Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association

by E. David Cronon, John Hope Franklin (Foreword)

In the early twentieth century, Marcus Garvey sowed the seeds of a new black pride and determination. Attacked by the black intelligentsia and ridiculed by the white press, this Jamaican immigrant astonished all with his black nationalist rhetoric.  In just four years, he built the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the largest and most powerful all-black organization the nation had ever seen.  With hundreds of branches, throughout the United States, the UNIA represented Garvey’s greatest accomplishment and, ironically, the source of his public disgrace.  Black Moses brings this controversial figure to life and recovers the significance of his life and work.

“Those who are interested in the revolutionary aspects of the twentieth century in America should not miss Cronon’s book. It makes exciting reading.”— The Nation

“A very readable, factual, and well-documented biography of Marcus Garvey.”— The Crisis , NAACP

“In a short, swiftly moving, penetrating biography, Mr. Cronon has made the first real attempt to narrate the Garvey story. From the Jamaican's traumatic race experiences on the West Indian island to dizzy success and inglorious failure on the mainland, the major outlines are here etched with sympathy, understanding, and insight.”— Mississippi Valley Historical Review (Now the Journal of American History ).

“Good reading for all serious history students.”— Jet

“A vivid, detailed, and sound portrait of a man and his dreams.”— Political Science Quarterly

Genres: Biography, Race, Nonfiction, Africa, Anti Racist, Research, Theory

302 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 1960

Reviews

[Lalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1955 and needs to be considered in that context. The constant references to Garvey as a "short, stocky Jamaican" or other variations on that theme are disconcerting. The author gives a mixed review of Garvey's life and accomplishments. But you mostly end with a sense that Garvey's influence was huge even if on the surface he wasn't all that successful in many of his endeavors.

[Gregory Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book works as a good history into who Marcus Garvey was and why people remember him, his UNIA.

Not a full Bio of Marcus Garvey but I don't think it was meant to be one.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this book had been required reading for my graduate community organization class. While the writer seems understandably ambivalent in his views of Marcus Garvey, Garvey’s historical impact cannot be dismissed.

[Bookstax · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are better books about Marcus Garvey somewhere, someday...

[NBB]

Good insight...but I've read better about Garvey. This was lacking, but I don't know how exciting or engaging you can make a biography.... but its MARCUS GARVEY!