Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1887, and at 14 became an apprentice in the printing trade. He moved to Kingston and helped form the first trade union in Jamaica. In 1910, Garvey was transformed from an individual concerned about people with little opportunity to an African nationalist determined to lift an entire race from bondage.
His movement, headquartered in New York, was the greatest international movement of African peoples in modern times. From 1922 to 1924, the movement garnered over eight million followers. He urged them to know their African history and rich cultural heritage. Garvey’s was the first voice to clearly demand black power: “A race without authority and power is a race without respect.” He was imprisoned for securities fraud and spent nearly three years in jail. He was deported back to Jamaica and died in London in 1940.