Marcus Garvey

Who is Marcus Garvey?

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. He rose to become one of the most influential Black nationalist leaders of the twentieth century, founding the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) in Kingston in 1914, an organization that later grew to claim branches and members across the world. Garvey preached Black pride, self-reliance, and the political and economic advancement of people of African descent, championing repatriation to Africa and founding the Black Star Line shipping company to promote trade among the African diaspora. He published the widely circulated newspaper Negro World and organized large UNIA conventions in Harlem during the 1920s. His mass-mobilization philosophy profoundly shaped later civil rights and Pan-Africanist movements, influencing figures such as Kwame Nkrumah and Malcolm X. Convicted of mail fraud in the United States in 1923 in a controversial trial, he was deported to Jamaica in 1927 and later died in London on June 10, 1940. He was proclaimed Jamaica's first National Hero.

Sources: Marcus Garvey, speeches and Negro World editorials (1920s) · Colin Grant, Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey (2008) · Jamaica National Heroes official records, Institute of Jamaica