Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey 1887-1940, American proponent of black nationalism, b. Jamaica. At the age of 14, Garvey went to work as a printer's apprentice. After leading (1907) an unsuccessful printers' strike in Jamaica, he edited several newspapers in Costa Rica and Panama. During a period in London he took law classes and became interested in African history and black nationalism. His concern for the problems of blacks led him to found (1914) the Universal Negro Improvement Association and in 1916 he moved to New York City and opened a branch in Harlem. The UNIA was an organization designed "to promote the spirit of race pride." Broadly, its goals were to foster worldwide unity among all blacks and to establish the greatness of the African heritage. The organization quickly spread in black communities throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Central America, and soon had thousands of members.

Garvey addressed himself to the lowest classes of blacks and rejected any notion of integration. Convinced that blacks could not secure their rights in countries where they were a minority race, he urged a "back to Africa" movement. In Africa, he said, an autonomous black state could be established, possessing its own culture and civilization, free from the domination of whites. Garvey was the most influential black leader of the early 1920s. His brilliant oratory and his newspaper, Negro World, brought him millions of followers. His importance declined, however, when his misuse of funds intended to establish a steamship company that would serve members of the African diaspora, the Black Star Line, resulted in a mail fraud conviction. He entered jail in 1925 and was deported to Jamaica two years later. From this time on his influence decreased, and he died in relative obscurity.

Bibliography: See Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, compiled by A. J. Garvey (2d ed. 1967, repr. 1986); biographies by E. D. Cronon (1955, repr. 1969) and C. Grant (2008); studies by A. J. Garvey (1963), T. Vincent (1971), E. C. Fax (1972), E. D. Cronon, ed. (1973), J. H. Clarke, ed. (1974), and J. Stein (1985).

Garvey, Marcus (1887–1940) US black nationalist leader, b. Jamaica. In 1914, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Garvey believed that black people could not achieve equality within white-dominated, Western countries. He created a ‘back-to-Africa’ movement, establishing the Black Star Line shipping company as a means of transport. By the 1920s, Garvey was the most influential US black leader. In 1922, the Black Star Line and the UNIA collapsed. Garvey was convicted of fraud and jailed (1925). He was pardoned by President Calvin Coolidge and deported to Jamaica (1927). Rastafarianism is influenced by his philosophy.

Garvey, Marcus (1887–1940), black nationalist leader.Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in his native Jamaica in 1914, and moved it to Harlem in 1916. The organization encouraged self‐help and ethnic pride, sponsored black‐owned business enterprises, and promoted Pan‐African unity. Thanks to Garvey's flamboyant leadership, his popular Negro World newspaper, and colorful parades and mass rallies, the UNIA's membership soared to perhaps a million worldwide in the early 1920s. While Garvey's dream of a mass return of American blacks to Africa remained unfulfilled, he did establish, in 1920, the Negro Factories Corporation, which sponsored black businesses, and organized the ocean‐going Black Star Line in 1919 to transport passengers and facilitate trade among black businesses in Africa and the Americas. Amid accusations by critics of corruption and mismanagement in these enterprises—the Black Star Line folded in 1922—Garvey was indicted on federal charges of mail fraud and, in 1925, sentenced to five years in prison. President Calvin Coolidge commuted Garvey's sentence in 1927 and deported him to Jamaica. Historians disagree over whether Garvey's undoing resulted from his own failings or from attacks by other civil rights leaders and the U.S. government. In either case, Garvey's urban mass movement, the first among African Americans, marked a significant chapter in the history of black nationalism. He attracted many working‐class blacks who were lukewarm to middle‐class civil rights leaders and organizations like W.E.B. Du Bois and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He combined the militancy of Du Bois with the capitalistic practicality of Booker T. Washington, one of Garvey's sources of inspiration. Though some scholars place Garvey outside the main current of African‐American nationalism, some later black nationalists—notably Malcolm X—traced their roots to the Garvey movement.
See also Civil Rights Movement; Harlem Renaissance; New York City; Twenties, The.

Bibliography

Judith Stein , The World of Marcus Garvey: Race and Class in Modern Society, 1986.

William Jordan