Marcus Garvey
From Harlem Renaissance
Marcus Garvey was a Harlem Renaissance activist nicknamed "The Black Moses." Unlike W.E.B. Du Bois, Garvey fought for the "untalented ninetieth" instead of Alain Locke's "talented tenth" with the largest organized movement in African-American history, the six-million member strong UNIA, or Universal Negro Improvement Association.
Contents |
Early Years
Family & Education
Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born on August 17, 1887, In St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. He was the youngest of 11 children, 9 of which died while they were young. He went to St. Ann's Bay Primary School, and his hobbies were playing cricket, swimming, and reading. His father was a mason, but his parents were poor, so at age 14 he started apprenticeship with his godfather, who owned a print shop in St. Ann's Bay.
Early Jobs
Soon he moved to Port Maria, to manage a print shop, and then again to a better job at P. A. Benjamin in Kingston. He was good at his job, and was made a foreman. Around this time Garvey studied elocution. Life was hard for common people in Jamaica, and a huge Earthquake in 1907 only made matters worse. A year latter, the workers at the print shop went on strike for more pay. Garvey didn't have to strike, because he was a foreman, but did so to support the workers. The strike ended quickly, some got their jobs back, and others, like Garvey, did not. Garvey went on to another job at the Government Printing Office. Like many Jamaicans at the turn of the century, Garvey left Jamaica to find work elsewhere.
Traveling Abroad
Garvey first went to live with his uncle in Costa Rica, where he found work at a banana plantation. After that he went to work in Panama. Both countries had higher pay than in Jamaica, but with no banks, salaries were easily stolen. In Costa Rica he got workers to organize and started a newspaper about the conditions workers faced called La Naçion. The Government forced him to leave Costa Rica because of what he was doing for workers. In Panama he started a similar newspaper, La Prensa, before traveling to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. He saw that everywhere Blacks were being discriminated against. Frustrated by working situations in Central America, Garvey returned to Jamaica to ask the government to put a stop to the discrimination. They didn't listen, and Garvey left for London 1912 to find financial support for what would eventually become the greatest African-American organized movement of all time: the UNIA.
Activism
UNIA
In 1914 Garvey returned to Jamaica and began the UNIA, or Universal Negro Improvement Association. Garvey read Brooker T. Washington's book Up from Slavery: An Autobiography, and was inspired. UNIA began with night classes for people who didn't go to college. It expanded to include other services like the Negro Factories Corporation, which encouraged blacks to be economically independent. The UNIA began holding conventions and had many branches and over a million memebers. The UNIA adopted a flag, and awarded elaborate title and uniforms to it's members. The UNIA fought for equality and against racism, but had a different approach compared to different organizations. They believed that it was unrealistic to depend on the white people to fight for change, so they stood that African-American's would have to do it themselves, and for segregation, not integration.
The Move to Harlem
In 1916 Garvey moved UNIA world headquarters to Harlem, in New York City, from Jamaica. Immedeately Garvey set off on a tour of the whole country, leading meetings and conventions where ever African-Americans lived. Harlem already had a large UNIA membership, and New York was the best place for bringing UNIA leaders from all over the world together. His entry was not welcomed by all, though. Activists like W.E.B. Du Bois didn't like Garvey's ideas, or organization. They thought that that there shouldn't be black people and white people, but just people- they opposed the segregation he supported. They said that ten percent of African-Americans would lead the way for the rest, he thought they would all fight their way up together. What especially displeased other leading activists was the fancy uniforms and parades of the UNIA. They thought they made them look like minstrel shows. The argument was that it promoted pride and self-respect, a key goal of the UNIA.
Back to Africa Movement
The biggest part of UNIA's agenda was the "Back to Africa" Movement. It called for Liberia to give land to the descendants of slaves. Garvey announced this plan at the First International Convention in New York City. At first the Liberian government embraced the plan, and agreed, but they soon went back on their word. Other than that, the first convention was a great success for the UNIA, and before the Liberian government drew out of the deal, Marcus Garvey started the Black Star Line, an exciting idea that eventually led to Garvey's end as a prominent black leader.
Black Star Line and The Negro World
The Black Star Line was a ship line started by Garvey and the UNIA for the transportation of black people from all over the world to Africa. The goal was to have an exchange of services and products fueling both ends of the black world. Another huge tool set forth by Garvey and the UNIA was a newspaper, The Negro World. This newspaper spread the word of the UNIA's work, and often had a column written by Garvey himself. This paper was made in Harlem, but distributed throughout the United States, Central America, the Carribean, and Europe. He used this newspaper to advertise the Black Star Line, and bring attention (and outrage) to current issues, mass lynchings, and the many other racist tragedies of the day.
Great Fall
The Question is: If Marcus Garvey is such a remarkable activist and leader, why don't most people know more about him today? Though Garvey was great, he made several dicisions that doomed him and the UNIA for ever. His first great mistake was borrowing money from the wrong people. At one point the UNIA needed money for a project of their's, and Garvey actually turned to the acting Ku Klux Klan leader for support. Not only did this destroy the career of that K.K.K. member, but it outraged the black community tremendously. The UNIA began to fall, people could no longer trust the organization that wanted to help them so much, if their leader was making friends with the leader of an organization who had terrorized them so much for so long. This also gave room for the other great activists to hurt Garvey. When he was very popular, speaking badly of him would not be good for their causes. Now they could criticize him and be affective with it. Garvey's next great mistake had very much to do with the Black Star Line. Letters were sent out, urging people to buy Black Star Line Stock. Because the project failed, the Black Star Line never had it's maiden voyage, but still sent out letters advising people who greatly trusted the UNIA to buy stock in it! A mail fraud suit was made by the United States Government and NAACP against Garvey. He was convicted guilty, and after serving several years in prison he was expelled to Jamaica. The UNIA was no longer a major African-American organization in the Untied States. Garvey never returned and soon moved to London, where he died in 1940.
Garvey's Impact on the World
Though Marcus Garvey had his ups and downs, he was undoubtedly a great leader who dreamed up ideas and visions never imagined before for African-Americans. Today the specifics of his ideas have not become reality, but his overarching goal of blacks all over the world being treated equally has become reality in the United States, and is getting closer and closer around the world. He is also thought of today as Jamaica's first national hero. He stood up for the people of his country, their rights and their freedom. Today in Jamaica he is remembered as a fighter and a dreamer. Today he is remembered throughout the world on street signs, and in his impressive memorial park in Harlem. He never said "We can't do this." His ideas were to grand for that, he reached for the impossible, and raised pride and confidence of African-Americans throughout the Harlem Renaissance.
Marcus Garvey Quotes
Marcus Garvey was very good with words. He used this skill to inspire people to hope for, fight for, and work for a better life through his speeches and column in The Negro World. I have explained the meaning of a few of his quotes.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.
Here, Garvey states that the African-American community must know of their history and culture in order to survive. He compares this to a trees need of roots, because without them the tree becomes malnourished and topples over, dead.
A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.
Africa for the Africans... at home and abroad!
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
This captures the essence of Garvey's mood toward to success of African-Americans. He declares that luck will not help them, that luck being whites. Instead, they must unite and fight for equality.
God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.
I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.
I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free.
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.
If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence you have won even before you have started.
Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.
Garvey says this to explain that in order to become independent, you must first think independently. An independent body has no use if the mind that controls it is not independent.
Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm.
Look to Africa, for there a king will be crowned.
Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences.
Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves. And the nation can be nowhere else but in Africa.
Garvey believes that for African-Americans to truly be successful, they must create their own nation. In that nation, there wouldn't be many whites that could try to push them back, and they could use the government that was completely for them to advance themselves. Africa is the obvious location, because all African-Americans ancestors were from there. Another reason would be that in the early 1900s, Africa was the only continent in semi-colonialism that was close to the United States and Europe.
Progress is the attraction that moves humanity.
The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
The whole world is run on bluff.
There is no force like success, and that is why the individual makes all effort to surround himself throughout life with the evidence of it; as of the individual, so should it be of the nation.
There shall be no solution to this race problem until you, yourselves, strike the blow for liberty.
Unite all people of African ancestry of the world to one great body to establish a country and absolute government of their own.
Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.
What you do today that is worthwhile, inspires others to act at some future time.
There is nothing in the world common to man, that man cannot do.
The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself; but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you even into eternity.
Education is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own particular civilization, and the advancement and glory of their own race.
The masses make the nation and the race. If the masses are illiterate, that is the judgement passed on the race by those who are critical of its existence.
Every student of Political Science, every student of Economics knows, that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation. That the race can only be saved through political independence. Take away industry from a race; take away political freedom from a race, and you have a group of slaves.
Be as proud of your race today as our fathers were in days of yore. We have beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world.
So many of us find excuses to get out of the Negro Race, because we are led to believe that the race is unworthy— that it has not accomplished anything. Cowards that we are! It is we who are unworthy, because we are not contributing to the uplift and upbuilding of this noble race.
For over three hundred years the white man has been our oppressor, and he naturally is not going to liberate us to the higher freedom— the truer liberty— the truer Democracy. We have to liberate ourselves.
Let us prepare TODAY. For the TOMORROWS in the lives of the nations will be so eventful that Negroes everywhere will be called upon to play their part in the survival of the fittest human group.
The world ought to know that it could not keep 400,000,000 Negroes down forever.
There is always a turning point in the destiny of every race, every nation, of all peoples, and we have come now to the turning point of Negro, where we have changed from the old cringing weakling, and transformed into full-grown men, demanding our portion as MEN.
The only protection against INJUSTICE in man is POWER— Physical, financial and scientific.
Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realised the light of their own freedom.
Let Africa be our guiding Star— OUR STAR OF DESTINY.
How dare anyone tell us that Africa cannot be redeemed, when we have 400,000,000 men and women with warm blood coursing through their veins? The power that holds Africa is not Divine.The power that holds Africa is human, and it is recognized that whatsoever man has done, man can do.
All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishment of an African Empire— so strong and powerful, as to compel the respect of mankind, but we in our life-time can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility within another generation.
Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa! Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free, redeemed and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the constellation of nations.
No one knows when the hour of Africa's Redemption cometh. It is in the wind. It is coming. One day, like a storm, it will be here. When that day comes all Africa will stand together.
Sources
http://www.moec.gov.jm/heroes/garvey.htm
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/garvey_marcus.shtml
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http://www.africawithin.com/garvey/garvey_bio.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/peopleevents/e_unia.html
http://www.unia-acl.org/info/historic.htm
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Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp! New York, New York: Little, Brown, 2004.
van Sertima, Ivan. Great Black Leaders: Ancient and Modern. Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1988.
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/servlet/BioRC
Marcus Garvey." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/servlet/BioRC
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