Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica. After traveling through Central America and living in London, he returned to Jamaica in 1914 and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), dedicated to Black self-reliance, economic independence, and the repatriation of the African diaspora.
In 1916, Garvey moved to Harlem, where the UNIA exploded into the largest Black mass movement the world had ever seen — with millions of members across 40 countries. He founded the Black Star Line shipping company, published the Negro World newspaper, and preached a message of Black pride, self-determination, and African redemption that electrified the diaspora.
The U.S. government, threatened by his influence, convicted him on mail fraud charges in 1923 and eventually deported him to Jamaica. Though his organizational empire crumbled, his ideas seeded every major Black liberation movement that followed — from the Nation of Islam to Black Power to Rastafari to Pan-Africanism.
"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots."— Marcus Garvey
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