Marcus Garvey's Impact On The African American Community

“If you want liberty, you yourselves must strike the blow.” Taken out of his 1921 speech, Marcus Garvey, leader of the largest organized mass movement in black history, advocates the notion of “black nationalism”, the movement to integrate blacks into the dominant white society. As a civil rights activist, Garvey played a prominent role in influencing the culture and social movements of the 1920s by raising racial concerns and offering resolute solutions as well.

During this week, I found learning about Marcus Garvey to be interesting. He urged African Americans to rediscover their heritage of Africa and take pride in what they had done. I could use the FIU Libraries to answer my questions from Week 5 by researching the topics more. I learned that the Boxers hunted down and killed Chinese Christians and missionaries because they blamed them for their poor standard of living. The Boxers saw the missionaries and what they believed as evil. I also learned that violence was used in the Homestead Lockout because the workers were upset and they felt this was the way to make a statement. They didn’t want the Pinkertons to make it to the factory. Finding some of the answers for the Investigation Worksheet for

The effect of nihilism in Black America is clearly paralleled with the nihilistic mentality of Black Americans in the prison system as seen in the movie “Thug Life in DC.” According to Dr. Cornel West’s 1993 article of nihilism in Black America, nihilism is not a new struggle in the Black community. Dr. Cornel West described nihilism as “the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness and (most important) lovelessness” (West). This is seen in various moments throughout the film whether from Aundrey Bruno, the wardens, or Kevin Bruno. Nihilism, in the movie “Thug Life in D.C.,” plays a role in the mentality of the inmates who have always had to struggle with their misfortunate upbringing.

strike, it inspired him to start an organization for unjust behavior towards blacks. He quit his government job and traveled throughout Central America as editor, writing about unfair treatment towards their workers in the plantations. Garvey uncle, Henry Richards, helped him get a job as a timekeeper on a banana plantation. He observed the poor conditions that the other workers faced in the plantation .The Author States,” they worked in swamps, where they faced snakes and wild animals .When they got paid and went to town for supplies, Costa Rican bandits often attacked them with machetes and stole their money and goods. Chopped, battered bodies were a common sight in the bushes and rivers”(23). Garvey was upset about the unfair conditions

For starters, Garvey’s political platform was a Pan-African movement. Meaning, that African Americans should abandon the ‘American dream’ and “concentrate upon the object of building up for themselves a great nation in Africa”

Marcus Garvey was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). This association offered principles and a viewpoint for Negro self-reliance and African reclamation in the 1914’s. Garvey and a few of his followers organized events in New York City, the Harlem chapter of the UNIA. During one of his speeches, in August of 1921, also known as The Handwriting Is on the Wall, Garvey emphasized the need of the emancipation of the Negro race (p.31, pp. 2) when he said, “We have come to the conclusion that speedily there must be an emancipated Negro race everywhere…” He showed strength by telling his audience that he recognized how many before him fought to be accepted and not to be second citizens. He was fighting for the emancipation of all Negros from the thoughts and actions of others, which were influencing the actions of his “brothers”. He compared it to the Irish when he stated, “…the Irish are determined to have liberty and nothing less than liberty.” Garvey wanted the same for the African people, he would warn his followers during his speeches that “The handwriting is on the wall…,” meaning the Negro community needed to pay attention to what was going around them, and to know when to act and react. He further discusses his vision of the need of a united African community, so “…Africa could be free from coast to coast” (p/31, pp. 4). He pleaded for his followers, his “brothers”, his Negro community not to give up. His strength of showing them that he too

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was the leader of the largest “Back to Africa” movement during the 1920’s, which renewed passion in the lives of African Americans during that era and created a new sense of nationalism and pride in one’s cultural heritage

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.

In a decade’s time, Marcus Moziah Garvey entered United States, at the age of 28, and cultivated the American Negro through his oratory that is seen as the awaken of Black Nationalism. Garvey’s work does not end in America, he’s efforts were world-wide but not limited to Africa to Nova Scotia, and South America. It has been stated that Garvey raised more money and grew a membership than any other Negro organization to date. Coined as the Black Moses, Garvey’s stated “I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free.” Garvey evoke the message to his listeners that black skin was not to be shamed but black skin exemplifies national greatness. It is stated that his

Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican early civil rights activist was mostly known for his Back to Africa Movement were he believed all African Americans should migrate to Africa. He had many beliefs that extended into other reformed ideologies in the near future. To activists who spoke of separation and Black pride, Marcus Garvey was a very influential and convincing person. From the years 1954-1978 African American Civil Rights Movement Activists Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers’ actions were heavily influenced by Marcus Garvey’s ideologies. Stokely Carmicheal’s idea of Black Power was similar to Marcus Garvey’s idea of Black power as well as their approach.

In a speech in Nova Scotia, Garvey shared that “we are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind.” Garvey challenges the hegemonic idea that Blacks are subject to one way of thinking and that the kind of thinking Blacks do holds them back from “emancipating” themselves from cultural hegemony. In addition, the evidence exhibits how Garvey exploited why Blacks haven’t yet abolished hegemonic ideas and gives his solution. Moving forward, Garvey talks about bringing freedom to the diaspora of the Black race through unity. Further into the speech at Nova Scotia, Garvey claims that “these four million people are working to convert the rest of the four hundred million that are all over the world, and it is for this purpose, that we are asking you to join our land and to do the best you can to help us bring about an emancipated race.” This hegemonic idea that Blacks cannot think for themselves has is that of what Garvey wants Blacks to be “emancipated”

Marcus Garvey was a Pan Africanist who believed in unity of all Black people across the world and that all Blacks who were descendants from African were all one people. This was appealing to African American because Garvey preached of African Americans have a sense of pride even though white supremacy was riding unbound. Also, Garvey preached repatriation to Liberia in Africa.

America has a long history of discrimination against non-white peoples. White Americans are responsible for the eradication of Native Americans from their native lands, and for the importation of Black people from Africa for enslavement. Today racism is not even close to what it had been 150 years ago, when slavery was still legal; however the changes have come gradually. The Harlem renaissance was a pivotal time for the recognition of black culture in the US, and Marcus Garvey emerged as a strong and cunning political leader. During the Harlem Renaissance, Marcus Garvey was instrumental in defining the black identity in the World, and the fundamental basis of this goal was black self-determination.

Garvey was mainly self-taught, dropping out of school at the age of 14. He had learned to read using his father’s vast collection of books. Garvey was heavily influenced by his father, Marcus Garvey, Sr. He described him once as "...severe, firm, determined, bold, and strong, refusing to yield even to superior forces if he believed he was right." After leaving school, he served as an apprentice for a printer where he learned the skills of a compositor. Later in his apprentice, he lead a strike for a higher salary. Participating in this strike played an important role in his political interests later in life. Following his apprenticeship, he moved to Kingston and participated in debates and elocution contests.

Garvey 's considered capitalism to be necessary in the process of human advancement but expressed difficulty with the results of its unrestrained uses. It was Garvey 's belief that white capitalists tolerated African American workers only because they were willing to accept a lower standard of wage than unionized white workers. Garvey aimed to reform the social democratic nature rather than attempting to eradicate the capitalist system. He felt that the capitalistic system gave African Americans a chance for competitive employment and also gave them the opportunity to make a profit from their labor. Garvey also felt that communism was a white man 's creation to solve their own political and economic problems. To him, it was never intended for the economic or political emancipation of African Americans, but rather to raise the earning capacity of the lower class workers. Garvey said, "It is a dangerous theory of economic and political reformation because it seeks to put government in the hands of an ignorant white mass who have not been able to destroy their natural prejudices towards Negroes and other non-white people. While it may be a good thing for them, it will be a bad thing for the Negroes who will fall under the government of the most ignorant, prejudiced class of the white race" (Nolan, 1951).