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Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey
New in paperback, this groundbreaking biography captures the full sweep and epic dimensions of Marcus Garvey's life, the dazzling triumphs and the dreary exile. As Grant shows, Garvey was a man of a self-educated, poetry-writing aesthete and unabashed propagandist, an admirer of Lenin, and a dandy given to elaborate public displays. Above all, he was a shrewd promoter whose use of pageantry evoked a lost African civilization and fired the imagination of his followers. Negro With a Hat restores Garvey to his place as one of the founders of black nationalism and a key figure of the 20th century.
"A searching, vivid, and (as the title suggests) complex account of Garvey's short but consequential life."
--Steve Hahn, The New Republic
"The story of Marcus Garvey, the charismatic and tireless black leader who had a meteoric rise and fall in the late 1910s and early '20s, makes for enthralling reading, and Garvey has found an engaging and objective biographer in Colin Grant.... Grant's book is not all politics, ideology, money and lawsuits. It is also an engrossing social history.... Negro With a Hat is an achievement on a scale Garvey might have appreciated."
-- New York Times Book Review
"Dazzling, definitive biography of the controversial activist who led the 1920s 'Back to Africa' movement.... Grant's learned passion for his subject shimmers on every page. A riveting and well-wrought volume that places Garvey solidly in the pantheon of important 20th-century black leaders."
-- Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"This splendid book is certain to become the definitive biography. Garvey was a dreamer and a doer; Grant captures the fascination of both."
-- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Grant's strength lies in his ability to re-create political moods and offer compelling sketches of colorful individuals and their organizations.... An engaging and readable introduction to a complicated and contentious historical actor who, in his time, possessed a unique capacity to inspire devotion and hatred, adulation and fear."
--Chicago Tribune
"A monumental, nuanced and broadly sympathetic portrait."
--Financial Times
"A searching, vivid, and (as the title suggests) complex account of Garvey's short but consequential life."
--Steve Hahn, The New Republic
"The story of Marcus Garvey, the charismatic and tireless black leader who had a meteoric rise and fall in the late 1910s and early '20s, makes for enthralling reading, and Garvey has found an engaging and objective biographer in Colin Grant.... Grant's book is not all politics, ideology, money and lawsuits. It is also an engrossing social history.... Negro With a Hat is an achievement on a scale Garvey might have appreciated."
-- New York Times Book Review
"Dazzling, definitive biography of the controversial activist who led the 1920s 'Back to Africa' movement.... Grant's learned passion for his subject shimmers on every page. A riveting and well-wrought volume that places Garvey solidly in the pantheon of important 20th-century black leaders."
-- Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"This splendid book is certain to become the definitive biography. Garvey was a dreamer and a doer; Grant captures the fascination of both."
-- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Grant's strength lies in his ability to re-create political moods and offer compelling sketches of colorful individuals and their organizations.... An engaging and readable introduction to a complicated and contentious historical actor who, in his time, possessed a unique capacity to inspire devotion and hatred, adulation and fear."
--Chicago Tribune
"A monumental, nuanced and broadly sympathetic portrait."
--Financial Times
530 pages, Hardcover
First published January 22, 2008
85 people are currently reading
1719 people want to read
About the author
Colin Grant
49 books39 followersThe author of Negro with a Hat, a biography of Marcus Garvey, Colin Grant is an independent historian who works for BBC Radio. The son of Jamaican immigrants, he lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
December 22, 2020
Marcus Garvey was one of the most fascinating underdogs of the 20th century, a poor Jamaican immigrant to the United States who built a would-be empire focused on the liberation and redemption of all black people on earth. Garvey was an autodidact from rural Jamaica who developed a passion for world affairs and particularly the plight of his own people. This eloquently written history charts Garvey's extremely improbable rise from a simple laborer, to local political rabble-rouser, to Harlem-based political leader and finally to pan-Africanist exile. Garvey tapped into the dreams of a long-suppressed people for pomp, grandeur and dreams of triumph. He built a black self-improvement society with millions of members across the United States and even branches in South America and the African continent. Africa was the homeland he sought to liberate and settle for blacks, and, though he devised many schemes to accomplish this including the famous Black Star Line steamships Africa to the United States, he never actually set foot on the continent in his relatively short life.
This book draws on some of Garvey's diaries, the reports of government spies who infiltrated Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and an array of contemporaneous reports from the period of his life. It is gorgeously written for a history book, though suffers from the shortcoming of a being a bit short on the details of Garvey's own thought. What Grant does succeed at though in spades is contextualizing Garvey in the desperate and exhilarating environment of black politics in the early 20th century. Garvey's great rival was W.E.B. Dubois and this account is clearly sympathetic to Garvey on this score. He was the populist while Dubois consciously spoke to the elite as well as potentially sympathetic liberal white Americans. Garvey started off as a literal soapbox preacher in Harlem, alongside men like Claude McKay (whose incredible poem "If We Must Die" is reproduced and discussed in the book) and somehow rose to the head of a true mass movement. The federal government was glad to exploit rivalries between Garvey and other black leaders to put the UNIA to an end and cast its leader into the winds of exile.
A book worth revisiting to contextualize black politics in the United States. Garvey is an under-examined figure and in my view under-appreciated as well. I always have a soft spot for autodidacts from humble backgrounds.
This book draws on some of Garvey's diaries, the reports of government spies who infiltrated Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and an array of contemporaneous reports from the period of his life. It is gorgeously written for a history book, though suffers from the shortcoming of a being a bit short on the details of Garvey's own thought. What Grant does succeed at though in spades is contextualizing Garvey in the desperate and exhilarating environment of black politics in the early 20th century. Garvey's great rival was W.E.B. Dubois and this account is clearly sympathetic to Garvey on this score. He was the populist while Dubois consciously spoke to the elite as well as potentially sympathetic liberal white Americans. Garvey started off as a literal soapbox preacher in Harlem, alongside men like Claude McKay (whose incredible poem "If We Must Die" is reproduced and discussed in the book) and somehow rose to the head of a true mass movement. The federal government was glad to exploit rivalries between Garvey and other black leaders to put the UNIA to an end and cast its leader into the winds of exile.
A book worth revisiting to contextualize black politics in the United States. Garvey is an under-examined figure and in my view under-appreciated as well. I always have a soft spot for autodidacts from humble backgrounds.
March 29, 2015
Marcus Garvey was a complex man.
There was on the one hand Garvey the myth (Black Moses, Rastafarian prophet, the father of Pan Africanism, Provisional President of Africa, etc.); and on the other, there was Garvey the man (the personal and private Garvey, son, brother, friend, husband and father). Between the myth and the man was a movement – a significant one too, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
Another layer of complexity lay in the fact that many see the mythologized Garvey as saint, others see him as rogue charlatan or a buffoon and yet scores more are undecided as to what he really represents.
Colin Grant, the author of “Negro with a Hat”, does not try to answer the question “Was Garvey charlatan or saint?” Instead, he gives the reader copious amounts of intimate detail into the personal and private Garvey, leaving the reader with the task to answer the question for him or herself.
Negro with a Hat is beautifully written; it is an edifice of sparkling prose and, from the extent of research evident, must have been a labour of love. In fact, I am left curious as to what was Mr Grant’s motivation in writing the book (yet another question left unanswered), though admittedly he does leave a clue in the introduction with this quote from John Russwurm , a largely unheralded Jamaican who was a newspaper publisher in North America in the mid 19th century:
“Too long have others spoke for us [such that] our vices and degradations are ever arrayed against us, but our virtues are passed unnoticed.”
Grant does not leave us in doubt as to why he chose the provocative title that he did. In enjoying the photographic pieces on display at a ‘Make Life Beautiful’ exhibition in the UK, Grant came across a caption for a photo which raised a disturbing question. He recounts that episode thusly:
“I was pulled up sharply by one print – the profile of an anonymous black man wearing a fedora. The caption read: ‘Negro with Hat’. Adjacent to it was another portrait by the same photographer; it showed a white man in fancy dress wearing a theatrical turban. It’s title: ‘Man with Hat.’ The juxtaposition seemed to pose a question: is a Negro not a man?"
That episode drove the decision to go with the title that he chose for his book.
However, it is the unanswered questions that make Grant’s book a compelling read: Was Garvey charlatan or saint? What drove the author to do such extensive research? Why have we not heard some of this information about Marcus before?
The two Garvey’s (myth and man) are there to be seen from Marcus’ earliest days to his very last, spread over 450 pages of eloquent writing. There will be few who will not learn some astounding little known fact about this influential leader and thinker of the 20th century when reading “Negro with a Hat”.
Marcus was not only a complex man, he lived a colourful life. His second wife was the maid of honour at his wedding to his first wife. Both women were named Amy and they both adored him. The book gives up close and personal insights into the dynamics of the relationship between Garvey and the two “Amys” as well the interplay between the wives themselves.
The tension between the demands arising from Garvey’s commitment to the UNIA, and the larger Pan African movement, versus the energy he directed towards his family is effectively portrayed. We witness the evolution of Garvey from being a romantic globe trotter to over achieving workaholic always on the go.
It is clear to me that Marcus Garvey was a “man” and a very important one at that, for he shook widely held notions of what the black race could and could not do, even as he ultimately failed to achieve what he set out to do. Flaws and weaknesses he did possess – after all he was a “man” – but the scale of his achievements, and the legacy of ideas that he left, merit him becoming the mythological hero that he still is to millions today.
If you are interested in Caribbean, African American or British Colonial history read “Negro with a Hat”; you will not be disappointed.
There was on the one hand Garvey the myth (Black Moses, Rastafarian prophet, the father of Pan Africanism, Provisional President of Africa, etc.); and on the other, there was Garvey the man (the personal and private Garvey, son, brother, friend, husband and father). Between the myth and the man was a movement – a significant one too, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
Another layer of complexity lay in the fact that many see the mythologized Garvey as saint, others see him as rogue charlatan or a buffoon and yet scores more are undecided as to what he really represents.
Colin Grant, the author of “Negro with a Hat”, does not try to answer the question “Was Garvey charlatan or saint?” Instead, he gives the reader copious amounts of intimate detail into the personal and private Garvey, leaving the reader with the task to answer the question for him or herself.
Negro with a Hat is beautifully written; it is an edifice of sparkling prose and, from the extent of research evident, must have been a labour of love. In fact, I am left curious as to what was Mr Grant’s motivation in writing the book (yet another question left unanswered), though admittedly he does leave a clue in the introduction with this quote from John Russwurm , a largely unheralded Jamaican who was a newspaper publisher in North America in the mid 19th century:
“Too long have others spoke for us [such that] our vices and degradations are ever arrayed against us, but our virtues are passed unnoticed.”
Grant does not leave us in doubt as to why he chose the provocative title that he did. In enjoying the photographic pieces on display at a ‘Make Life Beautiful’ exhibition in the UK, Grant came across a caption for a photo which raised a disturbing question. He recounts that episode thusly:
“I was pulled up sharply by one print – the profile of an anonymous black man wearing a fedora. The caption read: ‘Negro with Hat’. Adjacent to it was another portrait by the same photographer; it showed a white man in fancy dress wearing a theatrical turban. It’s title: ‘Man with Hat.’ The juxtaposition seemed to pose a question: is a Negro not a man?"
That episode drove the decision to go with the title that he chose for his book.
However, it is the unanswered questions that make Grant’s book a compelling read: Was Garvey charlatan or saint? What drove the author to do such extensive research? Why have we not heard some of this information about Marcus before?
The two Garvey’s (myth and man) are there to be seen from Marcus’ earliest days to his very last, spread over 450 pages of eloquent writing. There will be few who will not learn some astounding little known fact about this influential leader and thinker of the 20th century when reading “Negro with a Hat”.
Marcus was not only a complex man, he lived a colourful life. His second wife was the maid of honour at his wedding to his first wife. Both women were named Amy and they both adored him. The book gives up close and personal insights into the dynamics of the relationship between Garvey and the two “Amys” as well the interplay between the wives themselves.
The tension between the demands arising from Garvey’s commitment to the UNIA, and the larger Pan African movement, versus the energy he directed towards his family is effectively portrayed. We witness the evolution of Garvey from being a romantic globe trotter to over achieving workaholic always on the go.
It is clear to me that Marcus Garvey was a “man” and a very important one at that, for he shook widely held notions of what the black race could and could not do, even as he ultimately failed to achieve what he set out to do. Flaws and weaknesses he did possess – after all he was a “man” – but the scale of his achievements, and the legacy of ideas that he left, merit him becoming the mythological hero that he still is to millions today.
If you are interested in Caribbean, African American or British Colonial history read “Negro with a Hat”; you will not be disappointed.
July 14, 2025
Following the death of the conservative Negro leader Booker T. Washington, two paths diverged for the African in America. Integration was represented by the elitist mulatto W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP, which was founded and run not by black people but by primarily Jewish financiers. The other, nationalism, was headed by Marcus Garvey, the quasi-fascist West Indian firebrand and his UNIA. This book focuses on the latter, from his early life in Jamaica to his ascendancy in the milieu of the Harlem Renaissance to his downfall, imprisonment, and death.
The self-proclaimed 'Provisional President of Africa,' Garvey had a grandiose vision of black empire. With prescient foresight, he saw that the white and black races could never coexist in America, nor did he want them to. To that end, he made common cause with fellow racial separatists such as the Ku Klux Klan. His anti-Semitism did not endear him to the media or the legal system, nor did the mixed race black establishment sympathize with his emphasis on racial purity. The question of how history would have gone differently if Garvey's vision, rather than the NAACP's, had won out is a tantalizing and sad one.
The self-proclaimed 'Provisional President of Africa,' Garvey had a grandiose vision of black empire. With prescient foresight, he saw that the white and black races could never coexist in America, nor did he want them to. To that end, he made common cause with fellow racial separatists such as the Ku Klux Klan. His anti-Semitism did not endear him to the media or the legal system, nor did the mixed race black establishment sympathize with his emphasis on racial purity. The question of how history would have gone differently if Garvey's vision, rather than the NAACP's, had won out is a tantalizing and sad one.
May 15, 2010
This is a masterful work of biography, richly detailed and engrossing, with piercing insights into its subject and the milieu in which he came to be. Colin Grant has not only done great work, but, I believe a great service in that he brings Marcus Garvey, an imminent presence in his own time, forward to us in a way that makes him a compelling and relevant figure to ours.
There are, however, a few adjustments that the reader will have to make. For example, because the author is clearly British (or, possibly, of the [former:] Empire), his command of English is a bit off at times. Further, the expressions used are often a bit odd. Just kidding! :-) Though Grant's prose can be a bit over the top at points, this is a clearly well-researched and -written work. In fact, the author's handling of the (level of) detail is one of its strengths: while quite detailed, one never gets the sense that particular descriptive passages or flourishes are superfluous (though, if I may be permitted a quibble, the author does repeat himself a few times throughout the work in a way that suggests a need for better editing).
I have been vaguely familiar with Marcus Garvey from past reading and research, but, after reading this book, I feel that I have come to know him personally almost, so well and engrossingly is his story relayed. Further, while the author clearly has a viewpoint, it is rarely obtrusive, which adds even more credibility to the work because of its almost obsessive evenhandedness.
Accordingly, I recommend this book highly to readers of all types. If you enjoy a good biography, this book is for you. If you are a fan of great and flawed men and their stories, this book is for you. If you are a fan of history, and particularly of the early 20th century, this book is for you. If you are interested in African and/or African-American history, this book is for you. If you are intrigued by the interplay of domestic and international politics and social movements, this book is for you. Finally, if you just want to learn about an important historical figure - who is now largely underappreciated - this book is for you.
Enjoy!
There are, however, a few adjustments that the reader will have to make. For example, because the author is clearly British (or, possibly, of the [former:] Empire), his command of English is a bit off at times. Further, the expressions used are often a bit odd. Just kidding! :-) Though Grant's prose can be a bit over the top at points, this is a clearly well-researched and -written work. In fact, the author's handling of the (level of) detail is one of its strengths: while quite detailed, one never gets the sense that particular descriptive passages or flourishes are superfluous (though, if I may be permitted a quibble, the author does repeat himself a few times throughout the work in a way that suggests a need for better editing).
I have been vaguely familiar with Marcus Garvey from past reading and research, but, after reading this book, I feel that I have come to know him personally almost, so well and engrossingly is his story relayed. Further, while the author clearly has a viewpoint, it is rarely obtrusive, which adds even more credibility to the work because of its almost obsessive evenhandedness.
Accordingly, I recommend this book highly to readers of all types. If you enjoy a good biography, this book is for you. If you are a fan of great and flawed men and their stories, this book is for you. If you are a fan of history, and particularly of the early 20th century, this book is for you. If you are interested in African and/or African-American history, this book is for you. If you are intrigued by the interplay of domestic and international politics and social movements, this book is for you. Finally, if you just want to learn about an important historical figure - who is now largely underappreciated - this book is for you.
Enjoy!
September 20, 2016
Marcus Garvey was a very complex man. He had some views and ways of conducting things that I do not agree with, but he was very inspirational. I loved his vision and his desire to make that vision come through, no matter the cost or consequence. I love how in all of the (auto-) biographies, I’ve read of these great male leaders (Marcus, Malcolm, and Martin) that they all seemed to be romancing a white woman at the early part of their story. It seems like all destined great black leaders will only find their love for their own people in the mid-years of their short lives. It’s a sad thing. It was an interesting change to see that Marcus wasn’t assassinated like the other two men I mentioned, or the other countless ones before or after. I have to say that I’m more inclined to be sympathetic and empathetic with Garvey’s second wife more so than I am with Garvey himself. She was devoted to a man who was only devoted to his vision; how unromantic and unfulfilled. Guess that's what happens when you get in too deep with a visionary. There are a lot of lessons for organizations to learn from the fall of Marcus Garvey. I shall briefly list them here in case there happens to be a young revolutionary that might read this review at some point:
1. Love your people wholeheartedly, wish them nothing but the best, and work relentlessly to help them achieve greater things, and they will return that tenfold.
2. True leaders create other leaders, not blind religious followers.
3. Talk is cheap; it must be backed by actions.
4. Transparency within an organization is key.
5. Make sure you’ve got some business sense; economics is one of the tools to our salvation. He who has the gold makes the rules.
6. Treat your relationship with your people like a marriage. In public, maintain a united front, but have your arguments in private.
7. Delegation can lead to empowerment of subordinates and the strengthening of your organization.
8. True knowledge of self will lead to black empowerment. Knowing your true worth will not lead to seeking the validation of your oppressor.
9. Monetary donations are never a good thing.
10. Too much support too fast can sometimes be a bad thing when you have no concrete way forward and no finances to back it up.
There are a lot more lessons, but I feel like these are the most pressing at the moment. It’s definitely a must-read for pro-black and conscientious leaders.
On the author’s writing style: The author is a fan of $10 words when a $0.50 one will do. The book is factual, objective, and thoroughly researched. Some of those side stories and biographies were unnecessary, though.
Pages of note: 63, 71, 79, 99, 115, 128, 341
1. Love your people wholeheartedly, wish them nothing but the best, and work relentlessly to help them achieve greater things, and they will return that tenfold.
2. True leaders create other leaders, not blind religious followers.
3. Talk is cheap; it must be backed by actions.
4. Transparency within an organization is key.
5. Make sure you’ve got some business sense; economics is one of the tools to our salvation. He who has the gold makes the rules.
6. Treat your relationship with your people like a marriage. In public, maintain a united front, but have your arguments in private.
7. Delegation can lead to empowerment of subordinates and the strengthening of your organization.
8. True knowledge of self will lead to black empowerment. Knowing your true worth will not lead to seeking the validation of your oppressor.
9. Monetary donations are never a good thing.
10. Too much support too fast can sometimes be a bad thing when you have no concrete way forward and no finances to back it up.
There are a lot more lessons, but I feel like these are the most pressing at the moment. It’s definitely a must-read for pro-black and conscientious leaders.
On the author’s writing style: The author is a fan of $10 words when a $0.50 one will do. The book is factual, objective, and thoroughly researched. Some of those side stories and biographies were unnecessary, though.
Pages of note: 63, 71, 79, 99, 115, 128, 341
October 15, 2019
Moses had led his people out of Egypt, Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) wanted to led 'his' out of the USA and back to Africa, which, freed from its colonial past, would be restored to its past glory. We all know how it ended up: him being incarcerated for fraud.
Now, one thinks whatever one wants of this controversial figure (genuine militant or deluded pageant and populist) the thing is, his impact can not be underestimated. Rastafarians hailed him as a prophet, and from Malcolm X to Kwame Nkrumah many looked up to him as an inspirational character. 'Negro with a Hat' is an engrossing read, telling the life of this utopian (or was he?) who seemed to have made the wrong dream.
I just wanted a rough overview of his biography; a man that baffles me. I was here, despite my dislike for his ideas, swept in by Colin Grant's meticulous researches, putting him right back into the context of its time. A colourful figure, and a highly interesting read!
Now, one thinks whatever one wants of this controversial figure (genuine militant or deluded pageant and populist) the thing is, his impact can not be underestimated. Rastafarians hailed him as a prophet, and from Malcolm X to Kwame Nkrumah many looked up to him as an inspirational character. 'Negro with a Hat' is an engrossing read, telling the life of this utopian (or was he?) who seemed to have made the wrong dream.
I just wanted a rough overview of his biography; a man that baffles me. I was here, despite my dislike for his ideas, swept in by Colin Grant's meticulous researches, putting him right back into the context of its time. A colourful figure, and a highly interesting read!
August 8, 2015
For those of us who are fans of African-American History, usually there's a point in time when the lightbulb goes off. At a certain, specific time, something is read that gives one an overpowering sense of one's self. This phenomenon is usually tied to the fact that the vast majority of things that we have been taught about Africa are lies, that Africa has a rich History, full of so many accomplishments that it boggles the mind. We realize that the Western canon of History, has purposefully misled us to believe that Africa has no cultural past, with no major achievements. It's not until we get a-hold of truth-respecting books like The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Black Athena or Stolen Legacy, that we truly understand that all of the stereotypes attached to Black people, many of them resulting from an implicit assumption that Africa has no past, are all based upon lies. It's at that moment, the individual becomes possessed with an almost transcendent sense of self-esteem, a feeling of wholeness that one has never known before. It occurs to you that you have been holding back a wave of negative thoughts about you, that you had no part in creating, but that are all based upon lies. No other feeling in the World can top this one. Having $100 million dollars won't do it. Being engaged to the most beautiful woman in the World won't do it. Having your wildest dreams come true won't do it. It's like being struck with a positive lightening bolt of electricity-like self-esteem. This feeling of wholeness, positive, life-affirming God driven self-esteem is the ultimate feeling in life because it returns one to one's God-like state of authenticity.
This brings us to Marcus Garvey, the grass-roots organizer, the most powerful Black grass-roots leader in History, who had an abundance of the feeling to which I am referring. It was his understanding of African History, both in terms of its past, and his confident, strength-supported faith that there is nothing on Earth that Black people are not capable of accomplishing that shot him into the stratosphere of Black adulation and respect. Though many in his audience probably could not have found the words to express it, they instinctively and intuitively “grasped” at a deep-soul level so much of the soulful electricity that Garvey was trying to transmit. The spiritual accomplishment that Garvey achieved on an individual basis, the harnessing of a genuine and profound love of his authentic African self, he spent much of his life trying to “infect” and inject into the whole Black race. I would argue that the overpowering, tidal wave-type self-esteem that Garvey exuded is EXACTLY the type of essential soul food that is needed within the Pan-African World today. One of the people who “grasped” this was a traveling Black preacher from Michigan, a guy named Earl Little, who pushed the Garvey agenda as vehemently as anyone, traveling all over the country during the late 1920's and early 1930's to push The Garvey Movement agenda. In his travels, Earl Little often took along his little son, a boy named Malcolm Little, who would eventually grow up to drop the “Little” last name and replace it with an “X.” Though it was way into the future, eventually Malcolm X would intuitively grasp his same African essence that Garvey had, through his study of African and African-American History, and from that time until his death Malcolm would become an intense, absolutely-out-of-his mind zealot and promoter of African History and the resulting World-view that he was studying. Malcolm became, in microcosm, as an individual, the type of Africa-loyal person that Garvey was trying to create in the macrocosm of the whole Black World. Garvey would have rejoiced to have seen a plethora of Black people with the intense interest, promotion and zeal that Malcolm had for his people, and his inspired love of everything African, to include its people, History and Culture.
And what exactly comprised Garvey's agenda? Garvey arrived to the U.S from Jamaica prior to 1920, as a penniless traveler, trying to create an organization and make a name for himself. He settled in the biggest Black community in the United States, by taking up residence in Harlem, NY. Starting as a step-ladder, street corner speaker, Garvey was able to use his extraordinary gift of speech to eventually create a powerful organization. First, and foremost, Garvey told us we must begin with self. We are to love our black skin, and all of our physical features, to include our hair, reveling in the kinkiness of it. Straight hair does not define human hair. We are to love our noses, that might be a little wider than other humans, our lips that are thicker by nature and any and every other parts of our bodies, from the tops of our heads to the bottom of our feet. We are to love these things about ourselves at a very, very profound level, mainly because all of them came to us from God. This is what Garvey taught, and in teaching these things in the 1920's, he was foreshadowing what would become the essence of the “The Black Power Movement” some 40 odd years later. Garvey felt it imperative that African-descended people, from all over the World, should unite behind our common cause.
As part of this, Garvey judged America as so racist that he started a “Back To Africa” campaign, aimed at convincing Black folks that America was such a rotten, racist country that Black people should pack up our stuff and go back to the Motherland of Africa. Since he felt that this could not happen right away, in the meantime he urged Black people to unite among ourselves, to create Back businesses to employ our people, to create social institutions to support us. In effect, Garvey was making clear that we needed to do for ourselves what America would not. But more than that, Garvey was making the point that Black America should not have expected for the larger American society, i.e., White society, to do these things anyway. As Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association got off of the ground, Garvey was able to capture the imagination of the collective Black World by forming something called “The Black Star Line,” a 100% Universal Improvement Association-owned (and therefore Black Owned) shipping line. He created this line by having Black people from all over the World purchase stock in his company. One has to stand and pause at the magnitude of Garvey's achievement in establishing the Black Star Line. At a time when the collective Black World was being locked out of all facets of American life with the omnipresent racial hatred flaring with the intensity of a Satanic fire, Garvey had the boldness and imagination to create something as huge as the Black ownership of a shipping line. That level of vision, to see both a present and future where anything is possible for Black people, is something that has to be respected, particularly in the context of the times that he did it. One of his most famous quotations is, “Up you mighty race! You can accomplish what you will!” One also has to respect that it was Garvey's organization, the UNIA, that both came up with, and promoted the emblematic and long-lasting red, black and green flag of world-wide African unity, that still remains in effect today.
In addition, Garvey was able to get throngs and throngs of Black people to join his organization, establishing branches in the U.S., Central and South America, The Caribbean and Africa, in sum, Black people from all over the World. The comprehensive collective of people who supported him from all over the globe became known as “Garveyites,” and the whole Movement as “The Garvey Movement.” It can be argued that Marcus Garvey may have been the most powerful and influential, international, grass-roots African-descended leader in History. Despite Garvey's push to establish The Black Star line as a legitimate business venture, eventually the fate of it suffered from both internal and external enemies that led to its demise.
As Garvey's fame shot into the stratosphere, the FBI began to take notice, and to work to neutralize this man who was trying to unite Africans from all over the globe. He was often outspoken in his critique of what the White nations of the World had done to Africa, and that fact has to be taken into account as to how others would see him negatively. He was seen as a threat and a young employee with the FBI, a man known as J. Edgar Hoover worked against what would become the first of many Black leaders that he would work in opposition to. The focus was on the fact that Garvey was not a U.S. citizen, a fact that was eventually used very much against him as the government brought mail fraud charges against him, stating that his economically failing Black Star Line was using the mails to advertise and raise money and defraud gullible Black people for a venture that he knew was failing. Eventually, Garvey was found guilty and sent to prison in Atlanta. Th President eventually commuted his sentence and he was released, but as a “foreigner,” he was deported back to Jamaica immediately upon being set free. Garvey floundered from the late 1920's upon his release from prison, until his death in 1940. The British government and the U.S. government played a hand in limiting his passports to other countries, thus limiting Garvey's platform, and effectively helping to weaken his message. Since he no longer had the U.S. platform of the biggest Black community in America to propagandize from, his work suffered.
In looking at Garvey's career, his ability to speak to the hopes, fears and realities of Black people, is what made him stand out. In several places throughout this book, Black contemporaries struggled to describe Garvey's powers of persuasion and effect as a speaker. He had a certain spiritual, messianic, emotional electricity that made Black people attracted to him like a magnet. It's my opinion, from the descriptions within this book, that Marcus Garvey had a similar effect upon his crowds that Malcolm X would have on a later generation of listeners. Though it's hard to believe, Garvey could possibly have been a more effective speaker than Malcolm X. In telling the Garvey story, I think this book is one of the best that a person can find about Mr. Marcus Garvey. I read the book to get a better understanding of The Garvey Movement, helping me to understand better the early influences of The Garvey Movement, as they would eventually play out in the life of Malcolm X. This book is now one of my favorites, and helps to bring Marcus Garvey back to life in a way that no other book I have read about Garvey has done. This is a great book.
PS--I read Grant's work no more than 2 pages at a sitting. This is the only way I could digest this mountain of information, to “eat this elephant-of-a-book-of 455 pages only one spoonful at a time.” It takes Job-like patience to do it this way. This is not the kind of book I could do marathon reading with, breezing through 30 to 50 pages at a sitting. If I had done that, I would have gotten bored and bogged down. I also looked up all words in this book in a dictionary that were unfamiliar to me, and copied them down into a notebook. Though I pride myself on having a very comprehensive reading vocabulary, Grant's verbiage had me looking up and writing down quite a number of words. I am glad that I read the book slowly and to have also looked up all necessary vocabulary words, absorbing much more information doing it this way than any other way. It took me quite some time to read the book, but I am profoundly blessed to have done it my way. I can only hope the level of my reading is reflected in this review.
This brings us to Marcus Garvey, the grass-roots organizer, the most powerful Black grass-roots leader in History, who had an abundance of the feeling to which I am referring. It was his understanding of African History, both in terms of its past, and his confident, strength-supported faith that there is nothing on Earth that Black people are not capable of accomplishing that shot him into the stratosphere of Black adulation and respect. Though many in his audience probably could not have found the words to express it, they instinctively and intuitively “grasped” at a deep-soul level so much of the soulful electricity that Garvey was trying to transmit. The spiritual accomplishment that Garvey achieved on an individual basis, the harnessing of a genuine and profound love of his authentic African self, he spent much of his life trying to “infect” and inject into the whole Black race. I would argue that the overpowering, tidal wave-type self-esteem that Garvey exuded is EXACTLY the type of essential soul food that is needed within the Pan-African World today. One of the people who “grasped” this was a traveling Black preacher from Michigan, a guy named Earl Little, who pushed the Garvey agenda as vehemently as anyone, traveling all over the country during the late 1920's and early 1930's to push The Garvey Movement agenda. In his travels, Earl Little often took along his little son, a boy named Malcolm Little, who would eventually grow up to drop the “Little” last name and replace it with an “X.” Though it was way into the future, eventually Malcolm X would intuitively grasp his same African essence that Garvey had, through his study of African and African-American History, and from that time until his death Malcolm would become an intense, absolutely-out-of-his mind zealot and promoter of African History and the resulting World-view that he was studying. Malcolm became, in microcosm, as an individual, the type of Africa-loyal person that Garvey was trying to create in the macrocosm of the whole Black World. Garvey would have rejoiced to have seen a plethora of Black people with the intense interest, promotion and zeal that Malcolm had for his people, and his inspired love of everything African, to include its people, History and Culture.
And what exactly comprised Garvey's agenda? Garvey arrived to the U.S from Jamaica prior to 1920, as a penniless traveler, trying to create an organization and make a name for himself. He settled in the biggest Black community in the United States, by taking up residence in Harlem, NY. Starting as a step-ladder, street corner speaker, Garvey was able to use his extraordinary gift of speech to eventually create a powerful organization. First, and foremost, Garvey told us we must begin with self. We are to love our black skin, and all of our physical features, to include our hair, reveling in the kinkiness of it. Straight hair does not define human hair. We are to love our noses, that might be a little wider than other humans, our lips that are thicker by nature and any and every other parts of our bodies, from the tops of our heads to the bottom of our feet. We are to love these things about ourselves at a very, very profound level, mainly because all of them came to us from God. This is what Garvey taught, and in teaching these things in the 1920's, he was foreshadowing what would become the essence of the “The Black Power Movement” some 40 odd years later. Garvey felt it imperative that African-descended people, from all over the World, should unite behind our common cause.
As part of this, Garvey judged America as so racist that he started a “Back To Africa” campaign, aimed at convincing Black folks that America was such a rotten, racist country that Black people should pack up our stuff and go back to the Motherland of Africa. Since he felt that this could not happen right away, in the meantime he urged Black people to unite among ourselves, to create Back businesses to employ our people, to create social institutions to support us. In effect, Garvey was making clear that we needed to do for ourselves what America would not. But more than that, Garvey was making the point that Black America should not have expected for the larger American society, i.e., White society, to do these things anyway. As Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association got off of the ground, Garvey was able to capture the imagination of the collective Black World by forming something called “The Black Star Line,” a 100% Universal Improvement Association-owned (and therefore Black Owned) shipping line. He created this line by having Black people from all over the World purchase stock in his company. One has to stand and pause at the magnitude of Garvey's achievement in establishing the Black Star Line. At a time when the collective Black World was being locked out of all facets of American life with the omnipresent racial hatred flaring with the intensity of a Satanic fire, Garvey had the boldness and imagination to create something as huge as the Black ownership of a shipping line. That level of vision, to see both a present and future where anything is possible for Black people, is something that has to be respected, particularly in the context of the times that he did it. One of his most famous quotations is, “Up you mighty race! You can accomplish what you will!” One also has to respect that it was Garvey's organization, the UNIA, that both came up with, and promoted the emblematic and long-lasting red, black and green flag of world-wide African unity, that still remains in effect today.
In addition, Garvey was able to get throngs and throngs of Black people to join his organization, establishing branches in the U.S., Central and South America, The Caribbean and Africa, in sum, Black people from all over the World. The comprehensive collective of people who supported him from all over the globe became known as “Garveyites,” and the whole Movement as “The Garvey Movement.” It can be argued that Marcus Garvey may have been the most powerful and influential, international, grass-roots African-descended leader in History. Despite Garvey's push to establish The Black Star line as a legitimate business venture, eventually the fate of it suffered from both internal and external enemies that led to its demise.
As Garvey's fame shot into the stratosphere, the FBI began to take notice, and to work to neutralize this man who was trying to unite Africans from all over the globe. He was often outspoken in his critique of what the White nations of the World had done to Africa, and that fact has to be taken into account as to how others would see him negatively. He was seen as a threat and a young employee with the FBI, a man known as J. Edgar Hoover worked against what would become the first of many Black leaders that he would work in opposition to. The focus was on the fact that Garvey was not a U.S. citizen, a fact that was eventually used very much against him as the government brought mail fraud charges against him, stating that his economically failing Black Star Line was using the mails to advertise and raise money and defraud gullible Black people for a venture that he knew was failing. Eventually, Garvey was found guilty and sent to prison in Atlanta. Th President eventually commuted his sentence and he was released, but as a “foreigner,” he was deported back to Jamaica immediately upon being set free. Garvey floundered from the late 1920's upon his release from prison, until his death in 1940. The British government and the U.S. government played a hand in limiting his passports to other countries, thus limiting Garvey's platform, and effectively helping to weaken his message. Since he no longer had the U.S. platform of the biggest Black community in America to propagandize from, his work suffered.
In looking at Garvey's career, his ability to speak to the hopes, fears and realities of Black people, is what made him stand out. In several places throughout this book, Black contemporaries struggled to describe Garvey's powers of persuasion and effect as a speaker. He had a certain spiritual, messianic, emotional electricity that made Black people attracted to him like a magnet. It's my opinion, from the descriptions within this book, that Marcus Garvey had a similar effect upon his crowds that Malcolm X would have on a later generation of listeners. Though it's hard to believe, Garvey could possibly have been a more effective speaker than Malcolm X. In telling the Garvey story, I think this book is one of the best that a person can find about Mr. Marcus Garvey. I read the book to get a better understanding of The Garvey Movement, helping me to understand better the early influences of The Garvey Movement, as they would eventually play out in the life of Malcolm X. This book is now one of my favorites, and helps to bring Marcus Garvey back to life in a way that no other book I have read about Garvey has done. This is a great book.
PS--I read Grant's work no more than 2 pages at a sitting. This is the only way I could digest this mountain of information, to “eat this elephant-of-a-book-of 455 pages only one spoonful at a time.” It takes Job-like patience to do it this way. This is not the kind of book I could do marathon reading with, breezing through 30 to 50 pages at a sitting. If I had done that, I would have gotten bored and bogged down. I also looked up all words in this book in a dictionary that were unfamiliar to me, and copied them down into a notebook. Though I pride myself on having a very comprehensive reading vocabulary, Grant's verbiage had me looking up and writing down quite a number of words. I am glad that I read the book slowly and to have also looked up all necessary vocabulary words, absorbing much more information doing it this way than any other way. It took me quite some time to read the book, but I am profoundly blessed to have done it my way. I can only hope the level of my reading is reflected in this review.
November 20, 2016
A great biography about in interesting, and significant, figure in the history of race relations, in the United States, in the 1920s. I continue to find this a fascinating part of our history. The savagery of white oppression of blacks was no less savage than today's acts of terrorism, and in many ways far worse because it was so accepted.
There is something very wrong with an educational system that let me graduate without some awareness of this protagonist.
The frothy-eighth book I have finished this year.
There is a great deal in white attitudes towards blacks ("other," low-wage workers, etc.) that is reminiscent of the attitudes of their intellectual descendants towards immigrants.
This is no doubt unfair to Mr. Garvey, but in the flaws (p. 369 - 370, etc.) that brought him down, he reminds me of President-Elect Trump.
Apparently being racially oppressed does not prevent (p. 414, 424) one from being a misogynist.
p. 7. the rich are the natural enemies of the poor.
. . . .
The great problem was that a culture of social service had not yet evolved in Jamaica.
p. 26. Banana loading was primarily women's work.
p. 29. The labour dispute had highlighted the precarious and unprotected state of the Caribbeans in Costa Rica; ultimately, the host nation restricted citizenship and citizen's rights to the descendants of Spain who had settled there over three centuries.
p. 46. At the end of one service, "the minister's daughter asked where she had hidden her tail!"
p. 63. The thousands of volunteers presented an awkward dilemma for the local authorities who were protective of the racially stratified order that had served them so well. What lasting lesson might be learnt by those differential colonized people once granted the qualified privilege of killing a white enemy? It needed to be stressed that though the German was undeniably coarse, he was surpassed only by the Englishman in evolutionary development.
p. 75. Vengeful policemen reached an understanding with an angry white mob that descended on the district beating and bludgeoning any black man who was unfortunate enough to be on the streets.
p. 86. Lynching was not not just the murder of black men and women by a mob. It was preceded, in the case of black men, by their mutilation ('surgery below the waist'), after which they were doused with petrol, set on fire and burnt until all of their blood vessels, veins and arteries, exploded. Bits of their bodies were routinely chopped off as souvenirs before the mob was sufficiently satiated to leave what was left of them dangling from a tree.
p. 99. The next morning mobs of heavily armed white men, lugging cans of petrol, descended on the black district and started firing at will at any black person in sight; and setting fire to the district
(East St. Louis)
p. 115. By the year's end, at least ten black veterans, some still proudly clad in their khaki uniforms, would be lynched.
p. 129. In refusing to budge from a seat reserved for white travelers, Idaho B. Wells anticipated by some sixty years Rosa Parks famous act of civil disobedience.
p. 139. Marcus Garvey well understood the culture amongst black people of coveting fair skin and 'good" as opposed to 'bad' hair.
p. 149. Even white friends and acquaintances of the Negro, like the anti-lynching campaigner Bolton Smith, noted the pernicious change that had come across the black man. Traveling on a segregated streetcar in Memphis,Tennessee, Smith had been alarmed by the sight of an elderly Negro couple brushing past him to take a seat in the section of the carriage reserved for white people. It was the kind of insolent behavior that might lead to violence.
This section is reminiscent of today's attitude towards Muslims.
p. 162. 'Every man,' says Arthur Schopenhauer, 'mistakes the limits of his mind for the limits of the world.'
p. 164. Despite all the vagaries of their existence, the sons and daughters of Afric were perhaps better off in America.
p. 186. Even when black businesses were established there was a problem with patronage. Because of the lack of precedents, most African-Americans had grown accustomed to dealing with white businesses; and, even when presented a black alternative, continued to patronize their white counterparts, no matter how shabbily they were treated by them.
p. 201. - when Mary Turner, a pregnant black woman, could be lynched, hung upside down, her belly slit open and her unborn baby trampled underfoot -
p. 214. He'd been shot in the head and survived: the faithful though him immortal.
p. 226. Garvey was persuaded by the arguments of the Temperance Society that consumption of alcohol was morally reprehensible.
p. 236 - 237. Amy Ashwood was coming to believe that the extraordinary dedication of Garvey and the degree of devotion he inspired was beginning to unbalance her new husband. .
. . .
The UNIA leader was not amused by the irony of the contrast between his strong-armed control of an organization, now estimated (by him) in the hundreds of thousands, and his inability to exert any reasonable influence over his wife.
p. 258. . . . . but Garvey would argue that Du Bois was the kind of 'lost' figure whose sense of worth was only given validity once it was bestowed by the white man.
p. 269. Josie Gatlin got out just before the start of a terrifying riot in Tulsa, . . . .
p. 279. He was a consummate dreamer; and the eternal longing for the African motherland was at the back of every thought.
p. 303. During his tenure President Lincoln had once broached the subject and put it out of bounds when addressing one of the latent fears of emancipation when he asserted, 'Because I do not want a colored woman to be my slave, it does not follow that I want her to be my wife.'
p. 318. in the debit column for 1921, below the list of 'fifty-nine Negroes lynched in Tulsa' and 'Harding's "racial amalgamation there cannot be" speech at Birmingham', Du Bois had typed in the name, 'Marcus Garvey'.
p. 337. Bagnall's nauseating assault marked a new low in black solidarity.
p. 346. By leveling a charge of malfeasance against the American leader, Garvey had preempted Eason's attack on him that was bound to come.
p. 369. Mostly, the latitude that Judge Mack granted him was generous, but Garvey was tripped up more by himself than by the prosecuting counsel.
p. 370. Tellingly, though, as the trial progressed, it revealed the idiosyncratic and shoddy inner working of the organization, and the degree to which most of the important decisions were only ever taken with Garvey's cognizance of approval. Garvey was the big 'I am' of the movement, and each new piece of evidence that clicked into place only seemed to confirm that impression.
p. 379. There was no long-term future for the black man in America.
p. 397. Garvey saw it as yet another example of the black man's curse; of his reluctance or inability to take orders from a fellow black.
p. 398. On one such occasion, Amy Jacques arrived in Baton Rouge, and learned that a black man had been butchered and lynched the night before.
p. 416. Garvey did not pause to consider his wife's needs, but . . . .
p. 424. Amy Jaques noted wryly that her husband's appreciation of the interest shown in him cooled when it was extended to his companion.
p. 431. Garvey was always a staunch advocate of courteusness and respect and stamped out loutishness whenever it arose in the ranks of the UNIA.
p. 442. Largely through his own devices, Garvey had been ostracized by former admirers.
There is something very wrong with an educational system that let me graduate without some awareness of this protagonist.
The frothy-eighth book I have finished this year.
There is a great deal in white attitudes towards blacks ("other," low-wage workers, etc.) that is reminiscent of the attitudes of their intellectual descendants towards immigrants.
This is no doubt unfair to Mr. Garvey, but in the flaws (p. 369 - 370, etc.) that brought him down, he reminds me of President-Elect Trump.
Apparently being racially oppressed does not prevent (p. 414, 424) one from being a misogynist.
p. 7. the rich are the natural enemies of the poor.
. . . .
The great problem was that a culture of social service had not yet evolved in Jamaica.
p. 26. Banana loading was primarily women's work.
p. 29. The labour dispute had highlighted the precarious and unprotected state of the Caribbeans in Costa Rica; ultimately, the host nation restricted citizenship and citizen's rights to the descendants of Spain who had settled there over three centuries.
p. 46. At the end of one service, "the minister's daughter asked where she had hidden her tail!"
p. 63. The thousands of volunteers presented an awkward dilemma for the local authorities who were protective of the racially stratified order that had served them so well. What lasting lesson might be learnt by those differential colonized people once granted the qualified privilege of killing a white enemy? It needed to be stressed that though the German was undeniably coarse, he was surpassed only by the Englishman in evolutionary development.
p. 75. Vengeful policemen reached an understanding with an angry white mob that descended on the district beating and bludgeoning any black man who was unfortunate enough to be on the streets.
p. 86. Lynching was not not just the murder of black men and women by a mob. It was preceded, in the case of black men, by their mutilation ('surgery below the waist'), after which they were doused with petrol, set on fire and burnt until all of their blood vessels, veins and arteries, exploded. Bits of their bodies were routinely chopped off as souvenirs before the mob was sufficiently satiated to leave what was left of them dangling from a tree.
p. 99. The next morning mobs of heavily armed white men, lugging cans of petrol, descended on the black district and started firing at will at any black person in sight; and setting fire to the district
(East St. Louis)
p. 115. By the year's end, at least ten black veterans, some still proudly clad in their khaki uniforms, would be lynched.
p. 129. In refusing to budge from a seat reserved for white travelers, Idaho B. Wells anticipated by some sixty years Rosa Parks famous act of civil disobedience.
p. 139. Marcus Garvey well understood the culture amongst black people of coveting fair skin and 'good" as opposed to 'bad' hair.
p. 149. Even white friends and acquaintances of the Negro, like the anti-lynching campaigner Bolton Smith, noted the pernicious change that had come across the black man. Traveling on a segregated streetcar in Memphis,Tennessee, Smith had been alarmed by the sight of an elderly Negro couple brushing past him to take a seat in the section of the carriage reserved for white people. It was the kind of insolent behavior that might lead to violence.
This section is reminiscent of today's attitude towards Muslims.
p. 162. 'Every man,' says Arthur Schopenhauer, 'mistakes the limits of his mind for the limits of the world.'
p. 164. Despite all the vagaries of their existence, the sons and daughters of Afric were perhaps better off in America.
p. 186. Even when black businesses were established there was a problem with patronage. Because of the lack of precedents, most African-Americans had grown accustomed to dealing with white businesses; and, even when presented a black alternative, continued to patronize their white counterparts, no matter how shabbily they were treated by them.
p. 201. - when Mary Turner, a pregnant black woman, could be lynched, hung upside down, her belly slit open and her unborn baby trampled underfoot -
p. 214. He'd been shot in the head and survived: the faithful though him immortal.
p. 226. Garvey was persuaded by the arguments of the Temperance Society that consumption of alcohol was morally reprehensible.
p. 236 - 237. Amy Ashwood was coming to believe that the extraordinary dedication of Garvey and the degree of devotion he inspired was beginning to unbalance her new husband. .
. . .
The UNIA leader was not amused by the irony of the contrast between his strong-armed control of an organization, now estimated (by him) in the hundreds of thousands, and his inability to exert any reasonable influence over his wife.
p. 258. . . . . but Garvey would argue that Du Bois was the kind of 'lost' figure whose sense of worth was only given validity once it was bestowed by the white man.
p. 269. Josie Gatlin got out just before the start of a terrifying riot in Tulsa, . . . .
p. 279. He was a consummate dreamer; and the eternal longing for the African motherland was at the back of every thought.
p. 303. During his tenure President Lincoln had once broached the subject and put it out of bounds when addressing one of the latent fears of emancipation when he asserted, 'Because I do not want a colored woman to be my slave, it does not follow that I want her to be my wife.'
p. 318. in the debit column for 1921, below the list of 'fifty-nine Negroes lynched in Tulsa' and 'Harding's "racial amalgamation there cannot be" speech at Birmingham', Du Bois had typed in the name, 'Marcus Garvey'.
p. 337. Bagnall's nauseating assault marked a new low in black solidarity.
p. 346. By leveling a charge of malfeasance against the American leader, Garvey had preempted Eason's attack on him that was bound to come.
p. 369. Mostly, the latitude that Judge Mack granted him was generous, but Garvey was tripped up more by himself than by the prosecuting counsel.
p. 370. Tellingly, though, as the trial progressed, it revealed the idiosyncratic and shoddy inner working of the organization, and the degree to which most of the important decisions were only ever taken with Garvey's cognizance of approval. Garvey was the big 'I am' of the movement, and each new piece of evidence that clicked into place only seemed to confirm that impression.
p. 379. There was no long-term future for the black man in America.
p. 397. Garvey saw it as yet another example of the black man's curse; of his reluctance or inability to take orders from a fellow black.
p. 398. On one such occasion, Amy Jacques arrived in Baton Rouge, and learned that a black man had been butchered and lynched the night before.
p. 416. Garvey did not pause to consider his wife's needs, but . . . .
p. 424. Amy Jaques noted wryly that her husband's appreciation of the interest shown in him cooled when it was extended to his companion.
p. 431. Garvey was always a staunch advocate of courteusness and respect and stamped out loutishness whenever it arose in the ranks of the UNIA.
p. 442. Largely through his own devices, Garvey had been ostracized by former admirers.
March 2, 2020
In death I shall be a terror to the foes of Negro liberty. Look for me in the whirlwind or the song of the storm. Look for me all around you.—Marcus Garvey, Atlanta Penitentiary, 1925
To jail Marcus Garvey would dim romance; like jailing a rainbow.—New York Journal, 18 January 1922
It’s often said that great leaders require a certain amount of theatrical presence and self belief, if not outright arrogance, to even want to have such power over their fellow man.
It is also perhaps fair to say that Marcus Garvey despite his extremely humble upbringing in a small Jamaican town, possessed these qualities in abundance.
In fact, Garvey’s rise from obscure printer’s apprentice in Jamaica to leader of a worldwide movement capable of parades tens of thousands strong down busy New York streets within just a few years, is one of the more remarkable and untold stories in American history.
It was also as turbulent as it was remarkable.
As Garvey and his United Negro Improvement Association began their meteoric rise, he cultivated very powerful enemies with his brash (some would say boorish) style, and unwillingness to hold his tongue when discretion was often the better part of valor.
Among his enemies was a young J. Edgar Hoover and the predecessor to the FBI which relentlessly hounded Garvey through harassment, informants in his organization, and finally trumped up criminal charges that would lead to his imprisonment and eventual deportation. This is perhaps no surprise in that Hoover and the FBI would follow a similar pattern in the years to come in regard to any person or group that sought to unite black men and women in America.
More surprising however is the hostility Garvey encountered from other prominent Black men and organizations, particularly the NCAAP and W.E.B. DuBois.
DuBois did little to mask his disdain for Garvey with his flamboyant attire, outlandish titles (‘His Highness the Supreme Deputy Potentate’, ‘Her Royal Highness the Queen of Sheba’), .plain speech, and seemingly unrealistic promises. Reading DuBois’s criticisms of Garvey, it is clear there is more than a little hatred between them:
“Around the edges of Du Bois’s assessment there leaked an uncontained disgust. Ultimately, his lowly educated adversary was ‘a little fat black man, ugly, but with intelligent eyes and a big head, who screams his propaganda from a serio-comic seat of empire, a low rambling basement of brick and stone, this squat and dirty Liberty Hall. Set beside the patient striving of the American Negro, Garvey had achieved ‘nothing in accomplishment, only waste.’ ”
It is not difficult to imagine that for Dubois, who had cultivated the image of the NCAAP as a place for middle to upper class light skinned Blacks (and Whites) to show White society that they were and could be as affluent and cultured as them. They represented what Dubois called “the talented tenth” and once that 10% had shown White America what they were capable of, the other 90% could join them.
Garvey however had no interest in waiting for White people to give him anything. He actively recruited the 90% of Blacks who were left behind by DuBois with his disdain for integration and his dream of returning to an African homeland.
That Garvey for several years did indeed eclipse Dubois (much to Dubois’s consternation and probable jealousy) as the voice for Black people in America is as stunning as what his organization was able to accomplish. DuBois however was not alone in being unable to understand Garvey’s appeal. While DuBois and middle and upper class Blacks saw race as an intellectual problem to be solved, Garvey’s appeal was in stark contrast:
“Garvey was loved by thousands of black people in a way that his critics consistently failed to understand, partly because it went beyond reason. They could see that he was loved, when there seemed every reason to despise him. It was not rational; it was emotional. Garvey was loved because he was persecuted, just as his followers were persecuted”
This is not to say there were not missteps.
Garvey was an arrogant man who referred to himself as the provisional president of Africa. A title which his countryman, the poet Claude McKay, commented:
“He talks of Africa as if it were a little island in the Caribbean Sea…ignoring all geographical and political divisions, he [Garvey] gives his followers the idea that that vast continent of diverse tribes, [is] waiting for the Western Negroes to come and help them drive out the European exploiters’.”
Garvey and the UNIA were also extremely lax about accounting for the vast amounts of money pouring into their organization, a problem that would play no small part in its eventual undoing.
Perhaps worst of all, even for the staunchest Garvey supporters was his willingness to form alliances with other separatist organizations, particularly the Ku Klux Klan. Garvey was effusive in his praise for their desire to be with their own people at a time when the scourge of lynching was continuing to terrorize Black communities. It was, to put it as charitably as possible, an unfortunate choice by Garvey, if not ideologically constant with his message. For his part, Garvey was unable to fully understand the outrage:
“Marcus Garvey believed that he had pulled off the most amazing coup. To have entered voluntarily the headquarters of an organisation that was morally, and at times directly, responsible for the most repulsive and heinous crimes against black people in America, required enormous personal courage. It also spoke of the kind of stupefying certainty that is the preserve of few; and of a colossal arrogance in disregarding how his actions might be perceived by even by well-wishers.”
Even during his imprisonment, an unchastened Garvey would continue to cultivate ties with White nationalist groups:
“Throughout his incarceration Garvey kept up a correspondence with both Cox’s White American Society and John Powell’s Anglo-Saxon Clubs. Powell visited him for ‘cordial talks’ in Atlanta and Garvey encouraged both men to address UNIA branches.”
Garvey was a man with a vision which, to most who were able to take a step back at the time, was unrealistic. It was highly unlikely economically or socially that there would ever be a massive repatriation of Black Americans back to Africa.
Deep down, Perhaps Garvey was always aware of this as well.
Does this make him a con-man as some have suggested?
I don’t believe so.
What Garvey was preaching was as metaphorical as it was literal. He instilled in Black men and women pride in their history. That there was no need to be ashamed of themselves when they in fact had a longer and prouder history than any White American can lay claim to. This is perhaps Garvey’s true legacy, and one that continues to reverberate to this day.
Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote:
“Every man mistakes the limits of his mind for the limits of the world.”
Perhaps this is true for most men. But Arthur Schopenhauer never met Marcus Garvey.
February 4, 2021
Negro With a Hat is a great account of a titan for Black liberation. If there’s one thing that this book makes abundantly clear, it’s that nobody did more to raise the consciousness of African / African diasporic people around the world than Marcus Garvey. The author does a tremendous job tracing Garvey’s early history and connecting it to his ultimate dream of a united, strong, Pan African empire. Garvey lived a life of passionate race advocacy and organization. Everywhere he went, he organized for Black progress. He was able to use his gifts as a speaker and the connections he made in his various stops throughout the world to galvanize huge numbers of Black people toward the cause of the liberation and redemption of Africa.
The book also does a great job exposing the many contradictions that existed throughout Garvey’s life. Garvey got his political start in Jamaica organizing and leading a print workers’ strike for better wages and working conditions and dabbling into work class consciousness movements, but he also expressed hostility towards socialism and an affinity to capital later in his life (especially during the heyday of the UNIA), and he even spoke out against militant labor movements in the Caribbean later in his life (to the dismay of George Padmore and CLR James). Further, Garvey was known for his militant, passionate advocacy of unified, Black self-determination and self-defense in the face of white terror in the United States, but later on he would meet with the KKK and essentially concede that the means white folks chose to enforce the existing social order was understandable, since America was the “white man’s country.”
Despite the many contradictions in his life, Garvey was unmatched in his ability to inspire the masses of African people. He was able to fill a void created by centuries of white supremacist plunder and propaganda that disconnected the African diaspora from the continent by convincing everyone that Africa had no history. Garvey aggressively pushed back against the notion that Africa, and by extension its descendants, were not worthy of praise and reverence. This allowed Garvey to wield “Black pride” as an organizational weapon, giving the UNIA the juice it needed to become the largest, most widespread Black organization in modern history. Unfortunately, aside from Garvey’s personal and organizational shortcomings, in conjunction with a long line of enemies (both Black and white), brought him down. Garvey’s prioritizing of symbolism, while vital to the creation and development of the UNIA, was not enough to save his business ventures from inevitable collapse due to perpetual mismanagement. This mismanagement was used by the U.S. government (and various Black leaders who despised him) to eventually railroad him to prison, deport him from the United States, and dismantle his movement.
This book is fascinating in that it gets to the motivations of the self-described “race leader,” and puts his impact on full display. While I wished there was greater discussion on the nation / worldwide activities of the UNIA, there can be no doubt that Garvey is perhaps the most influential Black leader in modern history. Garvey wanted to restore Africa. He wanted African self-determination. And he worked his entire adult life on this project. This is a must read for anybody interested in Black nationalism and Marcus Garvey.
The book also does a great job exposing the many contradictions that existed throughout Garvey’s life. Garvey got his political start in Jamaica organizing and leading a print workers’ strike for better wages and working conditions and dabbling into work class consciousness movements, but he also expressed hostility towards socialism and an affinity to capital later in his life (especially during the heyday of the UNIA), and he even spoke out against militant labor movements in the Caribbean later in his life (to the dismay of George Padmore and CLR James). Further, Garvey was known for his militant, passionate advocacy of unified, Black self-determination and self-defense in the face of white terror in the United States, but later on he would meet with the KKK and essentially concede that the means white folks chose to enforce the existing social order was understandable, since America was the “white man’s country.”
Despite the many contradictions in his life, Garvey was unmatched in his ability to inspire the masses of African people. He was able to fill a void created by centuries of white supremacist plunder and propaganda that disconnected the African diaspora from the continent by convincing everyone that Africa had no history. Garvey aggressively pushed back against the notion that Africa, and by extension its descendants, were not worthy of praise and reverence. This allowed Garvey to wield “Black pride” as an organizational weapon, giving the UNIA the juice it needed to become the largest, most widespread Black organization in modern history. Unfortunately, aside from Garvey’s personal and organizational shortcomings, in conjunction with a long line of enemies (both Black and white), brought him down. Garvey’s prioritizing of symbolism, while vital to the creation and development of the UNIA, was not enough to save his business ventures from inevitable collapse due to perpetual mismanagement. This mismanagement was used by the U.S. government (and various Black leaders who despised him) to eventually railroad him to prison, deport him from the United States, and dismantle his movement.
This book is fascinating in that it gets to the motivations of the self-described “race leader,” and puts his impact on full display. While I wished there was greater discussion on the nation / worldwide activities of the UNIA, there can be no doubt that Garvey is perhaps the most influential Black leader in modern history. Garvey wanted to restore Africa. He wanted African self-determination. And he worked his entire adult life on this project. This is a must read for anybody interested in Black nationalism and Marcus Garvey.
August 11, 2008
Growing up in Jamaica, Marcus Garvey is a familiar figure to me, as he is featured on the half-dollar bill and the fifty cent piece. But since you learn Jamaican history in elementary school and I moved to Jamaica in junior high, I really had no idea who he was or why he was important (the same with George William Gordon and Noel Newton Nethersole, who were on the 10 and the 20 dollar bill respectively).
So I read this book. And I learned a lot. But it was a haul. This tome suffers from either piecemeal construction by the author or horrible editing. Or both. People are introduced and then reintroduced, often using the exact same phraseology and, sometimes, within pages of the first introduction. While this was handy for someone with the sieve-like brain I possess, it made one question the scholarship and accuracy of the book as a whole.
But learn about Garvey I did. Poor Jamaican. Self-taught. Eventually settled in Harlem where he created an empire called the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)in the early 20th century. Just how he managed such a feat is rather glossed over and unclear but he was apparently a dynamic and emotion-tapping speaker (though the only description of a speech is an early one where his voice was squeaky and weak so that's what stuck in my mind). The main tenet of the UNIA (and of Garvey) was not integration but resettlement in Africa. America, Britain, etc., were white countries. The black man would never be treated equally so why not create an empire of negros to stand on solid footing independently. With this philosophy (and with his suspected charlatanism and flamboyant mannerisms and style) he irrevocably crossed the other main leader of blacks in America at the time, W.E.B. DuBois of the NAACP. DuBois wanted equality and integration and often bemoaned Garvey's very existence, as it took members away from his group and, often, caused legitimate politicians and governments to lump any quest for Negro equality into the Garvey circus, which may have slowed DuBois' quests for equality down considerably.
Garvey's downfall began when he cited that he and the KKK had similar agendas; negroes belong with negroes and not with whites. His alliance, if it can be called that, with the Grand Imperial Wizard of the KKK lost him much support. He also aligned himself against Halie Selassie during the Italian-Ethopian war after Selassie fled for exile, which, to Garvey, was evidence of his traitordom towards the black cause. Halie Selassie was revered by most as being one of the first black leaders of a large African nation, one of the main goals of many black movements of the day.
Garvey was finally indicted for mail fraud, served a two-year prison sentence in Atlanta and was then summarily deported to Jamaica (all under the watchful eye of a BOI (the early FBI) lieutenant J. Edgar Hoover) He felt penned in by Jamaica (and was also indicted there, for libel)and moved to London, where he ended where he began; on a ladder on a street corner in Hyde Park.
So I read this book. And I learned a lot. But it was a haul. This tome suffers from either piecemeal construction by the author or horrible editing. Or both. People are introduced and then reintroduced, often using the exact same phraseology and, sometimes, within pages of the first introduction. While this was handy for someone with the sieve-like brain I possess, it made one question the scholarship and accuracy of the book as a whole.
But learn about Garvey I did. Poor Jamaican. Self-taught. Eventually settled in Harlem where he created an empire called the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)in the early 20th century. Just how he managed such a feat is rather glossed over and unclear but he was apparently a dynamic and emotion-tapping speaker (though the only description of a speech is an early one where his voice was squeaky and weak so that's what stuck in my mind). The main tenet of the UNIA (and of Garvey) was not integration but resettlement in Africa. America, Britain, etc., were white countries. The black man would never be treated equally so why not create an empire of negros to stand on solid footing independently. With this philosophy (and with his suspected charlatanism and flamboyant mannerisms and style) he irrevocably crossed the other main leader of blacks in America at the time, W.E.B. DuBois of the NAACP. DuBois wanted equality and integration and often bemoaned Garvey's very existence, as it took members away from his group and, often, caused legitimate politicians and governments to lump any quest for Negro equality into the Garvey circus, which may have slowed DuBois' quests for equality down considerably.
Garvey's downfall began when he cited that he and the KKK had similar agendas; negroes belong with negroes and not with whites. His alliance, if it can be called that, with the Grand Imperial Wizard of the KKK lost him much support. He also aligned himself against Halie Selassie during the Italian-Ethopian war after Selassie fled for exile, which, to Garvey, was evidence of his traitordom towards the black cause. Halie Selassie was revered by most as being one of the first black leaders of a large African nation, one of the main goals of many black movements of the day.
Garvey was finally indicted for mail fraud, served a two-year prison sentence in Atlanta and was then summarily deported to Jamaica (all under the watchful eye of a BOI (the early FBI) lieutenant J. Edgar Hoover) He felt penned in by Jamaica (and was also indicted there, for libel)and moved to London, where he ended where he began; on a ladder on a street corner in Hyde Park.
February 12, 2009
I like to read biographies of people who have played key roles in aspects, eras, or movements of history with which I am fascinated. Before reading this book on Garvey, I had only a fuzzy outline of his ideas, the goals of his UNIA organization, and his place vis a vis later, especially religious Black Power/African Nationalist movements.
Unfortunately, I'm not certain that I have a much clearer view now that I've finished this book. It's not a bad read, mind you, and I found it engaging and interesting. But even though it was about Garvey, I come away feeling that I know as much or more about things and people around Garvey, than about the man himself. Garvey, as this book points out thoroughly, was above all else an effective orator, yet virtually no quotes or texts are provided. If his speeches were fiery and compelling, the foundation of this major movement, then why did I just read 400 pages and not encounter one?
I found this book high on intrigues and politicking, but strangely somewhat low on Garvey and Garveyism.
Unfortunately, I'm not certain that I have a much clearer view now that I've finished this book. It's not a bad read, mind you, and I found it engaging and interesting. But even though it was about Garvey, I come away feeling that I know as much or more about things and people around Garvey, than about the man himself. Garvey, as this book points out thoroughly, was above all else an effective orator, yet virtually no quotes or texts are provided. If his speeches were fiery and compelling, the foundation of this major movement, then why did I just read 400 pages and not encounter one?
I found this book high on intrigues and politicking, but strangely somewhat low on Garvey and Garveyism.
November 7, 2023
A touch hagiographic around the edges, but there's a reason this is the standard academic biography of Garvey. Very well written, complete, and detailed portrait of this fascinating man.
December 4, 2012
I knew little about Garvey before reading this book, and found it quite insightful.
Lionized by some and pilloried by others within early 20th century black American leadership, Marcus Garvey was NOT ignorable. Between his push for a pan-African movement and a return to Africa by American blacks, on the one hand, and battles with other black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois on the other -- including tussles over elitism and related events, Garvey brought an outsider's mileau, from Jamaica, to the American black experience and broadened it.
The Black Power movement of the 1960s, the stress on titles and trappings within certain black American subcultures today and more all trace to this "Negro with a hat," as Du Bois called him with some condescension.
Along the way, you'll get a side glance at 1920s Harlem, a battle for where to take black America beyond Booker T. Washington and more.
Lionized by some and pilloried by others within early 20th century black American leadership, Marcus Garvey was NOT ignorable. Between his push for a pan-African movement and a return to Africa by American blacks, on the one hand, and battles with other black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois on the other -- including tussles over elitism and related events, Garvey brought an outsider's mileau, from Jamaica, to the American black experience and broadened it.
The Black Power movement of the 1960s, the stress on titles and trappings within certain black American subcultures today and more all trace to this "Negro with a hat," as Du Bois called him with some condescension.
Along the way, you'll get a side glance at 1920s Harlem, a battle for where to take black America beyond Booker T. Washington and more.
April 7, 2013
Wow!!! I don't know what to say, but I do regret not listening to my mother when I was a kid. Colin Grant's book is a wealth of information, i used Manning Marabele's book; "A Portable Malcolm Reader" to connect the timeline between Malcolm's Father and the Garvey Movement. Malcolm's father led a petition in his state to free Marcus Garvey, and he was also murdered soon after Garvey was Deported. A lot of movements foundered after Garvey left, and the opposition took the new leadership roles. I still have more to learn, but I will take the next step and read Du Bois's books. Somewhere I hope to read the Du Bois had a change of heart for the Garvey Movement. Just maybe, Du Bois stood in solidarity when Ghana's Flag was flown. Thank you Colin Grant, you "Took This One To The HOOP!!!"
May 21, 2017
Compared to David Levering Lewis' two-volume sketch of Du Bois, this book reads like a breeze. There are no real complaints on that end. All that can be said relates to Garvey, with him appearing to be a horrible businessman who compounded his horrible business acumen with the inability to either surround himself with competent managers or provide the necessary instruction for his people to adequately work in his stead. Had he had better business sense or been able to step back and empower others instead of being so overbearing, things may have very well turned out different. However, they didn't...and it's as much of his fault as the real BOI led by Hoover and a myriad of imagined enemies.
January 31, 2017
Imperative read for everyone but especially for black activists and entrepreneurs. Growing up (with a mother from Jamaica), I heard bits and pieces of the Garvey story but reading this book gave me an intimate view of the entire life of a man often misunderstood and greatly undervalued. Garvey is a titan among the world's most historical figures. Must read!
November 13, 2019
Writing a biography is an arduous task. Collin Grant has done an exceptional job in bringing Garvey to life. One almost feels the mood in Liberty hall. Theres a connect to what was essentially Garvey.
Seamless transition of the story and its sad end is masterly woven
Seamless transition of the story and its sad end is masterly woven
December 24, 2021
One of the best books I've ever read about a human being since Malcolm X.
February 14, 2023
RIVETING!!!
March 4, 2019
I have to start with the title: "Negro with a Hat". Really? Negro with a Hat??? That's an awfully strange title for this biography of Marcus Garvey. It's not even about his hat at all! My only guess is that this refers to the idea that many people only know of Marcus Garvey through the iconic photos of him wearing a hat, and that the title serves as an invitation for us to get to know him better. Who knows?
Garvey led an interesting life, and it's certainly an interesting book. As I was reading Negro with a Hat I realized that although I've read quite a bit about the struggle for African American civil rights in the U.S., I had read very little about what occurred during the years between Frederick Douglass and Jackie Robinson and then Martin Luther King, mainly just references to Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois in my readings about the reaction to the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.
This book demonstrates the differences between Washington, Dubois, and Garvey, although all three weren't really contemporaries; Washington had passed from the scene before Garvey's rise, but the long-lived Dubois more than bridged the gap between them. While this is certainly an over-simplification, Washington wanted black people to find a niche in white society without confrontation, just keep your heads down and succeed in as non-threatening a way as possible. Dubois wanted equality. He went to Harvard and he wanted blacks to have every right that white people have, which is the path on which a lot of progress has been made. Garvey, on the other hand, started as a promoter of black-owned businesses but became more of a separatist. His aspirations went from a laundry business to a shipping line to a back-to-Africa movement, centered on Liberia, and he even had himself elected/appointed as the future President-General of a never realized pan-African republic.
Garvey was a self-aggrandizing populist who often spoke off the cuff. (Sound familiar?) He once, infamously, stated that for every black person lynched in the American South, a white person in Africa should be lynched. Once, to the anger and puzzlement of his followers, he made an impromptu visit to the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia. He made many enemies, including Dubois and J. Edgar Hoover.
While Negro with a Hat does a solid job of taking us through Garvey's public career, it falls short in letting the reader get to know the man himself. We get some peeks into his private life, but his motivations are discerned from his public actions and statements; we get very little inside information about what made him tick.
Another weird thing about the book, in addition to its Dr. Seuss-like title, is author Colin Grant's almost constant use of "USA" to describe the United States. Typically, you would read "when he returned to the United States" instead of "when he returned to the USA." I remember this was the standard that USA Today used many years ago when it was first introduced (and perhaps still does) but it's very strange to see it in a book.
Garvey led an interesting life, and it's certainly an interesting book. As I was reading Negro with a Hat I realized that although I've read quite a bit about the struggle for African American civil rights in the U.S., I had read very little about what occurred during the years between Frederick Douglass and Jackie Robinson and then Martin Luther King, mainly just references to Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois in my readings about the reaction to the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.
This book demonstrates the differences between Washington, Dubois, and Garvey, although all three weren't really contemporaries; Washington had passed from the scene before Garvey's rise, but the long-lived Dubois more than bridged the gap between them. While this is certainly an over-simplification, Washington wanted black people to find a niche in white society without confrontation, just keep your heads down and succeed in as non-threatening a way as possible. Dubois wanted equality. He went to Harvard and he wanted blacks to have every right that white people have, which is the path on which a lot of progress has been made. Garvey, on the other hand, started as a promoter of black-owned businesses but became more of a separatist. His aspirations went from a laundry business to a shipping line to a back-to-Africa movement, centered on Liberia, and he even had himself elected/appointed as the future President-General of a never realized pan-African republic.
Garvey was a self-aggrandizing populist who often spoke off the cuff. (Sound familiar?) He once, infamously, stated that for every black person lynched in the American South, a white person in Africa should be lynched. Once, to the anger and puzzlement of his followers, he made an impromptu visit to the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia. He made many enemies, including Dubois and J. Edgar Hoover.
While Negro with a Hat does a solid job of taking us through Garvey's public career, it falls short in letting the reader get to know the man himself. We get some peeks into his private life, but his motivations are discerned from his public actions and statements; we get very little inside information about what made him tick.
Another weird thing about the book, in addition to its Dr. Seuss-like title, is author Colin Grant's almost constant use of "USA" to describe the United States. Typically, you would read "when he returned to the United States" instead of "when he returned to the USA." I remember this was the standard that USA Today used many years ago when it was first introduced (and perhaps still does) but it's very strange to see it in a book.
April 4, 2020
Before I picked up this book all I knew about Marcus Garvey was that he was a Black Nationalist from Jamaica, he tried to organize African Americans to go back to Africa, and he went to prison for mail fraud. I decided to read this book because I wanted to learn about the things he said and did that gave African Americans so much pride, hope, and confidence in him. To be honest I didn’t get that from this book. The author didn’t go into enough detail about those things. But overall this was a good book. The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 3 is because it spoke about the Black experience during the 1900’s - 1920’s. About the great migration, lynching, WWI, the Harlem Renaissance etc. In all fairness, I did learn about the character of Marcus Garvey. About his ambitions. His goals. His drive to make things happen it all cost.
Now I need to find another book that will tell me what he said that inspired millions and his impact on black lives.
Now I need to find another book that will tell me what he said that inspired millions and his impact on black lives.
January 2, 2019
I didn't finish, because it's really long. but he does a good job. I'm very curious about Garvey's life, so i was excited to read this. It was very thorough, and I learned a lot about him as a person, but also about the times/places where he grew up and lived. fascinating. will finish some day i hope.
January 13, 2019
Possibly the most comprehensive and insightful biography of Garvey written this century, so far. Recommended reading for all who want to deepen their knowledge both of MMG, his era and the history of the UNIA.
May 5, 2009
Long winded. Yikes. I made it to about page 80 and there was only 2 first person items actually written by Garvey himself. The majority of the info consisted of what was going on around him at the time (some of which is vital to get into the mind set of the subject, but yeesh!) and what other people were doing. This book could probably have lost 40% of its length. Otherwise call it the "Life and Times of...". Lame.
August 23, 2016
I've been interested in learning about Marcus Garvey for some time. This book provides a good, but by no means perfect, introduction into Jamaica's first national hero. At various times in the biography, the author would interject his personal opinions as those of Garvey's contemporaries; and at least gave an incorrect fact that easily could have been looked up (i.e. stating that Chicago is the capital of Illinois)
July 19, 2008
I learned alot about Marcus Garvey and the period from this book, EXCELLENT research done. I the author did take the liberty to freely insert his opinion in many places where I thought it was not needed or even especially helpful; hence the four starts instead of 5
June 7, 2010
The author definitely seems hostile to his subject. A bit of a slog at points but overall worth a read
Currently reading
August 5, 2011as Burning Spear used to sing, 'no one remeber - Marcus Garvey'
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