Page 22 - Provoke Magazine Vol2

Marcus Garvey 1887-1940
Marcus Garvey Jamaican political leader, who was a staunch proponent of the Black national- ism and Pan-Africanism movements, founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), founder of the Black Star Line, which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ances- tral lands. Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr was born on 17 August 1887 in St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. His parents were Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr, a stone mason and Sarah Jane Richards, a domestic work- er. The Garvey’s had 11 children, nine of whom died in early childhood. Only Marcus Garvey and his eldest sister Indiana lived to adulthood.
Garvey’s work included founding the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The Universal Negro Improvement Association & Af- rican Communities’ League is a social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, institution- al, constructive, spiritually governing ruling body, where the founders and members main goal was, to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world. The members pledge themselves to do all in their power to conserve the rights of their noble race and to respect the rights of all mankind, believing always in the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God. The motto of the orga- nization is: “One God! One Aim! One Destiny!” Therefore, let justice be done to all mankind, real- izing that if the strong oppress the weak confusion and discontent will ever mark the path of man, but with love, faith and charity towards all the reign of peace and plenty will be herded into the world and the generations of men shall be called blessed.
Marcus Garvey launched the UNIA’s first major commercial venture, the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation in New York in 1919. The goals of the corporation were to establish an efficient mode of transportation, communication, and trade among Black people world wide and to enhance the stat- ure, self-image, and pride of these communities. The public invested in the corporation by purchas- ing stock shares at five dollars each. Garvey’s first wife was Amy Ashwood Garvey (1897-1969). They married in New York in 1919 but divorced in 1922. Amy Ashwood was a very active Pan-Africanist, social worker and activist for women’s rights. In
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New York City alone, Garvey owned several build- ings, owned a fleet of trucks and had over 1,000 Black people working in his businesses. Marcus Garvey’s U.N.I.A. also operated the Phyllis Wheat- ley Hotel (3-13 West 136th Street, New York, NY).
Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s sec- ond wife was Amy Jacques Garvey(1895-1973).They mar- ried in New York in 1922 after his divorce. She was his per- sonal secretary. Amy Jacques
played key organizational roles in the UNIA. She and Garvey had 2 sons Marcus Garvey Jr and Julius Winston Garvey. Garvey had enemies, including J. Edgar Hoover, and, ironically, W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois was an integrationist who did not support a separate Black state and repatriation. Du Bois was also opposed to Garvey’s association with the Ku Klux Klan, his criticism of “mulatto” leadership, and his belief in Black racial purity. DuBois along with other NAACP members organized the ‘Gar- vey Must Go’ campaign and collude with the US government to have him deported. The FBI es- tablished a special counter-intelligence program called COINTELPRO, to neutralize political dissi- dents. Between the years 1956 and 1971, the FBI used the COINTELPRO program to investigate “radical” national political groups for intelligence that would lead to the involvement of foreign en- emies with these groups. According to FBI docu- ments, one of the purposes of the COINTELPRO program was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, dis- credit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of the Black nationalists”. They wanted to prevent the rise of a Black “Messiah”
In 1919, Hoover hired the FBI’s first Black agent in order to infiltrate the UNIA. The agent James Wormsley Jones was referred to as code number 800. One of Garvey close confidantes Herbert Boulin was a spy for the FBI known as agent P-138.
In 1923, when his steamship company went bank- rupt, Garvey was convicted of mail fraud by using the United States mail to fraudulently collect mon- ey for investment in a ship that was never acquired. He went to jail for two years. His sentence was commuted by President Coolidge before Garvey was deported to Jamaica. Garvey had a stroke in January 1940 which left him partially paralyzed. In May 1940, George Patmore wrote an article stating that Garvey had died which upset Garvey and he suffered a second fatal stroke or heart attack. Gar- vey died on 10 June 1940 in London at age 53 with- out having set foot in Africa.
Marcus Garvey has inspired every major black movement of the 20th century, both in Africa and the Americas!
Wikipedia; Marcus Garvey Tribute Page; BlackHis- toryStudies.com; GoodNewsJamaica.com
Vicci Plum
The first UNIA division was formed in New York in May 1917. Within a month, the organization had 2 million members all over the United States. By 1920, the UNIA had 1,100 chapters in 40 countries around the world such as UK, Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica, Ghana. By 1926, the membership of the UNIA had grown to over 11 mil- lion members. Marcus Garvey built the largest Black organization in his- tory.
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