Free Essays on Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey, was born in Jamaica in 1887 and is considered to be the father of the Black Nationalism Movement. During the early 1900’s, after reading Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, Garvey pledged to organize Blacks throughout the world with an agenda of Black unity and pride. Moreover, Garvey achieved his greatest influence in the Untied States where there was a growing ambition among Blacks for justice, wealth, and a sense of community. From the time of World War I, up until the mid-1920’s, Gravey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA) was the largest Black organization in African-American history. An estimated million men and women from the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa belonged to it. When Garvey arrived in the United States in March 1916, the Black populace was about to suffer a severe blow that would make them ideal candidates for Gravey’s movement. During the Reconstruction period that followed the American Civil War, many African-Americans lost faith in the American political process. They were promised many reforms and reparations that were never realized. However, World War 1 bought a new sense of prosperity to blacks because they felt they had a second chance to prove themselves as well as attain their piece of the proverbial American pie. Implementing Alger’s philosophy which states â€Å"...heroes prove themselves through inspired acts of heroism and devotion,† many blacks believed if they fought in World War I, it would deliver them their second emancipation1 . Nonetheless, after entering the war, African-Americans were subjected to segregation, indignities in training camps, and assigned to labor battalions far out of proportion to their skills and intelligence2 . In addition, black soldiers were told that when they return home they should not expect the same privileges they enjoyed aboard. When the war ended in 1919, the African-American community was outraged. Their soldiers were... Free Essays on Marcus Garvey Free Essays on Marcus Garvey Marcus Garvey, was born in Jamaica in 1887 and is considered to be the father of the Black Nationalism Movement. During the early 1900’s, after reading Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, Garvey pledged to organize Blacks throughout the world with an agenda of Black unity and pride. Moreover, Garvey achieved his greatest influence in the Untied States where there was a growing ambition among Blacks for justice, wealth, and a sense of community. From the time of World War I, up until the mid-1920’s, Gravey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA) was the largest Black organization in African-American history. An estimated million men and women from the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa belonged to it. When Garvey arrived in the United States in March 1916, the Black populace was about to suffer a severe blow that would make them ideal candidates for Gravey’s movement. During the Reconstruction period that followed the American Civil War, many African-Americans lost faith in the American political process. They were promised many reforms and reparations that were never realized. However, World War 1 bought a new sense of prosperity to blacks because they felt they had a second chance to prove themselves as well as attain their piece of the proverbial American pie. Implementing Alger’s philosophy which states â€Å"...heroes prove themselves through inspired acts of heroism and devotion,† many blacks believed if they fought in World War I, it would deliver them their second emancipation1 . Nonetheless, after entering the war, African-Americans were subjected to segregation, indignities in training camps, and assigned to labor battalions far out of proportion to their skills and intelligence2 . In addition, black soldiers were told that when they return home they should not expect the same privileges they enjoyed aboard. When the war ended in 1919, the African-American community was outraged. Their soldiers were... Free Essays on Marcus Garvey Marcus Garvey was born on august 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s bay, Jamaica. He attended school but because of his family situation of poverty he had to quit school and get a job as an apprentice in his god fathers print shop. It was at the print shop where he became aspired to become a Forman at the print shop, and after the earthquake in 1907 he went on strike with the workers for better pay even though he did not have to. As a result Marcus was fired and then picked up by the Jamaican government to be a printer. During this time their was a lot of problems in the country because most of the people could not vote and there was a large out cry for the right to vote and the only people who were able to vote were rich land owners. The people were mad at the british control of the country and wanted Jamaica to be and independent country. Because of this many Jamaicans went abroad to work for better money, and marcus decided to travel around the Caribbean. Garvey returned to Jamaica in 1 912, and left shortly after to visit his sister in London and also to further studies and become well-educated so that he could attend a university. While in London Garvey meet up with pan African movement leaders and other black freedom leaders. The leaders taught him about the rich history of the race. Although Marcus was born in Jamaica, he achieved his greatest success in the United States. As a young man, Marcus, political protest, advocating loyalty to the established colonial government. Garvey established the first American branch of the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) in 1917 in the midst of the mass migration of blacks from the Caribbean to cities of the North. It was also a time for political awakening in the Africa and the Caribbean, to which marcus encouraged the export of his movement. In the era of global black awakening following World War I, Garvey became the best known, the most controversial, and for many the most attractive of... Free Essays on Marcus Garvey In 1914 Marcus Mosiah Garvey started the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica. UNIA was started to help promote blacks in everyone’s eyes so that they wouldn’t have to be â€Å"at the mercy of white people.† (Kanet.org 7) Garvey wanted blacks to set up their own nation. In 1916, he moved the UNIA headquarters to Harlem, New York. Marcus Garvey was one of the most influential leaders of his time because he started the Universal Negro Improvement Association, advocated black unity, preached self-reliance, and was the black peoples’ spokesman. Marcus Garvey started UNIA because he wanted blacks to have pride in themselves and to be treated fairly. UNIA’s aim was shown through its motto: â€Å"One God! One aim! One destiny!† (Kasnet.org 9) The motto basically meant that all the blacks were aiming at one goal and they were destined to get it. Weekly meetings and night classes were held by UNIA to help blacks that had no high school education. Garvey also tried prompting educated blacks to volunteer their time to teach others. Not many helped because they didn’t want to be labeled as â€Å"Negro.† (Kasnet.org 6) Many weren’t proud of who they were because of how society treated them. As a result, they tried to escape the discrimination by ignoring who they were and where they came from. The main part of Garvey’s plan was to focus on self-reliance. Garvey didn’t want blacks to depend on whites; he wanted blacks to set up their own nation in Africa. Garvey developed a plan called the Liberia Plan. This plan was negotiated between UNIA and the government of Liberia to buy land and settle people from all around the U.S. The Liberian government first agreed, but before the settlers arrived they changed their minds. This sudden change was mainly done because the Liberian government became aware of the uproar that Garvey was causing in the U.S. with his preachings. In 1920, UNIA held its First International Co...