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Marcus Garvey : A Renowned Civil Rights Activist

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Jason Morrow American History II Prof. Bobo 2/18/16 Marcus Garvey is a renowned civil rights activist, who pushed for the betterment of the African people across the globe. Marcus was a very influential figure in his time, he came from humble beginnings. Marcus Garvey was born on 17 August 1887 in St. Ann 's Bay, St Ann Parish, Jamaica, to Marcus Garvey Sr and Sarah Jane Richards. Garvey was the youngest of 11 siblings, but only himself and one of his sisters survived to adulthood. In Garvey’s youth he proved to be a bright young man teaching himself to read on his own by reading books from his father’s home library. His teenage years proved to be Garvey’s most influential years, at the age of 14 he became a printers apprentice, during his apprenticeship, Garvey traveled to Kingston, Jamaica to take up work as a compositor at P.A. Benjamin Limited. While in Kingston Garvey was also an influential employee and, by 1907, was also elected the vice-president of the Typographical Union. Garvey 's first major role within the union was a printers strike in 1908. The strike was unsuccessful and lead to Garvey being fired. But his firing led him to a new horizon and love of political activism. Garvey’s main focus was to deal with the racial injustices Africans across the globe had to go through, and this led the creation of the “United Negro Improvement Association” (U.N.I.A) by Mr. Garvey in his mid-twenties. This foundation had a great following in its early stages but Garvey

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