The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr.

Today, August 17th, 2013, marks the 126th birthday of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).  Listen to him here:

Explanation of the Objects of the UNIA (UCLA):

He was:  a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a friend, a thinker, a Black nationalist, a Pan-Africanist, an apprentice (Booker T. Washington was his “great hero”), an entrepreneur (The Black Star Line Ship Company), a visionary, a political critic, a writer, an orator, an organizer, a world traveler, a publicist, a revolutionary, a critical thinker, a poet, a cultural critic, a bridge builder (“Back to Africa Movement”), a publisher, a journalist, an economist, an inspiration (Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah, The Nation of Islam (Malcolm X’s parents, Earl and Louise Little met at a UNIA conference) and the Rastafari

International Convention of Negroes of the World, Liberty Hall 1924

Movement were all inspired by him). He was controversial, an advocate, adversarial…he was HUMAN.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King visited Marcus Garvey’s shrine when they visited Jamaica, the Island of Garvey’s birth, June, 20th, 1965. They placed a wreath for him.

Marcus Garvey’s life was filled with many accomplishments, many setbacks, and it was a life that was GREAT because it was a life that SERVED!

—-> “Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”  – Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Dr. King remarked that Marcus Garvey “was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody (Salley, pg. 82).”

UNIA Flyer seeking investors

All great people are inspired  by and copy the actions of other great people. For Marcus Garvey, it was Booker T. Washington.  For Dr. King, it was Mohandas Gandhi and Marcus Garvey.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCUS GARVEY!

Who inspires you?

Click on the following links from PBS’ American Experience to learn more:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/sfeature/sf_words_pop.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/sfeature/sf_interviews.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/timeline/index.html

Hon. Marcus Garvey speaking on his return to the United States: