Philosopny of Marcus Garvey

To understand Garvey's philosophy, it is important to know his personal history. Garvey was born in the town of St. Ann's Bay in Jamaica, British West Indies. Garvey's parents had little formal schooling, but his father was a skilled mason and avid reader. Garvey attended school, but his schooling ended when he was 14 because of the family's financial setbacks. He was then apprenticed to a printer who was his godfather, and he continued his education by reading books from his godfather's library.

Though well-read, Garvey was sensitive about his lack of extensive higher education and became antagonistic toward intellectuals of his race. He also disliked and distrusted light-skinned blacks because they joined the whites in oppressing and holding down the black masses in Jamaica's rigid color-caste system (Toppin 303). Although slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833, the blacks of Jamaica became free but most did not own land and lived in poverty (Lawler 18).

When he was 17, Garvey moved to the capital city of Kingston to work as a printer. He developed an interest in politics and after mastering the art of public speaking, he became a great orator. Wh

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them felt threatened by Garvey's racial-solidarity movement. During 1916 and 1917, Garvey traveled extensively throughout the United States, speaking to Negro audiences about the exciting challenge of race redemption (Cronon 4). He established an American branch of the UNIA in Harlem, where the sizable West Indian immigrant community provided him with the nucleus of his initial American following. Thereafter, until his deportation in 1927, Garvey made Harlem and the United States the headquarters of what was becoming an international movement. According to Garvey, he visited 38 states by 1919, advocating black unity and organizing new divisions of the UNIA. In 1918, recognizing the need to keep in contact with his scattered following, Garvey began publication of a newspaper, the Negro World. It quickly became the leading black newspaper and an effective vehicle for the promotion of Garveyism. It refused to accept advertising that degraded the race, such as skin-whitening and hair-straightening compounds. Instead, the paper promoted the sale of black dolls, a new toy development reflecting the rising sense of race pride among Negroes. During 1919 and 1920, the UNIA grew, fed by Negro disillusionment with the American
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Some common words found in the essay are:
War Carver, Africa Garvey's, Factories Corporation, Negro World, West Indian, Star Line, Madonna Child, Indies Garvey's, Du Bois, Booker Washington, black star line, black star, star line, du bois, west indian, black people, blacks whites, ku klux klan, garvey's philosophy, emphasis black, cross nurses, meeting klan, black cross nurses, negro peoples world, emphasis black nationalism,
Approximate Word count = 4250
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)