Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-American activist who advocated for the rights of people of African descent around the world, especially in Jamaica and the United States. While he remained in Jamaica for most of his life, he is most known in the United States for his political activities in Harlem, the predominately black neighborhood in New York that had become a major hub of African-American culture by World War I. He advocated what many historians...
Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-American activist who advocated for the rights of people of African descent around the world, especially in Jamaica and the United States. While he remained in Jamaica for most of his life, he is most known in the United States for his political activities in Harlem, the predominately black neighborhood in New York that had become a major hub of African-American culture by World War I. He advocated what many historians have called "black separatism," claiming that African-Americans needed to cultivate their own economic, social, and even political institutions. He even promoted what he called the "Back to Africa" movement that offered a chance for African-Americans frustrated with the racism endemic in American society to emigrate to destinations in West Africa. A businessman, he created the Black Star Line, a shipping line that would have offered its services to such people. The organization most closely associated with Garvey was the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which promoted his ideology of black economic and social uplift in Jamaica, the United States, and Great Britain.