Marcus M. Garvey Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Marcus Garvey’s (1887–1940) goal of black unity, pride, and self-determination made him a preeminent black nationalist leader in the early twentieth century. His philosophy echoed in the pan-African movements and anticolonial struggles of the mid-twentieth century and in the black power movement of the 1960s. His call for self-respect and pride can be heard in the lyrics of James Brown (“Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud!”) and reggae artists such as Bob Marley and Steel Pulse. His emphasis on a glorious African history that black people must reclaim lives on in the reparations movement, the Afrocentrism movement, and other cultural movements.

Garvey was born in the British colony of Jamaica in 1887. He left school at age fourteen, apprenticed as a printer, and edited several newspapers in various Central American countries before traveling to London, where he sharpened his oratorical skills and his interest in African history. He returned to Jamaica in 1914 and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) under the banner of “One God, One Aim, One Destiny!” but garnered little support. In 1916, he moved to the United States and established the UNIA headquarters in Harlem.

Garvey claimed the UNIA had six million members at its peak, and critics concede that it had at least 500,000 members spread across more than 700 branches in thirty-eight states. His newspaper, Negro World, reached a circulation of about 50,000 in the mid-1920s. In contrast to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Garvey and the UNIA had greater appeal to the black masses, earning Garvey the label “Black Moses.”

Garvey was critical of the NAACP for its middle-class and interracial leadership as well as its tactics of lobbying and litigation that did not adequately address the economic and cultural degradation of the majority of black people in the United States. While W. E. B. DuBois and other NAACP leaders viewed Garvey as an unrealistic and dangerous self-promoter, Garvey rejected their goal of equality and racial integration in the United States as a naive illusion.

Garvey’s nationalism had economic and cultural dimensions. Economically, he was influenced by Booker T.Washington’s strategy of self-help and racial uplift through education, skills, and businesses. Culturally, Garvey counteracted the mindset of subservience and self-degradation by drawing on a glorious African history to inspire self-respect, pride, and black unity with slogans such as “Africa for Africans” and “Up! You mighty race, you can accomplish what you will.”

Garvey’s grandest goal was the emigration of black people back to Africa, where he sought to create independent states that would ensure self-determination for African descendants throughout the diaspora and provide a basis from which black people could act as equals on the world stage. To carry this out, he established the Black Star Line Steamship Company, which purchased ships by selling stock to UNIA members. This venture was a financial disaster, and in 1922 the U.S. government charged Garvey with mail fraud. Though guilty only of mismanagement, he was tried, convicted, and jailed in 1925. President Coolidge commuted Garvey’s sentence in 1927, and he was deported to Jamaica. He died in relative poverty and obscurity in London in 1940, having never set foot in Africa.

Bibliography:

Cronon, E. David. Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955.
Essein-Udom, E. U. Black Nationalism: A Search for an Identity in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.
Garvey, Marcus. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. New York: Atheneum, 1969.

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