²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵÃâ·Ñ°æapp

Leader of the first movement of the Black working class, Jamaican-born Marcus Mosiah Garvey galvanized African Americans with his inspiring speeches and his newspaper, Negro World. When Garvey spoke at the Bethel A.M.E. church in Harlem, 2,000 people raised the roof with shouts of approval.

In 1914, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Its goal was to promote self-reliance among African Americans and solidarity among Black people worldwide. Five years later, Garvey set up UNIA headquarters at Liberty Hall in Harlem. The message and the movement spread like wildfire: By the early 1920s, the UNIA had opened 700 branches across the country.

Garvey’s “back to Africa” movement aimed to instill a sense of Black pride—and to empower those of African descent to defy European domination and oppression.

As contributions to his cause poured in from around the country, Garvey founded several Black-owned enterprises. Foremost among them was the Black Star Line, a steamship company designed to foster trade and transport among Black people living in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa.

In August 1920, hundreds of delegates from all over the globe packed Liberty Hall for UNIA’s first International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World. On August 3, some 25,000 people marched from Harlem to Madison Square Garden for a rally led by Garvey.

Garvey was frustrated not only with white hegemony, but with the racism he encountered among fellow African Americans. He challenged the aristocratic ideals of so-called Talented Tenth leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois—who, in Garvey’s eyes, rejected their African heritage and discriminated against those who were dark-skinned. Du Bois, for his part, considered Garvey both a traitor and a dictator; the two leaders traded frequent rhetorical barbs and blows in public.

Like Du Bois, the U.S. government eyed Garvey’s growing popularity with suspicion. In 1923, when the Justice Department convicted Garvey of mail fraud, it did so with the help of his detractors. After being imprisoned in 1925, Garvey was pardoned by President Calvin Coolidge and deported to Jamaica in 1927.

Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning

Eric Friedman 
Director, Digital Learning

Kenny Neal 
Manager, Digital Education Resources

Tiffany A. Bryant 
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement

JoDee Scissors 
Content Specialist, Digital Learning

Connect with us!

Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.