Marcus Garvey – 1887-1940

Born in Jamaica, Garvey, mostly self-taught, traveled in Central America, lived in London from 1912 to 1914, then returned to Jamaica, where, with others, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities League, or Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The principal goal of the organization was to create, in Africa, an independent black governed nation. Meeting with little success in Jamaica, Garvey brought the UNIA to the United States in 1916, establishing branches in New York’s Harlem and black neighborhoods in other northern cities. Between 1919 and 1926, when he was jailed for mail fraud, Garvey was hailed as the “Black Moses” for having awakened the African-American community to the possibilities of self-determination.