The Life History Of Marcus Garvey Research Assignment (Essay Sample)

Marcus Garvey
Name
Institution
BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica, he was an orator for the Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism movements, to which end he founded the African Communities League and Universal Negro Improvement Association Garvey advanced a Pan-African philosophy which inspired a global mass movement, known as Garveyism. Social activist Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. Self-educated, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, dedicated to promoting African-Americans and resettlement in Africa. He then eventually inspired others, from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement.
While in the United States he launched several businesses to promote a separate black nation. After he was convicted of mail fraud Garvey was deported back to Jamaica, in Africa he continued his work for black repatriation.
He was the last of 11 children born to Marcus Garvey, Sr. and Sarah Jane Richards. Marcus father was a stone mason, and his mother a domestic worker and farmer. Garvey, Sr. was a great influence on Marcus, who once described him as "severe, firm, determined, bold, and strong, refusing to yield even to superior forces if he believed he was right." His father was known to own a library, where young Garvey learned to read.
In 1907, he took part in an unsuccessful printer's strike and the experience made him to have a passion for political activism. After three years, he traveled throughout Central America working as an newspaper editor and writing about the exploitation of migrant workers in the plantations. Garvey attended Birkbeck College (University of London) and worked for the African Times and Orient Review, which was advocating for Pan-African nationalism.
FOUNDING THE UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION
In 1912 Marcus returned to Jamaica and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) with the goal of uniting all of African diaspora with the main aim of "establish a country and absolute government of their own." After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, who was the American educator and founder of Tuskegee Institute, Garvey then traveled to the United States in 1916 to raise funds for a similar aim in Jamaica. Garvwy then settled in New York City and formed a UNIA chapter in Harlem to promote a separatist philosophy of social, political, and economic freedom for blacks. In 1918, Garvey began publishing the widely distributed newspaper Negro World to convey his message.
By 1919, Marcus Garvey and UNIA had launched the Black Star Line, a shipping company that would establish trade and commerce between Africans in America, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Canada and Africa. At the same time, Garvey started the Negros Factories Association, a series of companies that would manufacture marketable commodities in every big industrial center in the Western hemisphere and Africa.
In August 1920, UNIA claimed 4 million members and held its first International Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Before a crowd of 25,000 people from all over world, Marcus Garvey spoke of having pride in African history and culture. Many found his words inspiring, but not all. Some established black leaders found his separatist philosophy ill-conceived. W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent black leader and officer of the N.A.A.C.P. called Garvey, "the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America." Garvey felt Du Bois was an agent of the white elite.
CHARGES AND LOSS OF AUTHORITY.
In 1922, Marcus Garvey and three other UNIA officials were charged with mail fraud involving the Black Star Line. The trial records indicate several improprieties oc...