Marcus Garvey: The Black Moses

by Zoltanous

When the topic of Black History Month arises, names like Martin Luther King Jr. and groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) often dominate the conversation. Yet, there exists a figure who merits comparable attention alongside Malcolm X or Louis Farrakhan – that is Marcus Garvey. Though not as widely recognized, Garvey stands as a pivotal leader who lent a powerful voice to African peoples. Born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, Garvey was the youngest of eleven children and descended from Jamaican and African lineage. His formative years were shaped by poverty, leading him to leave school early and apprentice as a printer. His travels through Central and South America in 1910 exposed him to the plight of Black laborers, galvanizing his resolve to uplift Black communities.

In 1914, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica, with the mission of fostering economic and social autonomy for Black individuals. He relocated to the United States in 1916, where he expanded UNIA with chapters in various cities, including New York, which became the organization's base. Garvey's initiatives included launching a series of Black-owned enterprises, such as a newspaper and the pioneering Black Star Line, an all-Black-operated steamship company. In contrast to entities like the NAACP, which received support from non-Black Jewish financiers, Garvey's organizations were grassroots creations, primarily sustained by modest contributions from the Black community.

Photos of the UNIA

Garvey speaking on pan-Africanism

Garvey firmly rejected the idea of embracing "Liberalism," viewing it as a construct of White society. Instead, he urged his fellow Black individuals to adopt the mantle of Black Nationalism. He acknowledged the diasporic spread of the Black race, recognizing the unique regional and cultural variations that had developed through time, yet he believed in a shared African heritage as the foundational unifier. It was this African origin he deemed essential for charting a collective future for the Black race, in parallel with other ethnicities, rather than pursuing an assimilation into the "White man's" Liberal archetype. This stance was met with disapproval and even trepidation by figures like J. Edgar Hoover and W. E. B. Du Bois. Du Bois, the leader of the NAACP, and in a similar vein to Martin Luther King Jr. later on, was accused by Garvey of aspiring to the status of a White man, which Garvey equated with the prevailing economic ideal of the era. Consequently, Du Bois labeled Garvey as the most perilous Black leader in the nation, while Garvey retorted by branding Du Bois as a mixed-race individual who merely sought to assimilate into White Liberal society.

Garvey was not interested in the transformation into "White" America to achieve material equality; he aimed for the authentic elevation of his people through their own efforts. Drawing inspiration from movements like the Irish Sinn Féin and their quest for self-governance, he instilled in his followers the vision of a self-ruled homeland. He aspired to a total overhaul akin to the Soviet revolution under Lenin—not because he shared Communist ideals, but because the revolutionary spirit moved him to seek a Black revolution.

Garvey's sentiments are reflected in the following two statements he made:

“If the Englishman claims England as his native habitat, and the Frenchman claims France, the time has come for 400 million Negroes to claim Africa as their native land.”

“The world has reached a crossroads of humanity, when each race will travel in its own direction, when each national group will travel its own avenue. Let the Anglo-Saxon go the way he desires to go. Let the Frenchman go the way he desires; let the Teuton go the way he desires to go; we are now organizing the 400,000,000 Negroes so that they can go the way they desire to go.”

— Marcus Garvey, The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers

A photo of Marcus Garvey

A colorized photo of Garvey

In pursuit of Black and White separation, Garvey supported engagement with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). In a significant encounter, Garvey met with KKK Imperial Wizard Edward Young Clark in Atlanta, Georgia, in June 1922. Diverging from other Black leaders, Garvey asserted that his organization recognized the United States as a dominion for White people and advocated for a separate Black homeland in Africa. This overlap in objectives brought Garvey's views in line with those of the KKK. As a result, Garvey's travels in the South faced less obstruction, given that the messaging of his organization was not in conflict with KKK sentiments. This meeting was preceded by a series of provocative speeches made by Garvey:

“I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.”

— Marcus Garvey quoted in Strange Bedfellows: Eugenicists, White Supremacists, and Marcus Garvey In Virginia, 1922-1927 by Sarah L. Trembanis

Besides finding shared interest with the KKK, Garvey also denounced Jewish power and Communism. Garvey was critical of what he saw as the undue influence of Jewish people in the media, finance, and politics, and he believed that this influence was detrimental to the interests of Black people. Garvey was also one of the first Blacks to point out the prominent role of Jews in the North Atlantic slave trade. He was also critical of Communism because of how Jewish it was in his view. He said that Communism did not adequately address the specific needs and interests of Black people too. Garvey believed that it was too focused on class struggle and did not take into account the unique challenges facing Black people in the United States and around the world.

Garvey firmly opposed interracial unions and criticized the presence of mixed-race individuals, considering them a dilution of Black identity and labeling such individuals as disloyal to their race. He promoted the notion that the UNIA upheld racial pride and purity. Among his aspirations for an African state was the ambition to "assist in civilizing the backward tribes of Africa" and to encourage a devout Christian faith. Garvey's respect for authoritarian figures like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini is also noteworthy. He praised Hitler as a nationalist for Germany, comparing him to historic empire builders such as Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, all of whom harbored imperial aspirations that Garvey wished to emulate for African peoples. Regarding Mussolini, Garvey issued a statement that resonated for decades:

“We were the first Fascists.… When we had 100,000 disciplined men, and were training children, Mussolini was still an unknown, [and] Mussolini copied our Fascism.”

— Marcus Garvey, Negro With a Hat

Garvey's economic ideology was deeply rooted in the pursuit of Black autonomy, emphasizing the necessity for collective economic efforts and unity within the Black community. He championed the idea that Black individuals should own and operate their businesses, fostering job creation and wealth accumulation. He advocated for the pooling of resources to establish economic self-sufficiency. Garvey once envisaged a pan-African state that would adopt economic policies similar to those of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, along with elements from Lenin's New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union.

Although, Garvey's admiration for Mussolini waned following the 1935 invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), as he held Emperor Haile Selassie in high regard, likening him to a messianic figure. Yet, still in 1937 Garvey would still proudly proclaim, “We were the first Fascists.” With this passion and rhetoric, through his military-like parades of blueshirted uniforms. Garvey earned the moniker 'Black Moses' for his vision reminiscent of the biblical Moses, who led the Israelites out of bondage. Garvey's aim was to lead African peoples away from subjugation under Western powers and towards establishing their own independent nation. This significant element of Garvey's impact is frequently overshadowed during Black History Month and similar events. His advocacy for Black self-reliance and the "Back to Africa" movement met resistance from some contemporary African American leaders, who criticized these ideas as unrealistic, dictatorial, and divisive.

The NAACP's resistance to Garvey's philosophy culminated in the formation of the "Garvey Must Go" campaign. This campaign, driven by the group known as the Friends of Negro Freedom, was dedicated to exposing Garvey as a charlatan and prompted the federal government to intensify its scrutiny of him. On January 15, 1923, a collective of eight distinguished Black Americans submitted a plea to Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, requesting that the U.S. government persist with its legal action against Garvey on mail fraud allegations. The petition concluded with a call for the Attorney General to wield his authority to dismantle and eradicate the movement they considered harmful, and to expedite the government's legal actions against Marcus Garvey for mail fraud.

It is possible that the NAACP's opposition to Garvey was shaped by its connections with Jews and perhaps due to Garvey's expressed anti-Semitic views. Putting aside personal speculations, a historian outlines alternative explanations for why Garvey was targeted:

“The NAACP viewed Garvey's movement as a dangerous rival to their own organization, and they worked to undermine his influence and credibility within the African American community. They were concerned that his advocacy for black nationalism and separatism would lead to division and conflict among black people, and they saw his movement as a potential obstacle to their own efforts to promote integration and equal rights."

— David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was In Vogue

Garvey became a target for the U.S. government, which deemed him a subversive and a national security threat. Agencies and organizations such as the Bureau of Investigation (the predecessor to the FBI), the NAACP, established Black Newspapers, and the local District Attorney were all implicated in efforts to discredit and bring down Marcus Garvey, ultimately leading to his historical obscurity. His 1922 arrest for mail fraud, related to the selling of Black Star Line stock, was part of this campaign. The UNIA leader accused Jewish individuals of prejudice against him during his 1923 mail fraud trial, attributing the bias to his interactions with the KKK and even referring to the judge and District Attorney as “damned dirty Jews.”

In 1928 Garvey told a journalist:

“When they wanted to get me they had a Jewish judge try me, and a Jewish prosecutor. I would have been freed but two Jews on the jury held out against me for ten hours and succeeded in convicting me, whereupon the Jewish judge gave me the maximum penalty.”

— Marcus Garvey quoted in June 21, 1923: Marcus Garvey Sentenced to a Five-year Imprisonment by Walter Opinde

The trial that resulted in Marcus Garvey's imprisonment was highly contentious, with the legal team and the jury involving individuals of Jewish heritage. The judge in the case, Julian Mack, was a distinguished figure in the Jewish community, holding presidencies and leadership roles in organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America, the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Congress, and was connected to B’nai B’rith, the parent organization of the Anti-Defamation League. The conviction seemed inevitable to many, and Garvey was sentenced to prison where he penned a significant letter to his supporters. Despite his deportation to Jamaica and the revocation of his U.S. citizenship in 1927, and his subsequent death in 1940, Garvey’s legacy, particularly his emphasis on self-determination and self-sufficiency, lived on even as the UNIA faded following his demise.

Conclusions

Garvey championed a unique African heritage, seeking to preserve cultural identity against Western assimilation which he viewed as eroding individuality and cultural heritage. He consciously distanced himself from any victimhood identity, aiming instead for a nationalist movement centered on Black empowerment. Garvey's life concluded in defiance, countering the same societal forces that many still confront. He anticipated that his contributions might be marginalized within the broader narrative of Black history for challenging mainstream ideologies. As a result, his genuine ideology and goals are sometimes overlooked or misrepresented, leading to a historical narrative that often celebrates organizations and figures such as the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr., which, from certain perspectives, do not reflect Garvey's fascism.

“Having had the wrong education as a start in his racial career, the Negro has become his own greatest enemy. Most of the trouble I have had in advancing the cause of the race has come from Negroes. Booker Washington aptly described the race in one of his lectures by stating that we were like crabs in a barrel, that none would allow the other to climb over, but on any such attempt all would continue to pull back into the barrel the one crab that would make the effort to climb out. Yet, those of us with vision cannot desert the race, leaving it to suffer and die.”

― Marcus Garvey, Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey