I was born on the Island of Jamaica, British West Indies, on Aug. 17, 1887. My parents were Black Negroes. My father was a man of brilliant intellect and dashing courage. He was unafraid of consequences. He took human chances in the course of life, as most bold men do, and he failed at the close of his career. He once had a fortune; he died poor.
My mother was a sober and conscientious christian, too soft and good for the time in which she lived. She was the direct opposite of my father. He was severe, firm determined, bold and strong, refusing to yield to superior forces if he believed he was right. My mother, on the other hand, was always willing to return a smile for a blow, and ever ready to bestow charity upon her enemy. Of this strange combination, I was born thirty-six years ago, and ushered into a world of sin,
the flesh, and the devil.
I grew up with other Black and white boys. I was never whipped by any, but made them all respect the strength of my arms. I got my education from many sources – through private tutors, two public schools, two grammar or high schools and two colleges. My teachers were men and women of varied experiences and abilities; four of them were eminent preachers. They studied me and I studied them. With some, I became friendly in after years, others and I drifted apart, because as a boy they wanted to whip me, and I simply refused to be whipped. It annoys me to be defeated; hence to me, to be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.
I became a printer’s apprentice at an early age, while still attending school. My apprentice master was a highly educated and alert man. In the affairs of business and the world he had no peer. He taught me many things before I reached twelve, and at fourteen, I had enough intelligence and experience to manage men. I was strong and manly, and I made them respect me. I developed a strong and forceful character, and have maintained it still.
To me, at home in my early days, there was no difference between white and Black. One of my father’s properties, the place where I lived most of the time, was adjoining that of a white man. He had three girls and two boys; the Wesleyan minister, another white man whose church my parents attended, also had property adjoining ours. He had three girls and one boy. All of us were playmates. We romped and were happy children playmates together. The little white girl whom I liked most knew no better than I did myself. We were two innocent fools who never dreamed of a race feeling and problem. As a child, I went to school with white boys and girls, like all other Negroes. We were not called Negroes then. I never heard the term Negro used once until I was about fourteen. At fourteen my little white playmate and I parted. Her parents thought the tine had come to separate us and draw the color line. They sent her and another sister to Edinburgh, Scotland, and told her that she was never to write or try to get in touch with me, for I was a “nigger.” It was then that 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. I did not care about the separation after I was told about it, because I never thought all during our childhood association that the girl and the rest of the children of her race were better than I was; in fact, they used to look up to me. So I simply had no regrets. I only thought them “fresh.”
After my first lesson in race distinction, I never thought of playing with white girls any more, even if they might be next-door neighbors. At home, my sister’s company was good enough for me, and at school I made friends with the colored girls next to me. White boys and I used to frolic together. We played cricket and baseball, ran races and rode bicycles together, took each other to the river and to the sea beach to learn to swim, and made boyish efforts while out in deep water to drown each other, making a sprint for shore crying out “shark, shark, shark.” In all our experiences, however, only one black boy was drowned. He went under on a Friday afternoon after school hours, and his parants found him afloat half-eaten by sharks on the following Sunday afternoon. Since then we boys never went back to sea.
You Are Black
At maturity, the Black and white boys separated, and took different courses in life. I grew up then to see the difference between the races more and more. My schoolmates as young men did not know or remember me any more. Then I realized that I had to make a fight for a place in the world, that it was not so easy to pass on to office and position. Personally, however, I had not much difficulty in finding and holding a place for myself, for I was aggressive.
At eighteen, I had an excellent position as manager of a large printing establishment having under my control several men old enough to be my grandfathers. But I got mixed up with public life. I started to take an interest in the politics of my country, and then I saw the injustice done to my race because it was Black, and I became dissatisfied on that account. I went traveling to South and Central America and parts of the West Indies to find out if it was so elsewhere, and I found the same situation. I set sail for Europe to find out if it was different there, and again I found the same stumbling block — “You are Black.” I read of the conditions in America. I read Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington, and then my doom — if I may so call it — of being a race leader dawned upon me in London after I had travel through almost half of Europe.
I asked, “Where is the Black man’s government?” “Where is his King and his kingdom?” “Where is his President, his country and his ambassador; his army, his navy, his men of big affairs?” I could not find them, and then I declared, “I will help to make them.”
Becoming naturally restless for the opportunity of doing something [for] the advancement of my race, I was determined that the Black man would not continue to be kicked about by all the other races and nations of the world, as I saw it in the West Indies, South and Central America and Europe, and as I read of it in America. My young and ambitious mind led me into flights of great imagination. I saw before me then, even as I do now, a new world of Black men, not peons, serfs, dogs and slaves, but a nation of sturdy men making their impression upon civilization and causing a new light to dawn upon the human race. I could not remain in London anymore. My brain was afire. There was a world of thought to conquer. I had to start before it became too late and the work be not done. Immediately, I boarded a ship at Southampton for Jamaica, where I arrived on July 15, 1914. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League was founded and organized five days after my arrival, the the program of uniting all the Negro peoples of the world into one great body to establish a country and Government absolutely their own.
Where did the name of the organization come from? It was while speaking to a West Indian Negro who was a passenger with me from Southampton who was returning home to the West Indies from Basutoland with his Basuto wife that I further learned of the horrors of native life in Africa. He related to me in conversation such horrible and pitiable tales that my heart bled within me. Retiring from the conversation to my cabin, all day and the following night I pondered over the subject matter of that conversation, and at midnight, lying flat on my back, the vision and thought came to me that I should name the organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League. Such a name I thought would embrace the purpose of all Black humanity. Thus to the world a name was born, a movement created and a man became known.
I really never knew there was so much color prejudice in Jamaica, my own native home, until I started the work of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. We started immediately before the war. I had just returned from a successful trip to Europe, which was an exceptional achievement for a Black man. The daily papers wrote me up with big headlines and told of my movement. But nobody wanted to be a Negro. “Garvey is crazy; he has lost his head.” “Is that the use he is going to make of his experience and intelligence?” – such were the criticisms passed upon me. Men and women as Black as I, and even more so, had believed themselves white under the West Indian order of societal. I was simply an impossible man to use openly the term “Negro;” yet every one beneath his breath was calling the Black man a Negro.
I had to decide whether to please my friends and be one of the “Black-whites” of Jamaica, and be reasonably prosperous, or come out openly and defend and help improve and protect the integrity of the Black millions and suffer. I decided to do the latter, hence my offense against “colored-Black-white” society in the colonies and America. I was openly hated and persecuted by some of these colored men of the island who did not want to be classified as Negroes, but as white. They hated me worse than poison. They opposed me at every step, but I had a large number of white friends, who encouraged and helped me. Notable among them were the then — Governor of the Colony, the Colonial Secretary and several other prominent men. But they were afraid of offending the “colored gentry” that were passing for white. Hence, my fight had to be made alone. I spent hundreds of pounds (sterling) helping the organization to gain a footing. I also gave up all my time to the promulgation of its ideals. I became a marked man, but I was determined that the work should be done.
The war helped a great deal in arousing the consciousness of the colored people to the reasonableness of our program, especially after the British at home had rejected a large number of West Indian colored men who wanted to be officers in the British Army. When they were told that Negroes could not be officers in the British Army they started their own propaganda, which supplemented the program of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. With this and other contributing agencies, a few of the stiff-necked colored people began to see the reasonableness of my program, but they were firm in refusing to be known as Negroes. Furthermore, I was a Black man and therefore had absolutely no right to lead; in the opinion of the “colored” element, leadership should have been in the hands of a yellow or a very light man. On such flimsy prejudices, our race has been retarded. There is more bitterness among us Negroes because of the caste of color than there is between any other peoples, not excluding the people of India.
I succeeded to a great extent in establishing the association in Jamaica with the assistance of a Catholic Bishop, the Governor, Sir John Pringle, the Rev. William Graham, a Scottish clergyman and several other white friends. I got in touch with Booker T. Washington and told him what I wanted to do. He invited me to America and promised to speak with me in the South and other states to help my work.
Although he died in the fall of 1915, I made my arrangements and arrived in the United States on March 23, 1916.
Here I found a new and different problem. I immediately visited some of the then so-called Negro leaders, only to discover, after a close study of them, that they had no program, but were mere opportunists who were living off their so-called leadership while the poor people were groping in the dark. I traveled through thirty-eight States and everywhere found the same condition. I visited Tuskegee and paid my respects to the dead hero, Booker T. Washington, and then returned to New York where I organized the New York division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. After instructing the people in the aims and objects of the association, I intended on returning to Jamaica to perfect the Jamaican organization, but when we had enrolled about 800 or 1,000 members in the Harlem district and had elected the officers, a few Negro politicians began trying to turn the movement into a political club.
Political Faction Fight
Seeing that these politicians were about to destroy my ideals, I had to fight to get them out of the organization. There is was that I made my first political enemies in Harlem. They fought me until they smashed the first organization and reduced its membership to about fifty. I started again and in two months built up a new organization of about 1,500 members. Again, the politicians came and divided us into two factions. They took away all the books of the organization, its treasury and all its belongings. At that time, I was only an organizer, for it was not then my intention to remain in America, but to return to Jamaica. The organization had its proper officers elected, and I was not an officer of the New York division but president of the Jamaica branch.
On the second split in Harlem, thirteen of the members conferred with me and requested me to become president for a time of the New York organization so as to save them from the politicians. I consented and was elected President. There then sprung up two factions, one led by the politicians with the books and the money, and the other led by me. My faction had no money. I placed at their disposal what money I had, opened an office for them, rented a meeting place, employed two women secretaries, went on the streets of Harlem at night to speak for the movement. In three weeks, more than 2,000 new members joined. By this time, I had the association incorporated so as to prevent the other faction from using the name, but in two weeks the politicians had stolen all the people’s money and had smashed up their faction.
The organization under my presidency grew by leaps and bounds. I started The Negro World. Being a journalist, I edited this paper free of cost for the association, and worked for them without pay until November 1920. I traveled all over the country for the association at my own expense and established branches until in 1919 we had about thirty branches in different cities. By my writings and speeches, we were able to build up a large organization of over 2,000,000 by June 1919, at which time we launched the program of the Black Star Line.
To have built up a new organization, which was not purely political, among Negroes in America was a wonderful feat, for the Negro politician does not allow any other kind of organization within his race to thrive. We succeeded, however, in making the Universal Negro Improvement Association so formidable in 1919 that we encountered more trouble from our political brethren. They sought the influence of the District Attorney’s office of the County of New York to put us out of business. Edwin P. Kilroe, at that time an Assistant District Attorney, on the complaint of the Negro politicians, started to investigate us and the association. Mr. Kilroe would constantly and continuously call me to his office for investigation on extraneous matters without coming to the point. The result was that after the eight or ninth time I wrote an article in our newspaper, The Negro World, against him. This was interpreted as criminal libel, for which I was indicted and arrested, but subsequently dismissed on retracting what I had written.
During my many tilts with Mr. Kilroe, the question of the Black Star Line was discussed. He did not want us to have a line of ships. I told him that even as there was a White Star Line, we would have, irrespective of his wishes, a Black Star Line. On June 27, 1919, we incorporated the Black Star Line of Delaware, and in September we obtained a ship.
The following month (October), a man by the name of Tyler came to my office at 56 West 135th Street, New York City and told me that Mr. Kilroe had sent him to “get me,” and at once fired four shots at me from a .38-caliber revolver. He wounded me in the right leg and the right side of my scalp. I was taken to Harlem Hospital and he was arrested. The next day, it was reported that he committed suicide in jail just before he was to be taken before a City Magistrate.
Record-Breaking Convention
The first year of our activities for the Black Star Line added prestige to the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Several hundred thousand dollars worth of shares were sold. Our first ship, the steamship Yarmouth, had made two voyages to the West Indies and Central America. The white press had flashed the news all over the world. I, a young Negro, as president of the corporation, had become famous. My name was discussed on five continents. The Universal Negro Improvement Association gained millions of followers all over the world. By August 1920, over 4,000,000 persons had joined the movement. A convention of all the Negro peoples of the world was called to meet in New York that month. Delegates came from all parts of the known world. Over 25,000 persons packed Madison Square Garden on August 1 to hear me speak to the first International Convention of Negroes. It was a record-breaking meeting, the first and the biggest of its kind. The name of Garvey had become known as a leader of his race.
Such fame among Negroes was too much for other race leaders and politicians to tolerate. My downfall was planned by my enemies. They laid all kinds of traps for me. They scattered their spies among the employees of the Black Star Line and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Our office records were stolen. Employees started to be openly dishonest; we could get no convictions against them; even if on complaint they were held by a Magistrate, they were dismissed by the Grand Jury. The ships’ officers started to pile up thousands of dollars of debts against the company without the knowledge of the officers of the corporation. Our ships were damaged at sea, and there was a general riot of wreck and ruin. Officials of the Universal Negro Improvement Association also began to steal and be openly dishonest. I had to dismiss them. They joined my enemies, and thus I had an endless fight on my hands to save the ideals of the association and carry out our program for the race. My Negro enemies, finding that they alone could not destroy me, resorted to misrepresenting me to the leaders of the white race, several of whom, without proper investigation, also opposed me.
With robberies from within and from without, the Black Star Line was forced to suspend active business in December 1921. While I was on a business trip to the West Indies in the spring of 1921, the Black Star Line received the blow from which it was unable to recover. A sum of $25,000 was paid by one of the officers of the corporation to a man to purchase a ship, but the ship was never obtained and the money was never returned. The company was defrauded of a further sum of $11,000. Through such actions on the part of dishonest men in the shipping business, the Black Star Line received its first setback. This resulted in my being indicted for using the United States’ mails to defraud investors in the company. I was subsequently convicted and sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary. My trial is a matter of history. I know I was not given a square deal because my indictment was the result of a “frame-up” among my political and business enemies. I had to conduct my own case in court because of the peculiar position in which I found myself. I had millions of friends and a large number of enemies. I wanted a colored attorney to handle my case, but there was none I could trust. I feel that I have been denied justice because of prejudice. Yet I have an abundance of faith in the courts of America, and I hope yet to obtain justice on my appeal.
Association’s 6,000,000 Membership
The temporary ruin of the Black Star Line in no way affected the larger work of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which now has 900 branches with an approximate membership of 6,000,000. This organization has succeeded in organizing the Negroes all over the world and we now look forward to a renaissance that will create a new people and bring about the restoration of Ethiopia’s ancient glory.
Being Black, I have committed an unpardonable offense against the very light colored Negroes in America and the West Indies by making myself famous as a Negro leader of millions. In their view, no Black man must rise above them, but I still forge ahead determined to give to the world the truth about the new Negro who is determined to make and hold for himself a place in the affairs of men. The Universal Negro Improvement Association has been misrepresented by my enemies. They have tried to make it appear that we are hostile to other races. This is absolutely false. We love all humanity. We are working for the peace of the world which we believe can only come about when all races are given their due.
We feel that there is absolutely no reason why there should be any differences between the Black and white races if each stops to adjust and steady itself. We believe in the purity of both races. We do not believe the Black man should be encouraged in the idea that his highest purpose in life is to marry a white woman, but we do believe that the white man should be taught to respect the Black woman in the same way as he wants the Black man to respect the white woman. It is a vicious and dangerous doctrine of social equality to urge, as certain colored leaders do, that Black and white should get together, for that would destroy the racial purity of both.
We believe that Black people should have a country of their own where they should be given the fullest opportunity to develop politically, socially and industrially. Black people should not be encouraged to remain in white people’s countries and expect to be Presidents, Governors, Mayors, Senators, Congressmen, Judges and social and industrial leaders. We believe that with the rising ambition of the Negro, if a country is not provided for him in another 50 or 100 years, there will be a terrible clash that will end disastrously to him and disgrace our civilization. We desire to prevent such a clash by pointing the Negro to a home of his own. We feel that all well-disposed and broad-minded white men will aid in this direction. It is because of this belief no doubt that my Negro enemies, so as to prejudice me further in the opinion of the public, wickedly state that I am a member of the Ku Klux Klan, even though I am a Black man.
I have been deprived of the opportunity of properly explaining my work to the white people of America through the prejudice worked up against me by jealous and wicked members of my own race. My success as an organizer was much more than rival Negro leaders could tolerate. They, regardless of consequences, either to me or to the race, had to destroy me by fair means or foul. The thousands of anonymous and other hostile letters written to the editors and publishers of the white press by Negro rivals to prejudice me in the eyes of public opinion are sufficient evidence of the wicked and vicious opposition I have had to meet from among my own people, especially among the very lightly colored. But they went further than the press in their attempts to discredit me. They organized clubs all over the United States and the West Indies and wrote both open and anonymous letters to city, state and federal officials of this and other governments to induce them to use their influence to hamper and destroy me. No wonder, therefore, that several Judges, District Attorneys and other high officials have been against me without knowing me. No wonder, therefore, that the great white population of this country and of the world has a wrong impression of the aims and objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and of the work of Marcus Garvey.
The Struggle of the Future
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 T. 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.
Looking forward a century or two, we can see an economic and political death struggle for the survival of the different race groups. Many of our present-day national centers will have become overcrowded with vast surplus populations. The fight for bread and position will be keen and severe. The weaker and unprepared group is bound to go under. That is why visionaries as we are in the Universal Negro Improvement Association, we are fighting for the founding of a Negro nation in Africa, so that there will be no clash between Black and white and that each race will have a separate existence and civilization all its own without courting suspicion and hatred or eyeing each other with jealousy and rivalry within the borders of the same country.
White men who have struggled for and built up their countries and their own civilizations are not disposed to hand them over to the Negro or any other race without let or hindrance. It would be unreasonable to expect this. Hence, any vain assumption on the part of the Negro to imagine that he will one day become President of the Nation, Governor of the State or Mayor of the City in the countries of white men, is like waiting on the devil and his angels to take up their residence in the Realm on High and direct there the affairs of Paradise.
