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Marcus Mosiah
Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. He
was one of eleven children born to Malcus Mosiah Garvey Snr.,
and Sarah Jane Richards. Originally named ‘Malcus’ after his
father, the younger Garvey went on to be known as ‘Marcus’ in
adulthood. Born just forty-nine years after emancipation from
slavery, Marcus Garvey had to endure the ongoing effects of this
system on Jamaican blacks; growing up poor, with limited
political power and little access to secondary and tertiary
education. He had to leave school at the age of fourteen. That
however, did not stop him from gaining knowledge about his
country, race and international affairs. From very early he
displayed an interest in reading. This interest was nurtured by
his father who had a private library and his godfather Mr.
Alfred Burrowes, a printer. Garvey went on to pursue a career in
printing and worked at various printeries in the island. In his
twenties, he got involved in politics as a secretary of the
National Club, a Jamaican nationalist organization; and took
part in trade unionism as Vice President of the compositor’s
branch of the Kingston Typographical Union, which was an
affiliate of the International Typographical Union of the
American Federation of Labour. He also edited and wrote a
short-lived newspaper called Garvey’s Watchman around
1909.
Between 1910 and
1914 Garvey travelled throughout South and Central America and
Europe, observing the international scope of racism and black
poverty. He was influenced by the teachings and writings of
Pan-Africanists* such as Joseph Robert Love of the Bahamas;
Booker T. Washington of the United States; Dusé Mohamed Ali of
Egypt and Edward Blyden of the Danish West Indies ( Now known as
the U.S. Virgin Islands);. Garvey returned to Jamaica in 1914
and with the assistance of a Jamaican woman, Amy Ashwood; Enos
J. Sloly, an associate; and others, he launched the Universal
Negro Improvement and Conservation Association, (later
shortened to the Universal Negro Improvement Association)
and African Communities League, (UNIA-ACL).
In 1916 he
travelled to the United States to raise money for the
organization through a fundraising lecture tour. He had been
corresponding with Booker T. Washington, the famous African
American leader and founder of the Tuskegee Institute in the
United States. Washington had expressed support for his plans.
Unfortunately, Washington died before Garvey was able to meet
with him. Due to the vast support he received from African
Americans, Garvey remained in the U.S.A. for a period of eleven
years. Throughout these eleven years the UNIA-ACL became the
largest black organization in history. During this time period,
Garvey married twice. His first wife, Amy Ashwood was the first
registered member of the UNIA as well held official positions in
the organization. His second wife, Amy Jacques Garvey, with whom
he had two sons served as his personal secretary for many years,
played significant organizational roles in the UNIA, and
compiled The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey
vols. I &II. Both women were very important in the global
movement for black liberation.
The UNIA-ACL
quickly spread in the United States and to other countries in
Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. The
organization’s goal of African redemption was political,
economic, religious and cultural in scope. By the mid 1920s, the
UNIA had more than one thousand registered divisions worldwide
and tens of millions of members. The UNIA had various
auxiliaries including the Universal African Legion, the Black
Cross Nurses, the Juveniles, and the African Motor Corps. The
organization promoted economic growth within the race by
starting many businesses including The Black Star Line (BSL)
Steamship Corporation, The Negro Factories Corporation (NFC),
and The Negro World newspaper. Garvey urged black people to be
self-confident, self-reliant and proud of their African
ancestry. In his view, all black persons were Africans, whether
they lived on the African continent or not. Garvey’s
outspokenness and radical ideas made him a target for the
American government as well as rival black organizations such as
the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
(NAACP), which also fought for black liberation, but disagreed
with Garvey’s ideology and actions.
There were also
enemies within the UNIA, who spied for the American
government as well as sabotaged the organization. In 1923 Garvey
and some officers of the Black Star Line (BSL) were accused by
the United States Federal Government of “using the United States
mail to defraud”. This accusation was made because persons had
invested money in, and booked passage on the S.S. Phyllis
Wheatley, a ship that the UNIA had planned to purchase but never
acquired because of financial beaurocracy, theft and sabotage
involving the BSL’s officers, the U.S.A. Shipping Board, and the
BSL’s shipping agent. Garvey complained during and after that he
did not receive a fair trial. The BSL officers were acquitted
and Garvey was charged and sentenced to five years in prison. He
was convicted based on a single piece of circumstantial
evidence: The assumption was made that an empty envelope
addressed to a Mr. Benny Dancy had contained a letter seeking
his investment in the S.S. Phyllis Wheatley. Garvey’s conviction
was criticized by many, including legal experts. It was clear
that the main purpose of the trial was to get rid of Garvey.
After immense protest from Garveyites and other persons, Calvin
Coolidge, then President of the United States commuted Garvey’s
sentence in November, 1927. He was released from prison and
deported to his homeland, Jamaica in December of that year.
Garvey remained
in Jamaica for eight years. The international headquarters of
the UNIA was relocated from Harlem to Edelweiss Park, St. Andrew
in 1929 and remained there until Garvey left Jamaica. During
this time he continued to be President-General of the UNIA as
well as served as an important civic leader in Kingston. Despite
the fact that he lost an election to the Legislative Council in
1930, Garvey was a councillor with the Kingston and St. Andrew
Corporation (KSAC) for five years and launched the Peoples
Political Party (PPP) in 1929, Jamaica’s first modern political
party. He also contributed a great deal to the development of
the creative arts in Jamaica as a playwright, poet, and producer
of cultural events at Edelweiss Park.
In 1935 Marcus
Garvey left Jamaica for England. The UNIA’s international
headquarters was relocated to London where Garvey resided.
During his five year stay in England, Garvey continued to travel
and speak extensively, though the UNIA was not as vibrant as it
had been in the 1920s. In 1937, he founded and served as
principal of the School of African Philosophy, which trained
future leaders of the UNIA. Declining health eventually led to
less and less activity. Garvey suffered from chronic bronchitis
and asthma, which were made worse by the cold climate in
England. In January, 1940, he suffered a stroke that left him
speechless and paralyzed on his right side. He never fully
recovered. Garvey died in Fulham, London on June 10, 1940. He
was mourned worldwide. Although attempts were made by Amy
Jacques Garvey and the UNIA to return his body to Jamaica, this
goal was not achieved until November 1964 when the Jamaican
Government successfully repatriated his remains. He was named
Jamaica’s First National Hero and his body re-buried at National
Heroes Park.
Marcus Garvey’s
influence continues to be felt today. There is an extensive
collection of books, songs, papers, and journals centring on his
life and work. The UNIA also continues to be an important
international organization, although it is not as widespread as
it was during Garvey’s time. His ideology was highly influential
in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-60s in the U.S.A., the
global Black Power Movement (1960s-70s), and Liberation
struggles on the Africa continent. Pan -Africanists such as
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jnr. of the United States;
Walter Rodney and C.L.R. James of the Caribbean; and Kwame
Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and Nelson Mandela of the African
Continent have echoed Garvey’s teachings. His thinking was
fundamental in the emergence of the Rastafarian Movement, which
continues to immortalize his teachings and celebrate him as a
prophet.
*A Pan-Africanist
is a person who believes in the global unity of the black race,
and who dedicates his/her life to the struggle for black
liberation and racial equality.
----- Nicosia
Shakes
Researcher, Liberty Hall
References:
Hill, Robert (Ed.) The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Vols.
1-7 California, U.S.A.: University of California Press,
1983-1990.
Jacques Garvey,
Amy (Comp.), The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey,
Or Africa for the Africans Vols. 1&2, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: The
Majority Press, 1986
Lewis, Rupert,
Marcus Garvey: Anti-Colonial Champion New Jersey, U.S.A:
Africa World Press, 1988
Lewis, Rupert
and Maureen Warner-Lewis (Eds.) Garvey: Africa, Europe, The
Americas New Jersey, U.S.A.: Africa World Press, 1994.
Martin, Tony,
Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of
Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association
Massachusetts, U.S.A.: The Majority Press, 1976.
MARCUS GARVEY: A CHRONOLOGY OF HIS LIFE AND WORK
MARCUS GARVEY TIMELINE (1887-2003)
1887
August 17
Marcus Garvey is born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.
His father, Malcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. was a stone mason and his
mother, Sarah
Jane Richards, a domestic worker.
c.a. 1903
Garvey leaves school at fourteen and is apprenticed in the
printing shop of his
godfather, Alfred Burrowes.
c.a. 1906
Garvey moves to Kingston; he is employed in the printing
department of P.A.
Benjamin Manufacturing Company.
1907
November
Garvey is elected vice-president of the compositor’s branch of
the
Kingston Typographical Union, which is affiliated to the
American Federation of
Labour. He later joins a worker’s strike, which proves
unsuccessful.
1908
March 18
Marcus Garvey’s mother dies in Kingston, Jamaica
1910
April 20
Garvey is elected an assistant secretary of the National Club,
founded by
S.A.G. Cox. The Club challenges British colonialism and
advocates for Jamaican
self-government ‘within the Empire’.
c.a. 1910-1911
Garvey travels throughout Central and South America. He lives
for several months
in Port Limón, Costa Rica, where he works as a timekeeper on a
banana plantation
and edits a newspaper called La Nación (The Nation). While in
Costa Rica, Garvey
complains to the British Consul about the treatment of West
Indian migrant
workers. He then travels to Colon, Panama where he edits a
newspaper called La
Prensa ( The Press).
1912
c.a. February
Garvey returns to Jamaica and works at the Government Printing
Office in
Kingston.
1912-1914
May -July
Garvey lives in England. While there, he works at the Office of
The African Times
and Orient Review, a monthly Pan-African journal edited by the
Egyptian
Nationalist, Dusé Mohamed Ali. He attends classes at Birkbeck
College and travels
throughout Europe.
‘Malcus’Jr. was Garvey’s original first name. He changed it to
‘Marcus’.
1914
August 1
At the age of 27, Garvey and some associates launch the
Universal Negro
Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities
League
(UNIA-ACL) in Jamaica. Amy Ashwood, a Jamaican, is the first
registered member.
November 21
Robert Love, one of Garvey’s mentors, dies in Jamaica.
1915
April 12
Garvey writes to Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee
Institute and one
of the most influential black persons in America, about a
planned trip to the United
States; he requests Washington’s support.
November
Booker T. Washington dies.
1916
March 24
Garvey arrives in New York City. He lives with a Jamaican family
in Harlem and
works as a printer.
c.a. May /June
Garvey embarks on a year-long fundraising speaking tour
throughout the United
States to raise money for the organization.
1917
May
The New York branch of the UNIA-ACL is formed.
1918
August 17
The Negro World, the UNIA’s official newspaper begins
publication. It is later
banned in several countries, including Garvey’s homeland,
Jamaica.
1919
April 27
Garvey announces plans to launch a black steamship venture
called: The Black
Star Line.
July 27
Liberty Hall is established at 120 West 138th Street, Harlem,
New York and
dedicated at a mass meeting.
August 15
The Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) instructs its New York Division to prepare “at the
earliest moment, a case
for deportation” (of Garvey)
October 14
Garvey is shot and wounded in an assassination attempt by George
Tyler, a black
man who later commits suicide in jail.
December 25
Garvey marries Amy Ashwood at Liberty Hall, Harlem.
1920
April 9
Marcus Garvey’s father dies in Jamaica.
January 23
The UNIA’s Negro Factories Corporation, files a certificate of
incorporation. It later
opens various businesses.
August 1, 1920
The UNIA’s First International Convention of the Negro Peoples
of the World opens
in Harlem with a spectacular parade featuring various
auxiliaries of the UNIA. At
the month-long convention, Garvey is elected Provisional
President of Africa and
The Universal Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World is
adopted and signed.
c.a. October 17
Garvey launches a $2 million Liberian Construction Loan with
plans to repatriate
blacks to Liberia. Later on, the plans fall apart when UNIA
officials are expelled
from Liberia and land promised to the UNIA is instead leased to
the Firestone
Rubber Company for ninety-nine (99) years.
1922
July 27
After divorcing Amy Ashwood, Garvey marries Amy Jacques, another
Jamaican in
Baltimore, USA.
1923
June 21
Garvey is sentenced to five years imprisonment on a charge of
mail fraud. He is
later released on bail.
July
A Liberty Hall is opened at 76 King Street, Kingston, Jamaica by
the Kingston
Division of the UNIA-ACL. 1925
February 8
Garvey is imprisoned in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on a
charge of mail fraud
made in 1923 stemming from the operations of the Black Star Line
Steamship
Company. He complains of legal irregularities and bias in the
trial. Garveyites
worldwide protest heavily.
1927
November 18
President Calvin Coolidge commutes Garvey’s sentence.
December 2
Garvey is deported from the United States. He leaves from New
Orleans aboard
the S.S. Saramacca.
December 10
Garvey arrives in Kingston, Jamaica where he addresses throngs
of supporters at
Liberty Hall, Kingston and the Ward Theatre.
1928
April-November
Marcus Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey travel to various European
countries,
Canada and Bermuda.
December 10
A ceremony is held to commemorate the opening of Edelweiss Park,
67 Slipe Road,
St. Andrew, which becomes the international headquarters of the
UNIA in 1929.
December
Garvey forms the Peoples Political Party, Jamaica’s first modern
political party and
plans to contest the 1930 National Legislative Council
Elections.
1929
August 1
The UNIA’s Sixth Annual International Convention of the Negro
Peoples of the
World opens at Edelweiss Park with a massive procession through
the streets of
Kingston.
September 3
By order of the Jamaican Supreme Court, Liberty Hall, Kingston
is auctioned to
settle the suit in the case of Marke vs. the UNIA Inc. It is
restored in 1930.
September 26
Garvey is found guilty of contempt of court as a result of
publicly criticizing the
Jamaican judicial system. He is fined £100 and sentenced to
three months
imprisonment in St. Catherine District Prison, Spanish Town.
October 30
Garvey is elected Municipal Councillor to the Kingston and St.
Andrew Corporation
(KSAC) in a by-election. His seat is however declared vacant due
to his
imprisonment.
1930
January 31
George Seymour Seymour, a prominent white politician and
businessman, defeats
Garvey in the National Legislative Council elections; three
candidates supported
by the PPP are however victorious.
February 12
Garvey is re-elected to the KSAC unopposed.
September 17
Marcus Garvey Junior is born in Jamaica.
November 2
Ras Tafari is crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.
Rastafarians in
Jamaica proclaim his coronation the fulfillment of a Garvey
prophecy regarding
the coming of an African King.
1933
March 22
A stone-laying ceremony is held at the Kingston Liberty Hall for
the construction
of a new building to replace the original wooden structure.
Garvey and Kingston’s
civic leaders lay foundation stones.
August 16
Julius Winston Garvey is born in Jamaica.
1935
March 26
Garvey departs Jamaica for London, England. The UNIA’s
International
Headquarters is relocated there.
1937
August-November
Garvey travels and speaks in Canada, Trinidad, St. Lucia,
Barbados, St. Vincent
and British Guiana.
1938
April to June
There is an explosion of labour protests in Jamaica. From
England, Garvey
expresses support for the demonstrations.
1940
January
In England, Garvey has a stroke, which leaves him paralyzed on
the right side
and speechless.
June 10
Two months before his 53rd birthday, Garvey dies after having a
second stroke.
His body is buried in London. Garveyites worldwide mourn him in
memorial
services.
1964
November 10-11
The body of Marcus Garvey is repatriated to Jamaica. He is
declared Jamaica’s
First National Hero and his body re-buried in National Heroes
Park (then George
VI Memorial Park)
1969
May 3
Amy Ashwood Garvey dies in Jamaica at the age of 72.
1973
July 25
Amy Jacques Garvey dies in Jamaica at the age of 77.
1983
Then Jamaican Prime Minister, Edward Seaga asks President Ronald
Regan to
grant a full pardon to Marcus Garvey on the 1923 charge of mail
fraud.
1987
Garvey’s centenary is celebrated worldwide.
U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel introduces House Resolution No.
84 to House
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice. The resolution calls for the
exoneration of
Garvey on mail fraud charges. To date, the resolution has not
been passed.
Liberty Hall, Kingston is bought by the Jamaica National
Heritage Trust and
plans
are made to restore the building.
1990s -2003
The Friends of Liberty Hall in collaboration with the Ministry
of Education Youth
and Culture, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and the
Institute of Jamaica
implement an extensive restoration project on the Kingston
Liberty Hall.
2003
October 20
Hundreds of persons attend a ceremony to celebrate the re-
opening of Liberty Hall, Kingston. It is named: ‘Liberty Hall:
The Legacy of
Marcus Garvey.’
Adapted from:
The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Vols. 1-7, Edited by Robert
Hill (California, U.S.A.: University of California Press,
1983-1990)
Additional
Sources: Rupert Lewis, Marcus Garvey: Anti-Colonial Champion
(New Jersey, U.S.A: Africa World Press, 1988)
Rupert Lewis and
Maureen Warner-Lewis (Eds.) Garvey: Africa, Europe, The Americas
(New Jersey, U.S.A.: Africa World Press, 1994)
Tony Martin,
Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of
Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association
(Massachusetts, U.S.A.: The Majority Press, 1976)
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