]

When the trial ended on 23 June 1923, Garvey had been sentenced to five years in prison. Garvey blamed Jewish jurors and a Jewish federal judge, Julian Mack, for his conviction.[40] He felt that they had been biased because of their political objections to his meeting with the acting imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan the year before.[40] In 1928, Garvey told a journalist: "When they wanted to get me they had a Jewish judge try me, and a Jewish prosecutor. I would have been freed but two Jews on the jury held out against me ten hours and succeeded in convicting me, whereupon the Jewish judge gave me the maximum penalty."[40]

He initially spent three months in the Tombs Jail awaiting approval of bail. While on bail, he continued to maintain his innocence, travel, speak and organize the UNIA. After numerous attempts at appeal were unsuccessful, he was taken into custody and began serving his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on 8 February 1925.[41] Two days later, he penned his well known "First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison", wherein he made his famous proclamation: "Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life."[42]

Professor Judith Stein has stated, "his politics were on trial."[43] Garvey's sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. Upon his release in November 1927, Garvey was deported via New Orleans to Jamaica, where a large crowd met him at Orrett's Wharf in Kingston. Though the popularity of the UNIA diminished greatly following Garvey's expulsion, he nevertheless remained committed to his political ideals.[44]

Later years

In 1928, Garvey travelled to Geneva to present the Petition of the Negro Race. This petition outlined the worldwide abuse of Africans to the League of Nations. In September 1929, he founded the People's Political Party (PPP), Jamaica's first modern political party, which focused on workers' rights, education, and aid to the poor. Also in 1929, Garvey was elected councilor for the Allman Town Division of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). In July 1929, the Jamaican property of the UNIA was seized on the orders of the Chief Justice.[45] Garvey and his solicitor attempted to persuade people not to bid for the confiscated goods, claiming the sale was illegal and Garvey made a political speech in which he referred to corrupt judges.[46] As a result, he was cited for contempt of court and again appeared before the Chief Justice. He received a prison sentence, as a consequence of which he lost his seat. However, in 1930, Garvey was re-elected, unopposed, along with two other PPP candidates.

In April 1931, Garvey launched the Edelweiss Amusement Company. He set the company up to help artists earn their livelihood from their craft. Several Jamaican entertainers—Kidd Harold, Ernest Cupidon, Bim & Bam, and Ranny Williams—went on to become popular after receiving initial exposure that the company gave them. In 1935, Garvey left Jamaica for London. He lived and worked in London until his death in 1940. During these last five years, Garvey remained active and in touch with events in war-torn Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia) and in the West Indies. In 1937, he wrote the poem Ras Nasibu Of Ogaden[47] in honor of Ethiopian Army Commander (Ras) Nasibu Emmanual. In 1938, he gave evidence before the West India Royal Commission on conditions there. Also in 1938 he set up the School of African Philosophy in Toronto to train UNIA leaders. He continued to work on the magazine The Black Man.

While imprisoned Garvey had corresponded with segregationist Earnest Sevier Cox who was lobbying for legislation to "repatriate" African Americans to Africa. Garvey's philosophy of Black racial self-reliance could be combined with Cox's White Nationalism – at least in sharing the common goal of an African Homeland. Cox dedicated his short pamphlet "Let My People Go" to Garvey, and Garvey in return advertised Cox' book "White America" in UNIA publications.[48]

In the summer of 1936, Garvey travelled from London to Toronto, Canada, for five days of speeches and appearances. The Universal Negro Improvement Association had purchased a hall on College Street in that city and a convention was held, where Garvey was the principal speaker. His five-day visit was front page news.[49]

In 1937, a group of Garvey's rivals called the Peace Movement of Ethiopia openly collaborated with the United States Senator from Mississippi, Theodore Bilbo, and Earnest Sevier Cox in the promotion of a repatriation scheme introduced in the US Congress as the Greater Liberia Act. Bilbo, an outspoken supporter of segregation and white supremacy and, attracted by the ideas of black separatists like Garvey, proposed an amendment to the federal work-relief bill on 6 June 1938, proposing to deport 12 million black Americans to Liberia at federal expense to relieve unemployment.[50] He took the time to write a book entitled Take Your Choice, Separation or Mongrelization, advocating the idea. Garvey praised him in return, saying that Bilbo had "done wonderfully well for the Negro".[51] During this period, Evangeline Rondon Paterson, the future grandmother of the 55th Governor of New York State, David Paterson, served as his secretary.

Death

Blue plaque, 53 Talgarth Road, London

Garvey died in London on 10 June 1940, at the age of 52, having suffered two strokes, putatively after reading a mistaken, and negative, obituary of himself in the Chicago Defender in January earlier that same year, which stated, in part, that Garvey died "broke, alone and unpopular". Due to travel restrictions during World War II, his body was interred (no burial mentioned but preserved in a lead-lined coffin) within the lower crypt in St. Mary's Catholic cemetery in London near Kensal Green Cemetery. Twenty years later, his body was removed from the shelves of the lower crypt and taken to Jamaica, where the government proclaimed him Jamaica's first national hero and re-interred him at a shrine in the National Heroes Park.[52]

In London a blue plaque was placed outside the house where Garvey once resided at 53 Talgarth Road, Kensington, and a second blue plaque was placed outside 2 Beaumont Crescent, London, the offices of the UNIA where Marcus Garvey and UNIA members conducted their important work. There is also a small park named after him between North End Road and Hammersmith Road near Olympia, and a library in Tottenham.

Influence

The UNIA flag uses three colors: red, black and green.

Schools, colleges, highways, and buildings in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States have been named in his honor. The UNIA red, black, and green flag has been adopted as the Black Liberation Flag. Since 1980, Garvey's bust has been housed in the Organization of American States' Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.

Malcolm X's parents, Earl and Louise Little, met at a UNIA convention in Montreal. Earl was the president of the UNIA division in Omaha, Nebraska, and sold the Negro World newspaper, for which Louise covered UNIA activities.[53]

Kwame Nkrumah named the national shipping line of Ghana the Black Star Line in honor of Garvey and the UNIA. Nkrumah also named the national football team the Black Stars as well. The black star at the centre of Ghana's flag is also inspired by the Black Star.

Flag of Ghana

During a trip to Jamaica, Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King visited Garvey's shrine on 20 June 1965 and laid a wreath.[54] In a speech he told the audience that Garvey "was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody."[55]

King was a posthumous recipient of the first Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights on 10 December 1968, issued by the Jamaican Government and presented to King's widow. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Garvey on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[56]

The Obama Administration declined to pardon Garvey in 2011, writing that its policy is not to consider requests for posthumous pardons.[57]

There have been several proposals to make a biopic of Garvey's life. Those mentioned in connection with the role of Garvey have included the Jamaican-born actor Kevin Navayne[58][59] and the British-born actor of Jamaican descent Delroy Lindo.[60][61]

Rastafari and Garvey

Rastafari consider Garvey to be a religious prophet, and sometimes even the reincarnation of Saint John the Baptist. This is partly because of his frequent statements uttered in speeches throughout the 1920s, usually along the lines of "Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is at hand!"[62]

His beliefs deeply influenced the Rastafari, who took his statements as a prophecy of the crowning of Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. Early Rastas were associated with his Back-to-Africa movement in Jamaica. This early Rastafari movement was also influenced by a separate, proto-Rasta movement known as the Afro-Athlican Church that was outlined in a religious text known as the Holy Piby—where Garvey was proclaimed to be a prophet as well. Garvey himself never identified with the Rastafari movement,[63] and was, in fact, raised as a Methodist who went on to become a Roman Catholic.

Memorials

Garvey is remembered through a number of memorials worldwide. Most of them are in Jamaica, England and the United States; others are in Canada and several nations in Africa.

A Jamaican 20-dollar coin shows Garvey on its face.

Jamaica

Garvey was given major prominence as a national hero during Jamaica's move towards independence. As such, he has numerous tributes there. The first of these is the Garvey statue and shrine in Kingston's National Heroes Park. Among the honors to him in Jamaica are his name upon the Jamaican Ministry of Foreign Affairs; a major highway bearing his name and the Marcus Garvey Scholarship tenable at the University of the West Indies sponsored by The National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations, Inc (NAJASO) since 1988.

Garvey's birthplace, 32 Market Street, St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, has a marker signifying it as a site of importance in the nation's history.[64] His likeness is on the 20-dollar coin and 25-cent coin. Garvey's recognition is probably most significant in Kingston, Jamaica.

Africa

Garvey's memory is maintained in several locations in Africa. Nairobi, Kenya and Enugu, Nigeria have streets bearing his name, while the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, put his name on an entire neighborhood. Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria has a library named for him. A bust of Garvey was created and is on display at a park in the central region in Ghana, along with one of Martin Luther King.

England

Garvey's influence is acknowledged through a number of sites in England, most of which are in London:

United States

The United States is the country where Garvey not only rose to prominence, but also cultivated many of his ideas.

Harlem, in New York City, was the site of the UNIA Liberty Hall and many events of significance in Garvey's life. There is a park bearing his name and a New York Public Library branch dedicated to him, as well. A major street bears his name in the historically African-American Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant.

A Marcus Garvey Cultural Center, University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, Colorado). The National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations Inc. (NAJASO) founded on 4 July 1977 in Washington DC), based in the United States, named Annual Scholarship tenable at the University of the West Indies since 1988, the Marcus Garvey Scholarship. Marcus Garvey Festival every year on the third weekend of August at Basu Natural Farms, in Pembroke Township, Illinois. The Universal Hip Hop Parade held annually in Brooklyn on the Saturday before his birthday to carry on his use of popular culture as a tool of empowerment and to encourage the growth of Black institutions. Since 1980, Garvey's bust has been housed in the Organization of American States' Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.

Canada

In Canada, Marcus Garvey Day is held annually on 17 August in Toronto; there is a Marcus Garvey Centre for Unity, in Edmonton, Alberta, and the Marcus Garvey Centre for Leadership and Education in the Jane-Finch area of Toronto.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Grant, Colin, Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey, OUP, 2008, p. 18.
  2. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica Online Marcus Garvey profile. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 "The "Back to Africa" Myth". UNIA-ACL website. 14 July 2005. Archived from the original on 30 December 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
  4. ↑ "Overlooking his quarrel with the Emporor of Ethiopia, Marcus Garvey was revered by Rastafarians as the prophet who had foretold the coming of Haile Selassie." Colin Grant: Negro With a Hat. The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey. Oxford University Press 2008, p. 453
  5. ↑ Garvey, Marcus (1986). Jacques-Garvey, Amy, ed. The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey or Africa for the Africans. Dover (Massachusetts): Majority Press. p. 163. ISBN 0-912469-24-2.
  6. 1 2 3 Martin, Tony. Marcus Garvey, Hero. Dover: The Majority Press, 1984.
  7. ↑ Crowder, Ralph L. (1 January 2003). Grand old man of the movement: "John Edward Bruce, Marcus Garvey, and the UNIA", African-Americans in New York Life and History, The Free Library (Philadelphia), retrieved 17 February 2008.
  8. ↑ UNIA-ACL website, The "Back to Africa" Myth at the Wayback Machine (archived 10 February 2005), retrieved 19 November 2007.
  9. ↑ "Marcus Garvey.". Biography. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Tony Martin, Marcus Garvey, Hero: A First Biography, Dover Massachusetts: The Majority Press, 1983, p. 15.
  11. ↑ History.com Staff. "Marcus Garvey". History.com. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  12. ↑ "Primary Sources: The Negro's Greatest Enemy", Marcus Garvey: The Film & More, PBS.
  13. ↑ Shapiro, Herbert, White Violence and Black Response: From Reconstruction to Montgomery, University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, p. 163.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Mugleston, William. "Garvey, Marcus", American National Biography, p. 8.
  15. ↑ Sundiata, Ibrahim K. (2003). Brothers and Strangers: Black Zion, Black Slavery, 1914–1940. Duke University Press. pp. 18–19. ISBN 978-0-8223-3247-3. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  16. 1 2 Mugleston, William. "Garvey, Marcus". American National Biography Online. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  17. ↑ Garvey, Marcus (1967). Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey: Or, Africa for the Africans. Routledge. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-7146-1143-3. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
  18. ↑ Mugleston, William. "Garvey, Marcus". American National Biography. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  19. 1 2 Compiled by Amy Jacques Garvey; with a new intro. by Essien-Udom (2013). The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey Africa for the Africans (2nd ed.). Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-136-23106-3.
  20. ↑ Carter, Shawn. "Western Journal of Black Studies". Washington State University Press. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  21. ↑ "Letter Denouncing Marcus Garvey". In: Hill, Robert A. (ed.), The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers: 1826 – August 1919. University of California Press, 1983. pp. 196–197.
  22. ↑ Fr. Oliver Herbel. The African American National Biography by Raphael Morgan at mywire.com. Retrieved 1 January 2008.
  23. ↑ Daily Gleaner, 14 November 1916, p. 13. At: Lumsden, Joy, MA (Cantab), PhD (UWI). Father Raphael. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  24. ↑ "The Collapse of the Only Thing in the Garvey Movement Which Was Original or Promising", retrieved 2 November 2007.
  25. ↑ Du Bois, The Crisis, Vol. 28, May 1924, pp. 8–9.
  26. ↑ Du Bois, The Crisis, Vol. 28, May 1924, p. 9.
  27. ↑ Hill, Robert A.; Garvey, Marcus; Forczek, Deborah; Universal Negro Improvement Association (1987). The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association papers. University of California Press. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-520-05817-0. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  28. ↑ Grant, Colin (2008). Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-536794-2.
  29. ↑ American Series Introduction Volume I: 1826--August 1919. Retrieved 1 April 2007.
  30. ↑ Stein, Judith (1991). The world of Marcus Garvey : race and class in modern society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP. pp. 154–56. ISBN 978-0-8071-1670-8.
  31. ↑ Moore, Richard B., "The Critics and Opponents of Marcus Garvey", in Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa, ed. Clarke, John Henrik, with Amy Jacques Garvey (New York, 1974), p. 228.
  32. ↑ Memorandum to Special Agent Ridgely on wikisource.
  33. ↑ "Reel 12 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916–1925 cont. National Archives and Research Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont: 0703 Casefile OG 374217: "Memorandum upon Work of the Radical Division, August 1, 1919 to October 15, 1919, Prepared by J. Edgar Hoover; and Other Memoranda. 1919-1920." 263pp." (PDF). p. 19. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
  34. ↑ Reel 13 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916–1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: 0626 Casefile OG 391465: Confidential Informants, Memoranda of J. Edgar Hoover, Compensation, Policy, Washington, D.C. 1920. 3pp. p. 22, p. xxi.
  35. ↑ "J. Edgar Hoover to Special Agent Ridgely Washington, D.C., October 11, 1919 MEMORANDUM FOR MR. RIDGELY."
  36. 1 2 Theodore Kornweibel (ed.), Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917–1925): The First World War, the Red Scare, and the Garvey Movement, p. x. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
  37. 1 2 3 Grant, Negro with a Hat (2008), pp. 288; 371.
  38. ↑ Leonard, Kevin Allen (2 February 2009). "California". In Finkelman, Paul (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896 to the Present; from the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 323‒327. ISBN 978-0-19-516779-5.
  39. ↑ Application for Executive Clemency by Marcus Garvey, Marcusgarvey.com. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  40. 1 2 3 Hill, Robert A., ed. (1987). Marcus Garvey: Life and Lessons. University of California Press. p. lvii. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  41. ↑ Online Forum: Marcus Garvey vs. United States
  42. ↑ "First Message to the Negroes of the World from Atlanta Prison".
  43. ↑ Stein, Judith, "Pardon Marcus Garvey", New York Times, 5 November 1983, p. 5.
  44. ↑ Skyers, Sophia Teresa (1982). Marcus Garvey and the Philosophy of Black Pride (M.A. thesis) Wilfrid Laurier University
  45. ↑ Amy jacques-Garvey, "The Political Activities of Marcus Garvey in Jamaica", Jamaican Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2 (June 1972), pp. 2–4.
  46. ↑ Ansell Hart
  47. ↑ Poem- Ras Nasibu of the Ogaden
  48. ↑ Jackson, John P. (2005). Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case against Brown v. Board of Education. NYU Press. pp. 32–33. ISBN 978-0-8147-4271-6.
  49. ↑ Edwards, Peter (January 26, 1998). "Black history looms large at busy corner". Toronto Star. p. B3.
  50. ↑ Current Biography, 1943, p. 50.
  51. ↑ Sundiata, Brothers and Strangers (2003), p. 313.
  52. ↑ Monument to the Rt. Excellent Marcus Garvey.
  53. ↑ "People & Events: Earl and Louise Little". PBS Online. 1999. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  54. ↑ "Martin Luther King Jr. visits Jamaica", Jamaica Gleaner, 20 June 1965.
  55. ↑ Salley, Columbus, "The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential African-Americans, Past and Present", Citadel Press, 1999, p. 82.
  56. ↑ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-57392-963-8
  57. ↑ Walker, Karyl, "No Pardon for Garvey", Jamaica Observer, 21 August 2011.
  58. ↑ Castle, Stan (3 April 2012). "Marcus Garvey Movie Biopic In The Works". Atlanta Black Star. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  59. ↑ "Kevin Navayne to Star in Marcus Garvey Biopic". The Reel Network. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  60. ↑ Rao, Sameer (7 December 2015). "Delroy Lindo to Star as Marcus Garvey in Upcoming Biopic". ColorLines. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  61. ↑ Taylor, F. (16 December 2015). "Actor Delroy Lindo to Play the Great Marcus Garvey in Upcoming Biographical Movie to Be Released..When?". Urban Intellectuals. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  62. ↑ Smith, M. G., Roy Augier and Rex Nettleford, The Rastafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston: 1960, p. 5.
  63. ↑ Martin, Tony (21 October 2009). "Marcus Garvey". BBC. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  64. ↑ 32 Market Street, 16 March 2013.

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