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Marcus Garvey
(1887-1940)
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Marcus Garvey is an international symbol of Black Pride and freedom. Described as the first man on a mass scale to give Negro people a sense of dignity and destiny. Garvey’s legacy is widespread. By establishing the United Negro Improvement Association, Garvey hoped to build a unified nation of people of African background. Close to one million people worldwide believed in Garvey’s vision and joined his organization.
In 1919 Marcus Garvey started the Black Star Shipping Line. Under his red, black, and green banner of Pan Africanism he promoted "cross - continental trade" . Seen as a threat by many "non Africans", Garvey encouraged the study of African history and self reliance. He was devoted to the view that the only way to secure racial prosperity and cultural development was the separation of the black and white races.
Born at St. Anns, Jamaica as he grew into an adult, Garvey realized the island offered little opportunity. As a printer apprentice he soon became involved with the labour movement and was outspoken during a printer’s strike designed to secure better working conditions. Later while traveling to England, he sought black labourers, intellectuals and business people. Their description of the injustices they suffered under European Colonial rule contributed to his path to militancy.
The first UNIA convention opened on August 1, 1920 with a parade that stretched miles along Lennox Ave. in Harlem N.Y. That evening before an audience of 25,000 in Madison Square Garden, Garvey announced his vision of and plans to build an African Nation State.
Though his organization declined in popularity as he grew older, Garvey’s accomplishments and views on racial pride have become widely accepted by Africans around the world.
