WE HAVE A RICH HISTORY
BLACK HISTORY (AN ACADEMIC PRESENTATION)
A PUSH IN A NEW DIRECTION........NO RACISM NO POLITICS, JUST THE TRUTH THAT AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE A HISTORY NOT TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS, HERE IS THE VERSION I WOULD LIKE TO PRESENT......................
Marcus Garvey " THE GREAT"
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr.,
ONH (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940),
[1] was a Jamaican political leader,
publisher,
journalist,
entrepreneur, and
orator who was a staunch proponent of the
Black Nationalism and
Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the
Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (
UNIA-ACL).
[2] He founded the
Black Star Line, which promoted the return of the
African diaspora to their ancestral lands.
Prior to the twentieth century, leaders such as
Prince Hall,
Martin Delany,
Edward Wilmot Blyden, and
Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a
Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global
mass movement and
economic empowerment focusing on Africa known as
Garveyism.
[2] Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of
African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the
Nation of Islam to the
Rastafari movement (which proclaims Garvey as a prophet).
Garveyism intended persons of African
ancestry in the diaspora to "
redeem" the nations of Africa and for the
European colonial powers to leave the continent. His essential ideas about Africa were stated in an editorial in the
Negro World entitled "African Fundamentalism", where he wrote: "Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality… to let us hold together under all climes and in every country…
"TELLING THE TRUTH"
"BACK TO AFRICA"
In 1914 Garvey returned to Jamaica, where he organized the UNIA. In an article entitled "
The Negro's Greatest Enemy", published in
Current History (September 1923), Garvey explained the origin of the organization's name:
- "Where did the name of the organization come from? It was while speaking to a West Indian Negro who was a passenger with me from Southampton, who was returning home to the East Indies from Basutoland with his Basuto wife, I further learned of the horrors of native life in Africa. He related to me in conversation such horrible and pitiable tales that my heart bled within me. Retiring from the conversation to my cabin, all day and the following night I pondered over the subject matter of that conversation, and at midnight, lying flat on my back, the vision and thought came to me that I should name the organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League. Such a name I thought would embrace the purpose of all black humanity. Thus to the world a name was born, a movement created, and a man became known."
The UNIA held an international convention in 1921 at New York's Madison Square Garden. Also represented at the convention were organizations such as the Universal Black Cross Nurses, the Black Eagle Flying Corps, and the Universal African Legion. Garvey attracted more than 50,000 people to the event and in his cause. The UNIA had 65,000 to 75,000 members paying dues to his support and funding. The national level of support in Jamaica helped Garvey to become one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century on the island.
[11]
After corresponding with
Booker T. Washington, head of the
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and a national African-American leader in the United States, Garvey traveled by ship to the U.S., arriving on 23 March 1916 aboard the
S.S. Tallac. He intended to make a lecture tour and to raise funds to establish a school in Jamaica modeled after Washington's Institute. Garvey visited Tuskegee, and afterward, visited with a number of black leaders.
After moving to New York, he found work as a printer by day. He was influenced by
Hubert Harrison. At night he would speak on street corners, much as he did in London's Hyde Park. Garvey thought there was a leadership vacuum among African Americans. On 9 May 1916, he held his first public lecture in
New York City at
St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery and undertook a 38-state speaking tour.
The next year in May 1917, Garvey and thirteen others formed the first UNIA division outside Jamaica. They began advancing ideas to promote social, political, and
economic freedom for black people. On 2 July, the
East St. Louis riots broke out. On 8 July, Garvey delivered an address, entitled "The Conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots", at
Lafayette Hall in
Harlem. During the speech, he declared the riot was "one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind", condemning America's claims to represent democracy when black people were victimized "for no other reason than they are black people seeking an industrial chance in a country that they have laboured for three hundred years to make great". It is "a time to lift one's voice against the savagery of a people who claim to be the dispensers of democracy."
[12] By October, rancor within the UNIA had begun to set in. A split occurred in the Harlem division, with Garvey enlisted to become its leader; although he technically held the same position in Jamaica.
[citation needed]
Garvey worked to develop a program to improve the conditions of ethnic Africans "at home and abroad" under UNIA auspices. On 17 August 1918, he began publishing the
Negro World newspaper in New York, which was widely distributed. Garvey worked as an editor without pay until November 1920. He used
Negro World as a platform for his views to encourage growth of the UNIA.
[13] By June 1919, the membership of the organization had grown to over two million, according to its records.
On 27 June 1919, the UNIA set up its first business, incorporating the
Black Star Line of
Delaware, with Garvey as President. By September, it acquired its first ship. Much fanfare surrounded the inspection of the S.S.
Yarmouth and its rechristening as the S.S.
Frederick Douglass on 14 September 1919. Such a rapid accomplishment garnered attention from many.
[13] During the first year, the Black Star Line's stock sales brought in $600,000. This caused it to be successful during that year. It had numerous problems during the next two years: mechanical breakdowns on its ships, what it said were incompetent workers, and poor record keeping. The officers were eventually accused of mail fraud.
[13]
Edwin P. Kilroe, Assistant
District Attorney in the District Attorney's office of the County of New York, began an investigation into the activities of the UNIA. He never filed charges against Garvey or other officers. After being called to Kilroe's office numerous times for questioning, Garvey wrote an editorial on the assistant DA's activities for the
Negro World. Kilroe had Garvey arrested and indicted for criminal
libel but dismissed the charges after Garvey published a retraction.
[citation needed]
On 14 October 1919, Garvey received a visit in his Harlem office from
George Tyler, who claimed Kilroe "had sent him" to get the leader.
[citation needed] Tyler pulled a .38-caliber revolver and fired four shots, wounding Garvey in the right leg and scalp. Garvey's secretary Amy quickly arranged to get Garvey taken to the hospital for treatment, and Tyler was arrested. The next day, Tyler committed suicide by leaping from the third tier of the Harlem jail as he was being taken to his arraignment.
[citation needed]
By August 1920, the UNIA claimed four million members. The number has been questioned because of the organization's poor record keeping.
[13] That month, the International Convention of the UNIA was held. With delegates from all over the world attending, 25,000 people filled
Madison Square Garden on 1 August 1920 to hear Garvey speak.
[14] Over the next couple of years, Garvey's movement was able to attract an enormous number of followers. Reasons for this included the cultural revolution of the
Harlem Renaissance, the large number of West Indians who immigrated to New York, and the appeal of the slogan "One Aim, One God, One Destiny," to black veterans of the
first World War.
[15]
Garvey also established the business, the
Negro Factories Corporation. He planned to develop the businesses to manufacture every marketable commodity in every big U.S. industrial center, as well as in
Central America, the
West Indies, and
Africa. Related endeavors included a grocery chain, restaurant, publishing house, and other businesses.
Convinced that black people should have a permanent homeland in Africa, Garvey sought to develop
Liberia. It had been founded by the
American Colonization Society in the 19th century as a colony for free blacks from the United States. Garvey launched the Liberia program in 1920, intended to build colleges, industrial plants, and
railroads as part of an
industrial base from which to operate. He abandoned the program in the mid-1920s after much opposition from European powers with interests in Liberia. In response to American suggestions that he wanted to take all ethnic Africans of the Diaspora back to Africa, he wrote, "We do not want all the Negroes in Africa. Some are no good here, and naturally will be no good there."
[16]
"KNOW THY SELF"
SOME BOOKS.....
"DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH"
