Transcription
Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association formed a critical link in Black America's centuries-long struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. As the leader of the largest organized mass movement in black history and progenitor of the modern "black is beautiful" ideal, Garvey is best remembered as a champion of the "Back to Africa" movement. In his own time, he was hailed as a redeemer, a "black Moses." Though he failed to realize all his objectives, his movement still represented a liberation from the psychological bondage of racial inferiority. Although he died a little earlier than anticipated, Garvey played a major role in the Pan-African movement.
In this video, we'll delve into the life and accomplishments of Marcus Garvey, the influential Jamaican political leader and activist who organized the first black nationalist movement in the United States.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born on 17 August 1887 in Saint Anne's Bay, a town in the British colony of Jamaica. In the context of colonial Jamaican society, which had a colorist social hierarchy, Garvey was considered at the lowest end due to his being a black child of full African descent. Garvey's paternal great-grandfather had been born into slavery prior to its abolition in Jamaica. Interestingly, his surname, which was of Irish origin, had been inherited from his family's former enslavers. His father, Marcus Garvey Sr., worked as a stone mason, and his mother, Sarah Richards, was a domestic servant and the daughter of peasant farmers. Marcus Sr. had two previous partners before Sarah, with whom he had six children. Sarah gave birth to four more children, making Marcus the youngest. Although two of his siblings passed away in infancy, the Garvey family, because of Marcus's profession, was relatively wealthier than many of their peasant neighbors. They belonged to the petty bourgeoisie. However, Marcus was reckless with money and lost most of the land he owned over time due to debts.
Marcus, despite being self-educated and having a book collection, was an intolerant and punitive father and husband. As a result, he never had a close relationship with his son Marcus until the age of 14. Marcus attended a local church school, as further education was unaffordable for the family. Outside of school, he worked on his maternal uncle's tenant farm. He also had friends with whom he got into trouble, like breaking the windows of a church, which led to his arrest. Although some of his childhood friends were white, Marcus noticed that as they grew older, they distanced themselves from him. However, he fondly remembered a close childhood friend, a white girl, with whom he never thought about racial differences.
In 1901, at the age of 14, Marcus became an apprentice to his godfather, who was a local printer. Later, in 1904, he started working at another branch of the printer's business in Port Maria, commuting from Saint Anne's Bay morning.
In 1905, Marcus Garvey made a move to Kingston, where he found lodging in Smith Village, a working-class neighborhood in the city. He secured a job with the printing division of the P.A. Benjamin Manufacturing Company. Thanks to his diligence and abilities, he quickly climbed the ranks and became the company's first Afro-Jamaican foreman. At this point, his sister and mother, who were estranged from his father, also joined him in the city. However, tragedy struck in January 1907 when an earthquake devastated Kingston, leaving Marcus, his mother, and his sister homeless and forced to sleep in the open for several months. Sadly, in March 1908, his mother passed away.
It was during his time in Kingston that Garvey decided to convert to Catholicism, becoming increasingly involved in workers' rights. Marcus Garvey embraced trade unionism and became the vice president of the compositor section of the printer's union. He played a leading role in the print workers' strike in November 1908. The strike was ultimately broken, and as a result, Garvey lost his job. Branded a troublemaker, he faced difficulties finding work in the private sector and had to settle for temporary employment with a government printer. These experiences fueled his growing discontent with the inequalities in Jamaican society.
As he delved deeper into advocating for Jamaican nationalism, Garvey got involved with the National Club, the country's first nationalist organization. In April 1910, he became its first assistant secretary. The group campaigned to remove the governor of Jamaica, Sydney Oliver, from office and sought to halt the migration of Indian indentured workers to Jamaica, viewing them as economic competition for the established population. Together with fellow club member Wilfred Domingo, Garvey published a pamphlet titled "The Struggling Mass" to express the organization's ideas. During this time, Garvey also launched his own magazine called "Garvey's Watchmen," taking inspiration from George William Gordon's "The Watch." However, the magazine only lasted for three issues.
Eager to improve his oratory skills, Marcus Garvey enrolled in elocution lessons with a radical journalist, Joseph Robert Love, who became his mentor. With newfound confidence in his ability to speak in standard English, Garvey entered several public speaking competitions.
Economic difficulties in Jamaica triggered increased immigration from the island. In the middle of 1910, Marcus Garvey traveled to Costa Rica, where his uncle had arranged employment for him as a timekeeper on a banana plantation owned by the United Fruit Company (UFC) in the Limón Province. However, upon arrival, he encountered strikes and unrest as the UFC attempted to cut workers' wages. Despite his role as a timekeeper, Garvey grew increasingly upset at the mistreatment of the laborers. In 1911, he took a bold step and launched a bilingual newspaper, "La Nación," which openly criticized the actions of the UFC, drawing the ire of the dominant strata of Costa Rican society. After being questioned by the police for his coverage of a local fire, Garvey had to discontinue the newspaper when his printing press broke down.
Following his time in Costa Rica, Garvey journeyed through Central America, taking on casual work while traveling through Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. In Panama's Port of Colón, he established another newspaper called "La Prensa." However, illness struck in 1911, and he decided to return to Kingston. Then, driven by the desire for further education, he set his sights on London, the heart of the British Empire, and arrived there in the spring of 1912.
Renting a room in South London, he visited the House of Commons, where he was impressed by the politician David Lloyd George. Garvey also made speeches at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, gaining attention as one of the few black individuals in London at the time. Initially, he found sporadic work as a laborer in the city's docks. In August 1912, his sister Indiana joined him in London and worked as a domestic servant.
In early 1913, Garvey secured employment as a messenger and handyman for the "African Times and Orient Review," a magazine that promoted Ethiopianism and home rule for British-ruled Egypt. Over time, he began writing for the magazine, and he also attended evening law classes at Birkbeck College in Bloomsbury. Following a tour of Europe that included stops in Glasgow, Paris, Monte Carlo, Boulogne, and Madrid, Garvey returned to London and wrote an article about Jamaica for a tourist magazine. While spending time at the British Museum's Library, he stumbled upon "Up From Slavery," a book by African-American entrepreneur and activist Booker T. Washington, which deeply influenced him.
Despite facing financial challenges, Garvey tried to return to Jamaica but was unsuccessful in securing financial support from the Colonial Office and the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society. Eventually, he managed to save enough money for fare and boarded the SS Trent in June 1914 for a three-week voyage across the Atlantic. During the journey, Garvey engaged in meaningful conversations with an Afro-Caribbean missionary who shared insights about colonial Africa and his experiences in Basutoland. This encounter sparked Garvey's vision of a global movement that would politically unite people of African descent worldwide.
In July 1914, Marcus Garvey returned to Jamaica and saw his article republished in "The Gleaner." To earn a living, he began selling imported greeting and condolence cards before transitioning to selling tombstones. During the same month, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA) with a motto: "One Aim, One God, One Destiny." The organization aimed to foster a sense of race pride and unity among black people of African descent, as well as to uplift disadvantaged communities in Africa. Although initially small, UNIA faced criticism from some Jamaicans for its prominent use of the term "negro," which they perceived as derogatory. However, Garvey embraced the term as a reference to black people.
As UNIA's president and traveling commissioner, Garvey operated the organization from his hotel room in Orange Street, Kingston. UNIA presented itself as a charitable club focused on helping the poor and establishing a vocational training college similar to Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute. Garvey corresponded with Washington and received an encouraging response, but Washington passed away shortly thereafter. UNIA expressed loyalty to the British Empire and actively supported the British war effort during World War I.
In August 1914, Garvey met Amy Ashwood, a recent graduate who became a member of UNIA and later his fiancée. Despite facing opposition from her parents, they continued their relationship. Garvey gained financial support from prominent patrons, including the mayor of Kingston and the governor of Jamaica, but faced criticism from the brown middle-class population for his claims of being part of the cultured class of Jamaican society. Some also accused him of being derogatory when describing black Jamaicans, causing a decline in support for UNIA. Recognizing the challenges faced by UNIA in Jamaica, Garvey decided to migrate to the United States in March 1916. He boarded the SS Tuck to begin a new chapter of his activism in America.
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Upon arriving in the United States, Marcus Garvey found lodging with a Jamaican expatriate family in Harlem, a predominantly black neighborhood in New York City. He aspired to become a public speaker and started giving lectures, hoping to build a career in that field. However, his first public speech was met with heckling, and he even fell off the stage. Undeterred, Garvey embarked on a speaking tour across 38 states in the U.S., where he also listened to preachers from African Methodist Episcopal Church and black Baptist Churches. During his stopovers, he visited the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and met its new leader, Robert Russell Moten. After six months of traveling and lecturing, Garvey returned to New York City.
In May 1917, Garvey established a New York branch of UNIA, making membership open to anyone with "negro blood" and African ancestry who could afford the 25 cents monthly fee. He joined other speakers who delivered speeches on the streets, often standing on step ladders, and frequented Speaker's Corner on 135th Street. In his speeches, Garvey aimed to unite Afro-Caribbean migrants and native African Americans. This led him to associate with Hubert Harrison, a proponent of black self-reliance and racial separatism. Garvey shared the stage with Harrison at the inaugural meeting of Harrison's Liberty League of Negro Americans in June, drawing more public attention.
Following the U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917, Garvey initially volunteered to fight but was deemed physically unfit. He later opposed African-American involvement in the conflict, echoing Harrison's view that it was a "white man's war." In response to the East St. Louis race riots of May to July 1917, during which white mobs targeted black people, Garvey began advocating for armed self-defense. He authored a pamphlet, "The Conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots," which was widely distributed, and its proceeds went to the victims of the riots. The Bureau of Investigation monitored his activities, noting that his speeches featured more militant language than his written material, including controversial statements about retaliatory actions for racial violence.
By the end of 1917, Garvey had won over many of Harrison's key associates from the Liberty League to join UNIA. He also gained support from journalist John Edward Bruce, who initially assumed UNIA's presidency. However, after learning about Garvey's background from Dusa Muhammad Ali's negative assessment, Bruce pressured Garvey to step down. In response, Garvey resigned from UNIA and established a rival group that convened at Old Fellows Temple. He filed legal proceedings against Bruce and other senior UNIA members, and the court ultimately ruled in Garvey's favor, affirming his ownership of the organization, which now boasted around 600 members.
In 1918, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) experienced rapid growth in its membership. It was officially incorporated in June, and a commercial arm called the African Communities League filed for incorporation in July. Garvey had ambitious plans for UNIA, envisioning the establishment of an import and export business, a restaurant, and a laundrette. He also sought to raise funds for a permanent building to serve as the organization's base.
In April, Garvey launched the weekly newspaper "The Negro World," which became the personal propaganda organ of its founder. Though backed by philanthropists like Madame C.J. Walker, financial struggles led to appeals for donations to keep it running. The newspaper faced criticism for Garvey's failure to pay contributing journalists, and rival publications exploited this fact. Unlike other black-run newspapers, "The Negro World" refused to feature advertisements for skin-lightening and hair-straightening products, emphasizing the importance of embracing one's natural appearance. By the end of its first year, the newspaper's circulation approached 10,000, reaching readers not only in the U.S. but also in the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America. Some British West Indian islands even banned the publication.
Garvey appointed his friend Wilfred Domingo as the editor of "The Negro World," but their ideological differences led to conflict, and Domingo eventually resigned. In September 1918, Amy Ashwood joined Garvey in New York City, becoming the General Secretary of UNIA. In November, she, along with actress Henrietta Vinton Davis, played a significant role in UNIA gatherings, reciting black-authored poetry.
After World War I ended, Garvey and other African Americans formed the International League for Darker Peoples to advocate for their interests at the Paris Peace Conference. UNIA sent Eliza Cadett as its delegate, but the perspectives of non-European peoples were largely ignored, with the conference reaffirming support for European colonial rule.
In 1919, Garvey and his associates set up the Black Star Line, a shipping company operating under the umbrella of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The association had remarkably grown to include over 4 million members at this point. The Black Star Line acquired its first ship, the SS Yarmouth, which was renamed the SS Frederick Douglass. The company then initiated the African Redemption Liberia program, aimed to establish a nation on the west coast of Africa for black Americans, including those who were descendants of enslaved individuals.
Racial tensions erupted across the U.S., with African-American veterans refusing to accept their previous subservient status. The government became concerned about potential revolutionary behavior following the Russian October Revolution and ordered investigations into Garvey. J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau of Investigation viewed him as politically subversive and sought to deport him. During the Palmer Raids...
Due to his vocal activism and advocacy for black nationalism, Marcus Garvey came under scrutiny from J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), the early version of the FBI. The BOI launched an investigation against Garvey on charges of mail fraud, alleging that a brochure for the Black Star Line featured a ship photo before the company had an actual vessel in its fleet. However, Hoover referred to Garvey as a "notorious negro agitator" and even enlisted the first black FBI agent in 1919 to surveil him.
In 1923, after a controversial trial, Garvey was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison. He attributed his conviction to a Jewish judge and jurors seeking revenge because he had previously met with a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Garvey believed that he and the KKK shared similar views on segregation, as both sought separate states for their respective communities. Serving his sentence at Atlanta Prison in 1925, he authored the renowned paper "First Message to the Negroes of the World from Atlanta Prison." In this message, he declared: "After my enemies are satisfied in life or death, I shall come back to you to serve as I have before. In life, I shall remain steadfast, and in death, I shall be a terror to the foes of Negro Liberty. If death has power, then count on me in death to be the Marcus Garvey I aspire to be. Whether it be through an earthquake, cyclone, plague, or as God would have it, I shall never abandon you, and your enemies shall never triumph over you."
Upon his release from prison in 1928, after serving three years of his sentence...
Marcus Garvey journeyed to Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations concerning matters of race and the widespread mistreatment of people of color across the globe. After a few months, he returned to Jamaica and founded the People's Political Party, marking the nation's first modern political organization. The party's platform prioritized advocating for workers' rights and addressing the needs of the impoverished.
While Garvey's legacy as a leader and activist endures, his separatist and black nationalist views were not universally embraced by his contemporaries. W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent figure in the NAACP, famously criticized Garvey, labeling him as "the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and in the world." Nevertheless, Garvey supporters chose to emphasize his core message rooted in black pride. He's credited with popularizing the phrase "black is beautiful." His philosophy finds expression in his words: "We must canonize our own saints, create our own starters, and elevate black men and women who have made distinct contributions to our racial history to positions of fame and honor. I am the equal of any white man, and I want you to feel the same way."
In January 1940, Marcus Garvey experienced a stroke that resulted in significant paralysis. His devoted secretary, Daisy White, took on the responsibility of caring for him during this difficult time. During his illness, rumors of Garvey's death began to circulate, spread by Padmore. Consequently, numerous newspapers published premature obituaries. In late May 1940, some of which Garvey himself read, sadly, on the second day of reading through his obituaries, Garvey suffered another severe stroke. He passed away two weeks later at the age of 52 on June 10, 1940. His final resting place was a vault in the catacombs of the Chapel at Saint Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green, West London.
Marcus Garvey was truly a legend and will never be forgotten. Another legend that won't be forgotten is Huey P. Newton. He was considered one of the most dangerous black men in history, and recently, we did a documentary covering his story. Click the video on the screen to watch it now, and we'll see you over there.