Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. was born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, the youngest of four children born to Malchus Garvey, a stonemason, and Sarah Richards, a domestic servant and daughter of peasant farmers. His father traced his lineage to the Maroons — Africans who escaped bondage during the upheaval of Jamaica's colonial history, first fleeing Spanish captivity amid the British seizure of the island in 1655 and later waging war against British rule from the mountainous interior. From this heritage of defiance Garvey drew an enduring pride in African dignity.

Apprenticed young to the print trade, Garvey traveled through Costa Rica, Panama, and England, where he studied, spoke at Hyde Park, and read the Pan-African journals that sharpened his vision. Returning to Jamaica, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) in July 1914, with the motto "One Aim. One God. One Destiny."

In 1916 Garvey moved to the United States, building a UNIA branch in Harlem that grew into a mass movement of millions across the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa. He launched the Black Star Line, a Black-owned shipping enterprise, founded the newspaper Negro World, and in August 1920 was proclaimed Provisional President of Africa. Convicted of mail fraud in 1923 in connection with Black Star Line stock, he was imprisoned and, after President Coolidge commuted his sentence, deported to Jamaica in 1927.

He relocated to London in 1935 and died there on June 10, 1940. Jamaica named him its first National Hero, and his call for African redemption and self-reliance echoed through generations. May the herald of a people's pride be forever honored.