“OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” - Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Welcome back Dear Readers. This Week’s article is about Marcus Mosiah Garvey. In the early 1920s, the most famous and feared black man in America was Marcus Garvey. At giant rallies, he demanded an end to the racial violence, poverty, and discrimination plaguing the country. Also, Marcus Garvey was noted for saying, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” Marcus M. Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica to Marcus Garvey Sr. and Sarah Jane Richards. His father was a stonemason and his mother was a household servant. He attended school in Jamaica until he was 14, when he left St. Ann’s Bay for Kingston, the island nation’s capital, where he worked as an apprentice in a print shop. While working in the print shop, Garvey became involved in the labor union for print tradesmen in Kingston. This work would set the stage for his activism later in life. In 1912, Garvey moved to London. While in Britain, he attended the University of London’s Birkbeck College, where he studied law and philosophy. After two years in London—where he received an education that would likely have been unavailable to him in the Americas because of the color of his skin—Garvey returned to Jamaica. It was during this time that he started the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Guided by the motto “One Aim. One God. One Destiny.” The organization’s aim was to promote among Blacks a sense of self-pride and pride in one’s race through economic independence. Additionally, Garvey was particularly inspired by African-American educationist, entrepreneur and activist Booker T. Washington. His first encounter with the works of Booker T. was at the library of the British Museum, where he read the famous book by Booker T. Washington,”Up from Slavery.” He was so moved from reading the book that he later wrote Booker T Washington a letter letting him know that he was going to be coming to America. Sadly, Booker T Washington died in 1915, before Marcus Garvey could make it to America. In 1916, Garvey boarded a ship bound for the United States, where—as a dramatic and invigorating public speaker—he intended to go on a lecture tour. He ended up settling in New York City, in April of 1918, Garvey founded the “Negro World” newspaper publication in Harlem, New York, about two years after Garvey arrived in the United States from his native Jamaica. Much of the funding came from the famous African American entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C.J. Walker. Even though the newspaper struggled financially, Garvey remained resolute in his decision not to place skin-lightening and other beauty products that he believed was an affront to the Black race. Instead, he called on Blacks to spend more time and money clearing out the kink in their mind first. In 1919, he founded The Black Star Line steam ship company through his United Negro Improvement Association. No venture reflected Garvey’s revolutionary dream of equality better than the Black Star Line, a mighty fleet of ships that would bring economic power to blacks around the world and transport many of them back to a proud and independent African nation.