Black Existence

Post-World War I Harlem was an exciting place for African-American culture.

 

Poets like Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen as well as novelists like Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston created a vibrant literature that captured the African-American experience. Musicians such as Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday, playing and singing in Harlem nightclubs, invented what has been called "America's classical music" -- jazz.

In the midst of this renaissance of African-American culture in New York (known as the Harlem Renaissance), a recent arrival from Jamaica, Marcus Garvey, seized the attention of both white and black Americans with his powerful oratory and ideas about separatism. During the 1920s, the UNIA, the foundation of Garvey's movement, became what historian Lawrence Levine has called "the broadest mass movement" in African-American history.

 

Early Life

Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1887, which was then part of the British West Indies. As a teenager, Garvey moved from his small coastal village to Kingston, where political speakers and preachers entranced him with their public speaking skills. He began studying oratory and practicing on his own.

 

Entrance into Politics

Garvey became a foreman for a large printing business, but a strike in 1907 during which he sided with the workers instead of management derailed his career. The realization that politics was his true passion prompted Garvey to begin organizing and writing on behalf of workers. He traveled to Central and South America, where he spoke out on behalf of West Indian expatriate workers.

 

The UNIA

Garvey went to London in 1912 where he met a group of black intellectuals who gathered to discuss ideas like anti-colonialism and African unity. Returning to Jamaica in 1914, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, or UNIA. Among the UNIA's goals were the founding of colleges for general and vocational education, the promotion of business ownership and the encouragement of a sense of brotherhood among the African diaspora.

 

Trip to America

Garvey encountered difficulties organizing Jamaicans; the more affluent tended to oppose his teachings as a threat to their position. In 1916, Garvey decided to travel to the United States to learn more about America's black population. He discovered the time was ripe for the UNIA in the United States. As African-American soldiers began serving in World War I, there was widespread belief that being loyal and performing their duty for the United States would result in white Americans addressing the terrible racial inequalities that existed. In reality, African-American soldiers, after having experienced a more tolerant culture in France, returned home after the war to find racism as deeply entrenched as ever. Garvey's teachings spoke to those who had been so disappointed to discover the status quo still in place after the war.

 

Teachings

Garvey established a branch of the UNIA in New York City, where he held meetings, putting into practice the oratorical style he had honed in Jamaica. He preached racial pride, for instance, encouraging parents to give their daughters black dolls to play with. He told African Americans they had the same opportunities and potential as any other group of people in the world. "Up, you mighty race," he exhorted the attendees. Garvey aimed his message at all African Americans. To that end, he not only established the newspaper Negro World but also held parades in which he marched, wearing a lively dark suit with gold striping and sporting a white hat with a plume.

 

Relationship with W.E.B. Du Bois

Garvey clashed with prominent African American leaders of the day, including W.E.B. Du Bois. Among his criticisms, Du Bois denounced Garvey for meeting with Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members in Atlanta. At this meeting, Garvey told the KKK that their goals were compatible. Like the KKK, Garvey said, he rejected miscegenation and the idea of social equality. Blacks in America needed to forge their own destiny, according to Garvey. Ideas like these horrified Du Bois, who called Garvey "the most dangerous enemy of the Negro Race in America and in the world" in a May 1924 issue of The Crisis.

 

Back to Africa

Garvey is sometimes said to have headed a "back-to-Africa" movement. He did not call for a widespread exodus from America and other countries to Africa. He did see Africa as a source of heritage, culture and pride. Garvey believed in founding a nation to serve as a central homeland, as Palestine was for Jews. In 1919, Garvey and the UNIA established the Black Star Line for the dual purposes of carrying African Americans to Africa and promoting the idea of black enterprise.

 

The Black Star Line

The Black Star Line was poorly managed and fell victim to unscrupulous businessmen who sold damaged ships to the shipping line. Garvey also chose poor associates to go into business with, some of whom apparently stole money from the business. Garvey and the UNIA sold stock in the business by mail, and the inability of the company to deliver on its promises resulted in the federal government prosecuting Garvey and four others for mail fraud. 

Garvey's conviction on a charge of mail fraud was basically a technicality. As Garvey put it in a speech at Liberty Hall in New York on 20 May 1923, the mail fraud case against him "involves not Marcus Garvey but the existence of theUniversal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A.). The ideals of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are on trial."

Before settling on a mail fraud charge, government officials who were looking for an angle to use to challenge the UNIA on a legal basis had explored other possible avenues for prosecuting Garvey, including income tax evasion. The mail fraud charge they actually settled on stemmed from the purchase ofBlack Star Line stock through the U.S. mail in response to the advertisement in UNIA brochures and in the pages of the _Negro World_ newspaper of a new ship which had been dubbed the S. S. Phyllis Wheatley.

While these ads included photographs of the ship and promises of its impending launching and travel to Africa, the Black Star Line, Inc., had not actually completed negotiations for the purchase of the ship at the time the advertisements were run, and indeed, was having great difficulty guaranteeing payment. It was a Catch-22 situation for the UNIA--the sale of stock was needed to raise the funds necessary to fully complete the transaction that would legally transfer the ownership and operation of the ship to the Black Star Line, but at the same time, the UNIA did not officially own the ship in question for which it was issuing stock.

The UNIA constantly faced a conundrum regarding under-capitalization. Steeped in bills from the mechanical failures of previous ships, unable to meet payroll demands of crews, and facing other financial problems, the UNIA and ACL still needed to maintain the public profile that the Black Star Line afforded. Whatever its problems in actually functioning, the Black Star Line was a powerful symbol of black enterprise. It represented the ideal of unity between peoples of the African Diaspora, and the goal of linking together America, Africa and the Caribbean in both symbol and in fact.

 

Exile

Though Garvey was only guilty of inexperience and bad choices, he was convicted in 1923. He spent two years in jail; President Calvin Coolidge ended his sentence early, but Garvey was deported in 1927. He continued to work for the UNIA's goals after his exile from the United States, but he was never able to return. The UNIA struggled on but never reached the heights it had under Garvey.

 

Sources

Levine, Lawrence W. "Marcus Garvey and the Politics of Revitalization." In The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Lewis, David L. W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963. New York: Macmillan, 2001. And Barbara Bair (answered contributed to one section of this article as well)