'Black Moses':
Marcus Garvey, a man who had a tremendous impact on the civil rights
movement and self-esteem
of American Americans in the early part of the 20th century.
He considered
integration with Whites to be futile.
Persuade Obama to
Clear the Name of Marcus Garvey (The Gleaner, Jamaica)
"President
Obama's visit to Jamaica provides a unique opportunity to plea for the
exoneration of Marcus Garvey, Jamaica's first national hero. … The case against
him was the culmination of a series of efforts to criminalize and deport Garvey
from the United States. There are many reasons to believe that the trial was an
unfair one. First was the fact that the jury was all-White. Then there was Garvey's
request to have Judge Julian Mack be dismissed from the case because of his affiliation
with the NAACP, one of the UNIA's rival organizations.
… The most damaging consequence of this has been the stigmatization of Garvey
as a fraudster - a charge meant to discredit his program."
President Obama's visit to Jamaica and the meeting between him
and Jamaica Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller provides a unique opportunity to
plea for the exoneration of Marcus
Garvey, Jamaica's first national hero.
The case against Marcus Garvey arose from allegations that
he and members of his staff attempted to sell Black Star Line stock based
in part on operations of a cruise ship that had yet to be acquired. In a recent
book, American historian Adam Ewing notes, "Negotiations to purchase a
trans-oceanic vessel from the U.S. Shipping Board to carry passengers and
supplies to West Africa were first drawn out and ultimately undermined through
the efforts of the Bureau of Investigation [predecessor of the FBI]. UNIA [Universal
Negro Improvement Association] efforts to advertise passage on the ship,
which was to be named the SS Phyllis
Wheatley, and the subsequent failure of the Black Star Line to complete the
sale, formed the core of the U.S. Justice Department's prosecution of
Garvey." (The Age of Garvey,
p.115)
[Editor's Note: The mail
fraud charge stemmed from the purchase of Black Star Line stock through the
U.S. mail in response to an advertisement in UNIA
brochures and the pages of the Negro
World newspaper of a new ship dubbed the S. S. Phyllis Wheatley. While the ads included photographs of the
ship and promises of its impending launch and travel to Africa, the Black Star
Line had not actually completed negotiations for the purchase of the ship at
the time the advertisements ran. Indeed, it was having great difficulty
guaranteeing payment. It was a Catch-22 for the UNIA
- the sale of stock was needed to raise the funds to complete the transaction
that would legally transfer ownership of the ship to the Black Star Line, but
at the same time, the UNIA did not officially own the
ship in question for which it was issuing stock.]
This case was a culmination of efforts to criminalize and
deport Garvey. Another American historian, Theodore Kornweibel,
has shown that "no Black militant drew more investigations and
surveillance by the Military Intelligence Division, State Department and Bureau
of Investigation ... than Marcus Garvey." According to Ewing, "J.
Edgar Hoover, the new head of the Bureau's anti-radical division, noted that
'there might be some proceeding against him for fraud in connection with his
Black Star Line propaganda' (The Age of Garvey,
p.114).
There are many reasons to believe that the trial was an
unfair one. First was the fact that the jury was all-White. Then there was Garvey's
request to have Judge Julian Mack be dismissed from the case because of his affiliation
with the NAACP, one of the UNIA's rival organizations.
The trial took place in New York during May and June of 1923. The evidence
against Garvey and three UNIA officers was an empty
envelope with the Black Star Line stamp and claims that it was reasonable for prosecutors
to assume that the envelope, which was received by one Benny Dancy [a cleaner at New York's Penn Station],
had contained the fraudulent information received from the Black Star Line.
Garvey, along with three UNIA
officers, Black Star Line Vice President Orlando Thompson; Treasurer George
Tobias, and Secretary Elie Garcia, were charged with
using mail to defraud, but Garvey was the only one to be sentenced - to five
years behind bars and a $1,000 fine - and Garvey was required to pay court
costs. So while Garvey sent no mail on behalf of the Black Star Line, he was
convicted and the three Black Star Line officers were acquitted.
On September 10, 1923, Garvey was released on bail after three-months
in the Tombs Prison. The U.S.
Department of Immigration prepared a deportation case against Garvey, who lost
his appeal. He was rearrested in New York on February 5, 1925 and taken to the
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary to serve the remainder of a five year sentence. On
November 18, 1927, President Coolidge commuted Garvey's sentence. He was
deported and never allowed to return to the United States. The most damaging
consequence of this has been the stigmatization of Garvey as a fraudster - a
charge meant to discredit his program.
[Editor's Note: Marcus Garvey, called "Black
Moses" by supporters in his day, was a Black nationalist who championed
the return of African Americans to their original homelands. The purchase of the
Black Star Line was part of Garvey's plan to provide the means for African Americans to
return to Africa while enabling Black people around the Atlantic to exchange
goods and services.
for African Americans to practice self help and support
enterprises owned and operated by other Black Americans.
Garvey is famous for his fierce anti-communism and related
clashes with other Black leaders of the time. For example, he frequently
clashed with fellow Pan African W.
E. B. Du Bois. Garvey denounced Du Bois' efforts to achieve equality
through integration, and instead endorsed racial separatism. Garvey fanned the
flames of the Pan-African schism by holding a 1922 summit in Atlanta Georgia with
Ku Klux Clan Imperial Wizard Edward Young Clarke. After the meeting Garvey was
quoted as saying, "I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White
American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the
race than all other groups of hypocritical Whites put together. I like honesty
and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every White
man is a Klansman, as far as the Negro in competition with Whites socially,
economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying."
It was after his meeting with the Ku Klux Clan leader and just
before charges of mail fraud emerged, that a number of African-American leaders
appealed to U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty to have Garvey
incarcerated].
Posted By Worldmeets.US
The details of his conviction in Jamaica are as follows: In
1929 (following his deportation from the U.S. in 1927), Garvey was convicted
twice for contempt of court - the first count based on Garvey's refusal to turn over UNIA records in the case of Marke
v. The UNIA Inc. He was fined 25 pounds sterling.
The second conviction was based on a campaign speech
connected with the launch of his People's
Political Party (PPP). In the speech, he called for the jailing of corrupt
judges. He was fined 100 pounds sterling and imprisoned for three months at the
St Catherine District Prison. In 1987, Governor General Sir FlorizelGlasspole pardoned Marcus Garvey for both Jamaican
convictions. The instruments (dated August 16, 1987) are on file at King's House.
We recommend that commissions or committees appointed by the
Foreign Ministry to oversee requests for Garvey's exoneration to the U.S.
government solicit the advice of Garvey scholars in Jamaica and overseas.
Notwithstanding and legal analysis, the historical and political context in
which his conviction occurred are vital to understanding the forces behind it.
If we call on the United States to expunge his name, Jamaica
needs to do the same.
*Rupert Lewis is a
historian, Garvey scholar, professor of political thought at the University of
the West Indies, and author of Garvey:
His Work and Impact
