Historical Figures Codexery

Marcus Garvey

Jamaican political activist and founder of the UNIA, advocating black nationalism and Pan-Africanism.

The Jamaican activist Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. was born on 17 August 1887 and died on 10 June 1940.[1] Garvey served as the first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), an organization through which he proclaimed himself Provisional President of Africa.[1]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Marcus Mosiah Garvey
Born
17 August 1887
Birthplace
Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica
Died
10 June 1940
Place of death
London, England
Occupation
  • Publisher
  • journalist
  • entrepreneur
Known for
  • Activism
  • Black nationalism
  • Pan-Africanism
Children
2 including Julius Garvey

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

He launched various businesses in the U.S., including the Negro Factories Corporation and Negro World newspaper, and became President of the Black Star Line shipping company in 1919.[1] Garvey's birthplace was Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica; his family was moderately prosperous and of Afro-Jamaican background, and during his teenage years he became an apprentice in the print trade.[1] After working in Kingston and becoming active in trade unionism, Garvey spent short periods in Costa Rica, Panama, and England; upon returning to Jamaica in 1914 he established the UNIA.[1] U.S. President Calvin Coolidge commuted Garvey's sentence, after which he was deported to Jamaica in 1927.[1]

Garvey moved to London in 1935; there his opposition to socialism created distance between him and numerous black activists in the city.[1]

What the cited sources add

The Jamaica Information Service describes the insignia of the Order of National Hero as a gold and white enamelled star of fourteen points with the Arms of Jamaica in gold on a black enamelled medallion.[2] DNA testing traced Garvey's paternal lineage to Portugal and Spain, and his maternal line to present-day Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Senegal.[3] The Gleaner reports that Garvey's father Malchus was a mason whose stone and brick work on houses, churches and tombs were much admired.[4] Garvey wrote that his mother Sarah Jane was a "sober and conscientious Christian, too soft and good for the time in which she lived".[4]

The Gleaner notes that Garvey's parents married two years after his birth, and that Garvey saw his mother as "the direct opposite" of his father.[4] Garvey inherited from his father his intelligence, determination, love for beauty, and love of books.[4]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Marcus Garvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Order of National Hero – Jamaica Information Service", jis.gov.jm (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Order of National Hero – Jamaica Information Service", jis.gov.jm. facts only, no text reused. jis.gov.jm
  3. "DNA used to reveal MLK and Garvey's European Lineage", The Gio, 13 January 2011. facts only, no text reused. thegrio.com
  4. "From the Reckord The influence of National Hero Marcus Garvey's parents", The Gleaner, 7 February 2020. facts only, no text reused. jamaica-gleaner.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Marcus Garvey (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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