Garvey, Marcus Moziah

Garvey, Marcus Moziah (b. 17 Aug. 1887, d. 10 June 1940). Jamaican and African American activist Born and educated in Jamaica, in 1914 he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which aimed to encourage racial pride and Black unity through the slogan ‘Africa for the Africans at Home and Abroad’. He failed to attract a following and in 1916 went to New York to campaign for the repatriation of African Americans who could take over and govern former German colonies. By 1919 UNIA claimed a following of up to a million. The enterprising Garvey had, by 1919, founded a newspaper, Negro World, a Negro Factories Corporation, and a shipping line called Black Star Line. Despite these successes, Garvey was a deeply divisive figure, as his blue-collar movement was opposed by more integrationist, middle-class black leaders such as William Du Bois and the NAACP. Garvey mismanaged his movement's finances and was convicted of attempted fraud in 1923. After serving part of a five-year prison sentence, he was deported to Jamaica. He died in obscurity in London.