5 New Year’s Resolutions Marcus Garvey Would Want Every Black Person to Make

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3. Read History Incessantly Until You Master It

Garvey then singled out history as the most important subject to study, and explained why:

“Read history incessantly until you master it. This means your own national history, the history of the world—social history, industrial history, and the history of the different sciences; but primarily the history of man. If you do not know what went on before you came here and what is happening at the time you live, but away from you, you will not know the world and will be ignorant of the world and mankind. You can only make the best out of life by knowing and understanding it. To know, you must fall back on the intelligence of others who came before you and have left their records behind.”

 

 

Booked on phonics

4. Never Write or Speak on a Subject You Know Nothing About

In another of his lessons, Garvey cautions against speaking prematurely:  “Never write or speak on a subject you know nothing about, for there is always somebody who knows that particular subject to laugh at you or to ask you embarrassing questions that may make others laugh at you.” He reasserted, “You can know about any subject under the sun by reading about it.”

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