10 Leaders You May Not Have Known Were Influenced by Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. was a Jamaican-born political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements. Garvey's efforts sparked the first mass movement of Pan-Africanism across the globe. He left a substantial body of written work and a clear message that has inspired the Nation of Islam, the Rastafarian movement and many individual Black leaders around the world. Martin Luther King, Jr. During a trip to Jamaica on June 20, 1965, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King made it a point to visit the shrine of Garvey, where they laid a wreath on his grave. In a speech King told the audience that Garvey "was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He 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." Malcolm X Muslim minister and a human rights activist Malcolm X always spoke highly of Garvey in his speeches and writings. In his autobiography, Malcolm remembered his father, saying: "The image of him that made me proudest was his crusading and militant campaigning with the words of Marcus Garvey... it was only me that he sometimes took with him to the Garvey U.N.I.A. meetings, which he held quietly in different people's homes." Kwame Nkrumah While in college in the United States, Kwame Nkrumah was heavily influenced by the writings and ideas of Garvey and he decided to begin working immediately to free Africa from its colonial rule. In 1957, when Ghana took back its independence from the British, Nkrumah became the first president and first prime minster of Ghana. In honor of Garvey's first shipping business called "The Black Star Line," Nkrumah named the national shipping line of Ghana, the "Black Star Line," and the national soccer team, the "Black Stars." A black star also appears in the center of the national flag of Ghana. Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist and author, who was inspired by Garvey's teachings. Of Hurston's four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, she is best known for her 1937 novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Her 1925 high spirited play, "Meet the Mamma," was set in the time when Garvey's movement was at its pinnacle. Act 1 takes place in a Harlem club; Act 2 aboard an ocean liner; and Act 3 in the jungles of Africa. The play highlighted Garvey's "Back to Africa" movement. Louis Farrakhan Even as he was growing up, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan did not miss the significance of Garvey's achievements. He has said many times that he was inspired by the life and accomplishments of Garvey. Farrakhan often recalls from his childhood the time when he visited his uncle's home and stared at a picture above the fireplace. Young Louis asked, "Who is that man?" His uncle picked him up, put him on his shoulders and said, "That's Marcus Garvey." Louis asked, "What did he do?" His uncle said, "He came to unite our people." Louis said, "Where is he? I want to meet him." His uncle said, "You can't. He's dead". Farrakhan says he cried then, and felt lost because Garvey was gone. Elijah Muhammad In 1923 in Detroit, Elijah Poole and his wife joined Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, attended meetings and were very active. They even considered themselves "Garveyites." Eleven years later, Poole, renamed Elijah Muhammad, went on to lead the Nation of Islam. Following the teaching of Garvey, Muhammad recruited hundreds of thousands of Black people into the Nation of Islam, developed Black-owned businesses, large real estate holdings, security forces and schools. He built a mass movement that spans the globe today. In his book, "Message to the Black Man," Muhammad makes many references to Garvey, and clearly shows how he was inspired by the U.N.I.A. movement. Kwame Ture Though Kwame Ture came on the scene nearly 50 years after Garvey, speeches from the two men show no doubt where Ture's views originated. Ture was an outspoken Black activist, Pan-Africanist and socialist. "We had no more courage than Harriet Tubman or Marcus Garvey had in their times. We just had a more vulnerable enemy." -Kwame Ture- Nelson Mandela In Nelson Mandela's address to Congress in Washington, D.C. on June, 26 1990, the former president of South Africa publicly recognized Garvey's oratorical skills: "We could not have made an acquaintance through literature with human giants such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson and not been moved to act as they were moved to act. We could not have heard of and admired John Brown, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and others, and not be moved to act as they were moved to act. We could not have known of your Declaration of Independence and not elected to join in the struggle to guarantee the people life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." W.E.B. Du Bois W.E.B. Du Bois was a scholar, civil rights activist and Pan-Africanist who opposed Garvey strongly on many of his ideologies. Du Bois, however, did concede commendations for Garvey's eloquence and oration. Like Garvey, Du Bois had reverence for Africa and after a visit in the 1920s, he committed himself to the cause of African freedom. Du Bois declared that he would spend the remaining years of his life fighting against imperialism. Eventually Du Bois left the NAACP he co-founded, and helped organize the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England, which elected him its international president. Steve Biko Steve Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Biko was one of his country's most significant political activists and a leading founder of its Black consciousness movement. After his death in police detention in 1977, he was hailed as a martyr of the anti-apartheid struggle. Biko was greatly influenced by the vision of Marcus Garvey. Source: http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/ http://www.blackbusinessnetwork.com/ http://memory.loc.gov/

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