Marcus Garvey Essay

Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey dubbed the “Black Moses”, led the largest organized mass movement in black history (Hill, 2006). He was one of the most influential leaders of the progressive era. I believe he deserves a place in history because without him the
African-American people would’ve never been led to salvation through his movement of
Garveyism or also known as the Pan-African movement. Motivation
His motivation ran deep into his childhood. Starting with his friend who had said “My parents said I was never to write or get in touch with you any more because you’re a nigger.”
(Archer, 1993)
His own friend was not allowed to talk to him because of his skin color. He then started to travel the world as a young man and he had witnessed
what was happening to his people all around the world. “Jamaican were afraid to defy their ruthless leaders the the United Fruit Company.”
(Archer, 1993) He witnessed oppression and the awful treatment of his kind he seen what the oppressors had done to his people because of their skin color. He felt like he could do something about the oppression.
Preparation
As a boy, Marcus Mosiah Garvey was already destined for great things. His mother had named him Mosiah because he was supposed to lead his people to salvation like Moses, and that is exactly what he did. By reading his father’s books, which he had bought with all his money as a stone mason to become well-versed in law Marcus learned about the colonization and partition of Africa by European powers (Archer, 1993). He read his father's books and by 20 years old he
MARCUS GARVEY 3 became a master printer he had won the job to become a foreman. He became increasingly interested in slavery in Jamaica and he would read a magazine his work had published called the
Jamaican Advocate where the problems were addressed (Archer, 1993). He organized a strike against the company because of its miserable wages and treatment the black employees were given in the print shop and that even including himself.
He started to travel he travelled to Jamaica and witnessed first hand that the blacks there were still being oppressed even after the abolishment of slavery (Archer, 1993). He starts his own paper called Garvey’s Watchman and four other papers so he could try to unite Panama and
Jamaica’s black population but all four failed horribly because the population were fearful of their oppressors (Archer, 1993). He then emigrates to London where he studies a African author
Attoh Ahuma, who summoned blacks everywhere: “UP, YOU MIGHTY RACE.
YOU CAN
ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU WILL.”(Archer, 1993). Because of this he starts the “back to
Africa” movement which fails. He faced many more challenges and he fought through them all he started a movement called Garveyism and he started UNIA, he helped blacks everywhere.
Accomplishments
He became the “Black Moses” as his mother predicted and he became a leader in the
Pan-Africanism movement basically the migrating back to Africa. He founded the UNIA or
United Negro Improvement Association (, ed., 2016). This helped improve lives of everyday blacks and just made it easier on them. They did this by migrating them back to Africa their homeland. He was able to inspire the nation of Islam and he inspired the Rastafarian movement
(, ed., 2016).
Conclusion
MARCUS GARVEY 4
I believe Marcus Garvey didn't just deserve a place in history I believed he earned that place. He struggled through tough times a lot, but in the end he united his people and led them back to salvation. He virtually paved the way for Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.. He was an overall inspiring leader of the progressive era even though he had his mistakes and flaws. He deserves and earned that place in
history.