Marcus Mosiah Garvey (August 17, 1887– June 10, 1940) was a nationalist, an entrepreneur, a publisher, a journalist and a leader.
Garvey was born in Jamaica and moved to Harlem in 1916 at the age of 28 and became a Nationalist. For him, Africa was the ancestral home and spiritual base for all people of African descent. His political goal was to build a free and United Black Africa. He advocated the Back-to-Africa Movement and organized a shipping company called the Black Star Line which was part of his program to conduct international trade between black Africans and the rest of the world.
Garvey studied all of the literature he could find on African history and culture and decided to launch the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) with the goal of unifying "all the Negro peoples of the world into one great body and to establish a country and government absolutely on their own". The motto of the U.N.I.A. was "One God! One Aim! One Destiny." The "Negro World" was the U.N.I.A. weekly newspaper founded in 1918. It was published in French and Spanish as well as English. In it, African history and heroes were glorified.
Garvey travelled throughout the United States speaking and meeting with African-American leaders. In the post World War I economic crisis and with racial discrimination, lynching and poor housing, the masses of Black people were ready for a leader who was aggressive and had a plan to "uplift the race". The U.N.I.A. grew quickly. By 1919 there were over 30 branches throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. Garvey claimed over a milllion people had joined his organization in 3 years.
Garvey eventually moved back to London, England, where he died in 1940. His body was returned to Jamaica in 1964.
However, the U.N.I.A. still survives today and Garvey left a legacy of racial pride and identification with a glorious African heritage for African Americans.
Garvey's memory has been kept alive worldwide. Schools, colleges, highways, and buildings in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States have been named in his honor. The UNIA red, black, and green flag has been adopted as the Black Liberation Flag. Since 1980, Garvey's bust has been housed in the Organization of American States' Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.
Credit: marcusgarvey.com, marcusgarvey.net
