The Legendary Marcus Garvy

Tyre Frasier

Prof. Puricelli

His 105

6/25/15

                                         The legendary Marcus Garvey

During the Post War era was a period of struggle for African-Americans. Slavery was abolished, but blacks were still oppressed and were in no way equal to whites. Marcus Garvey was a powerful black revolutionary leader; that brought unification and strengths to African Americans throughout the world.  He was a man that lives his life with missions. His main goal was to remove segration or move his people back to Africa. He started Universal Negro improvement association and spoked about unjust behavior towards blacks. He inspired people and gave them hope through his speaking, teaching and writings.  Garvey’s ideas of Black Nationalism and fighting oppression helped shape the identity of blacks in America during the 1920’s.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born on August 17, 1887, in St Ann’s Bay, a rural town on the north coast of Jamaica. He was the youngest out of eleven children; he and his sister Indiana were the only two who to survived adulthood. His father, Malchus , was a very strict man. His ancestors was from the Maroons, a group of runaway slaves who rebelled against the Spanish and British colonizer of  Jamaica ( Caravantes 13)..

Marcus father was a stone-mason; he cut and shaped white bricks for the island plantations houses. His mother, Sarah Garvey , she was the opposite of her husband ; she was very religious women. She worked as a baker to add to her husband income. She protected her youngest son and she made sure Marcus enjoyed his childhood. Marcus grew up in white and black community and attended to the same public school with them.  At the age fourteen, he experiences  his first racial encounter , with one of his white friends  moved away to further her education  she let him know that their friendship  is over with and she couldn’t write him because he was white(Caravantes 11). Mosiah states, “It was then I found for the first time that there was some difference in humanity, and that there were different races, each having its own separate and distinct social life”(Caravantes 12). Marcus was bright student that loved to read books at an early age .At the age fifteen, Marcus quit school and became an apprentice for his godfather, Alfred Burrowes, in his printing company.  The experience at his godfather printing company, improved his journalism technique that would helped him later on in life. At the age seventeen, he moved to Kingston, Jamaica, he worked at Drug Company that printed their own labels, P.A.

Benjamin Manufacturing Company. By the age twenty, he became a master printer, he also supervise and manage the printing company. On January 14, 1907, an earthquake destroyed Kingston , killing fifteen hundred people( Carvantes 21).  The Printers Union and Marcus went on strike because of their low salaries; they couldn’t afford to pay for the supplies. Marcus held public meetings to gain support for the strikers. The author states,” His employers wanted Marcus to stop and promised him a salary increase if he went back to work…the strike movement failed when the union treasurer ran away with the all the money “(22). During the strike a private company took over, Marcus tried to reapply for the job but they refused to hire him , then he went to work in a government printing company.  Garvey enjoyed leading the 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 at the plantation, so he quit and went to Limon, Costa Rica ,  to complain about the  harsh treatment the black workers receive on the plantation . The British counsels showed no interest in complaint. He gained a reputation as fighter for the black . He created another newspaper called La Nacional, trying to motivate other blacks to speak out on the unfair treatment but they were too afraid. Garvey uncle got fed up with his ideas and gave him money to leave Costa Rica. Instead of going back to Jamaica, he traveled to a few other countries in Central America  and saw the unfair  and unequal treatment black workers. He States, “Sick at heart over appeal from his people for help on their behalf “(Caravantes25).  He decided to go back to Jamaica.