Preview

Marcus Garvey And The Pan-Africanism Movement

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1714 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Marcus Garvey And The Pan-Africanism Movement
Rob Taglienti
AFAS 255
8/17/16
Marcus Garvey

Through his affiliation with the Pan-Africanism movement, The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA), and The Black Star Line, Marcus Garvey will forever be considered one of the most prominent reformers in Black History. It is difficult to make a difference in this world. You are just one person in a world of seven billion. With seven billion humans on this earth, one may ask themselves how one person can possibly make a difference. How is one person going to affect the lives of seven billion? Seems like the odds are not in your favor. What if I told you that you are still that one in seven billion, but you also have no rights, no respect, heck, some people
…show more content…
“Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement and economic empowerment focusing on Africa known as Garveyism.” Garveyism is an aspect of black nationalism that focuses on the social, economic, and political policies of Marcus Garvey. At this movement's peak of popularity, “Garveyists” (followers of Garveyism) numbered in the millions. The ideology behind Garveyism is the unification and empowerment of people of African American extent. Pan Africanism may have never reached its peak without Marcus Garvey behind it. He was the one that really placed the idea of Pan Africanism in his fellow African Americans heads. By Garvey founding the UNIA and getting these thousands of African Americans together and unified, he allowed the push for Pan Africanism to exist. If Garvey never unified the African Americans and educated them on the importance of rallying against racism as a whole, Pan Africanism may have fell right on its face. Garvey explains, “The thing to do is to get organized; keep separated and you will be exploited, you will be robbed, you will be killed. Get organized and you will compel the world to respect you.” Garvey had the presence of mind to unify a black community. Garvey knew individually they were not powerful nor respected. But as a unit, they were a solid force to be reckoned with. To prove how influential Garvey was to the Pan African movement, the Pan Africanism movement adopted the flag from the UNIA which was Marcus Garvey’s movement. The flag was made up of three horizontal stripes of red black and green. The meaning behind this flag is “ Red is the color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty; black is the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong; green is the color of the luxuriant vegetation of our

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    At the start of the 20th century, Jim Crow laws still crippled the rights of the African American community and segregation was at an all-time high. Even occupations such as Federal employment were degraded through segregation. Consequently, small protests began; insignificant in the short term, but it truly laid the foundation for the civil rights movement to have a major impact throughout America. Despite the limits and obstacles in their path, men and women rose to new heights, disregarding the concept of white supremacy. Whilst they had to endure a life of hardship, being denied higher education and the vote, many would not allow themselves to remain ‘separate but equal’. This essay will explore the accomplishments of African-American leaders but focus on how they couldn’t have succeeded without the influence of other factors, such as the federal government, a view shared with Miles Mulin who stated that ‘… in combination with their own persistent efforts, only the concerted efforts of a muscular federal government guaranteed the most fundamental rights…’…

    • 3331 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Nationalism is the name given to empower movements among black Americans, emphasizing their African origins and identity, their pride in being black, their desire to control their own communities, and sometimes the desire to establish a black nation in Africa or some part of the United States. An examination of the roots of these movements and of the beliefs, strategies, and goals of each will show how they were connected and how they influence the appearance, behavior, and attitudes of Dee/Wangero.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were intelligent men that wanted equality for black Americans, however the paths they wanted to take were polar opposites. Washington was against agitating the South, government, and white people as a whole. Washington believed that the South would not find a better workforce or grateful workers than that of former slaves. He called upon on black and white Americans to ‘cast down your bucket where you are (Washington 25). He wanted black Americans to look for employment in places where they were and already experts, such as in agriculture and servitude positions. Washington wanted white Americans to employ black Americans, thereby assisting the transition from slavery to freedom. Du Bois knew that through the struggles of agitation, black voices would be hear and their words would eventually have to be heeded. According to du Bois, with human nature we do not always make the right choices, and wrong choices can create evil. There are two options, ‘either we must let the evil alone and refuse to hear of it or listen to it or we must try and right it’ (Du Bois 31). An agitator’s job is to fight so that the world will acknowledge to the injustices.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Isn’t it insane to believe that one person can have a crucial influence on society, changing people’s interpretation on the world? Around the 1970s African Americans were looked upon differently compared to Caucasian people and began segregating them. The African Americans saw how unfair they were treated, but extremely few spoke up. One essential person during that time was Martin Luther King Jr. He stated his opinion that everyone should be treated equally, no matter what the consequences were. He is one of the many reasons why the world is the way it is now.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since then Booker T Washington and W.E.B Dubois have both had echoes in subsequent African American Political thought. Similar to Washington both Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X has strong notions of separatism. Washington’s ideas of separatism were different form Garvey and Malcolm X. Washington’s eventual goal was that black and whites could coexist but that in the moment blacks needed to find their own way in order to become equal. Garvey took this idea and brought it one step further. Garvey, as Washington had been, was a strong proponent of Black Nationalism but where Washington felt this was a temporary necessity to a over arching problem, Garvey, “believe[d] that white men should be white, yellow men should be yellow, and black men should be black in the great panorama of races,” and, “the white man of America will not, to any organized extent, assimilate the Negro,” because in doing so the white man will be committing “racial suicide.” These ideas were passed on to Malcolm X, who, in his younger years, like Garvey, “too believe[d] the best solution,” of the African American struggle, “is…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This would be the advantage to migrating Blacks to the North who became employed, homeowners, and businessmen. The on-going fight to desegregate the South began in the North with African-Americans who understood their advantage and position in society. Common in the urban enclaves found an outlet for their alienation in a charismatic nationalist from Jamaica named Marcus Garvey. Nation of Nations A Narrative History of the American Republic Volume II: Since 1865 Chapters 17-32 6th Edition Page 704 His Universal Negro Improvement Association stressed self-help while demanding an end to colonialism in 1916-1924 by organizing mass movements of African-Americans back to…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout our nation’s history, African Americans are consistently and involuntary forced to stand as an omnipresent representation of inferiority. Starved of a Negro consensus, white men—mostly European—began persecuting them and exalting their supposed mediocrity. Hundreds of years after this tenet hit America, an exceedingly astute preacher named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. exemplified himself as the backbone of the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1900s. Notwithstanding the omnipotent fear plaguing the Negro community, Dr. King apprehends the vindictiveness of classifying the black men and women as inferior and engenders a movement. One hundred years after the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Negros still encountered perilous suppression.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dbq Civil Rights Movement

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages

    He believed that independence and African American self-reliance would make a difference in fight for civil rights. Garvey saw civil rights as a global problem and believed that, “Freedom that will give us a chance and opportunity to rise to the fullest of our ambition and that we cannot get in countries where other men rule and dominate (pg. 800).” Garvey’s beliefs were prompted by his anger and frustrations that African American soldiers, who had fought in battle in World War I, were returning home to inequality and prejudice with their valiant service being ignored and not rewarded (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5122).Garvey was viewed by DuBois and other popular civil rights leaders as a crowd pleaser, whose extreme radical notions was an excellent ways to gather a crowd but provided no results. His beliefs, or garveyism, can be simplified as the idea of economic rise by independence and political equality by means of autonomy. Garvey’s movement was viewed as militant and was therefore viewed as aggressive and abrasive, which provided a backlash across the board including other prominent members of the civil rights movement. Garvey believed that returning to Africa, also known as Diaspora, would be most beneficial in order to promote racial separatism. Garvey even financially supported, along with other African Americans, the Black Star Line fleet of ships to encourage African Americans to travel back to Africa to create a black-led nation in Africa. The UNIA, which Garvey helped found, also assisted in diaspora and other movements that promoted racial purity…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican born national came to the United States in 1916 in order to visit Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. Booker T. Washington had a great impact on Marcus Garvey and his ideologies, in fact it was after Garvey read Up from Slavery did Garvey really understood the plight of the black man and found his calling to uplift the Negro race socially, economically and politically. As a result Garvey began to as himself questions that would become the catalysis that would start a movement that would propel the black race into a state of awareness and find a connection between them and the mother land Africa. Garvey’s founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. The function of the UNIA was to unite ALL the Negro peoples of the world into one great body to establish a country and government that was their own. Garvey’s movement was on of great support and he established branches of UNIA in thirty-six states and around the world. Garvey also established a journal “Negro World” its function to promote his cause to inform blacks and encourage the transport of people and goods to and from Africa. Although Garvey’s dream was not totally realized the impact his works and mission to unite his people his…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marcus Garvey a. Started Universal Negro Association b. Activist for equal rights c. Migration back to Africa ideal 2. W.E.B. Dubois a. Opposite beliefs of Garvey b. Favors integration, not separation 3. Booker T. Washington a. Gains support from whites b. Very important, loved by everyone who met him II. Social Creativity A. Art 1.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In each movement, black members joined as a matter of life and death. For the Radical Abolitionist movement, black participants knew that immediate abolition was necessary to save their lives and the lives of their families and friends. Black citizens joined the Populist movement out of necessity as well. They believed it to be their best chance at racial uplift, education, legal justice, and voting rights.15As such, they were willing to support any movement that combated evils that they faced and promised political, economic, and social uplift, even when they understanding that they were being used for the influence of their vote.16 In each case the reason for black involvement is necessity, because these movements were the most promising courses of change for millions of de jure slaves of the antebellum South and de facto slaves of the Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction South. However, a true interracial coalition cannot exist under these conditions, in which there is no accompanying unity of understanding, motive, and belief accompanying the supposed interracial unity, because neither group is aware of, nor consenting to the actual motives, means, and ends of their other group. Furthermore, under these conditions, the power dynamics render the black members of these radical movements susceptible to exploitation and false promises by the movements’ primarily white leaders, which is exactly the case in the Radical Abolitionist and Populist movements, and a true alliance cannot be founded upon exploitation and…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    At a time when the Black community is being afforded a free status, but not one of equality, many leaders arise out of the woodwork to appeal to the white governing body for social equality. The transition from the ninetieth century to the twentieth century gives birth to two of these leaders, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. These two men are both working to achieve a common goal, but the roads on which they're each traveling to get there differ significantly. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois offer different strategies for dealing with the problems of poverty and discrimination facing Black Americans. Booker T. Washington's gradualism stance gives him wide spread appeal among both blacks and whites, although W.E.B. Du Bois has the upper hand when it comes to ideology dealing with economic prosperity and education amidst Blacks. Product of slavery, Reconstruction, and Black codes (Roark, et al p.616), Washington favors the humble - ask nicely; appreciate what you're given; and say "thank you" - approach to obtaining social equality. Washington addresses the issue with meticulous caution, in doing so he not only comes across as an advocate of Blacks gaining "all privileges of the law"(D), but also of Blacks being prepared "for the exercises of these privileges." By taking this approach Washington is gaining the appeal within the Black audience as well as the white community. In contrast to this seemingly effective stance, Du Bois stands on the platform of ask, but ask incessantly with a loud and firm voice. Du Bois even goes as far as to say that if the Black community wants social equality they must simply complain. "Ceaseless agitation"(F) he feels will do more in the fight for equality than "voluntarily throwing away"(E) the reasonable rights they are entitled to. The opposing approaches of Washington and Du Bois are far from unnoticeable, and receive recognition from both sides. Whether or not these two dynamic leaders are intentionally attacking…

    • 1168 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Washington and Marcus Garvey are considered two of the most influential pioneers in the fight against oppression for African Americans. Although their views differed significantly, their motives were in the hearts of their people. Mr. Washington led a platform of education in technical skills for the advancement of African Americans. These skills would create skillful African Americans that will work in harmony with white people. They would be learning to do job that they are already working historically. Instead of believing they are owed by the white people, African Americans will work to earn their positions among society with the white…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The struggle of African Americans to make the promise of “all men are created equal” a reality began long before the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. Early leaders like Frederick Douglass and John Mercer Langston not only worked to bring…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    From Marcus Garvey he founded black nationalist to choose that go back to africa and learn about their african descent, have unity in your diverse group and have pride in your nation and pride in yourself and you can be together and not to be separated because the color their skin. The negative effects of the nationalism by other blacks will cause a negative type of competition leading to warfare (Beck, Black, & Krieger, 2005), also some people will create a strong hatred in other countries to start another war. The black separatist is typically to oppose integration and racial intermarriage and want to separate institution. Black separatist are anti-white are going to stand up for theirself and and want their own thing and not get run by the white man. For example black separatist groups are the black panthers party, and the nation of islam founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad talks about the white man are evil and called them blue-eyed devils. That kept blacks segregated in the south so blacks stand up and fight for their rights and want to separate from whites. The con of black separatist is keeping blacks segregated in America so blacks don't have any rights in america.…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays