Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

(b. St Anne's Bay, Jamaica, 17 August 1887; d. London, England, 10 June 1940) In 1914 Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) as an international organization to foster self-help and racial pride among blacks. He hoped to lead blacks from the Americas to Africa and expel European colonial powers forcibly with a Universal African Legion. In 1916 he came to the US on a speaking tour and by 1919 had at least 500,000 followers in 700 chapters of the UNIA. Garvey disdained leaders of the N ational A ssociation for the A dvancement of C olored P eople (NAACP) like W. E. B. D u B ois , who were equally contemptuous of him. Between 1919 and 1921, Garvey collected $10,000,000 from his followers, but was convicted in 1923 of fraudulently diverting $1,000,000 to his steamship company. He ran his movement from prison during 1925–7 and was then deported. His “back to Africa” movement soon died out. ... log in or subscribe to read full text