United States in 1916. He married Amy Ashwood
in 1919, but they divorced three years later. In
1922 he married Amy Jacques, and the couple had
two sons, Marcus Jacques Garvey and Julius Win-
ston Garvey.
When Garvey established himself in HARLEM
in 1916, he attempted to develop further his newly
organized UNIVERSALNEGROIMPROVEMENTAS-
SOCIATION (UNIA). The estimated worldwide
membership of the organization, dedicated to im-
proving black economic opportunities and intensi-
fying race pride, reached as high as 4 million.
Garvey founded NEGRO WORLD, a weekly
newspaper that advanced the cause of PAN-
AFRICANISMand highlighted UNIA activities. The
organization’s message rallied African Americans
at a time that saw major social upheaval such as
that signaled by the devastating 1917 race riots in
St. Louis and the heroic contributions of African
Americans in the segregated armed forces of World
War I. Garvey called for an independent Africa
that was free of colonial governance.
In 1919 he began to build the Black Star Ship-
ping Line, a steamship company designed to facili-
tate the triumphant return of African Americans to
Africa. Members bought $5 shares in the company.
He also organized the Negro Factories Corporation
and used it to build black-owned businesses in
Harlem.
One of the most momentous events associ-
ated with Garvey was the FIRSTINTERNATIONAL
CONVENTION OF THENEGROPEOPLES OF THE
WORLD. It convened in NEWYORKCITYand in-
cluded enormous parades that reflected the
progress and pride of the race, and Garvey’s mem-
orable address to some 25,000 people in Madison
Square Garden. It was during this convention that
Garvey created the flag of pan-Africanism with its
red, green, and black colors. Additional meetings
convened throughout the early 1920s and in-
cluded conventions in Detroit, Michigan. The
meetings rallied members, but within a few years
the UNIA was under siege because of financial ir-
regularities. In 1922 Garvey was convicted of mail
fraud and sentenced to five years in an Atlanta
prison. Despite his pending incarceration in 1925,
he devised new plans for another steamship enter-
prise, the Black Cross Navigation and Trading
Company. President Calvin Coolidge commuted
Garvey’s sentence in 1927, but the race leader was
deported immediately to Jamaica. He continued
to cultivate interest in black enterprise and politi-
cal autonomy, and in 1929 he hosted another in-
ternational convention.
In 1921 Garvey founded the AFRICAN OR-
THODOXCHURCHand appointed the Reverend
George Alexander McGuire as its minister. The
church, which existed until 1935, combined ele-
ments of the Catholic and Episcopalian faiths and
encouraged the worship of a black God, Madonna,
and Christ.
During the late 1920s, Garvey published sev-
eral works of poetry. These included The Tragedy
of White Injustice(1927), Selections from the Poetic
Meditations of Marcus Garvey (1927), and Keep
Cool(1927). He focused often on themes of uni-
versal harmony, racial advancement, and individ-
ual responsibility. In “Hail, United States of
Africa-free!”, a poem examining the potential of a
united Africa, Garvey celebrated the “Sweet land
of our father’s noble kin!” and imagined a conti-
nent free of European influence: “The treason of
the centuries is dead, / All alien whites are for-
ever gone; / The glad home of Sheba is once more
free, / As o’er the world the black man raised his
head.” Other works reinforced his pan-Africanist
vision of an empowering and uplifting African
sensibility.
In 1934, following his relocation to London,
Garvey founded Black Man,a monthly publication.
Six years later, in January 1940, he was weakened
by a serious stroke and died a few months later. He
was buried in England.Bibliography
Cronon, E. David. Black Moses: The Story of Marcus
Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Associ-
ation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1987.
Garvey, Amy J., ed. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus
Garvey. New York: The Universal Publishing
House, 1923–1925.
Hill, Robert, ed. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro
Improvement Association Papers.Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1983.
Lewis, Rupert. Marcus Garvey: Anti-Colonial Champion.
Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1988.Garvey, Marcus Mosiah 179