The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers: Volume 7 November 1927–August 1940 [Reprint 2019 ed.] 9780520342293

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THE

MARCUS GARVEY AND UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

PAPERS SUPPORTED BY The National Endowment for the Humanities The National Historical Publications and Records Commission The Ahmanson Foundation The Ford Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation The U C L A Foundation SPONSORED BY The University of California, Los Angeles

THE

MARCUS GARVEY AND

UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

PAPERS

Volume VII November 1927-Außust

1940

Robert A. Hill Editor Barbara Bair Associate Editor Edith Johnson Assistant Editor

Stephen De Sal Administrative/Production

Assistant

University of California Press Berkeley Los Angeles London

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England This volume has been funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. The volume has also been supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Ahmanson Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the UCLA Foundation, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Documents in this volume from the Public Record Office are ©British Crown copyright 1990 and are published by permission of the Controller of Her Britannic Majesty's Stationery Office. Designed by Linda M. Robertson and set in Gailiard type. This volume has been typeset by Stephen De Sal of the Garvey Papers project using the TYXSET software system supplied by TYX Corp., Reston, Virginia. Copyright ©1990 by The Regents of the University of California. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association papers 1. Garvey, Marcus, 1887-1940. 2. Universal Negro Improvement Association—History—Sources. 3. Black power— United States—History—Sources. 4. Afro-Americans—Race identity—History—Sources. 5. Afro-Americans—Civil rights— History—Sources. 6. Afro-Americans—Correspondence. I. Hill, Robert A., 1943. II. Bair, Barbara, 1955III. Garvey, Marcus, 1887-1940. IV. Universal Negro Improvement Association E185-97.G3M36

1986

305.8'96073

ISBN 978-0-520-07208-4

10

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

82-13379

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD HERBERT APTHEKER MARY FRANCES BERRY JOHN W . BLASSINGAME JOHN HENRIK CLARKE EDMUND DAVID CRONON IAN D U F F I E L D E U . ESSIEN-UDOM VINCENT HARDING RICHARD HART THOMAS L . H O D G K I N ! ARTHUR S. LINK GEORGE A. SHEPPERSON MICHAEL R . WINSTON

Marcus Garvey, 1937

In Memorium Mason Hargrave 1923-1988

Richard Lucas 1942-1988

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

XXIX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

XXX111

INTRODUCTION

XXXV11

EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

liii

TEXTUAL DEVICES

lix

SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Ixi

Repository Symbols Ixi Manuscript Collection Symbols Ixiii Descriptive Symbols Ixiv Published Works Cited Ixiv Other Symbols and Abbreviations Ixv CHRONOLOGY

lxvii

DOCUMENTS 1927

30 November

A. S. Jelf, Colonial Secretary, Jamaica, to M. D. Harrel, Inspector General of Police, Kingston

2-10 December

Articles in the Chicago Defender

8 December

and Herald

Article by Cespedes Burke in the Panama Star

9 December

Meriweather Walker, Governor, Panama Canal Zone, to Dwight Davis, Secretary of War

IX

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

10 December

Message from Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

11 December

Speech by E. B. Knox, Personal Representative of Marcus Garvey

10

11

11 December

Article by Marcus Garvey in the Daily Gleaner

11 December

Report of Speech by Marcus Garvey in the Daily Gleaner

21

13 December

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

33

13 December

Editorial by Herbert DeLisser in the Daily Gleaner

36

13 December

Francis White, Assistant Secretary of State, to Frank Billings Kellogg, Secretary of State

39

15 December

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

40

16 December

A. S. Jelf to Sir Vernon G. W. Kell, Head, British

20

Security Service

41

17 December

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey

43

17 December

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey

45

17 December

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey

46

18 December

Speech by Marcus Garvey

46

20 December

Marcus Garvey to Frank Billings Kellogg

66

21 December

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

67

25 December

Article in the Richmond Planet

69

25 December

Speech by Marcus Garvey

7°

26 December

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

80

December

Essay by Noble Drew Ali, Prophet of the Moorish Holy Temple of Science

81

December

Moorish Science Temple of America Constitution

83

X

CONTENTS

1928 2 January

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

8+

2 January

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

87

5 January

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

89

8 January

Speech by Marcus Garvey

94

14 January

Article in the Negro World

14 January

Negro World Notice

102

IJ January

Speech by Marcus Garvey

io

20 January

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

n

21 January

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

"9

Article in Opportunity

122

January

100

3

5

3 February

Negro World Notice

I2

4

5 February

Speech by Marcus Garvey

I2

4

11 February 3 March

Negro World Notice John Burdon, Governor, British Honduras, to L. C. M. S. Amery, Secretary o f State for the Colonies

134

Roy T. Davis, U. S. Minister to Costa Rica, to Frank Billings Kellogg

136

14 March

Report on Marcus Garvey by W. A. Orrett, Inspector, Trelawny Parish, Jamaica

137

14 March

Report on Marcus Garvey by Inspector W. A. Orrett

139

15 March

Article in the Daily Gleaner

x

15 March

Sophia Cox to the United States Government

J

17 March

Report on Marcus Garvey by H. J. Dodd, Inspector, St. Ann Parish

5 March

xi

4i

43

144

T H E MARCUS GARVEY A N D U N I A PAPERS

30 March

E. B. Knox to Members of UNIA Divisions and Chapters in the United States

14s

1 April

UNIA Program at the Ward Theatre

1+6

4 April

Marcus Garvey to J. R. Ralph Casimir

162

4 April

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

163

7 April

Article in the Negro World

166

7 April

J. A. Craigen, UNIA Special Representative, to the Miami Daily News

168

7 April

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

171

9 April

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

173

13 April

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson

177

5 May

Front Page of the Negro World

181

19 May

Article in the Negro World

182

21 May

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

184

26 May

Article in the New York Times

187

28 May

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

187

2 June

Negro World Cartoons

W

6 June

Speech by Marcus Garvey

25 July

Marcus Garvey to Frederick Fortune

6 August

211

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

212

2 September

Speech by Marcus Garvey

2I

3 September

Marcus Garvey to H. M. Cundall

2

34

8 September

Negro World Notice

2

?7

11 September

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

238

11 September

Marcus Garvey to Herluf Zahle, League of Nations

246

xii

7

President,

CONTENTS

ii September

13 September

Marcus Garvey to Sir Eric Drummond, Secretary General, League of Nations September Renewal of Petition of the UNIA to the League of Nations 249

247

Karel Rood, Private Secretary, Union of South Africa Delegation to the League of Nations, to Marcus Garvey

276

Marcus Garvey to Aristide Briand, French Minister of Foreign Affairs

277

6 October

Report of Speech by Marcus Garvey

278

8 October

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

280

ca. 29 October

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey

282

29 October

Amy Jacques Garvey to Marcus Garvey

282

Interview with Marcus Garvey by Hubert W. Peet

283

1 November

Article in the Montreal Gazette

288

7 November

H. G. Armstrong, British Consul General, New York, to R. Edward Stubbs, Governor, Jamaica

289

21 September

ca. October

8 November

Wesley Frost, American Consul General, to Frank Billings Kellogg

290 2 2

5 December

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

15 December

Negro World Notice

2

7 February

Marcus Garvey to Julian D. Steele

296

8 February

Article in the New York Herald Tribune

2

Front Page of the Blackman

3QI

20 May

Article in the Blackman

3° 2

30 May

J. R. Ralph Casimir to Marcus Garvey

303

24 June

Article in the New York Times

304

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

3n

9

95

1929

30 March

ca. 29 July

xiii

99

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

5 August

Speech by Marcus Garvey at the 1929 U N I A Convention

314

7 August

Article in the Negro World

318

13 August

J. F. Milholland, Lewis Ashenheim, and L. J. Stone, Solicitors, to Herbert P. Cox, Bailiff, Kingston Court

319

J. F. Milholland, Lewis Ashenheim, and L. J. Stone to Herbert P. Cox

322

29 August

Negro World Cartoon

323

30 August

Speech by Marcus Garvey

324

31 August

Negro World Cartoon

326

7 September

Article in the Negro World

327

9 September

Speech by Marcus Garvey

328

27 September

Article in the Daily Worker

34i

27 August

27 September

José de Olivares to Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of State September

5 October 17 October 12 November

21 November 21 November 10 December

345 Article in the Daily Gleaner

346

Negro World Cartoon

357

Anonymous Letter to Attorney General William De Witt Mitchell

358

Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard, Chief Justice, Jamaica Supreme Court, to Governor R. Edward Stubbs 8 November Marcus Garvey to Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard 360 7 November Affidavit by Marcus Garvey to the Jamaica Supreme Court 361

359

Governor R. Edward Stubbs to Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard

362

Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard to Governor R . Edward Stubbs

363

Governor R. Edward Stubbs to Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard

364

XIV

CONTENTS

1930

29 January

Article in the New Tork Times

364

4 February

Marcus Garvey to the Daily Gleaner

365

10 February

Marcus Garvey to the Daily Gleaner

368

20 February

R. L. Gough to the Daily Gleaner

374

21 February

Marcus Garvey to Governor R. Edward Stubbs

378

22 February

Marcus Garvey to Governor R. Edward Stubbs

382

24 February

Marcus Garvey to the Daily Gleaner

383

27 February

Marcus Garvey to Phillip Snowdon, Chancellor o f the Exchequer

11 March 3 May

British

Marcus Garvey to Phillip Snowdon ca. October 1929 Manifesto by Marcus Garvey

390 399 401

Report by UNIA Secretary General Henrietta Vinton Davis in the Negro World

403

28 June

Notice from Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

+°5

30 June

Article in the Daily Worker

406

19 July

Article in the Negro World

4°9

31 July

Herbert H. Bacon, British Security Service, to Sir Gerard Clauson, Principal Secretary, British Colonial Office

412

Herbert H. Bacon to A. S. Jelf

+1+

ca. 9 August

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

+XS

30 August

Notice by Harold G. Saltus in the Negro World

418

11 October

Article in the Negro World

419

Articles in the Daily Worker

+22

30 June 31 July

A. S. J elf to Herbert H. Bacon 413

28 October10 November 8 November ca. 8 November

Article in the Blackman Marcus Garvey and Henrietta Vinton Davis to Emperor Haile Selassie I

xv

4-4° 442

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

1931 William Ware, President, Cincinnati UNIA Division No. 146, to Nugent Dodds, Acting Head, Criminal Division, Department of Justice ca. February 1931 Charter of the UNIA Executive Council, Jamaica 445

442

14 February

Lord Sidney Olivier to the Blackman

446

14 February

Article in the Blackman

448

M. L. T. De Mena, UNIA International Organizer, to the Negro World

449

Report by Altaman Sutherland, Captain, New York Tiger Division

450

Paul C. Squire, American Consul, Kingston, to Henry L. Stimson

452

William Ware to W. N. Cault, Assistant Secretary of State

453

A. S. Jelf to Sir Vernon G. W. Kell

455

William Ware to James G. Rogers, Assistant Secretary of State

456

10 February

ca. 21 February 7 March i? March 16 March 28 March 10 April 13 April

William Ware to James G. Rogers ca. 11 April Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World 458

457

18 April

Sir Vernon G. W. Kell to A. S. Jelf

46i

Detroit UNIA Division Circular

461

ca. 19 April 9 May

I June 13 June II July

S. MacNeil Campbell, British Colonial Office, to A. S. Jelf

464

A. S. Jelf to M. D. Harrell

464

A. S. Jelf to Sir Vernon G. W. Kell A. C. Aderhold, Warden, Adanta Federal Penitentiary, to Austin H. MacCormick, Acting Director, Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice February 1925-November 1927 Statement of Cash Received by Marcus Garvey 467

465

xvi

466

CONTENTS

15 August

Article in the Negro World

473

Marcus Garvey to Sir Eric Drummond

476

Peter Anker, Mandates Section, League of Nations, to Mr. Catastini, Chief Officer, Mandates Section

476

12 December

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

477

21 December

William Ware to W. N. Cault 18 December Article in the Daily Gleaner 480 20 December Newspaper Report 485 21 December Newspaper Report 487 20 September M. L. T. De Mena to Henrietta Vinton Davis 488 31 July William Ware toM. L. T. De Mena 489 ca. 7 December Printed Announcement 492

479

Essay by George Padmore

493

ca. 20 October 22 October

1932 29 February

ca. 27 May

4 June 20 June

Department of State, Division of Western European Affairs, Memorandum 16 February Paul C. Squire, American Consul, Jamaica, to Henry L. Stimson 495 6 February M. D. Harrel to Paul C. Squire 497 12 February Article by Frank Taylor in the Daily Gleaner 497 15 February Marcus Garvey to the Daily Gleaner 499 12 February Marcus Garvey to Paul C. Squire 502

495

John W. Geraty, Postmaster, Yonges Island, South Carolina, to F. A. Rickly, Post Office Inspector, Charleston, South Carolina 27 May Marcus Garvey to Marria Simmons 504 ca. 27 May UNIA Parent Body Raffle Ticket 505

502

Negro World Notice

506

Wilbur J. Carr to Paul C. Squire 2 June William Ware to Green H. Hackworth, Legal Adviser, Department of State 508

5°7

xvti

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

i July

Paul C. Squire to Henry L. Stimson ca. June

509

Daily Gleaner Notices 511

9 July

Front Page of the New Jamaican

5*3

9 July

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the New Jamaican

5*4

io July

Speech by Marcus Garvey

II July

Wilbur J. Carr to William N. Doak, Secretary of Labor 20 June William Ware to Green H. Hackworth 521 Essay by Marcus Garvey

28 July 11 August

Henry L. Stimson to Postmaster General Walter F. Brown 1 August William Ware to Green H. Hackworth 526

5*5 521 522 526

27 August10 September

Articles by Vere Johns in the New York Age

527

21 April

Article in the Waco Messenger

542

10 May

Jella B. Whitmore to Charles L. James

543

18 May

Marcus Garvey to Earnest S. Cox

546

11 June 13 July

Appeal by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World Editorial in the Daily Gleaner ca. 13 July Marcus Garvey to the Daily Gleaner 549

547 548

17 July

Editorial in the Daily Gleaner

554

17 July

'Truth" to the Daily Gleaner

556

19 July

Rupert J. Dixon to the Daily Gleaner

556

19 July

Wilfred Duhaney to the Daily Gleaner

558

19 July

Arnold J. Lecesne to the Daily Gleaner

559

15 September

New Jamaican Notice

560

23 September

Article by Cyril Briggs in the Harlem Liberator

561

1933

xviii

CONTENTS

5 December

William W. Corcoran, American Kingston, to Henry L. Stimson

Consul, 563

December

Front Page of the Black Man

565

December

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

566

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

568

Marcus Garvey to President Franklin D. Roosevelt

573

February

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

574

February

Black Man Notice

578

28 March

Marcus Garvey to Karl A. Crowley, Solicitor, U.S. Post Office Department

579

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

580

Black Man Notice

582

3 May

British Foreign Office Minutes 27 April J. V. Wilson, Secretary, League of Nations, to William Strang, Secretary General, British Delegation 584

583

5 May

Arthur Sweetser, Secretary, League o f Nations, to Prentiss B. Gilbert, U. S. Representative to the League o f Nations Council

585

Gaston Joseph, French Ministry of Colonies, to Jean Louis Barthou, French Minister o f Foreign Affairs

585

Article in the Negro World

587

Marcus Garvey to R. L. Whitney

589

Speech by Marcus Garvey

59°

25 August

Article in the Jamaica

601

31 August

Article in the Daily Gleaner

1934 January 20 February

March March-April

9 May

7 July 23 July 3 August

17 September

Times

Benjamin W. Jones, Secretary, Philadelphia UNIA Division No. 379, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt xix

602

605

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N L A PAPERS

IO October

Marcus Garvey to R. L. Whitney

608

27 October

Benjamin W. Jones to President Franklin D. Roosevelt

609

Benjamin W. Jones to Joseph B. Keenan, Assistant Attorney General

611

Marcus Garvey to A. L. King, President, New York UNIA Division

612

Marcus Garvey to R. L. Whitney

613

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

614

27 October 3 November 16 November November 1935

7 January

Marcus Garvey to President Franklin D. Roosevelt

61$

Marcus Garvey to Cordell Hull, Secretary of State

616

Marcus Garvey to A. L. King

617

Article in the Daily Gleaner

618

21 May

Benjamin W. Jones to Joseph B. Keenan

619

30 May

Article in the New York Amsterdam News

621

June

Front Page of the Black Man

623

June

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

624

July

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

628

7 January 4 March 27 March

August-September 3 September

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

643

Article in the Daily Gleaner

652

A. L. King to Marcus Garvey

653

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

654

2 November

A. L. King to Emperor Haile Selassie I

656

7 November

Marcus Garvey to McKenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada

657

21 November

Marcus Garvey to A. L. King

658

19 December

A. L. King to Marcus Garvey

660

18 September October

XX

CONTENTS

1936

ii January

28 February

Samuel A. Haynes, U N I A sentative, to Co-workers

National

Repre-

Carmen Cordoze, Executive Secretary, New York U N I A Division, to the Scottsboro Defense Committee

663

664

G. N. Lowden, Special Agent in Charge, to J. Edgar Hoover, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation 20 March Mary Anis to the Chief of Police, Charleston, South Carolina 666

66s

March

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

666

March

Report of Activities in U N I A Divisions and Garvey Clubs by Samuel A. Haynes

669

Minutes of New York U N I A Divison No. 340 Meeting

674

Notice from New York Division No. 340

677

Post Card of Ras Tafari Distributed by Leonard Howell

678

May-June

Poem by Marcus Garvey

680

May-June

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

681

July-August

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

686

26 August

Article in Plain Talk

695

28 August

Article in the Montreal Daily Herald

696

31 August

Una Brown to Marcus Garvey

698

15 September

Marcus Garvey to Una Brown

700

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

703

Marcus Garvey to Lord John C. W. Reith, Director, British Broadcasting Corporation

712

Pacific Movement of the Eastern World Membership Certificate

717

25 March

10 April

April 17 May

September-October 23 October

December

xxi

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

1937

23 January

Article by Marcus Garvey in the Norfolk Journal and Guide

718

Article in the New York Amsterdam News

722

January

Marcus Garvey to Irene Ford

726

January

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

727

18 March

Marcus Garvey to William Casha

736

20 March

Jane G. Baker to Marcus Garvey

737

25 March

Edwin Horde to Marcus Garvey

738

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

739

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey

742

Marcus Garvey to Claudius M. Ballentine, President, Kingston UNIA Divison

745

30 January

March-April 25 May 5 June 17 June

Edith Johnson to Marcus Garvey 17 June Message from Edith Johnson 746

746

15 July

Marcus Garvey to Edith Johnson

747

23 July

Memorandum from Hubert Martin, Chief Passport Officer, British Foreign Office, to the British Colonial Office

747

Speech by Marcus Garvey

748

Official Minutes of the Second Regional Conference of the UNIA

755

29 August

Speech by Marcus Garvey

772

30 August

Article in Plain Talk

778

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

780

25 September

Speech by Marcus Garvey

781

1 October

Speech by Marcus Garvey

788

7 October

Speech by Marcus Garvey

794

Article in Plain Talk

803

24 August 24-31 August

August

23 October

xxii

CONTENTS

2+ October

Speech by Marcus Garvey

804

ca. 25 October

Speech by Marcus Garvey

810

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

815

18 January

Marcus Garvey to Vivian Durham

817

8 February

Thomas W. Harvey, Chairman, Second Regional Conference Committee, to Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo

819

December 1938

15 March

Charles Watkins, President, Peace Movement of Ethiopia, Inc., to Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo

822

Editorials by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

825

Official Minutes of the First Ohio State Caucus of the UNIA and ACL, by TheresaYoung, Secretary

829

18 June

Notice from the New York UNIA Divisions

834

ca. July

Marcus Garvey to the London Times

835

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

837

March 10 April

July 1—17 August

Official Minutes of the Eighth International UNIA Convention

840

2 August

Speech by Marcus Garvey

859

ca. 7 August

Speech by Marcus Garvey

867

ca. 7 August

Speech by Marcus Garvey

875

13 August

Marcus Garvey to Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo

883

14 August

Speech by Marcus Garvey

885

18 August

Marcus Garvey and Ethel Collins to Malcolm

6 October 22 November November

MacDonald, British Colonial Secretary

891

Marcus Garvey to Earnest S. Cox

892

Marcus Garvey to Lord Halifax, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Black Man

895 897

xxiii

T H E MARCUS GARVEY A N D U N I A PAPERS

Black Man Notice

899

Marcus Garvey to Julius Winston Garvey

900

11 January

Marcus Garvey, Jr., to Marcus Garvey

90i

11 January

Julius Winston Garvey to Marcus Garvey

902

27 January

Marcus Garvey to Clarence Thomas

903

1 February

A. L. King to Thomas W. Harvey

904

6 February

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

905

6 February

Marcus Garvey to Julius Winston Garvey

905

14 February

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

906

14 February

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

907

26 February

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

907

February

Essay in the Black Man

907

31 March

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

909

8 April

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

9io

8 April

Marcus Garvey to Julius Winston Garvey

9io

17 April

Thomas W. Harvey to Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo

9io

21 April

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

9H

27 April

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

9"

27 April

Marcus Garvey to Julius Winston Garvey

912

28 April

A. L. King to Marcus Garvey

912

20 May

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

9i$

30 May

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

9i$

November 8 December 1939

6 June

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

916

16 June

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

916

23 June

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

917

xxiv

CONTENTS

June

Essay in the Black Man

917

1 July

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

921

9 July

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

921

24 July

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

922

29 July

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

922

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

923

14 August 21 August

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

923

Marcus Garvey to Thomas W. Harvey

923

25 September

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

924

3 October

Carlos Cooks, President, UNIA Advance Division, to Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo

925

30 August

18 October

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

926

James Stewart to Marcus Garvey

926

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

928

18 November

School of African Philosophy Graduation Dance Invitation

928

28 November

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

929

21 October 1 November

22 December

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

929

6 January

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

930

ca. 20 January

Thomas W. Harvey and Ethel M. Collins to Fellow Officers and Members of the UNIA

930

1940

XXV

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

23 January 17 February 18 March

Ethel M. Collins to Amy Jacques Garvey

93i

J. Mclntyre and Daisy Whyte to Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey

933

Marcus Garvey to the League of Coloured Peoples

934

21 March

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

934

6 April

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

935

20 April

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

935

27 April

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

936

9 May

G. E. Harris, President, Garvey Club, New York, to Marcus Garvey

936

18 May

Front Page of the Chicago Defender

937

28 May

Ethel M. Collins to Amy Jacques Garvey

938

x June

Marcus Garvey to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

939

2 June

UNIA Notice

940

3 June

UNIA Leaders to Earnest S. Cox

94*

Daisy Whyte to Amy Jacques Garvey Geoffrey Freeborough, Solicitor, to Amy Jacques Garvey

94i 943

9 July

Ethel M. Collins to Amy Jacques Garvey

944

30 July

Ethel M. Collins to Amy Jacques Garvey

945

Obituary in the League of Coloured Peoples News Letter

949

6 August

Daisy Whyte to Ethel M. Collins

950

18 August

Opening Message to UNIA Conference by Amy Jacques Garvey

95°

Amy Jacques Garvey to Freeborough and Company, Solicitors

954

Ethel M. Collins to Amy Jacques Garvey

955

9 June 29 June

July

22 August 23 August

xxvi

CONTENTS

APPENDIXES APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II

APPENDIX III

APPENDIX IV

APPENDIX V

Delegates to the Sixth International UNIA Convention, Kingston, August 1929

961

Delegates to the Seventh International UNIA Convention, Kingston, August 1934

964

Delegates to the First Regional UNIA Conference, Toronto, August 1936

965

Delegates to the Second Regional UNIA Conference, Toronto, August 1937

967

Delegates to the Eighth International UNLA Convention, Toronto, August 1938

969

APPENDIX VI

UNIA Convention Delegates by Gender

APPENDIX VII

Chronological List of the Editorial Staffs of the Negro World

972

APPENDIX VIII

Alphabetical List of Negro World Staff Members

979

APPENDIX IX

Map of UNIA in Harlem

982

APPENDIX X

Locations of UNIA Divisions and Chapters

986

APPENDIX XI

Concentration of UNIA Divisions by Regions

IOOO

APPENDIX XII

Speech by Daisy Whyte, Private Secretary to Marcus Garvey

INDEX

971

1003 1007

xxvii

ILLUSTRATIONS

Marcus Garvey, 1937 (frontispiece) Bettmann Archives Garvey welcomed upon arrival in Jamaica, 1927 DG, 12 December 1927, courtesy ofWIRL Grand opening, UNIA Liberty Hall, King Street, Kingston, 1930 DG, 31 July 1930, courtesy ofWIRL Garvey and UNIA delegation aboard the S.S. Green Briar prior to Garve/s departure from Kingston for Europe, 1928. NW, 12 May 1928 Rev. Charles Garnett, Pan-African activist, London Courtesy ofMichael Hastings, Royal Court Theatre, Londpn E. B. Knox, UNIA first assistant president general, August 1929 NW, 7 September 1929 M. L. T. De Mena, UNIA assistant international organizer, August 1929 NW, 10 August 1929 Delegates to the Sixth Annual International UNIA Convention, August 1929, Edelweiss Park, Kingston WRHS, UNIA-C Group of Jamaican delegates at 1929 UNIA convention DG, 13 August 1929, courtesy ofWIRL Group of American delegates at 1929 UNIA convention DG, 5 August 1929, courtesy ofWIRL Map of Jamaica, by parish Frederick G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1971) Marcus Garvey, municipal councillor, Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, early 1930s DG, 2 February 1934, courtesy ofWIRL

xxix

T H E M A R C U S G A R V E Y AND U N I A P A P E R S

Lewis Ashenheim, Jamaican lawyer and politician, ca. 1929 Courtesy ofWIRL Dunbar Theophilus Wint, representative for St. Ann Parish in Jamaica Legislative Council, 1930 DG, 29 July 1933, courtesy ofWIRL Marcus Garvey and delegates to parochial conference, Kingston, 1934 DG, 25 July 1934, courtesy ofWIRL Garvey returning to Jamaica after trip to Geneva, 1931 DNA UNLA welcoming parade upon Garvey's arrival from Geneva, Kingston wharf, 1931 DNA Capt. James Nimmo, Miami UNIA African Legion, ca. 1928 Courtesy of James Nimmo St. William Wellington Grant (foreground), Jamaican nationalist, Kingston, ca. 1934-1938 William Makin, Caribbean Nights (London: Robert Hale, 1939) Carlos Cooks, president, UNIA Advance Division, New York Courtesy of Nab Eddie Bobo Ashima Takis, president, Pacific Movement of the Eastern World Courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Wallace D. Fard, prophet, Nation of Islam DJ-FBI Leonard Howell, prophet of Ethiopianism C. G. Maragh, The Promise Key, n.d. Sufi Abdul Hamid, mystic and leader in the Harlem "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" boycott campaign, 1930s Claude McKay, Harlem: Negro Metropolis (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1940) Father Divine (George Baker), founder, Peace Mission movement Robert Weisbrot, Father Divine and the Struggle for Racial Equality (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983) Jomo Kenyatta and Paul Robeson on location for the film Sanders of the River, 1934 Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988) Haile Selassie on train in exile in London, 1936 Robert Rotberg, A Political History of Tropical Africa (New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1965) A. L. King, president, UNIA Central Division, New York NN-Sc, UCD XXX

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mittie Maud Lena Gordon, Chicago Garveyite and president, Peace Movement of Ethiopia DJ-FBI Members of the first graduating class of the School of African Philosophy, newly appointed as U N I A commissioners, Toronto, 1937 BM 2, no. 8 (December 1937): 5 Marcus Garvey, Jr., Julius Winston Garvey, and Amy Jacques Garvey, ca. 1938 Len Nembhard, Trials and Triumphs of Marcus Garvey (Kingston: Gleaner, 1940) Deceased Garvey in coffin, 19+0 TNF Delegates to 1941 U N I A convention, at U N I A parent body headquarters and New Negro World office, Cleveland. JS, courtesy of Roberta Stewart U N I A Vangard division members, with portrait of Garvey and memorial wreath, New York, early 1940s Courtesy of Samuel Benjamin Marcus Garvey, Jamaican national hero, memorial monument, Kingston Courtesy of WIRL Map of U N I A in Harlem (Appendix IX) Tim Seymour and J. R. Sanders

xxxi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editors wish to thank the many institutions and individuals whose generous assistance contributed to the historical research and editorial preparation o f the present volume. Important documents were provided by the Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangères, Paris, France; Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre-Mer, Paris, France; Boston University, Boston; Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Federal Bureau o f Investigation, Washington, D . C . ; Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee; Jamaica Archives, Spanish Town, Jamaica; League of Nations Archives, Geneva, Switzerland; National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D . C . ; National Library o f Jamaica (formerly the West India Reference Library), Kingston, Jamaica; Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Public Record Office, London, England; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, N e w York Public Library, N e w York; University o f Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland; and the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. The archivists, librarians, and staff members at these institutions have been most responsive to our many requests, and we are grateful for their continued assistance. Important documents and annotation materials were graciously contributed by the following individuals from their private collections: Nab Eddie Bobo, African Diaspora Youth Development Foundation, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; J. R. Ralph Casimir, Roseau, Dominica; Hilbert L. Keys, Wilmington, Delaware; James B. Nimmo, Miami, Florida; and Golden Stewart, formerly o f Monrovia, Liberia. This volume is dedicated in part to Mason Hargrave, former presidentgeneral o f the U N I A , August 1929 of the World, w h o died in 1988. Mr. Hargrave was an activist in the Cleveland U N I A Division No. 133. H e provided many materials from his private collection for use in this volume. He also was responsible for preserving a large body of U N I A documents stemming from the operation o f the U N I A headquarters in Cleveland from the 1940s onward. These documents have been deposited in the Western Reserve Historical Society Library, where they are available to the public. The process of annotating the many people, places, and historical subjects that appear in the documents is an arduous one. O u r burden has been eased by the helpful information provided by the staff members of many

xxxiii

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

insitutions. We would like to thank the staffs of the following public and private libraries for their valuable assistance: Boston Public Library; British Consulate Library, Los Angeles; Chicago Public Library; City of New Orleans Public Library; Free Library of Philadelphia, Logan Square, Philadelphia; Gary Public Library, Gary, Indiana; Graduate Theological Union Library, Berkeley, California; Halifax City Regional Library, Nova Scotia, Canada; Indiana State Library, Indianapolis; Islington Library, London Borough, England; Jacksonville Public Library, Jacksonville, Florida; Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Kansas; Knox County Public Library System, Knoxville, Tennessee; McConnell Public Library, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; New York Public Library, New York; Municipal Reference Library of Metropolitan Toronto; National Diet Library, Tokyo; Norfolk Public Library, Norfolk, Virginia; Park Memorial Library, Asheville, North Carolina; Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, Missouri; Tennessee State Library, Nashville; Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library; and Virginia State Library, Richmond. The staff members of the following archives, historical societies, and research institutes provided us with helpful information: American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati; American Jewish Historical Society, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; Archives of the City of Toronto, Canada; Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas; Archives Nationales-Section Outre-Mer, Paris; Atlanta Historical Society; Cincinnati Historical Society; Department of Archives, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; Georgia Historical Society, Savannah; Historical Society of Western Pennsylvannia, Pittsburgh; Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Idaho State Historical Society, Boise; Kansas Historical Society, Kansas City, Kansas; Law Society Library, London; Montgomery County Historical Society, Dayton, Ohio; New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston; Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Theosophical Society, Pasadena, California; Virginia Historical Society, Richmond; and the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland. We wish to thank librarians at research libraries located at the following educational institutions for their assistance: Columbia University, New York; Drew University, Madison, New Jersey; Florida State University, Tallahassee; Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia; Howard University, Washington, D.C.; Indiana University Northwest, Gary; St. Anthony's College, Oxford University, Oxford, England; Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama; University of Cincinnati; University of Georgia, Athens; University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. Staff members of the following governmental agencies contributed information used in the volume: Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.; City of New York Bureau of Corporations; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom of Information-Privacy Acts Section, Records Management Divixxx iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

sion, Washington, D.C.; Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Library and Records Department, London; Liverpool Record Office, Liverpool, England; National Personnel Records Center, Civilian Personnel Records, St. Louis, Missouri; Office of the Postmaster General, United States Postal Service, Washington, D.C.; Post Office Users National Council, London; State of New York Court of Appeals Clerk's Office, Albany; State of New York Department of Labor, Albany; State of New York Department of State, Bureau of Corporations, Albany; United States Department of the Army, Army Intelligence and Security Command, Arlington, Virginia; United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, Washington, D.C. Individuals affiliated with the following businesses, administrative offices, and private agencies also contributed: Academic International Press, Gulf Breeze, Florida; J. L. Freedman and Company, Solicitors, Middlesex, England; Harvard University Alumni Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Wilkinson Kimbers, Solicitors, London; Law Society Services, Ltd., Records and Statistical Department, London; Library Services, Atlanta Journal I Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia; New York State Bar Association, Albany, New York; Office of Alumni Affairs, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri; Picture Editing Department, Sunday Times Magazine, London. The reference and interlibrary loan staffs of the University Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Timothy Connelly of the archival staff of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Washington, D.C., have provided indispensable research assistance to the project. We gratefully acknowledge their contributions. The following individuals are among the many people who have assisted the project in securing documents or by lending their research knowledge or historical expertise: Harold Brackman, Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, Los Angeles; Robert Edgar, Howard University, Washington, D.C.; Eppie Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, Kingston; Cathy Collins Gaskin, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg; Betty Gubert, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; Louis R. Harlan, University of Maryland, College Park; Michael Hastings, Royal Court Theatre, London; Mark Higbee, Columbia University, New York; Anita Johnson, National Library of Jamaica, Kingston; Diana Lachatanere, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; Terry S. Latour, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg; Rupert Lewis, University of the West Indies, Kingston; Ralph Luker, Martin Luther King Papers Project, Emory University, Atlanta; Richard Newman, New York Public Library; Peter Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers Project, Florida State University, Tallahassee; Ann Allen Shockley, Fisk University, Nashville; Madge Sinclair, Los Angeles; Ann Sindelar, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland; Roberta Stewart, Kent, Ohio; and Fannie Zelcer, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati.

xxxv

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Graphic artists Timothy Seymour and J.R. Sanders prepared the map of UNIA sites in Harlem that appears in Appendix IX. This volume was produced in close cooperation with the staffs of the Berkeley, Los Angeles, and New York offices of the University of California Press. Individual thanks to Martha Gasoi and Patricia Malango of the Berkeley office; Diana Feinberg, Stanley Holwitz, and Shirley Warren of the Los Angeles office; and to Amanda Mecke and Linda Norton of the New York office. The volume was copy edited by Susan Gallick, indexed by Robin Haller, and designed by Linda Robertson. Typographical production was provided by Rex Blankenship of Prestige Typography, Brea, California, and Neil Miller of the H I T E C Corporation, Columbia, Missouri. Special appreciation must be expressed for the contributions of Richard Lucas, former director of marketing of the University of California Press, who died while this volume was in preparation. Richard was a champion of the Garvey Papers project and took a lively personal interest in making its volumes available to the public. We miss his high enthusiasm, humor, and creative energy; we mourn his illness and his passing. We dedicate this volume to him, with personal gratitude and in appreciation of his many spirited accomplishments during his career. We wish to thank the full- and part-time members of the Marcus Garvey Papers Project staff whose labor produced this volume. Research for the volume was conducted primarily by Robin Dorman and David Ralston. Avon Leekley and Kairn Klieman also participated significantly in the research. Michael Fitzgerald gathered manuscript materials on the connection between Garvey and the UNIA and the Greater Liberia bill from the Theodore Bilbo collection at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattisburg. Charles Bahmueller prepared the biographical annotation on Charles Garnett and Steven Rubert wrote annotations on African history. Patricia Karimi-Taleghani reviewed annotations on Ethiopia and the Italo-Ethiopian war. Ernest Hill prepared the initial draft of the chronology. Reginald Daniel compiled the data on UNIA divisions utilized in Appendix X. Deborah Forczek conceived of and prepared the initial drafts of Appendixes VI, VII, and VIII. She also directed the proofreading of transcriptions of some of the original documents. Transcriptions were produced by Janine Briggs, Kelly Bushinsky, Carol Coluehoun, Tracy Chriss, Diane Hill, and Lucille Spiff. Inge Nordstrom assisted with the proofreading of the typeset documents. The volume was typeset by project administrator and principal word processing specialist Stephen De Sal, using TYXSET typesetting software developed by the TYX Corporation of Reston, Virginia. The National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the U C L A Foundation have sustained the project with their support. In addition, the project acknowledges the Ahmanson Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation for their extremely valuable assistance.

xxxvi

INTRODUCTION

With the United States government's deportation of Marcus Garvey in December 1927, the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) entered upon die final phase of his extraordinary relationship with the international black movement he had organized in Harlem almost a decade before. This closing phase of Garvey's life coincides with a strategic time in larger world affairs, as the era of buoyant post-war optimism drew to a close and was superseded by the human tragedy of worldwide economic depression and, finally, by the violence of a second world war. Garvey's first entry onto the world stage—as the militant herald of black self-determination—had been facilitated by opportunities presented by the crisis of World War I and the concomitant rise of national emancipation movements. Strategic alterations in the international system o f colonial empires continued to be proposed throughout the interwar period, providing Garvey with further diplomatic opportunities in Pan-African affairs after his deportation. While he maintained an international presence as the UNIA's spokesman in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, the internal operation o f the U N I A in those years was characterized by disruptions and challenges more difficult than Garvey had yet encountered. The world that Garvey had known during the peak years of his political influence in America in the early 1920s had changed dramatically during his years in prison. When he was released in 1927, the U N I A was no longer the organization that it had once been; increasingly rent by internal division and bereft of resources, it was struggling for economic survival and suffering from competition with analogous movements. These circumstances took a heavy toll on the morale of the movement and its membership base. Yet many of his followers still saw Garvey as a hero. As U N I A activist Samuel Haynes wrote in the 14 January 1928 issue of the Negro World, "Garvey, living or dead, is our patron saint, our supreme leader and counsellor, and neither the cannon of hate nor the whip of prejudice can swerve us from our allegiance to him and the great ideal of African nationalism." The documents, speeches, correspondence, and editorials included in the present volume illustrate the ways Garvey and U N I A members responded to the rapidly changing socioeconomic circumstances that occurred following his

xxxvii

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

departure from America and how they negotiated the many internal vicissitudes that were to emerge out of their changing relationship. *

*

*

The enthusiastic crowds that greeted Garvey upon his arrival in his Jamaican homeland on 10 December 1927 represented a new facet in the complex development of the U N I A . During the previous decade the radical New Negro movement had risen explosively within the racially militant context of black Harlem, with Garvey and the U N I A emerging as internationally recognized symbols of the new black consciousness. The end of that New Negro era coincided with the waning of Garvey's influence in America—with the disintegration of his various U N I A enterprises, the ensuing factionalization and fratricidal struggles among his followers, and the long sought success on the part of federal and local officials to find grounds to deport him. After years of struggling to maintain an agenda focused on Pan-African unity and black economic independence and dealing with problems of internal dissent and external repression, Garvey encountered new difficulties in Jamaica, where he came face-to-face with the concrete challenge of building a national movement against colonial rule. Garvey's itinerary upon his return to Jamaica reflected his reaction to freedom after almost three years of enforced silence. He addressed many large welcoming crowds in Kingston in late 1927 and almost immediately undertook a speaking tour of the rural parishes of the island. In January 1928, he set out on a six-week speaking tour of Central America but soon encountered familiar limitations. He had to alter his plans when denied admission into Costa Rica and was hampered by various other obstructions designed by American consular and Central American officials who considered him a threat to the security of colonial administrations. Garvey's speeches throughout the late 1920s are evidence of the renewed dynamism he felt emerging from a period of involuntary activity. They reflect strong religious and metaphysical beliefs, revealing him to be even more of a proponent of optimistic New Thought philosophy than he had been in the past. They also show a level of political conservatism that was perhaps born of his previous experiences with political repression. Closely monitored by journalists and colonial police, he urged Jamaicans in his speeches to be peaceful and law-abiding in return for guarantees of protection by the English crown. In Garvey's words, Jamaicans should act as "useful citizens of the Empire and as British subjects" (4. April 1928). The observance of England's constitutional primacy was explicitly recognized at U N I A public meetings where the English national anthem was sung before the rendering of the UNIA's own Universal Ethiopian anthem. Garvey displayed his claims to full citizenship and privileges by purchasing a stately home that he called "Somali Court." The location of the home was socially symbolic; it was situated on Lady Musgrave Road, close to King's House, the English governor's official

xxxviii

INTRODUCTION

residence, in an elite area of suburban St. Andrew that was the preserve of the white upper class. It is also significant that Garvey charged an admission fee for his public appearances, except for the few occasions when he spoke at Kingston's Liberty Hall. His audiences consisted of a nonrepresentative number of members of the professional middle class, artisans, and self-employed working class people. These paying, eminently respectable, audiences helped underscore Garvey's message of citizenship, cooperation, and reward. The themes of Garvey's speeches—like those of his Negro World editorials, written in the period immediately following his deportation—thus show nuances and changes in his racial and political thought. Once back in Jamaica, Garvey began to see merit in the American practice of defining all persons with any African heritage as black. While in America he had virulently opposed the sociopolitical mandates of the "colored" or mulatto group; in Jamaica, he sought to affiliate himself with the more privileged, racially-mixed, sector of society. He promoted plans of interest to middle class people of color, including the ideas of establishing black-owned and operated department stores and the development of a scholarship fund for students of African descent. In addition to addressing himself to Jamaican concerns, Garvey became immediately involved with U N I A business in the United States and abroad. After he returned from his extensive speaking tour, he called E. B. Knox, his personal representative in the United States, to come to Kingston to discuss U N I A affairs. Soon after Knox's visit, he left Henrietta Vinton Davis in charge of U N I A operations in Kingston and sailed for England with his wife, Amy Jacques Garvey, for a six-month stay. Knox soon joined the couple and a temporary headquarters was established in West Kensington, London. Garvey rented Royal Albert Hall and delivered an address on the national rights of Africans and of peoples of the African diaspora. From England, he traveled to France, Belgium, and Germany. Returning briefly to England, he then traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, where he presented a renewal of the UNIA's 1922 petition to the League of Nations. He concluded his tour with speeches in Paris before coming back to London. In the autumn, Garvey left England for Canada, where he intended to tour local divisions and meet with U N I A officials to plan an international convention to be held in Canada in the following year. Soon after his arrival in Montreal, he was apprehended by Canadian immigration officials, who were responding to the fears of American diplomats who believed Garvey might use his proximity to the United States to urge his American followers to vote for the Democratic presidential challenger, Governor Alfred Smith of New York, in the upcoming presidential election. Garvey was questioned and released by the immigration authorities, who limited his stay to one week and stipulated that he make no public speeches. These restrictions induced Garvey to alter his plan to hold the next U N I A convention in Canada. Garvey returned to Jamaica in December 1928, filled with new plans for redirection of the U N I A and for his own local possibilities. He issued a call

xxxix

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

for the next UNIA convention to be held in Jamaica and organized ceremonies to celebrate the opening of a new social and cultural enterprise based at Edelweiss Park, an elegant property situated at 67 Slipe Road, St. Andrew, that he had purchased to serve as the new international UNIA headquarters, as business offices of the local UNIA, and as the venue for mass entertainments, political convocations, and secular services. The park became a kind of local chautauqua, a novel phenomenon for Jamaicans. Garvey also announced plans to begin a new daily newspaper that he hoped would rival the Daily Gleaner, an established paper that represented the interests of the business and planter classes. Called the Blackman, Garvey's newspaper commenced publication in March 1929. Garvey established the Blackman Printing and Publishing Company, which produced the paper in addition to handling professional printing jobs, at 5-7 Peters Lane, Kingston, in April. After months of promotion and preparation, the Sixth Annual UNIA Convention opened at Edelweiss Park in August 1929. A sizeable number of delegates from the United States were in attendance—proof that Garvey's influence remained strong among members of American divisions. A massive procession through the streets of Kingston attracted thousands of spectators; it was said to be the largest such display since the exhibition marking the celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The spectacle of that opening parade, with Assistant International Organizer M. L. T. De Mena in the lead on a white charger with drawn sword, and the pageantry of the UNIA court reception that followed, provided Jamaicans with the kinds of exciting experiences most had previously only read about in newspaper accounts of former convention proceedings in Harlem. Once convention sessions were under way, the mood shifted from exhilaration to contention, as Garvey used the opportunity to call to account colleagues who were in office during the period of his incarceration, many of whom had remained loyal leaders of the UNIA in the United States. UNLA Parent Body officer Fred A. Toote was singled out for particular criticism for his handling of UNIA finances from the headquarters in New York. Despite his attempts to justify his leadership decisions and explain the legal demands placed upon the organization by court orders, he was vilified by Garvey and effectively expelled from the proceedings. Garvey's anger at the UNIA leaders who had managed organizational affairs from New York during his imprisonment turned out to be a precursor to his decision, announced at the end of the convention, to reorganize the association under the new name of the "UNIA, August 1929, of the World." Garvey announced that this new organization would be based with him and directed from his headquarters at Edelweiss Park; and that it would replace the administrative authority of what remained of the old parent body, or UNIA, Inc., in New York. Garvey did not intend to sever all ties with the members of the American divisions; rather, he wished to bring them under his direct political control. In thus trying to consolidate his power in Jamaica, he irrevocably split the movement, forcing a major realignment among American id

INTRODUCTION

divisions, who either had to remain affiliated with the New York-based parent body, or choose to show their loyalty to Garvey by applying for new division charters from his unincorporated U N I A , August 1929, of the World. The dissension between the U.S.- and Jamaica-based wings of the movement was magnified by violent faction fights that erupted in various parts of the United States in 1928-1929. For example, the Tiger division, directed in paramilitary style by the street leader St. William Wellington Grant, clashed with the more staid Garvey Club in New York in June 1929. Violence also characterized the struggle between Garvey loyalists and the followers of Laura Adorkor Kofey in Florida. A former U N I A organizer and self-styled African prophetess, the charismatic Kofey was denounced by Garvey when she began to win her own following. She responded by forming her own organization, which soon rivaled, possibly even exceeded, the popularity of the local Miami U N I A division. The conflict between her followers and Garvey's reached its zenith when Kofey was assassinated during a meeting of her organization in March 1928. The angry crowd that had witnessed the killing beat to death a Garvey loyalist who they believed had been her assailant. T w o more Garveyites, one a member of the local African Legion, were arrested for the crime but later were released for lack of evidence. N o one was ever prosecuted for the murder but it was widely rumored to have been an ordered execution. Garvey's decision to reorganize the movement was not only an attempt to gain greater personal control over unruly U N I A affairs; it was also a legal expedient forced upon him by the need to safeguard assets of the local Jamaican U N I A from the reach of American creditors, especially G. O. Marke. Marke was a former U N I A deputy potentate who, along with several other disgruntled former officers, successfully sued the U N I A , Inc., for nonpayment of salary. Faced with the bankruptcy of the American organization, which had lost most of its properties and closed all of its businesses except the Nejjro World, Marke turned to the Jamaican courts in the summer of 1929 to try to collect the judgment awarded him in America. His suit was upheld by the Jamaica Supreme Court, which ordered that U N I A property at the Kingston Liberty Hall and at Edelweiss Park be seized as partial satisfaction of the damages due him. The seizures were made during the 1929 U N I A convention, further disrupting what were already tumultuous proceedings. The court order was later revoked but much harm had already been done to the assets and reputation of the U N I A in Jamaica. In addition to reorganizing the movement, Garvey used the 1929 convention to formally launch a new political party, the People's Political party, or PPP. Conceived of after his return from Europe and Canada in late 1928, the PPP was formed to promote slates of reform candidates for local Jamaican political offices. The 1929 U N I A convention provided Garvey with the audiences and media attention to launch his own PPP campaign for the Jamaica Legislative Council elections of 1930. In a public speech given soon after the convention's close, he unveiled the political platform of the PPP, which called for public health measures, public housing, fair xli

T H E M A R C U S G A R V E Y AND U N I A P A P E R S

labor practices, educational opportunities, and legal reforms. In the course of this 9 September 1929 speech, fresh from his entanglements with the Marke case, Garvey criticized the Jamaican legal system and accused its justices of corruption. As a result, he was almost immediately charged with contempt of court by the Jamaica Supreme Court. In a trial that took place at the end of September 1929, he was required to apologize for his statements before the court; despite this recantation, he was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for three months and fined one-hundred pounds—a sentence that was generally considered excessive. Garvey was incarcerated in St. Catherine District Prison. Even though he was unable to campaign for office, he received support from local voters in the October 1929 city elections and was elected to the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), the local municipal council. Some KSAC members responded to his election by presenting a resolution declaring Garvey's seat vacant, since he was unable to attend council meetings while he was serving his term in jail. The effort was not successful, and when Garvey was released in December 1929, he served briefly as councilor before Acting Governor A. S. Jelf disbanded the municipal council on corruption charges in early 1930. Undaunted by his repeated conflicts with the justice system and with colonial officials, Garvey proceeded with his candidacy in the general election for the Jamaica Legislative Council. The council was an advisory body under crown colony rule whose members were chosen in ballots cast by an elite electorate who satisfied the property restrictions placed upon the franchise. Garvey's opponent from the St. Andrew district was George SeymourSeymour, an established white politician and wealthy landowner. SeymourSeymour won the election by a wide margin when the votes were tallied in January 1930. Garvey's unsuccessful political campaign for the legislative council brought him into conflict with the courts once again. Two weeks before the legislative election, Garvey published an editorial in the Blackmail entitled 'The Vagabonds Again." The editorial attacked the members of the K S A C that had voted to deny Garvey his seat on the municipal council because of his imprisonment. The Kingston resident magistrate found Garvey guilty of seditious libel for his role in the publication of the editorial and sentenced him to six months imprisonment. Although the conviction was overturned on appeal in March 1930, this latest encounter with the courts, combined with his loss in the election, marked a turning point in Garvey's outlook. He began to abandon his focus on challenging the colonial monopoly on political power through the electoral process, and started to concentrate instead on serving as a kind of diplomatic mediator between the social classes. In June 1930 he organized PPP supporters into the Workers and Labourers Association. He arranged for a delegation from the group to meet with the governor and other Britishappointed officials to discuss conditions faced by working-class people on the island and to lobby for the appointment of a royal commission of enquiry to examine the issue of poverty.

xlii

INTRODUCTION

During the early 1930s, Garvey continued to develop his personal business enterprises, and he and Amy Jacques Garvey began a family. Their first son, Marcus Garvey, Jr., was born in September 1930; their second, Julius Winston Garvey, was born three years later. The gulf between Garvey and U N I A leaders in America that had been codified at the 1929 U N I A convention continued to grow in the 1930s. After his expulsion from the convention in Jamaica, Fred A. Toote returned to New York, where he was elected president general of the competing U N I A , Inc. Garvey also became estranged from other U N I A officials whom he had once counted among his most trusted aides, including J. A. Craigen, E. B. Knox, J. J. Peters, and William Ware. Garvey denounced Knox and stripped him of all authority in June 1930, after Knox tried to convene a special meeting of local U N I A division presidents in Chicago. Garvey had not authorized the meeting and saw Knox's action as a challenge to his authority. He dismissed Knox and appointed M. L. T. De Mena to act in Knox's place as Garvey's personal representative in the American field. Further strife within the U N I A occurred when William Ware broke ranks with Garvey in 1931—1932. Ware was the head of Cincinnati U N I A Division No. 146, a division affiliated with the U N I A , Inc. Claiming to represent that original incorporated body, Ware challenged Garvey's right to use the U N I A name through the Ohio courts. He also wrote a series of letters to U.S. Department of State and postal officials charging Garvey with fraud in his operation of Edelweiss Park and in the fundraising solicitations he distributed through the American mails. Prompted by evidence presented by Ware, including lottery tickets that Garvey had attempted to sell through the mail, U.S. postal officials began an investigation. Earlier, in February 1929, U.S. postal inspectors had put an end to what Garvey called "a world census of the entire Negro race," a scheme that was actually a means of soliciting contributions. The outcome of the 1932 investigation was more serious than the earlier one: between June 1932 and April 1934, U.S. postal authorities maintained a fraud order barring the transmission of postal money orders and all correspondence from America to Garvey and the U N I A in Jamaica. Ware continued to lobby against Garvey even after this postal ban was imposed. When M. L. T. De Mena traveled to the United States in JulyAugust 1932 in order to raise funds on Garvey's behalf, Ware sought to have her activities stopped. Meanwhile, U. S. Department of State authorities worked cooperatively with British colonial officials who were clandestinely monitoring Garvey's affairs. In October 1931 Garvey paid a second visit to the League of Nations in Geneva and presented league officials with proposals regarding the U N I A petition that he had renewed during his trip in 1928. During his absence from Kingston he was elected a councillor of the reestablished K S A C . Upon his return to Jamaica in November, however, he did not devote himself to political affairs and held very few public meetings. He concentrated his energies on his newspaper and on private commerce. He began to sell shares in the

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Edelweiss Park Amusement Company and became involved in the promotion of concerts and vaudeville shows that featured local Jamaican artists and with the production of various other entertainments. He also began the operation of a real estate and commission agency under the name of Marcus Garvey and Company. Meanwhile, the New York-based UNIA, Inc., held a convention independent of Garvey's influence. With the worldwide economic depression approaching crisis stages, the resolutions passed by the 1932 convention delegates focused exclusively on domestic concerns rather than on a Pan-African program. Delegates reported actions taken by local divisions to respond to the conditions of stark need around them. In New York City, for example, the Tiger division reported feeding 1,563 unemployed persons during the last week of February 1931. In Gary, Indiana, some seventy-five people were fed daily at Liberty Hall; groceries were also delivered to the homes of those persons unable to attend the daily Liberty Hall meal. Rural UNIA divisions began community gardens. From the fall of 1931 onward, Garvey ceased to write any further articles for the Negro World in New York. In July 1932 he disclaimed any further connection with the paper. During the same period he was forced for financial reasons to suspend publication of the Blackman, which had become a weekly rather than a daily. In the summer of 1932 he began an evening newspaper, the New Jamaican, which he used to promote Jamaica as a place "second to none in the world," and argued that "there is no reason why any country whether it is subject to another or not cannot be self-sustaining in itself' (New Jamaican, 16 July 1932). This optimism regarding Jamaica and her prospects was matched by his ever-present interest in New Thought metaphysics, which he made the principal theme of his weekly inspirational talks at Edelweiss Park. In those sermons he advocated the application of New Thought gospel beyond personal habits and orientations to the reform of society as a whole. At the same time that Garvey was preaching optimism and selfdetermination, however, his own personal fortunes were rapidly being depleted. Publication of the New Jamaican ceased abruptly in September 1933, when the landlord seized the printing plant used to produce it due to Garvey's nonpayment of rent. Obliged to mortgage his home to raise money for his activities, he appealed to former supporters for financial help. In spite of these straitened financial circumstances, he began publishing a third newspaper in December 1933, two months after suspension of the New Jamaican. The new monthly magazine, intially called the Blackman, was eventually renamed the Black Man: A Monthly Magazine of Negro Thought and Opinion. The new publication was aimed at an international audience rather than a local Jamaican readership. The magazine represented Garvey's attempt to reclaim his leadership after three years of virtual abstention from UNIA affairs. It may also have been an effort to avoid financial collapse by creating a publication that could be distributed in the United States and other areas beyond Jamaica where the UNIA remained active. xliv

INTRODUCTION

The generally conservative editorial stance of the Black Man was in keeping with these twin objectives of political reacceptance and financial regeneration. This was nowhere better demonstrated than in Garvey's announcement calling for patriotic support for American and European governments "to which Negroes owe allegiance," especially in light of "the progress the Negroes have made under the U.S. Government" (January 1934). This editorial stance was part of Garvey's larger campaign to gain readmission to the United States, a cause that he felt might be more successful than in the past because of the shift from Republican to Democratic party presidential administrations. Garvey's consistent support of Franklin D. Roosevelt, both as a Democrat and statesman, was one of the more salient editorial features of the Black Man, from its beginning in 1934 through its final issue in 1939. Meanwhile, Garvey loyalists in the United States, especially Benjamin Jones of the Philadelphia UNIA division, worked hard to help Garvey win readmittance. They lobbied administration officials to grant a pardon to Garvey, or, at the very least, to permit him to visit the United States in order to conduct UNIA business there. Garvey's renewed interest in UNIA affairs and in his prospects as an international spokesman and leader were also manifested in his call for the meeting of the UNIA's seventh international convention, the first held by his UNIA, August 1929, of the World since its inception. The convention was held at Edelweiss Park in August 1934. It proved to be the last major event that Garvey would hold in Jamaica. Billed as a double program, namely, "a Celebration of the Centenary of the Emancipation of the Negroes of the Western Hemisphere, in conjunction with a Convention to make the progress the race has made within said period of time," the 1934 UNIA convention was a poorly attended affair. During the same time, the rival wing of the movement had gathered some strength in the United States. Soon after Garvey's UNIA, August 1929, of the World held its meeting, the New York UNIA, Inc., elected its own slate of officers, including former Garvey stalwart Henrietta Vinton Davis as president. Davis had been slighted by Garvey at the 1929 UNIA convention, and although she served as an officer with his Jamicabased organization until 1932, she had also maintained ties to UNIA leaders in America. Her election represented her permanent rejection of Garvey's claims to sole administrative authority. While the UNIA, Inc., continued to maintain its independence from the Jamaica-based organization, the New York Garvey Club remained loyal to Garvey, as did A. L. King's New York UNIA division. As the economic depression worsened, Garvey and the UNIA were faced with the advent of rival movements that arose to compete directly for the support of Garveyites. One of the highlights of the 1934 convention was the preoccupation with the state of religion among blacks, or, as it was termed by Garvey, "the prevailing religious fanaticism among certain classes of Negroes" (Daily Gleaner, 14 August 1934). The convention discussion and resolution on religion disclosed, however, that the principal object of the delegates' concern was the sweeping growth of the Father Divine movement in the United States. xlv

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The Garveyites assembled in Jamaica were distressed at the continuing inroads that Father Divine was making and his ability to attract hitherto loyal UNIA members into the ranks of his fast growing Peace Mission movement. Perhaps the most striking example was that of M. L. T. De Mena. Following cessation of publication of the Negro World in October 1933, De Mena, Garvey's official representative in the United States, became a supporter of Father Divine and began publishing a newspaper for the Peace Mission movement. As a result, Garvey gave her former UNIA tide and position to S. A. Haynes, who received credentials from Garvey to operate as Garvey's personal representative in America in January 1934. Depression-era black nationalist religous sects also made successful appeals to UNIA members—some by claiming Garvey as a precursor or early prophet. The black Hebrews and Moorish Americans drew a sizeable part of their membership from among former Garveyites. Garvey distanced himself from these new black nationalist religious faiths and rejected the terms they used to refer to people of the African diaspora—Moors, Ethiopians, Hamites, black Jews, Moslems, etc.—making it known that he would not depart from Negro as the preferred usage when referring to blacks. By the summer of 1932, the UNIA's ranks were also penetrated by proJapanese elements working under the direction of the Pacific Movement of the Eastern World and its principal agent, the Filipino Policarpio Manansala, known in the United States as Ashima Takis. Takis offered Garveyites the message that Japan was the champion of the darker races. His views gained a considerable following among UNIA members. The 1930s was also the period when the Communist party reached its peak of influence in Harlem. Some disillusioned Garveyites joined the party or were active in various Popular Front organizations, such as the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. They worked in coalition with the party in protest over the Scottsboro Boys case and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, two events that drew international attention to issues of racial justice. Garvey denounced these coalitions, urging UNIA members to keep a clear separation between themselves and Communists. He chose instead to admire the political strength and nationalist resurgency he saw manifested in the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party to power in Germany and the consequent ascendancy of fascism in Europe. Garvey's isolation from the major currents of African-American opinion was heightened by his decision to move to London in early 1935. The move had personal as well as political consequences. He left Jamaica for England in March 1935, having lost his printing machinery, the Edelweiss Park property, and his family home to creditors. Thwarted politically and financially bankrupt, Garvey's status as he departed from his homeland ironically echoed statements he had made a few years earlier in the New Jamaican (16 July 1932). 'The man who leaves home is really an outcast" Garvey had written, "He has lost hope, he has lost character, he has lost self-reliance, he has lost everything that would tend to make him a man." Amy Jacques Garvey remained behind xlvi

INTRODUCTION

in Jamaica with their two sons while Garvey established a new beginning in England. He opened an office in London, recommenced publication of the Black Man, announced plans to run for political office, and appeared regularly as a speaker in Hyde Park. His family joined him in 1957 but their time in London was shortlived. Marital difficulties and a crippling illness suffered by Marcus Garvey, Jr., induced Amy Jacques Garvey to return to Jamaica with the two children in August 1938. Away presiding over a UNLA convention in Canada at the time, Garvey discovered their departure only upon his return. Not on speaking terms with his wife, he continued to correspond with his sons until his death in 1940, but never saw any of his family members again. His letters to his children are terse and perfunctory, but they also display a poignancy of feeling that was rare for the undemonstrative Garvey to reveal. In addition, they continually emphasized the value of education that he believed was an important step toward equality and uplift. Politically, the breach between Garvey and his wife represented the end of the last major working relationship that he had been able to maintain from the days o f the early U N I A . Cut off geographically and emotionally from old supporters, Garvey became increasingly conservative in his political opinions, taking stances that were incongruent with the main currents of political action central to other members of the Pan-African community. In a time when black people looked to Paul Robeson as a cultural hero and leader in international efforts to win recognition for black rights, Garvey vilified the performer as an accommodationist. His disinterest in the Scottsboro case and skepticism over African-American support for the Ethiopian cause are further indications of his isolation. Not only did he take unpopular stands on these central issues, he chose to support causes that had little meaning to a majority of blacks. He urged the U N I A to back the 1938 repatriation legislation sponsored in Congress by Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, who was infamous as a white racist. He campaigned in support of Edward VIII's rights to the crown during the process of his forced abdication. And, when labor rebellions reached their peak in Jamaica in 1937-1938, Garvey was far from the scene. By contrast, his former follower, St. William Wellington Grant, emerged as a major figure in the protests. While Garvey saw the labor demonstrations in narrow economic terms, Grant perceived them as opportunties for significant political change and was instrumental in the formation of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and in Norman Manley's People's National Party—both important steps toward Jamaica's evental independence from colonial rule. Most significantly, Garvey lost credibility in the eyes o f a large number of followers when he criticized Haile Selassie's performance during the ItaloEthiopian war and its aftermath. Garvey attacked the Ethiopian emperor at a time when he had become an icon of black resistance, when the Ethiopian cause was galvanizing black communities throughout the West to an unprecedented level of international response, and when Rastafarianism was emerging as a key social movement in Garvey's homeland. Garvey was initally supportive of

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Haile Selassie, praising him when he was first crowned emperor in November 1950 and during the early months of the Italian invasion in 1935. His view changed with the collapse of the Ethiopian army and the emperor's decision to flee his country in order to continue the struggle from exile. Garvey interpreted the decision to flee as an act of cowardice. Blaming Haile Selassie for a weak defense and a naive faith in intervention by the League of Nations, Garvey was further incensed when the Ethiopian leader spurned a delegation of black PanAfricanists (including Garvey) who had gathered to greet him upon his arrival in exile in England in 1936. Garvey lost prestige among former followers even on issues that had once been primary planks in the UNIA program. A case in point is the rivalry the UNIA faced from former Garveyite Mittie Maud Lena Gordon's successful Peace Movement of Ethiopia (PME). In the late 1 9 3 0 s , Gordon's PME seized the leadership from the largely inactive UNIA on the question of African repatriation. Few UNIA members responded to Garvey's call for volunteers to work on behalf of Senator Bilbo's Greater Liberia bill, but PME members collected over a million signatures on petitions in support of the bill and sent several hundred supporters to Washington, D. C., to demonstrate for its introduction. While new groups championed the UNIA's old platform, Garvey was also faced with UNIA members who departed from his prescribed agendas. In the late 1 9 3 0 s he reprimanded Capt. A. L. King, whose New York UNIA division (and later, New York Central UNIA division) cooperated with a range of Harlem political organizations and leaders—from the ministers of local churches to organizers of labor unions and the Communist party— in support of consumer boycotts, Ethiopian aid, and the Scottsboro cause. King's willingness to work with members of the Left brought Garvey's ire; Garvey responded by refusing to recognize King's division's contributions to the UNIA, while divisions whose activities were less politically diverse continued to win praise. Despite this evidence of personal and political decline during Garvey's years in London, the last half of the 1 9 3 0 s were also a time of continued positive initiative. Garvey appeared frequently at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, and, until he was disabled by illness, those who heard him reported that he spoke with the same kind of electrifying force that had moved audiences throughout the United States and the Caribbean earlier in his career. The Black Man, as a monthly journal of opinion, political commentary, and UNIA news, surpassed the Negro World as an in-depth vehicle for Garvey's views. Garvey presided over UNIA regional conferences and conventions in Toronto, Canada, in 1936, 1937, and 1938. At the 1937 meeting he inaugurated his School of African Philosophy, lecturing to selected students after the convention adjourned, and later offering transcripts as a correspondence course through his London office. Filled with Garvey's philosophy of success and prosperity, the series of lessons were designed to prepare UNIA officials and organizers for leadership positions. Garvey assigned the nine graduates of the initial course in 1937

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to commissions over specific regions in the United States and Canada. After teaching the sessions, he made an extensive speaking tour of the Caribbean before returning to London. These activities were accomplished despite Garvey's debilitating physical condition. The chronic bronchitis and asthma that had plagued him for years were worsened by the dampness of the English climate, straining his heart and lungs. Garvey's final physical decline in 1939-1940 was framed by the cataclysmic drama of world affairs. European politics were at a crisis point when Garvey's ill- health became critical. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, in September 1939, Garvey's former wife, Amy Ashwood Garvey, who was operating a nightclub in London and active in Pan-African circles there, reported seeing a much-diminished Garvey speaking in Hyde Park: Drooping shoulders were straightened and he mounted the platform in the manner of the old Liberty Hall days. He tried hard to recapture the power of those days, but alas it was too late. The old fire had gone. I could not hold back my tears, for I realized that the man I had helped to mould and whose vision I had shared was passing. (Amy Ashwood Garvey, "Portrait of a Liberator" [New York, unpub. ms.]; see also Lionel Yard, Biography ofAmy Ashwood Garvey, 1897-1969 [New York: Association for the Study of AfroAmerican Life and History, 1989]) A few months later, in January 19+0, Garvey suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that left him deprived of speech and partially paralyzed on one side of his body. His secretary, Daisy Whyte, and other staff members cared for him in his convalescence. His condition seemed to be improving by May, when an erroneous news report, apparently released by the London correspondent of the Chicago Defender, George Padmore, appeared in several black newspapers in the United States and the Caribbean, incorrectly announcing Garvey's death. According to Whyte, Garvey became very upset upon reading the international press's subsequent obituaries. While American U N I A divisions were busy discounting the false rumor of their leader's death, Garvey suffered either a second cerebral hemorrhage or a cardiac arrest, then lapsed into a coma from which he never recovered. He died on 10 June 19+0, the day Italy declared war on France and Great Britain and four days before the fall of Paris to the German army. The loyal membership of the U N I A eulogized Garvey with formal memorial services and processions in Brooklyn, Kingston, and New York City as well as in smaller memorials sponsored by local divisions and Garvey clubs. In August 1940, regional leaders met in an emergency conference in New York to elect a new U N I A council that would lead the organization through an interim period until a new convention could be held and officers elected by division delegates. It was decided that James Stewart, a U N I A

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leader in Cleveland and a graduate of Garvey's School of African Philosophy, would succeed Garvey as president general of the UNIA. Charles James became assistant president general and Ethel Collins remained the organization's secretary general. In the Autumn of 1940 the headquarters of the UNIA Parent Body was shifted from New York to Cleveland, and in October 1940 the first issue of the New Negro World, the successor to the old Garveyite weekly, appeared out of the Cleveland office. The seriousness and confusion of world events, combined with the strange and contradictory nature of reportage about Garvey's final illness, caused many Garvey followers to doubt the reality of his death. The circumstances surrounding the disposition of the president general's body did little to make his death seem more concrete to those who admired him. War conditions prevented its shipment to Jamaica; consequently his body was placed in a catacomb at St. Mary's Catholic cemetery in London. After the end of the war legal disputes between his first and second wives, bureaucratic complications, and the political fears of British officials further delayed its relocation. As a result, the body was not returned to Jamaica until almost twenty-five years after Garvey's death. In the meantime, Garvey's reputation went underground. His memory and teaching were sustained after the war by the continued efforts of his widow, Amy Jacques Garvey, from her base in Jamaica. In the United States, the philosophy of Garvey provided essential inspiration for many black nationalist activists in Harlem and other black communities, many of whose leaders had once been active UNIA members. Among the postwar organizations to maintain the link with Garvey's teachings were the African Freedom Movement, African Nationalist Pioneer Movement, Black Jews, Buy Black Committee, Ethiopian World Federation, First African Corps, Garvey Club, Inc., International Committee in Defense of Africa, Liberation Committee for Africa, Michaux's Book Store, Muslim Brotherhood United States of America, Nation of Islam, and Muhammad's Mosque (Number 7, New York). While his political importance was rarely discussed by historians or public figures in the post-war years, his cultural influence burgeoned. Garvey became a major icon of black popular culture in the United States and in the Rastafarian movement of Jamaica; his name permeated reggae music as it became an international phenomenon. With the success of nationalist independence movements in the Caribbean and Africa and the growth of the militant black consciousness of the 1960s, Garvey was again lauded as a visionary of African freedom and a symbol of Pan-African unity and strength. This renaissance of political appreciation and restoration was made concrete in November 1964, when Garvey was declared Jamaica's first National Hero. His body was flown home from England, and he received a hero's burial, with official state ceremonies, processions, and reinternment in a permanent Marcus Garvey memorial in National Heroes Park.

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INTRODUCTION *

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This volume concludes the first series of The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers, chronicling the life of Garvey and the evolution of the UNIA in the United States. The succeeding volumes of the three-part edition will document the impact and spread of the Garvey movement in Africa and in the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. The volumes in these African and Caribbean series will further elucidate the network of relationships that provided the structure of Garveyism as an international grassroots phenomenon. They will also disclose the full scope of Garvey's influence on the interwar origins of African and Caribbean nationalism.

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EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES I. Arrangement of Documents Documents are presented in chronological order according to the dates of authorship of the original texts. Enclosures and attachments to documents, however, do not appear in strict chronological sequence but are printed with their original covering documents. Enclosures are set in italic type in the table of contents for identification. The publication dates of news reports, speeches, and periodical articles are given on the place and date lines within square brackets. In the case of news reports, speeches, and periodical articles containing the dates of original composition or delivery, such dates chronologically supersede the dates of publication and are printed within double square brackets on the place and date lines of the document. Bureau of Investigation reports that give both the dates of composition and the periods covered by the reports are arranged according to the dates of composition. Documents that lack dates and thus require editorial assignment of dates are placed in normal chronological sequence. When no day within a month appears on a document, the document is placed after the documents specifically dated on the latest date within that month. Documents that carry only the date of a year are placed according to the same principle. Documents that cover substantial periods, such as diaries, journals, and accounts, appear according to the dates of their earliest entries. When two or more documents possess the same date, they are arranged with regard to affinity with the subject of the document that immediately precedes them or that which immediately follows them.

II. Form of Presentation Each document is presented in the following manner: A. A caption introduces the document and is printed in a type size larger than the text. Letters between individuals are captioned with the names of

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the individuals and their titles, which are included only on first appearances. The original titles of published materials are retained with the documents; however, the headlines of some news reports are abridged or omitted as indicated in the descriptive source notes. B. The text of a document follows the caption. The copy text of letters or reports is taken from recipients' copies whenever possible, but in the absence of a recipient's copy, a file copy of the letter or report is used. If the file copy is not available, however, and a retained draft copy of the letter is found, the retained draft copy is used as the basic text. File copies are uniformly referred to as carbon copies in descriptive source notes. C. An unnumbered descriptive source note follows the body of each text. The descriptive source note describes the physical character of the document by means of appropriate abbreviations, such as T L S (typed letter signed). A complete table of these abbreviations may be found in the Descriptive Symbols section on page lxiv. Moreover, a repository symbol indicates the provenance of the original manuscript or, if it is rare, printed work. Printed sources are identified in the following manners: 1. A contemporary pamphlet is identified by its full title, place and date of publication, and the location of the copy used. 2. A contemporary essay, letter, or other kind of statement that appeared originally in a contemporary publication is preceded by the words "Printed in . . . ," followed by the title, date, and, in the case of essays, inclusive page numbers of the source of publication. 3. A contemporary printed source reprinted at a later date, the original publication of which has not been found, is identified with the words "Reprinted from . . . ," followed by the identification of the work from which the text has been reproduced. The same applies to any originally unpublished manuscript printed at a later date. Information on the special character or provenance of a document is also explained in the descriptive source note, as is any editorial manipulation of a document, such as "text abridged" or "original headlines omitted." D. Numbered textual annotations that explicate the document follow the descriptive source note. The following principles of textual annotation apply: 1. Individuals, organizations, and historical events are identified upon their first mention in a volume, with additional information about them sometimes furnished upon their later appearance where such data provide maximum clarification. Individuals, organizations, and

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events that have been annotated in previous Garvey Papers volumes are not reannotated in subsequent volumes unless additional explication is necessary. Pseudonyms are identified, wherever possible, by textual annotations. 2. Reasons for the assignment of dates to documents or the correction of dates of documents are explained in instances where important historical information is involved. 3. Obscure allusions and literary or biblical references in the text are annotated whenever such references can be clarified or their source identified. Common or frequently cited biblical references are not annotated. 4. Printed word and manuscript materials consulted during the preparation of textual annotations appear in parentheses at the end of each annotation. All research correspondence conducted by Garvey Papers staff members is cited in annotations as if directed to or originating from the editor in chief. Frequently used reference works are cited in abbreviated forms, a complete table of which may be found on pages lxiv-lxv.

III. Transcription of Text Manuscripts and printed material have been transcribed from original texts and printed as documents according to the following principles and procedures: A. Manuscript Material 1. The place and date of composition are placed at the head of the document, regardless of their location in the original. If the place or date of a letter (or both) does not appear in the original text, the information is supplied and printed within square brackets. Conjectural places and dates are italicized within square brackets. Likewise, if either the place or date is incomplete, the necessary additional information is supplied within square brackets. Original superscript letters are brought down to the line of type, and terminal punctuation is deleted. 2. In Bureau of Investigation and other governmental reports that were submitted on printed forms, the place and date are abstracted and placed at the head of each document, while the name of the reporting agent or government official is placed at the end of the document on the signature line. 3. The formal salutation of letters is placed on the line below the place and date line, with the body of the text following the salutation. Iv

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4. The complimentary close of letters is set continuously with the text in run-in style, regardless of how it was written in the original. 5. The signature, which is set in capitals and small capitals, is placed at the right-hand margin on the line beneath the text or complimentary close, with titles, where they appear, set in uppercase and lowercase. Terminal punctuation is deleted. 6. When a file copy of a document bearing no signature is used to establish the text but the signatory is known, the signature is printed in roman type within square brackets. 7. The inside address, or address printed on letterhead or other official stationery, is printed immediately below the text if significant and not repetitive. 8. Endorsements, dockets, and other markings appearing on official correspondence, when intelligible, are reproduced in small type following the address, with appropriate identification. In the case of other types of documents, such as private correspondence, endorsements and dockets are printed only when they are significant. 9. Minutes, enclosures, and attachments are printed immediately following their covering documents. Whenever minutes, enclosures, or attachments are not printed, this fact is recorded and explained. Whenever a transmission letter originally accompanying an enclosure or attachment is not printed, the omission is noted and the transmission document identified and recorded in the descriptive source note. 10. Printed letterheads and other official stationery are not reproduced. They are sometimes briefly described in the descriptive source note, or, if they contain lengthy or detailed information, in an annotation. 11. In general, the spelling of all words, including proper names, is preserved as written in the manuscript and printed sources. Personal and place names and other words that are spelled erratically in the original text are regularized or corrected upon their first appearance in a document by printing the correct word in square brackets after the incorrect spelling. Mere "slips of the pen" or typographical errors are corrected within the word and printed within square brackets; however, typographical or spelling errors that contribute to the overall character of documents are retained. 12. Capitalization is retained as in the original. Words underlined once in a manuscript are printed in italics. Words that are underlined twice or spelled out in large letters or full capitals are printed in small capitals. 13. Punctuation, grammar, and syntax are retained as found in the original texts. Punctuation corrections that are essential to the accurate reading of the text are provided within square brackets. If, however, a punctuation

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mark appears in a document as a result of typographical error, it is corrected in square brackets or silently deleted. 14. All contractions and abbreviations in the text are retained. Abbreviations of titles or organizations used in document heads are identified in a list of abbreviations that appears on pages Ixv—Ixvi. Persons represented in the text by initials only have their full names spelled out in square brackets after each initial on their first appearance. 15. Superscript letters in the text are lowered and aligned on the line of print. 16. Omissions, mutilations, and illegible words or letters are rendered through the use of the following textual devices: a) Blank spaces in a manuscript are shown as [ ]. If the blank space is of significance or of substantial length, this fact is elaborated upon in a textual annotation. b) When a word or words in the original text must be omitted from the printed document because of mutilation, illegibility, or omission, the omission is shown by editorial comment, such as: [torn], [illegible], [remainder missing]. c) All attempts have been made conjecturally to supply missing items in the printed document, according to the following rules: (1) If the missing text can be confidently conjectured, the omission is supplied within square brackets and printed in roman type. Uncertainty of the conjecture, however, is indicated by the use of italics within square brackets. (2) If the conjectured text is highly uncertain, it is rendered in italics with a question mark within square brackets. 17. Additions and corrections made by the author in the original text are rendered as follows: a) Additions between the lines, or autograph insertions in a typewritten document, are brought onto the line of type and incorporated into the body of the text within diagonal lines / /. b) Marginal additions or corrections by the author are also incorporated into the printed document and identified by the words [in the margin] italicized in square brackets. Marginal notes made by someone other than the author are treated as endorsements and printed after the text of the document. c) Text deleted in the original, as in a draft, is restored and indicated by canceled type at the place where the deletion occurs in the original

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text.

If a lengthy deletion is illegible, this is indicated by the words

[deletion illegible].

B. Printed Material Contemporary printed material is treated in the same manner as original texts and is transcribed according to the same editorial principles as manuscript material. 1. In the case of originally published letters, the place and date of composition are uniformly printed on the place and date line of the document, regardless of where they appear in the original, and placed within double square brackets. Elements that have been editorially supplied are italicized. 2. Newspaper headlines and subheads are printed in capital and small capital letters. Headlines are punctuated as they are in the original; however, they are reproduced in the printed document in as few lines as possible. 3. Original small capitals are retained. 4. Signatures accompanying published letters are printed in capitals and small capitals. 5. Obvious typographical errors and errors of punctuation, such as the omission of a single parenthesis or quotation mark, are corrected and printed in roman type within square brackets. 6. In the case of a printed form with spaces to be filled in, spaces are indicated as in the original with the use of hairline rules. Handwritten or typewritten insertions are printed within diagonal lines / /.

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[[

/

]]

Double square brackets enclose the composition date of a published letter or news report, or the delivery date of a speech, if the publication date differs.

/

Incorporation into the text of an addition or correction made above or below the line by author, or of autograph insertions made in typewritten original.

[roman]

Conjectural reading for missing, mutilated, or illegible text. Editorial correction of typographical errors in original manuscript or printed document. Also used to indicate the publication date of a news report or periodical article, or to identify unnamed individuals alluded to in text.

[italic]

Assigned date and/or place of any document that is undated and/or does not indicate a specific place of origin. Editorial comment inserted in the text, such as [endorsement], [illegible], [remainder missing], [torn], [enclosure], [attachment], [in the margin]. Also used with a question mark for a conjectural reading that is highly uncertain.

canceled [• • • ]

Textual matter that is canceled in the original. Text editorially abridged.

lix

SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Repository Symbols The original locations of documents that appear in the text are described by symbols. The guide used for American repositories has been Symbols of American Libraries, eleventh edition (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976). Foreign repositories and collections have been assigned symbols that conform to the institutions' own usage. In some cases, however, it has been necessary to formulate acronyms. Acronyms have been created for private manuscript collections as well. Repositories ADSL

Archives of the Department of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Monrovia, Liberia

AFRC

Federal Archives and Records Center, East Point, Georgia

AMAE

Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Paris

ANSOM

Archives Nationales, Section d'Outre-Mer, Paris

ATT

Hollis Burke Frissell Library, Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama

DJ-FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

DLC

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

DNA

National Archives, Washington, D.C. R G 16

Records of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture

R G 28

Records of the Post Office Department

R G 32

Records of the United States Shipping Board

R G 38

Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Ixi

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

RG +i

Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation

RG 59

General Records of the Department of State

RG 60

General Records of the Department of Justice

RG 65

Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

RG 85

Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service

RG 165

Records of the War Department, General and Special Staffs; Records of the Office of the Chief of Staff

RG 185 RG 233

Records of the War Department, Panama Canal Records of the United States House of Representatives

RG 267

Records of the Supreme Court of the United States

JA

Jamaica Archives, Spanish Town, Jamaica

LNA

League of Nations Archives, Geneva

MBU

Boston University Library, Boston

MsHaU

University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg McC

McCain Library and Archives

MU

University of Massachusetts Library, Amherst

NcD

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

NCU

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

NFRC

Federal Record Center, Bayonne, New Jersey

NN-Sc

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York

NNC

Butler Library, Columbia University

NNDC

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

NNHR

New York Supreme Court, Hall of Records, New York Public Archives cf Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Public Record Official Office CO Colonial Office FO Foreign Office

PAC PRO

SAMAE

Service des Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Brussels

Ixii

SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

TNF

Fisk University, Nashville

WIRL

West India Reference Library, Kingston, Jamaica (now National Library o f Jamaica)

WNRC

Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland R G 204

WRHS

Records of the Pardon Attorney

Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, O h i o

Manuscript Collection Symbols AAG

Amy A s h w o o d Garvey Papers, Lionel Yard Collection, Brooklyn, N e w York

AAS

Arthur Schomburg Papers, NN-Sc

AJG

Amy Jacques Garvey Papers, TNF

AP

Atlanta Federal Penitentiary Records, AFRC

CC

Calvin Coolidge Papers, DLC

DAPC

Direction des Affaires Politiques et Commerciales, AMAE

ESC

Earnest Sevier Cox Papers, NcD

EW-C

Elinor Robinson White Papers, Cleveland

HLK

Hilbert L. Keys Collection, Wilmington, Delaware

JEB

John E. Bruce Papers, NN-Sc

JRRC

J. R. Ralph Casimir Papers, Roseau, Dominica

JS

James Stewart Papers, Monrovia, Liberia

MGMC

Marcus Garvey Memorial Collection, TNF

MH

Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Mason Hargrave Collection, Cleveland

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement o f Colored People Papers, DLC

NMB

Nicholas Murray Butler Papers, NNC

RRM

Robert R. Moton Papers, ATT

RWW

Robert Watson Winston Papers, NcU

SLOTFOM

Service de Liaison avec les Originaires des Territoires de la France d'Outre-Mer, ANSOM

TGB Theodore Bilbo Papers, MsHaU, McC

Ixiii

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

UCD

Universal Negro Improvement Association, Central Division Papers, NN-Sc

UNIA-C

Universal Negro Improvement Association, Cleveland Division Papers, WRHS

W

New York World Collection, NNC

WEBDB

W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, MU

WP

William Pickens Papers, NN-Sc

Descriptive Symbols The following symbols are used to describe the character of the original documents: ADS Autograph document signed ALS

Autograph letter signed

AMS

Autograph manuscript

ATG

Autograph telegram message

PD

Printed document

TD

Typed document

TDS

Typed document signed

TG

Telegram

TL

Typed letter

TLI

Typed letter initialed

TLS

Typed letter signed

TMS

Typed manuscript

TN

Typed note

TNI

Typed note initialed

TNS

Type note signed

TTG

Typed telegram

Published Works Cited BFQ

Bartletfs Familiar Quotations, fifteenth edition

Bm

Blackman, weekly, Kingston Ixiv

SYMBOLS AND A B B R E V I A T I O N S

EM

The Black Man, monthly, Kingston and London

CD

Chicago Defender

DAB

Dictionary ofAmerican Biography

DANB

Dictionary ofAmerican Negro Biography

DG

Daily Gleaner

DNB

Dictionary of National Biography

DW

Daily Worker

EA

Encyclopedia Americana

EB

Encyclopaedia Britannica

EWH

Encyclopedia of World History

G&G

Garvey, Amy Jacques. Garvey and Garveyism. Kingston, Jamaica: United Printers Ltd., 1963.

NCAB

National Cyclopedia ofAmerican Biography

7

NW

Negro World

NTAN

New York Amsterdam News

NTB

Negro Year Book

NYT

New York Times

P&O

Garvey, Amy Jacques, ed. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey 2 vols. 1923, 1925. Reprint (2 vols, in 1). New York: Atheneum, 1969.

PT

Plain Talk

WBD

Webster's Biographical Dictionary

WNGD

Webster's New Geographical Dictionary

WWA

Who's Who in America

WWCA

Who's Who of Colored America

WWCR

Who's Who of the Colored Race

WWJ

Who's Who in Jamaica

WWW

Who Was Who

WWW A

Who Was Who in America

Other Symbols and Abbreviations Included are abbreviations that are used generally throughout annotations of the text. Standard abbreviations, such as those for titles and scholastic degrees, Ixv

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

are omitted. Abbreviations that are specific to a single annotation appear in parentheses after the initial citation and are used thereafter in the rest of the annotation. ABB

African Blood Brotherhood

ACL

African Communities League

AFL

American Federation of Labor

AME

African Methodist Episcopal Church

BSL

Black Star Line, Incorporated

BWI

British West Indies

GPO

Government Printing Office

KSAC

Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (City Council)

MID

Military Intelligence Division

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NFC

Negro Factories Corporation

PPP

People's Political Party

RG

Record Group

UNIA

Universal Negro Improvement Association

bevi

CHRONOLOGY

November 1927-1987 1927 2 December

Garvey deported from United States; Orleans aboard S.S. Saramacca.

7 December

Garvey changes ships at Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone.

10 December

Garvey arrives in Kingston aboard S.S. Santa Marta; greeted with mass demonstration at harbor and escorted in parade to Liberty Hall.

11 December

E. B. Knox speaks as Garvey's personal representative at U N I A meeting in New York; gives account of Garvey's last days in United States.

11 December

Garvey addresses overflow crowd at Ward Theater, Kingston.

12 December

Garvey embarks on speaking tour of rural parishes of Jamaica.

15 December

Garvey purchases house on Lady Musgrave Road; calls it Somali Court.

17 December

Garvey informs Amy Jacques Garvey of his plans to sail to Central America.

18 December

Garvey recalls history of his career in United States in Ward Theater speech.

20 December

Garvey informs Secretary of State Frank Billings Kellogg of travel plans requiring him to pass through Panama Canal Zone on his trip to Central America.

26 December

Amy Jacques Garvey arrives in Kingston from New York.

ca. December

Noble Drew Ali, founder of Moorish Holy Temple

Ixvii

leaves

New

T H E M A R C U S G A R V E Y AND U N I A P A P E R S

of Science, proclaims Garvey as forerunner to his own coming as a prophet of Nation of Islam. 1928 ca. i January

UNIA organizer Laura Kofey establishes splinter organization called African Universal Church and Commercial League, with headquarters in Miami.

21 January

Negro World publishes Garvey's new list of UNIA high commissioners; it includes J. A. Craigen, Arthur Grey, Samuel Haynes, J. J. Peters, W. A. Wallace, and William Ware.

21 January

Garvey publishes notice in Negro World revoking charter of Jacksonville UNIA Division No. 286, punishing division for sponsoring Kofey.

3 February

Garvey publishes notice in Negro World denouncing Kofey as a fraud and advocating her arrest.

7-10 February

Knox presides over General Conference of Commissioners of the UNIA in the United States at Liberty Hall, Cincinnati.

11 February

Garvey expels leading members of Miami UNIA division from UNIA for ninety-nine years as punishment for their support of Kofey.

24 February

Supreme Court of British Honduras ruling in Isaiah Morter estate case is reversed on appeal; estate is granted to UNIA, Inc., of New York.

8 March

Kofey assassinated at pulpit during meeting in Miami; riot ensues; her alleged assailant, African Legion member Maxwell Cook, beaten to death by enraged audience.

8 March

Garvey loyalists Claude Green, president, Miami UNIA division, and James B. Nimmo, colonel, Miami African Legion, arrested for murder of Kofey.

20 March

Florida newspaper implicates Marcus Garvey in Kofey assassination.

21 March

Knox leaves New York to join Garvey in Jamaica.

24 March

Green and Nimmo indicted by grand jury for murder of Kofey.

7 April

J. A. Craigen answers charges by Florida newspaper, says Kofey not an African princess and Garvey not responsible for her death.

12 April

Kingston UNIA division holds farewell meeting for Ixviii

CHRONOLOGY

Knox, who is returning to New York, and Garvey, who is leaving for England. 14 April

Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, and Hazel Escridge sail for England from Kingston aboard the S.S. Green Briar.

29 April

Garvey and his entourage arrive in Liverpool and travel to London, where he establishes temporary European headquarters of UNIA at 57 Castletown Road, West Kensington.

12 May

Garvey summons Knox to join him in England.

2 June

T. Thomas Fortune, editor of Negro World, dies in Philadelphia.

6 June

Garvey delivers landmark speech on colonialism and rights of Africans at Royal Albert Hall, London.

19 June

Knox returns to New York from England.

2 July

Surveillance report on Garvey's speech at Parsons Green, England, filed with U.S. Department of State and Bureau of Investigation via U.S. Embassy in London.

12 July

Nimmo and Green acquitted on all charges in connection with the murder of Kofey.

ca. 20 July

Garvey travels to Paris.

ca. 22 July

Garvey visits Brussels.

ca. 3 August

Garvey visits Berlin; praises German efficiency.

11 August

Garvey returns to London.

ca. 17 August

Kofey's body, having lain in state at various funeral parlors in Florida for five months, buried in Duval cemetery, Jacksonville.

2 September

Garvey delivers speech at Century Theater, London.

3 September

Garvey mails symposium questionnaire to leading British citizens inquiring into their attitudes about race.

3 September

Garvey travels to Paris.

11 September

Negro World publishes Garvey editorial condemning work of Harlem Renaissance writers as "a damnable libel against the Negro."

11 September

Garvey travels to Geneva to present renewal of UNIA petition to League of Nations.

6 October

Garvey speaks at Club du Faubourg, Paris.

7 October

Ras Tafari becomes negus (king) of Ethiopia. Ixix

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

8 October

Garvey writes final Negro World editorial from London prior to his departure from Europe.

9 October

Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey leave England for Canada.

20 October

Garvey and UNIA endorse Democratic party presidential nominee Alfred Smith.

ca. 23 October

Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey arrive in Quebec.

ca. 28 October

Marcus and Amy Jacques Garvey travel to Montreal aboard S.S. Empress of Scotland.

1 November

Montreal Gazette reports arrest of Garvey by immigration officials; Garvey ordered not to speak publicly while in Canada and to leave country in one week.

2 November

Garvey travels to Toronto for meeting with UNIA officials to discuss future of organization; plans to hold international convention in Canada are relinquished and Kingston chosen as alternative site.

7 November

Garvey sails for Kingston.

7 November

British consul general, New York, informs Governor of Jamaica that Garvey has been deported from Canada and is returning to Jamaica.

8 November

Secretary of State Frank Billings Kellogg receives report of Garvey's activities in Canada.

10 November

Amy Ashwood Garvey sails from New York to Kingston in order to pursue legal suit against Garvey; claims Garvey never secured a legitimate divorce from her before marrying Amy Jacques Garvey.

15 November

Garvey joins Amy Jacques Garvey in Bermuda.

23 November

Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey arrive in Kingston.

5 December

Garvey announces that Kingston will be site of 1929 UNIA Convention.

10 December

Ceremonies held to celebrate opening of new UNIA headquarters at Edelweiss Park, 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads, St. Andrew.

15 December

Negro World announces Garvey's plan to publish a daily newspaper in Kingston to be called Blackman\ calls for funds to help support new enterprise.

December

Garvey launches People's Political party to promote reform candidates in Jamaican elections. hex

CHRONOLOGY

1929 15 January

Martin Luther King, Jr., born in Atlanta.

7 February

Garvcv outlines a Ten Year Plan to fund creation of a black empire in Africa; in mass mailing, asks donors to pledge an ongoing commitment to program over next decade in order to raise six million dollars.

8 February

U.S. Postal Service inspectors declare Garvey's Ten Year Plan constitutes fraudulent use of mails.

30 March

Garvey publishes first issue of daily newspaper, the Blackman.

April

Garvey purchases printing press in Kingston; establishes Blackman Printing and Publishing C o . office at 5-7 Peters Lane.

20 May

Garvey receives death threat from Jamaican group identifying itself as Ku Klux Klan; group claims execution requested by Jamaican Secret Society of Colored Men.

23 June

Riot breaks out between rival U N I A, Inc., and Garvey Club/New York Tiger Division members at Liberty Hall, New York; eight people hospitalized, fifteen arrested.

29 July

Garvey outlines agenda for Sixth Annual International Convention of Negro People of World (1929 U N I A Convention) in editorial letter.

1 August

1929 U N I A Convention opens at Edelweiss Park; U N I A estimates that fifteen thousand delegates attend; ceremonies begin with mass procession through streets of Kingston.

5 August

In convention speech, Garvey charges that race traitorship and overt dishonesty of U N I A leadership during his imprisonment led to bankruptcy of organization.

6 August

Garvey re-elected president general of unincorporated Jamaica-based wing of U N I A (soon to be known as U N I A , August 1929, of the World).

13 August

Marcus Garvey debates Communist party activist Otto Huiswood on subject "The Negro Problem Can Only Be Solved by International Labour Cooperation between White and Black Labour"; Huiswood argues affirmative, Garvey negative.

Ixxi

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

16 August

Fred A. Toote gives convention delegates account of his stewardship as acting president general during Garvey's incarceration.

August

Garvey announces creation of unincorporated U N I A and A C L , August 1929, of the World, to be headquartered under his leadership in Jamaica.

September

People's Political party formally organized in mass meeting at Edelweiss Park; Garvey issues 1929 party platform, including policies of land reform, prison and legal reform, labor rights, public health and housing, and educational opportunity measures.

26 September

Garvey found guilty of contempt of court stemming from campaign speech critical of Jamaican justice system; sentenced to three-month term in St. Catherine District Prison and a one-hundred pound fine.

12 October

Negro World announces closing of Liberty University.

17 October

Attorney General William De Witt Mitchell receives an anonymous letter requesting an investigation into U N I A purchase of Liberty University.

28 October

New York Stock Exchange collapses, signalling beginning of world economic depression.

October

Garvey elected municipal councillor of Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation while still in jail.

19 December

Garvey released from St. Catherine District Prison. 1930

29 January

President Gerardo Machado y Morales of Cuba signs decree preventing Garvey's entry into his country.

January

George Seymour-Seymour defeats Garvey in race for Jamaican Legislative Council.

12 February

Garvey re-elected to K A S C unopposed.

21 February

Kingston Resident Magistrate A. K. Agar convicts Garvey and T. A. Aikman, managing editor of Blackman, on charges of seditious libel stemming from editorial critical of K S AC members. Advertising manager John Coleman Beecher is acquitted.

8 March

League of Nations commission reports on domestic slavery in Liberia.

12 March

Gandhi begins civil disobedience campaign in India.

Ixxii

CHRONOLOGY

17 March

Jamaican Court of Appeals overturns convictions of Garvey and Aikman on seditious libel charges.

2 April

Empress Zauditu dies in Ethiopia; Ras Tafari becomes acting Emperor and takes title H aile Selassie.

April

Garvey issues order denying Knox access to Negro World office.

April

Negro World Publishing Co. incorporated in New York by Harold Saltus, Florence Bruce, and Leona Saddler; M . L. T. D e Mena becomes officer in charge of paper.

April

Blackman becomes a weekly.

19 May

South African white women are granted suffrage; black men and women remain disenfranchised.

24 May

Knox and Gladys Parker enter Negro World office to obtain copies of subscriber and membership lists; circulation manager Marcellus Strong confronts them; armed struggle ensues; Knox arrested on charges of assault and carrying an unregistered handgun.

May

International Organizer M . L. T. De Mena replaces Knox as first assistant president general and representative in charge of American field of U N I A .

7 June

Garvey creates a Workers' and Labourers' Association in Jamaica; appoints himself chairman.

28 June

Communist party activist Alfred Levy dies of injuries in Harlem Hospital after being wounded in street battle with Tiger division members and beaten by New York police.

31 July

Acting Governor A. S. Jelf of Jamaica files report on Garvey's activities in Jamaica with British military intelligence and colonial offices.

17 September

Marcus Garvey, Jr., born in Jamaica.

28 October

Daily Worker begins publishing scries of exposés of S.S. Goethals tour of Caribbean in 1925.

2 November

Ras Tafari coronated as Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia; Rastafarians in Jamaica hail new emperor as living god and see him as fulfillment of prophecy by Garvey. 1931

10 February

William Ware begins a series of letters to Criminal Division of Department of Justice and Department of Ixxiii

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

State charging Garvey with misuse of UNLA funds and thus of fraudulent use of U.S. Postal Service in soliciting said funds; copies of Ware's letters are sent to U.S. Post Office Department, American ambassador in London, and American consul in Kingston. February

Knox sentenced to eighteen months in jail for assault on Marcellus Strong.

February

Garvey suspends publication of Blackman.

13 March

American Consul Paul C. Squire reports from Kingston that Garvey is so financially embarrassed that his city water has been shut off and he is in danger of losing his printing equipment to creditors; also reports that Garvey is operating an auctioneering company out of Edelweiss Park.

25 March

Nine black youths, soon to be known as Scottsboro boys, seized by white mob and accused of raping two white women aboard a box car in Alabama.

9 April

Three-day trial of Scottsboro boys ends with eight defendants sentenced to death and one to life in prison; boys defended by reluctant court-appointed attorney who is given little time to prepare case; testimony of physician who examined alleged victims discounted by jury.

11 April

Garvey denounces U N I A leaders J. A. Craigen, William Ware, J. J. Peters, and Leonard Smith as "villains and rascals," blames his current financial woes on their handling of U N I A affairs during his imprisonment.

18 April

British military intelligence acknowledges receipt of report from Acting Governor A. S. Jelf of Jamaica regarding Garvey's plans to visit Europe.

19 April

Craigen and other Detroit division leaders issue circular critical of Garvey; challenge his claims that headquarters of U N I A coincide with his residence and Jamaica-based operations of U N I A , August 1929, of the World, rather than with leaders of U N I A , Inc., in New York.

25 April

International Labor Defense stages mass demonstration in Harlem to demand freedom for Scottsboro boys.

3 May

N A A C P enters Scottsboro case.

13 June

Acting Governor Jelf informs British military intelligence that Garvey will not be leaving for England and France until fall; also reports on movements of

Ixxiv

CHRONOLOGY

De Mena and Garvey's secretaries Hazel Escridge and Gladys Warren. 23 June

William Ware contacts Warden A. C. Aderhold of Atlanta Federal Penitentiary regarding money received by Garvey while he was incarcerated; warden informs Ware that he is not authorized to divulge information concerning accounts and refers him to Director of Bureau of Prisons.

11 July

Warden Aderhold issues register to Director of Bureau of Prisons that documents money Garvey received while a prisoner.

25 July

Director of Bureau of Prisons informs Ware that considerable amounts of money were received by Garvey; recommends that Ware take legal action to ascertain sums.

31 August

Henrietta Vinton Davis sworn in as secretary general of UNIA.

18 September

Japan attacks Manchuria.

22 October

Garvey travels to Europe; meets with representative of secretary general of League of Nations in Geneva regarding U N I A petition submitted in 1928.

17 November

Garvey returns to Jamaica from England. 1932

+ January

Gandhi arrested.

16 February

American consul in Jamaica informs Secretary of State Henry Stimson of "whereabouts and activities of Marcus Garvey."

27 May

Garvey comes under investigation by U.S. Post Office Department for conducting an illegal lottery through U.S. mails.

31 May

Postmaster General Walter F. Brown issues notice to all post offices dispatching mail to Jamaica; directs them to stamp mail addressed to Garvey or U N I A fraudulent and return to sender.

4 June

In Negro World notice, Garvey denies authorizing Japanese nationalist Ashima Takis of Pacific Movement of the Eastern World to organize a subsidiary organization in name of UNIA.

11 June

Last issue of Negro World with Marcus Garvey listed as managing editor printed in New York.

Ixxv

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

I July

American consul, Kingston, reports to Secretary of State Stimson that Garvey has created a new company called Marcus Garvey and Company, Auctioneers, Commission Agents, and Real Estate Agents, operating from j—7 Peters Lane, Kingston; also reports that Garvey remains a municipal councillor and operator of Edelweiss Amusement Company.

ca. 28 July

Communist party activist and author Nancy Cunard visits Garvey in Jamaica; Garvey praises her for thinking "sympathetically black."

30 July

Garvey disclaims any connection to Negro World and refuses to submit any further editorials to paper.

31 July

Negro World temporarily suspends publication.

July

Garvey begins publication of New Jamaican.

8 August

U N I A , Inc., convention held in New York; Lionel Francis elected president and Henrietta Vinton Davis first assistant president; convention endorses N A A C P and Communist party efforts on behalf of Scottsboro boys' legal defense and series of economic resolutions.

30 August

Members of Sufi Abdul Hamid's Oriental and Occidental Scientific Philosophical Society invade Tiger division offices on West 133rd Street, New York; wreck premises, and assault division members; attack is retaliation for division's failure to support Harlem boycott of businesses that refuse to employ blacks.

7 November

Scottsboro boys case reversed by U.S. Supreme Court; new trial ordered.

8 November

Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president of United States.

December

Mittie Maud Lena Gordon founds Peace Movement of Ethiopia in Chicago. 1933

30 January

Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany.

15 April

Publication of Negro World resumes with M. L. T. De Mena as officer in charge.

18 May

Garvey confronted with impending confiscation of his home and other personal property for failure to pay thousands of dollars in liabilities; appeals to acquaintances in United States for financial assistance. Ixxvi

CHRONOLOGY

May

Japanese brutality in China raises questions among black Americans over their attraction to Japanese nationalism.

i July

Garvey reappoints Knox as his personal representative in United States.

16 August

Julius Winston Garvey born in Jamaica.

ca. 15 September

Machinery at Garvey's printing plant seized for debts; Garvey suspends publication of evening New Jamaican.

19 September

23 September

14 October 17 October 12 November 4 December

Federal surveillance reports link pro-Japanese Pacific Movement of the Eastern World with U N I A activities in United States. Cyril Briggs criticizes petty bourgeois U N I A leadership; urges rank and file to join with white proletariat in struggle for liberation. Germany withdraws from League of Nations. Last extant issue of Negro World published in New York. Nazi party victorious in German election. Garvey launches a new monthly magazine, Black Man\ advises black people to avoid association with Communist causes.

5 December

American consul, Kingston, reports on Garvey's activities to Secretary of State Stimson; comments on antiCommunist stance of Garvey's new publication.

December

Garvey lambastes right-wing black journalist George Schuyler for his identification with whites.

December

International Commission of Enquiry into the Existence of Slavery and Forced Labour in the Republic of Liberia issues report to League of Nations calling for end to domestic slavery and military repression in Liberia. 1934

January

Garvey gives credentials to Samuel Haynes to act as one of his representatives in United States; cautions U N I A members to trust only officials that carry such documents of approval.

20 February

Garvey asks President Franklin D. Roosevelt to send delegates to next U N I A convention (to be held 1 to 31 August in Kingston); similar requests are sent to secretary general of League of Nations and foreign heads of state. Ixxvii

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

February

Garvey writes editorial on Oswald Mosley; states that leader of British Union of Fascists lacks forceful "character to be Mussolini in England."

28 March

Garvey writes solicitor, U.S. Post Office Department, to object to hold placed on his personal mail.

March

Garvey praises Adolf Hitler as "a wonderful personality" and lauds German leader's nationalistic plan for German people; recommends that blacks read Mein Kampf.

March

Mussolini declares that Italy has a civilizing duty to perform in East Africa.

21 April

Solicitor, U.S. Post Office Department, revokes fraud order placed on Garvey's mail.

28 April

Fraud order placed against Garvey's personal mail formally lifted by postmaster general.

3 May

British government officials decide not to give official recognition to coming U N I A convention; brand Garvey "shady" and seditious.

8 May

French government officials recommend against sending a delegate to U N I A convention; request that representative in Jamaica closely monitor conference.

May

Garvey points to Japanese nationalism as a model for blacks to emulate.

7 June

French foreign minister informs French minister of colonies that secretariat of League of Nations did not accept Garvey's invitation re U N I A convention.

14—15 June

Hitler meets with Mussolini in Venice.

June

W. E. B. Du Bois formally resigns his seat on board of directors of N A A C P .

7 July

Article in a special convention issue of Negro World denies any connection between Garvey's U N I A , August 1929, of the World and parent body of "original U N I A , Inc., of 1918"; describes Garvey's 1929 wing of movement as a "British association."

25 July

Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria assassinated by Nazis.

1 August

1934 U N I A convention opens Kingston, with low attendance.

3 August

In U N I A convention speech, Garvey acknowledges black economic dependence on whites for survival; advocates a policy of compromise rather than confrontahcxviii

at Edelweiss

Park,

CHRONOLOGY

tion toward whites during period of economic hardship and competition once black economic program rebuilt. ca. 10 August

Garvey denounces St. William Wellington Grant and expels him from U N I A convention.

31 August

Convention delegates denounce practice of birth control; Garvey states that birth control interferes with Nature and God.

August

Hitler unites German presidency and chancellorship into one office; assumes title of Fuhrer.

1 September

Henrietta Vinton Davis elected president of U N I A , Inc., in New York.

17 September

Benjamin Jones, secretary, Philadelphia U N I A division, begins series of correspondence with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other high federal officials in attempt to procure a pardon for Garvey and/or permission for Garvey to reenter United States.

3 November

Garvey praises New York U N I A division president A. L. King for his work in movement; informs him that he is trying to make arrangements to move U N I A headquarters from Kingston to London.

November

In Black Man articles, Garvey officially announces planned relocation of international headquarters of U N I A , August 1929, of the World, to London; states that move will lend movement greater dignity.

5 December

Italian and Ethiopian troops clash at Wal Wal.

December

Mortgage on Edelweiss Park foreclosed. Elijah Muhammed establishes Temple of Islam No. 2 in Chicago; Nation of Islam leader Wali Farad disappears and Muhammed assumes leadership of Messenger of Allah sect.

1935 7 January

Garvey seeks permission from federal officials to enter United States temporarily en route to England.

7 January

French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval announces FrancoItalian pact negotiated with Mussolini.

n January

Hailc Selassie files complaint over Italian attack at Wal Wal with League of Nations.

29 January

Mussolini meets with Italian advisors from Eritrea and Addis Ababa; plans attack on Ethiopia for October. Ixxix

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

26 March

Garvey tells Daily Gleaner reporter that he plans to publish a monthly magazine and weekly newspaper from London and to run as a Labour candidate for Parliament.

26 March

Garvey leaves Jamaica for London; Amy Jacques Garvey remains behind in Kingston.

27 March

American consul, Jamaica, informs Department of State that Garvey's request to enter United States has been formally denied.

1 June

New York News reports that three hundred white and black men have volunteered through U N I A to fight for Ethiopia in event of war with Italy.

June

Garvey resumes publication of Black Man in London; publishes article cautioning Mussolini against aggressive action toward Ethiopia.

June

Amy Ashwood Garvey establishes restaurant and social club for African students and black activists in London.

June

Stanley Baldwin becomes prime minister of Britain.

July

Garvey criticizes Father Divine's claims of personal divinity; suggests Peace Mission movement is a conspiracy on part of white members to defraud blacks; warns blacks against participation.

August

Garvey praises Haile Selassie as a gentleman and calls Mussolini a barbarian guilty of savagery.

3 September

T. A. Marryshow lauds Garvey as one of most interesting and powerful orators appearing in Hyde Park.

15 September

Nuremberg laws enacted by Nazi party congress; deny Jews legal rights and protections and strip them of German citizenship; forbid racial intermarriage between Aryans and Jews.

September

League of Nations implicidy exonerates Italy for role in Wal Wal incident.

3 October

Mussolini's troops invade Ethiopia.

7 October

League of Nations imposes empty sanctions on Italy; Western nations boycott sale of arms to Ethiopia.

17 October

Ethiopian Army mobilized under Ras Mulugeta.

21 October

A. L. King's Provisional Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia ships medical supplies to Haile Selassie.

7 November

Garvey congratulates McKenzie King on being reIxxx

CHRONOLOGY

elected prime minister of Canada; sends him copy of editorial praising him as a friend to blacks. 21 November

Garvey instructs A. L. King not to associate with Communists.

November

Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi elected to U.S. Senate.

9 December

Hoare-Laval pact, in which Britain and France agree to make concessions to Italy, made public in London.

12 December

League of Nations council considers Hoare-Laval pact and postpones imposing Italian oil embargo.

19 December

In letter to Garvey, A. L. King equates situation of disharmony in New York division of U N I A , August 1929, of the World to factionalization faced by Garvey during his imprisonment and asks for U N I A leader's understanding; states his belief in efficacy of working in coalition with Communists for Ethiopian relief and tells Garvey this was done after policy vote by majority of division members.

19 December

British Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Hoare resigns in London in public furor over diplomatic decision to sacrifice Ethiopia in effort to appease Mussolini.

December

Italians begin using mustard gas against civilian and military targets in Ethiopia; bomb Red Cross units. 1936

II January

Samuel Haynes, Garvey's U N I A national representative, openly criticizes Garvey for Garvey's failure to endorse black American efforts to extend aid to Haile Selassie and Ethiopia; reports that members of local divisions are deserting U N I A to join organizations active in Ethiopian cause.

20 January

Edward V I I I becomes king of England.

28 February

A. L. King's New York U N I A division endorses Scottsboro Defense Committee, a coalition formed by American Civil Liberties Union, Communist party, and N A A C P , for its work on behalf of Scottsboro nine; offers cooperation despite Garvey's orders to avoid affiliation with Communists.

February

Peace Movement of Ethiopia, Inc., rival wing of unincorporated movement of same name, formed in Illinois under direction of Garveyites Charles Watkins and Ethel Waddell; Waddell accuses movement founder Mittie

Ixxxi

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Maud Lena Gordon of incompetence and hostility toward Garvey. 7 March

German forces occupy Rhineland; Hitler calls for return of former German colonies in Africa to German rule.

March

Samuel Haynes reports on activities of local UNLA divisions and urges them to contact Garvey to encourage him to take legal steps to return to United States.

early April

Ethiopian Army forced into retreat at Mai Cheu.

15 April

Italians capture Dessie.

29 April

A. L. King impeached as president of New York UNLA division (affiliated with UNI A, August 1929, of the World) and is expelled; progressive members follow him into new Central UNIA division.

30 April

Haile Selassie, in retreat from Mai Cheu, arrives in Addis Ababa.

April

A. L. King endorses racially integrated demonstrations in support of Ethiopian cause.

2 May

Haile Selassie forced into exile.

5 May

Italians capture Addis Ababa; declare annexation of Ethiopia.

May

In Black Man editorial, Garvey states that communism is dangerous to blacks because both white Communists and white capitalists will follow racial interests first; argues that blacks should follow "money hunting" practices of Jews, whom he accuses of corrupting politics of nations because of self-interest.

3 June

Haile Selassie arrives in London; shuns greeting party made up of representatives from several black organizations active in Britain, including Garvey.

30 June

Haile Selassie addresses League of Nations; appeals for recognition of sovereignty of Ethiopia.

4 July

League of Nations suspends sanctions against Italy.

18 July

Spanish Civil War begins; Mussolini sends Italian soldiers to aid Gen. Francisco Franco's insurgents; leftist parties unite in Loyalist opposition.

July

Garvey again cautions blacks against alliance with Communists in effort to improve their economic condition.

July-August

Garvey denounces idea of black descent through lineage of Solomon; tells readers that "the Negro is no Jew." Ixxxit

CHRONOLOGY

20 August

U N I A regional conference convenes in Toronto.

25 August

U N I A delegates endorse President Roosevelt for second term in White House.

25 August

U N I A delegates condemn films that portray blacks in a degrading and stereotypical manner while praising performances of black actors and actresses appearing in such films.

26 August

U N I A delegates pass resolution critical of Father Divine; charge his movement, which advocates celibacy, with attempting to exterminate black race.

29 August

Garvey leaves Toronto for England.

31 August

Garvey prints letter from Una Brown, reader of Black Man, upset by his criticism of Haile Selassie; Garvey upholds his negative opinion in his reply; blasts Haile Selassie for trusting white advisors.

1 October

Insurgents declare General Franco chief of state in Spain.

22 October

A. L. King writes President Edwin Barclay of Liberia concerning Liberian policy toward immigration of Western blacks.

26 October

Garvey carries on letter-writing campaign in London to protest showing of films and broadcasting of radio shows he considers racist.

I November

Mussolini announces Italian alliance with Germany (Rome-Berlin Axis).

6 November

Siege of Loyalist-held Madrid by Franco's Insurgents begins.

18 November

Germany and Italy recognize Franco government in Spain; Britain and France continue policy of nonintervention, ban provision of supplies to legitimate Spanish government.

10 December

King Edward VIII abdicates the throne of England.

II December

Garvey extends his sympathy to Edward VIII; calls him "the noblest character of the 20th Century."

December

Lady Houston, fascist British publisher, dies in England.

1937 January

Marcus Garvey blasts Haile Selassie in editorials; blames emperor for Ethiopian defeat and praises Mussolini as "an astute diplomat and expert statesman." Ixxxiii

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

19 March

Pope Pius XI issues encyclical against communism.

March

Garvey criticizes Haile Selassie for his lack of identification with blacks.

March-April

Garvey publishes editorial blaming Jews for ostracism they experience in Europe; urges them to shift attention from material wealth to nationalism for their own protection.

March-May

UNIA members express criticism of Garvey for his negative statements about Haile Selassie; some refuse to continue supporting UNIA.

May

Garvey heckled off platform in Hyde Park by African students angered over his criticism of Haile Selassie.

22 June

Joe Louis becomes heavyweight champion of world.

June

Amy Jacques Garvey, Marcus Garvey, Jr., and Julius Winston Garvey leave Jamaica to join Garvey in London.

June

Garvey begins organizing regional UNIA meetings to begin in August.

16 July

Buchenwald concentration camp opens in Germany; first inmates are political prisoners, but most occupants that will be sent there are Jews; Jews barred from German public parks, institutions, and places of entertainment; ordered to wear Star of David badges to identify themselves as Jews.

July

Japanese Army launches full-scale invasion of China.

12 August

Garvey leaves London en route to Toronto to attend second regional conference of UNIA.

24 August

Second regional UNIA conference convenes in Toronto.

30 August

Joe Louis victorious in bout with Tommy Farr.

JI August

UNIA regional conference closes.

1 September

Garvey inaugurates School of African Philosophy, in which he teaches lessons on a wide variety of topics to UNIA leaders.

September

Garvey tours Canadian provinces.

7 October

Garvey boards S.S. Lady Nelson in Halifax, Nova Scotia, bound on tour of Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

8 October

Garvey's ship stops in Boston harbor. bcxxiv

CHRONOLOGY

II October

Ship arrives in Bermuda; Garvey denied permission to disembark by immigration officials who brand him an "undesirable."

14 October

Garvey in Trinidad.

17 October

Garvey in St. Lucia.

18 October

Garvey in Barbados.

19 October

Garvey in St. Vincent.

22 October

Garvey in British Guiana.

28 October

Garvey returns to Barbados.

5 November

Ship returns to Bermuda; Garvey again forbidden to disembark.

8 November

Ship stops in Boston harbor.

11 November

Ship returns to Halifax.

20 November

Garvey arrives in England.

December

Italy withdraws from League of Nations. 1938

18 January

Garvey advises Vivian Durham, Jamaican journalist, against coming to London because of high unemployment among blacks.

8 February

Thomas W. Harvey, chairman, Second Regional Conference Committee, solicits Sen. Theodore Bilbo's assistance in persuading government to permit Garvey to temporarily reenter United States.

12 February

Sen. Bilbo informs Harvey that he has directed a communication to Department of Labor requesting that Garvey be allowed to attend 1938 UNIA convention; he states that repatriation is best thing for both blacks and whites.

March

Germany seizes Austria.

10 April

First Ohio State Caucus of UNIA and ACL, August 1929, of the World, held in Cleveland, presided over by State Commissioner James Stewart and Secretary Theresa Young.

16 April

Britain recognizes Italian sovereignty in Ethiopia.

29 April

First worker riot occurs on Frome estate of West Indies Sugar Co., Jamaica, signaling beginning of labor rebellion of 1938. Ixxxv

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

3 May

St. William Wellington W. Grant joins Alexander Bustamante in leading worker protests during Jamaican general strike.

20 May

Kingston dock workers join agricultural workers in strike.

23 May

General walk out in Kingston; workers gather at Parade Gardens for mass demonstration.

2+ May

Grant and Bustamante arrested for role in labor protest.

28 May

Grant and Bustamante released from jail; Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) founded.

n June

Last major labor demonstration takes place in Manchester Parish; Jamaican labor rebellion ends.

July

Garvey criticizes Anglican bishop's views on labor uprising in Jamaica; defends strikers.

1 August

Eighth International UNLA Convention convenes in Toronto.

12 August

Convention delegates pass resolution supporting efforts of Sen. Bilbo on behalf of black repatriation.

2 August

In convention speech, Garvey states that communism has nothing to offer black men.

August

Amy Jacques Garvey returns to Jamaica with children; she does not forewarn Garvey of move.

29 September

Munich Conference; Neville Chamberlain meets with Hitler and Mussolini.

25 October

Italy declares sovereignty over Libya.

ca. October

Author Thomas Dixon tells Earnest S. Cox that he has used Garvey as a model for a character in his forthcoming novel, The Flaming Sword.

3 November

British recognize Italian regime in Ethiopia.

9-10 November

Violent public repression of Jews occurs in Germany (Kristallnacht); Jewish synagogues and businesses destroyed; thirty thousand seized and transported to concentration camps.

November

U N I A divisions join Peace Movement of Ethiopia in petition drive to support Sen. Bilbo's Greater Liberia Bill.

8 December

In letter to Julius Winston Garvey, Garvey expresses displeasure over being separated from his sons. Ixxxvi

CHRONOLOGY

1939 II January

Julius Winston Garvey writes his father; he informs him that he prefers Jamaica to London and asks him to send money to help support family.

II January

Marcus Garvey, Jr., writes his father; asks him to send money to help support family.

6 February

Garvey writes to Julius and Marcus, Jr.; informs them that he will send them a pound a week each; states that letters will always be addressed to Marcus Garvey, Jr.

15 March

German army seizes Czechoslovakia.

28 March

Madrid surrenders to Franco's forces; Spanish Civil War ends.

ca. March

Daughters of American Revolution refuse to rent Constitution Hall, Washington, D . C . , to world-acclaimed contralto Marian Anderson because of her race.

7 April

Italian army seizes Albania.

7 April

Franco announces Spanish adherence to German-ItalianJapanese anti-Communist pact.

24 April

Sen. Bilbo presents Greater Liberia Bill to Congress; U N I A committee travels to Washington to support bill and Mittie Maud Lena Gordon, president of Peace Movement of Ethiopia, presents petition to Congress in its support.

28 April

A. L. King informs Garvey that Bilbo's bill was referred to committee on Foreign Relations; he expresses concern that bill was opposed by N A A C P , a large number of black clergymen, and some politicians and was substantially supported only by Peace Movement of Ethiopia.

5 May

During U N I A City expresses dismay that in support of Greater of signatures collected

22 May

Germany and Italy declare formal military alliance.

May

United States refuses to accept 937 Jewish refugees from Germany on board S.S. St. Louis; ship is turned back to Europe.

June

In Black Man essay, Garvey asks American blacks to support Sen. Bilbo's bill.

Ixxxvii

Council meeting, A. L. King U N I A contributed few petitions Liberia Bill relative to thousands by Peace Movement of Ethiopia.

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

June

In editorial letter, Garvey opposes British plans to facilitate settlement of Jewish refugees in British Guiana.

5 July

Through his lawyer, George Gordon Battle, Garvey applies for a pardon to restore civil rights in order to allow for his temporary readmission to United States.

12 July

Daniel Lyons, U.S. pardon attorney, writes Garvey's attorney to advise him of submission procedures to apply for this pardon; can give no indication of final action or length of process.

i September

Germany invades Poland.

3 September

Britain and France declare war on Germany.

14 September

U N I A officers from New York Advance division meet with Sen. Bilbo in Washington; they present him with a three-point plan for agitation on behalf of Greater Liberia Bill.

ca. September

Amy Ashwood Garvey witnesses Garvey on speaker's platform at Hyde Park; describes the diminished power of his oratory. 1940

ca. 20 January

Garvey experiences a cerebral hemorrhage; is paralyzed on his right side and his speech is affected.

2j January

U N I A Secretary General Ethel M. Collins extends sympathy to Amy Jacques Garvey at illness of Marcus Garvey.

17 February

J. Mclntyre writes Julius and Marcus Garvey Jr. on behalf of Marcus Garvey; sends money and informs them that their father is improving slowly.

21 March

In letter to Marcus Garvey Jr., Garvey states that he is confined to bed and unable to speak; he states that he has been sick at home for three months.

6 April

In letter to Marcus Garvey Jr., Garvey states that he is feeling better and that he is now able to say a few words.

9 April

Germany invades Norway.

20 April

In letter to Marcus Garvey Jr., Garvey states that his speech is still poor and that he is still suffering from paralysis on right side of his body; he sends him money.

10 May

Germany invades Belguim, France, and Luxembourg; Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Britain. Ixxxviii

CHRONOLOGY

15 May

Holland falls to Germany.

18 May

Chicago Defender carries story by London correspondent George Padmore incorrectly announcing death of Garvcy; news services spread false report and local papers prepare obituaries.

21 May

Newspapers retract false reports of Garvey's death.

28 May

Collins seeks Amy Jacques Garvey's assistance in refuting false rumors of Marcus Garvey's death.

28 May

Belguim falls to Germany.

May

Malaku Bayen, Haile Selassie's representative in United States, dies.

9 June

Garvey's assistant Daisy Whyte cables Amy Jacques Garvey from London that Garvey has relapsed and his condition is deteriorating; he has experienced a second cerebral hemorrhage or cardiac arrest while reading newsclippings of obituaries published in American newspapers.

10 June

Garvey dies in London.

10 June

Italy declares war on Britain and France; invades France.

11 June

Whyte cables Collins that unless funds are received immediately, Garvey faces pauper's burial.

13 June

U N I A Chancellor Thomas W. Harvey and Collins instruct all U N I A divisions and members to go into mourning for a period of ninety days.

24 June

Memorial committee holds first meeting in New York to plan services for Garvey.

21 July

Memorial services for Garvey held at St. Marks Episcopal Church, New York; Bishop Fred A. Toote delivers eulogy; service preceded by memorial procession beginning at Garvey Club office at 169 West 133d Street, New York.

+ August

Brooklyn memorial service held for Garvey at Greater Bridge Street African Methodist Episcopal Church; Collins delivers obituary address; Rev. Thomas S. Harten delivers eulogy.

6 August

Italians invade British Somaliland.

8 August

Battle of Britain.

18-2+ August

International delegates attend emergency conference of Ixxxix

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

UNIA, August 1929, of the World in New York; James Stewart of Cleveland elected new president general; Charles James becomes assistant president general; and Collins remains secretary general. 13 September

Italians invade Egypt via Libya.

27 September

Tripartite Pact formed between Germany, Italy, and Japan.

28 September

Italy attacks Greece.

8 October ca. 15 October

Germany occupies Romania. New UNIA parent body headquarters established at 200 East +oth Street, Cleveland.

19 October

First issue of New Negro World published in Cleveland; edited by James Stewart. 1941

January

Haile Selassie returns to Ethiopia with British support.

December

United States enters World War II. 1942

January

Haile Selassie resumes rule of Ethiopia. 1945

April

Mussolini hanged; Hitler commits suicide.

8 May

Germany surrenders.

4 June

Whyte returns to Jamaica from London; delivers speech about Garveys final days. 1961 Julius Winston Garvey receives M.D. degree; moves to United States and practices medicine in New York. 1964

10 November

Garvey's body returned to Jamaica.

11 November

Garvey declared Jamaica's first National Hero; his remains reinterred with official ceremonies at Marcus Garvey Memorial, Kingston.

xc

CHRONOLOGY

1969 Amy Ashwood Garvey dies in Jamaica. 1973 Amy Jacques Garvey dies in Jamaica. 1983 Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga asks President Ronald Reagan to grant a full pardon to Marcus Garvey. 1987 Congressman Charles Rangel introduces House Resolution No. 84 to House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice; resolution calls for exoneration of Garvey on mail fraud charges.

xci

NOVEMBER 1927

A. S. Jelf, 1 Colonial Secretary, Jamaica, to M. D. Harrel, 2 Inspector General of Police, Kingston Kingston, /30/ N o v e m b e r [i9]27 Sir, [1.] I am directed to inform y o u that a telegram has been received from the British Ambassador at Washington intimating that M r . Marcus G a r v e y has been released and that His Majesty's Consul at Atlanta granted him an Emergency Certificate for deportation to Jamaica on the 23rd N o v e m b e r . 2.

I am to say that no action should be taken to hinder Garvey from

landing in Jamaica. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, A . S. JELF Colonial Secretary J A , C S O , file 1B/5/79/15. T L S , recipient's copy. Marked "CONFIDENTIAL." 1. Arthur Selborne Jelf (1876-1947), colonial secretary of Jamaica from 1925 to 1935, acted as governor of Jamaica on several occasions during the administrations of Samuel Herbert Wilson, R. Edward Stubbs, A. Ransford Slater, and Edward Brandis Denham. Before he was stationed in Jamaica, Jelf was a member of the Malayan civil service; he was also active in the British Military Intelligence Service during World War I. He became mayor of Hythe, England, after his retirement from colonial service (Times [London], 27 February 19+7; David P. Henige, Colonial Governors from the Fifteenth Century to the Present [Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970], p. 129; WWW). 2. M. D. Harrel was inspector general of police at the headquarters of the Constabulary Department, Kingston, in 1926-1930. He had first entered public service in 1896 (Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook ofJamaica [Kingston: GPO, 1926], p. 193; ibid., [1930], p. 143).

Articles in the Chicago Defender [[Kingston and N e w Orleans, 2 - 1 0 December, 1 9 2 7 ] ]

G A R V E Y S A I L S WITH P L E D G E TO F I G H T O N HUNDREDS PLAN TO JOIN H I M IN EXILE JAMAICANS CELEBRATE Kingston, Jamaica, Dec. 9 [io]' W h a t is said to have been the most wonderful demonstration

ever

held here was occasioned on the arrival o f Marcus Garvey, w h o returned to Kingston as a deportee from the United States Wednesday

3

[Saturday],

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Bands greeted him at the harbor and he was escorted to Ward theater, where addresses were delivered in his honor by many prominent speakers, including an alderman of the local government. 2

N e w Orleans, Dec. 9 [2] "Good-by, America, farewell my people!" Speaking these words as he stood bareheaded in a driving rain, Marcus Garvey, promoter o f the "Back to Africa" movement and founder o f the Black Star Line, bade adieu to the nation which had ordered him deported to his native Jamaica on his release from the federal prison at Atlanta, where he served a term for using the United States mails for fraudulent purposes. Garvey left the United States at 12:15 noon Friday, Dec. 2. H e sailed on the United States fruit steamship Sacramacca [Saramacca] bound for Cristobal, Canal Zone. There he will be transferred to another ship bound for Kingston, Jamaica. Five hundred of his followers crowded the wharves to say good-by. Men, women and children marched in single file during a steady downpour o f rain on one of the coldest days of the year to press the hand o f their leader and hear what he had to say. GIVEN $10,000

A committee composed of officers o f the Universal N e g r o Improvement [Association, of which Garvey is the head, came here from N e w York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh to see him off. 3 O n e o f the leaders announced that members of the association had given Garvey $10,000 to defray expenses of the trip to Jamaica and for settling there after he arrived. H e is expected to open offices in Jamaica, it was said. Half an hour before the ship sailed Garvey made an address from the upper deck of the Saramacca. He said: I desire to convey to my supporters and friends and to the American public in general my heartfelt thanks for the great confidence they have shown in me at all times and especially during the periods o f my trial and imprisonment, which I regard as a wonderful testimony of the knowledge they have o f my innocence. I leave America fully as happy as when I came, in that my relationship with my people was most pleasant and inspiring, and I shall work forever in their behalf. The program of nationalism is as important now as it ever was, and my entire life shall be devoted to the supreme cause. I sincerely believe that it is only by nationalizing the N e g r o and awakening him to the possibilities o f himself that this universal problem can be solved.

4

DECEMBER 1927 LEAVES MESSAGE T o m y white friends I desire to say that I shall always consider their interest in me as a cause for respecting everywhere and always the rights o f their Race. T h e program I represent is not hostile to the white race or any other race. All that I want to do is to complete the freedom o f the N e g r o economically and culturally and make him a full man.

The

intelligent white man has and will continue to indorse my program. T h e report is current here that thousands o f his followers throughout the country are preparing to follow Garvey into exile.

According to the report,

he is to be joined by an army o f men and women—physicia[ns], skilled mechanics and executives—who

will be recruited

from

New

York

and

other

American cities. While M r s . A m y Jacques Garvey,

his wife and head o f the empire

organization, remained silent on Garvey's plans, it was learned from a reliable source that the "president" intends to g o to Africa, where, with this army at his command, he intends to build his empire on the west coast, it was said. H e already has, it was announced, established dozens o f outposts in the cities along the African coast and in the hinterland. Garvey carried a silver-headed malacca cane and w o r e a snappy tailored light b r o w n checked suit.

His followers held an umbrella over him as he

crossed the wharf and boarded the ship. Printed in CD, 10 December 1927. T w o reports printed as one article under one set of headlines. 1. There is a confusion of dates and facts in these twin reports printed as one article in the Chicago Defender. Although the Chicago Defender dated both reports 9 December 1927, Garvey left New Orleans on Friday, 2 December 1927. Deported on the S.S. Saramacca, Garvey changed ships at Cristobal, Canal Zone, on Wednesday, 7 December 1927, and completed the last leg of his journey to Kingston aboard the S.S. Santa Marta (Panama Star and Herald, 6 December 1927; DC!, 10 December, 11 December, 13 December, and 17 December, 1927; NTT, 11 December 1927; NW, 17 December, 1927). 2. Garvey was escorted to Liberty Hall on the day of his arrival in Kingston (Saturday, 10 December); ceremonies took place at Ward Theatre the following evening. People had begun organizing in favor of Garvey's release and preparing for his arrival in Jamaica even before the official pardon was announced. The Kingston UNIA division began to plan a "Garvey release week" at the beginning of November 1927 for the purpose of demonstrating mass support for a presidential pardon. Charles Johnson, the president of the division, served as chair of the organizing committee and vocal supporters included H. A. L. Simpson, Henrietta Vinton Davis, and the reverends C. A. Wilson, S. M. Jones, W. E. Barclay and E. E. McLaughlin (DC,, 1 November, 3 November, 4 November, and 14 November 1927). On 30 November 1927 Davis served as chair of a closed meeting in Kingston that a detective estimated was attended by "about three hundred financial members." The meeting was called, as Davis said, "to think out the best plan by which we can accord our leader a heart)' reception on his return to his native land" knowing "that the eyes of the world are upon us" ("UNIA Arrangements for the Entertainment of Marcus Garvey on his Return to the Island," confidential report, 30 November 1927, Detective Inspector's Office, Kingston, Jamaica, JA, file i5[v]/D:I:0:36/27). Davis continued to oversee the arrangements for Garvey's arrival, which included a mass procession through the streets of Kingston "from the United Fruit Co. Pier, along Port Royal Street, up King Street, along the South Parade, up

5

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS to the West Parade into the North Parade thence to Upper King Street to Liberty Hall" ( D G , 10 December 1927; see also DG, 8 December 1927; N T T , 11 December 1927). The procession took place with the support of the Kingston police, who kept order along the parade route. Both the Liberty Hall reception and the mass meeting at the Ward Theatre that took place the following night were full to overflowing, with several hundred enthusiasts congregating outside the respective buildings while the programs commenced within. After the Sunday evening meeting Garvey embarked on a speaking itinerary around the island, wherein, as the Daily Gleaner reported, he visited many "of the country parishes where there are branches of the U N I A " and had "an opportunity of seeing the peasants, and wherever he goes a warm welcome awaits him" (13 December 1927; see also DG, is December 1927; NW, 17 December 1927). 3. A reference to E. B. Knox (of Chicago), William Ware (of Cincinnati), S. V . Robertson (of Cleveland), and Samuel Haynes (of Pittsburgh). J. J. Peters, president of the N e w Orleans division, and J. A. Craigen, executive secretary of the Detroit division, were also with the committee who met with Garvey on board the S.S. Saramacca (E. David Cronon, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, 2d ed. [Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1969], pp. 1+2-1+3).

Article by Cespedes Burke in the Panama Star and Herald [Panama, December 8, 1927] S . S . " S A R A M A C C A " D O C K S AT 11.35 W I T H PRES. GENERAL GARVEY RECEIVING U . N . I . A .

DELEGATION

OF D I V I S I O N S A N D C H A P T E R [ S ]

The steamship Saramacca on which M r . Marcus Garvey, the President General of the U.N.I.A. and A.C.L. sailed from New Orleans, arrived at Cristobal this morning at 11:35. The delegation to interview him was present as the steamer slowly and majestically approached and drew alongside the pier. After the passengers aboard had debarked the delegates were permitted to board the vessel, when they exchanged warm greetings with the honorable leader who very warmly received them. The minute the imposing figure of M r . Garvey was recognized, the delegates as well as all the silver helpers on the pier who were equally eager to see the martyr, their hats were as it were simultaneously lifted in respect, and the immortal hero "Marcus Garvey" similarly responded to their greetings, lifting his hat which more clearly revealed the broad and pleasant smile he wore. He is veritably an indomitable personage. After shaking hands individually with the delegates, Messrs[.] L. A. Lindo, N. W. Collins, E. I. Moulton, C. Burke, J. A. Parchment, John Thompson and also M r . Sidney A. Young[,]' West Indian Editor of the Panama American[,] M r . Garvey inquired if there was anything we had to say, and upon learning that we had certain memorials to present we were ushered into the ship's sitting room where a conference was held for approximately two hours. As the introductory to this[,] however, M r . L. A. Lindo, President of Division N o . 17, Panama, and speaker of the delegates, read the delegates' 6

D E C E M B E R 1927

address of presentation and presented Mr. Garvey with the purse which was raised for him, the body of which was as follows: We the undersigned representatives of your constituents of the cities of Col6n, Panama[,] and the Canal Zone, numbering approximately two thousand active members, greet you. When the news of the commutation of your sentence was received on the 24th ult., through the Associated Press, our hearts leaped for joy. It was felt that the freedom of Africa was more evident than before. The nations of the earth have secured their inspirations by war, imprisonment and death, and surely, this your excarceration has vividly brought home the inspiration that "Conquer we must." We hope that you will not be discouraged, but that you will be greater energized for the stupendous task before you, knowing that the greatest batde is fought immediately before your victory. Remembering tha[t] the silver lining lies behind the darkest clouds, we encourage in the words of the poet: Courage brother, do not stumble Though the path be dark as night, There's a star to guide the humble, Trust in God and do the right. We have kept the candle burning though not without great difficulties, and it is with much regret that conditions have deprived us [of] the pleasure of having you on our rostrum before your departure for Jamaica. Nevertheless, we are hopeful that it will not be long ere we shall have the pleasure of greeting you in our Liberty Halls. There are many questions of vital importance pertaining to our internal welfare and that of the Universal Negro Improvement Association at large which we would like to discuss with you; but it being impossible, we have attached certain memorials for your kind, early consideration and decision. Should you require further facts to establish the correctness (and as we feel) justifiable ground for our request, we shall be only too pleased to furnish same. In wishing you "bon voyage" to Jamaica, we commit you to the providential care of the Omnipotent. On behalf of our constituents, we beg to present you with this small purse in token of our love and appreciation. We beg to remain under the undying motto of the Association. To which Mr. Garvey "formally" replied as follows: 7

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Mr. President and co-workers of the divisions and chapters mentioned, I thank you immensely for this testimonial of your fellowship and your interest in me as President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association of which you are members. For years I have been following the work of the organization on the Isthmus; at times I became nerv[o]us about its future because of the many unpleasant . . . happenings, but knowing the race or people as I do, I appreciate the fact that these misunderstandings must arise from time to time. Coming this way, I thought that I would have had time to meet all the members personally, but because of the peculiar circumstances under which I go to Jamaica and because of the shortness of time, I will not find it possible to visit you in your Liberty Halls as you have suggested, but in my itinerary of the next thirty days I hope to return to Panama and then have the opportunity of meeting the members in person. I intend to visit South America and the West Indies before I go to Europe to represent the interest of the organization. By now and January I expect to visit you. I want you to realize this, that in all history nothing has been achieved by any people bickering among themselves. To achieve success we must unite in the common cause. This is necessary, and I do hope that even before I return to Panama you will have so welded yourselves together as to leave no chance for the enemies to penetrate. You are only weakening yourself as a people. Probably in this isolated part of the world you may not realize this. I appreciate the testimonials that you have given me because you seem to have entered in it the spirit of the movement. Our people have not realized what the movement means. What I have suffered in America is for you and the movement. My leaving the United States of America was as pleasant as my going there. I h[a]d no prejudice in leaving as I had none in going. Now if you go back to your respective places before I leave tomorrow, I do not want you to misrepresent me in my receiving you to the extent that I am receiving you in disregard for others. As President General it is not in my way of thinking to exclude any member who desires to speak to me either for grievances or cheer. You will make it clearly understood to your friends and your enemies of the organization that I have absolutely no friends to the exclusion of the U.N.I.A. All the U.N.I.A. members are my friends as long as they have the spirit of the U.N.I.A. The U.N.I.A. means the salvation of the Race. I do not mean to exclude anyone. In going by the other fellows who were not privileged to see me, tell them that I am sorry I could not see them. I want you to bear in 8

DECEMBER 1927

mind that we are all Negroes having a tremendous burden upon our shoulders. So whatever your misunderstandings might have been in the past, remember that you are men, and[,] in addition[,] Negro men with one common cause, one common object, one common urge. I want you to keep steadfast to the calling, steadfast to the urge and steadfast to the object. That is the spirit that I want to find among you when I return to Panama. I want it to be understood that I have millions of friends in the United States. M y deportation now is due to the present p o l i t i c i a n s now in power. I respect authority. I want every member of the Association to respect authority, and I am glad that with all your troubles you have respected authorities—those of the Canal Zone Government and of the Panama Government. Our cause is a righteous one and it must triumph. The Constitution of America is liberal and the C o n s t i t u t i o n of England of which I am a subject, fortunately or unfortunately, is also liberal. I am glad that you have so conducted yourselves as to merit the consideration of the Governor of the Panama Canal in allowing you to see me. To him I am thankful and with your conduct I am pleased. I thank you for your interest and for your purse and I want you to g o back to your members and give them my credit and greetings. This is all I can say to you now. [. . . ] Printed in the Panama Star and Herald, 8 December 1927. Text abridged. 1. Sidney Adolphus Young (b. 1898), Kingston-born reporter and publisher, began his career in journalism as assistant manager for the Central American News in 1924. He had previously been a proprietor of a mercantile company and a bakery in Panama. He was cable and West Indian editor for the Panama Star and Herald from 1925 to 1928, and from 1928 until his death he served as editor and publisher of the Panama Tribune. Young was described as taking a "leading part in nearly all welfare organizations and active movements for the advancement of West Indians in Panama" (WW]).

Meriweather Walker,1 Governor, Panama Canal Zone, to Dwight Davis,2 Secretary of War Balboa H e i g h t s , PANAMA CANAL,

December 9, 1927, Friday + p.m. For [the] Secretary of War: Marcus Garvey just deported to Jamaica via Cristobal stated he expected to return to Panama within a short time. It is evidendy his intention to proceed on a junket to rebuild his organization in these countries and collect funds. If 9

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

he should come to Cristobal my inclination is to refuse to allow him to land and proceed to Panaman territory on the ground that his presence would be disorganizing to our West Indian employees and would result in his securing considerable money from them which they can ill afford to lose. This action would be in interest of Panama also and I believe would meet no objection from that Government. Instructions are requested.3 WALKER.

DNA, RG 185, file 91/+48. TD. Translation of radiogram received. 1. Mcriwcathcr Walker was governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1924 to 1928 (Garvey Papers 6: 34, 36 n. 2). 2. Dwight Davis (1879-19+5) was U.S. secretary of war from 1925 to 1929 and governor general of the Philippines from 1929 to 1932. The Davis Cup international tennis tournament is named in his honor (WBD). 3. Davis concurred in Walker's decision not to permit Garvey to land in Cristobal (A. L. Flint, Office of the Panama Canal, War Department, to Walker, 14 December 1927, W N R C , R G 185, file 91/450; John W. Martyn, for Secretary of War Davis, to Flint, 17 December 1927, D N A , R G 165, file 91/448)-

Message from Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Kingston, ca. December 10, 1927]] M A R C U S G A R V E Y ' S A R R I V A L AT JAMAICA BREAKS W E L C O M E RECORDS

Fellow-Men of the Negro Race, Greetings: I feel happy that I am able to serve you in the cause of African Redemption. The "rush act" of getting me out of the United States is but one of those ordinary incidents in the rise of movements that carry a history behind [them]. I realize the fear and weakness of my enemies in trying to deprive me of personal appearance after my liberation. They were afraid of my speaking to the real American conscience, but in closing the door in America they have opened the flood gates of the world. I shall present your cause to the bar of international justice and I feel sure neither you nor I shall be ashamed of the result. Believe that I shall devote every minute of my time, from now to the grave, to the great cause and your universal freedom. It isn't America that has railroaded me, but the few unscrupulous politicians and industrial imperialists who think they can fool all of the people all of the time. I love the people of America even as I love all humanity. I shall help to save America and the world by a peaceful solution of the race problem, but anyhow, Africa must be redeemed for the Negro. 10

DECEMBER 1927

In the affairs of the Association in America, I ask that you support the Hon. E. B. Knox as the national representative of the president-general until the next great international convention, at which you yourselves shall determine on the new leaders. I have also named a number of men at different points to assist Mr. Knox. I shall publish their names for your direction on the 1st of January, 1928. In the meantime, rally to Mr. Knox and help him to put over the school' and the Negro World. You shall hear from me as usual. Read the Negro World and be informed. I am now in haste, but shall write at length in my next communication. With best wishes, I am, Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW,

17 December 1927. Original headlines abridged.

1. A reference to Liberty University, the U N I A high school located at Claremont, Va. Formerly the Smallwood-Corey Industrial College, the school was purchased by U N I A officers in New York during Garve/s incarceration. It opened under U N I A auspices in September 1926; operated for three years with low enrollments; and closed in 1929 (Garvey Papers 6: 439-440 nn. 1-4).

Speech by E. B. Knox, Personal Representative of Marcus Garvey [[Liberty Hall, New York, 11 December 1927]] [. . . ] Since I met you last I have been again in council with this matchless leader of the Negro peoples of the world and I have sat at his feet and there imbibed another series of instructionfs] for the carrying on of the work here which he so wonderfully began eight years ago. And as I sat at his feet, taking counsel with him how I might better aid in putting over this great programme, it seems that upon this last occasion I was more deeply touched then ever before. W I T H M R . G A R V E Y AT N E W O R L E A N S

As I sat in the stateroom with him during the last few hours of his stay here in America, he went over the whole history of his activities here in America and he tried his best to show me in order that I might have courage to go forward, in order that I might inspire and instill the same courage in you that we might fight on here, as he is fighting over there. And as he went over the past of the Universal Negro Improvement Associationf,] he told me how he had been railroaded to the penitentiary in Atlanta under circumstances never before witnessed in any kind of a case. He told me how he had gone to Atlanta and served there for the first four months of his sentence in the most 11

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

arduous station, and I can never and I shall never forget his statement to me and those that were with him[,] and through all that struggle he had come out triumphantly because he had kept his hand in the hand of God. I was never so touched before as I was when he told Dr. [J. J.] Peters down in New Orleans, When you go to the meeting next Sunday[,] I want you to have the people turn to the first chapter of Paul's letter to Timothy,1 and I want you to read that chapter to the membership. Let them know that the spirit of that passage is what has strengthened me in Atlanta prison; and then I want you to go on throughout the district where you shall serve and say that inasmuch as they could not down my courage, inasmuch as they could not swerve me from the course that I set eight years ago, just the same will they be unable to hurt the cause of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and hinder the progress of 400,000,000 Negroes. H i s T R I A L S IN P R I S O N

It was a very pathetic scene. He told how he had been a chronic sufferer from asthma and how damp weather tends to aggravate such a condition. He said[,] notwithstanding that[,] when he first went to Atlanta prison he had to serve three long months in water working—he said he could see the word had been passed along by the enemies of this great cause to make it hard for him— he took it all good-naturedly, all they tried to heap upon him, and one day he says, he was going about his duties in his damp work there and one white man, who had occasion to call him, shouted, "Here, you coon, coon." Mr. Garvey said he did not pay any attention to it—he acted like he hadn't heard him. So the white man called him "coon" the third time. He turned around and said, "Are you speaking to me?" and that tended to enrage the man— he spoke so courteously to him—and the white man said: "You are nothing but a nigger, a coon. You are not in New York; you are not up above the Mason-Dixon line, and you are coon like all the rest; go and do so-and-so." Marcus Garvey said he did nothing but smile, because he felt that the Man that watches over the lilies in the valleys would watch over him. And the thing he wanted to impress upon us was that through all of those three months working in water, somehow or other—the field of science can't explain it—somehow or other during all that time he never had a single attack of asthma. Nothing happened to him; he went through it all, and after a while the old warden who was responsible for it and some of the guards who were with him—the tables were turned and Marcus Garvey marched out of Atlanta the other day a free man, with that same warden a prisoner in Atlanta.2 (Applause.) R I G H T W I L L PREVAIL

It is a hard thing to tamper with a man when he is right. The principles of justice constitute the foundation of everything that is worth while, and when a man stands upon the principles of justice and right, as Marcus Garvey stands 12

DECEMBER 1927

in defense of a great cause, I am here to tell you that storms may rage but nothing in the world can overcome him—he will come out victorious. He says the reason he was able to endure it was because he kept his hand in the hand of God. Then after that three months Marcus Garvey got one of the easiest jobs in the prison—the old warden was thrown into prison himself and another warden who was good and who treated M r . Garvey exceptionally well, took his place. Word came that I was to journey to New Orleans. I arrived there on Thursday night. It had been so arranged by D r . Peters, Sir William Ware, M r . [J. A.] Craigen and M r . [S. V.] Robertson that I could go direct to the immigration station that night. So I went there and had a conference with him [Garvey] that night, and then on Friday morning the immigration officials were kind enough to let me spend the whole morning with him, from eight o'clock until about 12:30, when the ship sailed. And it was on that morning that he took occasion to give me final instructions. Then he talked with all of us together at various times. And as he talked with me he said, "I believe, somehow, that it is a Providential arrangement that I should leave America at this time." He said: " I have come here and labored and my labors have attracted the attention of the world at large. Numbers of people all over the world have been attracted to the virtues of this great programme[";] and, he said, I think America was the best place to start the movement. America holds the center of the stage among the nations of the earth, and by my starting here it gave me a better glimpse of the rest of the world, but, somehow or other, I feel that I should go where Negroes are in the majority instead of the minority—I should go where the Negro has a chance to work out his own destiny, and I want you to feel and see it like that; wherever I may go. I want you to understand that I am better able to serve the cause that we all love so well than I would be if I remained in America. W O R K WAS JUST BEGUN

So he went away, leaving us so impressed. Then he took us into the stateroom. The ship stayed about two hours, and he counselled with us on everything that he had in his mind pertaining to the welfare of this organization. Some of the things I am to tell you; some of the things I am to abide by for the guidance of myself and for you, without making them public. He assured us that the fight has just begun. As I stayed there and counselled with him on that occasion[,] I must restate that I was touched as never before. It seemed that the very atmosphere was charged with the seriousness of the occasion. As Marcus Garvey sat there in the stateroom—sometimes he was reading instructions and sometimes he was talking—tears would almost come into our eyes at the very thought that he was going away, but we took it all as best we could in a dispassionate way. 13

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS SPEAKS FROM THE S H I P

After a while, just before the ship sailed, they permitted him to come to the deck. He was free than [then]. I want you to get that thought. That was one reason he was able to express himself so freely. There were no guards to listen. He spoke freely just what he felt and what he thought about the whole situation. He came on to the second deck about an hour before the ship sailed, and there he began to deliver one of the finest addresses he has ever made. There were hundreds and hundreds of people of all nationalities assembled there upon the long pier at Algiers, their eyes riveted upon a little black man, and they stood and listened to him as if transfixed. A N UNFORGETTABLE SCENE

I wish you could have been there and witnessed the occasion. During the course of his address he told them: I am not angry with America. I have no ill-will against my enemies—those who are responsible for my predicament in this country. I feel, fellow men, that I am serving a righteous cause. I feel, my fellow men, that the hour has struck for Africa's redemption. I feel, my fellow men, that this is the time when the Negro should rise up in his might and fight on in accordance with the principles of the Red, the Black and the Green. Nothing that has happened has daunted my courage, and I want you to be impressed that wherever I may go I shall direct the affairs of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Applause.) I shall direct them with all the dignity that becomes the office of leader of this race. And the people cheered and cheered. And after a while, when the speaking was through, everybody sang, "God Bless Our President!" And after singing "God Bless Our President" we went back on deck, D r . Peters, M r . Ware, M r . Craigen, M r . Robertson and myself, and had another series of conferences in his stateroom. That ended, he came to the edge of the deck— the ship was right up against the dock—and the throng of people passed and shook hands with him. Some of those saying farewell were crying. It was a pathetic scene. You ought to have seen how the officers of the ship looked on in amazement. It was raining, but the people didn't care. BIDDING GOODBYE

And now the tense part of the event came. It was about 12:10. We all lined up and made preparations to sing the National Anthem, and as the ship sheered off from the dock[,] we began to sing the Ethiopian National Anthem, all of us and the Hon. Marcus Garvey standing at attention. The singing of the anthem finished and the ship having moved away from the dock, 14

D E C E M B E R 1927

the Hon. Marcus Garvey took out his handkerchief and we took out ours and began to wave. And I am here to tell you if you ever saw anything touching in your life it was when that ship moved away on that hazy afternoon with the leader of this great organization on board—a man whom we love and cherish and who has led us in such a noble and able and self-sacrificing way. When we were through waving we had to transfer the handkerchiefs to our eyes, so deep was the feeling. And Mr. Garvey—he tried to stand it all without any show of emotion—but when the ship began to move we could see him bite his lip and strive to maintain the courageous expression which he would impart to us. Some of the women screamed, and the guards had difficulty in keeping some of the throng from sweeping past them into the water. M E S S A G E TO GARVEY C L U B 3

And the sum and substance of his counsel with us, the sum of his address to the people was that the fight has just begun. And he sent a message to the Garvey Club which I shall read to you: To the Garvey Club, members and friends of New York: It is with great pleasure I send you these words of greeting and cheer as I leave the United States for my native land, Jamaica. I had hoped they would have permitted me to return to New York to recover the ship [S.S. Goethals], Liberty Hall, the office buildings and the printing plant 4 for you, but they planned to rush me out of the country so as to prevent me from protecting your interests. and double crossed me with the enemy and, therefore, made it impossible for me to protect you.' The fight, however, is just started, and I want you to look out for a greater and grander organization. Read and watch the Negro World for news of my activities. Write to me. Let me know what I can do for any of you. Give my wife all the help and protection you can till she comes home to me,6 for she is all I have, and I have sacrificed all for you and the cause. I am going to work harder than I ever did before to make the cause triumph. Everything will come all right. All that you have to do is to remain firm and steadfast. I shall see that none of you lose anything in the organization. Only have patience and keep the flag flying. Be good to yourselves and cheer up. With best wishes to all, I am your obedient servant, M A R C U S GARVEY

(President General, Universal Negro Improvement Association) That was the message he prepared for the Garvey Club. 15

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS FULL INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN

He gave us full instructions as to the future program. He appointed me as the American representative of the organization in his stead. (Applause.) He counselled with us on several occasions and on several occasions he had those with me to pledge they would give me their utmost support so that, at the calling of the international convention, we would present to him a solid phalanx of all the Negroes in America in the cause of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He is going to issue a program which shall appear at an early date in The Negro World. I am to administer the affairs of the Parent Body. We are not going to have any executive officers outside of the assistant international organizer [M. L. T. De Mena]7 and myself. (Loud and prolonged applause.) That, he felt, would tend to make for harmony in the organization. The plans, in general, will, I am sure, meet the approbation of every loyal member of the organization. BETTER ABLE TO F U N C T I O N

Don't forget that the substance of all he said was to the effect that he would be better able now to function as the president general of this great organization than he has been for a long time. He is going to Jamaica to open up offices there. Madame Amy Jacques Garvey had a cable this evening stating that he arrived there yesterday at five o'clock. (Deafening applause.) And the ovation he received was never witnessed in Jamaica before. (Renewed applause.) And that brings me to the point where I would like to speak a few minutes about the future of the movement and the loyalty that I feel is going to attend the cause in the future. FUTURE OF THE MOVEMENT

I believe that that magnetism of Marcus Garvey that gripped all of us as we gazed upon him there in New Orleans; I believe the magnetism of that honorable leader will permeate the entire world, cause people of all nations, of all climes, to rally to the cause and the principles upon which this organization stands. Marcus Garvey is the first man that brought an organization to us whose principles appealed to the manhood of the people, whose tenets were an appeal to them to cut loose from slavish and debasing ideals. Let Negroes all over the world realize that all the Negroes are one in this great fight for freedom; let them realize that it matters not in what part of the world you happen to be, you are suffering because you are black. "Let the Negro realize that I am going now," says the Hon. Marcus Garvey, "to prosecute the program more vigorously than ever before in my life, and every time I move, every time I speak, I shall speak in the interest of four hundred million Negroes." And, my friends, as you sit here tonight, let me beseech you that as he acts in your cause, I hope you will loyally respond to whatever duty he asks 16

DECEMBER 19X7

you to assume. I believe you will realize he is the only great leader that has taken the rank and file of his race into his confidence. He could have gone off" into the corner with the intelligentsia and plotted your destruction. He could have gone off into the corner with politicians and been bribed from the path he chose to tread, but he has stood fast, right in the middle of the road in the cause of African Redemption, and I feel that he merits the utmost loyalty. D o N O T B E D E C E I V E D BY E N E M Y PROPAGANDA

I want to appeal to you not to be moved by propaganda, not to be moved by unfavorable statements in the press, not to be moved by the wiles of the enemy. They pretend that they took Marcus Garvey away for one thing, but we know they took him away for another. They thought that by taking Marcus Garvey away it would hamper this great organization, but, as the former speaker [M. L. T. De Mena] said, this is a universal movement. Marcus Garvey has a home anywhere in the world where people are downtrodden and oppressed (applause), and even if they send him away from Jamaica he will be received with open arms wherever he goes, for the oppressed of every land look upon him as their savior. I will tell you of a little incident at the immigration headquarters in New Orleans. There was a Chinaman held there awaiting deportation. That Chinaman was as interested in Marcus Garvey as we were. And he was a rich Chinaman. He had thousands of dollars there in New Orleans. I was given a little sketch of the reason he was there. They did not know how he got the money and what he was doing. And they have held him there and questioned him as to why he is over here, but he would not tell anybody. He wanted us to know that the CHINESE PEOPLE W E R E DEEPLY IMPRESSED

with the work of the Hon. Marcus Garvey. (Applause.) He even went so far as to get one of the Chinese newspapers to show us what is being said in China about Marcus Garvey, but we could not read the paper. (Laughter.) But we believed what he said anyhow, because I do know they have written about Marcus Garvey in Chinese books, they have printed his picture in their publications, feeling he is the personificaton o f justice for the oppressed peoples. So you see, even if they were to send Marcus Garvey to China or Japan,8 he would be welcome. (Applause.) Sending him away from America does not mean anything—and they know it. The great powers with colonial possessions are more disturbed tonight than they would have been if Marcus Garvey had not been deported. They think that Marcus Garvey is going to cause a revolution in Africa, but he has fooled them for eight years, and he is going to fool them right on. And we are not worried about how many spies they send around here, how many stool pigeons—let them come from France, Great Britain, or elsewhere—we do know that the Garvey movement is going 17

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

to destroy colonial dominion in Africa. I am here to tell you that the pot is boiling, and it is going to boil over before they know it. M O R E P O W E R F U L THAN E V E R

Justice has always prevailed in the case [cause?] of a people. You may crush the truth to earth, but it will rise again. They took the Hon. Marcus Garvey to Atlanta, hoping it would die there; but he has come forth more cheerful and more powerful today than he has ever been before. They have utilized every power known to man to keep Africa and the children of Ethiopia down, but amidst all the oppression our foreparents continued to struggle and hope for the coming of a better day. They made sacrifices of all kinds. Their bones lie bleaching beneath the soil of many countries. Their blood has drenched the sod of many countries, but they endured willingly, hoping and praying that a better day would come. And I believe that the coming of Marcus Garvey is the reward for all their sacrifice. Their prayers went up to God and He has answered them by sending Marcus Garvey to the black people of the world. I believe that that Power that rules the universe, that created all mankind—I believe that He shall watch and watch over us until that day, not far distant, when the alien shall loose his grip upon Africa. HAS PERFECTED THE PROGRAM

Don't be disheartened; don't be in doubt. Marcus Garvey has sat down in the solitude of prison confinement and he has mapped out a program that takes into account every condition of the Negro, physical and mental; and I am here to tell you that when we begin to execute this program which he has worked out in his quiet hours at Atlanta, kings and queens will tremble on their thrones. (Applause.) Marcus Garvey has a program like no other program in the world, and nothing can stop it. Base and vicious propaganda cannot stop it. We know nothing about the word "impossible." With confidence in God and Marcus Garvey, we shall put over the program. And I am going to stick to the cause. I have stuck thus long, and if I am to be passed upon by any man, I am willing to be passed upon by my chieftain, the Hon. Marcus Garvey; and as he has put his stamp of approval upon me, I assure you and him that never will the enemy be able to influence me, but I shall contribute my utmost and do all that in me lies to put over the program so nobly begun and sustained by the matchless leadership of the Hon. Marcus Garvey, President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and, if you please, First Provisional President of Africa. (Loud and prolonged applause.) Printed in NW,

17 December 1927. Original headlines omitted, text abridged.

1. The first chapter of the book of Timothy can be read as a parable analogous to Garvey's own perception of his false imprisonment, martyrdom, deportation, and apostolic furtherance of a cause. Just as Garvey spoke to Knox and his other followers on the eve of his deportation from 18

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the United States, so the apostle Paul had exhorted his colleague Timothy to remain behind at Ephesus while he went into Macedonia, and to entreat those about him to remain faithful and to "teach no other doctrine" (1 Tim. 1:3). Paul went on to praise the goodness of the law, if it is not misused or misapplied (1 Tim. 1:8-11) and to thank Jesus for delivering him from unbelief and committing him to die ministry. A former sinner, he told Timothy, "I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting" (1 Tim. 1:16). 2. Garvey is referring to Julian A. Schoen of Georgia who became deputy warden at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary a week before Garvey's arrival. Schoen reported a verbal confrontation between Garvey and himself when Garvey was serving on a cleaning detail in May 1926. The incident was recorded in Garvey's prison files as a case of insolence; Garvey was reprimanded and warned. When Garvey wrote an autobiographical series of articles for the Pittsburgh Courier in 1930, he recalled that "the Deputy Warden of the institution made every effort to carry out the wishes of my enemies. When I was drafted for work he gave me the hardest and dirtiest task in the prison, thinking that that would have ruffled my spirits to cause further punishment." Garvey had a better relationship with Warden John W. Snook, who transferred him from cleaning detail "to the best position that a colored man could have in the prison." Garvey reserved high praise for M r . Snook, stating that he "made everything comfortable for me" (Robert A. Hill and Barbara Bair, eds., Marcus Garvey: Life and Lessons [Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1987], pp. 89-90; Garvey Papers 6: 517). 3. The Garvey Club of New York was a UNIA division that remained loyal to Garvey after the split between the UNIA leader and leaders of the New York local UNIA division in 1929. The club emerged while Garvey was in prison in 1927, when it held an organizational meeting at the Commonwealth Casino (on 135th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues) and elected its first officers on 7 October 1927 (E. B. Knox to Marcus Garvey, 6 October 1927, A F R C , AP). 4. A reference to UNIA properties lost during Garvey's incarceration. The S.S. Goethais, the first and only ship operated by the Black Star Line, was sold by court order to meet payment of back wages to crew members on 29 March 1926. The UNIA office building at 52 West 135th Street was sold for back taxes in January 1926. The main UNIA headquarters at 54-56 West 135th Street was mortgaged in early 1926. Several months later, in November 1926, it was sold at public auction in cash settlement for a suit brought against the Black Star Line. Liberty Hall, located at 120 West 138th Street, was mortgaged heavily at the end of 1926 in order to settle court claims for back salaries of UNIA officials. The mortgages were assumed temporarily by Harlem community leader Casper Holstein in January 1927 while the UNIA launched an effort to regain financial control of the property. Despite these fund-raising appeals, the building was foreclosed and auctioned on 14 September 1927. The UNIA printing plant, located at 2305 Seventh Avenue, was subject to financial difficulties during the same time period (Garvey Papers 6: 238 n. 2, 264 n. 1, 548-549, nn. 1, 2). 5. Blanks appear in original article. 6. After Garvey was deported from the United States in early December 1927, Amy Jacques Garvey remained behind in New York to settle affairs there. She joined Garvey in Jamaica a few days before the new year (G&G, pp. 179-180). 7. M. L. T. De Mena became assistant international organizer in 1926, fourth assistant president general in 1927, and international organizer in 1929 (NW, 27 March 1926, 19 March 1927; DG, 2 August and 3 September 1929). 8. Garvey and the subject of Pan-Africanism attracted considerable interest in Japan in the mid-i920s. Japanese publications that discussed Garvey include "Kokujin Garvey" (Garvey, the Negro) an article by Shoichi Midoro (Kaizo 4, no. 1 [January 1922]: 21-26); Kametaro Mitsukawa's Kokujin Mondai (The Negro Question) (Tokyo: Niyu Meicho Kankokai, 1925) which contained photographs of Garvey and discussion of him as UNIA president general; and Toyonosuke Takimoto's Kokujin Mondai Taikan (General View of the Negro Question) (Tokyo: Chuo Uo Jigyo Kyokai, 1928) (R. Kato, director, National Diet Library, Tokyo, Japan, to Robert A. Hill, 31 July 1973). There were a number of black organizations in the United States that were influenced by Japanese organizers and/or Japanese thought, including the Pacific Movement of the Eastern World, the Moorish Science Temple, and the UNIA ("Survey of Racial Conditions in the United States," 1942, DJ-FBI, file 100-135-273). The Negro World made frequent references to Asia. The 14 January 1920 issue carried an editorial comment entided "Sympathetic Interest of Asia" stating that "Japan and China continue to take keen interest in our work" and reporting that Japanese and Chinese students showed an avid interest in UNIA publications and that Asian journalists were drawn to the topic of African nationalism (NW, 14 January 1920). 19

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Article by Marcus Garvey in the Daily Gleaner [Kingston,][[December n, 1927]] M A R C U S G A R V E Y ' S M E S S A G E TO T H E P E O P L E OF J A M A I C A

M r . Marcus Garvey, President General of the U.N.I.A. yesterday gave this message to the people of Jamaica through the columns of the Gleaner: I am glad to be once more in Jamaica, the country seems as inviting as it ever was, to be away is to lose its beautiful touch of Nature, to return is to realise that all the world is not frigid and soulless. One can see and learn so much from the natural beauty of the Island, and it is hard to imagine that in the midst of such beauty there can exist so much suffering, that must appeal to human love and fellowship. To any heart this much [must] teach the lesson of the relationship of God and man. God is good, the country is beautiful, and it is man's duty to share it with his fellowman, but unfortunately it seems that one section is extremely happy whilst another is sadly poor. I was born in the beautiful parish of St. Ann 1 near the falls of the Roaring River. I grew with nature and drank much of her inspiration; hence my soul is full of human love, and on this my return to Jamaica I shall seek to do all I can for the mass of the people who suffer most. Anything that will help to solve the great world problem of the negro, with which I am particularly charged, by virtue of my position as President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, I shall not fail to do. I am a Jamaican by birth. I am a Negro, and all things black appeal to me with a loving sympathy. I love the black race—I respect every unit of it. I have gladly suffered to win recognition for the people, and I am willing at all times to yield all for them. I respect all, and only those who respect my race, and anyone who thinks he can insult my race and merit my respect is mistaken. I fear no one in the world, but God. I respect all constituted authority; and during my stay in Jamaica I shall do everything to co-operate with the Government in helping the common people. Knowing the constitutional Laws of England as I do and the Laws of Jamaica I shall within the Law do everything to help the people in keeping with the performance of my duties as head of the International movement of Negro uplift.

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The authorities in Jamaica may depend on me to co-operate with and help them to preserve that great system of order that has been peculiar to the island of Jamaica, an integral part of the British Empire. I hate nothing worse than disorder. Nothing can be accomplished through disorder, and I hope no one will mistake my presence in Jamaica for anything else but for peacefully and intelligently helping the people of my race. All such scoundrels as seek patriotism as a cloak for their wrongs shall find in me a s[t]ubborn Jamaican—a Britisher who will not yield a tittle of his constitutional rights to anyone. I am not here to engage in any dispute with any one as to leadership. I have too much of the business of my organization to look after than to waste time in wrangling about leadership. All I desire is to see a happy people and I shall co-operate with all the powers that be to bring that about. I have no accusations to make about present or past leadership. I am in sympathy with everybody who does everything to advance the manhood of the country: I have had a number of friends in England, in and out [of) Parliament, and I hope to meet them when I go to England in the Spring; and with their cooperation I shall do as much as possible for the Negroes, who are subjects of Great Britain, even as I shall with the help of my white friends in America, do for the Negroes of America. I am glad to be back and to make friends with everybody. God bless Jamaica and all its people. Printed in DG,

12 December 1927. Front-page article.

1. St. Ann Parish, in Middlesex County, is the largest parish of Jamaica. It is known as the garden parish because of the beauty of its lush scenery, including waterfalls, rolling pastures, and the tropical coastline. The commercial port of St. Ann's Bay (Garve/s birthplace) is the main town of the parish and a center for transport of coconuts and bananas grown in the coastal region (Philip P. Olley, Jamaica, British West Indies [Kingston: Tourist Trade Development Board, 1952], pp. 197-203).

Report of Speech by Marcus Garvey in the Daily Gleaner [[Ward Theatre, 1 Kingston, 11 December 1927]] Thunderous applause greeted M r . Garvey when he stepped forward to speak. Striking a characteristic pose, with his hands in the pockets of his trousers and his coat thrown back, he said:

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Mr. Chairman [H. A. L. Simpson],2 Lady [Henrietta Vinton] Davis, Officersf,] Members and Friends of the Kingston Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association—I am pleased to be in your midst once more. I came back to the island yesterday and was surprised at the warm reception you gave me, because so many evil and bad things have been said about me in my absence. I am here to answer every man in Jamaica (vociferous applause during which Mr. Garvey drinks from a glass of water.) You shall find no coward in me. You shall find a black man ready and willing to represent the interests of the black people of this country and the black people of the world, without any compromise (great applause). We have had this rot long enough and Marcus Garvey is here, as a British subject, to constitutionally see that Negroes living under the British flag receive their constitutional rights (applause). Stepping up and down across the stage, Mr. Garvey in impassioned tones continued: But I do not only represent the interest of British Negroes. By virtue of my office as President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association of the world, I represent the interests of the black peoples of the world (cheers), the black people of America, the black peoples of Africa, the black peoples of South and Central America and the black peoples of the West Indies (applause). I am charged with that responsible duty and by God I shall not shirk it (prolonged applause). What better can I say than to repeat to you the words of that great poet-philosopher of England, W. E. Henley in his "Invictus:" Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods there be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced or cried aloud; Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody but unbowed. Beyond the vale of dark and fears Looms but the terror of the shade And yet, the passing of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate How charged with punishments the scroll; 22

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I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul. (Prolonged cheers). chairman said, represent

I, in conformity with what the good

PEACE AND O R D E R

I respect constitutional authority but I shall not allow the scoundrel under the guise of constitutional authority, whoever he may be, to rob and infringe upon the rights of my people (applause). As a British subject, it is my bounden duty, with all good citizens, to uphold the Constitution and the Law. But why should I make any clique within the citizenry, under the guise of patriotism, that subtle guise that so many rascals hide under[,] to rob and oppress the people? Why should I allow that then to shatter the rights of other citizens who, under the constitution^] are entitled to equal rights like everyone else? My fore-parents, my grand-parents, and my mother and father, did not suffer and die to give me an education to oppress or to slight or to discourage my people[.] Whatsoever education I acquired out of their sacrifice of over 300 years, I shall use it for the salvation of the 400 million [N]egroes of the world, and the day when I forsake my people, may God Almighty say: "There shall be no more light for you." I am a black man. I have returned under certain circumstances to my native land, not to lead white people, not to lead coloured people who do not call themselves Negroes, but to lead black people and those who call themselves Negroes towards their destiny. But I want you to understand that in coming to Jamaica I have not come to Jamaica only to represent the interest of Jamaicans, [but] because[,] as I said[,] by virtue of my position as President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association[,] I have an international duty to perform (cheers). I have not come to Jamaica to beg anybody [for] anything, not for a shilling or a pound, nor to apologise to anybody for anything I may say at any time. I know what to say within the Empire and how to say it within the Empire (applause). And in this far-flung outpost of the Empire, where great advantage is being taken of the constitution of the Mother Country, England, I want those who think they can fool Marcus Garvey and fool the Negro peoples of this country, so long as they behave and conduct themselves as I hope they will—they who think they can do it— I want them to know they are making a great mistake. When I look upon the people of this country, their naked condition—their dirty and diseased condition—do you think that I, so long as there is a God, could keep my mouth closed and my soul steady as a black 23

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

man, and let the Chinaman, the Syrian[,] sap the wealth o f this country while our people die in poverty?3 I have friends enough in England, in its Parliament and in its public life, to see that R I G H T AND JUSTICE

is [are] done to the people of the Empire and particularly the rights of the people o f the country where I am. I know constitutional rights and I shall observe them to the letter, but no villain or rascal shall get away with it, blindfolding anybody that anybody is going to be disloyal. There is no need to be disloyal. All the people o f Jamaica want to do is to seriously understand and know themselves, and as British subjects to know that they have rights that the British Government is bound to respect when you intelligently represent those rights to them. I shall not have any scruples in presenting those rights. In a short time I shall be in the Mother Country, England, not only to represent your interests (applause) but I shall be in England and other parts o f Continental Europe to represent the interests of the Negroes o f America and the [NJegroes o f the world, through the League of Nations and other representative bodies. During my sojourn in Jamaica I shall do absolutely nothing to create any cleavage between the people living here[.] I desire to see prosperity, but by God, it shall not be on one side. What satisfaction anyone can get in being happy and see his brother wallowing in dirt and filth and disease? Why, it is a wonder to me. How can men feel happy living in luxury when others are living in disease and then when someone tries to help the other out o f disease, the subtle culprit [talks] about disloyalty? You can't fool the Government with that stuff, neither can you fool Marcus Garvey with that stuff. In America we say, "Can that stuff." My greatest desire is to see all humanity happy and in peace, whether white, yellow or black, because I know God made this wonderful world for all mankind. And you people are to be blamed more so for your condition than anybody else. When God Almighty made man He never particularized, whether he was white or red or black; He made man the lord of His creation, gave him ownership and possession of the world, and you have been so darned lazy that you have allowed the other fellow to run away with the whole world and now H E IS B L U F F I N G

you and letting you know that the world belongs to him and that you have no share in it. He bluffed my great grandfather, he bluffed my grandfather, he bluffed my father, because they did not know any better, but he will have a hard time bluffing this Marcus Garvey who has been through the same schools he has been through, who 24

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has shouldered with him in college and in university, who has met him in the same campus and imbibed every idea from the same text books, out of which he has studied from Socrates and Plato to Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson. I have followed the rest of them (great applause) in your Roman and British Constitutional Law and American Law and International Law. I have followed him all the way to pro[tect] [my]self (applause). What can they tell me that I do not know? What deception they can practice up[o]n me that I cannot unravel? In the Liberal Arts[,] in what field can they make a fool of me? And surely whatsoever intelligence I do possess, I shall use it for those who look like me, and suffer like me. (Applause). I am not attempting to lead the great white race, that is capable of leading itself in England or in continental Europe. During my ten years of sojourn in America, I did not attempt to lead the great white people of America, because in America they have men capable of leading their own race—they have had their Theodore Roosevelts, their Woodrow Wilsons in America. In England they have their Balfours; they had had their David Lloyd George and now they have their Stanley Baldwin. 4 Across the Continent, across the channel, they have their Clemenceau, their Briand, all capable of leading the French or the Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon or AngloAmerican races. I am not attempting to lead the branches of the Mongolian races. In China they have capable leaders, men like Eugene Chen. 5 In Japan they have their [Kikujaro] Ishii. I am not English by race. I am not a Teuton[,] I am not a Mongolian, neither Chinesef,] neither Japanese, I am a Negro (applause). And as those able men of other races have given their abilities to the improvement and development of their respective races, so, under the leadership of God Almighty and the Christ I believe in, shall I D E V O T E MY ABILITIES

to the uplift of the people of my race (great applause). I shall, as a common duty, work while I remain in my native land, with all my forces bent upon doing good. I shall lend my energies and abilitiesf,] and if I have any money, to aid the Government and those who are working for the social and economical development of the country. I shall do nothing to obstruct[.] I appreciate so much the thoughtful consideration of the city Government and the Police Department of the Government to extend to me such a welcome yesterday (hear, hear). To those who are responsible, let me say: Have no fear about my presence in Jamaica. D o not allow those Shylocks 6 who are sucking the blood of the people to fool you that anybody is disloyal, because Marcus Garvey is disloyal to no constituted authority, but we want those who have the money bag hoarded at the cost of lives, to ease up (laughter 25

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and applause). And I can say nothing better by way o f advice, to you the people who suffer most. You have been loyal and patient in the past. There is no disloyalty and there is absolutely no reason why you should change that attitude now. I can help you better by having you do things orderly as you have always (hear, hear) and as Mr. Simpson said, the greatest hurt and injury you could do me is to allow your enemies and my enemies to misinterpret me through any act of yours (applause. A voice: God forbid). I do not like abruptness. I do not like anything crude. I like to see the people of my race go about their business in a calm and deliberate way as other people do. I have travelled extensively abroad, on the Continent of Europe and the Continent of America—studying the psychology of people and their activities in politics, and I have seen some wonderful demonstrations, demonstrations involving millions of people present at one time, and sometimes if you dropped a pin you could hear. Processions passing through the streets o f half a million people would be quiet and orderly. I would like to see JAMAICA D E V E L O P

into that. Whatseover your grievance is, ask for it in a constitutional and pleasant way, but don't stop asking until you get it (applause). Well, I know how to get what you want, if you help me in getting what you want (applause). I am not going to allow any little vagabond around the corner to tell me: You better do that and don't do that. I am going to know the laws o f my country and constitutionally get what I want in my country; and since Jamaica is only a Dominion 7 and has not the last word to say on anything affecting the interests of the people in the Dominion, I know where to go, beyond the little dominion to get the rights that are belonging to the people (applause) and I can speak to the English people with as much telling effect as I have spoken for ten years and converted eleven million people in the United States of America. I understand that a little boy who wears the cloth at St. George's [Church], 8 wrote something in one o f the papers about me. I have not seen it and I won't want to criticise him thoroughly before I have seen it—questioning what Garvey has done. It is not for me to tell him what I have done. He can go to any part o f the world and he can see what Garvey has done with the little button called Red, Black and Green. From East Africa to West Africa, from North Africa to South Africa, he will find the spirit that exists in this Hall tonight, and throughout the length and breadth o f Continental America where they got so scared and had to run me from (applause). You will find there on a Sunday night like this

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in 1,400 Liberty Halls, crowds twice as large as in here, where we have four million ACTIVE MEMBERS

of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Ask that little religious pimp at St. George's what he has done other than talking about something that he knows nothing about. (A voice: Poor thing)—the philosophy of religion. If he thinks he knows anything let that B.A., B.D., of St. George's meet me on the platform at the Ward Theatre on any subject at any time (applause). I have not to apologize to anybody for being black because God Almighty knew what He was doing when he made me black. G o back to ancient history, although the historical dissipat[e]rs of the twentieth century have tried to cloud the issue, but go back to the fathers of history, go back to the Greeks who laid the foundation of the greatest civilization, after inheriting it from us, and they will tell you that when the white peoples of Europe were existing in continental barbarism and were cave men, eating their own dead and sucking their own blood, when over in Ethiopia the gods had a progressive civilization—because the Greeks looked upon us then as gods. The Greeks in their Mythology used to say that the gods of Greece were gone over to Ethiopia to commune with the gods of Ethiopia—the black men of E[th]iopia. [H. G.] Wells9 and the modern historians may try to hide the truth from you but deep down in the classics of the ages you will find written there the achievements of our fathers in the days of yore (hear, hear): The black men of Carthage, the black men of Ethiopia, the black men of Egypt and Timbuctoo and Alexandria, 10 gave the light of civilization to the world (applause). The power and force you were once under, the blessing of God shall return to you (applause). Ethiopia shall surely stretch forth her hands unto God and Princes shall come out of Egypt; and I would be untrue to the F A I T H OF M Y F A T H E R S

and untrue to my own conscience; I would be untrue to my God, if I did not stand up on a platform of racial righteousness, of racial truth, of racial honour and racial self-respect. Why, there is no beauty in the world except it looks like the people who look like me (applause). There is beauty in our women, there is beauty in our children[,] because God made us in His image, as there is beauty in every race. Anglo-Saxons see beauty in themselves to the exclusion of all others; the people of Mongolia, the Chinese, the Japanese, see beauty in themselves to the exclusion of all other beauty. I shall teach the black man to see beauty in himself to the exclusion of

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all others and be hanged to the man who says it shall not be so. What do I care about you if you do not care anything about me? I respect men as they respect me. I am willing to honour men as they honour me, but if you think the honour is going to be on one side, you are crazy (laughter and cheers). All that I ask of you people is: Find yourselves (hear, hear). Get to know yourselves, not by envying the other fellow, not by harbouring malice about the other fellow, but by knowing that you are capable of being what you want to be. The great difference between men is knowing self and not knowing self. What am I? I am just like any other Negro boy in this building who has grown up to forty years through the greatest disadvantages of the country in which he was born. I had no better opportunity than any of the average boys in this country. I was born in the same surroundings, under the same handicaps, but I was just determined that nobody should trample upon my head and that what there was in the world for men, I wanted to get my share, and I got it. (Applause). Don't get the wrong idea that I got money. I did not get it. That is one thing in the Jamaica way of saying things—foolishness—that I seemed to have taken on to—to ignore money. I did not take money, for I long realized that there W E R E GREATER T H I N G S

in the world than money—human love and human brotherhood are greater than money. When you can look any man in the face as a man, that is greater than money, so I did not mean [to get] money; I mean I went out to get my bit of knowledge from the world by seeking for it around me. You have not to go to the College, you have not to go to the High School[,] if you don't want to. You have not to go to Cambridge or Oxford, or London, or Berlin, or Paris, or Columbia or Yale or Harvard, you can get it from the great Alma Mater, the academy of the world. All Nature is the classroom. When a man gets to know himself that he is God himself personified, that there is no greater personage in the world than himself, being God, then he will be on the right track towards success in this life and success and happiness in the life beyond. Every man is a God himself." Now, do not misunderstand religion, because it is a difficult question, on which some of those re[li]gious retailers might try to attack me. When I say that man is a God, I mean this: That there is one Great Cause in the Universe, some want to call Him the First Cause, some call Him Nature, some call Him Providence. You and I, and millions of us who are Christians call Him God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. That one God is the Universal Whole of all the Gods there 28

DECEMBER 1927

are and you are units of that God. In each and every one of you is the Spirit Unit of that God. When you debase your physical and spiritual self, you debase the God in you. When you respect God you respect yourselves, because there is no one superior to you but God. Reduce the proposition to its finest logical conclusion and you will find that outside of the desires of society to arrange itself for its own protection, there is nothing in the world, outside of the Law, for a man to fear, but himself and God. And I want you, Negro peoples of Jamaica and of the world, to realize that God is the O N L Y POWER IN THE W O R L D

that you should fear. Respect Law, because society arranges Law for your own protection and institutes certain executives to see that the Law is executed. Respect those executives, respect Law, but fear no man. (Applause). Where is the man in all the universe, that can strike fear or terror in the heart of Marcus Garvey? But that does not mean a license to go and abuse other people, (hear, hear), that does not mean a license to run amuck, that does not mean a license to disrespect the rights of other people[.] If you respect yourselves, you must, naturally, respect others. If you expect others to respect you, you naturally must respect them. Those are the cardinal principles upon which the Universal Negro Improvement Association as an organization is founded, and any one who says to the contrary is a darned liar. Go anywhere within the pales of civilization and you will find that such a principle can fit into any Constitution, whether British, American, French[,] even [a] German or Chinese constitution. For ten years, I made my platform in the United States of America, where I made millions of friends, black and coloured. I shall make a similar platform in England, in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and I shall one day grace the floor of the League of Nations and I shall say: Gentlemen, gentlemen, we four hundred million Negroes shall be heard. ([T]remendous applause). Continuing, M r . Garvey said that he did not come to Jamaica for any local propaganda. Some people thought he was going to run for the Legislative Council, 12 but he had no time to go there. Some said he came to create a disturbance, but he was so busy with the U.N.I.A. that he had no time for that, and he could assure everybody that he came here because it was his home and no man was going to keep him out of this country. He understood that somebody said that he was going to frame up [Marcus Garvey] and say that he was crazy, but he would like to see him do it. They sent poor [Alexander] Bedward" to the Asylum, but they would have a hard time to get him there, because when they put Marcus Garvey in the Asylum they would have to 29

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

put millions of other men, including people like Lloyd George. He said that Mr. Lloyd George was a good friend of his; Lloyd George had retired,14 but he would like to see him get back and he hoped to help him to return because he would be on the stump in England. He wanted them all to keep order, he wanted them to be respectful, courteous, kind and considerate and to bear their brothers' burdens. He wanted to see the spirit of love everywhere and to see them set a good example and let the world respect the Negro people. He said he would not be remaining here, he would be running in and running out. Some days he would be in Trinidad, sometimes in England, France, British Honduras, British Guiana and other places and sometimes in the United States. (Applause). He had a fine time in the United States and had made many friends, amongst Negro people and white people. He did not come here to take up any collection from anybody. He had as much intelligence and ability to get for himself, like anybody in the world, but he decided to give his energy, ability and youth for the benefit of his people. They had hounded him down and put him in prison and called him all kinds of names. They thought in America that if they put him in jail, they would destroy the U.N.I.A., but the Association was three times as strong now. They should understand that it was not America that sent him out here. The great heart of America was surprised, but he did not want to make any trouble. In America there was the great Republican Party and the great Democratic Party, one having spite against the other. The party who was his enemy was in power but in the next election he hoped his friends would be in and that they would say to him: Come home. (Applause). He was not worried; he has taken it good-naturedly. He did not care what country he was in; what he was concerned about was the people of his race. He concluded with an appeal to the people to fairly and squarely deal with each other and to make the best out of life. Before sitting down amidst wild applause, Mr. Garvey said that they would hear him again. He would address a meeting, probably next Sunday night in the Theatre, and his subject would be: "My persecution, indictment, trial, conviction, imprisonment, and liberation in the United States of America." He would explain to the friends in Jamaica, and incidentally to the whole world—his speech that night would be published in the United States [in] the next ten days—what the position was. He wanted his friends in America to know why he was sent out of the country and he would give that explanation, possibly next Sunday. "May God Bless You All," were his last words. Miss Davis (Fourth Assistant President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association) declared that she was glad to be there to welcome this great son of Jamaica[,] this great Negro. She has always considered herself a Negro, and looked upon herself as a Negro. It was indeed a great pleasure to welcome home the greatest Negro in the world. "Welcome, thrice welcome to your native land." She concluded: ["]We owe you our allegiance and will gladly give it to you.["] 30

DECEMBER 1927

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Garvey proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Simpson for presiding and pointed out how deeply grateful he was for the assistance that had been accorded to him. The singing of the [British] National Anthem15 and Eth[i]opian National Anthem 16 then brought the meeting to a close. Printed in DG, 12 December 1927. Original headlines omitted. 1. Ward Theatre was the largest indoor meeting place in Jamaica in 1927. Located on the north side of "the parade," a large park in the center of Kingston, the facility had a seating capacity of one thousand. It was a gift of Col. Charles James Ward, the custos of Kingston and St. Andrew, and was completed in 1912. In the late 1920s the facility was used as a movie theater and playhouse. It was remodeled in the late 1960s and is still in existence (Anita Johnson, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 8 January 1986). 2. H. A. L. Simpson (1872-1938), a colleague of Garvey's in National Club political activities in Jamaica before Garvey journeyed to the United States, became mayor of Kingston (1912-1916, 1925, 1935-1937) and, in 1929, a member of Garvey's Peoples' Political party. He was also a representative from Kingston on the municipal Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, a council that governed the adjoining parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew (Garvey Papers 1: 21-22 n. 1). 3. In 1921, of the total Jamaican population of 858,118, 8,700 were Chinese and 17,725 East Indian, with 817,643 of African descent (The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List [London: Waterlow and Sons, 1940], pp. 345, 349). In the late 1920s and early 1930s competition in retail and small manufacturing trades increased with Syrian and Chinese immigration—some 1,045 immigrants from these areas arrived in the years 1930-1933. By 1936 there were 172 Syrians and 2,492 Chinese in business positions, while the vast majority of black Jamaicans remained concentrated in the laboring or peasant classes, with unemployment among these lower classes rising. By the mid-i93os the theme of "alien" control of Jamaican commerce had become a major one in both local politics and the press. The cause of xenophobic sentiments, which had strong overtones of ethnic nationalism, was embraced by groups like the Native Industries Protection Committee, the Permanent Jamaica Development Convention, and Our Own Patriotic Club, which lobbied for stringent immigration quotas against the Syrians and Chinese. Other groups urged the deportation of members of these groups currently residing on the island or the institution of legislative protections to prevent alien monopolies in the grocery, baking, and clothing trades. An ethnocentric brand of economic nationalism was also expressed in the editorials of Alfred A. Mends, editor of Plain Talk. Mends, who was essentially a Garveyite in his sympathies, devoted space to the concerns of Jamaican merchants and shopkeepers. In the column "Jamaica for Jamaicans" the writer identified as "Patriotic Pioneer" (possibly Mends himself) wrote that "the foreign traders ha[ve] completely captured the trade of this country. If the commerce of a country is taken away, the country is taken away." If the black majority, the writer continued, would only "buy from themselves . . . the aliens will have no one to buy from them and must automatically go" (quoted in Ken Post, Arise Ye Starvelings: The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Aftermath [The Hague, Boston, London: Martinus NijhofF, 1978], pp. 209-210, see also 208-212; see also BM 3, no. 10 [July 1938]: 6; Richard Hart, The Origin and Development of the People of Jamaica [Montreal: International Caribbean Service Bureau, 1974], p. 24; Orlando Patterson, Ethnic Chauvinism: The Reactionary Impulse [New York: Stein and Day, 1977], pp. 113146; George W. Roberts, The Population of Jamaica [1957; reprint ed., Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus Reprint, 1979], p. 66). 4. Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947), a member of the Conservative party, was prime minister of Britain in 1923 and 1924-1929. He responded to the increasing unemployment and labor unrest of the period by opposing union influence. He remained powerful during Ramsay MacDonald's coalition National government and became prime minister again in 1935-1937. His high praise for the League of Nations in the 1935 election campaign was contradicted by the controversial support he gave as prime minister for the secret pact negotiated with the Italians in the same year by British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval. The pact would have surrendered a large portion of Ethiopian territory to Italian control in an effort to appease Mussolini (H. Montgomery Hyde, Baldwin: The Unexpected Prime Minister [London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1973]; Kenneth Young, Stanley Baldwin [London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976]).

31

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PAPERS

5. Eugene Chen (1878-1944) was born in Trinidad, BWI. He studied in London and practiced law in the West Indies before traveling to China, where he became the editor of the Peking Gazette (1914-1916). He was imprisoned in 1916-1917 for his allegedly anti-Japanese articles. He pursued further editorial work in Canton in the 1920s and became active in the Kuomintang. He was foreign minister at Hankow (1927) and in Europe (1927-1930) before going to Japan in the 1930s. He was in and out of favor with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government, but was formally reinstated to the Kuomintang in 1938 (NTT, 21 May 19+4; Times [London], 22 May 1944; WSD). 6. Shylock was the protagonist of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, a usurer and the antagonist of Antonio in the play. The word shylock is used colloquially to refer to a thief or extortionist, or one who exploits others by lending money at an inordinately high rate of interest. 7. Jamaica was a crown colony, not a dominion. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand had dominion status. The Jamaica Crown Colony government was adopted in 1866. Jamaica achieved independence in August 1962 (Clinton Black, History of Jamaica 3d ed., rev. [London and Glasgow: Collins Press, 1965], p. 8). 8. A reference to Rev. Percival William Gibson (1893-1970), a clergyman at St. George's Anglican Church in Kingston. Gibson was born in St. Andrew. He was ordained in 1918 and became the first Jamaican to be promoted to the highest position in the Anglican Church in his homeland. He was a lecturer at the Institute of Jamaica and one of the founders of Kingston College. He received the Musgrave Gold Medal, Jamaica's highest cultural award, in 1922 for the 1921 production of a church pageant at Ward Theatre. He was the co-author of two short works on church education and a writer for the St. George's Herald, the quarterly publication of the St. George's Church Men's Debating Society (later superseded by The Anglican) (Eppie D. Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 27 July 1989; Gibson and G. B. Verity, Churchmanship as Taught by the Church of England, [Kingston: The Gleaner, 1919]; Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: GPO, 1930], p. 311; Gibson and Canon L. E. P. Erith, The Bible and the Church: A Course of Five Lectures [Kingston: Herald, 1938]). 9. A reference to British historian and novelist H. G. Wells's Outline ofHistory, which the author described as "the whole story of life and mankind so far as it is known to-day" (2 vols. [New York: Macmillan, 1920], 1: v). In his section entitled 'The Dawn of History," Wells concentrated on the development of Asian and Aryan civilizations. While he did deal with the theme of racial differences and noted the black African origins of some Egyptian art forms and deities, Wells tended to dismiss "negro Africa" as an area of "savage customs" marginal to the true course of history (p. 197). He described Africa as a bastion of primitivism which was displaced culturally when "the true" [meaning non-black] Egyptians appear on the scene." Similarly, Wells claimed that an end to barbarism was heralded by "the spreading of the Aryan peoples" in western Europe and the development of "White Man civilization . . . in India" (pp. 197, 201). Garvey had long regarded Wells as a representative of the British establishment's imperialist view of Africa and African history. In 1921 he sent a public telegram to Wells, denouncing an article the historian had written for the New York World (n December 1921) advocating European exploitation of African natural resources. "Mr. Wells," Garvey told his Liberty Hall audience, "has to learn that there is today a New Negro, that does not beg or plead, but demands that the Negro be given his just rights" (NW, 17 December 1921). 10. Carthage, an ancient city state in northern Africa, was established by the Phoenicians in the late eighth century B.C. A great sea power, it dominated the western Mediterranean until it lost Sicily to Rome in the First Punic War, 264-241 B.C. Timbuktu, a city near the Niger River in Mali, West Africa, was a key center of trade in the twelfth century, and became the center of Muslim culture after 1310, when it came under Mandingo rule. Alexandria, Egypt, was named after Alexander the Great following his capture of the area in 332 B.C. A center of Hellenistic culture, it was a meeting ground for African, Greek, Arab, and Jewish ideas and cultures (WNGD). 11. The notion of the divinity of man that Garvey voices in this section of his speech closely coincides with New Thought and Science of Mind teachings. As historian Richard Weiss has pointed out, followers of the "new" [thought philosophy] called on individuals to awaken to an awareness of their divinity. Men were but individualized parts of the Infinite Spirit and so in essence the life of God and of man were one. Consciousness of this union was "the secret of all peace, power and prosperity." (The American Myth of Success: From Horatio Alger to Norman Vincent Peale [1969; reprint ed., Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988], p. 148)

32

DECEMBER 1927 The direct quotation used by Weiss is from Orison Swett Marden, Peace, Power and Plenty (New York: Thomas Crowell and Co., 1909), p. ix; see also Charles G. Davis, The Philosophy of Life (Chicago: D. D. Publishing, 1910), and Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1921). 12. The Jamaican constitution in 1928 called for rule by a British-appointed governor, a Privy Council (made up of the senior military officer, the colonial secretary, the attorney general, and other persons nominated by the governor and seated with British approval), and a Legislative Council. The governor presided over the Legislative Council, which was composed of ten appointed members and fourteen elected members, each representing one parish of the island. The Legislative Council initially had only appointed members. It was first convened with elected as well as appointed members under the Order in Council of 1884, which was the result of a 1883 petition campaign by Jamaican citizens (Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: G P O , 1926], pp. 93-97; ibid., 1930, PP- 51-55)13. Alexander Bedward (1859-1930) was a Jamaican religious prophet and folk healer who was institutionalized in an insane asylum after organizing an abortive march to Kingston in April 1921 (Garvey Papers 3: 327 n. 1, 328 n. 2). 14. David Lloyd George retired as prime minister of England in 1922 after directing the nation's affairs through World War I and post-war peace settlements (Kenneth O. Morgan, Lloyd George [London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 197+]). 15. A reference to "God Save the King." The author of the lyrics and the composer of the melody are unknown; the earliest known copy of the words appeared in Gentleman's Magazine (London), 1745. The lyrics of the first two stanzas of the anthem include the following lines: "Send him victorious, / Happy and glorious, / Long to reign over us: / God save the King . . . Scatter his enemies / And make them fall: / Confound their politics, / Frustrate their knavish tricks, / On Thee our hopes we fix: / God save us all" (W. L. Reed and M. J. Bristas, eds., National Anthems of the World, 6th ed. [Poole, New York, Sydney: Blandford Press, 1986], p. 189). The lyrics of " G o d Bless Our President," a song used at U N I A meetings, offered a variation on the themes of the British anthem from a U N I A perspective (words and music by Arnold J. Ford, (iUniversal Ethiopian Hymnal, [New York, 1922], p. 11). 16. The "Universal Ethiopian Anthem" was written by Ben Burrell and Arnold J. Ford. It became the central song of the Garvey movement. Mixing religious and political metaphors, the lyrics of the anthem called for the military redemption of Ethiopia, "our dear Motherland." The stirring chorus began with the words "Advance, advance to victory! Let Africa be free!" (Randall K. Burkett, Gatreyism as a Religious Movement: The Institutionalization of a Black Civil Relgion [Metuchen, N.J., and London: Scarecrow Press, 1978], p. 36; P&O, 2: 140-141). The U N I A anthem has inspired a recent reggae adaptation known as the "Ethiopian National Anthem" (Reggae and African Beat 5, no. 1 [1986]: 38).

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson D e t e c t i v e O f f i c e , E a s t Q u e e n Street, K i n g s t o n , 13th D e c e m b e r 1 9 2 7 M A R C U S G A R V E Y — A D D R E S S AT L I B E R T Y H A L L I b e g t o report that M r . M a r c u s G a r v e y s p e n t the early p a r t o f y e s t e r d a y at the L i b e r t y H a l l o f the K i n g s t o n D i v i s i o n o f the U . N . I . A . , r e c e i v i n g letters and cablegrams

f r o m v a r i o u s parts o f the U n i t e d

States o f A m e r i c a ,

and

also d e s p a t c h i n g replies t o these c o m m u n i c a t i o n / s / , and a t t e n d i n g t o m a t t e r s a f f e c t i n g the o r g a n i z a t i o n . L a t e r o n in the d a y — f r o m 2 - 5 . 3 0 P . M . — h e visited m a n y friends in the C i t y a n d returned to his residence a f t e r w a r d s .

33

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

At 7.30 P.M. he was again at the Liberty Hall where he made a 12 minutes speech. The Hall was crowded from Street to Lane (the premises extend from King Street to Love Lane) and the audience consisted of all classes. M r . Garvey expressed his pleasure of being there that afternoon to address the people of his own race. He said that he was more than thankful for the warm reception accorded him at the Ward Theatre, much more than he had anticipated. He was again pleased to see the crowded Liberty Hall of the Kingston Division, people all of his own race, who came there to welcome him. From 9 o'clock that day he was at Liberty Hall attending to private matters affecting the welfare of the Organization of which he was President General, but he hardly could get through his work, owing to the numerous friends who had come to welcome him. His desire at that particular moment too was to say a few words of encouragement to the members and friends who thought well of him during his absence from the Island and through the many obstacles put in the way to stop the progress of the Movement. He was assuring them that he appreciated all they did for his comfort and for the good of the organization. He was now asking them to cheer up, to be still courageous, that the work he was doing was divinely blessed and no man on this earth could prevent its progress. He wanted them to be orderly. That was his first request of them. He could not tolerate a disorderly people for any length of time, and if there was a Division of the U.N.I.A. which countenanced unlawful actions and disorder, that Division would soon be wiped out of existence as soon as it was brought to light. They were living in a British Country and as such were considered as British subjects. He was quite aware that every facility would be given to them in a British colony under British Constitutional rights. If they were unable to get their proper share of liberty, it did not mean that they should be disorderly and do things that would cast reflections of discredit on them. Every man, woman and child was entided to all rights and privileges of the country in which they were born, but it was with good judgement and proper constitutional representation that they could obtain them. He was therefore asking them and teaching them to be orderly, decent and respectful. They should love law and order, love the members of their race, respect the Officers and members of the Division with whom they associated, and carry out the obligations endowed on them for their future welfare. What was happening in many of the Divisions in many countries could not happen in New York. Every Division was on such a line, that they claimed the respect of the White House and all the high folks of the United States. He would endeavour to do whatever he could for them. His stay in Jamaica would not be for long. Jamaica was too small a country for the work he had to perform. He would be leaving for the Continent of Europe very soon where he intended to meet great men who were interested in the black people, and who were glad to see Africa redeemed. While he remained in Jamaica, he intended to visit many of the places around and speak to his people, and if possible to clear their minds of any doubts they might have of Garvey and the U.N.I.A. He was

34

D E C E M B E R 1927

not here to make trouble, as he never thought of trouble to carry on the work of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He knew that every man, woman and child could be useful citizens of an Empire, Country, City, Town or Village, if they were taught the right way of doing their duty. It was his earnest desire to see them doing well. If they had an Officer in their Division, from the President downwards, who was a drawback to the movement, they should get rid of him without delay and replace him by one who would be worthy of the honour of their race. There was one thing that was very grievous to him on his coming to Jamaica, and that was an article published in the [St. George] Herald in Saturday's issue by a Retailer of the Gospel by the name of [Percival] Gibson, who is supposed to be a B.A. and B.D. and an editor of the paper in which the article appeared. If he (Garvcy) was considered the worst man ever came to Jamaica, as a member of the race, he expected the writer of the article to have written something that would induce him to be a reformed man, but instead of that, the so-called parson, who taught what was told to him and what he knew nothing about, was deliberately telling Jamaica to denounce him. He was glad of the reception he got, and that was enough fact to condemn the writer of the article. He appreciated very much the action of the Government for the protection afforded him. He knew that that was some extra work on their part in maintaining order and controlling the routes he traversed, and he would be the last man to do anything that would bring about a dissatisfaction of his stay in Jamaica; rather he would do all he can to help the people, especially the unfortunate members of his race to become useful and better citizens of the country in which they lived. At the conclusion of M r . Garvey's speech, he demonstrated how the people should shake hands in an orderly manner when greeting anyone in a large audience. He went from the verandah of the Liberty Hall down to the ground and every person in the premises went in consecutive order and shook his hand. When this was finished the Ethiopian Anthem was sung and he left for his home at 9.20 P.M. Miss [Henrietta Vinton] Davis, the president—Mr. [Charles] Johnson, and the first Vice-President—Mr. [Clifford] Erlington, also made speeches on the welcome of M r . Garvey. Miss Davis was on the premises until 10.20 P.M., practising the persons who will be taking part in the Drama to be held in the Ward Theatre on Wednesday next. A collection was taken up as usual, after M r . Garvey left which amounted to

£8.10.6.

The total amount collected at the Ward Theatre on Sunday last, at the Reception of M r . Garvey, was £ 8 4 . 1 2 / - . M r . Garvey has not yet arranged his programme for the country tour, but promised to do so in a day or two. There will be another Mass Meeting at the Liberty Hall to-night. I have had a talk with the President, M r . Johnson, after the meeting was over, and he informed me that M r . Garvey instructed him to sing the British 35

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

National Anthem at all their meetings prior to the Ethiopian National Anthem, and that it should be started from last night. This was done. The banquet, which should have taken place this evening, has been postponed for a few days hence, at the request of M r . Garvey. There was a literary programme throughout the meeting, and the meeting was finally closed at N P.M. CHAS. A. JA,

file

IJ(V),

no.

D:I:0:4I/27. T L S ,

recipient's copy. Marked

PATTERSON

"CONFIDENTIAL."

Editorial by Herbert DeLisser1 in the Daily Gleaner [Kingston, December 13, 1927] M r . Marcus Garvey has stated that the authorities in Jamaica may depend upon him to co-operate with them in preserving "that great system of order that has been peculiar to the island of Jamaica, an integral part of the British Empire." He also says, in a message to the people of Jamaica: " I respect all constituted authority; and during my stay in Jamaica I shall do everything to co-operate with the Government in helping the common people." And yet again: " I hate nothing worse than disorder. Nothing can be accomplished through disorder, and I hope no one will mistake my presence in Jamaica for anything else but for peacefully and intelligently helping the people of my race. All such scoundrels as seek patriotism as a cloak for their wrongs shall find in me a stubborn Jamaican—a Britisher who will not yield a tittle of his constitutional rights to anyone." All this is very excellent; but M r . Garvey is an orator and knows as well as we do that words uttered in impassioned perorations to an audience of varying intelligence often have an effect which the speaker probably never intended. What we have quoted above from his pen cannot be misunderstood; some of the things that he said at the Ward Theatre on Sunday night last may be misunderstood by some of those who heard or have read them. Consequently an orator with such a sense of responsibility as M r . Garvey has been at great pains to assure the island in general that he has, will or should never forget to be careful, not only in his explicit statements, but in the implications of his speech. N o doubt a man who has to appeal to the populace—and this applies to any man in any country—feels at times impelled to indulge in broad generalisations and in sweeping denunciations. It is such generalisations that are beloved by popular audiences; consequently orators instinctively tend to indulge in them. But in spite of the fact that they are generalisations they may have a very particular effect upon certain minds. Thus when one hears wrongdoers and scoundrels sweepingly condemned, one may be inclined to associate specific individuals with those scoundrels, perhaps at times to the infinite discomfort of both the individuals and the parties 36

D E C E M B E R 1927

who have identified them with scoundrels. Here is a danger that has to be guarded against, especially by those who desire to encourage order and a respect for authority as well as to endeavour to accelerate the progress of the people of Jamaica. Throughout his speech at the Ward Theatre M r . Garvey spoke as a British subject, and mentioned with appreciation the Constitution of England and the constitutional rights of Jamaica. That was all admirable. But he also said that "when I look upon the people of this country, their naked condition— their dirty and diseased condition—do you think that I, so long as there is a God, could keep my mouth closed and my soul steady as a black man, and let the Chinaman, the Syrian, sap the wealth of this country while our people die in poverty?" Now as a matter of fact M r . Garvey landed here on Saturday afternoon and spoke on Sunday night; he had not yet had an opportunity of going about the country or even much about Kingston. We are of the opinion that when he does this, and contrasts the general position of the people here to-day with that which they occupied (economically and otherwise) when he was in Jamaica in pre-war days, he will find a difference which, though we might well wish that it were greater, is at the same time unquestionably on the side of betterment and progress. If the Chinaman and the Syrian have succeeded in this country it is because they have special aptitude for trade. We ourselves, with others, have long contended that Jamaica cannot afford to receive any more people of alien birth; and this repeated contention has so far been successful that the immigration which once seemed so serious has now come to a standstill. But we should have raised the same cry about immigration had these immigrants been from the United States, or Trinidad, or Canada or Africa. We have taken our stand on general economic principles, on the ground that there is no room here for any more traders. The so-called aliens have now become part of the island's social and economic fabric; most of them either are or are becoming naturalised. They are certainly keen traders, as a good many Jamaicans are; but while it is perfectly true that the consumer in general must be sharp to protest his own interests, there is no reason to believe that any other bodies of persons, natives and the like, would have acted with any more general business fairness or acumen. We quote the above remark of M r . Garvey's, not because we think he meant anything much by it, but because he must have been told about blood-sucking people by irresponsible informants. As he had not been much longer than twenty-four hours in the colony, his information could scarcely have come to him first-hand. What a man learns from personal enquiries and observation is often very different from what he may be told casually by persons who do not know much about their subject. But second-hand information may be dangerous. We return to his message: with the intentions set out in it no reasonable man will have any quarrel whatever. We have never professed to have any sympathy with M r . Garvey's "Back to Africa" movement; but we have every sympathy with any sound and honest effort made by anyone to advance the legitimate interests of the people of Jamaica—all the people—and to improve 37

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

their condition. Anyone who regards existing conditions as forever fixed and supremely excellent would be a fool. But there has been a steady improvement in Jamaica and there certainly will be more. There is no considerable effort made here to-day that does not include the smaller people. A glance at authentic statistics shows that the peasant has been rapidly becoming a landowner in Jamaica, an independent holder as well as a tiller of the soil, 2 and that is certainly a movement in the right direction. More is done for popular education than before, more is being done to get rid of that dirt and disease to which M r . Garvey has made reference and which no one in any position regards with approval. But while private persons organised into societies, or the Government, or public speakers, may work against disease and dirt and unpleasant conditions, we must not forget that people to be helped along the path of progress must themselves put forward an individual effort to improve themselves. Even God cannot assist a man who will not assist himself. That is a fact which none of us can ignore. There must be general co-operation in social efforts at betterment: this will not be denied by anyone with a rational sense of the possibilities of improvement. And, of course, the finest intentions in the world mean nothing unless the methods employed are intelligent and sound. In conclusion we would quote some words of M r . Garvey which deserve all proper emphasis. He said on Sunday night: You have been loyal and patient in the past. There has been no disloyalty, and there is absolutely no reason why you should change that attitude now. . . . The greatest hurt and injury which you can do me is to allow your enemies and my enemies to misinterpret me through any act of yours. I do not like abruptness. I do not like anything crude. I like to see the people of my race going about their business in a calm and deliberate way as other people do. To all this we say, Amen. And we suggest that those who heard or have read M r . Garvey's speech should not forget this particular piece of advice. Printed in DG,

13 December 1927. Original headlines omitted.

1. Herbert George DeLisser (1878-1944) was a Jamaican journalist and novelist. A political conservative, DeLisser served for decades as the editor of the Kingston Daily Gleaner, the most powerful newspaper on the island. In the words of one contemporary, DeLisser "mightily served the interests of the planting and business community" during the 1920s and 1930s (W. Adolphe Roberts, Six Great Jamaicans, Biographical Sketches [Kingston: Pioneer Press, 1951], p. 114). DeLisser frequently portrayed Garvey in negative terms. At the time of Garvey's conviction for mail fraud, for example, DeLisser described him as a "transparent charlatan" and an "unblushing imposter" (Crisis 26, no. 5 [September 1923]: 230). On an earlier occasion he denounced Garvey for trying to stir up strife in the Caribbean colonies through his frothy utterances on racial themes (DG, 12 August 1920). He penned a parody of Garvey in his novelette, ' T h e Jamaican Nobility, or, The Story of Sir Mortimer and Lady Mat," published in Planter's Punch (1, no. 6 [1925-1926]: 911, 2,127, 4,248,5,866), and, upon hearing of Garvey's release from prison and impending deportation, wrote that "America is sending us back M r . Marcus Garvey. M r . Garvey is a great imperialist; only it is his own empire that he is chiefly concerned about" (DG, 29 November 1927).

38

D E C E M B E R 1927

Garvey returned DeLisser's enmity in kind, describing him as "counterpart of Du Bois in America, who, as everybody knows, is working for a similar accomplishment—that of destroying all of our racial pride and self-respect" (NW, 3 March 1923). About the time of Garvey's release from prison, the Daily Gleaner's editorial policy became more sympathetic to him, perhaps in deference to the widespread enthusiasm Garvey's return inspired on the island. The paper ran several photographs of Garvey, and one headline announced "Great Joy Here at Release of Marcus Garvey" (DG, 28 November 1927). DeLisscr also printed a front-page message from Garvey shortly after his arrival. The respite in DeLisser's hostile comments toward Garvey proved but brief; by mid-1929 the Gleaner was aggressively denouncing Garvey's political ambitions in Jamaica (Bm, 20 January 1930). 2. The majority of land in Jamaica was controlled by foreign investors and the planter/agrarian capitalist class who specialized in export crops, organized into producers associations that included some peasants. In 1890 peasants working small plots were producing almost 75 percent of all crops on the island. Small landholdings stayed relatively stable during the first three decades of the twentieth century, with some 133,000 farms under fifty acres being cultivated in 1902 and some 184,444 in 1930. The majority of these plots were less than five acres and used for subsistence farming rather than for the production of crops for export or local market. With the onslaught of the Depression, unemployed landless people crowded into the urban areas and squatting on government-owned land became common, especially in camps on the outer edges of the tenement areas of West Kingston. Later in the 1930s the Jamaican colonial government developed a land settlement program aimed at returning urban unemployed people to the land (Ken Post, Arise Ye Starvelings: The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and Its Aftermath [The Hague, Boston, and London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1978], pp. 37, 86-87, 442-443).

Francis White,1 Assistant Secretary of State, to Frank Billings Kellogg, Secretary of State [Washington, D . C . , ] December 13, 1927 Dear M r . Secretary: A s the Panaman Minister was coming in to see me I sounded him out regarding Marcus Garvey and find that a law has been passed in Panama prohibiting the entry o f Jamaican negroes 2 and, as Garvey comes under this heading, he would probably not be allowed into Panama.

Furthermore, the

Minister expressed himself very distinctly in favor o f keeping him out in any event as an agitator, so that if the War Department wishes to take the action suggested by G o v e r n o r [Meriweather] Walker they w o u l d presumably be acting in accordance with the desires also o f Panama. There w o u l d therefore appear to be n o objection to this action. F. W . D N A , R G 185, file 91/449. T L I , recipient's copy. 1. Francis White (b. 1892), career diplomat, entered diplomatic service in 1915. He served in Argentina, China, Cuba, and Persia (now Iran) before joining the Department of State in Washington, D.C., in 1922. He was in charge of the Division of Latin American Affairs from 1922 to 1926 and became assistant secretary of state in 1927 (WWA). 2. A reference to an exclusion law passed in October 1926 that prohibited immigration of Asians and black West Indians to Panama (Garvey Papers 6: 468-469 n. 3).

39

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detective Office, East Queen Street, Kingston, 15th December 1927 MARCUS G A R V E Y — H i s MOVEMENTS

I beg to report that M r . Marcus Garvey spoke at no meetings since Monday last. He visits the headquarters of the Kingston Division of the U.N.I.A. daily where he receives letters and cables from abroad, especially from the U.N.I.A. Headquarters in New York. He also moved about the City within the past two days where he visited many friends. He has now given out his programme as to where he intends to speak, which is as follows: 1. Sunday Night—18.12.27. Ward Theatre, Kingston. Subject: His advent, work, persecution, indictment, conviction, imprisonment, liberation in America. Entrance Fee: 2/6d, 2/- and 1/2. Tuesday Night—20.12.27. Movies Theatre, Spanish Town. 1 Subject: The future of a great people. Entrance Fee: 2/- and i/6d. 3. Wednesday Night—21.12.27. Morant Bay 2 Town Hall, Subject: What it means to be a man. Entrance Fee: 2/- and i/6d. 4. Friday Night—23.12.27f.] Capitol Theatre, Port Antonio. 3 Subject: The world, the Negro and his hopes. Entrance Fee: 2/6, 2/- and i/6d. 5. Sunday—25.12.27 at 3 P.M. Ward Theatre, Kingston. Subject: What Christmas means to you. Entrance Fee: 2/6d, 2/and 1/-. Arrangements are also contemplated for having a large meeting at the Kingston Race Course early in January, but the date has not yet been fixed. M r . Garvey intends to leave Jamaica early in January for a tour in the South and Central American Republics, for British Honduras and the other West India Islands. His mission to those places has not been expounded. The Liberty Hall of the Kingston Division has been crowded with people since Monday night as they believed M r . Garvey would address his people there each night. A literary programme is carried out on each occasion, and several members and friends are permitted to give short addresses on matters affecting the U.N.I.A. There is nothing however, to report from these speeches. C H A S . A . PATTERSON J A , file I5(v), no. D : I : 0 : 4 2 / 2 7 . T L S , recipient's copy. Marked " C O N F I D E N T I A L . " 40

DECEMBER

1927

1. S p a n i s h T o w n , originally called St. I a g o d c la V e g a , w a s f o u n d e d in the sixteenth century. L o c a t e d t w e n t y miles w e s t o f K i n g s t o n , S p a n i s h T o w n w a s the capital o f J a m a i c a until 1870 (WNGD). 2. M o r a n t B a y is a coastal t o w n in southeastern J a m a i c a located east o f K i n g s t o n b e t w e e n Port M o r a n t and the Salt P o n d s beach area. It w a s the site o f the historic M o r a n t B a y u p r i s i n g o f 1865 ( C l i n t o n V . B l a c k , History of Jamaica, 3d. e d . , rev. [ L o n d o n a n d G l a s g o w : C o l l i n s Press, 1965], pp. 1 9 5 - 1 9 6 ; WNGD). 3. Port A n t o n i o , a seaport twenty-six miles northeast o f K i n g s t o n , is a key p o r t f o r the J a m a i c a n banana industry (WNGD).

A. S. Jelf to Sir Vernon G. W. Kell,1 Head, British Security Service [Kingston,] 16th December [i9]27 My dear Colonel, As you will doubtless have learnt from other sources, Marcus Garvey has been released from the Atlanta Prison and deported from the United States to his own native land, Jamaica. The prophecy in my letter to you in February 1926 as to the ceremonies on his arrival was more than fulfilled! He arrived on Saturday 10th December 1927, heralded by telegrams from every port at which the steamer stopped, and was met at the wharf by his adherents in Kingston, most of them arrayed in some kind of uniform. These included Miss H. V. Davis—the 4th Assistant President General; the Revd. S. M. Jones, the Local Commissioner for Jamaica; M r . C. D. Johnson, the President of the Kingston Division; Mr. Sam Gibson, the Officer in charge of the Legion and all the uniformed ranks, and Mrs. Gertrude Jones, the Lady President of the Kingston Division. There was a tremendous crowd (of well behaved, respectable people) along the streets to welcome him and he proceeded to Liberty Hall, the Headquarters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but professed fatigue and delivered no real speech that day. The following evening, at our local theatre, a so-called "monster" meeting was arranged, presided over by Councillor H. A. L. Simpson, O.B.E., a man who was formerly Mayor of Kingston and who has recently, after a period of shadow, been re-elected as a Councillor on the [Kingston and St. Andrew] Corporation. M r . Simpson was described at the meeting by the local President of the U.N.I.[A], as "one of the tried and true friends of Marcus Garvey." He is a man of undoubted ability and few scruples. He is a Solicitor by profession. At the meeting there was a good deal of hot, but not really offensive, air talked. Marcus Garvey said: Marcus Garvey is here as a British subject to constitutionally see that negroes living in a British Country receive their constitutional rights; but I do not only represent the interest of British negroes 41

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

here, by virtue of my Office as President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, I represent the interest of Black people all over the world—America, Africa, Europe, South and Central America, Asia and the West Indies. I am charged with that responsible duty and by God's help, I shall not neglect it . . . I respect constitutional authority, but I shall not allow anything unj[u]st under constitutional disguise to rob the rights of my race. As a British subject, i[t] is my bounden duty to observe to constitution and law. I have returned to this Island, under certain circumstances, not to lead white people, but black people. I have not come to Jamaica only to represent the interest of Jamaica only, for as President General, that is an international duty to perform. When I look at the condition of my people here, and see how the Chinese and the Syrians take possession of the Country, it grieved me. I have host of friends in England, not only in the English Parliament, but in civic life, and I know the constitutional rights of Britain and I cannot be blind-folded. Jamaicans want to know and understand this. In a short while, I shall be in the mother country, England, and other parts of the continent of Europe, and I shall visit the League of Nations and represent the rights of my people . . . I appreciate the action of the City Government and the Police Department for the assistance given me. I want them to have no fear in me, for I always uphold constituted authority. If you are living in peace, I see no reason why you should change now. The meeting closed, at the request of M r . Garvey, with the British National Anthem, followed by the Ethiopian National Anthem, and the inevitable prayer by the "Chaplain" of the U.N.I.A. (Mr. N. B. Green). On the 12th he made a ten minute speech at Liberty Hall before a large audience, reported as " of all classes." In the course of his speech (I quote from the Police report) he said that he wanted them to be orderly. That was his first request of them. We could not tolerate a disorderly people for any length of time, and if there was a Division of the U.N.I.A. which countenanced unlawful actions and disorder, that Division would soon be wiped out of existence as soon as it was brought to light. They were living in a British Country and as such were considered as British subjects. He was quite aware that every facility would be given to them in a British colony under British Constitutional rights. If they were unable to get their proper share of liberty, it did not mean that they should be disorderly and do things that would ca[u]se reflections of discredit on them. Every man, woman and child was entitled to all rights and privileges of the country in which they were born, but it was with good judgment and proper constitutional representation that they could obtain them. He was therefore asking them and teaching them to be orderly, decent and respectful. He attacked a (very sensible) article in a local paper called ' T H E H E R A L D " written by the Revd. /P[ercival] W./ Gibson B.D. (a coloured 42

DECEMBER 1927

clergyman with whom I am well acquainted and for whom I have much respect). M r . Gibson had deplored the arrival of Marcus Garvey. As you will see, Marcus Garvey professes himself as being on the side of law and order but the general feeling is that he may somewhat disturb the negro labour in the Island. He will certainly make every (and probably successful) effort to take money out of the[m]. Collections at the meetings have already realised nearly £100. I gather that he is going to visit the various parishes but I do not suppose our local politicians will welcome him. It is stated, but with what authority I do not know, that he will only remain here for a few weeks after which he will tour the West Indies and then the various continents of the world. If this is true, it justifies what I said in February 1926 as to his feeling that an Island the size of Jamaica affords little scope for a man of his magnificent ideas. I will let you know anything further material that may transpire. I fear this is rather long, but I thought a short letter would not put you really wise. Yours sincerely, A. S. JELF

[Address:] Colonel Sir V. G. W. Kell, K.B.E., C.B., 35 Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London S.W.7. England. J A , C S O , file 1B/5/79/15. T L S , recipient's copy. M a r k e d " C O N F I D E N T I A L . " 1. Acting Governor Jclf wrote a friendly letter to Kell on 28 March 1931 informing him that he had dissolved the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, thus depriving Garvey of a local outlet for his political ambitions in Jamaica. He further reported that " T h e Blackman' has ceased publication; he [Garvey] has given up his printing establishment; he is selling his Headquarters and his private house near me and—I break it to you gently, my dear Colonel!—has announced that he is leaving these shores for England almost immediately. I wish vou joy of him!" (A. S. Jelf to V . G. W. Kell, 28 March 1931, JA, SF. 1000/8/1/0).

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey 76 KING STREET,

KINGSTON, Deer. 17, 1927 My darling Mopsie: I have just found a little time to write. I have received your two letters through mother.1 I also got the one thousand pounds from the bank. I purchased on the 15th a nice little home for my Mopsie on the Lady Musgrave road where they are building beautiful new homes. 2 The house is new, three bedrooms, drawing and dining rooms, bath and other rooms, piazzas, outroom bldg. and pantry, garage[;] [it's] with a flower garden and one acre of garden and trees, we can get more land adjoining later. The next door neighbour is a friend[,] one D r . [H. C. H.] Samuels.' I took mother to sec it yesterday and she was pleased with it. The cost is £1,200.00. Say darling[,] I do not want 43

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS y o u t o leave e v e n a p i e c e o f p a p e r b e h i n d f o r I w a n t all m y b o o k s [ . ] foil w e l l all t h e b o o k s y o u h a v e b u t b r i n g e v e r y o n e o f t h e m [ . ]

I know

B e sure to

s e n d at least five h u n d r e d o f v o l I I t o m e h e r e f o r I h a v e t o s e n d o n e e a c h t o m e m b e r s o f p a r l i a m e n t . 4 Y o u m a y as y o u state leave a c o u p l e h u n d r e d

with

M i s s [ A m e l i a ] S a y e r s . 5 S e n d o u t the last p o e m s 6 also as o n e e a c h m u s t g o w i t h t h e b o o k t o r e a c h there b e f o r e I g e t t o E n g l a n d .

If y o u run short o f m o n e y

f o r t h e f r e i g h t ask D e t r o i t a n d [ W i l l i a m ] W a r e a n d R o b i n s o n t o l o a n y o u f o r m e $ 2 0 0 a n d $ 1 0 0 each t o p a y t h e f r e i g h t . I f y o u c a n p a y it o t h e r w i s e d o n [ ' ] t ask t h e m .

I h a d t o l d y o u t o s e n d o u t t h e p o e m s o n t h e 1st o f D e c r [ . ]

that y o u w o u l d have had returns t o m e e t such expenses. y o u h a d n o t taken the p o e m s .

I t is all y o u r fault.

so

I see u p t o t h e 7 t h

I told y o u to keep a cool

h e a d a n d h a v e [ E v a ? ] Parker s e n d o u t t h e p o e m s w h i l e y o u w e r e a t t e n d i n g t o other things.

J a m a i c a is all U . N . I . A . E v e r y b o d y is s c a r e d o f m e .

T h e police

a n d all officials are m o s t k i n d a n d c o u r t e o u s a n d t h e G l e a n e r is w i l l i n g t o d o a n y t h i n g . [ H e r b e r t ] D e L i s s e r h a s t u r n e d c o a t . A l l is s e t [ . ] A b u n d a n c e o f l o v e . POPSIE T N F , A J G . A L S , recipient's copy. O n Office o f the President General letterhead. 1. A reference to Amy Jacques Garvey's mother, Mrs. George Samuel Jacques; Garvey's mother died in 1908. 2. Garvey called the house Somali Court. It was situated at Lady Musgrave R o a d in an exclusive residential section of St. Andrew. In her memoirs, Amy Jacques Garvey described the house as poor in construction, with three bedrooms and one bathroom. Garvey "bought it from a lady whom contractors had deceived . . . in construction and cost." The house was located near the governor's mansion in an area inhabited primarily by upper-class whites ( G & G , p. 180). 3. D r . H . C . H . Samuels, a Kingston dentist, was a sponsor at the christening of Marcus Garvey, Jr., at St. Luke's Anglican Church, Cross Roads, Jamaica, in 1930. H e practiced at 42 East Street in Kingston in the early 1940s (Fay Davidson, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 10 June 1985; Bm, 8 November 1930). 4. A reference to the British House of Commons. 5. Amelia Sayers of New York received U N I A honors at the court reception held during the Fourth Annual International U N I A Convention in August 1924 (NW, 30 August 1924). She provided administrative assistance to Amy Jacques Garvey during Garvey's incarceration in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and often served as a traveling companion. In September 1926 Garvey instructed Amy Jacques Garvey to take an organizational trip to Claremont, Va., presumably to attend opening ceremonies for the first session of Liberty University. "You are not to g o alone" he instructed her, "Sayers must g o or not at all" (Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey, 4 September 1926, A F R C , A P ; see also Amy Jacques Garvey to Marcus Garvey, 5 September and 9 September 1926, A F R C , AP). Sayers aided Amy Jacques Garvey in organizing her affairs following Garvey's release from prison and deportation from the United States. A 17 December 1927 Negro World announcement urged readers to purchase copies of the second volume of Philosophy and Opinions from M r s . Amelia Sayers in New York rather than from Amy Jacques Garvey, as previously advertised. 6. Garvey's ' T h e Tragedy of White Injustice," "Hail! U.S. of Africa," and "Africa for the Africans" were collected as a pamphlet by Amy Jacques Garvey and published with other poems under the title Selections from the Poetic Works ofMarcus Garvey in 1927. The pamphlet went through three editions, including one with a foreward by Garvey issued in 1935. ' T h e Tragedy of White Injustice" was also printed in the 11 June and 18 June 1927 issues of the Negro World under the title ' T h e White Man's Game: His Vanity Fair." Amy Jacques Garvey also published The Poetic Meditations of Marcus Garvey, a collection of poems written by Garvey while he was a prisoner in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary (Selections from the Poetic Meditations of Marcus Garvey, 3d ed. [London, 1935]; The Poetical Works of Marcus Garvey, ed. Tony Martin [Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983], p. 123).

44

DECEMBER 1927

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey M o n Repos, H a l f - w a y Tree 1 Jamaica, Deer. 17, 1927 M y darling Mopsie: I mailed y o u a letter a while ago.

I ran d o w n to the P/O for some

registered [mail] and I found one from you. I have been rushing all morning to catch the mail out that closes at 12 noon. T h e girls I have are absolutely no good. T h e y keep me worried all the time, for everything I dictate is w r o n g . I must have g o o d typists and stenos. Tell Knox to send [list] with y o u [or] some one that is real competent and knows the work o f the office. I noticed you are repeating the same news that you are packing. W h y not call in the packers and let them do it right away and ship here[?] I am waiting in Kingston only for y o u but I can wait no longer than the 13th January for I sail the 14th on my tour o f Central America etc. I thought y o u had everything arranged to be here by the 1st. I am surprised that you should be telling me about the quantity o f things, I know all about it so when I tell you to ship everything I fully knew what I was about. I had planned to have received the things around the 1st o f Jan. to see after their fixing up at the house but if you delay in America, y o u will have all to look after yourself, because I will be gone. If you can't get passage from N e w York, y o u can book on other lines leaving other ports for Jamaica and ship the things from N e w York. I trust y o u will have the packers pack the things and ship them and d o n [ ' ] t attempt to waste time doing that yourself. M u c h love 2 POPSIE

T N F , A J G . A L S , recipient's copy. On Kingston U N I A Division letterhead. 1. Half Way Tree is a small suburb located three miles from Kingston. It is the site of King's House, the official home of the governor of Jamaica, and of the residences of many other colonial officials and wealthy merchants. Garvey stayed at an associate's home in Half Way Tree almost immediately after his return to Jamaica in December (G&G, p. 188; Philip P. Olley, ed., Guide to Jamaica [Kingston: Tourist Trade Develoment Board, 1952], p. 146). 2. In her memoirs, Amy Jacques Garvey complained that Garvey had left her the sizable task of shipping his antique collection and other belongings to Jamaica. "I could not leave until the furniture were [was] on a freighter, and the bill of lading handed me by the packers, as anything could have happened to 'Garve/s things,' even at the last moment, and he should have thought of all this" (G&G, p. 179). Amy Jacques Garvey called several packers; only two firms would give her estimates because of the large number of breakables in Garve/s collection of ceramics, glass, and antiques. She finally secured a firm specializing in the shipping of art pieces which crated the fragile items and the furniture and placed them in a warehouse to await shipping from New York to Jamaica. Garvey was present when she arrived in Kingston on 26 December 1927. A new secretary was sent down from the New York office at his request, and Henrietta Vinton Davis, then fourth assistant president general, was assigned to remain in Jamaica during the Garveys' proposed trip to Europe, which took place the following April (Charles A. Patterson to the detective inspector's office, Kingston, 2 January 1928, JA, file IJ[V] D:I:0:I/28; G&G, pp. 179-180).

45

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey Kingston, [ca. 17 December 1927] Darling Mopsie I have just received your letter re going to Pha. [Philadelphia] etc. I think it a foolish thing to leave Ida [Jacques] in America. She could come with you or immediately after. She can find work here in the office if she wants and she can keep the house for you when we are gone, but it is not safe to leave her alone over there. Tell her I advise her to come home. Give every body my love, O'Gara, Cain, Sawyers [Amelia Sayers] and all interested in me. Jos[elyn Samuel Jacques] 1 can remain at O'Gara until he comes home. Yours POPSIE TNF, AJG. ALS, recipient's copy. On Office of the President General letterhead. I. Garvev's brother-in-law later became the general business manager o f G a r v e / s Blackman Printing and Publishing Co., located at $-7 Peters Lane, Kingston (DG, 26 September 1929).

Speech by Marcus Garvey [[Ward Theatre, Kingston, 18 December 1927]] Fellow Citizens, I am pleased to welcome you back to the Ward Theatre to hear me tonight. I am not going to deliver an oration, but will recite a narrative in which I will explain my activities in the country known as the United States of America. You have heard so much bearing on the work of the organization that I represent, and about myself, that a large number of you naturally are curious to see a man late from the penitentiary. You are curious because you do not understand. It is my duty to explain to you tonight, so that you may understand that the prison, the gallows and the guillotine have been the agencies through which human reforms have been brought about (hear, hear). I happened at this late hour of our civilization to represent a new reform movement; a reform movement that seeks the freedom of 400 million black men, women and children. It is not an easy task. Those of you who are acquainted with history will readily realize that we have a tremendous task before us. Much has been said misreprescntative of the aims and objects of its leader, but I may point out to you the indestructible words of William Cullen Bryant:

46

DECEMBER 1927

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; The eternal years of God are hers. But error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies among his worshippers.' (Applause.) A R R I V A L IN T H E U N I T E D STATES

M y subject for tonight is: My Advent, Work, Persecution, Indictment, Conviction, Appeal, Imprisonment and Liberation in the United States of America. I went to the United States in 1916, landing in New York on the 23d [24th] of March. M y purpose was to carry out a program that was started in Jamaica in 1914 under the auspiccs of the organization known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. After a lengthy correspondence with that great man of America, Booker T. Washington, who founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, I was invited by him and others to visit the United States in furtherance of the work I had started in Jamaica. Just about the time I was ready to go I received news of the death of D r . Washington. I therefore deferred my visit from November of 1915 to the spring of 1916. On arriving in the city of New York in the little district of Harlem where, then, about 100,000 Negroes lived, I met a few of my countrymen and a few West Indians who had been living there for some time. They thought that I had come specially to advocate the cause of West Indians. At that time the West Indians who were living in America made the American Negroes understand that they were not Negroes but Indians, and the American Negroes, who were very ignorant of the geography and history of their own race, believed that the West Indians were a branch of the Indian race, so that the West Indians were getting by as Indians. P U L L I N G AGAINST E A C H O T H E R

You all know how the different West Indians despise each other, how the Jamaican despises the Barbadian and the Barbadian despises the Jamaican, and all the other Islanders hate each other to the point where, in America, they would not assimilate. They worked against each other and the American Negroes worked against them and they were all pulling against each other. The Universal Negro Improvement Association was founded in 1914 after my experience of travel in South America, in Central America, in all the West Indian Islands and in Europe, seeing well the need for greater unity amongst the black people of the world. It was because of that urge to unity that I came back from England to Jamaica and founded here in 1914 the Universal Negro Improvement Association. So when I arrived in Harlem in New York the Jamaicans thought that I had come to speak to them especially. But I disappointed them, and I spoke to the Negro people, and I told the Negro people of Harlem, including Americans, West Indians—Negroes all—the truth 47

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

of their history, I told them that we were one, the same branch of one human family; that it was only a question of accident [t]hat made some of us American Negroes and others West Indian Negroes. I told them that the slave trade, as it was instituted, brought from Africa Negroes, millions of them, against their wish, and distributed them in the British colonies, the French colonies, the Spanish colonies of the Western world without any regard for geographical boundaries, from whence they came or to the places to which they were taken. If it suited the whim and caprice of the slave master in Virginia, I told them, or in any part of America, the African husband would be sold in Virginia, and if it suited the whim and caprice of the slave master in Jamaica, the African wife would be sold in Jamaica, and the two who were one would go away separated against their wish or will. The American Negroes remained in bondage for 250 years and the West Indian Negroes for 230 years. D U T Y TO R E U N I T E T H E N E G R O E S

You who know your history know that you were liberated in the British islands through the good services of Victoria the Good; and the American Negroes were liberated in 1865 through that great man, Abraham Lincoln. Therefore, the American Negroes and the West Indian Negroes are one, and they are relics of the great African race which was brought into the western world and kept here for 300 years. I told them in Harlem that it was my duty to reunite the Negroes of the Western world with the Negroes of Africa, to make a great nation of black men (applause). And I offered no apology then when I spoke in Harlem and I offer no apology now (hear, hear). If it is right for white men to divide themselves into national entities like the German nation, the French nation, the Italian nation, the English nation, the American nation, then it is right for the Negro peoples of the world to divide themselves into an African nationality (applause). And Marcus Garvey in America, in Jamaica, in England, in France or in Italy shall stand on the same platform and tell the world that the time has come for the black man to be regarded as a man. (Applause). S T U D I E D C O N D I T I O N S IN U . S .

That was my work, that was the nature of my work in the United States of America for ten years. Before I started properly the propaganda as explained, I first traveled through thirty-eight States in the Union. I traveled through thirty-eight States, making a sociological study of the condition of Negroes in relationship with other groups. In America we have many different races. We have minority groups living there. America as a country has 115 million people, and 15 million are colored people; we call them colored in America and we call them Negroes, but when we say Negroes, we mean all from the black man right up to the border of the white man. We accept that and we work on that, but out here the classification is a little different. When we say Negro we mean the black man or the brown man, but not that other fellow that you 48

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can mistake for somebody else. He resents the idea of being called a Negro, poor fellow, because he doesn't know any better. One day he will be glad to be a Negro like anybody else, because the Negro is going to return to his own and he is returning at a rapid rate (hear, hear). He is proud of himself. (Applause). I tell you, bring into the Ward Theatre tonight two billion dollars, make the offer of being President of the United States or king of any country in the world, and say: "Garvey, we will make you this if you become white, and you can be white, we can make you white," and I would say: " G o away, I am proud of being black." (Applause.) ' T o B E B L A C K I S TO B E H O N E S T "

To be black in the twentieth century is to be honest, because for the last 2,000 years the Negro has to his credit all that God would desire from his creature[s]. He has no murder, no theft, no wholesale robbery attached to his history, but on the contrary he has been robbed and murdered and abused all down the line. Who would not be proud, therefore, of such an honorable race? (Loud applause.) A race that was so noble that when they sought out someone to be next to the Christ, someone next as perfect and as worthy as the Christ, to help Him in His last agony and misery in the world, they looked to all. They looked to the Greek and turned away, they looked on the Roman and turned away, they looked on the Samaritan and turned away; and then God Almighty from heaven, through His direction to His angels, turned to Simon of Cyrene and said: "Help the Christ with His cross." (Applause.) The black man has been the inspiration of the world ever since God Almighty said "Let there be light"; and not only the black man, but his country, has been the solace of the world. When in the infant stage, they ran the Christ out of Judea, where did God advise that they take Him for protection? Not to Asia, not to Europe; but to the land of our fathers—Africa. (Applause.) Therefore I am proud to be a black man (applause); it is an honor to be a black man. They try to make it a disgrace, but God Almighty knows it is an honor, and it is because of that honor why I am proud to be one like you. U . N . I . A . B R O U G H T INTO B E I N G

It took me, after I had traveled through thirty-eight States, one year on my return to New York to organize the New York division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. I appealed to the hearts and to the souls and to the minds of the Negroes in Harlem and they responded: I cannot go into minute details because the subject is very lengthy, taking in so many branches, and I desire to give you the satisfaction for coming to hear me, so I can't go into minute details of my early organizing work in Harlem; suffice it to say that in the first year I organized and brought into the Universal Negro Improvement Association one million Negroes. (Applause.) That was between 1918 and 1919 after traveling through thirty-eight States—you know there are forty-eight States. 49

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS T H E BLACK STAR L I N E , INC.

In the latter part of 1919, after having organized so many into the Universal Negro Improvement Association, I was directed by them to launch the Black Star Line as a steamship commercial auxiliary to the Universal Negro Improvement Association. In doing that I only carried out the orders of the members of the organization. When we started, the doubtful Negroes— you will always find them everywhere—and the discouraging of other races said it could not be done—black men couldn't run ships. Some Negroes were as ignorant as to say that the sea was belonging to the white man, so how could we run ships? (Laughter.) They tried to discourage us, but we went forward and we proved that the Negroes could run ships. They asked, "Where are you going to get a crew, where are you going to get a Negro captain?" You in Jamaica saw the first ship of the Black Star Line, the steamship "Frederick Douglas[s]"—proof to the world. We worked on in 1919 and by August, 1920, we had two million Negroes as members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. T H E FIRST GREAT CONVENTION

Then it was that we called the first great convention of the Negro peoples of the world, and then my troubles started in the United States of America. Without any immodesty in that I am explaining my work, I would tell you that I happened to be the first and only Negro to address at one time, in one place, one building, 25,000 people. That was at the opening of the International Convention of the Negro peoples of the world at Madison Square Garden in August, 1920. For the first time in the history of the world a black man was able to bring black men from all parts of the world, in their thousands, to attend an international conference of the race. Men came from all parts of Africa, from Central and South America, delegates came from all parts of the world—I believe you sent a man named Stewart—and we had a parade in Harlem that was ten miles long (applause), a procession which made an entire circuit of Harlem. That is to say, we had a starting point and we ended the parade at the same point where we started, and when the first line marched around and came back to the starting point after traveling ten miles they came in time to see the last line march off—and they were marching ten abreast. (Loud applause.) S O M E T H I N G N E W IN N E G R O D O M

That opened the eyes of the world that something was about to happen in Negrodom, and something did happen when I appeared at Madison Square Garden that night [3 August 1920] and mounted the rostrum to speak to the 25,000 assembled delegates and members. It was a wonderful scene, and it was written down in the history of Madison Square Garden. 2 Madison Square Garden is over 100 years old and that gathering was recorded as the third greatest celebration held there. Many great celebrations have been held there; 50

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the great Roosevelt has been there, the great presidents have been there; political conventions were held there to arouse the people from certain fears, and the 1920 convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association held third place among them all. That night as I spoke I looked down upon an ocean of reporters, from the rostrum, reporters representing every press in Europe, every press in South America, the German press, the Italian, French, Japanese, the Chinese, Hungarian press were all there. The British Reuters, the Associated Press, the United Press, the Illustrated Press, every branch of the newspaper profession was represented there, reporting what I had to say. I spoke until about 11 o'clock that night, and the wires were kept busy. They were all eager to hear news of the new Negro who gave expression to himself at Madison Square Garden that night. The wires of Europe became busy about this little Negro, the black man from Jamaica, and they started to hound me down from one part of the country to the next. The great United States Government got men to investigate me; all manner of Secret Service people were set after me, and 20 per cent, of my employees were the United States Secret Service. I believe I must have cost the United States Government about five million dollars in ten years. A C O S T L Y S I N G L E PROPOSITION

I happened to be a costly single proposition, but nevertheless I was not disloyal to anything American, to anything British, or to any constituted government in the world. All I was interested in was the liberation of the people who look like me. I stood on that platform at Madison Square Garden as I stand uncompromisingly on this platform now. I have not retreated one inch, have not changed my ideas one bit, for I am as firm tonight as when I made my advent into the United States, and with the blessing of Almighty God I shall be as firm the day that I am laid in my grave as I am tonight. (Applause.) Nothing in the world shall change me but God Almighty; because of my experience I am determined. N o man can convince me contrary to my belief, because my belief is founded upon a hard and horrible experience, not a personal experience, but a racial experience. The world has made being black a crime, and I have felt it in common with men who suffer like me, and instead of making it a crime I hope to make it a virtue. (Applause.) That was all I had in mind when I traveled from one part of America to the next. G O V E R N M E N T IN A M E R I C A

For ten years the American Government was unable to get anything on me by way of sedition or disloyalty. When I say the American Government I want you to understand that government is only executive control exercised in the interest of those governed. Government exists only by the will of those governed, and when govenment fails to express the wish or desire of those governed, those who are governed change the government to suit themselves (hear, hear). Sometimes in America we have a Republican government by the choice of the people and sometimes a Democratic government by the choice SI

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of the people. Then sometimes the President is elected by a small and meagre majority of his party followers. In a country with 115 million people the people may do a very small amount of voting. Seven million votes was all the last President elected got, leaving 108 million people who had not expressed their will. Even so, when the government goes into power it goes into power by the mandate of but seven million out of 115 million people. So it does not mean always that the President expresses the entire will of all the people, because he was elected by a majority of his party, but naturally he officiates as head of the government and during the time he and his party are in control of the government all the people have to abide by what they do and say. They are supposed to be in power for four years and if in that four years they do things not satisfactory to the people who put them there, at the next election they put them out of power, but while they are in power they can do anything. They can make war, they can steal, they can lie, they can put anybody in prison, they can do anything to any individual person. There is really no appeal, because each judge is generally in line with the government in power, and an appeal is only appealing to the same party. F R O M C A E S A R TO C A E S A R

If the President is against you for personal reasons, then it is a forgone conclusion that the chief justice is against you, so that if you complain against the attitude of the President it will be simply appealing from Caesar to Caesar. You can understand the position in America: it is a question of party politics and men. Now it happened that I was never in politics. I was just a Negro and that was not a very nice thing to be in America. When I went to America all the Negroes were Republicans, so to speak, because they believed in the party of Lincoln, who freed them. It happened that I had a lot of power in Harlem, where we had 35,000 members and I represented a tremendous power amongst the Negroes in the country, and you know a man will make mistakes sometimes. Well, it happened that [in 1921] John F. Hylan was running for the positon of mayor of New York City and a man by the name of Alfred Smith 3 was running for governor of New York State on the Democratic ticket. New York was somewhat Democratic before and they were determined to carry the State because it was a hot year in politics. Some of my friends inveigled me to give Liberty Hall to Governor Smith and John F. Hylan. I never thought much of the thing and so I did it. They asked me to speak. I did so and every Negro who used to vote Republican voted Democratic because I told them to do it. 4 Then the great Republican party turned on me. I kept New York Democratic among Negroes with the influence I had there, until I went for two and a half years to Atlanta. They broke my power there only after they had kept me locked up for two and a half years. The Negroes went back Republican only two months ago. In America certain states are Democratic, even though they have the Federal government [made up] of Republicans. The whole country is

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never Republican or Democratic at the same time. Sometimes twenty of the states may be Republican, and the rest Democratic or 25 Democratic and the rest Republican, yet the Federal government would be Republican. Up to 1920 they were Democratic and because my friends were in power, they did not do me anything. They knew that nothing could be done in New York, and the only way of forcing me out would be by the Federal government at Washington, which was Republican. " A BOGUS C H A R G E "

It was with this idea that they set up a bogus charge against me of using the mails to defraud, which was a Federal violation and could only be tried in a Federal court and not a Democratic state court, where the Democrats would be in power. Now, to be able to get that indictment what did they do? They couldn't get the indictment against me through the Universal Negro Improvement Association because the U.N.I.A. was and is a fraternal organization. We had a constitution and book of rules, the officers were properly elected and they acted by direction given in the book of rules, the constitution, so it was almost impossible for them to indict me through the Universal Negro Improvement Association. N o w it happened that I, by virtue of my position as President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, became president of all the auxiliary movements and so, automatically, I was president of the Black Star Line. T R Y I N G TO S I L E N C E T H E L E A D E R

The Black Star Line was a business organization, chartered to do business in a certain way, and the laws in America are strict on business corporations. Well, we started the Black Star Line, and they tried to handicap us as much as they could. I am not saying this of the government themselves, but I am saying this of the individuals who were interested in having me torn away from the leadership of the Negro people so as to break up the organization. Negroes were involved in that, white men were involved in that, and many governments were involved in that, because of the speech I made on the 1st [3rd] of August 1920. They were then scared and believed that Garvey represented too much. Black people, white people, governments all turned and wanted to silence me so that I [would] not advocate the cause of Negroes. They decided to get me through the Black Star Line. I, in common with the other directors, conducted the business of the company. We had made a bold statement to the world that we were going to prove black men could run ships. My reputation was at stake, my honor was at stake, the honor of the race was at stake, because we made that statement and other people said we could not do it. We got the ships and we got black men and placed them on the ships—you saw them when they came here.' That was all we as directors could do. When we placed them on the ships we, as directors, had done our duty, and it was for them to so conduct themselves as to uphold our honor. They did not. 53

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS COCKBURN

That man Cockburn! May God damn him in eternal oblivion. That man had in his hands the commercial destiny on the seas of the black man. He sold it, every bit of it, for a mess of pottage. 6 He took our ship, and on the first voyage out, if it were not for a faithful engineer and a faithful oiler, the S. S. "Frederick Douglas[s]" would not have reached here; it would have been stranded on some sand bank near Cuba. They did everything to make it impossible for the Black Star Line to succeed. We bought the S. S. Kanawha and renamed it the S. S. "Antonio Maceo," after the name of the Cuban patriot, and after we spent $120,000 reconditioning that yacht, which was a first-class boat, we sent it off the docks at New York, and it was not out at sea 12 hours before they dismantled it and had over eight hundred of the tubes blown out, and we had to send a tug to bring her back and spend another $25,000 dollars again. It was not 24 hours after she was put in condition again that we heard the boat was stranded in Cuba, and we had to send her on to Jamaica to be reconditioned there. She was not out of Kingston six hours before they broke up her engine again, and I had to send and refit her again. It was not long after that they wrecked it again and the boat is now lying at Antilla, Cuba, a total loss of $200,000. Well, in that way they handicapped the company. You remember when I was out here. I got permission to leave the United States for thirty days, but no sooner was I gone than they tried to keep me out altogether. They said[, "]now we will keep him away and break up the organization. ["] They kept mc out for five months. I had to use certain powers to get my passport signed [visaed?]. I had to get M r . [Charles Evans] Hughes, who was a friend of mine, and President Harding, to sanction my return to the United States, and by the time I got back they had robbed half of the assets of the Black Star Line. T H E B U S I N E S S OF I N D I C T I N G

The whole lot of them were surprised to know that I had landed in New Orleans, even the employees, and I was not there two months before the government indicted me for using the mails to defraud in the failure of the Black Star Line. Well, they were out to get nobody else but Garvey. It was a big corporation, having a regular board of directors and all the regular officers according to law, yet the only person they indicted was Garvey. Then they thought it over and said: Well, we will change the indictment; but they indicted me first only to get into their hands the books of the corporation. They could not get the books into their hands except they had a legal warrant and they could only get a legal warrant by indicting one of the officers. They indicted me and they seized the books of the Corporation, and after they seized the books, this is what they did. They sent out a questionnaire to every member who had stock in the Black Star Line, asking questions, like these: " D o you know Marcus Garvey? Have you invested in any of the business enterprises fostered by Marcus Garvey? Were you promised any dividends? Are you satisfied with your investment? Have you any complaints to make?["] 54

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That was sent to 55,000 people and out of the 35,000 they got 18 people to say that they were not satisfied, and they had got no dividends. When they got the statement from these people, they again went back to the Grand Jury—that first indictment did not mean anything, but to allow them to get the books. But when they got those statements, they went and indicted Garvey and three other officers of the Black Star Line—you see they couldn't do otherwise but bring in the other men for a sham. They returned an indictment with 26 counts. They thought then that I would have packed my baggage and run out of the United States, but I paid them no attention whatever, because I knew my conscience was my guide (hear, hear). ORGANIZATION GREW, NOTWITHSTANDING

I paid no attention to the indictment; I went about my business just as I did before, and the organization drew in more Negroes than ever (applause). When they saw I wouldn't leave, they said they would call the case. I said: G o ahead. I want you to try it now. And so Marcus Garveyf,] George Tobias, Eli[e] Garcia and Orland[o] Thompson were called. And just by way of explanation, I might tell you that these three colleagues were in with the government to let them out and get Garvey. I knew of it, but I paid no attention whatever to them. We went into court; we had several lawyers representing us in the case. The leading counsel was supposed to be my counsel, and the other six were taking care of the case generally and looking after the other three men. That was on our side, but the government had a room full of men. There were secret service men, Department of Justice men, in fact, every second man in that room was a Department of Justice man or from the secret service. Lawyers and judges and ex-judges were there. And we had a jury, a white jury, a white judge [Julian W. Mack], a white District Attorney [Maxwell Mattuck] prosecuting— prosecuting a black man. The lawyers we had were black men [Cornelius W. McDougald, Henry Lincoln Johnson and William Matthews], but the first day of the trial I discovered that the black men were in league with the white men to get Garvey, and so I kicked them out and took charge of my case (hear, hear). SAW THROUGH THE S C H E M E

And that is why I am here tonight. If I had not kicked that man [McDougald] out, I would have been sent to Atlanta for a hundred years! [A]nd I would have become decrepit in Atlanta. That was the scheme they had, but they would have to come cleaner than that to fool Marcus Garvey. I found there was a scheme to get me in prison among the other men and get out themselves, but I said, boys, I will go through alone. If I go to prison I will go alone, but I will not allow anyone to send me. I found out the first day that there was some kind of an arrangement by which I was to be compromised and railroaded. The first thing that happened, which struck me, 55

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was this: Years before, I had two employees, fellows whom I had to dismiss for dishonesty, and for three years I never saw those boys, never knew they still existed. When I went into court that morning the first two men on the witness box were those two boys [Edgar M. Grey and Richard E. Warner]. I was surprised and curious to know what they could have to say. They went to the witness box and reeled off the vilest lies possible, and I whispered to my attorney and said, " I have the dope on them." In America we use slang, I told my attorney that I had facts as to why they were dismissed from my service, and I could bring proof from the office which would nullify their story. I asked him to keep them on the stand until the next morning so that during the night we could get the proofs. He said to me: "Oh, it isn't necessary to keep them on the stand until tomorrow for we can always get them back." I said "Are you sure?" He said, "Oh, sure, you can get them back." DISMISSES COUNSEL

I was a little hazy about the matter, but I doubted what he said from certain things which went on before. He did not impress me that the witnesses could be called back tomorrow morning. I asked him again and he said: "Yes, they can be called back." So the boys went through their testimony and some sort of cross-examination. The next morning when I came into court I said to my attorney: "Now, I have the proofs and we will recall those witnesses." He said to me: "Well, you know, you can't bring them back except you bring them back as your witnesses, and you will be bound by what they say." A different aspect entirely. M y idea was to bring them back as government witnesses and to cross-examine them as government witnesses because they were hostile to me. When I found the man was double-crossing I just simply said to him: "Look here, I want you out of my case, and I will take it myself." He got hostile, but I said: Please retire. Then he started shuffling around, but I was determined and I told him to leave the case. He reluctantly went up to the judge and whispered something to him, then he went to the District Attorney and whispered something to him. After that he came back and said: " I want to make a statement to the Court. My client has expressed a desire that I retire from the case." I took charge of my case that morning, and the afternoon papers, the big metropolitan evening dailiesf,] came out with headlines announcing: ["]Marcus Garvey dismisses counsel and conducts case himself with marked ability. ["] Now they have about 300,000 lawyers living off six million people in New York, and they do it well. When a big man gets into trouble, it means half a million for some lawyer. Sometimes if he is a man with several million dollars they leave him to mourn over his lost millions. Those lawyers are all members of the Bar Association. The judges are all members of the Bar Association, and when the papers announced that day that Garvey was conducting his case, the Bar Association immediately sent out to say that Garvey must not win his case, he must not be allowed to win. They said that if Garvey was allowed to

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win his case, it would be a slap to the entire bar of New York. You see, they thought, well, I was a big man, and that every millionaire, if I won, would try to do the same thing, and that would lessen their chances of big fees. That was the position and you can realize what I had on my shoulders then. HOSTILE COURTROOM ATMOSPHERE

I was pleading my case before a white jury, a white judge, and with a courtroom crowded with white Secret Service men. All the influences were at work against me. They kept those white people and all enemies in, and all my friends who wanted to come in they kept out. They had everything against me, with the hope, you know, that the jury would get the spirit of the mob. Now my lawyer seemed to have made some arrangement with the district attorney to dispose of my case in three weeks. He was to put in the defense in one week so that the judge, who was a Jew, [cjould attend some Zionist movement abroad. So that when I dismissed my attorney, they said to me: "You know there is an arrangement that this case be disposed of in three weeks[?]" "Yes?" I said, "well, this case is not going to be heard until all the evidence is in. I do not care what arrangement you have to go to Europe: you are not going to Europe at my expense." Then I knew that judge had been picked to railroad me; he was a member of the hostile organization to m e . 7 1 realized this when I petitioned him to retire from the trial and give me a change of venue. He denied the application, and he lessened my respect for him as a man—not as a judge of the court, because I respect the court. And I made him know I did not think much of what he said[,] even though he was laughing in my face and saying he would give me a fair trial. Instead of dismissing the case in three weeks, I kept him there for six weeks. When my case was closed this man who was trying to get away to Europe, who had been impressing the jury that I was keeping them there longer than was necessary and pointing out that they were business men, who, no doubt, wanted to go on vacation; after I closed my case on Friday at 11 o'clock and when he found out that even though it was a jury of white men, and even though the court was bent on convicting me now, what did he do? After I had spoken to the jury for three hours[,] he saw that the jury was disposed to acquit me, and do you know what he did? At that 11 o'clock he said: ["]Gentlemen, court is adjourned until 10 a.m. on Monday.["] That gave the district attorney and others Friday evening, Saturday and Monday morning to fill the papers with the vilest of attacks against me. They published in the papers articles saying that Garvey had an army of a million men to kill all the white people of America, and that he had all the ammunition stored up in his Liberty Hall in Harlem, and they had this sensational viciousness scattered on the front page of all the New York newspapers so that the jury came back with a biased heart. Then there was a judge, one of the ablest men on the bench, a man who could wiggle in and wiggle out of the law, a man who, when they have a technical case where the law has to be interpreted in a certain sense, he is called in and can do it in a way to baffle and bother the 57

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Supreme Court; such was the man who tried me. He started by trying to pay me a compliment. "With all due deference to the lawyers in the case," he said, "he thought that Garvey had conducted his case with marked ability." The case came to a close, and the jury was out in the jury room for twelve and a half hours. Even though they had that biasing propaganda from Friday until Monday the jury remained out for twelve and a half hours to midnight Monday night. "FIND ONE GUILTY"

Then the judge got nervous; he began to think that they wanted to let me go, and so, without any request from the jury—it is customary to allow a jury to come to their conclusion, but after the judge found they were out until 12 o'clock, he said: Come in, gentlemen. The government has spent a lot of money over the case, and the defendant, too—as if he cared anything for the poor defendant[;] if you can't find all guilty, then why not find one guilty, as if to emphasize the idea: Get Garvey, who is the man we want. Now I was indicted on 26 counts. In ten minutes after the judge said that, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty; guilty on one count, one count out of 26 againt me. The judge discharged them. We took the records, and looking over the records, and looking over the count on which I was convicted, ladies and gentlemen of Jamaica and ladies and gendemen of the world—because my explanation is not so much for Jamaica but for my friends throughout the civilized world to whom I intend to lay my case for justification. (Applause). M y case is not tried yet. M y case shall be tried before the bar of public opinion in Europe, and my case shall be tried before the bar of America, and I shall not fail through my friends and myself to expose the chicanery and the trickery by which I was railroaded in the United States of America. T H E FAMOUS COUNT

Now this count. When we turned it was this. A man named Benny Dancy, whom I never saw in all my life, never knew a Negro like that existed anywhere. He was brought to testify against me. He said he was a railroad employee of the government. The prosecutor handed him an envelope and said: ["]Benny Dancy, do you recognize that envelope? It bears your name, typewritten, and in the corner there it has a rubber stamp of the Black Star Line.f"] The answer was: ["]Yes, sir.["] Do you know what was in it? A. No. Can you identify anything that was in it? [A.] No. Benny Dancy, can you tell what was in it? [A.] No. I show you some circulars. Can you identify any of them? (Ben[n]y Dancy looks at them): [A.] No, sir. All right, Ben[n]y Dancy. I present this[,] your Honor, in evidence as a fair assumption that it contained printed matter from 58

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the Black Star Line, because it bears on it the imprint of a stamp from the Black Star Line. He tendered into evidence the rubber stamp[ed] envelope, which was not identified as a rubber stamp of the Black Star Line! Any of my enemies could have stamped a rubber stamp on the envelope, but the imprint was never identified as having been made by the stamp of the Black Star Line. He presented the envelope as a "fair assumption" that it contained matter from the Black Star Line. That was the case, and on that I was convicted of using the mails to defraud and was given the maximum penalty of five years in Atlanta prison. When we appealed to the higher court for a discharge of the verdict of the lower court, my secret service man reported to me that two of the judges who were to hear the appeal laughed and said the thing was a farce and a joke, and, and that there was no evidence on which I could be convicted. Well, we put in our application and the thing remained before the Circuit Court of Appcal[s] and nobody heard anything about it for months. Nothing was heard until we bought the steamship "General Goethals.["] When they found out that we had bought the steamship "General Goethals" to trade with the West Indies in bananas and citrus fruit, the quiet and silent influences that were operating against me said: " N o w we must stop this thing because they have another big ship." And our ship sailed out from New York for Havana and for Kingston. RUSHED TO PRISON

Just then the Circuit Court came in with a decision refusing the appeal. Ordinarily it takes ten or fifteen days after the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeal is given for the prisoner to be surrendered. The district attorney told my attorney that I would have all the time necessary to fix my business, and do you know that in spite of that inside of 24 hours after the refusal was announced they had me on my way to Atlanta prison8 (Voices: "What a disgrace!") with the ship out at sea without directions. They purposely did that so that the ship would arrive here without any cargo, would get none, and we would lose a lot of money and break up the thing. They would not even give me time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Ordinarily they would have given me time on bond, but they rushed me off to prison and they said: "You can appeal from prison." And this is what happened: The Supreme Court refused to review my case because they could not do it. You know under the rules there are certain opinions that become laws. Now, the opinion of the Supreme Court becomes a kind of unwritten law, and that was why they couldn't review my case. They did not want it to be made an unwritten law, they did not want to make it binding that any citizen could be convicted on an unidentified envelope with a stamp unidentified and a person's name in typewriting, and the Supreme Court could refuse to review the case. They sent me to Atlanta prison, thinking I 59

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would have died, but the God whom, as I say, took care of Daniel in the lions' den, took care of me. And the two good judges, whom I had hoped to meet later on, and to present to them legal opinion of other men who saw how wrong they were—what ha[s] become of them? They have passed to the Great Beyond, but I am still here. I hope to meet them somewhere some day. Well, I don't know about that, for I don't see how I could go [to] the same place as they. But you know of the old Bible story where they told of Lazarus and Dives, 9 the man who was flourishing in wealth. POLITICS IN THE COURTS

You remember how Lazarus was asked to dip his fingertips in water to quench Dives' thirst? Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham, and when Dives asked to send Lazarus to his brothers they said his brothers had Moses and the Prophets. Well, I don't want to be disobedient and I will do anything my God tells me to do, but if I should get to heaven and see those two judges down in hell I don't even think that if Gabriel tells me to dip my fingers in the pail of water and touch those fellows' tongues I would do it. (Laughter.) Because men who could so disrespect the rights of other men are not worthy of the respect of God or man. But I am not blaming the great American people. It was all politics. You know in the jurisprudence of America, I have had this experience. Judges would get upon the bench, and if the prosecutor was a college mate or a chum he would have the advantages of the case, he would get the preference. They would meet in chambers and he would say: "Oh, it's all right." It was all a question of knowing you or belonging to the same party or being a friend. It is not a question of the right, and when the big man is sent to prison it is nothing. I N M A T E S OF A T L A N T A P R I S O N

Why, do you know that a prison like where I was, they had 3,000 people there—2,300 white men and 700 colored men[?] We had a white governor of a State there. You know what a governor is? Well, we had one. We had white Federal judges and we had State judges; we had municipal judges and mayors; we had members of Congress; we had doctors by the hundreds, lawyers by the hundreds, bankers by the hundreds, big business men by the hundreds, presidents of corporations, and all kinds of people. We had some men serving 100 years, some serving 90, some 50, some 20 years, and some life, and others two years and ten years. There was a governor [Warren T. McCray] 1 0 who came in just ahead of me; he was doing ten years. (Laughter.) He was a strapping^] well-built white man from the great Republican State of Indiana, a State about ten times the size of Jamaica. While governor he signed some notes and got money from a bank. He was a rich man, and had cattle farms, but he signed notes for more than he had, and his political enemies got behind him and impeached him, and they indicted him for fraud. A similar charge to mine," using the mails to defraud, but the difference was 60

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that he was charged with 50 counts, and he was found guilty of all 50. H e got ten years[;] I was indicted on 26 counts and found guilty on one, and was given the maximum of five years. H e was a good Christian, but the only trouble [was] he was crying all the time (laughter). " R E S O R T FOR FRIENDLESS POLITICIANS"

Then there was a white Mayor, also from Indiana, named [Roswell O . ] Johnson.' 2 When I went to Indiana in 1921 he was then Mayor and presided at the meeting and introduced me. The next place I met him was in Atlanta Prison. He served a year and a day and then he made parole and went home. Then the next person I met from Indiana was a Judge [William M . Dunn]' 3 who, curiously enough, was at the same meeting where the M a y o r presided. Then we had Eugene Victor Debs.' 4 H e was sent for 10 years in the prison; a man w h o ran for the Presidency. H e was nominated in prison and ran against Harding, and I believe got two million votes. S o that just shows the make-up of the Penitentiary there. It is just a health resort for politicians whose friends are not in power, and for villains w h o happen to do things against the people in power, and for crooks. N o w don't you doubt that there are crooks there, and a large number of them, villains w h o would pick your pocket with your eyes open and with your eyes closed. You have there villains w h o have held up trains with two guns and got everybody o f f and then they take away t w o million dollars worth of mail. The most of the villains down there are Jews; all races are to be found there. S o I spent two years and 10 months out of five years, and I was never disturbed one minute of the day, for my conscience was clear. I was so busy for the seven years preceding my conviction that I was not able to open a book. I had a library of 18,000 books, and I had not even time to open one of them for about seven and a half years. In Atlanta I had a library of 2,000 books, and I had all the time to read and reflect; therefore I feel g o o d now and well. I feel ready for another ten years. I will not worry you much more tonight with these details, because a narrative is not pleasant; it is always monotonous. But I want to thank you for listening to all that I have explained relative to my indictment and imprisonment, and I want to talk for five minutes ?bout my liberation. You out there were good enough to stage a Release Week or something of the kind. It was not necessary. I felt extremely glad and happy when I heard of it, and I wish to tell you that I appreciated it very much. But I can tell you that inside of two weeks[,] three million petitions were in Washington asking for my release. T w o weeks after my imprisonment, three million people, citizens of America, sent asking for my release, and two weeks later petitions came from Africa and Europe and all over the world. They thought in America it was a good policy to keep me in prison. They thought they would be able to break up the Universal N e g r o Improvement Association, you see the organization had become a power in the world. They wanted to keep us o f f the seas because that would mean commercial rivalry. That was one group of men working against us. Another group of men w h o saw we 61

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wanted to enter into certain commercial enterprises desired to get us out of business. Then in America where I had to lead people the American leaders became jealous of me. There is no man now and there was no man then who could have gotten 200 Negroes to follow him in America, and because I was able to get up four million Negroes in America to unite and seven million abroad they were against me. They went around and said it was a dangerous thing for one man to have all those votes and not with the party. Then another branch of the group of enemies was in the great enterprise of rubber. Rubber[,] you know[,] has caused a lot of trouble in the world these last five years. The rubber shortage in 1922-24 got America scared, and the great American corporations like Firestone and Goodrich started searching the world for new rubber fields. During that time the Universal Negro Improvement Association had already entered into an agreement with the Liberian government to place at the disposal of the o r g a n i s a t i o n several million acres of land by which the people of America and the West Indies— the Negroes—would be able to colonize a part of the country and start an African State. After we got the people ready, and we had 32,000 families ready to start, the thing was blocked. At that time we had experts sent down to Liberia to do certain work and prepare for the people—I think you had a man from Jamaica named [J.] Nicholas.15 After all that was done Firestone discovered that rubber could be grown in Liberia and on the lands which we had got as a concession. President [C. D. B.] King was immediately influenced by the United States Government and with the propaganda of D r . W. E. B. Du Bois that I was going down to Liberia to start a war against the white man. They fixed it so that King was forced to recall the concessions he had granted to me and to the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Liberia. The result was that when the people arrived there they were seized and the materials which had gone on before had to be left in Liberia. They had therefore to keep me in prison until King was returned as President of Liberia, 16 because if they had turned me out King would not have been re-elected. It is interesting to know that Firestone is a close friend of President Coolidge. I have nothing more to say. PAID THE U S U A L PENALTY

I could only be pardoned by President Coolidge after I was locked up, so you can just understand whether it would be good policy to let out a man who would interfere with the business of your friend. The prison means nothing to the Negro who is thinking. It is only to the foolish, ignorant Negro that the prison means so much. The greatest creatures who ever graced God Almighty's universe were men who slept and died in prison. The great philosophers, the great reformers, teachers from the time of Socrates to Jesus Christ, and from the time of Jesus Christ to the modern martyrs, all have paid the price. What did the Greeks do to the greatest of their philosophers, Socrates?' 7 They gave him the hemlock. Voltaire,18 Karl Marx 19 and the great Apostles, 20 they 62

DECEMBER 1927 ridiculed o f Judea?

them and imprisoned them.

W h a t did the world d o to the Christ

W h a t did the world d o to the Greatest o f all reformers, the M a n

Jesus? T h e y buffeted H i m , they spat upon H i m , they kicked H i m all around and finally they crucified H i m between t w o thieves.

T h e y crucified H i m in

preference to crucifying Barabas, the murderer, and simply because he was a reformer and a teacher seeking the salvation o f human souls. W h a t did they do to Buddha, that great Indian teacher? T h e y hounded him from one place to another; but that did not kill Buddhism.

W h a t did

they do to M o h a m m e d ? T h e y drove him out o f Mecca; but that did not kill Mohammed[an]ism. M o h a m m e d returned triumphant to Mecca. T h r o u g h all the misery, the anger and everything else, I am willing to pay the price, every bit o f it. I accept the Christ o f Galilee as my teacher and my leader and I shall follow H i m anywhere H e leads. I want to reassure you, m y people in Jamaica and the N e g r o people all over the world, that m y mission is not to create disturbance amongst mankind. M y mission is to plead the cause o f Negroes, and I shall d o it anywhere—at morning-time, at noontime and afternoon-time and at evening. I shall always be doing it in the cause o f righteousness.

My

creed is: I would be true, for there are those w h o trust me. I w o u l d be pure, for there are those w h o care. I w o u l d be strong, for there is much to suffer; I would be brave, for there is much to dare; I would be friend o f all—the foe—the friendless; I w o u l d be giving and forget the gift. I w o u l d be humble, for I know my weakness. I w o u l d look up and laugh and love and lift. (Applause). Printed in NW, 7 January 1928. Original headlines omitted. 1. William Cullen Bryant, 'The Battlefield," (1839), (BFQ). 2. The UNIA held convention proceedings in the second Madison Square Garden, a magnificent Renaissance-style building designed by Stanford White and built in 1890. In 1924 the New York World published an article commemorating the building, which was soon replaced by a third structure of the same famous name. The 1920 UNIA convention was included in the account of memorable events that took place in the second garden. Other notable events included William Jennings Bryan's speech during the 1896 presidential campaign and evangelist meetings held by Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey. Booker T. Washington also climaxed a fund-raising campaign for Tuskegee with a meeting at the garden in 1903 over which President Grover Cleveland presided (New York World, 22 June 1924; Louis R. Harlan, Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901-1905 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1983], p. 134). 3. Alfred Emmanuel Smith (1873-1944), a Democrat, was a state legislator before he was elected governor of New York. He served four terms as governor, from 1919 to 1920 and from 1923 to 1928. Garvey supported Smith's gubernatorial tickets and later endorsed his 1928 bid for the presidency of the United States. Before the Democratic and Republican conventions of 1928 Smith, a Roman Catholic faced with religious prejudice, was seen by many blacks as an attractive alternative to the Republican candidate, Herbert Hoover, who wooed the southern white vote. The Democratic convention was a disappointment for these black supporters. It had no black delegates; it met in Texas, a state inhospitable to blacks; and it selected a white southerner as 63

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS the party's vice presidential candidate. Despite these events, blacks organized grassroots Smithfor-President Clubs and a Smith-for-President Colored League with local divisions in major cities. Influential members of the black press also defected to the Democratic party, with at least eighteen black newspapers endorsing Smith's nomination. In post-election analyses, Republican officials estimated a black voter defection rate of from 10 to 50 percent depending on locale. In Harlem, Democratic presidential candidates received 3 percent of the vote in 1920, but 28 percent in both 1924 and 1928 (NW, 1 September, 20 October, and 3 November 1927; Samuel O'Dell, "Blacks, the Democratic Party, and the Presidential Election of 1928: A Mild Rejoinder," Phylon 48, no. 1 [spring 1987]: 1—11; WBD). 4. Although the shift of black voters from the Republican to the Democratic party is usually assumed to coincide with the New Deal years, significant numbers of blacks began shifting their allegiance in the 1920s. This was particularly true in Harlem where the Tammany Hall machine successfully attracted black votes in local elections. lohn Hylan received about 27 percent of the black vote in his 1917 mayoral race; in his reelection bid four years later (during which he appeared at Liberty Hall), he garnered almost 70 percent. Alfred E. Smith received between 60 and 70 percent of the black vote in his gubernatorial race. Under the leadership of Charles F. Murphy, who had a close relationship with Ferdinand Morton, head of the United Colored Democracy, Tammany Hall provided blacks with jobs in city departments and in businesses under contract to the city. Despite the benefits of patronage channeled through Morton, the shift in voting patterns did not result in increased black representation. The number of black officeholders remained constant over the 1921-1929 period, although the number of blacks receiving political appointments did increase (Edwin R. Lewinson, Black Politics in New York City [New York: Twayne Publishers, 1974], pp. 58-64; see also Nancy J. Weiss, Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR [Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983]). 5. The Yarmouth arrived at port in Kingston in December 1919 and received a huge greeting at the waterfront. The Kanawha arrived in Kingston in disabled condition in luly 1921 (Garvey Papers 2: 180, 182 n. 4, 198; 4: 68-69, 122, 124, 152,582). 6. A reference to Gen. 25:30-34, wherein Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for bread and pottage. 7. Garvey alleged in his application for a change of venue that Judge Julian W. Mack was a member of the N A A C P (Garvey Papers 6: 29, 212 n. 3). 8. Garvey was taken into custody in New York, detained at the Tombs prison, and transferred to Atlanta Federal Penitentiary 5-8 February 1925 (Garvey Papers 6: 87-88 n. 1). 9. This Lazarus is not the brother of Martha and Mary who was reportedly raised from the dead in Bethany (John 11-12), but the central figure in a parable featured in Luke 16:20-31. In that passage Lazarus is a beggar suffering at the gate of a wealthy man, Dives, who feeds him nothing but crumbs. Both men die, whereby their situations are reversed, and the one who previously had no mercy, receives no mercy. While Lazarus is comforted in the bosom of Abraham, Dives is left to eternal torment by flames. 10. Governor Warren T. McCray (1865-1938) of Indiana, a Republican and a reputedly wealthy cattle farmer and banker, took office in January 1921 (NYT, 20 December 1938). 11. In 1923 McCray was indicted in Indiana courts for the embezzlement of funds from the State Board of Agriculture and accused of forging promissory notes in unlawful transactions regarding the sale of farm property. A federal indictment for using the mails to defraud soon followed. In April 1924 he was found guilty on all counts. He was given a maximum sentence of ten years and a $10,000 fine and was incarcerated in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. After serving for fifteen months, McCray filed an application for pardon with President Coolidge through the Justice Department. The application presented to Attorney General John Sargent was accompanied by over two hundred letters of support from "Senators and Representatives, Governors and former Governors, political leaders, seven members of the jury,. . . thirty o f . . .the bankers affected by his financial operations and ministers of the gospel" (NYT, 13 August 1925). The application was denied. McCray served as editor of the penitentiary's monthly magazine, Good Words, and as supervisor of the prison print shop for the first twenty months of his imprisonment. He was then "assigned to less arduous duties" due to his high blood pressure (NYT, 27 December 1925). Outstanding indictments against him were gradually dismissed, clearing the way for parole in August 1927 after he had served three years. He returned to Indiana in the midst of a grand jury investigation of several state politicians' involvement with the Ku Klux Klan, a proceeding instigated by the prosecuting attorney of Marion County, William Remy. McCray was soon called as a prosecution witness in the bribery trial of one of his successors, Governor Ed Jackson, who had been secretary of state under the McCray administration. McCray testified that in 1923 Jackson had offered him $10,000 and immunity from 64

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prosecution on the fraud charges if he would block the appointment of Remy and name a man affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan in his stead. McCray declined the offer. In December 1930 President Hoover granted McCray a full pardon, restoring his civil rights (NTT, 4 April, 6 April, 1 May, 23 May, and 28 June 1924, 31 August 1927, 20 December 1938). 12. Mayor Roswell O. Johnson (1872-1938) of Gary, Ind., was indicted with seventy-five other persons for his part in a prohibition-era liquor conspiracy ring. Mayor Johnson and fifty-four others were found guilty. He was given the most severe sentence of all the codefendants: eighteen months in the federal penitentiary and a $1,000 fine. The mayor resigned his post in March 1925 and was imprisoned at Atlanta in April. He served six months of his sentence before he was released on parole. In February 1929 Calvin Coolidge granted him an official pardon, restoring his civil rights and enabling him again to seek the Republican nomination. He was subsequently reelected as mayor of Gary, a post he held for a total of three terms (NTT, 29 March and 22 April 1925, 9 May 1929, 20 June 1938). 13. Municipal Judge William M. Dunn (b. 1878) was sentenced along with Mayor Johnson as a coconspirator in the Gary liquor syndicate. Unlike his fellow defendants, Judge Dunn did not appeal his conviction. He was sent to Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in March 1923, while the other defendants were not imprisoned until April 1925. He served five months of his one-year sentence before he was released by presidential pardon. Like Johnson, he attempted to resume his old civic position by running for the Republican nomination in the May 1929 city elections. He, however, was narrowly defeated in his bid for his old post (Gary Post-Tribune, 5 May, 9 May, and 11 May 1923, 20 April and 28 April 1925; NTT, 9 May 1929). 14. Eugene Victor Debs (1855-1926) was the Socialist party candidate for president in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. The organizer of the American Railway Union and leader of the 1894 strike against the Great Northern Railway and of the Pullman boycott of the same year, Debs was an opponent of racial segregation in industrial unions. He was indicted for an antiwar speech given at Canton, Ohio, 16 June 1918, and sentenced to ten years in prison. He began his sentence at the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Moundsville, 13 April 1919, and was transferred to Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in June. Despite his imprisonment he received nearly a million votes in the presidential election of 1920. President Wilson denied his application for pardon and, when Debs commented on this denial to the press, Wilson ordered his writing and visiting privileges suspended. President Harding pardoned him on Christmas day, 1921. His fellow prisoners demonstrated when he was released, cheering en masse as movie cameras recorded his exit from the penitentiary. In poor health throughout his detention, Debs suffered a complete physical breakdown after his release. He died of heart disease, 20 October 1926. His last words were reportedly a quotation from one of Garvey's favorite poems, Henley's "Invictus" (NTT, 21 October 1926; Eugene V. Debs, Walls and Bars [Chicago: Socialist Party Press, 1927]; Ray Ginger, Eugene V. Debs: The Making of an American Radical [New York: Collier Books, 1962]; Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982]). 15. J. Nicholas, a mechanical engineer, went to Liberia with the UNIA delegation of experts in June 1924 (P&O, 2: 388). 16. C. D. B. King was president of Liberia for two and a half terms, 1920—1924, 1924—1928, and 1928-1930. He resigned from office in 1930. The Firestone concession was granted in 1926 (D. Elwood Dunn and Svend E. Holsoc, Historical Dictionary of Liberia [Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985], pp. 100-101). 17. The Greek philosopher Socrates (ca. 470-399 B.C.) was imprisoned for his unconciliatory pronouncements and condemned to death (Alan F. Blum, Socrates [London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978]). 18. Voltaire (1694-1778) was jailed repeatedly for his satirical observations of French political and social life. He was first imprisoned in the Bastille at the age of twenty-three and again in 1726, when he was released only on the condition that he leave the country. Taking up residence in England, his publication of Lettres Anglaises ou Philosophiques (1734) raised such a negative reaction that he was forced into seclusion (Peyton Richter and Ilona Ricardo, Voltaire [Boston: Twayne, 1980]). 19. Although never actually sentenced to a prison term, Karl Marx (1818-1883) was subjected to years of physical exile and political censorship. As editor of Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne (1841— 1843) he was heavily censored by Prussian officials. Moving to Paris, he was soon served with an expulsion order and moved again to Brussels, where he lived under police surveillance until he was expelled for his role in the 1848 revolution against the government of Louis Philippe. In March 1848, many of Marx's fellow radicals were imprisoned in the Petits Carmes. On 3 March Marx's home was ransacked and he was arrested. His wife, Jenny Marx, was in turn arrested for 65

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS attempting to intercede in her husband's behalf. Charged with vagrancy, the pair were interrogated and released in less that twenty-four hours, but ordered to leave the country. They returned to Cologne and Marx began production of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, whereupon he was again arrested and this time tried for incitement to rebellion and deported (May 1849). In the following summer he was arrested again in southwest Germany and expelled. He went to Paris, where he was served with an order of banishment. He moved with his family to London in August and spent the remaining years of his life in exile in Britain (Saul K. Padover, Karl Marx [New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978]; Jerrold Seigel, Marx's Fate: The Shape of a Life [Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1978]). 20. The apostles Peter and John were interrogated by the Hebrew Sanhedrin and prohibited from preaching. When they did not obey this order, they were arrested and put "in the common prison" (Acts 5:18). Freed mysteriously at night, they were arrested once again, whereby death sentences were considered but not enacted. The two were beaten, ordered not to teach in the temple, and then released (Acts 4:5-23, 5:18-42).

Marcus Garvey to Frank Billings Kellogg Kingston, 20th December, 1927 Dear S i r : — I wish to bring to your attention a matter that may fail under the direction of your department. I was deported from the United States of America through the Department of Labour, leaving N e w Orleans on the 2nd inst., for my native home Jamaica. I am President-General of an International Movement known as The Universal Negro Improvement Association with branches in the republic o f Panama. It is my intention to visit these branches on a trip that I am taking during the months of January and February 1928. There is a peculiar situation in Panama where landing at C o l ó n in the republic o f Panama, one, to reach Panama, the capital o f the republic, must do so as a kind o f interstate passenger going from Colón on the Panama railroad to Panama city, thereby crossing the Canal Zone which is an American territory. To reach Panama city, I will have to so embark as from Colón to the capital thereby crossing aboard train territories of the Canal Zone. K n o w i n g the American Laws as I do, I know there is no violation being an interstate passenger going from one point to the next without disembarking, but I do not know what interpretation the Local Authority working under your Department in Cristobal or the Canal Zone proper, may place upon my travel. I do not desire to waste time in Federal Courts, therefore I intend to call your attention to this my travel so that you may acquaint the Local Representative of the State Department to prevent any misunderstanding in that I shall be travelling as a British subject without any desire to embark on American territories as a resident of any kind.1 I have the honour, to be, Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association

66

DECEMBER 1927

DNA, RG 59, file 811.108 G191/42. TLS, recipient's copy. On Office of the President General letterhead. I. S. W. Morgan, the chief of the State Department Division of Latin American Affairs, replied to Garve/s letter and informed him that a copy had been "forwarded to the Office of the Panama Canal in the War Department for its information" (Morgan to Garvey, 12 January 1928, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 Ü191/42). The letter was forwarded to Secretary of War Dwight Davis by Assistant Secretary of State Wilbur J. Carr (Carr to Davis, 12 January 1928, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/42). Garvey sent a duplicate copy of his letter to the Department of Labor, which forwarded it to Kellogg along with the information that Garvey had been "deported from the United States upon the grounds that he was a person likely to become a public charge" and had been convicted "of a crime involving moral turpitude, to wit: using the mails to defraud . . . within five years after his entry" into the country (Robe Carl White, Assistant Secretary of Labor, to Kellogg, 5 January 1928, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/43). Secretary of War Davis brought Garve/s letter to the attention of the governor of the Panama Canal (Davis to Kellogg, 17 January 1928, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/43; see also Mr. Wilson, Division of Latin American Affairs, to Francis White, 20 January 1928, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/44).

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Kingston, December 21, 1927]] MARCUS GARVEY ORGANIZING THE WORLD F O R G R E A T E S T C O N V E N T I O N IN H I S T O R Y

Fellow-men of the Negro Race, Greeting: I write to you today with a deep feeling of confidence and hope. I believe there is no real Negro in any part of the world who has not realized that he is now at the point where he must make up his mind to go forward in the urge of greater racial accomplishments. I trust to each and every man to now play his part in rising out of the rut. The tremendous forces of the world that seek the domination of men's minds and bodies are determined to deceive the Negro and force him into a sense of false security with the dominant idea of trampling upon his soul's ambition to be a man. Our civilization has reached such a state of moral corruption, that no one race can afford to entrust to another its hopes, desires and destiny. I feel that there is no Negro in any part of the world that would for one minute think and believe that the other races are interested in us as a people other than to exploit and use us in the furtherance of their aims. Racial selfishness has become the practice of all the scattered groups of humanity, and I, as one who suffers and feels with the millions of my own, cannot but make the appeal to you for a closer getting together to stem the tide that flows against our common interest. I am glad that certain things have happened, and especially to me, so as to compel those of you who have been sleeping upon your intentions to realize that now, more than ever, the hour has struck for true racial pride, fellowship 67

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and emancipation. How many of you really know that every attack that has been made upon me, and every thing that has been done to me, was all done against you as Negroes and not so much against myself as an individual. The vicious sweep of my enemies upon me was only a mild expression of their hate for the black race; they pounced down upon me not because I am Marcus Garvey, but because I am black and sought to liberate black men. Every drive they made at me, every hateful thing they have said against me, was all done and said with the hope of discouraging you from going forward. What intelligent man in the world who studies the programme of the Universal Negro Improvement Association can honestly find fault with the plan of trying to improve the lot of humanity? This is all in a nutshell that we seek to do, and when white and colored men can bend their energies to make a fool of the one who leads such a cause, it is time enough for any one to see the hateful attitude of others toward us as a struggling people. The desire to crush, imprison and discourage me is but a desire to crush, imprison and discourage the efforts of the Negro to help himself. But my confidence in the four hundred million Negroes in the world is too great to believe that they, at this time, would allow a few white men and other Negroes to crush their hopes of universal freedom. The narrow-minded of the white race, and the viciously disloyal of the colored race, may move hell and damnation in their wickedness to keep back and suppress our racial growth, but I feel sure that with God's grace we shall continue to rise above their obstacles until Africa is free and the black man emancipated everywhere. We hope for all that is encouraging and good. The little trials and troubles of the past are but tests of our worth to go forward to a greater future and a firm destiny. There is no Negro who is worth his salt who will falter or turn back in the great cause of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. We are all going forward. Our eyes, hearts and minds are set, and not even hell itself shall say us nay. A few selfish and narrow-minded white men may try to embarrass us, but what do we care? The great heart of white humanity shall, when the truth is known, condemn them for what they are, and so also shall the Negro traitors fall from their positions of deception, falsehood and lies. The great urge is to look up and march forward, for the brightest day of our racial success is ahead. I personally feel happy in realizing that there is so much good to be done for black humanity. You may depend on me that I shall never forget my duty nor desert you. In life and in death I shall husband the great cause which is dearest to my heart and nearest to my soul. We are now planning for the great International Con[vention in August, 1929. This convention shall be the biggest thing ever attempted and put over by black men. It] will take us fully one year to have every detail of the great conclave worked out, but be assured that when we meet next as one compact body, we shall so impress the world, as to make all mankind realize that the real Negro is here. We are going to have ships, and still more ships; we are 68

DECEMBER 1927

going to have factories, and still more factories; we are going to make the wheels of industry hum, and still they shall hum; and ultimately we shall have the Negroes of Africa and the world united into one Federation of Nations, so that with other races and peoples we may march forward to the destiny that is reserved for all mankind. During my absence from the United States of America, I ask that all the American Divisions, in the 48 States, give their loyal support to the Hon. E. B. Knox who is nationally carrying on as a personal representative of the President-General until the next convention, at which time we will elect our new leaders. Mr. Knox is acting for me in America as President-General, while I am organizing the whole outside world for the biggest of all conventions. Hold up the hand of Knox. See that the Negro World and the School in Virginia [Liberty University] function as they ought, so that when we meet in 1929 our record will be one of Universal success. The Conventional Programme will appear in another few weeks, so that you may know what to look forward to. In my next message, which will be dated January 2, I shall make public the names of the District Leaders in America who are to work under the direction of Mr. Knox to line up all America for the convention in 1929, as we outside are lining up all Africa, South and Central America, the West Indies, Asia and Europe. Be of good cheer. The great day of the Negro is in view, and we, under the leadership of God, shall surely get there. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be. Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW, 7 January 1927. Original headlines abridged.

Article in the Richmond Planet [[Kingston, ca. 25 December 1927]] TIME W I L L TELL

We have received a Christmas greeting from the Hon. Marcus Garvey. It is in the form of a card and reads as follows: Christmas has a charm so dear, Coming once for every year, Bringing Christ in thought anew With my greeting true to you. For the everlasting truths

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS M e n may differ in their views; Still, at Xmas it's all right M e r r y Christmas to recite. — M A R C U S GARVEY, 1927 Kingston, Jamaica, B . W . I . T h e deportation o f Garvey was the least that his enemies could d o to him. M a d a m e M a r y Church Terrell, 1 admittedly one o f the brainiest w o m e n in these United States, aptly remarks that they deported Garvey, but they could not deport his ideas. W h a t appeared to be at one time in the nature o f a tragedy may yet prove to be a divine plan for the furtherance o f his great work. Selah! 2 Printed in the Richmond Planet, 31 December 1927. Reprinted in NW, 14 January 1928. 1. Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954), teacher and journalist, was an activist in both the women's rights and civil rights movements in the first half of the twentieth century. Initially a supporter of Booker T. Washington, Terrell became a charter member of the National Association of Colored Women and a founder of the NAACP. A graduate of Oberlin College, Terrell taught at Wilberforce University before becoming a high school teacher in Washington, D.C., where she became a member of the District of Columbia school board. She lectured widely and served as a speaker and delegate to a number of national and international conferences, including the conventions of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the International Council of Women at Berlin, and the International Congress of Women at Zurich. She directed Republican National Committee campaigns to organize black voters in the 1920s and 1930s. The recipient of honorary degrees from three institutions, she was instrumental in opening membership in the American Association of University Women to blacks. As head of the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws, she led public demonstrations against racial discrimination in restaurants and other public facilities in Washington, D.C. (Mary Church Terrell, A Colored Woman in a White World [Washington, D.C., 1940]; Dorothy Sterling, Black Foremothers: Three Lives [Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1979], pp. 118-157). 2. Selah—an expression of divine praise similar to amen or hallelujah—appears frequently in the text of the Biblical psalms as a direction to priests, temple musicians, or chorus members to lift up their instruments or voices in honor of the Almighty (Ps. 68:19; Carl Kraeling and Lucetta Mowry, "Music in the Bible," in New Oxford History ofMusic, ed. Egon Wellesz, vol. 1, [London: Oxford University Press, 1957], p. 292).

Speech by Marcus Garvey W a r d Theatre, Kingston, [[25 D e c e m b e r 1927]] In his opening words the H o n . Marcus Garvey struck the religious keynote: " T h i s is Christmas," he said, " a n d this is Sunday, and I desire to speak to the N e g r o people on the subject, ' W h a t Christmas means to y o u . '

It

is a pleasure for me to d o so, because there seems to be a great deal o f misunderstanding o f what Christmas means. Before I enter u p o n m y subject, I want y o u all to recite the Apostles' C r e e d . " T h e audience recited the Creed, after which M r . Garvey began his address.

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Mr. Garvcy said:— Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying:— Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.1 "In these words," he continued, "the Holy Angel nearly two thousand years ago greeted the Shepherds of Bethlehem. On that day was born into the world a Christ—the greatest being that ever came forth in the form of man. He came into the world with the one object of saving the souls of men. He was long looked for by a certain race and by a certain class of people, who believed that He was going to establish a temporal and political kingdom that would restore them to power amongst the nations of the world; but He came in a manner and guise that was not very pleasing to the people who were looking for Him. They were expecting a man purely of the Hebrew or Jewish type or figure. They were looking for a typical Jew. Unfortunately for them, they were disappointed in seeing a Man, according to the words: born to be called the Prince of Peace, born to be called the King of Kings, who looked like the Negroes of today. C H R I S T OF C O L O R E D B L O O D

"In America the man who has any colored blood in his veins is regarded as a Negro—and of course Christ was not especially a Negro in the accepted term of being a black man; but Christ was a Negro in the interpretation of the 20th century characterization of Negro. He was a man of colored blood. Christ to have been Christ could not have been of any particular race, otherwise he could not be the Redeemer of mankind. (Applause). Christ was the embodiment of all Humanity. He was as much a Mongolian, a Caucasian as he was African. The idea of Christ being a black man is simply being enunciated in keeping with the idea of white men making Him white. (Applause). The Anglo Saxon has made Him a prepossessing and very fine type of Christ, the German has made Him the Teutonic type; and therefore the Christ as the modern interpretation goes would have to be of our type; the Christ of the Italian would have to be a brunette, and so the Christ of the Negro must be black. Christ came to save all mankind. He, therefore, took in everything that was human, from white to black—and everything between.

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T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS T H E GREAT MASTER M I N D

"Christ stands out today in the world of thought as the great master mind. I say, the great master mind, because there is no other master mind equal to Christ. In the philosophical thought of the world He stands out as the beacon light. In the course of the world's history we have had many theories and dogmas; but when we investigate them and compare them all there is only one, one philosophy, and that is the Christian philosophy, and that is the philosophy of Christ. We have had the philosophy of Epicurus which taught us of pleasure. We also have the philosophy of the stoic, who reduced everything to self-control, the regulation of self in mind. Then there was the philosophy of Plato whose idea was the subordination of the lower to the higher for the good of the state. Then there was the philosophy of Aristotle, and the Aristotelian philosophy dealt with the sense of all proportions. But all these philosophies were before Christ, and when He came He announced His philosophy, which has traveled down through all the ages. He gave to us a program which was imbued with the true spirit of love by which we can safely abide. It is a program which appeals to you; it is a program which appeals to me. Nowhere in human society can you find anything more appealing than the philosophy which Christ enunciated on the Mount. I will only recite twelve points—there are many others. F R O M THE S E R M O N ON THE M O U N T

1. And seeing the multitudes He went up into a mountain; and when He was set His disciples came unto Him. 2. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 4. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 11. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. 12. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.2

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"On that platform," continued M r . Garvey, " I stand this afternoon, and this Christmas of 1927. We who are members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, following the principles laid down by Christ, desire to extend love, charity and sympathy to our fellow men (applause). And oh, how necessary that is for a place like Jamaica at this particular time. Men and women, I came to Kingston just a little over a week ago. It is little over ten years since I have left the island. I had painful memories of Jamaica all the while. It was these painful memories that really made me work so hard because I had something in view. From those painful recollections I stepped forward and looked forward to all black humanity, of America, Africa and the West Indies. IF C H R I S T C A M E TO JAMAICA

"When I came back to Kingston two Saturdays ago, I thought things had brightened up a bit. Things looked to me just a little improved; but, can you imagine, when I left Kingston at 2 o'clock on Friday last for Port Antonio, I saw people on the way, dirty and diseased. Oh, my friends, you must realize that something is wrong, not in Denmark, but in Jamaica. H o w many people who live in Jamaica—and live in Jamaica happy—who see such misery around and yet do nothing for their fellow men? Yet they call themselves Christians. If Christ came to Jamaica today, what a sight he would see among the blacks! I can assure you that there would be many changes. H E A R T - R E N D I N G C O N D I T I O N OF T H E P O O R

' T h e condition of the poor man and the poor woman grieves me, and yet against the poverty which prevails you have the very type I speak of hoarding up all the riches of the land. D o you remember the experience of reformers who tried to help the people lower down—people whose condition made them preferable dead than alive? D o you know why they despise those who help the poor people? The reason is because they profit when the people remain in such a condition; but really what profit can they get out of diseased humanity? You in Kingston don't really see what is going on. It is your own kith and kin and blood in the country who are suffering. Outside my wife, I have no close relative in the world, and I could provide for myself, apart from being in the organization. Personally, if I cared, I could rest from the duties of President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. I have the ability to earn as much out of life as any man can. (Applause.) I do not depend on my office for a living. I am in it because I just must help to relieve the black men of the world. It is because of their selfishness and envy which induced many of my enemies to write against me in the newspapers, but, despite what they write, the spirit of my dead father rises up and tells me: 'You must go on! You must go on!!' (Applause.)

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"Yes, I must go on, because it is somebody's duty to lead—it is somebody's duty to help to carry the cross of black humanity, and the responsibility which has been placed on me is due to the fact that I know the condition of the Negro. I have been to different parts of the world and have studied the condition of the Negro, and one cannot but be struck with the pitiable and damnable condition that effects [affects] him, and I cannot understand how this cannot appeal to men's souls. The world is partly developed. Our civilization has reached a great pinnacle, and what one would have expected was that the Christ of two thousand years ago would have been an advantage to everybody; but if the Christ born 2 , 0 0 0 years ago came to Jamaica, He would see the things He came into the world to salvage 2 , 0 0 0 years ago. (Applause.) They would send him to gaol and give Him fifteen years for telling the truth to the common people. N o BETTER THAN 2 , 0 0 0 YEARS A G O

"Christ came into the world 2 , 0 0 0 years ago, but conditions are no better. The world is almost the same. Men are as cold and frigid; men are as heartless. Christ came into the world to teach love and charity, to teach mercy; but where, I ask, is the love around? Where is that charity around? Where is that mercy around? The hungry man steals. He is convicted, sentenced. He steals because he is hungry; then he becomes a criminal. The illiterate man does what is wrong because he does not know any better. He cannot reach his brother, who could teach him better, to help him. What you Negro people fail to do is to show appreciation for those who serve you. What you lack is intelligence. Sometimes I would abuse you because of your selfishness; sometimes I do not abuse you because you do not know better. Do you know what it is to love? Do you know that to live you must take in the philosophy of Epicurus, Plato and Aristode; and, above all, you must help take in what Christ taught, and that is love for your brother man; the love of the world; the love of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. This love should permeate the body and soul of man. This is the love on which Christianity is founded. L I K E THE PHARISEES

"But today the Christian father and the Christian leader is superior to his fellow being (applause); and he is proud today as the Pharisees and Sadducees in the time of Christ. They would be not better than the Scribes and Pharisees who would tear you away from helping to lift the cross. "Christmas is a time that is significant to all true Christians. It is significant of true brotherhood and love for all humanity. (Applause.) It is that spirit which we of the Universal Negro Improvement Association spread, and Marcus Garvey is prepared to stand condemned because he encouraged that spirit today. In advocating the cause of the millions of Negro people of 74

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the world I am in no way deterred; and what do I care for opposition, because the great Father says: 'If you do it unto this little one you do it unto me.' 3 H o w , therefore, can I do better than obey the principles of Christ? I do not claim to be a Divine, but my heart burns when I see injustice meted out to my fellow men. Like the good Samaritan, we are called upon to help a brother on the wayside of the world. That is what we want in the world, and I shall assist in bringing this about. T H E R E A L SATISFACTION

" N o w there has been some pretence in certain quarters as to what I am going to do, but I do not confide in what may be called friends. I suppose I have only about 10 friends in the world. I do not care for friends, and outside my wife I do not think the number of friends exceed 10 because I realize and count the world's agony, and because I know what man is I do not care for any friends but God. All I want to know is that my heart and conscience are clean. (Applause.) That is the bulwark of my life. You will see me keep up my head as long as my conscience is clear. When you can see me look down you will know that something is wrong. I weigh the characters I meet as I go around in the world and I am able to form a true estimate of men. And so, as I go around the world, I hope to maintain that wide outlook which I have taken. Those who want to stop Marcus Garvey from Negro superconsciousness and Negro uplift, let them come forward and do what is right by the Negro. (Applause.) DISEASE AND DIRT M U S T G O

" I know I have a number of enemies even in Jamaica, though it is my home. It was the home of my father and mother and, although I have lived out of this country for 10 years, and it is a pleasure to return, I can assure you that I will leave Jamaica within 24 hours when they have raised the standard of the black man. Until they do that, then I am going to raise hell in Jamaica. Get me out, and get me out quickly, but take steps to abolish the nakedness, disease and dirt around. Force me out, if you can, but I will never stand by and keep my mouth closed until the condition of the masses is improved. If a cottage of four rooms is good enough for certain people, then why should a black mother and father with six children be contented with one room? Why should people have to live in mud cottages and dirt? The day the condition of the masses is changed, when they no longer live in mud huts and are saturated with dirt, I will leave Jamaica because there will be no more work for me to do in Jamaica. (Applause.) INTRODUCING THE C U R E

" I cannot feel happy when so many people like me look so unhappy, although they fool you by telling you that all is well and that you should be happy. You should not allow yourselves to be fooled. The disease from which you have been suffering is one that has always been imposed on you. The 75

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disease embraces poverty, dirty and physical ailments brought about by your not getting a square deal. By God's help I am going to introduce a cure in Jamaica, and no better time for such a cure than on Christmas Day, when Christ came into the world to cure the disease o f the soul. Let us promise to cure the disease which affects black Jamaica and the black world. A lot o f people mistake me. They say I am a propagandist—that I am a demagogue. At times they say that I am a Red—a Communist. They call me all sorts o f names, but I have left: them wondering what manner of man is that. (Applause.) N E G R O M U S T IMPROVE H I S CONDITION

"My answer is that I am simply Marcus Garvey, and I am simply a Negro, coming from the people like me. I want to see the Negro folks o f the world look up, and it is open to you to improve your position. I have lived in America, where there are quite a number o f white men, and let me tell you, when the white man does not prosper in America, it is not that he is trampled under like you, but it is due to the conditions to which he sticks. He is not like the eleven million Negroes in America. When a white man is down and out he has thrown away a thousand chances. When a black man is down and out he will be down and out always by the arrangements of the white man. Why, this down and out among Negroes is like a retail business. (Laughter.) This down and out proposition seems to exist everywhere. POVERTY AMIDST W E A L T H

" D o you know that when the Christmas is over and you go out on Tuesday morning you will all be down and out, and after that you will have to start again. It is hard, and you know where the root lies. The trouble is not confined only to your environments in Jamaica, but elsewhere. As I motored over to Port Antonio a few days ago one could not but be impressed with the virginity o f the soil. One could see the wealth of the country, but yet in the midst o f it one saw poverty, dirt and disease. It is truly peculiar how people with plenty can rest content having miserable conditions surrounding them. The wealth of the country is in the soil, but there is nobody to take advantage of the opportunity which the soil presents. While you are merely existing the other fellow is able to hoard up, and while you are doing everything which tends to enhance his comfort and pleasure you remain in the same position and so you have no pleasure. SLEEPING ON Y O U R R I G H T S

"You Negroes, you are sleeping on your rights. Negroes, get up and help yourselves! Instead of running over to Cuba and letting the Cubans kill you, instead o f going to Costa Rica and letting the Spaniards chop you to pieces, instead o f going to Bocas-del-Toro and to the Panama Canal, where they do not want you—Negroes, instead o f wandering about, stay at home and help to build up your country. (Applause.) Many of you have had to steal 76

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because you were hungry. I have seen the conditions existing, and that is why my heart goes out to you, my fellow Negroes. APPEARANCES AND RUMORS

'Today is Christmas, and let us rededicate ourselves to get what rightly belongs to us and our people. Have faith in God and seek to love one another. Nobody can prevent you loving one another. You know how many set you up against Garvey. They don't know me. There is nobody big enough that I would go to shake his hand. (Applause.) There is nobody big enough, if I care about that, whose hands I could not shake, and those whose hands I do not shake I don't care about. D o not believe everything you hear. I am not a man who talks my business to anyone except my wife, so that if anyone says anything about my business it is a darn lie. If my wife does not tell you it, then don't believe, it is a lie. And I know my wife is not going to tell you what she does not want anyone to know. We have confidence in each other. So that you can put down £ 1 0 and back what I say. When they talk about Garvey it is not Garvey they want to attack so much as it is his principles. (Applause.) STILL G O I N G STRONG

"In America they sent me to gaol because of my steadfastness and efforts in behalf of you, the Negro people of the world (applause). They thought they could break down my manhood. They thought they would have got me to bow down and say: 'Boss, I accept what you say and do.' They thought they would dismantle the organization of which I am head and wreck my aims; but let me say to America, to Europe and Jamaica, that Garvey is at present in Jamaica and is still going strong (applause). I shall be here so long as the Christ born 2,000 years ago leads me on (applause). I follow no man, but I follow the will of God (renewed applause). How I have reached the position I have attained I cannot tell, because my father never gave me the start. I ask, is there anyone in the world who has done anything to let me attain the position I have attained in the world? Therefore, there must be some power that tells me the truth to show you the wrong (applause). Whatever that power is, it is my light and path. I believe it is the power of Christ, Who came into the world 2,000 years ago, and I say to that spirit: 'Lead Thou me on!' (Applause.) CHRIST LEADS

"The Christ of Gethsemane, the Christ of Calvary came into this world to save you, and He will see that the burdens which you are bearing are lifted. The Negro who was the closest one to Him helped him to bear the cross to Calvary, and in common gratitude He looks back on us and helps us to bear the cross of our race today (applause). We members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association have made up our minds to bear the cross, and in doing so we fully realize that in doing everything for the uplift and

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advancement of our race our paths will be set with difficulties. But I would warn you not to allow any corrupt religion to thwart your efforts and ideals. A MOCKERY OF R E L I G I O N

"I do not want to raise any religious quarrel, but I say to you, 'Be careful of the fellow who laughs with you and yet does nothing to improve the condition in which you are.' If a man says, 'Garvey, I come to help you,' and you still find me hungry for two, ten, twenty, and more years, it is time for me to doubt his sincerity. It is over eighty years since slavery has been abolished, yet what is the condition of the people today? There are places in Clarendon, Manchester and Portland where the conditions are as bad as ever. I saw boys suffering from disease—you could see death oozing out of their eyes. They were sore and dirty. They are dirty because they have no soap to wash their faces. And you call that Christian life! If that is Christian life, then I would wish to be banished. If that is Christian life, I would never wish to be saved, because I would be nearer hell than heaven. G O D IS O M N I S C I E N T

"Don't you think there is a God who does not know all about it, but He is punishing you for all your sins of the past. You are black, and when you were in power you punished and screwed down white men and Asiatics in Africa. All these things have not been told you, but really, you black people, your hearts are too large. You allow people to come about you and to tell you false things. Those who fool you, you listen to them. You have given them money, and when they ask for more, you still give them more. You bestir yourselves, and if you have a boy you send him away to get a profession, and when he comes back he sometimes does not come back alone. He sometimes comes back with somebody who does not look like his mother. He does not want to know his mother. If he comes from St. Ann, he stays in Kingston because he does not want the person who does not look like him to see his mother. That is why I married two Negro women. The first one is as bad as hell. When I found out the character of the first woman I married, I sent her away. Some of you who have come from Panama know more about her than I do. I was able to divorce a bad woman; but there are bad women as well as good women. I found a good woman and I married her. If I am here, it is because my wife in New York kept the fire burning. (Applause.) I am near to her heart as to no other's, because I found her a good and loyal woman. I have had an opportunity of judging women. I may tell you that I am no angel, but yet I am not a bad man. A N EYE FOR AN EYE

"I have been in England, France, America, and I am just here for a short while. Now, I say this to you: "Treat them as they treat you; respect them as they respect you. If they love you, love them. If they curse you, curse 78

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them. Don't give them more than they give you. Let it be a fifty-fifty deal. Respect everybody who respects you; but if they insult you, then get busy and do likewise.' (Applause.) I am here to see you go right and, if things are not going right, to get your rights. Get what is yours and should come to you. You can co-operate, and by God you must get what is right. If anybody disturbs you, call me. ALL MUST LIVE

"This black man's business must be settled once and for all. (Applause.) This black man's business in Jamaica and the world must be a fifty-fifty proposition. We black people submit as a proposition that Jamaica is a great country; that the county is rich and fertile; that the country is not overpopulated; that the country is inviting and impressing; that the country can be developed; that one section of the population is extremely poor whilst the other section is extremely wealthy; that we like to maintain a wealthy class and will support a wealthy class, but not at the expense of ourselves. We are not going against the wealthy class, but in the presence of the wealthy class we must also exist as men and not as inferiors. We want a thoroughly universal and happy country and a happy lot of people all round. (Applause.) W H E R E G A R V E Y STANDS

"We are well aware that everybody in 'society cannot occupy the same financial and social position. We must have respect for those to whom respect is due; but it must also be remembered that there is the middle class and poor class, and the rights of each class must be maintained, and each must live respectfully. Just as respect is shown to the upper class, so should respect be shown to the middle class and the poor class. One class should not be diseased and hungry. And what we say is that if we cannot attain to the heights of those above and must remain diseased and hungry, then we say to those above: W e will pull you down and let you sit where we are.' (Applause.) The disease will be at your door, and by the gods we hope you will be pulled down if you will not help us to rise. But if you do what is right and you will not allow us to remain in disease and hunger we will push you up as we climb. That is the fifty-fifty proposition. That is the platform I stand on, and by God! let them hang me on that. You can hang me now; you can hang me 20 years from now, so long as the black man remains in dirt and disease. (Applause.) Yet, that will forever be my stand—in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. (Prolonged applause.) Printed in NW, 4 February 1928. Original headlines omitted, text abridged. 1. A reference to Luke 2:10-11, 13-14. 2. Garvey is quoting Matt. 5:1-12; see also Luke 6:20-23 for another version of the beatitudes. 3. A reference to Matt. 25:40: "inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

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Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detective Office, East Queen Street, Kingston, 26th December 1927 M A R C U S G A R V E Y — H i s MOVEMENTS AND M E E T I N G S

I beg to report, as I have already verbally reported to you, that on Monday last the 19th instant, M r . Marcus Garvey addressed nearly 300 members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association at their Liberty Hall—76 King Street, between the hours o f 7 and 8 P.M., on the subject o f Unity. This meeting was confined to the actual subscribing members alone and the public was not admitted. H e gave them every encouragement to g o forward as true members of their race, that they should fear G o d and no other man, and look to Him alone for help and support while labouring for the betterment of their unfortunate brothers and sisters. H e thrice informed them that he did not want them to misunderstand him, and believe that he was there to encourage them to do wrong, but that he was there to explain to them they [the] /way/ of thinking more of themselves than they had previously thought, and the way of thinking how they could better help themselves than before. On Tuesday the 20th, M r . Garvey went to Spanish Town; on Wednesday 21st he went to Morant Bay, and on Thursday he went to Port Antonio. At all these places he made speeches as mentioned before. On Friday and Saturday, he was between his quarters and Liberty Hall attending to matters of a personal nature. On Sunday morning (yesterday) between the hours of 9 and 10.30 o'clock, another private meeting was held at Liberty Hall, which M r . Garvey attended. Several members and a few strangers attended this meeting. Suggestions, such as "the establishment of a large Negro grocery," "the erection of a large factory to be staffed and managed by negroes" were put forward, and M r . Garvey noted the suggestions and promised to give a final decision when the final programme on that matter is closed. There were no prominent men at the meeting to-day. Yesterday evening between the hours of 3.35 and 5.30 o'clock, M r . Garvey again made his appearance at the Ward Theatre where he addressed the audience on the subject "What Christmas means to you." There was a fair gathering on this occasion—the theatre about four-fifths full. The chair was occupied by Miss H . V . Davis, the 4th Assistant President General. The Rev. S. M . Jones—Commissioner, M r . C. D . Johnson, President, M r . H . B. Green—Chaplain and a number of other officers were on the platform. There was not that large number of strangers on the platform on this occasion. [. . . ]

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M r . Garvey announced that on Sunday next he will again appear in the Ward Theatre for the last time, before proceeding to Central and South America. He was doing so at the request of many persons. He had no fixed subject, but will speak to them generally. His wife would be coming down from New York to join him this week and he was going to introduce her to the audience. She would be landing this morning. M r . Garvey requested that the British National Anthem should be sung followed by the Eth[i]opian Anthem, which was done. M r . Johnson, gave a vote of thanks to the audience and the Rev. S. M. Jones gave the closing grace. The meeting then terminated. The usual Sunday evening service was subsequently carried out at the Liberty Hall where another large number of people assembled. At the close of this service a literary programme of songs, recitations and short speeches was carried through until 9.30 P.M. when it came to a close. M r . Johnson was the chairman on this occasion. M r . Garvey and Miss Davis were not present. C H A S . A . PATTERSON J A , file is(v), no. 0 : 1 : 0 : 4 4 7 2 7 . T L S , recipient's copy. Marked "CONFIDENTIAL." Text abridged.

Essay by Noble Drew Ali,1 Prophet of the Moorish Holy Temple of Science [Chicago, 1927] CHAPTER X L V I I I T H E E N D OF T I M E A N D THE F U L F I L L I N G OF T H E P R O P H E S I E S

1. The last Prophet in these days is Noble Drew Ali, who was prepared divinely in due time by Allah to redeem men from their sinful ways; and to warn them of the great wrath which is sure to come upon the earth. 2. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus in those days, to warn and stir up the nation and prepare them to receive the divine creed which was to be taught by Jesus. 3. In these modern days there came a forerunner, who was divinely prepared by the great God-Allah and his name is Marcus Garvey, who did teach and warn the nations of the earth to prepare to meet the coming Prophet; who was to bring the true and divine Creed of Islam, and his name is Noble Drew Ali: who was prepared and sent to this earth by Allah, to teach the old time religion and the everlasting gospel to the sons of men. That every nation shall and must worship under their own vine and fig tree, and return to their own and be one with their Father God-Allah. [. . ,] 2 81

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Printed in [Noble] Drew Ali, The Holy Koran of the Moorish Holy Temple of Science (Chicago, 1927), p. 591. Noble Drew Ali (1886-1929), the founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America, was born Timothy Drew in North Carolina. Ali founded the temple in Newark in 1923, establishing branches in Pittsburgh and Detroit before settling in Chicago in 1925. He taught his followers that Islam provided the means for uniting the black race and that all Asiatics, Arabs, Turks, Latin Americans, and blacks were properly Moslems. He urged rejection of the terms Negro, black, and Ethiopian, teaching that blacks were Moors who had originally inhabited Morocco before the black diaspora. The Moorish Science Temple taught that Jesus was the descendent of Ruth, a Moabite or Moroccan, and that Mohammed was Jesus reincarnated. In the mid-i92os Ali's teachings were assembled in his Holy Koran, much of which was taken from The Aquarian Gospel, an early psychic publication by Levi Dowling. The Moorish Science Temple shared some similar characteristics with the ideology and structure of the Garvey movement. Like the UNIA, many members were drawn into the temple through the auspices of street orators, parades, and annual conventions. Small businesses, factories, and farms were operated collectively by temple members. Like Garveyites, the Moors rejected racial amalgamation and dedicated themselves to racial pride and uplift. The temple was incorporated in several states in the Midwest, Northeast, and South. Its organization was similar to other secret fraternities with a Grand Sheik as head of local branches, elders and stewards as officers of the branches, and a general membership of brothers and sisters, who were segregated in services. Members were issued badges and membership cards, took El or Bey as suffixes to their last names, and the men adopted the wearing of a red fez. Members of the women's auxiliaries wore white robes and turbans. Patriotism, cleanliness, and temperance were basic laws to be observed. The headquarters or Grand Body of the movement remained with Ali in Chicago until 1929, when Ali was arrested in connection with the murder of a rival, Grand Sheik Claude Greene. Released on bond, Ali died mysteriously a few days later. After his death the Moorish movement formally split between those who continued to follow Ali as their prophet, and those who were loyal to W. D. Fard. Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, later praised Garvey and Ali as forerunners, stating that "the followers of Noble Drew Ali and Marcus Garvey should now follow me and co-operate with us in our work because we are only trying to finish up what those before us started" (E. U. Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism: A Search for an Identity in America [Chicago and London: University of Chicago, 1962], p. 63). The Moorish Science Temple movement remained strong after Ali's death; in 1944 the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that temples in over twenty-five major cities were under surveillance. Members were characterized as southern-born and working-class with little formal education (Joseph Cramer, Bureau of Corporations, State of New York, to Robert A. Hill, 5 March 1986; reports on the Moorish Science Temple of America, DJ-FBI, file 62-25889; Arthur Huff Fauset, Black Gods of the Metropolis [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944], pp. 41-51; Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, They Seek A City [Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1945], pp. 174175; E. U. Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism, pp. 33-37, 43-47; J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, vol. 2 [Wilmington, N.C.: McGrath Publishing, 1978]; As Sayyid al-Imaam Isa al-Haadi al-Mahdi, Who Was Noble Drew Ali? [1980; rev. ed., Brooklyn: Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission, 1988]). 2. At each temple meeting of the Moorish Science Temple, Garvey was lauded as the John the Baptist who had prepared the way for the coming of Noble Drew Ali. When Leonard Smith, the president of the Detroit UNIA division, cabled Garvey to report that Ali was using Garve/s name to win over followers and that UNIA members were joining his movement, Garvey replied that "I know nothing of the man referred to. It is silly for people to allow every unknown person to agitate and influence them on such serious matters. I have spoken and written enough for the people of Detroit to understand [the] purpose of organization and not allow strangers to decoy and exploit them by calling on or using my name" (Smith to Garvey, 19 September 1927, and Garvey to Smith, ca. 21 September 1927, AFRC, AP).

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DECEMBER 1927

Moorish Science Temple of America Constitution Salvation

Unity

Our God

C ^ Stye ünnrtalí 8>mttr? OF

B^a

AMERICA

The Divine Constitution and By-Laws A C T ( — T h e Grand Sheik ami the chairm a n o f t h e M o o r i s h Holy T e m p i « uf S c i e n c e la In p o w e r t o m a k e law a n d e n f o r c e l a w s with t h e a s s i s t a n c e o f I h e P r o p h e t a n d t h e G r a n d Rodv o f t h e Moorish Holy T e m p l e of Science. T h e a s s i s t a n t G r a n d S h e i k it« t o a s s i s t t h e G r a n d S h e i k in a l l a f f a i r s if h e live» a c c o r d i n g t o L o v e . T r u t h , P e a c e . F r e e d o m a n d J u s t i c e , a n d it is k n o w n b e f o r e t h e m e m b e r s of t h e Moorish Holy T e m p l e of Science,

mm

ACT 6 — With us all m e m b e r s must prec l a i m t h e i r n a t i o n a l i t y and w e a r e t e a c h i n g o u r p e o p l e t h e i r n a t i o n a l i t y and their Divine Creed that they m a y know that they a r e a p a r i a n d a p a r t i a l o r t h i s »aid g o v e r n ment, and know that they «ye not Negroe», Colored Folk». Black People or Ethiopian», because the«4 name» were given to slave» by s l a v e h o l d e r s In 1 7 7 » a n d l a s t e d u n t i l 1 8 6 6 d u r i n g t h e t i m e o f « t o v e r y . hut t h i s i» a new e r a of t i m e now. and all m e n now proclaim their tree national n a m e to

A C T 2 . — A l l meeting» are to be opened and c l o n e d p r o m p t l y a c c o r d i n g t o t h e c i r c l e »even and Love. T r u t h . Peac e. F r e e d o m a n d J u s t i c e . F r i d a y is o u r H o l y D a y o f r e s t , b e c a u s e o n a F r i d a y t h e first m a n w a s f o r m e d i n ft «ah and on a F r i d a y t h e f i r s » m a n d e p a r t e d o u t 01 f l e s h a n d a s c e n d e d u n t o his f a t h e r God Allah, f o r that cautte F r i d a y la t h e H o l y D a y f o r a l l M o s l e m s a l l over the world.

be r e c o g n i z e d b y t h e g o v e r n m e n t In w h i c h t h e y live and t h e n a t i o n » of t h e e a r t h . this i» t h e r e a » u n w h y A l l a h t h e G r e a t G o d o f t h e u n i v e r s e o r d a i n e d N o b l e Drew A l i , t h e P r o p h e t t o r e d e e m hi» p e o p l e f r o m t h e i r s i n f u l ways. T h e Moorish American» a r e i h e descendants of t h e ancient Moabltes whom inhabited the North Western and South Western shores of Africa.

A C T 3. — L o v e . T r u t h , P e a c e . F r e e d o m and J u s t i r e m u s t be p r o c l a i m e d a n d p r a c t i s e d by a l l m e m b e r « o f t h e M o o r i s h H o l y T e m p l e o f S c i e n c e . No m e m b e r is t o put in d a n g e r or a c c u s e falsely his b r o t h e r or s l a t e r on a n y o c c a s i o n at a l l t h a t m a y h a r m h i s b r o t h e r o r s i s t e r , b e c a u s e A l l a h is L o v e . ACT 4 . — A l l m e m b e r s must preserve t h e s e Holy a n d D i v i n e l a w s , and a l l m e m bers must obey t h e laws of t h e g o v e r n m e n t , h e c a u a e hy h e i n g a M o o r i s h A m e r i c a n , you a r e a P*rt and partial o f t h e g o v e r n m e n t , and must live t h e life acordingly A C T 5 — T h i s o r g a n i s a t i o n o f t h e Moorish H o l y T e m p l e o f S c i e n c e is not t o c a u s e any confusion o r to overthrow the laws and c o n s t i t u t i o n o f t h e s a i d g o v e r n m e n t but t o obey hereby.

NOBLE DREW

ALI

Founder MOORISH

Allah 1 he F a t h e r of t h e J u s t i c e . A l l a h is my p r o t e c t h i s Holy P r o p h e t D r e w Ah

AMERICAN

ACT 7.—All m e m b e r s must promptly at l e n d t h e i r m e e t i n g s a n d b e c o m e a p a r t and a partial of all uplifting acts of the Moorish Holy T e m p l e of S c i e n c e . Memb e r s m u s t p a y t h e i r d u e » » n d k e e p In l i n e with a l l n e c e s s i t i e s o f t h e Moorish Holy T e m p l e of Science, then you a r e entitled to the n a m e of, " F a i t h f u l " . Husband, you must s u p p o r t y o u r w i f e a n d c h i l d r e n ; w i f e you must obey y o u r h u s b a n d and t a k e c a r e of y o u r c h i l d r e n a n d look a f t e r t i i e d o l i e » of your household. Sons and daughter» musi obey father and m o t h e r and be indust r i o u s and b e c o m e a part of t h e u p l i f t i n g of fallen humanity. All M o o r t » h A m e r i c a n s must k e e p t h e i r h e a r t s and m i n d s p u r e w i t h love, a n d t h e i r b o d l e » c l e a n w i t h water T h i s D i v i n e C o v e n a n t i> f r o m y o u r Holy P r o p h e t N o b l e Draw A l i . t h r u t h e guidance of his F a t h e r Cud Allah

PRAYER

liverse. t h e F a i h e r of L o v e . T r u t h . P e a c e . F r e e d o m a n d . my g u i d e a n d my s a l v a t i o n hy n i g h t a n d by d a y t h r u

THE MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE OF H o m e Office: 3 1 4 0

Indiana A v e n u e

(Source: D J - F B I . ) 83

AMERICA

C h i c a g o , III,,

U.S.A.

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detective Office, East Queen Street Kingston, 2nd January 1928 T H E U . N . I . A . AND MARCUS

GARVEY

Detective Inspector, I beg to report that since last Sunday the 25th December 1927, Mr. Marcus Garvey had no meetings in Kingston until yesterday. His wife, Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, arrived in the Island from New York on Monday last the 26th December and is along with him at his residence at Half-Way Tree. During the latter part of December, Mr. Garvey bought a home on the Lady Musgrave Road, St. Andrew, for £1,200. This house is now under repairs and he expects to remove into it [in] about two weeks time. On Thursday the 29th December, Mr. Garvey went to Port Maria where he spoke at the Movies. Neither the President of the Kingston Division /nor anyone else/ knew that he was going there until he returned. As a matter of fact, he has mentioned nothing at all to anyone here. It was the chauffeur who drove him [that] informed Mr. [Charles] Johnson (the President) on Friday evening that they had gone there and returned. From what can be gathered, some one from Port Maria attended at the Ward Theatre on Sunday the 25th December and heard him spoke [speak]. On his return to Port Maria, he invited Mr. Garvey down and he went. Miss [Henrietta Vinton] Davis accompanied him. During the week, Mr. Garvey has had carpenters at Liberty Hall— 76 King Street, remodelling the upper floor of the building. This work is completed all to painting of the new fixtures. He has now established headquarters on these premises for the South and Central American Republics, the West Indies and Honduras—places where he expects to visit during this month. This office is exclusive from the office of the Kingston Division of the U.N.I.A. There are six Royal Type-writing Machines, new fixtures of oak tables, chest/s/ of drawers, new set of wicker chairs and other articles, in this office. He has advertised for coloured typists and these are already on their job. On Monday and Tuesday, the 26th and 27th December, the authorities of the Kingston Division carried out two fairs at their Liberty Hall, which were a huge success. On the first night a little over £25 was collected and on the second night something in the vicinity of £20. They had no meetings for the remaining portion of the week. Yesterday evening from 3.50 to 6 o'clock there was another largely attended meeting at the Ward Theatre, at which Mr. Garvey spoke. He was 84

J A N U A R Y 1928

the chairman on this occasion. The programme was very musical throughout. The late West India Regiment Band was in attendance from start to finish; many of the City's artistes took part, and the U.N.I.A. choir filled the space throughout the period. Amongst those on the platform were M r . H. A. L. Simpson, U. Theo. McKay 1 from Frankfield, Clarendon, [t]he Rev. S. M. Jones, Mrs. Garvey and many others. M r . Garvey asked M r . Simpson to say a few words, and he remarked that it was indeed a great pleasure for him to be there that evening. He would assure M r . Garvey that /the/ warm reception he received a couple of weeks ago was still fresh in the minds of the people and it was passed into volume of history in this country and international history outside of Jamaica. He was sure that M r . Garvey had won the hearts of all sections of the community throughout the Island and he felt sure that there was no ingratitude in the hearts of any of them towards him (Garvey). He was taking the liberty of extending to the President General and Mrs. Garvey a happy New Year, and he hoped this year would /be/ a most prosperous one for the organization of which he is the head. To the audience that evening he would ask them to strive to make a name for themselves this year, if in no other; they should support the cause of the U.N.I.A. and strive to gain distinction for themselves. They could take a high place in all the business or problem in this world if they wanted to do so, and he was again asking them to live up to the standard as a great race. He again wished them every good for 1928. Mr. [Miss] H. V . Davis made a few short remarks. She said they all should be thankful to God for sparing M r . Garvey to be back in his native land. They honoured him (Garvey) because he was not only a great man, but was the greatest man living on the earth to-day. That of all who started the work with him, she was the only one who never broke her pledge and she never would, for she had the assurance that Africa would be redeemed. She wished the audience the compliments of the season. M r . Garvey was the next speaker. He said that that meeting was specially convened at the request of several persons in this city. His subject for the evening was "The inspiration for the New Year." M r . Garvey's remarks were very plain and simple. He said that every man or woman who desired to succeed should make a new resolution for 1928. They should each think of something they wanted to accomplish and go straight at it with a fixed determination not to say fail. They could not all sit down as negroes in Jamaica and expect that God would send down manna to them. The English man wanted distinction, they set about getting it and they got it. The Americans, the Japanese, the French and all the other powers got what they wanted by determination, perseverance and skill. God did not give those different powers any wider scope than the negroes, but the negroes were themselves to blame, because they allowed the good opportunities to pass them, and so those who wanted it took it. He wanted them to make a resolution that they must be better women and men for this year, that they must improve the standard of

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living and endeavour to rank even with the other powers. He said they believed in too much obeah, 2 deceits, envy and malice in Jamaica and that unless they improved their intellect and ability and got out of those miseries, they would never be anything worthwhile. At the close of his address, M r . /Garvey/ called upon the audience to stand and sing the British National Anthem, and afterwards the Ethiopian Anthem. These were done and the meeting closed. Before /the/ close of the meeting, Mrs. Garvey was presented with a bunch of boquet by a juvenile member of the U.N.I.A. Mrs. Garvey, in a clear distinct voice, thanked those who prepared the flowers, and expressed her pleasure of being back in her native land, and at the Ward Theatre that evening. She would not make a speech that evening, as she was here for rest, but that her voice would be heard before long. At 7 P.M. a very large crowd gathered at Liberty Hall where divine service was carried out. This service concluded at 8 P.M. and another mass meeting commenced. M r . Simpson was the chairman for this meeting. In his remarks, he expressed the pleasure of having on two occasions attended meetings of the U.N.I.A. He counselled those present to stand firm in the U.N.I.A. and to support the cause. Miss Davis was also present at this meeting and gave a short address, her subject being "The new Women." She pointed out how women can be useful mothers, useful to their Government and useful in the community in which they lived. She advised them. M r . Johnson, and a few others of the Division made short speeches on the New Year, and this meeting closed at 9.50 P.M. According to the notice given out, M r . Garvey will address an audience at Liberty Hall on Wednesday the 4th of this month. On the nth of January, the drama entitled "Ethiopia at the Bar of [Jjustice" will be repeated in the Ward Theatre. M r . Garvey said he will be present.' CHAS. A . PATTERSON J A , file is(v), no. D : I : 0 : I / 2 8 . T L S , recipient's copy. Marked "CONFIDENTIAL." 1. U. Theo McKay, elder brother to Claude McKay, the well-known author and poet, was a landowner in Frankiield, Clarendon Parish, an inland town fifteen miles east of Christiana and about thirty-five miles north of the southern coastal town of Old Harbour. He was a leading figure in the Jamaica Agricultural Society, taking special interest in the concerns of small farmers (Eppie D. Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 4 May 1989). 2. Obeah is a Jamaican word for ritualistic power over spirits, or magic—a power that can be used for evil or for good (F. G. Cassidy and R. B. Le Page, eds., Dictionary of Jamaican English [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967], p. 326). 3. Patterson's report was submitted to Inspector General M. D. Harrel by a detective inspector and forwarded on to Colonial Secretary A. S. Jelf on 3 January 1928. In forwarding the report, Harrel informed Jelf that "we do not anticipate Mr. Garvey leaving Jamaica until the end of this month but the date & destination will be ascertained in due course" (JA, file i5[v], no. D:I:0:I/28).

86

JANUARY 1928

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Kingston, Jan. 2, 1928]] Fellow-Men of the Negro Race, Greetings: The new year of 1928 has dawned upon us, and by the determination of our own minds and souls we are looking forward to a time of great activity and racial development. The Universal Negro Improvement Association at this time is readjusting itself for a tremendous urge towards a compact organization through which a universal change in our economical, social, political, educational and religious life is anticipated. T I M E FOR U N I T E D A C T I O N

The time is ripe for united action on the part of the scattered Negroes of the world, and it is proper that we line up all our available forces for one big concerted drive for Negro rights and freedom. In keeping with this desire we are now getting ready by preparing for the greatest of all our international conventions, which is to be held at Toronto, Canada, from August 1 to 31,1929. Every Negro community in the world, in Africa, Asia, South America, Central America, the United States, Australia and the West Indies[,] is getting ready and organizing for this great convention, at which the Negro will d e f i n i t e l y lay down and execute the program that will mean his universal freedom. GREATEST AND BIGGEST CONVENTION

The time between now and August, 1929, will be spent in reorganizing the whole world of Negroes. Every country in the world will do its part in making the forthcoming convention the greatest and biggest thing in our racial history. FOREIGN FIELDS LINKING U P

The new program of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, calls for the moral and financial support of every member of the Negro race, and I feel sure that every unit of the racc will do his and its part. The foreign fields in Africa, Canada, Soudi and Central America and the West Indies are all lining up to make a showing creditable to their history and the Negroes of America shall surely do and play their part. A P P O I N T M E N T OF L E A D E R S

The entire United States must be reorganized for the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and for that reason I ask the heartiest of support in America for the Honorable E. B. Knox, who is charged with the duty 87

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

and responsibility to bring to the 1929 convention in Canada a thoroughlyorganized Negro Race within the United States ready to take their part alongside the organized Negroes of the other parts of the world. To assist M r . Knox in organizing the Negroes of America for the convention I have appointed the following gentlemen as district leaders in America. They shall work under the supervision of M r . Knox in helping him to bring about a perfect state of organization for 1929. The names are: Honorable J. J. Peters, High Commissioner for the States of Alabama, Texas and Louisiana; Honorable Arthur Grey, High Commissioner for the States of Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California; Honorable J. A. Craigen, High Commissioner for the States of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota; Honorable William Ware, High Commissioner for the States of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky; Honorable W. A. Wallace, High Commissioner for the States of Missouri, Kansas and Illinois; and Honorable S. A. Haynes, High Commissioner for the States of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. In another 30 days the names of the other High Commissioners will be announced through the columns of The Negro World. DIVISION REPORTS

All Members, Divisions, Branches and Chapters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in America shall, under the leadership of the Hon. E. B. Knox, report as usual to the American Headquarters, and all Foreign Members, Divisions, Branches and Chapters shall report to the Foreign Divisional Headquarters at Kingston, Jamaica, B. W. I. Now is the time for every Negro man, woman and child to rally to the support of the Universal Negro Improvement Association of the world. N o w is the time for the 400,000,000 of us to stand together as one man to blast a way to economical, social, religious, educational and political liberty. The world owes the black man a place, and by our own effort and the grace of God we shall claim and hold it. Let every black man look up for 1928, for a great and glorious future is before him. Let us come together and stick together as one people. Trusting for the support and co-operation of all, I have the honor to be, Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President General, Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW,

21 January 1928. Original headlines omitted. 88

JANUARY 1928

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detective Office, East Queen Street, Kingston, 5th January 1928 M A R C U S G A R V E Y — M E E T I N G H E L D BY H I M AT L I B E R T Y H A L L

Detective Inspector, I beg to report that M r . Marcus Garvey, the President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association addressed a large number of people—about 1200 persons—at the U.N.I.A. Liberty Hall, N o . 76 King Street, last night. [Associated with him were Miss Henrietta Vinton Davis— the 4th assistant President General, and Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey—the wife of M r . Garvey. The meeting commenced at 7.20 P.M. with a literary programme, M r . Garvey being the Chairman. The first speaker was Miss Davis, who said: M r . President, Officers and Members of the Kingston Division, fellow members of the negro race, ladies and gentlemen: It is indeed a great privilege that I again have the opportunity to say a few words of encouragement to you in the presence of the great leader of four hundred million negroes, a leader who has no equal, a leader who cannot be bought with money, a leader who knows no fear, a leader who has suffered and prepared to suffer for the people of his race—the Honourable Marcus Garvey. I think it is the greatest pleasure for me to sit and listen to his message so full of wisdom and understanding, rather than to say anything, and I therefore bid you welcomc, thrice welcome to Liberty Hall tonight. May you take in all that will be imparted to you, and may you go forth and do your bit for the cause of your race, and so help to further the advent of the redemption of Africa. The second speaker was Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, who said: M r . Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: It is a long time since I have never [ever] spoken at an opening air meeting, so I shall be very brief with my few remarks to you tonight[.] When I shall have become accustomed to the conditions here, I shall keep the fires burning with Garvey[i]sm and impart to you good messages from the U.N.I.A. I am indeed pleased to be back in Jamaica again and to see how well you are all trying to carry on. This is your time to do something, and you should all make up 89

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

your minds to organize yourselves in this great movement, so that you can achieve what the other fellows are reaping now. I have read a lot about Jamaica since I have been away—a little over 10 years now. I observe that there are more educated negroes in Jamaica to-day than the country can afford to employ. All those educated men and women can get something to do—and something above the ordinary, if they will only come together in one organization and solve the problem. England to-day has millions o f poverty stricken people to look after, and although Jamaica is a part of the Commonwealth of Britain, yet the phrase that "the parson christens his child first" holds equally good with England towards you. She cannot afford to help her paupers and yours at the same time, therefore you want to get busy and do something for yourselves. Canada, Australia, White South Africa, and other Dominions o f Great Britain have all assumed the responsibility o f themselves. They cannot depend upon England alone to guide their destiny. They are guiding it for themselves. Jamaica, one o f the oldest and most loyal British Colonies[,] ought to have the same rights. She has the men with brain and governing ability to act her part in the world. I f she was all white that privilege would have been given already, but because the majority o f the population looks like you, it does not appear as if they yet can trust you to carry on. I do not wish to go too far in the politics o f this country until I have studied the conditions here carefully. I am specially deputed to write articles for the American papers about Jamaica, and I shall take a great interest of gaining every knowledge o f the ways and means o f this little Island. When I am fully satisfied of the facts I shall speak to you with authority o f Garvey[i]sm and the negro. There is a great opportunity for every man and woman in this country, and if you will only organize, that opportunity is bound to be fruitful. I am indeed pleased to see you all here in hundreds and I hope you will keep together, work together, think together and follow the U.N.I.A. until Africa is redeemed, when you shall all have a say in your own government. Mr. Garvey next spoke. He said: My subject tonight is "Africa and the Africans." I have chosen this subject because I desire to give out information about Africa and its people, because I desire the exiled and scattered Africans to know of their common origin. When we speak of the Africans we have two classes—the Africans at home and the Africans abroad. Unfortunately, people in the western world—negroes, have been trained and encouraged to think and believe that Africa and the African is a kind of a man that we should disassociate ourselves 90

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from knowing anything about them. When I was a boy in this country, I looked down upon the Africanfs] as monstrous persons, as hideous persons, as some kind of beasts that the whole world was amused over as a laughing feature. That was the impression that came to me, and therefore, as a boy, I wanted to have nothing to do with anything concerning the Africans, but oh, how sad a mistake it was. Thank God we have found out for ourselves. We have found out that nothing is wrong about Africa, only that it is the richest country in the world, and that they kept us filled about Africa, just as when a man finds a great bulk of money and he wants to keep it away from his bosom friend he told that friend all kinds of news to get rid of him; so it was that the people say that Africa was a bad place, to keep us from thinking about it. We know much about Africa now, and we are going to organize to get our share. As I assumed ignorance in my boyhood days about Africa, so I know many of you are ignorant of the history about Africa. The coloured people came about in Jamaica in this way. M r . Garvey gave a detailed account of the origin of the inhabitants of Jamaica prior to its discovery by Colombus [Columbus], how Jamaica fell into the hands of the Spaniards, then into the hands of Great Britain; how slaves were introduced into Jamaica, the circumstances which led to the mixture of the African and white people, which brought about a new class of people, the conditions under which the slaves laboured and their subsequent release from serfdom. Continuing M r . Garvey said: In America you must be either white or black. If your eyes are even grey as can be, so long as you have a drop of negro blood in you, you are a negro. Out here, you have white, coloured and black. I am /not/ speaking it for any other purpose but that you may know yourselves. You are not responsible and therefore, the other side should stretch out the hands of fellowship to the negro people. In America, we travel together, we live together—politically and socially, and it is that sort of problem that will solve the great negro race. There is nothing to think of where the negro is concerned. He is a genuine man and comes from a very healthy race. Africa was given to the black man as Europe to the white man and Asia to the yellow or brown man. When I speak about the Africans abroad, I mean you. We were brought here as slaves. We are all one people and come from the same parentage. What the U.N.I.A. is now seeking to do is to bring all these people back into one group so that we may redeem the land from whence our fathers came. Show me the man or

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woman who does not love his or her native land, and I shall give him his just reward. If it is right for England, Japan, France or Italy to have a Government o f their own, so it is also right for the negroes to have a Government of their own. My determination cannot be changed because the claims o f the negroes are righteous and just. The time is coming when the black man is going to boast as an African citizen. I challenge any man anywhere who say[s] it shall not be so. We are going to redeem Africa for I have seen the redemption o f it in the clouds, and in my dreams the horrors of my forefathers stood before me, and a voice of someone pleading to Garvey to take his people home. I feel at home in a British Colony, standing on a British platform, for the simple reason, that despite the wonderful editorials that might have been written, despite the many varied speeches that might have been uttered within the Empire, when you trim them all down and get down to the rights o f the British Constitution, you will see that they are righteous and just. There is no other safe Constitution and people you can appeal to for justice, but the Constitution of England. The English Constitution is a sound one and includes justice for every nation of the world. The English Constitution has been the sponsor for every country in the world. Nothing is wrong with the British Constitution. What is wrong is the individual who alters the Constitution to suit his own cause. I am going to seek your rights under the Constitution of England, and I know I will get it. What I want you people to do is to behave yourselves in a decent way. D o not knock anybody. Don[']t kill anybody, for whatever you do discreditable in Jamaica, will bring a discredit on me. As I mentioned on nearly all the platforms on which I spoke since I came to Jamaica, if there is one thing that I hate, it is lawlessness and disorder. No man can claim his rights in confusion. No man can expect to achieve success when he has committed himself and brought the law against him. I can travel every country in the world, defend the cause of my people and yet uphold the honour and dignity o f the Government under which I labour. Therefore, accept my advice, live peacefully with all men, obey the laws of your country, and you should not only obey the laws, but you should make it a duty to study them, for a man who is well conversant with the laws of a country can defend himself and abide all troubles. While keeping within the bounds o f the laws, organize yourselves, think of something that is edifying, something uplifting, something educationally and something to the good o f your fellow-man. What is Government? Government is executive authority placed in the hands of individuals to organize societies for the pur92

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pose of protecting the rights of societies. Therefore, governments only exist by the wishes of the people of society. When that government ceases to carry out the wishes of the people, the people in a constitutional way change that government for another government, and that is the reason why that within a short period in England you have so many changes of Governments, and that is the reason why, I want you to behave yourselves in Jamaica, so that I may have the assurance of doing my best for you. I have come to Jamaica to elevate the black man in Jamaica and hell to the man who say[s] it cannot be done—but I shall do it in a peaceful and Constitutional way. The Home Government does not know of your conditions. When they hear of your conditions I feel sure they will be glad to give you any help they can to better your conditions. You are but a small part of the British Empire, and I can get all your rights in the British Empire, if only you observe the laws and regulations of your country. I believe next week will be my last week in Jamaica. I will be leaving the Island for six weeks for Central America, South America, Cuba, Colon, Panama and other parts. I will return at the end of six weeks, be here a little with you and leave for England in March taking my wife with me, and from England to other parts of Europe—seeking your rights and things concerning the redemption of Africa. So as to give the poor people of Kingston, who cannot afford to pay a fee to go to the Ward Theatre, [a chance to hear me] I shall speak at Liberty Hall every evening next week until the boat [is] ready to sail. If it sails on Friday you will not see me, but if it sails on Saturday, I will be here with you on Friday. Let all the poor people who desire to see me and to shake my hands come to Liberty Hall the whole of next week. May you all retire to your homes in peace. God bless you. At the request of Mr. Garvey, the British National Anthem was sung followed by the Ethiopian Anthem. The meeting terminated at 9.30 P.M. Information with reference to Mr. Garvey's departure from Jamaica will be reported in due course. C H A S . A . PATTERSON J A , file i5(v), no. D:I:0:3/28. T L S , recipient's copy. Marked "CONFIDENTIAL."

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Speech by Marcus Garvey [[Liberty Hall, St. Andrew, January 8th, 1928]] Lady [H. V.] Davis, Hon. Commissioner [S. M. Jones], Mr. President [C. D. Johnson], officers, members and friends of the St. Andrew's Chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association: It goes without saying that it gives me great pleasure to be here with you tonight. It is my duty, and a pleasant one always. I appreciate the litde effort you are making in St. Andrew to keep the colors of our organization flying. You are not singular in the effort. Tonight, really, is our Universal meeting night all over the world, and as you are assembled here, so others are assembled throughout the world tonight—in the United States of America, South and Central America, Africa and Asia, members of the organization are assembled in the same way you are here tonight; and I am speaking to you with a feeling of appreciation—especially because you have desired my presence here, small though you be. There are many large divisions who would be anxious to get my presence tonight, to tell them about the things that they never heard of for three years. I am glad to be with you in Jamaica and in St. Andrew. I regard your effort here as something worthy of you. You are husbanding and keeping a-going something that the world is thinking about; and I am wondering if all of you understand it. The Universal Negro Improvement Association is not a joke. It is one of the most serious movements in the world today. It seeks to lift men, to make men free. That is an urge that has caused so much trouble among men—not only in the black race, but all races. You little know what the world has passed through to be here. We are not here because of only yesterday. We are here because of the change of the centuries. The world has traveled through travail and turmoil to be where it is tonight; and as you see it, you will trace the result to the activities of man. Your race and my race have played a great part in the early making of the world; but that was centuries and centuries and centuries ago. There has been so much change to bring the world up to where it is; and today the world is in its most serious mood. Some of you do not seem to realize it. The world is a sphere, a globe; it is limited in its dimensions, limited in its size. It does not grow larger; it is the same always. But the people who live in it have been growing more and more every century and every decade. Once upon a time we had only two people in the world; they were called Adam and Eve. Then six, eight, ten, twenty, one hundred, one thousand, one hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, one million, two millions, five millions, one hundred millions; and today we have one billion seven hundred millions in the world; and the world has not grown larger—it is the same size. 94

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In another hundred years, probably two billions; in fifty years, another half a billion will be added to the two billions; and gradually all the way up the world is growing too small to accommodate all the people who populate it. It is gradually ceasing to yield enough every day; and, therefore, the stronger ones who hunger must organize to preserve for themselves the things of the world and to protect themselves against all races who desire them. The world is divided into different groups of men; they are called white, yellow, black. The white and yellow groups have their leaders. The time has come when the black groups of the world have found their leaders. (Applause.) And we must struggle for that one thing—the things which are necessary for life. A S T R U G G L E FOR B R E A D

N o w look around you and you will see the difficult task before you. It is a struggle for bread; it is a struggle for life—and that is the serious proposition that confronts the Universal Negro Improvement Association of which you are members. Don't allow anybody to fool you, to draw any distraction across your outlook. The primal question today is the question of life, the question of bread and butter for the different groups that live in the world. That is why there is no compromise; that is the reason why you read of war; that is why you had the experience of the terrible bloody war of 1914. One by one the different groups are going after that power that they think will make them great and safe. The same question that caused the war in 1914 is the same question that confronts the world today, forcing them to think and act, and compelling some men to accept no compromise—but to be determined and stubborn to get their rights for their people. When you think of the Frenchman, you see the world of the French; when you think of Italy you think of Mussolini— of an Italian world. The American looks upon the world from an American point of view; the Chinese from a Chinese point of view; the Japanese from a Japanese point of view, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association is leading 400,000,000 Negroes to see the world only from the Negro point of view. (Loud applause). O R G A N I Z E N O W OR P E R I S H

We are only doing what the others are doing—nothing more, and we shall do nothing less. We shall make every effort as black men, as competent men belonging to the Negro group—and to yield not one iota of it. That is why I am in Jamaica, that is why I am among Negroes to inspire them with that greater object that must be pursued, that must be achieved that you and your posterity might live. If you are willing to die, there is no need for the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Life is sweet and essential to everyone whether he be white, yellow, blue or black. When men are too lazy to protect themselves un[i]versally they shall die; and if the Negro as a group does not organize to protect himself, there is no question about it, it is only a matter of time, and all Negroes shall die. 95

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In America North American Indians who dwelt there in large numbers centuries ago have become almost extinct on the continent; they have been buried beneath by the white race. They are no more as a race; today there are but a few of them left out on the reservations in Oklahoma.1 What is true of America is also true of Australia. A couple of decades ago Australia was populated by a black type of people—the Australian Bushman. The white man, in search for new conquest, played the same game in Australia as he played in North America. They are still searching for conquests in the world at the expense of our race. Today the field in [is] Africa, the land of your forefathers and mine. They have gone into Africa with the same purpose as when they went to Australia and North America. If you sleep on your intelligence, if you sleep on your ability, in another 25 years Africa will be lost to the black man; and instead of black men living on top of the earth they will be buried under the earth as the North American Indian, as the Australian Bushman. (Applause). U.N.I.A.'s MISSION

The Universal Negro Improvement Association came into existence not only for the black man of Africa, but to save the black men of the world. (Applause). We can only do it by organizing—working for one common object. You have dedicated yourselves to the object—the freedom of Africa, to the redemption of the black man everywhere. I am proud that I am standing on this platform at this time to lend my energies to such a cause; it is a cause for which man has died. To know the history of the world, to know the history of reformers—whether he be a Roman, whether he be a Jew liberated from Egypt, whether he be a Frenchman or an Anglo-Saxon—all the way through human history each group has given its martyrs, its leaders[,] for the glorious cause of liberty. L I B E R T Y OR D E A T H

If liberty leads to the grave those of us who are loyal to the creed and principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are prepared for the grave. (Applause). What more can I say but to repeat with that great American patriot and hero, Patrick Henry:—"I care not what course others may take; but as for me,—give me liberty or give me death." (Applause). Those immortal words were the clarion call to the banner of American liberty; those immortal words have never ceased to inspire men throughout the world; those immortal words inspired men in the French Revolution—they came down [through] the ages. We of the Universal Negro Improvement Association repeat them and re- echo them. We care not what others may say. Those are words imperishable for the white man and the black man. We are here because we have started to render service to our children and to posterity. (Applause).

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Some misunderstand my visit to Jamaica. They think I have come here for some frivolous pastime. I am here on a serious proposition. (Hear! Hear!) I am a serious man. I have very little time for frivolity or for fun because I realize the gravity of the situation, the tremendous responsibility placed upon my shoulders as leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Applause.) I am serious—serious unto death; and I want you also to be serious—not in the sense of denying yourselves other pleasures, as I am doing, but to mix duty with your pleasure—the duty of service to yourself and service to your children, service to posterity, that undying posterity that we desire for our people. Every race desires posterity. White men desire to hand down the world to their children. We also desire to hand down our part of the world to our children. (Applause.) And nobody is going to prevent us from doing it. There is no scare for me in Jamaica. There is nobody nor anything in Jamaica that can scare me; no black-white man, no big black man is going to scare me in Jamaica; no white man, no mulatto man, no brown man. (Applause.) Fortunately I am a Jamaican, and by the gods that be I am going to see that everything coming to Jamaica is gotten by Jamaicans. I am a little more than a Jamaican—I am a Negro. (Loud applause.) N E G R O G R E A T E S T OF A L L

The greatest thing to be in the world today is to be a negro. (Applause). A man of character, a man who can walk through the world and look at the sun and look at God and say to creation, "I have lived an honorable and clean life, I have murdered no man to get here." There is no other race that has had such a fine record since God said, "Let there be light," for the last 3,000 years, as the black man. He has murdered nobody to get where he is today; he has robbed nobody. (Applause.) But look at the history of others: murder and robbery. When God made the world he didn't make any battleships, cruisers and superdreadnoughts. He never made any—man made them all for the purpose of protecting his loot and robbery. (Laughter.) The honest man never gets a gun; the honest man never wants a gun or a blackjack to kill anybody because he believes everybody is like himself. (Laughter.) WHAT THE NEGRO'S ANCESTORS ENDURED

There is a passage in the Scriptures which says that Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God, and kings and princes shall come out of her. God has, I believe, particularly blessed us, because if He had not we would not have been here. Little boys and little girls, do you know the hell your fathers have passed through to be here? If you think of it, if I can make you understand that 90 years ago in this little island you could not be at a meeting like this because your master or your mistress would not allow you. You would not be privileged to go down to work for pay; 90 years ago there was no pay for

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you. Your grandfathers and mothers, like mine, were slaves; their bodies were like the cows and mules; they were belonging to somebody. Just as you would own a cow or a mule and drive it to the fields in harness under the lash, so 90 years ago they were owned by people who used them as you use a mule and a cow today. They were slaves brought from Africa and sold just as a mule. People bought your grandfather for £10, your grandmother for £10 and your father for £5, who was then a little boy. (Laughter.) STRONG A L W A Y S OPPRESS THE W E A K

Your mother, in St. Ann, and your father, in St. Mary, were separated from each other 90 years ago.2 And why? Because the other people were strong and you were weak; and they went down to Africa and put you aboard ships and carried you away. It is a terrible evil to be weak, to be individually weak, to be racially weak, because the strong always prey upon the weak; and that is why the world has been taking advantage of you for the last 500 years— because you are weak. If one boy is weak and another strong the strong boy will continue to lick him, to terrorize him, to infringe upon his rights to ownership or possession; but the moment that the weak fellow desires or finds it necessary to take care of himself he will develop by degrees the same muscular power that makes the other fellow strong, and cease to be weak. That is an analogy to show that if the weak races will take care of themselves as strong races do they will be strong also. And that is why we want the 400,000,000 Negroes today to come together—taking care of themselves to be strong. Imagine 400,000,000! You are large enough to bear up everybody upon your shoulders. It is time for you to think, and it is time for you to act. I do not want you to act foolishly. I want you to act and think intelligendy. First of all, know that you are men— men created out of the same mold as other men. No other man in the world has any more right to it than you! (Applause.) If you come across him tell him he is a liar. Any man who tells you that he has any more claim to the world than you, he is a liar. (Laughter.) When God Almighty breathed into your nostrils he gave you power, and you have as much right as any other man. (Applause.) I believe I have that right, and I want to see any man who is going to deny me that right. Whether the man be white, red or blue, there is no man who has more right than Marcus Garvey. (Applause.) It is for man to use the world as he wants in conjunction with his fellow men. We cannot live by ourselves, so we arrange ourselves into social groups for our protection. N O T G O I N G TO B E FOOLED

Any man who is trying to fool me in the world is only trying to fool himself. (Applause.) There is nothing more desperate than a hungry man. Four hundred million Negroes are hungry now! Some of you think that I have a special grudge against white people and other people. I have no grudge

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about anybody. I am too busy looking after Negroes' affairs. If I were a white man I would keep Negroes down, and everybody else down, and would use them as the whites are doing. I am not a white man, I am a black man, and anybody who is going to fool me is going to have a hell of a job on his hands. (Applause.) I am not worrying about white folks, because I know it is their business to keep me down; and if anybody attempts to keep me down he will have to stay down there with me, or if he wants to get up and stand up, he had better get up and let me stand up, too. (Applause.) And that is all I have to say. WILL NOT BE DEFERRED

I came to Jamaica to help the Negro people to stand up for their opportunities and their privileges. All that you want is to have good jobs, good pay, have good clothes, to educate your children and have something put by so that you can take care of them and leave something for them when you die. (Voices: "Yes! Yes!") That is all we are fighting for, and we are not going to withdraw anything we have said. It is the duty of everybody to take care of himself. What the people in Jamaica want to do is to take care of themselves. All that I am trying to do is to help the black people of this country and of the world to throw off the dirt, to throw off disease, to throw off hunger, to live better, happier lives, like other peoples in the world; and I understand that they called a special meeting to stop Garvey from doing what he is doing. They don't want to stop me, because I must stop some time; but it suggests itself to the mind that they want to stop you from improving your condition. I want to see the man in Jamaica, the group of men in Jamaica[,] who can stop me doing what I am doing. I challenge any man to stop me doing it—and that is, elevating the black man. When you are ready to do that, Marcus Garvey is ready to nail himself to the cross. QUESTION M U S T B E SOLVED

If you think you have a coward in Marcus Garvey you are sadly mistaken. He is going to handle the situation. And be damned to the man who says " N o . " This is a question, a human question, that must be solved in the Empire. All Englishmen solve the question of their position in England. So shall we solve the question of our position in Jamaica and wheresoever necessary. And we are going to do it! (Applause.) If you don't fail me, as there is a God, I shall not fail you. (Applause.) You can depend upon me that I shall see that it is settled—settled for your industrial development, settled for your economic uplift. That is the question that confronts us in this country—that is the question that finds no compromise in the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The Universal Negro Improvement Association has its duty to perform, to represent you at all times fearlessly, honorably and constitutionally, so that your rights may be achieved. I shall plead the cause of Negroes before the international bar of justice. I thank you. (Cheers.) 99

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Printed in NW, 28 January 1928. Original headlines omitted. 1. Treaties negotiated by the Indian Peace Commission in 1867 and 1868 established federal policy requiring that Native American tribes of the Great Plains, Southwest, and West be relocated to reservations. Native American resistance to forced relocation continued over the next two decades, effectively ending in the Southwest with the surrender of the Apaches in 1886 and in the Plains with the massacre at Wounded Knee, So. Dak., in 1890. The reservation system was designed to destroy tribal traditions, leadership, foodways, economic relations and spiritual practices in the name of cultural assimilation, while opening territories traditionally occupied by Native Americans to white settlement and exploitation. The system was also meant to instill Anglo-American religious beliefs and economic principles, including the individual ownership of land. These policies continued into the twentieth century until the Indian Reorganization Act of 1954 tacidy recognized the principle of Native American self-determination. The Native Americans of Oklahoma, whose acculturation to white models had been highly developed since relocation from the East in the nineteenth century, were excluded from the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Millions of acres of land previously occupied by the Cherokee, Cheyenne-Arapaho, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and other Indian nations was lost to the encroachments of white settlement in the 1890s when former Indian Territory became the Territory of Oklahoma. Native American rights to tide over remaining lands in Oklahoma was lost in 1893. In 1897 the total population of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma was estimated by government officials at 77,942. In 1930, the U.S. Census identified 92,725 Native Americans in Oklahoma in comparison to a white population of 2,123,424. Currendy there are no reservations in Oklahoma; however, some thirty-six tribes retain their separate tribal identity and administration within the state {Fifteenth Census of the United States [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1930], 1: 879—880, 2: 33; Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance [Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951]; Muriel H. Wright, A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma [Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965]; Virgil Vogel, This Country Was Ours [New York: Harper and Row, 1972]; Barry Klein, Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian, vol. 1 [New York: Todd Publications, 1986], pp. 47-50). 2. A reference to the adjoining parishes of St. Ann and St. Mary on the northern coast of Jamaica; Garvey is referring to the separation of slaves brought to Jamaica from Africa prior to emancipation, which occurred in 1834, some ninety years prior to 1928, the year of his speech (Orlando Patterson, The Sociology of Slavery: An Analysis of the Origins, Development and Structure of Negro Slave Society in Jamaica [London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1967]).

Article in the Negro World [ N e w York, 1 4 January 1928] T H E N E G R O ACCEPTS THE CHALLENGE In spite o f plots and counterplots, in spite o f treachery and intrigues the association rushes on like the mighty A m a z o n , conscious o f its strength and undaunted by the attempts to sap its vitality. Marcus Garvey's deportation to his island home symbolizes his greatest triumph over the prejudice and deceit o f white men w h o m his African program so ostensibly offends. W e thank G o d that they can never deport him from the heart and mind o f the n e w N e g r o . T h e white man has dared us to continue our faith in him. H e has challenged us to continue our assault on the rape o f Africa. Black men the world over refuse to be intimidated. W e accept the challenge without reserve. Africa is ours and w e swear by the spirit o f our fathers that African shall today, t o m o r r o w and always remain African in government and culture. W e take Garvey's deportation as a

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stem notice from the white man that black men must not aspire to the glorious heights of nationalism. But we must in turn serve notice on him that Garvey, living or dead, is our patron saint, our supreme leader and counsellor, and that neither the cannon of hate nor the whip of prejudice can ever swerve us from our allegiance to him and the great ideal of African nationalism The U.N.I.A. is the new Negro's League of Nations. The Negro World his political Bible, and Garvey his king. Long live the king! Printed in NW, 14 January 1928.

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Negro World Notice

DIVISIONS and CHAPTERS

Take Notice!

E

™ PARENT BODY IS TO

FUNCTION AS BEFORE Special Message to Officers and Members of Divisions and Chapters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association T b e R a e . Marco* O e r r e j h i » designated m e to admlnltter t h a i f f i l r i of t h e P a r e n t Body ID t h e United S l a t « OBtll t h e B u t convention, and ha* ordered ma t o I n i t t t t t h e varlou» b n n r h e » of hl» deelre t b a t they r e t u r n once m o r e to t h e i r n o r m a l function» aa unit» of t h e o r f a n l i a t l n n . I t la hie u p r t M w1«h t h a t t h e division». chapter», etr.. re»ame a t nnce t h e i r previous n o r m a l relation» with tha T a r r n t Body. Member» a r e especially requested t o »ee t h a t their M r r e t a i i e a m a k e R K G D U R MONTHLY R E P O R T S t o t h e P a r e a t Body. Special a t t e n t i o n la al»o directed to t h e YEARLY ASSESSMENT TAX of On« Dollar, d o e o a J a n u a r y 1 of e a c h y e a r , NOW P A Y A B L E . T H E S E INSTRCCTIONS T A K E E F F E C T I M M E D I A T E L Y — w h i c h mean» t h a t r e p o r t » ahonld a t once be m a d e f o r t h e m o n t h of J a n u a r y , I K t , a n d r e t u l a r l y e a c h aaoath thereafter. I n f o r m a t i o n a» to BACK R E P O R T S will be »ent direct to t h e officer» of d l t l aloae within • few daya. Q f l t t r t f a l U i f to comply with theae Instruction» a r e not entitled to »erve aa • f l c l a U of any dlvUloa or c h a p t e r of o a r beloved o r g a n l i a t i o o . (Signed) E . B. K N O X . Peraoaal R e p r e s e n t a t i v e of t b e Prealdeat General. New York City. J a n . 9. IMS.

(Source: NW,

14 January 1928.)

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Speech by Marcus Garvey [[Kingston, 15 January 1928]] " W H A T GOD M E A N S TO U S " My subject for tonight is, "What God Means to Us.'" We are a part of creation. We are the creatures of a Divine Source. In our world, in our universe, in our intelligence, in our civilization, we call Him God. We give to Him the power of a Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. T H E O R I G I N OF M A N

From this Almighty and Divine Source all things are created—all things are made. In His creation, His highest contribution in His own universe, in His own world, is man. The Godhead has made nothing greater than man. He has made the great universe with a universal variety; but in all the universe and with all the variety, man stands out as His highest work of art. He has gone no further than man in the material universe. In the spiritual universe where we are taught that He lives[,] He has other beings; but they are not made of the same mould as man. In the material, physical world, man is His highest contribution. G O D IN N A T U R E

Let us contemplate God. Imagine that there is nothing, there is chaos, and there springs up a Being who has eliminated this chaos, obliterated this chaos, and in its place has given us a variety of things called Nature. He made the land, He made the sea, He made the rivers, He made the mountains, He made the trees, He made the stars, He made the elements, He made the atmosphere, the ether, and then out of the earth, the dust of his creation, fashioned the body of a human being, whom He elevates above everything else in the creation—above the stars, above the elements, above the earth, above the trees, above the animals and fishes of the sea, and made him Lord of all—that is man—the creator is God. As God he is Omnipotent to the point where He is able to be everywhere. He is Almighty in the thought that He is above all power and is able to create out of chaos light and life. So in a lesser degree when He made man, He endowed him with the power, above the rest of creation, out of which he could create to his own pleasure and to his own enjoyment, to his own amusement. You see the green trees, you see the beautiful flowers, you see the sparkling, running water. Those are living testimonies with the twinkling star and the burning sun and the shining moon that God is Almighty. These things prove that He is as far above you as you individually are above the little insects that crawl and move along the earth; but that God is present in you individually as well as He is present in that insect that crawls. Everything in creation is an expression of God. 103

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To contemplate Him you must universalize all matter. You must take into comprehension everything that exists. And then you have the total summation of God. As his presence is in everything in a higher or lower degree, so in you, His highest contribution to the universe, He is in you in a higher degree. T H E P R O V I D E N C E OF G O D

He has done more for you than for any of [H]is creatures within His universe, more than for any other elements within Nature. He gave you a part of His living soul—a part of His living spirit. When I said in a previous subject that man is God, I meant the spirit of God in you. There is a thing in you that never dies. It is the spirit. The spirit never dies, neither in the bad man nor the good man. MAN DEFINED

What is man? Man is a combination of Physical and Spiritual forces. In the physical he manifests himself under the advice of the spiritual; and by the direction of his conscious and sub-conscious self. The mechanism of man, the physical mechanism of man, gives him a soul that will stand before the judgment of his spirit. Now understand. The soul is not the spirit. The spirit is God in man advising him. The soul is the result of the physical mechanism of man which sub-consciously and consciously directs the activities of man. When man is born certain elements are natural to him. In the growth and development of those elements we take on a consciousness of ourselves—that consciousness is what is called the soul. That consciousness is a thing that will stand before the judgment of the spirit. The spirit that lives in you is a witness either for or against you. When you reduce that soul to a disobedience of the spirit of God and you die, the spirit goes back to its Source, which is God— waiting for that soul that shall appear before it in its judgment as to whether you did what you were advised to do—the good and the right. So understand that man is made of soul and spirit, along with his body. The soul is different from the spirit. T H E S O U L AND T H E S P I R I T

The soul is his conscious and sub-conscious self which makes him responsible for himself. The spirit is the presence of God in you always advising you to do right. God having created you a free agent with the soul that is conscious and subconscious, leaves you on your own responsibility to live by the advice of the presence of Himself in you. Some men always follow the advice of the spirit. Those are the men we call saints, holy men—Elijah and Elisha, Daniel, and subsequently St. Paul.2 These men lived on the earth through the advice and recommendations of the spirit and did as the spirit directed them. What we call the bad men of the world are those who have abused and rejected the advice of the spirit. But the two men, the good man and the bad man, when they die, have no influence over the spirit. The spirit 104

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returns to the creative source. Metaphorically, when they tell us that the man goes to hell, it is not the spirit of the man that goes to hell; it is the soul. The spirit goes back to its Creator—God. The spirit never dies, the spirit never goes wrong. The spirit of God can never be disobedient to itself, because the spirit of God which makes every man a little god is always bearing up the spirit that resists temptation. It makes him good, always directing him in the path of righteousness and truth. M A N ' S R E L A T I O N S H I P TO G O D

So I want you to understand your relationship to God. I want you to also understand your responsibility to yourselves. When God made man He breathed into him a living soul. He made him a free agent, owing no obligation to anyone but to God Himself, owing no allegiance to anyone but to God Himself. From the time of creation to your time that responsibility has not changed. Thus you are still a free agent in the world, living on your own responsibility, owing an account to your Creator—absolutely on your responsibility and not on the responsibility of others. Every man shall stand before his own judgment. Therefore it follows that every man must act according to his own interpretation and idea of things. You are sovereign of yourself, you are master of yourself, you are lord of yourself. No man can save you before God but yourself and the Christ. WHAT "SAVING" MEANS

Now, what I mean by saving, you may not mean. I mean by saving, the giving of a good account of your conduct—not when you get to heaven only, but while you live here. God is judging your conduct as much now in the present as He will judge it in the future. That you are on your own responsibility leaves no room for anyone else to represent you. The priest cannot represent you, the bishop cannot represent you, the minister of the gospel cannot represent you, because God has given you a physical body and a conscious soul which place[s] you on your own responsibility, and you are expected to treat that body and act by that soul in the way that God wills and wishes. You are a creature like the priest, the bishop or the preacher. You are accountable for your own conduct. Your conduct must be that of a man. (Applause.) Your conduct must be that of Lord of God's universe, master of your own destiny, creator and architect of your own fate. (Hear! hear!) That is a responsibility placed upon you by God. How much use you have made of that responsibility is for you to determine. You can judge it by your condition, you can judge it by your environment—those are your own creations. MAN H I S OWN ENEMY

N o one makes you happy but yourself. (Hear! hear!) N o one makes you unhappy. (Hear! hear!) Those are prerogatives and rights that you take out of nature; those are circumstances that you bring upon yourself. The ignorant 105

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man in his existence always looks to the path that is all too easy; he is all the while depending upon and looking to the thoughts and acts of someone else. Sometimes he is so vicious an individual, so rude an individual, so ignorant an individual, that he accuses God of his misfortune. If there were any insults in the world, such is one of the greatest insults that man could be responsible for to God—to accuse God of his condition. What irreligion! What ignorance! Yes, what ignorance to say that God has forgotten you, to say that God has treated you unkindly, to say that God has given you no luck. (Laughter.) It is tantamount to sinning against the Holy Ghost. A G O D OF L O V E F O R A L L

God is a God of love. God in His love blesses all humanity, blesses all the world, all mankind alike. As a God of love He is also a God of austerity. He is austere in His rules. His laws are more stringent than the laws of the Medes and Persians3—they altereth not, they changeth not. You cannot smile and break God's law; you cannot cry and break God's law; you cannot weep and break God's law; you cannot be happy and break God's law. God's laws are unchangeable, and He holds the greatest and the lowest accountable for the observance of those laws. (Hear! hear!) So that you cannot change God's heart (if you give Him a heart); you cannot change His mind by your genuflections—by your genuflections begun at prayer asking Him for this and that. A WRONG CONCEPTION

Some of you think it nothing to ask God to give you money, to give you jobs, to give you homes, to make you rich—reducing the Almightiness of God, the Divinity of God, to some easy, changeable, irresponsible creature of likes and dislikes, of love and hate. Some of you believe that if you pray a litde harder than John Brown[,] He will take John Brown's goods and give to you (laughter); that if you pray to God being poor, He will take away the industrious man's goods next door and offer them to you (laughter). That is your idea of God. And some of you go to church and pray for God to bless you and give you things. It is no wonder you have not got them yet—and you will never get them! (laughter). God is not disposed that way. Some of you have reduced God to a sort of employment agency. Some of you imagine God to be some big employer downtown that when you pray to Him[,] He will give you riches or a job (laughter.) MUST GIVE A GOOD REPORT

Get you[rself], as the white man has done, a scientific understanding of God and religion. God is in you; God has done all for you already that He will ever do for you on this earth. He made you, and after He made you He was through with you to the point where he expects a report of you at the end of your journey. Between your creation and your natural death God has nothing 106

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to do with your physical and material operations. You understand that? Take that down on the note-book of your skull, on the note-book of your mind. (Laughter.) When God Almighty created you, He made you a living soul in the reign of His established law. He was through with you and will remain through with you until the final day of all things to receive your report as a good steward. The parable of Jesus Christ is typical of what God expects of every man. He is responsible until He gives in what he has been given. God is not going to be responsible for you after He created you until He meets you again; and your duty is that during the absence of God to roll up such a report that when He comes, like the good master, He will be pleased with your conduct. NEGROES M U S T UNDERSTAND G O D AND R E L I G I O N

What marks the great deal of difference between the Negro and the White man is that the Negro does not understand God and His religion. God places you here in the world on your responsibility as men and women to take out of the world and to make out of the world what you want in keeping with the laws He has laid down which you must not violate—the laws of Nature— the laws of the spirit. God has laid down two codes that man cannot afford to disobey: The code of Nature and the code of the Spirit. The code of Nature when you violate it makes you angry, makes you unhappy, makes you miserable, makes you sick, makes you die prematurely. All of the disease there is in the world, all the sickness there is in Jamaica[,] is a direct violation of the code of God in Nature. These people who run from Monday morning to Saturday evening to the doctor's office[,] instead of going there to pay him one dollar or more—should be saving that much by living close to Nature and in agreement with Nature. Every sickness and every disease, I repeat, is a direct violation of the code of God in Nature. People who live in Nature and in agreement with Nature, who move in harmony with Nature are seldom sick until they are ready naturally to die. The people who are sick most are the people who are ignorant of the laws of Nature and rebel against the laws of Nature, who act contrary to the laws of Nature, who disobey the natural codes of God. Some die from consumption in their youth, some die from other disease—diseases that they themselves by their ignorance contract and invite which results in death. And some of you say that "God took him early." (Laughter.) MISCONCEPTION OF G O D

You want to make God a murderer, you wicked devils. (Laughter.) Making God a murderer. Are you conscious of what you are doing? If God made men sick, then He is a bad God to make men live in misery and die in misery. Negroes, your concept of God is wrong! Trace the causes of premature sickness and death and you will find that God had nothing to do with it. They brought on the disease by violation of the code of God in Nature. Some of you are so ignorant that you are giving the doctor $j and $10 to get you better; 107

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and all that is wrong with you is that you have been so foolish that you have lived for 10 or 20 years without taking a little castor oil or salts. (Laughter.) No wonder that your system is like a dirty machine.4 Why, if the chauffeur runs his car up and down and does not overhaul his machine and clean it once a week, the whole thing will clog before the mechanical limit is near. As the chauffeur has to clean and overhaul his machine, as an engineer who drives the ship across the deep at 16 miles per hour has to see to the oiling and running condition of his engine, so in Nature God gave you intelligence to know that you ought to take care of your system and clean it out. You ought to take care of it at least once a month. Negroes wouldn't take medicine for 10 years and expect to be well, and when they get sick that way they say "God's spirit has left me." (Laughter.) What spirit wouldn't leave you? (Laughter.) You ignorant, good-for-nothing lot. This is one of the things we should know: Instead of paying $20 for some doctor to physic you, you go and spend a dime for oil at the drug-shop and clean yourself out. (Laughter.) Because when the doctor writes his prescription in a language that you do not understand^] he is giving you diluted turpentine that you could buy for a cent and a half. (Laughter.) Do you see so many white people in Jamaica going to the doctorf?] Have you ever seen so many of them at the doctor's when you get there[?] No! because they are more intelligent than you. They live by science.5 You do everything by emotion. That makes the vast difference between the two races. IGNORANCE BRINGS TROUBLE

I cannot go into details, but what I want to drive home to you is to avoid all the bad, go forward in the world as Negroes, if you must get a better and a more scientific understanding of yourself, of Nature and of God; if you are to live as man and as a people. God is no huge monster, God is not a huge beast. God is a God of love, loving all things in the world and all of His creation. As I stated before, when He made man—His biggest work, His greatest masterpiece, he placed upon him a responsibility for his individual existence—from the creation up to now. Your misfortunes in life are due to your ignorance of that responsibility. There is nothing in the world that you want that you cannot get as man, except playing God and wanting to create a world as he did; but from pushing away the rock from the mouth of the cave to leveling the Andes or the highest mountain ranges in the world—you can do. You can turn the world into a universal pleasure ground or a universal hell; you can make your world around you happy or miserable. You have within you the competent forces of a creative genius. (Hear! Hear!) Your conscious and your sub-conscious selves can make of the world whatsoever you will. (Hear! Hear!) Your mind is but an expression of your conscious self. You can train that conscious self to master any situation. As for instance: Think of something in your life from boyhood to manhood that you did by determination—either in rebelling against the instructions of your father or your mother or your parents, or by JOS

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doing something in opposition to the wishes of some one else; that you have done in life by determination, and you will interpret that this to be—you will interpret the doing of that thing to be the omnipotent power of the conscious self-expressing itself as it expressed itself in that one direction for good or ill. So can you train it to express itself all through your life. DETERMINATION ESSENTIAL

Some men—the most successful men in the world—are made up of an abundance of conscious expression. They always know what they are doing. They always do what they want done after a proper decision has been made, analyzed, examined and brought forth. Take the simplest thing to certain men; and take the greatest thing to certain men, and they will put them under an examination—a mental examination; they will sift it from t[he] surface to the source, and by analysis and comparison [a]nd so forth they come to a decision. That decision stands against anything in the world and you cannot change it. Such are the men who have made empires—such are the men who have made great worlds for themselves. Such a consciousness—such a power ruled the lives of men like Napoleon whom we see once in a hundred years—sometimes once in a thousand years. Such, too, were men like Oliver Cromwell, Horatio Nelson. Even when life was departing he had a word of encouragement for his comrades: "England expects every man to do his duty." Such was the make-up of men like Bismarck, "the iron man of Germany," 6 Peter the Great of Russia, William the Conqueror, General Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus. Such is the make-up of that youthful American, Colonel Lindbergh. 7 Such should be your individual and collective make-up. The man who c[a]nnot determine for himself is a poor fish in the world. Every man can by following and by training his conscious and sub-conscious self make it do the right always. T H E SUB-CONSCIOUS S E L F

What is the sub-conscious self? The sub-conscious self is that force in you that makes you walk without even knowing that you are walking; it makes you see whether you want to see or not—hear whether you want to hear or not; it makes you imagine—it makes you think over the future; it advises your conscious self. Those are the subconscious forces that rule the life of the individual. The subconscious force is connected to the conscious force. The subconscious force supplies the conscious force with knowledge and information. Then the soul force acts upon the conscious information that is received from the subconscious self of man. But the conscious and the physical forces of man are all wrapped up together. They are a particle of one and the same protoplastic whole. The spirit is an entity that exists apart from them. It is as I said a particle of God directing this consciousness— this soul-consciousness, advising it to do that which is right; and sometimes it emphasizes itself so as to let us know right from wrong. Have you ever been in a state when something says " G o this way!" and the rebellious soul is 109

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saying, "No, I will go this way"; and sometimes you meet misfortune through following the disobedient and rebellious soul? That is the way evil comes into one's life—by disobeying the advice that comes from the spirit that is within you. The individual who trains his mind properly knows when the spirit speaks and seldom makes a mistake. The most successful men in the world are those who have trained themselves to adhere to the spirit when the spirit speaks and follow in the direction of the spirit. A T THE J U D G M E N T BAR

When a bad man dies, what we mean by his going to hell is that the spirit has departed from him in disgust and will recognize him no more except as a rebellious soul before its judgment. You cannot lie when you get to judgment because your spirit is there. Man[,] you are going to judge yourself and you don't know. Man will be his own judge on the DAY OF JUDGEMENT. Therefore, you can't lie to yourself. The book that you write here is the book that you will open on the DAY OF JUDGMENT. That spirit that is within you, when you are dead and buried is gone [going] back to the source from which it came. You were part of God when you lived, and that spirit that left you when you died will be GOD TO JUDGE YOU when you are called in judgment. So Negroes be careful of yourselves, be careful with your spirits. Nobody is going to judge you but yourself. Therefore, you can't lie to yourself. Don't go and beg anybody, don't steal from anybody—because you are going to be your own judge. You can lie to others, to your brother, to your wife and your husband. You can tell your wife that you went to lodge. (Laughter.) You can tell your husband that you went to market when you went somewhere else (Laughter); but you can't lie to yourself on the DAY OF JUDGMENT.

AS y o u shall j u d g e y o u r s e l f o n t h e DAY OF JUDGMENT, SO a r e

you judging yourselves now. MAN KNOW THYSELF

Watchman, what of the night?—"I have waited on my brother and he has passed me on the way." Why, you lazy, good-for-nothing Negroes, he should not pass you on the way—but should kick you out of the way. (Laughter). If you have no more sense than to lay on the wayside you ought to be crushed. (Laughter). Men you are God! Men you are God!! You are of God absolute in that in you is the spirit of that GREAT CREATOR—the whole of which made man, the whole that constitutes the one God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. There is nothing higher than you in the world— whether your color be black, yellow or white. (Applause.) You are the highest instrument of God's Divinity; you are the highest of God's creation. There is no law for man to trample on you, because man is Lord. (Applause.) There is no law for God to come from Heaven and lead you, because you are God of yourself. Get a scientific knowledge of religion,8 of God, of what you are; and you will create a better world for yourselves. Negroes, the world is to your making. 110

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The God that the white man gives you is that imaginary God he made for you—but not the God who made the land and sea, the rivers, mountains, plains and hills—all for you. He adorned nature with its beauty of flowers and vegetation. He created all men of one mould. But look at what God has given you. He has given you a wonderful variety. So that if you have no taste for dates, oranges, peaches and plums—if you do not like bananas, if you have no bananas today—(laughter) we have mangoes; if we have no mangoes[,] we have sweets[o]p, (as the ladies say), so[u]rs[o]p, grapefruit, oranges, custard-apple, pineapples, cane, jambolan.9 In America if they do not know what "jambolan" is, they will know about dates, oranges, peaches, bananas. I am not speaking to you only—I am speaking to the whole world. And so a vast variety is given to you in nature. If you do not want to eat fish or fruits, if you do not want to eat sprats—you can eat mackerel, you can eat salmon. (Laughter.) If you do not want to eat salmon, you can eat shark or the barracuda. (Laughter.) If you do not want to eat the flesh of the fish, you can eat the flesh of the animals; you can eat the lizard, the crab, the monkey, the alligator. (Laughter.) You can eat the goat. They say that sheep meat is not good for Negroes—but you can eat the sheep. (Laughter.) If you do not want to eat the sheep, you can eat the cow or the mule. (Laughter.) If you do not want to eat the mule, you can eat the horse. (Laughter.) You can eat the elephant or the donkey. (Laughter.) Some people eat the lion and the tiger. You can eat them; and some of you can eat the John Crow. (Laughter.) I knew a man who ate a crow. (Laughter.) His name was Bravo. W H Y SIT BEGGING?

Anything that you want, anything that you'd like to have, God has created it for man. If you do not want to go and drink your fill from the brimming river, He has created a variety of other sources in nature from which you can drink. You can drink the clear crystal water from the rushing stream, from the spring; you can drink the stagnant water in the pond or in the pool. You can drink by the environs of the sea. And then some of you with that inventive genius that God has given you, make and drink kola, ginger ale, cream soda, gin, Jamaica rum-red rum, white rum, common rum. (Laughter.) If you don't want the water that will make you steady, you can drink the water that will make you drunk. (Laughter.) God Almighty has given you a variety. Negroes, why sit ye by the wayside[,] begging and beseeching? Negroes, why sit and pray to God for that which God has given? Do you not know that if I were God, if man were God, a terrible visitation would come upon you for worrying God. Let us imagine what it is. Here is something I have to give away. I have ($50) on the table. I do not want it. I want to make a present of it to anybody who wants it. I make an announcement that there is $50 on the table, come and get it. One wise fellow sneaks right up: "Yes boys! I am going to get it"— grabs the $50, takes it and walks away; and here's an ignorant fellow who says: ill

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"Boss, please give me the $50." Now what would you do with a fellow like that? You would throw dirty water in his face and say, "Get away you big fool!" (Laughter.) God has given you a gold mine in the world, and some of you for 70 years have been saying: "Lord please give me." Give you what? What you already had! Stop begging and praying for what you have next door. Go and get it! If you think God is going to put shoes on your feet, you will walk those big black feet all over the world. (Laughter.) If you think He is going to put clothes on your back you will go as naked as the day you came into this world—as naked as the day you were born. (Laughter.) Some of you take God for a shoemaker to make shoes for you, some of you take Him for a tailor to make clothes for you—some of you take Him for an higgler-woman to give you food. (Laughter.) You take God for a butcher to give you meat. If you do not stop praying and do something you will live and die without tasting. (Laughter.) GOD GAVE YOU ALL

Negroes, God Almighty gave you all Nature. If you haven't your share somebody has taken it away from you; and if you can't get it in the way you'd like to, get it, get it anyhow. (Applause.) But get it! And stop worrying God; and stop worrying the white man; and stop envying other people because they are prospering—because they are more sensible than you. (Hear! Hear!!) Negroes, get up and be yourselves[.] Pray to God for what? Pray for spiritual guidance and strength. Don't pray to God for food and clothes and for a house to sleep, because He is no contractor, He is no builder—you will sleep out in the open air. (Laughter.) You insult God when you beg other men because you reduce Him to a beggar. How can He be pleased with you? When God begs God it creates a peculiar paradox. When you go to another man to beg him, you are reducing the God in you and worshipping the god in the other man. You insult God so often that He is tired of you. If you want to live long, study life better, study Nature better, study your religion better. Don't say I told you this and that and the other thing. I told you that you are God's masterpiece; as man, you are the highest work of God; that when God created you he did as much as He would ever do until you meet Him for the second time in the Judgment; that you are made up of body, soul and spirit; the body dies, the soul remains in suspense to be judged before the spirit; the spirit goes in death back to its source; that all life is a semblance of God; all matter is a semblance of God, and the whole of all things in the world and in the universe are the composite whole of the one God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. That is what I have said to you tonight. Now, don't say that I have said anything else. You know I have touched something in religion that the preacher would want to question; but I know just as much as he knows himself—and others should know. They are not disposed to tell you[,] so that they will be better than those who dwell in ignorance in the community. I want to be able to walk 112

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down the streets of Kingston and see every Negro looking like and feeling like me. (Applause.) And if I can do anything to help you to reach my level, I am going to do it from morn to noon. (Applause.) My heart is with you, my soul is with you, my spirit is with you, because you are part of myself and I am part of you. That spirit in me, which in [is] God is tantamount to the spirit in you which is God. Your spirit and my spirit and the spirits all over the world go to make up the spirit of God which is in the world and the universe. So that we are all brothers of one common fatherhood. It is our duty to love each other, and since others who do not look like us do not love us, we will teach ourselves to love ourselves. (Applause.) You have before you a beautiful future—a future that can be made happy and pleasant through your own intelligence. I am not telling you not to go back to church—but when you go back, go to church with the right idea. Don't go to church to ask somebody to pray for you—to ask God to give you things you haven't got, to give you things you did not get last week, this week. Go to church to give thanks for the things you have received through your own effort. (Hear! hear!!) Among some of the people who go to church often is John D. Rockefeller. He goes to church to pray and give thanks for having cornered the oil markets of the world.10 He cornered the oil markets of the world because other men were too foolish. God is with Rockefeller. In the midst of some of the most beautiful angels in heaven will be John D. Rockefeller, because he had the sense to live. (Laughter.) BONAPARTE UNDERSTOOD G O D

Once somebody asked Napoleon, that great soldier, on what side was God in the war? Napoleon answered: "God is on the side of the strongest battalion.'"1 You foolish Negroes have been trained to think that God is on the side of the poor. It is true that He is sometimes there, but most of the time He is to be found in the high places, in the Holy of Holies. So, have sense, Negroes. If God were to come to the earth today He would not want to go and live in a dirty hut. (Laughter.) He may visit you there because you are one of His own, but He would seek the tabernacle where all the gold, frankincense and all the valuable things are. A L L W E A L T H IS OF G O D

All wealth is good. God created all wealth and never created poverty. The man who is poor in the world has created his own poverty. No man was born poor. Every man was born of a woman into a rich world. What I mean by "rich" is that you were born rich with the senses. All the wealth in the world today is the product of man's senses. "What man has done, man can do." What the white man has done, the Negro can do! (Prolonged applause.) Printed in two parts, NW, 11 February and 18 February 1928. Original headlines omitted, text abridged. 113

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS 1. Garvey voices a popular eclectic philosophy in this treatise of New Thought metaphysics. His emphasis on the omnipresence of the Creator and the order and beneficence of nature ties his interpretation of God to that of the Pantheists and the Transcendentalists, for whom the natural world was emblematic of spiritual truths. Garvey's understanding of the relation of the individual, the soul, and the spirit is also similar to the tenants of transcendental philosophy, with its emphasis on idealism, intuitive perception, self-reliance, and dependence on an inner guide rather than on the intervention of an organized church or of secular authorities. Chief among Garvey's theological statements is the transcendental concept of human beings as superior manifestations of the Divine force, who are creatures of free will and actors in their own salvation, and whose only limits are those of talent and initiative. As Emerson wrote in his essay "Spirit": "who can set bounds to the possibilities of man? . . . man . . . is himself the creator in the finite" {Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures, ed. Joel Porte [New York: Library of America, 1983], p. 41). Garvey's emphasis on self-reliance and individual reform is also an Emersonian approach. Emerson, like Garvey, was known to ask his audience the rhetorical question, "Can we not learn the lesson of self-help?" (Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Man the Reformer," ibid., p. 145). These ideas were carried forward into the New Thought movement, which preached "the Divinity of Man and his Infinite possibilities through the creative power and constructive thinking in obedience to the voice of the Indwelling Presence" (Donald Meyer, The Positive Thinkers [1965; rev. ed., New York: Pantheon, 1980], p. 36; see also John G. Cawelti, Apostles of the Self-Made Man: Changing Concepts of Success in America [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965], pp. 7 7 98; Donald N. Koster, Transcendentalism in America [Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1975]; George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture [New York: Oxford University Press, 1980]). 2. Elijah was a prophet during the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah of Israel (1 Kings 17-19; 2 Kings 1:2-3). In 2 Kings 2:1-18 Elisha is called from behind the plow by Elijah and carried into heaven in a chariot of fire, inheriting Elijah's legacy of prophecy. Daniel was a prophet of apocalypse during the neo-Babylonian period (ca. 626-539 B.C.) (Dan. 1-14). St. Paul was an agent of the Hebrew Sanhedrin until his conversion to Christianity on the road to Damascus. He travelled as a missionary to Cyprus, Perga, Antioch, Macedonia, Athens and Corinth and was martyred in Rome (Acts 9:1-29, 13-14; 1 Thess.; 2 Thess.; Gal.; 1 Cor.; 2 Cor.). 3. As one analyst of ancient Persian history has put it, "the 'Laws of the Medes and the Persians' became a by-word of judicial incorruptibility—and harshness—throughout subject lands." The Persian empire was founded under the reign of Cyrus II the Great (559—529 B.C.), who overthrew his Mede overlord (thus uniting the Medes and the Persians under one rule) then conquered Babylon (539 B.C.), bringing the Neo-Babylonian empire under his command as well. Cyrus's reputation as a humane and tolerant ruler was not inherited by his successors. Under the reign of Darius I (521-486 B.C.), Babylonian common law was codified to provide the Persian empire (which then extended from central Asia through all of Asia Minor, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Syria) with a consistent legal system. Darius used the Aramaic word dat (the same term used to refer to divine order and power) to refer to his secular system of codified laws. He created a stratified legal administration overseen by regional judges, or "satraps." The satraps became known for the oppressive penalties they imposed including the introduction of crucifixion, originally an oriental mode of punishment, into the West (William Culican, The Medes and the Persians [New York: Frederick Praeger, 1965], p. 169; see also John L. McKenzie, Dictionary of the Bible [Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing, 1965], pp. 660-661). 4. By advocating personal responsibility for matters of health and criticizing the interventionism and entrepreneurial bent of the medical profession, Garvey was echoing democratic ideas embodied in many popular health movements of the previous century, including Thomsonianism, the water cure movement, folk herbalism, and some aspects of the patent medicine market. His use of the term science in connection with self-maintenance is closer to the New Thought idea of the science of mind—in which health is conceptualized as the successful exercise of rationality and self-control over the invasion of disease—rather than the more conventional dichotomy of science (in this case, medical science) and nature (noninterventionism) (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health [1903; reprint ed., Boston: Trustees of the Will of Mary Baker Eddy, 1934]; Julia Seton, The Science of Success [New York: E. J. Clode, 1914]; Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind [New York: Robert M. McBride, 1938]; Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine [New York: Basic Books, 1982]). 5. Garvey's use of the word science may also be related to the popular usage of the term in the West Indies, where to say one uses "science" carries connotations of connections with the occult, or the belief that the lives of others and the self can be shaped or changed through the science

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JANUARY 1928 of ritualistic practices—another version of belief in the power of mind to alter physical conditions (see, for example, C. L. R. James, Minty Alley [1936; reprint ed., London: New Beacon Books, 1971], pp. 94-95, 100-101). 6. Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck (1815-1898), a leader in the Franco-Prussian war, was the first chancellor of the German Empire (1871). He advocated German unity under Prussian leadership, declaring that opposition to Austrian dominance must be achieved through "blood and iron" (EWH; WBD). 7. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974), a pathbreaker in the field of aviation, made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic, flying from New York to Paris, 20-21 May 1927, in his monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis (NTT, 22 May 1927; Walter S. Ross, The Last Hero: Charles A. Lindbergh, [New York: Harper and Row, 1964]). 8. Garvey's advice that his audience "get a scientific knowledge of religion" is another direct reference to science of mind elements in New Thought philosophy. Nona L. Brooks and Malinda E. Cramer, for example, were two healers who independendy taught principles that became basic to the Divine Science movement, which in turn was closely related to New Thought and the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy and Helena Blavatsky. Garvey expresses similar ideas about the omnipresence of God, the idea of God as Mind, and the personal healing powers associated with a new understanding of the nature of divinity (Malinda Cramer, Divine Science and Healing [San Francisco, 1905]; Ernest Holmes, ed., Mind Remakes Tour World [New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1941]; Richard Weiss, The American Myth of Success [1969; reprint ed., Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois, 1988], pp. 195-240; Charles S. Braden, Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought [Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1977], pp. 264-284). 9. On the types of fruits common in the West Indies and their folk names, see Frederick G. Cassidy, Jamaica Talk ([London: Macmillan, 1961], pp. 334-390 and Ian Sangster, Jamaica ([New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973], p. 25). Many of these fruits were originally imported from the East Indies or Africa and assigned Spanish, Portuguese, French, or English names. They were then renamed by West Indians, who made use of words and descriptions which were often African in origin. 10. A reference to the Standard Oil Co. By the 1880's John D. Rockefeller held a virtual monopoly over the oil-refining industry in the United States, controlling diverse holdings in railroads, pipeline distribution, and banking institutions. He was reputed to be the richest man in the world in the 1920s. Garvey frequently cited Rockefeller's career as an example of rags-toriches success through personal motivation and hard work (NTT, 24 May 1937; Robert A. Hill and Barbara Bair, eds., Marcus Garvey: Life and Lessons [Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1987], pp. xxv-xxvi). 11. Voltaire wrote, "It is said that God is always for the big battalions" in a letter to M. Le Riche written 6 February 1770; Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) later made a similar observation (Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, eds., Great Treasury of Western Thought [New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1977], p. 944).

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Kingston, January 20, 1928]] Fellow-men of the Negro Race, Greeting: It is a pleasure always to write to you conveying the latest news and developments in the world as they affect the Negro and members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in particular. T H E W H I T E M A N AT H I S G A M E

One of the members of the Association in London, England, has just sent me a clipping taken from a late edition of a large English weekly paper known 115

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as the "News of the World," published in London. The dipping purports to be a news article written up for the paper by some white man and Negro hater. The article is supposed to be a report of my arrival in Jamaica and is headed thus: "Dusky Crook Arrived at Native Home; Received as a Prince, but He Is a Crook." The matter that follows this goes on to show how I swindled 40,000 Negroes of the Black Star Line out of $1,000,000; that I made promise of establishing an African Empire; that I created Dukes, Barons and Knights by selling them honors in this empire; that I never bought any ships but had two tubs—yet they were illogical enough to state in another part of the article that I had a yacht and that I lived aboard with a harem of twenty-four women; that I had taken millions from the black race to improve their condition, etc.; that I wore fantastic robes and regalia which appealed to the ignorant Negroes. So much for the vicious lies and statements of "The News of the World," but let us go into facts to see the thieving and lying white man as we know him. WHAT W E KNOW

Every stockholder in the Black Star Line knows that the Black Star Line would have been a going and successful business today were it not for the tricks and practices of white men who laid the plans to break up the company, as they did not want black men to operate ships in competition with them for the trade of Africa, South and Central America, the United States and the West Indies. These whites paid millions of dollars to smash up the company and dishearten the Negroes. Their chief game was to lie to the Negroes in every part of the world, as "The News of the World" is now doing, so as to get the people in a distrustful mood by which they calculated they could prevent the support necessary going to the company. They planned to hold me up to criminal ridicule so as to weaken my leadership which they feared, and so in keeping with this they opened the floodgates of journalistic criticism against me. But let us analyze their criticism. W H O IS T H E W H I T E M A N F O O L I N G ?

How is it that I could have robbed a $1,000,000 from the stockholders of the Black Star Line, when it is a fact that the money subscribed by the stockholders of the Black Star Line was used to buy its ships, the Yarmouth, Kanawha, Shady Side and Orion. The first three ships were owned by the Black Star Line and millions saw them in active operation. The Orion was never delivered by the U. S. Shipping Board, although they have kept the $25,000 paid them as the first installment, and which white sharks are trying to rob from the corporation by railroading me out of America so that I could take no steps to recover it for the people. GARVEY'S O N L Y REWARD

All that I ever received as salary from the Black Star Line the entire time I was president was about $3,500, as the court record at my trial showed. I 116

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was the largest investor in the Black Star Line, having more than two thousand dollars paid up shares. T H E PROPERTIES OF THE BLACK STAR L I N E

The Black Star Line owned property in New York City paid for by the money of the corporation. It paid its expenses to run and manage the ships, and the court record shows that every penny taken in was spent for the promotion and development of the company. No one knows these facts better than the white liars and thieves who have written against me. If the money of the corporation went to buy ships and run them, as everybody knows, how in the name of reason and goodness could I have robbed the people of the same and very amount of money? Can a man eat his cake and have it at the same time? No one knows better that this cannot be than the lying white man, but he is such a liar and thief that he will stop at nothing to defame those of other races who are making an effort to free themselves from his greed, graft, lies and thievery. T H E WORLD'S GREAT L I A R

This liar has stolen the whole world from other people and now he has the nerve to accuse me of robbing my own people. What Negro is there in the world who has not been robbed by the white man? From the time of Cain and Abel white men have been murdering and robbing other men. If the white man wants a history of his robbery, I will accommodate him in writing it for him. W H Y W H I T E M E N INTERFERE IN N E G R O E S ' BUSINESS

What right has he in Negroes' affairs, but to rob and exploit them? The whole world knows that. So when liars like the editor of "The News of the World" spread such falsehoods across their papers, the Negro knows well how to value it. D U K E S , BARONS AND K N I G H T S

I am accused of creating Dukes, Barons and Knights. Who gave the white man a monopoly on creating social orders? No Dukes nor Barons were born out of Heaven, but they are all man-made, and if one race can make them to suit their own purposes, another has the similar right. The white man is crazy or drunk to believe that he owns the world, God and man. They make effort to laugh at my robes and the regalia of the organization. Why won't they start at home and laugh after the robes and regalia of their own race, their bishops, priests, college professors, etc.? You idiots, do you think you can still fool the world as you once fooled the North American Indian, the Australian barbarian and the ancient African?

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS L Y I N G ABOUT M A R C U S GARVEY

You may lie about Marcus Garvey, but you will convince no Negro that he ever robbed a penny from him in all his life. You are cowards to stab me as you have always done your enemies and opponents behind their backs. FALSE P R O P A G A N D A

You first raised a false propaganda about me to defeat me; when that did not succeed you corrupted and bought over twenty per cent of my employees. When you found that they had no information to sell on which you could destroy me, you framed me up and sent me to your prison, an institution that was invented for your own race. When you found out that imprisoning me did not cause black men to lose confidence in me, you had to release me, for the sentiment for my cause was growing stronger each day. Then after my release you have started the old game of lying again. Are you not ashamed of yourselves, crooked white men? R A I L R O A D E D OUT OF A M E R I C A

Why did you not allow me to go back to New York to fight you in your own Federal Courts and get returned to the Negroes the beautiful ship General G. W. Goethals, that you lied and called a tub, and which is one of the best ships afloat today owned by the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Company which you robbed from the race by a trick, and by bribing the unfaithful men I left behind when you sent me to prison? This was the trick you played: You inveigled the disloyal and foolish men who assumed charge of the company when you railroaded me to Atlanta to keep all information of their activities away from me, and then you got them to sign up for a cargo of small tonnage to be removed to Miami. After the fools signed the contract, you delivered to the ship just about five tons of cargo and then went around the commercial area and influenced other shippers not to give the ship cargo so that they would not have a full cargo to go to Miami or any other point in that direction. You know that a 5,ooo-ton ship could not go to sea with five tons of cargo without a tremendous loss. When the ship did not sail according to your planned contract, you libeled her and had your own white court to order the sale for damages, and your own white marshal sold the ship to you, the people who made the contract with my disloyal representatives; and the ship that two months before we bought cash from your race, and refitted at a cost of $250,000, you robbed from us at the marshal's sale for $25,000, and six weeks afterward you sold it to another white man for $90,000, when the cargo you put aboard was not valued at $5,000. Now, white man, who is the thief and crook—you or Marcus Garvey? You deported me so that I could not recover in the Federal Courts, as you know well that I was held a federal prisoner in Atlanta during the period of your tricks and since I was no party to them, as president, director and

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bondholder of the corporation, I could have sued for recovery of the ship in a Federal Court. In the same way you robbed the organization and the race of our Liberty Hall, New York, and our Liberty Hall, Pittsburgh, an asset of $170,000. You also stole our office buildings and publishing plant at 52-5456 West 135th street, New York, an asset of $80,000. All this along with the $25,000 in the hands of the United States Shipping Board could have been recovered for the people, yet you rushed me out of America so as to allow white men to gobble up the money, then you have the nerve to call me a "Dusky Crook." If I am a dusky crook, white man, what do you call yourself and what do you think the world of black, brown and yellow men think of you? You have also tried to cause us to lose the legacy left to the organization by Sir Isaiah Morter,' a black man of Belize, British Honduras, an estate of nearly $250,000. I need say no more for the present, but I feel sure that there is no Negro in the world that will allow himself to be fooled by white men like editors of "The News of the World." With very best wishes for success. I have the honor to be Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY Printed in NW,

4 February 1928. Original headlines omitted.

I. When staunch Garveyite Isaiah Morter of Belize, British Honduras, died in April 1924 he left a large legacy to the U N I A in his will. His widow contested the legality of the will, and the Supreme Court of British Honduras initially found in her favor. The court ruled in February 1926 that the U N I A , Inc., could not inherit the legacy left it by Morter because the organization existed for what the British colonial justices deemed an illegal purpose, namely the redemption of Africa from colonial rule. The case was placed under appeal; the Privy Council in England reviewed it and reversed the lower court's ruling in January-February 1928, clearing the way for the U N I A to become owner of the Morter estate. Legal disputes then erupted between the American-based factions of the U N I A and the West-Indian over which group—the U N I A , Inc., of New York, or the U N I A , August 1929, of the World, of Kingston—was the legitimate heir to the legacy. The dispute was not settled until 1939, when the Supreme Court of British Honduras ruled against Garve/s claim and granted the Morter properties to the U N I A , Inc., in New York, which it deemed the legitimate wing of the movement (NW, 10 March 1928; Garvey Paper, 6: 323-338).

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detectivc Office, East Queen Street, Kingston, 21st January 1928 MARCUS GARVEY— M E E T I N G S AT L I B E R T Y H A L L , K I N G S T O N

Detective Inspector, I beg to report that from Monday the 16th to Wednesday 18th instant, M r . Marcus Garvey attended to private affairs between his home and the U.N.I.A. headquarters.

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On Thursday night he lectured [to] a very large audience at the Liberty Hall, 76 King Street, on the subject "Negroes[,] love yourselves." On this subject he took for examples the countries of England and Japan. He pointed out how those countries had suffered under the yoke of greater powers which were then in existence and that when they could bear the burden of serfdom no longer, they amalgamated themselves into groups, set forth their plans for the building up of nations, and on account of true love, courage and determination, they were [are] to-day the first and third powers of the world and commanding the admiration and respect of every nation. "It was one of my greatest task[s]," he said, to get negroes to love one another and to trust one another. Thank God, I have succeeded in getting n million to know the art of true love, self-ambition and self-pride in America within a short space of time. It is no fault of your own to hate you/r/ own brother. It is the fault of the other fellow who taught you to hate the very mother that brought you into this world, in order that you might become a disorganized group and therefore cannot do anything of service to yourselves. You must now cast off that old fashioned coat of hate and to cultivate among yourselves true love, true fellowship, selfambition, self-pride, self-respect, and when you have done that the world around will respect you. Last night M r . Garvey again addressed an audience at Liberty Hall, taking for his subject, "What Africa means to the Negroes." He pointed out that every self-respected group of people in the world have a nation of their own, a country of their own and a fatherland of their own. They were looked upon by other countries as nationals and wherever they might emigrate they were well protected, for there was something upon which they could lean should any advantage be taken of them. Every nation except the negro had a right to go anywhere, to live anywhere he desired to live and to be respected and cared for anywhere he went. The negro was the only man that could be kicked about in Jamaica, slaughtered in Cuba, driven out in Panama, restricted in America and laughed at anywhere, because there was no one to look out for him, there was no country to which he could call [for aid], and therefore, he was left as a shadow in every country he went. Negroes, if you do not wake up now, join your brothers in America, in Cuba, in Hayti, in Panama and in Africa, give one another your earnest support and claim Africa for yourselves, in another 25 years Africa will be to you as what the United States of America is to the North American Indians. Three hundred years ago, America was inhabited by a race of people known as Indians, in less than a hundred years those Indians were reduced to about 50 per cent, in another hundred years they were further reduced to about 20 per cent and to-day America is known as the white man's country, the largest Republic in the world, the wealthiest country in the world and a great power 120

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in the world. All eyes are turned to Africa to-day. England is pushing herself as much as she can in Africa to make way for her over-populated country. Germany is seeking to regain her lost territories in Africa, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, and the rest of them are all strengthening their forces in Africaall for the further development of their own race. Therefore, Africa means this to you, a great black African Empire, in fact, the greatest Empire the world will ever see, the building up of the greatest nation upon this earth, a race that must be respected by everyone and everywhere, and /a freedom from/ the pains and horrors of any race. If you let Africa out of your hands, then you might as well write the word "Death" upon your forehead and be a dead man for the rest of your lives. The Universal Negro Improvement Association with four hundred million negroes behind it—the largest group of people in the world—guided by God Almighty Himself, is marching on, and in Jesus Christ to Whom we look for help and justice, we shall redeem Africa from the hands of white men and you shall then be a free and happy people. Your voices shall be heard in Jamaica as well as in any other country, if you will only stand firm, have confidence, in yourselves, fear no man but God Almighty, believe in no man but those of your own race, trust no other man but your own people, and whatever your portion is you are bound to get it. You are the only race of people that have lived up to the commandments of God, that have carried out the beatitudes of Jesus Christ and followed His remarkable Sermon on the Mount. You are the only clean and innocent race that move upon this earth—you have committed no murder, you have robbed no man, you have fooled no man, you have lied on [to] no man, and therefore though your paths be dark and dreary just now, yet in the fulness of time you shall be a happy, loving and powerful race, enjoying the blessings provided for you. I am determined to see that negroes enjoy a fifty fifty basis in Jamaica as in any other part of the world; it can be done, it will be done and it must be done[,] and to hell with any man who says it can[']t be done. I am interested in no other race but the negro. I have pledged my life for the sake of my race and I can do no more. All I want from you is your confidence and support. M r . Garvey asked the people to purchase and read the Negro World newspaper where they would find everything to interest negroes. He was sorry that they had not a paper in Jamaica which spoke well for the black man. He was however assuring them that less than 11 months from this Jamaica would have a daily paper never yet known in its history. The title of that paper would be "The Black man.'" It would be supported not only by Negroes in Jamaica, but by negroes [in] all parts of the world and that Marcus Garvey would be its Editor. Everything was being done to make all plans ready. Beside [s] that large stores operated by big negro men and women would be established in Jamaica, and he was satisfied that those undertakings would meet ready response. He was silent in Jamaica but he was not sleeping. He slept but for a 121

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few hours only and worked the rest of the time on problems connected solely with the negroes. He drank no strong drinks, ate but very little food and so he was always guided by God Almighty Who was directing him in everything he did in connection with the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Both meetings were largely attended by people of all classes and there was always perfect order. M r . Garvey will again speak at Liberty Hall on Sunday (to-morrow), when a charge of one shilling admission will be made. These two meetings were free. I was informed by the President of the Kingston Division (Mr. C. D. Johnson), who will be accompanying M r . Garvey on his West Indian tour, that they will be leaving the Island on Friday the 27th instant. He was unable to say where will be their first /Port/ of call, as M r . Garvey did not tell him; he was only advised to get ready to leave on that date. None of the meetings M r . Garvey kept at Liberty Hall lasted later than 10 P.M. The meeting on this occasion closed at 9.40 P.M. C H A S . A . PATTERSON J A , file i$(v), no. D:I:0:IO/28. T L S , recipient's copy. Marked "CONFIDENTIAL." 1. Garvey did begin publication of a daily newspaper called the Blackmm a little over a year later, in March 1929. The paper was conceived as a daily that would supplement the weekly Negro World as a second UNIA organ and place stress on international news. It received support from the Negro World staff in New York who praised the idea and asked their readers to "provide the funds necessary to place The Black Man daily on the newstands of the world." The Negro World lauded the concept behind the new paper, stating that "A virile, alert, progressive, aggressive, Negro-controlled daily newsaper is nothing less than an absolute necessity in every large Negro community today." Despite more than a year of advance fond raising, Garvey faced severe financial pressures when he began producing the daily paper in Kingston. He was forced to change the paper to a weekly a year after it began publication and ceased to print it entirely after two years of production (NW, 15 December 1928; Btn, March 1929-February 1931).

Article in Opportunity [New York, January 1928] GARVEY AND THE " G A R V E Y MOVEMENT"

MARCUS GARVEY has been released from the Federal Prison in Atlanta and deported to Jamaica, his home. Nothing has been lacking in the precautions taken to guard him, not only from escape, but from the demonstrations of his followers. He was sent to prison on the technical charge of using the mails to defraud, a circumstance with but slight relationship to the important facts of his activities, and by a legal conviction which did not destroy that influence which seems to be uncommonly irritating to the authorities of several governments, including his own. N o one dismisses his name now four years after his conviction, as that of a mere criminal and exploiter of ignorant Negroes. It would be worth the inquiry to learn why this lone black figure, bumptious 122

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and flamboyant as he is, can call forth in such concert the interests of those governments with black subjects, in protecting them from his doctrine. There are faint flashes of irony in the solicitude. Most important in the philosophy which he preached were these: The black peoples of the world are entitled to a country and government of their own where they can develop their own culture, industry and commerce, and elevate themselves to an equal status with the white races of the world. Africa is their ancestral home and the most natural place for them to go. The acceptance by black people of the standards of white people is an anomaly. Rather than accept white gods they should conceivc them as being of their own image, and things black be given the same virtue for Negroes that things white have for white persons. N o w these principles, apart from the practical difficulties of accomplishment, are not very different from the advice of a large part of the white race to Negroes: They should be deported to Africa. They should not imitate white people, but do something themselves for which they will feel proud. They should not expect to share completely the culture which the white races have developed themselves for themselves. And so on. It must be concluded, it seems, that it is not so desirable even as a vague and unrealizable dream that Negroes should desire to go back to Africa. That, in the final analysis, it is unflattering to descry effectively that trait of "imitation" which for so many years has been regarded superciliously by the "superior white races" Garvey, we fear, is more the symbol of a peculiar mood in Negroes than inspirer of it. He has succeeded in articulating some of the long crushed and unformed desires of the black masses, and he has done it with the usual glamor and arrogance of mass leaders. Only by considering these desires and their possible embarrassment to those governments with interests into which they cannot comfortably fit, docs Garvey and what he represents become dangerous. It was as right as it was legal to send him to prison; but this neither touched the movement which bears his name, nor the mood of the least advantaged of the suppressed peoples the world over, of which this movement was an expression.1 Printed in Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life 16 (January 1928): 4 - 5 . 1. Publication of this article sparked an editorial reply in the Negro World on 21 January 1928. While the editors of the U N I A paper described previous Opportunity articles as "hysterical" and venomous on the subject of Garvey, they praised the January 1928 essay as "entirely creditable" and fair and quoted extensively from it in their own editorial.

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Negro World Notice [[Kingston, February 3, 1928]] There is a woman traveling in Florida and Alabama claiming to be one Princess Coffey or Laura Coffey of Africa. This woman is a fake and has no authority from me to speak to the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Should she attempt to raise funds from any member or division in the name of the organization or with the pretence of my authority, have her arrested. She has no connection with the organization. 1 MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Printed in NW,

18 February 1928.

1. Laura Adorker Kofey was a UNLA organizer in Florida in the summer of 1927. She visited Garvey in prison on 1 August 1927. A powerful speaker, her remarkable success in organizing for the U N I A soon earned her a following of her own. In early 1928 she established a splinter organization called the African Universal Church and Commercial League (AUCCL). The A U C C L vied with the U N I A for membership and earned bitter opposition from Florida U N I A activists who saw her popularity as a threat to Garve/s authority in the region. Garvey had already inserted a notice denouncing Kofey in the 21 January 1928 Negro World and continued to run the advertisement over the next several weeks. Separate notices revoked the charter of Jacksonville U N I A Division No. 286, the UNIA division that sponsored Kofey prior to her formation of the A U C C L and expelled Miami division members who supported Kofey (WW, 11 February, 18 February, 25 February, 3 March, 10 March 1928; Garvey Papers 6: 594-595 n. 1,598,599).

Speech by Marcus Garvey [[Kingston, 5 February 1928]] We are living in a world of modern thought and changes; all around us there is change and in some places decay. These changes affect human groups. Naturally, as a group we are also affected by the changes. The greatest and most penetrating change of our time is political. T H E P O W E R OF P O L I T I C S

Politics is the science of government that protects those human rights that are not protected by law. Therefore, all people who desire to protect themselves and their rights resort sooner or later to political action. Political action institutes government. Government is the organization of a community of people for their protection. You will find every white group of people in the world having a government of their own as a means of protection, for the exercise of their political rights. In the arrangement of government and in the exercise of political rights they establish certain customs; they establish certain fields of operation wherein these customs are exercised as different to 124

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and sometimes opposed to the customs of others. All this man has done for the one and particular reason of orderly and permanently protecting himself. You cannot ignore the fact that all this is necessary—it is so necessary that the whole thing has developed into a science; and as a science it is practised today with more persuasion, with more determination, with more pride than anything else in the world—the science of government is really the acme of all man's spiritual and material reach for peace, happiness and earthly satisfaction. It is the politics of the one people in its arrangement that makes them greater than another set or another group of people. It is the peculiar politics of Great Britain that makes her much greater than other branches of her own race. It is the peculiar politics of America that makes her the greatest republic in the world. And so, materialistically or otherwise, you find all people seeking protection under this supreme establishment, under this supreme law of man's peaceful existence—of scientific politics. A F R I C A AND THE L A W

Tonight I want to place Africa within that law (Hear! Hear!) because it is as essential to protect the lives of Africans as it is to protect the lives of any other group in a similar arrangement. (Applause.) Anything that made it possible to produce the great British Empire, anything that made it possible to make the great American Empire—for America is no longer known as a Union of States, but is now being looked upon as an empire—anything that made it possible for the Chinese, the French, the Germans, the Englishman to create an empire should also make it possible for the creation of an African Empire. (Applause.) We want you to look upon it from the most reasonable viewpoint, the most righteous viewpoint—that man's rights are equal, irrespective of color. The black man has as much natural and spiritual rights to the world and in the world as anybody else under the plan of creation. We are inspired to the seeking of those rights with the same human organism, with the same human reason as given other creatures. Why this should be regarded with strangeness is impossible for the reasonable man to tell—that there is anything strange or anything new about this effort to place Africa among the nations. The world holds record of great events in history of the rise, growth, fall and decline of races, of peoples, of nations and empires. At every turn of human progress the one group or the other has always manifested itself in its political arrangements, in its political developments, in its political, racial, national growth. Even the people that you are relics of have played their part at some time of the world's history in the bringing about of this nationalistic perfection that is so much indulged in by the greater peoples of today. N o ARGUMENT AGAINST

Going down the line, every group has had its day. England had her day of nation building, empire building and scientific political protection. So that there is absolutely no argument, no reason to be found and to be adduced why even at this late hour your group (the most backward)—the most backward 125

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of any other group—cannot find it justifiable to indulge in the same escapade with the same intention of nationalistic development. There is no argument against your effort, because all history supports you in the idea that it is right. (Applause.) And you yourselves indulged in it to such an extent that at one period of the world's history you sat on the topmost rung of the political ladder. You were the leaders of thought and civilization as it were, just as the Anglo-Saxon people of England and the Americans are related by blood and are the leaders of the Anglo-Saxon race, the leaders of the empires of AngloSaxonism, the leaders of civilization, culture and advanced thought. The whole world looks to them as leaders—in war, in industry, in commerce, in education, in literature, and even now, in art. As the world looks to them today in the terms of progress and European civilization, so thousands of years ago the world looked to your fathers, and to mine, for leadership in the higher arts, in the higher works and in the higher culture of civilization. You were the torchbearers, the advanced guard of all that was worth while in the world. Evolutionarily you lost your place; and you reverted back to a state of inertia, inactivity, a state of laxity, a state of almost savagery and barbarism and cannibalism—out of which through the same laws of evolution you are gradually emerging, proving that life is one great cycle of events. No group has ever permanently held the world. There is something in the human makeup that does not make him individually an eternal figure. He develops so much and then he retrogrades; and as is the case of the individual so it has been with the groups and clans and tribes and nations. They have all reached a certain pinnacle, a certain height and then they go back. SHAKESPEARE'S V E R S I O N

Shakespeare applies it as being the "Seven Ages of Mankind.'" We are in the lowest. But as you observe it in daily life, the child grows up, receives an education, becomes highly cultured, reflects at middle age probably the best in him, and gradually marches on to a state of dotage; and at the end we find him incompetent, entirely worn out, decrepit and practically forgetting the past culture of his maturer age. As of the individual rising to a height and going back, so of groups or nations, and so of empires. That accounts for the many material changes and national changes that have come to the world. That accounts for the Greece of the past and the Rome of the past, of the Carthage and the Babylon of the past, of the Macedonia, Sidon, Ethiopia and Egypt of the past.2 As we speak of them now in the terms of past history, so shall fifty, a hundred, two hundred, five hundred, one thousand years from now, men will speak of present empires and nations in the terms of past history. EVOLUTION B E H I N D IT A L L

It is that evolutionary movement that goes on and on[,] carrying with it the rise and fall of individuals, groups, races, nations and empires. And indicatively or apparently, the one race which senses the decline of another is always preparing itself to fill the gap, to step in and take the place' of the one 126

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either beginning to decline or already declining. We of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are working to fill the gap. (Applause.) We are all ready to take this place among the races and empires. (Applause.) We are gradually laying the foundation of Africa's new imperialism that we hope shall last longer than Rome's, Greece's, France's, Germany's or any of the existing empires of today. We hope it shall last longer because of our better and superior knowledge of what it takes to make a nation, to make an empire and to hold it. (Applause.) UNDERSTANDS H U M A N N A T U R E M O S T

Rome, Greece and the earlier empires lost their position and place in the world because of their unpreparedness in universal knowledge to satisfy the desires and the urge[s] of men. Today we have reached a higher stage of understanding man's nature and satisfying man's nature. Among the people who understand human nature most because of his universal problems is the black man. He has to undergo most of the world's difficulties and hardships, which opposed him in all the different scenes. His suffering appears to me to fit him for human sympathy, and is more precious than many of the past experiences of any other group now in existence. With such an experience, with such a knowledge, such a man who returns to power—being heir to all the experiences in the past—is bound to make a better ruler, a better governor than the fellow who has seen the soft and only the one side of life. B L I N D TO PEACE

The races of the world now in power do not see that peace and prosperity can best be guaranteed and best aided by a universal scheme of human love, human fellowship, human brotherhood. They cannot see that, but they can see because of their present mentality and advantage that they are superior to others. That is an attitude that has been the real cause of the destruction of races and nations and empires without number. That destroyed Greece—the same pomposity that exists in Europe today, the same conceit and pomposity that exists in America today. The Greek nobles thought themselves better than the common Greek people, than the slaves they brought to Greece, than the world they conquered; and in the maintenance of that idea they destroyed themselves by failing to merit the support, the companionship and respect of the people below—who were below because of the injustice of society, because of the unfairness, because of the inhumanity and because of the selfishness of the class above. B E G I N N I N G OF THE E N D

That was the beginning of Greece's decline; that was the beginning of the loss of power in the state. It was not long before the entire state was no longer pulling together for the common purpose. The common people by continuity of oppression, by perpetuity of poverty, want and slavery were forced to 127

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organize among [above] themselves for their protection. The result was that the state, instead of having one patriotic organization for its preservation, had two organizations in opposition to each other. That was the organization that weakened the state of Greece, that made her so unable to withstand the tide of enemy intrusion and attack; and because the citizenry was not united in defence, ultimately the Greek fabric of empire crumbled. And as of Greece so of Rome. Rome started out to succeed her in a new kind of imperialism—at first it was democratic, then after certain men started to become wealthy they developed a class consciousness similar to the class consciousness that destroyed the Greeks. They developed an aristocracy, they developed a patrician society that elevated itself among [aabove] the common people. The nobility in time divided themselves from the common herd of organized citizens and organized slaves and organized captives. The result was that the patrician nobles of Rome took advantage of the common people as the nobles of Greece did. And the common people organized in the same way the Greeks did; and through the same organization Rome followed Greece into oblivion. We who have studied history from the time of Egypt to Assyria and Bab[yl]on, from the time of Macedonia to Persia, from the time of Greece to Rome and to the kingdom of the Franks3 up to the other organized empires of today can see no change in the attitude of man toward his brother. The same top-heavy superstructure that caused the decline, the fall of Greece and Rome and Babylon and Assyria, Egypt and Macedonia, Persia and Ethiopia[,] is in existence today. (Applause.) IF W E A R E TO B E N E F I T

And if we are to benefit by the experiences of the past, in reason and logic we must conclude that the same future facing the empires of today has faced the empires of the past. (Applause.) Therefore, those who are unfortunates suffering under the dominion, the thraldom, the oppression and the slavery, the ambition of the class that has always sought to abuse the rights of humanity, are wise in doing what the Romans did, in doing what the Greeks did. Evidently the time must come for us to get there. We are getting there gradually. Even some of our own may not understand me; but this getting together of hundreds and thousands of people as we are doing here in the meetings of the Universal Negro Improvment Association—which is done all over the world—manifests, demonstrates, testifies to the fact that there is an urge among the people—particularly that change which will place them in control of empires. (Applause.) AFRICA'S R I S E TO POWER T H R O U G H THE U . N . I . A .

Some may look at the idea of Africa taking her place in the world of empires and nations as far-fetched in that it is almost impossible with the organism of politics and government that surrounds us. But, men, look at that world from the religious aspect, look at the world from the boldness of historical knowledge, look at the world from human evidence and 128

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you will realize that the Universal Negro Improvement Association is doing nothing more and nothing less than what has been done to bring about changes for humanity's good and humanity's reform. The great and tremendous movements that have organized the world, most of them started with lesser significance than did the Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Applause.) M O H A M M E D AND M O H A M M E D A N I S M

Mohammed, the Arabian, who has impressed his teaching and his philosophy upon the world to the extent to include nearly 600,000,000 followers and sympathizers—how did he start? He started under greater difficulties than the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association; he started under greater handicaps than the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He was an illiterate man; he was a camel tender— what you would call a cowman (laughter), a herdsman. But out in the wilderness, out in the pastures, out in the wilds of Arabia, the same urge came to him—that spirit urge that I have often spoken of, not so much to be found in the high and lofty and great, but to be found in the man who suffers and who knows. The same urge came to him as it comes to the man who knows by his suffering, as my urge came to me out of my suffering as I hungered in common with other Negroes—not out of my living in society or out of any peculiar sentiment that I had for my comrades, countrymen and compatriots. It was an urge that came out of the common experiences of suffering that was able to sympathize with all similar suffering, an urge to alleviate that suffering, to find a way out, as I have found it in the creation of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Applause.) D E T E R M I N E D TO PUT THE PROGRAM O V E R

It can be done. It must be done. And if all the 400,000,000 Negroes of the world must die, it shall be done before we die (applause); and if we must die to rear an African imperialism, there shall be no other imperialism, because all will be gone in the same way we have gone. That proves our determination. We are going to travel with the rise of humanity. We are not going to sidetrack or backstep. We are going to run on the same mainline. (A voice: "We are on the mainline.") We are on the mainline to imperialism and our imperialism will not be one of unrighteousness. We do not want to carry our imperialism to the point where it is going to affect the rights of other people. Every man to his own vine and figtree. We are going to respect the white man so long as he respects us. And 400,000,000 Negroes, as the stars shine, as the moon sheds its light, as the sun gives its light, are going to impress black imperialism on the world or report to God Almighty the reason why. (Loud applause.) The black man must be reassembled into his native clan. As the Scotch are in their mood of being together in a clan, as the Irish are moved in the urge of being together as Irishmen, as the Chinese are moved in the urge of being together as Chinamen, Marcus Garvey is moved 129

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with the desire of being together with every black man into his native clan. So the Universal Negro Improvement Association is urging black men to the sensibility of being Africans at home and Africans abroad. (Applause.) And the various units of the great black family shall so work industrially, educationally, physically, financially, politically, religiously, diplomatically, and in their own way to bring about this imperialism of Africa as a remedy. (Applause.) That is the mood of the world—of the black world. T H E C R I T I C AND OPPOSITIONIST

Some black men may criticize, but it is because they are ignorant of the facts surrounding us. They may tell you that they are not members of the organization. I won't say anything about black men who are against Marcus Garvey. The black men who are opposing Marcus Garvey may yet surprise the other fellow, because when that great day comes I am sure of this, that 400,000,000 Negroes will stand together in the world as one man. And it is not Marcus Garvey who is going to bring about that—but the common oppression that the black man suffers everywhere that is going to drive him into the field of African redemption. (Applause.) O R G A N I Z E D BECAUSE OF S U F F E R I N G

You are here because you suffer, and because I am talking to you about the things you suffer is why you are here. So that it is not I who am doing the organizing of the Negroes. It is the folks who are keeping down Negroes who are organizing the Negroes in the Universal Negro Improvement Association. So my organizers organizing the Negroes are those folks who keep Negroes down. FAIR PLAY AND N O COMPROMISE

If they want to weaken Garvey, they had better get off the head of Garvey. By giving Negroes better jobs and pay, and running it with a contract—by giving Negroes everywhere a square deal, is the only way they can weaken Marcus Garvey. I have given the secret to the whole world. (Laughter.) ATTITUDE OF W O R L D UNCHANGEABLE

The world is the same all the time. It was so in Rome and Greece. It is human nature. You cannot regulate it except with power. There is no other force in the world that regulates righteousness and liberty and freedom and equality as power. Now, it may seem funny to say that the supreme force of life is power—power in the hand of the empire or power in the hand of the nation. Negroes[,] in getting everything in life[,] get power. Power is slow in coming to you because you have started late to get power. Get it, anyhow, because it is your only safeguard in the world.

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Some people say: " H o w can you be talking about a N e g r o nation?" "In Africa there are big governments—how are you going to oppose or fight them?"—expecting that I am going to tell how I am going to organize to do that. That is Africa's secret. (Loud applause.) We may not have to fight with armies and battleships, but we must fight them always with brain—that is the weapon of the future: brains, developed brains, scientific brains. N o man knows what is encased in the other man's brain. And let me tell you the world does not know what is locked up in Africa's brain. They may be looking for us with battleships and big armies and deadly guns; but w h o is to tell that our scientists are not on the way with something more ready, more quick, more satisfying than battleships or armies. (Loud applause.) N A T U R E ' S M Y S T E R I E S STILL U N V E I L E D

The mysteries of the world are still hidden from our highly developed, apparent civilization. Today civilization does not know one-millionth o f the mystery that is held by the universe. With all that you see in our civilization we are only at the point o f child's play with nature's laws and nature's mysteries. And still man is in the reign o f his power as a creator taking his universal place in the universe of the All-Creator, God. As G o d out o f chaos created the universe, so He has given power to man to create out of the universe, out o f nature, things that may appeal to him most. And out o f the elements they have made armaments and battleships; but still out of this mystery of nature's, we may make things greater than armaments and battleships. And we are not going to tell it to the world until we are ready. M A T T H E W S A N D THE " D E A T H - R A Y " (?)

You know, it is amusing to see how civilization is deceiving itself. The other day a fellow (his name was Matthews, I think) had sprung upon the world the idea of the Death-Ray. 4 He was working at this discovery for a number of years to give to the whites a greater advantage over civilization in the scientific development o f the Death-Ray—something that would put all life to sleep within a certain time. He thought he had accomplished the feat in perfecting this scientific device, and all the world thought (as he gave out) that he was ready. The English, the French, the Germans rushed after him to get it—but the thing wasn't worth anything. (Laughter.) T H E B L A C K M A N IS W I D E A W A K E

But whilst Matthews was working at the Death-Ray there was a black man down in Canada working at the theory o f controlling universal motion for the Negro. (Applause.) And he sent his experiment to where it should g o — b u t he wasn't ready. H e thought he had hit upon the secret of controlling

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motion whereby he could put up an engine at any point, and by the action of the man who controls the power of the engine the motion of all the world would come to a standstill—an engine that would stop all hostile motion in Africa. (Applause.) That is only to show you that the black man is not asleep. H e was getting ready to arrive at the point where he only had to control a lever to stop every train or any ship. I am only saying that for you to know that all Africa is not as lazy as you are. A RADICAL CHANGE NECESSARY

Instead of going to the rumshops and getting drunk, g o into libraries and reading rooms to get something in science or in literature. We want millions of scientists all over the world—millions of black scientists for Africa's redemption. Printed in NW, 17 March 1928. Original headlines omitted. 1. A reference to Shakespeare's As Tou Like It: "All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players: / They have their exits and their entrances; / And one man in his time plays many parts / His acts being seven ages." The seven ages of mankind are represented by the infant, the schoolboy, the lover, the soldier, the justice, the elderly man, and, finally, by "second childishness and mere oblivion" (act 2, sc. 7). 2. Egypt developed one of the great civilizations of the ancient world by 3000 B.C. and began imperial expansion around 2000 B.C., conquering Ethiopia, which included what is now southern Egypt, the Sudan, and the present Ethiopian state. Ethiopia became independent of Egypt after 1788 B.C. and from the tenth century B.C. was ruled by a dynasty descended from Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Carthage was an imperial power from ca. 735 B.C. until the first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) when it was defeated by Rome. Sidon was an important Phoenician city ruled successively by the Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians in the seventh century B.C., flourishing again under Herod the Great (34-4 B.C.) and under Turkish rule in the sixteenth century A.D. The Neo-Babylonian empire peaked during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar the Great (605-561 B.C.). The Athenian empire developed around 478 B.C. but was soon broken up by the Peloponnesian wars (460-404 B.C.). The Roman Empire began under the rule of Augustus in 27 B.C. and reached its peak in A.D. 117 and declined through the sixth century A.D. (EWH; WNGD). 3. The Germanic Kingdom of the Franks existed ca. A.D. 481-^52 (EWH). 4. Scientist Harry Grindell Matthews developed a so-called "death ray" in his London laboratory after World War I. Matthews discounted the use of the term "death ray" as "a misnomer and a piece of 'journalistic license'." He described his invention as a wireless electric beam, which he claimed could potentially be used to set cities on fire or to stun armies if connected to a projector of sufficient power. The actual laboratory beam used one-half a kilowatt of electricity and was six inches wide. Matthews said he had used it to kill mice, and in experiments conducted for the British army, had shorted a motorcycle engine and lighted a lamp from a distance of several yards. The British army was interested in Matthews' work as a possible means to perfecting a landbased weapon that could be used to stop airplane engines while in flight. Matthews had previously developed a selenium light ray for the British government that was used to direct motor boats (New Tori World, 13 July and 2 0 July 1924).

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Negro World Notice [New York, 11 February 1928] R E G A R D I N G THE M I A M I , FLA., D I V I S I O N

TO WHOM IT MAY C O N C E R N : —

This is to inform you that C. M. Brown,1 ex-president of the Miami, Fla., division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association; T. N. Speed,2 E. J. Scott,3 O. B. Thompson,4 Fred Myers,5 Fox Thompson6 and Evangelist Johnson,7 because of their activities in the courts of Florida against the Parent Body, Universal Negro Improvement Association, and because of their causing the arrest of the Parent Body representative, J. A. Craigen,8 are hereby expelled from the Universal Negro Improvement Association for 99 years, in accordance with the provisions of the General Laws and Constitution of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. All Divisions and Chapters (particularly the Miami, Fla., Division) are required to govern themselves accordingly. J. A . C R A I G E N

Special Representative Parent Body Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW,

11 February and 18 February 1928.

1. C. M. Brown and Professor J. A. Myers gave the introductory addresses when J. A. Craigen visited the Miami UNIA division in March 1927 (NW, 12 March 1927). Brown was cited as president-elect of the Miami UNIA division in 1923 and as president in the summer of 1925 (NW, 29 September 1923, 20 June 1925). He was billed as the ex-president of the division when he spoke at a meeting with Maxwell Cook in the summer of 1926 (NW, 7 August 1926). 2. T. U. Speid (sometimes called T. W. or T. N. Speed) was chaplain of the Miami UNIA Division when Laura Kofey spoke at meetings in southern Florida in the summer of 1927 (NW, 19 February, 19 March, 7 May, 23 July, 30 July, and 17 September 1927). 3. G. E. J. Scott served as reporter on Miami UNLA division affairs for the Negro World during the period that Laura Kofey rose to prominence in the area (NW, 23 July 1927). 4. O'Bright Thompson later appeared as a witness before the grand jury that indicted Claude Green and James B. Nimmo for the murder of Laura Kofey (grand jury order of indictment for murder in [the] first degree, State of Florida v. Claude Green and James B. Nemo [Nimmo,] 24 March 1928, Circuit Court of Dade County, Florida). 5. Mr. Myers's name does not appear in period accounts of events surrounding the presence of Laura Kofey in Florida. 6. Fox Thompson was a Miami resident who supported the pro-Kofey UNIA wing in 1928 (Miami Times, 21 February 1985). There were several people with the last name of Thompson active in the Garvey movement in Florida. S. M. Thompson was elected first vice-president of the Tampa UNIA Division in the fall of 1927 and Liza Thompson appeared with Fox and O'Bright Thompson as a grand jury witness in 1928 (State of Florida v. Claude Green and James B, Nemo; NW, 22 October 1927). 7. Evangelist H. Johnson was the assistant chaplain during Kofey's organizational tour of the UNIA divisions in Florida in 1927 (NW, 19 February, 19 March, 23 July, 30 July, and 17 September 1927).

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8. A reference to a property dispute raging between pro-Garvey and pro-Kofey forces in Miami over which faction had the right to use the Miami Liberty Hall at Nineteenth Street and Fourth Court. The individuals named apparently supported Kofey's claim in the civil suit, which was handled by the Miami law firm of Collins and Collins. By December 1927 confrontations between the two factions over the use of the hall had grown so heated that local police were called in by both sides to provide protection. The hall was padlocked against use by either group, thus moving the dispute from the hall itself into the courts. J. A. Craigen, who had been sent to Miami to represent UNLA parent body interests, may possibly have been among those taken into custody during this incident. A lawyer and labor adjudicator by profession, Craigen was frequently sent from Detroit to Florida in 1927-1928 as the UNLA parent body's special representative to arbitrate disputes and help in membership drives (NTi7, 12 March, 19 March, and 22 October 1927; NTAN, 5 June 1937). He traveled there under the direction of E. B. Knox, but also sought permission from Garvey. In September 1927 he telegrammed Garvey that he had received a request for help from a UNLA officer in Florida and had been "authorized by Knox to go" but was holding plans "in abeyance until orders from you" (Craigen to Garvey, 13 September 1927, AFRC, AP; see also Knox to Garvey, 3 September and 12 September 1927, Lillian J. Willis to Garvey, 13 September 1927, Garvey to Knox, 14 September 1927, and Garvey to Craigen, 14 September 1927, AFRC, AP). Lieut. Obediah Barr, a member of the Miami UNIA African Legion and a close acquaintance of Amy Jacques Garvey, later recalled that Craigen's life had been saved by Col. J. B. Nimmo and legion members during "that dreadful December night in 1927 in Liberty Hall here" (Barr to the Editor, NW, 25 April 1931; see also interview of Cecil Solomon by Robert A. Hill, 15 January 1986, Opa Laca, Fla.). Following the official closure of Liberty Hall the Kofey faction rented a storefront property from ex-Garveyite and Kofey convert Fox Thompson. The first floor of his building at N. W. Fifteenth Street and Fifth Avenue in the Overtown district of Miami was converted into a meeting place, and their assemblies were resumed (Miami Daily News, 10 March 1928; Miami Times, 21 February 1985; see also Craigen to Garvey, 13 September 1927, AFRC, AP).

John Burdon,1 Governor, British Honduras, to L.C.M.S. Amery,2 Secretary of State for the Colonies Government House, Belize 3rd March 1928 Sir, [1.] With reference to your despatch, Confidential (3) of February 1st, I have the honour to report that, on receipt of information that Marcus Garvey was proposing to visit /this/ Colony, I took steps, with the concurrence of the Executive Council, to prohibit his landing.3 2. A deputation of the Universal Negro Improvement Association requested and was granted an interview with me. The discussion maintained a very friendly tone and the decision was accepted without ill feeling or resentment. There has been no hostile comment on the decision in the Press nor any evidence of dissatisfaction on the part of any section of the Public. 3. The local branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association is at present split by dissension and recriminations as to embezzlement of funds. There [is] fair ground for hope that it will break up before long. 4. A n interesting event occurred ten days ago. A Mass Meeting of the Branch was summoned to consider an important announcement by Marcus 134

MARCH 1928

Garvey—twenty seven persons attended. The important announcement was a call for contributions. The meeting was a complete fiasco. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient, humble servant. J. A . B U R D O N

Governor P R O , C O 318/391/, file J6634/1928/6428. T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Sir John Alder Burdon (1866-1933) was governor of British Honduras from 1925 to 1931. He was a military officer in the Niger-Sudan campaign of the 1890s and occupied a series of British administrative offices in Northern Nigeria (1900-1910) before being transferred to the Caribbean. 2. Leopold S. Amery (1873-1955) was British colonial secretary in 1928. The son of a British official, Amery was born in India and educated at Oxford. He was a member of the editorial staff of the London Times at the turn of the century, where he specialized in reportage on South Africa. He became a member of the House of Commons in 1911 and held this parliamentary office until 1945. He joined the Colonial Office as under secretary at the close of World War I and became secretary of state for the colonies in 1924., when the Conservative party government was returned to power. He became secretary of state for India and Burma in 1940, where his pro-empire beliefs and staunch support of the Indian role as allies in the war effort brought him into conflict with the leaders of Mohandas K. Gandhi's pacifistic and nationalistic Congress party, many of whom were imprisoned. Despite Winston Churchill's reluctance to alter fundamentally the British role in India, Amery became a supporter of the Indianization of the Viceroy's executive council by 1943, and in 1945 he advocated the speedy withdrawal of British control and the furtherance of selfgovernment through an effective settlement between the antagonistic Muslim League and Congress party. Amery authored several works, including .4 Vision of Empire (1935) and The German Colonial Claim (1939) (Times [London], 26 May, 20 September, and 28 September 1955). 3. When proceedings of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council regarding the Isaiah Morter case began in London, 19 January 1928, the renewed publicity heightened official concern over the activities of the local division in Belize. The colonial view of the case hinged upon the issue of whether the UNLA should be regarded as a constructive benevolent reform association or as a propaganda organization advocating radical change through force. Most officials regarded the evidence issuing from the trial as "disquieting" and recommended that Garvey's activities in the area be limited (memorandum by Lord Sanden, 10 June 1928, PRO, CO 318/391, file 56634; DG, 14 February 1928). According to British Colonial Office memorandums, the administrators of the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras, Grenada, the Leeward Islands, and Trinidad were polled on their planned responses to Garvey's proposed tour of the region. Trinidad favored an outright ban. Officials in British Guiana reported that they had been planning to admit Garvey on the grounds that it would be "best not to increase his importance by taking any open measures against him," but that they wished to be informed of the policies made by other colonies in the matter and would conform to them (memorandums, 20 December 1927, 11 January and 16 January 1928). John Burdon "took steps with the concurrence of the Executive Council to prevent this [Garvey's] landing," even though, as one colonial-office official noted, "last time they decided to let him in" (memorandums, 3 March and 30 March 1928). The governor of the Leeward Islands reported that "should Marcus Garvey visit . . . his movements will be interfered with as little as possible]" (memorandum, 3 March 1928). When Garvey gave up his Caribbean tour plans and began planning to travel to England (leaving for Liverpool on 13 April 1928) the colonial office minutes shifted from the topic of exclusion to that of prevention of Garvey's holding office in Jamaica. The debate on this issue, like that on the exclusion issue, seesawed between an expressed desire to hamper Garvey's activities and the recognition that, as one official put it, "the balance of advantage is against making Garvey a martyr" (memorandum, 13 March 1928). In November 1928 Garvey met with officials about his exclusion from British Honduras, "which colony he was anxious to visit in order to settle the affairs of the Morter estate," but had been told he was excluded "in conformity with the local law." A second Honduran official noted that "we showed him the local law" and "he was not at all troublesome" (memorandums, 13 October and 20 November 1928, PRO, CO 318/391 file 56634).

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Roy T. Davis,1 U.S. Minister to Costa Bica, to Frank Billings Kellogg San José,2 Costa Rica March 5, 1928 Sir: Referring to this [U.S.] Legation's despatch No. 81 of May 2, 1921, in which the [State] Department was informed that the negro leader Marcus Garvey had left Costa Rica after a brief visit here, during which he received personal contributions amounting to approximately $30,000 and was continuing to receive monthly voluntary subscriptions of approximately $2,000 from the negro employees of the United Fruit Company, I have the honor to report that Garvey recendy has been denied admission to Costa Rica. Garvey knows Costa Rica well, as he came from Jamaica to this country and served as a day laborer on the pier at Port Limón for some time before starting on his meteoric career.3 After Garvey had organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Costa Rica[,] it prospered for a time, once numbering over two thousand members, mainly in and around Port Limón. However, after several years of prosperity there arose rumors and charges of graft and fraud and misuse of power and funds by the officers of the association, resulting last year in a complete change of officers of the association and a reduction of its membership in this country to less than two hundred persons. Sam Nation (Mr. S. C. Nation), a blond Jamaican negro, now is President of the association in Costa Rica. On March 1,1928 Nation called at this Legation to see what might be done to facilitate the entrance of Marcus Garvey into Costa Rica for the purpose of reviving interest in the U. N. I. A.—or in other words, for the purpose of collecting further funds. Nation stated that the Costa Rican Government has refused permission for the visit of Garvey on the grounds that he has been convicted of a criminal offense in the United States. He said that he had called upon President [Ricardo] Jiménez [Oreamuno]4 and had learned that the Costa Rican Government is basing its action upon reports received from the Costa Rican Consul in New York, and he wondered therefore if this Legation could be induced to use its influence to have the Costa Rican Government change its views and permit the entrance of Garvey if only for a period of two or three weeks. Secretary [Richard] de Lambert,5 in the absence of the undersigned, received Nation and declined to accede to his request, at the same time informing him that this Legation had nothing to do with the matter. The action of Secretary de Lambert was approved by the chief of the mission. It appears that President Jiménez is standing firm on his resolve to exclude Garvey from Costa Rican territory. 136

MARCH 1928 Incidentally[,] Nation stated that Garvey intends soon to g o to England in order to try to arrange for a "concession " over which he may rule as " K i n g o f A f r i c a " . I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, ROY T . DAVIS D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/+6. T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Roy T. Davis (1889-1975) was U.S. minister to Costa Rica from 1922 to 1929. He served as minister to Guatemala (1921-1922) before his stint in Costa Rica. He later became minister to Panama (1929-1933). A diplomatic mediator during the Panama revolution of 1931, Davis left the Department of State for a career in international educational administration in 1933. He was U.S. Ambassador to Haiti under the Eisenhower administration (1953-1957) (John E. Findling, Dictionary of American Diplomatic History [Wcstport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980], p. 135). 2. San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. In 1927 it had a population of fifty thousand. Situated in the mountainous interior of the country, it was the center for coffee production and commerce (Carolyn Hall, Costa Rica: A Geographical Interpretation in Historical Perspective [Boulder, Col.: Westvicw, 1985]; WNGD). 3. Between 1910 and 1912 Garvey spent some time in Costa Rica, first working as a timekeeper for the United Fruit Co. on a banana plantation, then attempting to establish newspapers in Port Limón and later in Bocas del Toro and Colón, Panama (E. David Cronon, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association [Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, 1955], pp. 14-15; G&G, 6-7). 4. Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno (1859-1945) served as the president of Costa Rica for three terms (1910-1914, 1924-1928, 1932-1936) (Luis Barahona Jimenz, El Pensamiento Politico en Costa Rica [San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Fernandez-Arce, 1978]; WBD). 5. Richard M. de Lambert served as third secretary at the San José legation in 1926-1918 (Register of the Department of State [Washington, D. C.: GPO, 1929], p. 130).

Report on Marcus Garvey by W. A. Orrett, Inspector, Trelawny Parish,1 Jamaica Constabulary Office, Falmouth, 2 [Jamaica,] 14th March, 1928 Inspector General, I beg to report that Marcus Garvey held a Meeting at the Wembley T h e atre at Falmouth at 3 p . m . on Sunday, n t h . instant. There were approximately /2/00 people present. T h e prices o f admission were 1 /- and i/6d. T h e proceedings were opened by the singing o f the H y m n " O n w a r d Christian Soldiers." There was a recitation and a couple Sunday School songs by t w o little girls. Garvey then addressed the Meeting and people.- H e said there were three chief races in the world today—the White man, Yellow man and Black man.

The

Yellow man represents the Chinese and Japanese. H e explained to the audience h o w 3 0 0 0 years ago the black man was highly cultured and at the head o f the world, whilst the Whi/t/e man was a barbarian and cave-dweller; and h o w in the cycle o f events today the white man is at the top and the black man at the bottom. T h e white man and the yellow man had things to s h o w for w h a t they have done in the world and he mentioned large Cities as L o n d o n , N e w York, Paris, Tokio [ T o k y o ] and Berlin.

137

H e went on to say that the black

T H E M A R C U S G A R V E Y A N D U N I A PAPERS

people of Jamaica to-day were living wors[e] than dogs in other Countries, in that they were huddled in mud huts and slept and lived on the ground, whilst dogs have clean houses to live in. He said the people did not understand what rights they had under the Government, for it would appear that the people did not understand what Government meant. He went on to explain that the people were the Government, i.e.[,] it is up to them to see that they had the right kind of Government. It was for the people to make [the] Laws of the Country under which they have to live. They were not to be afraid of the Government as the Government was the people. He then explained that he did not wish to be misunderstood—that he was not out for revolution[;] he was for Law and order. He said that if he were [Stanley] Baldwin he would try and lift his people higher still and if he were a Yellow man to-day he would be leading the banner of revolution in China to the benefit of his race.3 He went on to say that black people must help themselves. They were too lazy. He said that /it was said/ he was against the white man, but he is not against the white man or the yellow man. He loved them all, but naturally he loved his own people—the black race—the best. He then went on to explain that if they want to join it would cost them 4./- entrance and i/6d. per month, and at the end of 6 months he would be a full member and entitled to benefits under the U.N.I.A. i.e.[,] if they were sick he would send Black Cross Nurses to help them, if they die their family would get £15 to bury them. He intended to go to England in November and when he came back early next year he will be having an Education /El[o]cution/ Contest in Kingston in which he would give 3 prizes, the winners of these /the/ organization would be sen/d/ abroad to study Medicine, Law and Engineering. This will be an Annual thing so that at the end of about 12 years the U.N.I.A. will have its own Lawyers, Barristers, Doctors, etc. to help the people. He closed the proceedings by singing the National Anthem and asked some one of the audience to bring the Meeting to a close by prayer. W. A.

ORRETT

J A , file 15 (v). T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Trclawny is a parish in Cornwall county, northwest Jamaica. Well known for its inhospitable karst landscape comprised of innumerable steep scrub-covered hills, it served as a stronghold area for slave Maroons who took refuge there from plantations in the coastal lowlands, thus establishing a reputation of relative autonomy from British influence for the region (Barry Floyd, Jamaica: An Island Microcosm [New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979], pp. 9, 4i)2. Falmouth, a small town in Trelawny Parish, is situated on Jamaica's northern coastline, between St. Ann's Bay (Garve/s hometown) and the tourist center of Montego Bay (Floyd, Jamaica: An Island Microcosm, p. 3). }. Chinese nationalists began a boycott of British goods, accompanied by student demonstrations, in 1925. Chiang K'ai-shek began his northern campaign in July of the following year. The economic boycott ended when the British agreed to concessions in late 1926-early 1927. In April 1927 Chiang set up a new conservative government at Nanking, purged Communists and Russians from Hankow, then retired briefly from public life. During the same period landless peasants began to seize land in Fukien and Kiangsi under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh, thus coming into conflict with the Nanldng government. Chiang reemerged to lead a second northern campaign in April 1928; after confrontation with Japanese troops, Peking was occupied by his forces in June (EWH).

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Report on Marcus Garvey by Inspector W. A. Orrett Constabulary Office, Falmouth, [Jamaica,] 14th March, 1928 Inspector General, I beg to report that Marcus Garvey held another Meeting at the [Wembley] Theatre on Monday night, 12th. inst. There were approximately 50 people present. Prices of admission were the same as the previous night. He started as follows:— I have heard black people say that they can't pay it- or 1/6 to hear Marcus Garvey. I/f/ i/t/ were a white man they would pay any amount to hear him. If I had allowed them to come in free they would all be satisfied. I know you, I was grown amongst you. The Negro is not paid for his value. He must work and know himself to reach his own ideals in the world. Negroes never get pay for the work they do. He never gets what he wanted. As you people never give away anything that is necessary. I am able to talk it out to the black man boldly becausc I have found myself and have made my mark in the world. The black man works and pays the white man's bills. If the black man pays the white man's bills he can never have dinner for himself. We cannot get the dinner we want. White man only gives the husk to the black man and he keeps the cream. The white man would be a fool to give you better jobs than themselves, because he creates them for himself. A white man would never invite you to his home and give you his best room to sleep. The white man naturally creates the good jobs. The black man will never get good jobs until he creates them for himself. Should the Lord call up the white, yellow and black man and ask for a test of talents, the white man would bring his Battleships, his Electricity Aeroplanes and many other things, the Yellow man would bring Battle Cruisers and a brillant Tokio, but the black man would simply come with his cutlass and matchette and big stick. The negroes are too impotent. In the 20th. century we had [have] an over populated India, China, Germany. Germany on a whole is becoming over-populated and when man should have tumbled for space in the world we would fall like the apples. There is going to be a fall and we must fall—the weaker race must fall. You will be pushed off because you are unguarded. Guard yourself like men. We +00 millions negroes must unite ourselves and prepare to help ourselves for the survival of the fittest. The race must progress.

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I have no fear for the future. Another 50 years there must be an improved Negro race. The U.N.I.A. is a religious one. In America men rise and so in other places. In Jamaica there is a peculiar selfishness. The other fellows regard it [as] a right to keep us down. If a black man puts on a good suit and go to a white man for a job, he is looked upon as a gentleman and the negroes mock him as to what he is forming. We must go in rags. The negroes only mock at anything decent—Oh we are a worthless race. The black man can only help himself with a matchette and big stick. France, England and Japan are equal in battleships. If a fight occurs the man with the ammunition and impljejments of war must win— they must conqu[e]r. Where would the black man be in our own [word illegible]. Two bodies cannot occupy the same surface at the same time. Whatever the white man puts on there is no mockery. If he puts on a Gold pants the negroes say he is all in order. The black race is looked down [upon]. Any race with a peculiar disposition must get down. If a black man is to succeed he has to leave his town and environments. Black man goes to the obeah man to keep down his fellowman. Set duppy1 to give him big foot.2 While the white man is considering and inventing something good, we are working obeah. We want to be improved in Industrial, Economical conditions of Jamaica. The rich man can help the poor man to be better. The white man has the land on both sides of the road lying in waste and the black man has nothing. If he ask about these lands he would be considered riotios [riotous] and arrested because he is encouraging the people to rebel, when it is only to better himself. The Inspector of Police would do all this. The most disloyal man to the community is the man who robs another man of his rights. The most disloyal men are the men with waste lands and refuse to sell them to the people. The Government will one day use means to prevent these men [from] robbing the people of their rights. If Society will not give this the Constitutional rights must be inforced. Jamaica wants to be brought over by intelligence. I am related to you all in skin. Our U.N.I.A. is based upon Constitutional Law. I shall stand in London, Dublin and any part of the world and speak for the rights of the Negro Race. I shall never be a coward when it comes to my work in the light of internationalism. On next Election I shall be a candidate for the Legislative Council to bring Laws that will bring improvements to the poor people. I will put in 13 other members. We shall see to it that a minimum wage cannot be less than £1 a day, when everyone will be able to live a decent and respectable life. Land two sides of the Street belonging to Mr. So and So and won't sell—we will find out if he won't sell. If won't sell will pay taxes. If Mr. Santfishen and Mr. Hugh Clark

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1928

w o n [ ' ] t sell, well they must pay taxes.

I shall do as David L l o y d

George did for England. 3 I shall fight for Constitutional Rights. I shall stick to the improvement o f the poorer class. T h e Meeting ended with the singing o f the National Anthem

and

amongst the people w h o joined, the Officers were appointed as f o l l o w s : — Officers o f the U . N . I . A . : — 1st. V i c e President, R . J. McFarlane 2nd [ V i c e President] T h o m a s Johnson Secretary:—Rufiis Willis Treasurer:—J. H . Beckford L a d y President:—Mrs. McFarlane. /about 4 0 members were enrolled/

W. A. ORRJETT J A , file IJ(V). T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Duppy refers to a dead spirit, believed to be able to aid or harm the living according to directions given by a practitioner of obeah, who "can 'set' or 'put' a duppy upon a victim and 'take off' their influence." The restless spirit was personified as Brother Duppy in Anancy stories (F. G. Cassidy and R. B. Le Page, eds., Dictionary of Jamaican English [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967], p. 164). 2. Big-foot is a Jamaican term for a type of clephantitis (Cassidy and Le Page, Dictionary of Jamaican English, p. 41). 3. As chancellor of the exchequer in the H. H. Asquith ministry, David Lloyd George introduced the so-called "People's Budget" in April 1909. The budget was linked with long-term policies of urban renewal, reforestation, and the development of public transportation. Money to meet these public needs was to come from direct taxation on estates and income. A furor was created by the land duties, which were taxes placed on resource rights and land development, and "on the unearned increment of land whose value had been enhanced by the effort of the community in general. . . . a direct attack on the profits made by the landowning classes from the growth of cities and suburbs" (Kenneth O. Morgan, Lloyd George [London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974], pp. 67-68). The House of Lords rejected the budget in November 1909, thereby setting the political stage for the constitutional crisis of 1910-1911. The Liberals won both general elections held in 1910 and Lloyd George's Parliament Act became law in August 1911, bringing an end to the crisis (Morgan, Lloyd George, pp. 67^73; John Grigg, Lloyd George: The People's Champion, 19021911 [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978]).

Article in the Daily

Gleaner [[Miami, Fla., M a r c h 15, 1928]]

M A N AND WOMAN KILLED IN U . N . I . A . FACTION FIGHT 1 Shades o f head [dead?]

o f the U . N . I . A . cast tragic shadows here when

followers o f the Black Star Line repatriation plans met in Liberty Hall last Thursday night and a factional fight ensued. W h e n the smoke o f the terrific 141

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS battle cleared a w a y t w o w e r e d e a d and f o u r w o u n d e d . T h e d e a d are Princess L a u r a K o f e y , 53, o f C o c o a n u t G r o v e , and her alleged assailant, M a x w e l l C o o k . T h e Princess w a s killed b y t w o shots in the head, fired f r o m the d o o r o f the w o r s h i p place, as she w a s preaching.

In the riot that f o l l o w e d C o o k

was

mangled. H e w a s beaten w i t h fists, chains and rocks and left dead o n the field o f combat. TROUBLE THREATENED Several m o n t h s a g o , p r o b l e m s o f the g r o u p , w h i c h had been d i v i d e d into t w o camps f o r s o m e time, threatened trouble w i t h the i m p o r t a t i o n o f a speaker f r o m Jacksonville. A t that time, the m i n o r i t y g r o u p refused admission o f the others t o the hall, and each side asked police protection. N o outbreak resulted and the speaker w a s induced t o leave t o w n after m a k i n g o n e address. T h u r s d a y night the fight flamed a n e w . F o r m o r e than t w o h o u r s after active hostilities c e a s e d [ , ] the r e g i o n s w a r m e d w i t h excited g r o u p s . F o u r w e r e arrested and held as witnesses. Printed in DG, 3 April 1928. Original headlines abridged. 1. Laura Kofey was assassinated on 8 March 1928 while she conducted a meeting at the converted storefront on Fifteenth Street and Fifth Avenue. After Kofey moved to the new location, opposition Garveyites continued to attend meetings to heckle her. On the night of her death a gun was fired from the rear of the hall while Kofey stood at the pulpit. She was killed instantly. Charles L. Harrison, an African Legion member and eyewitness to the events of that night, recalled that Kofey had won "two sets of enemies" through the success of her new movement—the local churches and the UNLA. "So," Harrison claimed, "it was the old organization and the preachers that formed the mob. She was shot down while standing on the rostrum with the Bible in her hand while beginning her customary lecture which in all instances were wonderful and inspiring" (Harrison to Theodore G. Bilbo, 2 May 1938, MsHaU, TGB). The enraged crowd of some two hundred erupted after Kofey fell, with some seizing Maxwell Cook, who was seen near the back of the hall where the shots had originated. Cook, a thirty-threeyear-old Jamaican who was a captain in the Miami African Legion, and, according to Harrison, had been Kofey's "bodyguard in the U N I A , " was brutally beaten to death in the course of the impassioned riot. Harrison stated that Cook "was found to be one of the ringleaders against her, was caught and stamped to death in the hall and died instantly." Harrison felt that it had been Claude Green, and not Cook, who had actually fired the fatal shot after receiving a signal from "a preacher who served as the Judas." Harrison stated that the preacher introduced Kofey, "stepped back and gave a sign," and later "repeated the sign and the war was on." Cook was a resident of 1834 N. W. Fourth Court in Miami and a frequent participant in Miami U N I A division programs and legion parades. In September 1927 he had given an address at a Miami division meeting in which he "styled the U N I A as a search light" (NW, 17 September 1927; see also NW, 24 September 1925, 7 August 1926; Florida Times-Union, 9 March 1928; Miami Daily News, 9 March 1928; Miami Times, 21 February 1985). Kofey's body lay in state at funeral parlors in Miami, Palm Beach, and, finally, Jacksonville, attracting thousands of mourners who lined the streets, in many cases causing traffic to be rerouted. Five months after her death her body was interred at the Duval cemetery, a city burial yard on East Union Street in Jacksonville (Florida Times-Union, 17 August 1928; Jacksonville Journal, 17 August 1928). African Universal Church members have continued to observe services in memory of Kofey, their "teacher, prophet, princess, patron-saint," on the anniversary of her death ( C. H . Harris, Jacksonville Public Library, to Robert A. Hill, 14 May 1985; Rev. E. Busabe Nyombolo, Bantu Primer Book [Jacksonville, Fla.: Adorkaville Community Mimeograph, 1968], p. 35).

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MARCH 1928

Sophia Cox to the United States Government W i l l o w Grove, Pa., March 15, 1927 [1928]1 Dear Sirs Learning that books o f the Black Star Line Inc. and $25,000 o f said company's money is in the possession o f the Governmentf,] I am making application for the redemption o f Stock Bonds No[s.] 2611 2614

10 shares 10 shares

7662

5 2 2 2 2

115+5 15875 20936 29391

shares shares shares shares shares

= in the name o f Sophia C o x — a n d # 7658t—]2 shares—in the name o f Miss Ora Cox. #9315—5 shares in the name o f Miss Mattie C o x . H o p i n g this matter will meet with immediate attention through the proper Department. Awaiting your final disposition o f the matterf,] I remain Respect (MRS.) SOPHIA C O X

D N A , RG 59, file 811.108 G191/45. ALS, recipient's copy. With Department of State, Division of Latin American Affairs and Division of Western European Affairs stamps, 25 April and 27 March 1928. 1. This letter was received by the Department of State in April 1928. It was passed on to the U.S. Shipping Board with a request that a copy of any correspondence sent to Sophia Cox by the board be forwarded to the Department of State. A copy of the letter was also sent to the attorney general's office. William R. Castle replied to Cox on 21 April 1928 for the Department o f State, informing her that her letter had been forwarded to these other agencies, and that she might expect a further reply from them. The U.S. Shipping Board complied with the Department of State request, replied to Cox, and sent a copy o f their reply to the Department of State for their files (Castle, Assistant Secretary, Department of State, to U.S. Shipping Board, 21 April 1928; Castle to John Sargent, Attorney General, 21 April 1928; T. V . O'Connor, chairman, U.S. Shipping Board, to Frank Billings Kellogg, Secretary of State, 24 April 1928; O'Connor to Cox, 24 April 1928; George R. Farnum, Assistant Attorney General, to Kellogg, 26 April 1928, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/45).

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Report on Marcus Garvey by H. J. Dodd, Inspector, St. Ann Parish Constabulary Office, St. Ann's Bay 17th March, 1928 Inspector General, I have the honour to report that Marcus Garvey made four speeches or lectures in this parish, two at the Brown's Town 1 Court House on the 13th: and 14th: March and two at St. Ann's Bay on the 15th: and 16th: March 1928. The one on the 15th: was held at the Movi/e/ Theatre and the one on the 16th: at the Court House St. Ann's Bay. With reference to the meetings at Brown's Town I attach a report from the Sergeant in charge there. With reference to the meetings here, I attend[ed] the one on the 15th: March. Sergeant Major Bernard and Detective Smart were also there in plain clothes. Of that on the 16th: Sergeant Major Bernard and Detective Smart were present. The meetings started with the singing of the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers." Marcus Garvy [Garvey] spoke on the origin of the Black Race in the West Indies and America, how they were brought from Africa in Slave Ships and sold first to the Span/i/ards and afterwards by the English &c[.] He next spoke on the condition of the poorer classes and that he was collecting information and data to put before the Government in England, that he will be going to England next month to lecture throughout England and Scotland on the poor condition of the Black Race in Jamaica, and as soon as he comes back he wishes /intends/ to start his campaign to change the economic and social life of Jamaica. That he was afraid of no man living, and he is the equal of any man, and intends to stand for election in St. Andrew at the next general election and will bring in with him 13 other members for the other parishes representing the Negro Race. He wanted the people to behave themselves whilst he is in England to put their grievance before the Crown so that he will not have to make excuses for them. He quoted an example that [Edward Carol] Pratt2 at Mammee Bay 3 had given an uncle of his4 (Marcus Garv[e]y['s]) 50 acres of land to cultivate and after he had cleaned and cultivated it, Pratt turned him off and it broke his heart, and he [Garvey] intends to bring in a Law that was brought in England some years ago, whereby uncultivated lands would be heavily taxed in so much that /they/ would have to be sold. He spoke in a loud raving manner for 2 1/2 hours on the above subjects and bringing in the Negro Race and White Race continually, that the blacks were in a degraded condition and that they were put there by the White Race. The meetings were well attended, chiefly by the poore/r/ classes who cheered him continually. Pamphlets were issued asking people to join the U.N.I.A., not many joined in St. Ann's Bay. 144

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The meetings passed off without any disturbance and ended with the singing of the National Anthem. In my opinion his speeches are and will have a disturbing effect among the people and if kept up will lead to riot and bloodshed. His remarks tends to antagonize the Black Race against the White and create a feeling similar to that which exists between the two races in America. H . J. D O D D

JA, file IJ(V). TLS, recipient's copy. 1. Brown's Town in S t . Ann Parish is located west of S t . Ann's Bay, eight miles inland from Runaway Bay. It is the largest of the rural townships of the parish (Philip P. Olley, Jamaica, British West Indies, [Kingston: Tourist Trade Development Board, 1952], p. 201). 2. The Pratt family were landowners in Mammee Bay from at least the end of the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century, when Edward Carol (Teddy) Pratt sold his properties. Pratt (1888-1963) was born in S t . Ann's Bay, educated in England, and returned to Jamaica in 1908 to oversee his family's holdings, including the Mammee Bay estate called Malvern Park. He died in Montego Bay (Eppie D. Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 4 May 1989; WWJ). 3. Mammee Bay is a small bay on the north coast in S t . Ann Parish a few miles east of the town of S t . Ann's Bay (Olley, Jamaica, British West Indies, p. 198). 4. A reference to Joseph Richards, brother of Sarah Jane Richards, Garvey's mother. Richards, a peasant, developed land on Malvern Park property for banana growing (interview with Madge Sinclair by Robert A. Hill, ca. October 1977).

E. B. Knox to Members of UNIA Divisions and Chapters in the United States [[76 King Street, Kingston, March 30, 1928]] Dear Co-Workers, Greetings:— This is to inform you that I arrived in Jamaica Monday, March 26, safe and well. The Hon. Marcus Garvey and wife [Amy Jacques Garvey], Lady [Henrietta Vinton] Davis and his private secretaries, Misses [Hazel] Escridge and [Gladys] Warren, are also well and are doing big things here in Jamaica. He has a large office staff working systematically at top speed. I am to remain here with him until April 13th, at which time he will sail for London, England, and I will sail for New York. As you know, I came here at the behest of the Hon. Marcus Garvey to have a conference with him prior to his sailing for Europe and to get instructions for the future operation of our great organization in America. I cannot even begin to tell you of the many beneficial and interesting aspects of my trip here, and shall not attempt to do so until my mission is finished, soon after which I hope to see you in person. In the meantime, I hope that you are continuing to measure up to the President-General's desire and 145

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instructions of a few months ago that all Divisions and Chapters resume normal operations, make themselves strongholds for Garveyism in their respective communities, and make their regular monthly reports to the Parent Body, 142 West 130th Street, New York City. The Hon. Marcus Garvey is in action out here, as in the days of old, and has virtually organized the entire island. He is filling his final engagement of the long series Sunday, April 1st, at the Ward Theatre, where he has me scheduled to appear also. I am making the rounds with him regularly every night and day, and being drilled in the work, so that upon my return to America I will be able, with your continued loyal support, to do everything possible to put the program over. The Hon. Marcus Garvey is very pleased with our work, and it is my sincere desire that you will do everything possible to warrant his continued approval. It can only be done by remaining ever loyal to him, and by heeding all Parent Body instructions that may come to you through the columns of The Negro World and written communications. I hope you will give your local officers every support and that they support the Parent Body. I will bring you a personal message from our great leader upon my return. With best wishes, I am, yours fraternally, E. B. KNOX

Universal Negro Improvement Ass'n, Personal Representative of the President-General Printed in NW,

21 April 1928. Original headlines omitted.

U N I A Program at the Ward Theatre [[Kingston, April 1, 1928]] On Sunday night, April 1, at 7:30 o'clock, a monster meeting was staged at the Ward Theatre, Kingston, under the auspices of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, with the President-General in the chair. The theatre was packed to its utmost capacity. The band of the late West India Regiment was in attendance and rendered a fine musical program under the conductorship of Sergeant Eldon Stewart. The Misses Hazel Escridge (Private Secretary to the Chief Executive) and Gladys Warren (Correspondence Secretary) officiated in the audience. Associated with him on the platform were the Hon. E. B. Knox, his personal representative in the United States of America; Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis, +th Asst. President-General, and Mrs. A. T. Stewart, wife of a prominent member of the organization in Costa Rica. He was also accompanied by his beloved and esteemed wife, Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey.

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After the meeting was opened the President-General rose to introduce Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis, 4th Asst. President-General of the Organization. He said: I am going to introduce to you one of the International Leaders of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the 4th Asst. President-General, a woman who stands without a peer in the world among Negroes as a leader; a woman who has been tried on behalf of her race and has measured up to every expectation. She has won the honor of being the 4th Asst. President-General of an Organization of over 11,000,000 Negroes on her merits. (Hear! Hear!!) In the land of her birth, where she is one of 15,000,000 of our people, she is known as a Negro and is proud to be a Negro. In Jamaica, because of the peculiar distinction of color here, some of you would make her white, but she is not; and she is as proud to be a Negro in Jamaica as in America. I lived in America for about 13 years, during which time I organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association of the World. In America we linked up in the Organization 4,000,000 black men and women and 7,000,000 outside of the United States. Because of the growing power of the Organization in America they sought to frame me up to dispose of my power in America. Through the frame up I was indicted and sent to the Federal Penitentiary for five years. Instead of destroying me and lessening my power, my power has grown a hundred-fold. (Applause.) When we speak of the black people of America, we include people like Lady Davis and myself. We all feel honorable about it. And so I am going to introduce one of the torchbearers of the Universal Negro Improvement Association—one of the torchbearers of Africa's freedom; Africa's redemption. Today we are cementing the friendship between American and West Indian Negroes on that grand and holy crusade—on that grand march. Out of Africa we came 300 years ago. Our heads were bowed then, but after all the centuries have rolled by, we are gathering our intellectual forces with the one determined object of freeing the land of our forefathers. I have much pleasure in presenting to you Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis. L A D Y DAVIS'S A D D R E S S

Lady Davis delivered the following address: M r . Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.—It is indeed a very great pleasure for me to be with you tonight, and I ask as you ask: "Why 147

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is the forum crowded? What means this stir in Rome?" And I would paraphrase it by saying, "Why is the theatre crowded? What means this stir in Jamaica?" It is because a son of Jamaica has returned to his home, and because you are confident of the fact and rejoice in the privilege of hearing him and seeing him. (Applause.) A ROYAL WELCOME

When his foot touched Jamaican soil, there resounded, there rang a thrill throughout the Island of Jamaica. (Applause.) You gave him a most magnificent reception—a reception greater than that of any man, whether he was of royal blood or of humble birth, has ever had in the Island of Jamaica. You are witnesses of that fact. ISLAND T O U R

He has toured the island; he has observed the condition of our race throughout the island. And tonight I feel he will speak to you out of the fullness of his heart what he has found in the island that gave him birth. FREDERICK D O U G L A S [ S ]

When I heard ' T H E BLACK WOMAN,'" by Marcus Garvey, recited a while ago, I thought of that great orator, that wonderful champion of Negro rights, the Hon. Frederick Douglas [Douglass], whom the American Negroes call "Frederick the Great." He was a mulatto; he came of a black mother and a white father. I have had the honor of knowing Frederick Douglas. In his book written by himself, "Some Experiences of My Life," he eulogizes his mother,2 and he said he would look up into the face of a black angel in the night time by candle light, and there he would suck in inspiration as he saw her sad face—her beautiful black face. And he determined then and there to do his utmost for the good of his race. He loved that mother; he was proud of that mother. He became the great orator, the leading orator of his time, and died in defense of the Negro; and since the time of Frederick Douglas there has been no leader to come to us until Marcus Garvey. (Applause.) The Hon. Marcus Garvey took up the work where Frederick Douglas left off, until Marcus Garvey's was wider and broader, until it ran from horizon to horizon. T H E M A N OF W I S D O M

And so tonight we are here to listen to the man of wisdom— wisdom that shall come only from the lips of Marcus Garvey. (Applause.) This is his last public appearance before a gathering 148

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before he leaves Jamaica, bound for England, 3 bound for Europe, bound for the continent, bound for the League of Nations; there to ask the question why 400,000,000 black people should be denied nationhood. (Applause.) So my friends I am glad to be here tonight with you—that I am here that I may learn. In his absence, I hope you will not lose the enthusiasm you have exhibited. (A voice: "No!") I hope those words will bear fruit, and that when he returns he shall find you just as enthusiastic, just as energetic, to hold up the Red, the Black and the Green—which means the emancipation of 400,000,000 Negroes." (Loud Applause.) H O N . E . B . K N O X INTRODUCED

In introducing the Hon. E. B. Knox, the President-General said: M y representative has come over to consult with me over the bigger program for the organization in 1928 and 1929. As we British subjects fight within the British Empire for our legal rights; as we members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association fear no one but ourselves within the Constitution, within the Law, so the Negroes in the United States under the leadership of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are not obligated to anybody in the United States, are not obligated to anything so long as they organize intelligently within the law. In America we criticize men as we do here. We criticize men if they are not hewing to the line, and tonight it gives me great pleasure in presenting to you the Hon. E. B. Knox, my personal representative in the United States of America." M R . KNOX'S A D D R E S S

His Excellency, the Hon. Marcus Garvey, President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Madam Amy Jacques Garvey, beloved and devoted wife, Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis, Fourth Assistant President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and friends of Negro liberty, I am glad to greet you at this time on behalf of the millions of Negroes of America who feel as you feel, who think as you think, who share your views about the future of 400,000,000 Negroes, who have signed up as loyal members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association; and who are being led home by the matchless leader of leaders—the [H]on. Marcus Garvey. (Applause) A P U R P O S E TO F U L F I L L

I am glad to look into your stern faces and observe the sincerity of purpose as reflected in your countenances. That 149

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designates in no uncertain terms that you are a part of the 11,000,000 Negroes gathered all over the world. They have set their minds upon the serious purpose at this time of bringing freedom, liberty and happiness to the 400,000,000 sons and daughters of Ethiopia, scattered all over the earth. I am glad to greet you. A STRANGER FEELING AT H O M E

Ever since I viewed the departure of our great leader from American shores—shortly after to be followed by his beloved wife— I have cherished the hope that I would be privileged to come here to Jamaica and view him in action here. And observe when abroad the attitude of the supporters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in this part of the world—particularly in this island. I came among you as a stranger; I came among you representing a branch of our organization far across the sea. And I want to tell you and let you know that I feel at home. (Hear! Hear!) Why? For mankind is being motivated by the principle that is symbolized by the Hon. Marcus Garvey. (Applause) Being a stranger in your midst perhaps you are wondering what I am thinking about; perhaps you desire to know if my sympathies blend with yours; perhaps you would like to know if I think as you think and if I represent the sentiments of the millions of Negroes in America. And perhaps you are very curious to know what are the sympathies of these people towards the leader of 40o,ooo,oo[o] Negroes. Therefore, I am going to speak on the simple subject of What I Believe. It is very fortunate that I arrived here at a time when our honored leader was engaged in the great game of organizing the Negroes of the island of Jamaica. It has afforded me an opportunity of travelling extensively throughout the island to make observations. I have found your country most beautiful; I have noted its developed and undeveloped resources; I have observed your people; I have noticed their custom. And I think of the civilization that moves you on. "WHAT I B E L I E V E "

But long before I came to Jamaica—many, many days ago—I had a firm conviction and settled belief in the wonderful program of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. I believe first in the principles of Truth and Justice; I believe in all men being up and not down. I believe that the principles of Truth and Justice constitute the firm foundation upon which all good things stand. (Applause) I believe that the principles of Truth and Justice would motivate all mankind. And I believe that the man and woman who is going through this difficult, this complicated world—that 150

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is buffetted about by difficulties of all kinds, I believe that if they would make it up in their mind that they are going to stand upon the principles of Truth and Justice that they can stand there with safety and have the assurance deep down in their heart that they will be able to overcome. (Applause) I believe that the principles of Truth and Justice will work as a two-edged sword. I believe next that the Hon. Marcus Garvey IS T H E G R E A T E S T E X P O N E N T of the principles of Truth and Justice of the twentieth century. (Applause) I believe that the course is mapped out for the freedom of 400,000,000 Negroes. I believe that there is no power in heaven or on earth that can stop the onward march of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Applause.) V I C T I M S OF V I C I O U S PROPAGANDA

I believe that Negroes all over the world are victims of a vicious propaganda that groups devise. I believe that there are victims still existing in Jamaica. I believe their victims reside wherever Negroes reside—victims of a propaganda that seems to keep the Negroes divided among themselves. But we do not have it in America quite like you have it in Jamaica. During my stay here I found that this vicious propaganda has only kept the Negro in Jamaica at perhaps a wider berth with his brothers across the waters; but it has set him against himself. AMIDST MOTLEY RACES

I find that there are divisions here that exist nowhere else in the world. I find you have all kinds of races here: the "blue" race (laughter), the brown race and a race that's light and one that's "not quite white" (laughter). Something that won't do any good, but has worked harm. I believe that this ought to be eliminated. I believe that the cause thereof ought to be removed from the hearts and minds of the happy sons and daughters of Ethiopia who reside in this island. A GOOD EXAMPLE

I believe that the Negroes of the West Indies and America ought to take a pattern from the white man of England and America. They have linked hands, and as a result they had millions of dollars which they lent that they might fight for freedom and liberty. I believe that the Negroes of America should be able to help you and benefit you, and see if they can work out the destiny of the people of this part of the world in common with themselves. I believe that right here in the island of Jamaica there should not be unhappy girls and boys and women running about the street. 151

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They ought not to exist in poverty in the country. There ought not to be weak, poverty-stricken people as I have observed while others are so rich. I have seen miles of lands of waste and undeveloped resources that science could bring out if the Negroes of the West Indies particularly would link hands and follow the principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in operation with the American Negro. (Applause.) V I C T O R Y AHEAD OF U . N . I . A .

Another thing which I believe is that the Universal Negro Improvement Association will win out over all the obstacles that are being placed in its path. (Hear! Hear!) I believe that the Hon. Marcus Garvey in organizing this great movement has appealed to the instincts of Justice and Truth that reside in the hearts of all human beings. I know that the principles that move him on are the same principles that constitute the law—that govern all the planets of this universe. I believe that the spirit of righteousness is at work in behalf of all the oppressed people of the world. I believe that divine Providence has something to do with the Universal Negro Improvement Association. "THE NEW MESSIAH"

I believe that Marcus Garvey has come to the Negro people of the world in answer to the prayers of the thousands of black mothers and fathers that were taken from Africa—some of whom went to a watery grave. Way back in the days of old we were in the hands of slave-masters. I believe that Divine Providence looks down upon the Negro and the Hon. Marcus Garvey with pleasure. I believe that he ranks with the angels and the cherubims of God among mankind. I believe that the Hon. Marcus Garvey, standing upon the principles of Truth and Justice, like a magnet, will draw all Negroes to him. I believe that he will be able to instill in time such a principle that won't make any man happy while others may be hungry. I believe that the Hon. Marcus Garvey will be able to make the spirit of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God so light the way that it will reflect even to King George on the throne that he may know that poverty and injustice reign in this part of his empire. I believe that when the Hon. Marcus Garvey goes over this month and arranges with the Prime Minister [Stanley Baldwin] and the various members of Parliament for the protection of the people of these parts that Truth and Justice will prevail. (Applause.) I believe that whatever little thing that might be done to get Truth and Justice from working effectually will prove of no avail. Truth and Justice have more effect than anything that is wrong. 152

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It works like a two-edged sword. I want them to know—I want everybody to know—that the freedom of 400,000,000 black men and women will be brought about by the conscientious ways and wonder-working power of Truth and Justice. (Applause.) I believe that the principles that moved the barons to force King John to sign the Magna Charta 4 in 1215 are the same principles that govern the Universal Negro Improvement Association. I believe that mankind and any part of mankind that gets into the way of any principles of this kind will meet their doom. M A N ' S D U T Y TO M A N

God sees your acts in this human life and thinks more of your conduct among your fellowmen. It is absurd to be worried about any specific or certain kind of religion. The thing you must be worried about is that you are doing to your fellowman what he is doing to you. It takes in the black, the brown and not quite so white. It takes in everybody. (Applause.) I believe in that day. I am talking about the Judgment Day that St. Peter is talking about. I believe that all races of men will have to appear before the Judgment Bar after a while. I believe that every specimen of mankind is going to have to account to some kind of authority and power. It matters not how white you are, how brown you are, how black you are—you will have to appear before the bar. And the sweet consolation to me is that when that day comes—and it won't be many decades from now—I think the Hon. Marcus Garvey will be the man that some day not far distant will be able to sit down and contemplate that he has fought the good fight—that he has struggled for and is worthy of the reward that is given him. A GREAT REFORMER

I think that the Hon. Marcus Garvey in due time will be able to purge injustice against black men from every Republic, from every Kingdom, from every Empire. I think tonight the whole world is concerned about the working out of the principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association—worrying how soon these people could get things by them. T H E BRITISH CONSTITUTION

I believe that the principles embodied in the Constitution of Great Britain are in keeping with the principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. I believe that when he goes to England to the King that he will receive him heartily, for he is making the empire strong. 153

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Hew to the line. Don't go to sleep under the colors of the Red, the Black and the Green. Use your brain with intelligence; and the very God Himself by His Almighty power will stand in the way of those who would obstruct you in the path of working out your destiny. When your leader goes away, while he is working there, you tonight should work here—mapping the course out, while he is making the rough path smooth. I believe there comes that sweet day when there shall not be poverty, when the spirit of God will motivate every man within this realm—especially Jamaica. (Applause.) HON. MARCUS GARVEY'S ADDRESS

Hon. Marcus Garvey spoke as follows: I am pleased to be with you tonight. I have much to say, but I am going to condense it in half an hour so that you can get your late car and get home. Before I start to speak to you I am going to ask the attendants to distribute the prospectus of the organization—the preambles setting out the aims and objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. We want you to read them over and join the organization at the close. I have just completed a six weeks' tour of the island. My last address was delivered last night at Morant Bay. I have to report for your information that we have had splendid meetings all over Jamaica. And we have now the 14 parishes of the island organized in the Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Hear! Hear!) I started from Kingston and Spanish Town, working my way around from St. Catherine into Clarendon and Manchester and St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover and St. Ann's5—and I am back in Kingston. T H E BLACKS A R E READY

The black people of Jamaica are ready (Applause.) For what are they ready? To co-operate among themselves to better their condition. I think this is a pleasant and pleasing report to give. At last the gloom is passing away. It will take some time before the work is done, but I am satisfied all the same. Let me relate to you some of the conditions that justify the existence of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. T H E CONDITIONS

Starting from Kingston in February and closing at Morant Bay last night at 10:30, I have found an appalling state of things in 154

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Jamaica affecting the black people in this country. Men and women, do you know it that 65 per cent of your people are almost living on the border of starvation, dirt and nakedness? D o you know that? D o you know that wheresoever you go in this country—outside of the few progressive towns that we have—you see the people in a state bordering on barbarism. It is shocking to the civilization of our country, a disgrace to the empire of which we form a part. And, therefore, it makes it very necessary for every loyal citizens [citizen] to see that this condition exists no longer. They ought to be intelligent enough not to blame the Government for it. Who can they blame but themselves for it? Because the Government can hardly do anything for a people who will not do anything for themselves, in that the Government gets its power from the people and the Government does not take any initiative except as advised by the people. That is what has affected the people of Jamaica all these years up to the present moment. I want you to notice tonight some of the things you may have in your mind and which may not help you to better your condition. UNCHANGEABLE ATTITUDE

You have heard me on several occasions speak. You know my attitude. Wherever the blame is I am going to place it without fear of consequence. But, knowing the British Constitution as I do—the Jamaica Constitution as I do—I cannot intelligently see the reason for blaming the Government for the condition of the people in this country—the Home Authorities or the King—in that your Constitution both at home and abroad grants you the privilege always to organize within the law to better your own condition. If you have not done it in the past it is not the fault of your local government—it is your own fault. U . N . I . A . TO L E A D

Those who represented you in the past did not do it; but we are going to do it. (Applause.) We are going to do it within the law, within the Constitution, within our legal rights—and be damned to the man who says it shall not and can not be done. (Applause.) As Jamaicans, as British citizens and subjects[,] we have certain rights in common with other British subjects, and I am glad that His Majesty the King has no brother down here or first cousin or son to give special privileges here. All of us arc given equal and general privileges and equal rights under the Constitution. Since one class is enjoying these rights and privileges under the Constitution, black people shall find it convenient to see to it that under the Constitution they are given the same privileges as equal citizens. All that I expect from the people of Jamaica is 155

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intelligent and respectful action. With that I can help you as I mean to do. (Applause.) It may mean a lot of opposition—not from the Government at home or abroad but from the influence of those individuals who have always used the Government, the Constitution and the law to fatten their own pockets at the expense of other citizens of the country. (Applause.) It is shameful when you go through Jamaica to see that the whole country is practically in the hands of two hundred men. As I travel through the broad acres of St. Catherine and Westmoreland what do I find? I find that in the midst of the community one man living on the hill has around him a vast acreage of land—10,000, 15,000, 20,000 acres undeveloped and unused, in ruinate and waste, while in that very vicinity live 10,000 people without homesteads, farms or grounds, as they call them. Thousands of people living in idleness because they cannot get employment, while on the hill there is a man with 15,000 acres of waste land lying there idle. Is it not a terrible state of affairs for our civilization? Do you think such a condition exists in the mother country? DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

In 19x0 David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced a bill in Parliament which had the effect of compelling the barons and the dukes either to give up the land or be taxed beyond their ability to pay, when they would have to dispose of it. I N T E N D S TO R U N F O R S E A T IN LOCAL LEGISLATURE

I find it necessary that such a law be introduced in Jamaica, and for that reason I have decided to change the statement I made some time ago. I have now decided to enter the politics of my country for the benefit of the black people. And in 1929 I shall reach the crowd—all men through the Universal Negro Improvement Association. I shall tackle the wage of the laboring classes. And why? Because I want to see shoes on the feet of these naked blacks and clothes on their backs. I want to see less rudeness and vulgarity on the streets. Because when you go over the country, what do you see but the naked rudeness? (Laughter.) In every hamlet, town, village. It is a disgrace to society and to the race. There is no encouragement for a black man to be decent. It is a damnable attitude. If a black man puts on his clothes on Monday morning to go and ask for a job, approaching some employer with, "Boss, I am asking you for a job," he looks at him in amusement. "Why, man, you are a gentleman! I don't employ gendemen!" (Laughter.) And if that black man wants to get a job he must pull off his shoes, 156

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wear torn pants with knees all out, that his black skin can be seen through it; then take off his shirt. (Laughter.) He is then offered 6s. or 8s. per week when the standard of living is as high as £ 1 to keep that man decent and honest. While the standard of living is £ 1 , they pay that man 8s. per week and expect him to be as decent as myself. Why does our society recognize such a peculiar attitude? The society of England and America would not employ a man if he is dirty—asking for a job with a soiled or dirty collar, dirty pants and torn shirt. They would drive you away. You are dirty in mind. But when you appear decent they psychologically conclude that you are decent. Why out here they encourage you to be dirty? So that somebody can say they are better than you. And I am aggravated, men, because I am like you; because I know you cannot live like that in a country so beautiful, so rich as Jamaica. I do not want you to misunderstand me one bit. H E R E TO E N C O U R A G E

I have come to encourage the people, to help the naked blacks of Jamaica, as I have heard of and seen their suffering. If I were a white man my cause would be with the white people as a white man. But I am not a white man and, therefore, my cause is with the black people. Any man who doesn't like it, he can go to hell! (Laughter.) Any man in Jamaica or anywhere else who gets satisfaction and takes pride in seeing the black man dirty and naked and diseased anywhere is a good-for-nothing fellow and a rascal that I have absolutely no respect for—caring not who he is. (Laughter.) I am willing to extend the hand of fellowship to the white or black races of humanity. It is the duty of all people to see that the rest of their fellow-citizens are as happy as themselves. And, as far as the program of the Universal Negro Improvement Association is concerned, I take off my hat to no man. (Applause.) G O I N G TO E U R O P E

I do not only represent the organization within the British Empire—I represent the international movement of all Negroes. As President-General of the organization, I shall be going to Europe this month—first to England, where I am charged by the organization of 11,000,000 Negroes to present certain views to the governments in Europe and their statesmen, so that an agreeable and amicable settlement can be reached between the white and black races. (Applause.) I am going to Europe on a serious mission. As I have told you, there is no fun in Marcus Garvey. (Applause.) The time is fast approaching when there must be a settlement of these great racial and interracial questions. 157

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Japan has settled hers; China is settling hers; India is settling hers; Russia has settled hers; Poland is settling hers; the Jews are settling theirs—and we, the 400,000,000 black men and women of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, are about to settle ours now. (Applause.) IN A SERIOUS MOOD

We want universal peace, happiness and prosperity; but it can only be got on the 50-50 (fifty-fifty) proposition—half for you and half for me. (Laughter.) And the N E G R O IS NOW I N A S E R I O U S MOOD—demanding his portion of the things of the world that the Creator gave him in common with all men He created. We ask nothing more and nothing less. A W E L C O M E TO M R .

KNOX

I am glad to have on the platform tonight the Hon. E. B. Knox because, as he pointed out to you, great good can come out of the country by an economic union. The situation can be helped by a commercial and industrial union of the black peoples of this Western world, because whilst in Jamaica and the West Indies Negroes are economically poor because of their inability to develop, those in America are economically rich. Take the case of the Anglo-Saxons. When England was engaged in the last world war the Central Powers were about to defeat her; but before they would allow that Woodrow Wilson made them rush in so that they could stem the tide and save the Anglo-Saxon races. They loaned over four billion dollars to get the Allies out of trouble. And so after the war they gave them over 60 years to pay the debt that they may rehabilitate themselves. CAN D O LIKEWISE

As the white people of America can help the white people of England, so can the black people of America help those in the West Indies. We are only following the lead of our fellow-countrymen and the lead of those who represent empires. So that if it was not wrong for them to do that, we are justified in doing it now. We are not making any mistake. We desire justice and equity for our people. They have been taking away our shoes too long, our clean clothes too long, and we want them back. (Laughter.) We want shoes that we can be decent like anybody else.

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A P R I L 1928 A DEPLORABLE CONDITION

Black men sleep on the earth in mud huts, in thatch huts. Eight in a room, a mother, a father and six children sleep on the same mat. After certain hours some of them sleep with one eye open so that they can see all that is going on. (Laughter.) The result is these young children coming out of a home before they are seven, eight and nine, are so rude as to surprise our grandfathers. (Laughter.) They know more things and see more things than a man of 50 could say in the presence of his elders. (Laughter.) They know everything. Now, isn't that a terrible state for society? T H E S O C I E T Y OF O T H E R C O U N T R I E S

What does the society of other countries do? In England statesmen and social service workers see to it that the people are given homes to live in so that the parents are separated from the children. What is true of Europe is true of continental America, where the rich people organize themselves for the purpose of making the people happy. And though we have poor people there, they are decent poor. What do the rich do here? The rich man lives in his palace and the poor man lives like a dog and a hog. (Laughter.) I feel sure that when such a condition is represented to the liberal-minded people of Great Britain they will do all they can to better the condition of his Majesty's subjects in Jamaica. (Hear, hear!) And since, as I have said, His Majesty has no brother out here, he is going to be willing to listen to any of his subjects. (Applause.) T o P R E S E N T FACTS

All that I intend to do is to lay before the Government of England conditions based upon facts—borne out by the condition of His Majesty's subjects in this part of the world. And I feel sure no man who rules an empire desires to have a lot of dirty, half-naked people. And I know that His Majesty the King does not desire to have so many of his subjects in the condition that they are in. T H E LOCAL GENTRY

I am saying to the local gentry that when you come to Marcus Garvey you are going to have a hell of a time if you think you are going to keep His Majesty's subjects in darkness and disease whilst we have the breath of life. (Applause) I understand the Constitution of the British Empire—of England, of Jamaica. And you black men have as much right to improve your condition as any other class or group now residing here. In fact, you have a greater right, as 159

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you form the greater part of the population, and according to the Constitution of Democracy it is always the greatest good for the greatest number. A R I G H T TO O R G A N I Z E

You have a right to organize for it, yes—and in the country of which you are a part. You need not be afraid of anybody but yourself in organizing to better your condition. I go away from you in a short while to intelligently represent your interest and your rights. For God's sake when I am gone behave yourselves. Act decently and intelligently. So that when I place your case before the B A R OF JUSTICE I shall have no argument against me that you are too rude, too riotous. I am glad that you Negroes are not as lazy and dark as you have been in the past. A N I N N O C E N T AND J U S T M A N

When I returned to Jamaica a fellow asked his employer if he could let him off at 12 o'clock to go and see his President. The boss looked at him and said "Which President?" "Mr. Garvey, Sah." "What, man, you want to go and see Marcus Garvey, who has been robbing you?" The fellow said nothing more but started to scratch his head. "Oh! you realize now that he has robbed you, eh?" The man shook his head. "Then who has been robbing you?" "You, boss!" (Laughter) "I am a big mechanic, worth forty shillings a week, and although you know I have a wife and five children you only pay me 25." (Laughter) How is it that Garvey robbed all of you and Garvey doesn't know all of you? I don't believe there are 20 of the people in this theatre that I know. If there is anyone of you in this theatre whom I have robbed of a penny, hold up your hand, and to every penny that I have robbed you I will give you a hundred pounds. (A voice: "Not one!") And so not to defeat Garvey but to defeat you yourselves they will attack the man who leads—because if it were not Garvey but John Brown, they would attack John Brown, if it were not John Brown but Patrick Henry, then they would attack Patrick Henry. It is because they are desirous of defeating you and when they attack Marcus Garvey they are not attacking Marcus Garvey but you, the Negro people. Any time you hear a man attacking the principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and trying to couple the government with it, you mark that man down as your biggest enemy. A DESPICABLE FELLOW

All that Garvey seeks to do is to put the black people on a better footing, to prepare them to have a nation of their own, to 160

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make them be self-respecting. And any man who attacks Garvey on those principles is attacking the black men of the world. (Applause.) And therefore you all ought to have enough sense to know who are your friends. There is one fellow especially who has been cowardly enough to have written so many things against me. I have been waiting to see if he would write anything more; but perhaps he is waiting patiently until when my back is turned to play his tricks again. And if that nobody thinks he is going to get away with it, while I'm away I will be gathering strength to return here and handle him. There is one black man who is going to settle the proposition. (Applause.) A NEGRO DAILY

So when I come back from England you shall have a D A I L Y PAPER OF Y O U R OWN. So just keep your patience awhile. Act intelligently. Just be self-respecting citizens and discipline yourselves. Just keep cool. We hope for a better day, a better West Indies, a better America. Keep your courage high. (Applause.) A BETTER UNDERSTANDING

Let me inspire you black men to a better understanding of yourselves. For God's sake love yourselves, help yourselves. Take a leaf out of the book of other peoples. This is a splendid manifestation of that spirit: If other people do not want to associate with you associate with yourselves. Buy from yourselves. Keep to yourselves—and you will see a different day. (Loud applause.) At the close of his address the President-General announced that at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon on Easter Sunday, the 8th, he would be giving a free lecture to the black citizens of Kingston at the Kingston Racecourse, so as to afford an opportunity to those who were not present at the theatre that night to hear him before his departure for Europe. On Easter Sunday he would address them on the subject of "Good Citizenship." MUSICAL PROGRAM

Miss Lena Aiken recited "The Black Woman," by Marcus Garvey, which was well rendered. M r . Granville Campbell, 6 pianist, Jamaica's star tenor, sang "Invictus," by W. E. Henley, and received the appreciation of the audience. Special mention, however, must be made of Miss Lcrlene Hewey, who sang "Keep Cool," by Marcus Garvey, with such an effective interpretation that she greatly delighted the audience and brought down the house. She graciously responded to a vociferous encore. The singing of the [British] National Anthem, followed by the Ethiopian Anthem, brought what was the biggest and most successful meeting ever held under the auspices of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Kingston to a close. 161

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Printed in N W , 21 April 1928. Original headlines omitted. 1. Garvey's poem, "The Black Woman," was written on 28 February 1927, while he was incarcerated in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Amy Jacques Garvey published it in The Poetic Meditations of Marcus Garvey in 1927. The poem celebrated the black woman as a "black queen of beauty . . . Goddess of Africa," whose virtue and loveliness caused black men to worship at her shrine (Marcus Garvey, The Poetical Works of Marcus Garvey, ed. Tony Martin [Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983], pp. 44-45). 2. Born into slavery, Douglass was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, at an early age. Bailey worked as a field hand on a farm some twelve miles away from where her son lived. He remembered seeing her only at night, on the four or five occasions when she found it possible to risk punishment and walk the distance between the farms in order to visit him. She died when he was seven years old. He recalled that "never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger" (Frederick Douglass, .Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, ed. Benjamin Quarles [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968], p. 25; see also Philip S. Foner, Frederick Douglass [New York: Citadel, 1969], p. 15). 3. Garvey planned to sail for England on 13 April 1928 but did not leave until the following day (Detective Charles A. Patterson to Detective Inspector, Kingston, 13 April 1928, JA file is(v) no. D:I:0:23/28).

4. The Magna Carta, issued in 1215, was the result of a feudal political struggle in which leading barons demanded greater rights under the monarchy of King John. The document granted specific rights and privileges to the barons and to the agricultural and commercial classes; though feudal in origin, its tenets provided the basis of the modern English constitution (Sidney Painter, The Reign of King John [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1949], pp. 285-348). 5. Garvey is describing a clockwise tour of the island that concentrates on the western parishes. Spanish Town, the former Spanish capital of Villa de la Vega, is fourteen miles west of Kingston. The main road connecting Kingston and Montego Bay, the northwest port city, passes through the parishes of St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, and St. Elizabeth before entering St. James Parish, wherein Montego Bay is situated. Westmoreland and Hanover parishes occupy the westernmost peninsular tip of the island (Philip P. Olley, Guide to Jamaica, British West Indies [Kingston: Tourist Trade Development Board, 1952]; Sangster, Jamaica, p. 50). 6. Granville Campbell (1892-1968), known as Jamaica's "golden voice of the twentieth century," began his musical career as a boy soprano in the Cathedral Choir. He earned his living as a music tutor, conductor, and pianist until he left Jamaica to live in Panama. He later moved to England and finally to the United States, where he settled in Brooklyn in 1959 (Eppie D. Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 4 May 1989).

Marcus Garvey to J. R. Ralph Casimir K i n g s t o n , 4 t h A P R I L 1928

Dear Mr. C[a]simir:— This serves to acknowledge receipt of your letter of March 16th with enclosure of £1. i/6d sent to Mr. Garvey on the fund to bear his expenses to Europe. Mr. Garvey is not in office today, in that he is on a tour, but will return in a few days at which time he will personally acknowledge the letter and amount. With very best wishes. I have the honour to be, Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Assn. 162

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[Address:] Mr. J. R. Ralph C[a]simir, P.O. Box 81 Roseau, Dominica, B.W.I. JRRC. TLS, recipient's copy. Typed signature. On Office of the President General letterhead.

Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detective Office, East Queen Street, Kingston, +th April 1928 THE U.N.I.A. — M E M B E R S ' M E E T I N G AT THE L I B E R T Y H A L L — M R . GARVEY PRESIDED

Detective Inspector, I beg to report that a Members' Meeting of the Kingston Division of the U.N.I.A. was convened at the Liberty Hall—No. 76 King Street, last night, lasting from 7.30 to 11.15 P.M. M r . Marcus Garvey presided and associated with him were, his wife—Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, Mis[s] H. V. Davis and M r . E. B. Knox. Between 800 and 900 members were present at this meeting. The following were the business transacted:— 1. The financial statement of the organization. This statement shows that the Assets of the Division stand at £206.10.9 up to the 31.3.28, and the liabilities at £369.10.0.—the £300 being the balance of mortgaged money owed on the Liberty Hall on which six per cent interest is being paid, the property having been bought for £800; the £69.10/- being sundry debts for repairs to the premises, furniture and fixtures, etc. The actual cash in Bank is £80.5.5. 2. Bye-laws of the Division. Drafted rules for the proper working of the Division were first read throughout, then they were dealt with in sections and adopted after being amended. M r . Garvey, in submitting the rules, stated that he observed keenly at many of the meetings which he attended here, that some members were inclined to be rude and did not regard the respect and comforts of others. In many instances the officers were roughly spoken to, and the lack of civility and courtesy evinced. The Kingston Division was now a Division of high regard, and the rules submitted to the members were for the protection of one and all. In these rules very strict clauses for the proper handling of the finance and property of the Division have been enacted. All officers holding positions of trust are to be in bond, and should they fail to account properly for the duties imposed on them, they will be dismissed and criminal proceedings instituted against them. The rules contain no reference to racial feeling or prejudice, or nothing that would conflict with the laws of the country. They are rules simp[l]y for members to be civil, courteous, decent and honest. 163

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3. The annual Nomination and Election of Officers which should have taken place last night was postponed to next Wednesday the nth instant, as it was too late. M r . Garvey addressed the members. He said he specially arranged that meeting in order that he might talk to the people of Kingston, who were attached more closely to the organization than the people who were only looking on. The Kingston Division was not now a mere Division, but it was now the International Headquarters of the organization throughout the world. Whereever the President General was, the headquarters of the world followed. He wanted[,] therefore, the people of Kingston particularly and the black people of Jamaica generally, to realize the position and to fit themselves for the world's eyes which were looking on them. The reflection of one member whether for good or evil was the reflection by which the whole organization was judged. He desired that the Members of Kingston would so conduct themselves that they gain the confidence and respect of the whole community. The U.N.I.A. was a dignified organization and the Constitution by which it was governed contained nothing that was contrary to good order and discipline. He would be leaving Jamaica on or about the 13th of this month for Europe, particularly to England, where he would put the case of the black people of this Island before the authorities in England, clearly, truthfully and constitutionally. He was assuring them that their case would be listened to by the people of England, and a better adjustment of affairs was sure to come about. He had many good friends in England—Lords, Dukes, Members of Parliament and citizens of all positions in life. They were white men but they were as much interested in seeing the conditions of the black people of the world improved, as they were interested in their own race. They (the U.N.I.A.) were not doing anything improper. They were following the same footsteps of the other races. The leaders of other races who were governing their own affairs to-day, met the same fate as the leaders of the U.N.I.A. and in some cases the circumstances were more piercing. The U.N.I.A. was doing well and they were on the high road of redemption. The English had long settled their international affairs, the German[s] had done their part, the Japanese, who had struggled for 70 years, got through theirs, the Jews were completing theirs and now the Negroes were looking after theirs, and in the same measure as the others had gone through, so would the Negroes in process of time complete theirs also. He intended visiting the League of Nations where matters affecting the proper adjustments of the nations claiming Africa would be discussed by him, and he hoped a reasonable understanding and agreement would come out. On his return to the Island later in the year, many matters affecting the Negro people of Jamaica would be taken in hand—the first and foremost being a daily paper for the protection of the black man's rights. They also had on foot, the starting of a Negro Scholarship. That would commence in December this year, and it would run as follows: In December of each year 164

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for a period of 12 years, an oratorical or elocutionary contest would be held in the Ward Theatre for competition for three scholarships between the ages of 18 and 30 years—men or women who have started their professions, but who, from lack of funds, had failed to further advance themselves. The boy or girl winning the first prize would be sent to England to read for the Bar, the winner of the second prize would be sent to Edinburgh to study medicine and the winner of the third prize would be sent to Canada to study a profession on a similar line. In the space of 12 years, the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Jamaica would have 12 Barristers, 12 Doctors, 12 trained nurses or other similar professional persons to manage their own affairs. The U.N.I.A. in other countries would adopt the same method and in a short period the organization the world over would be staffed with its own trained men and women for positions which were to be filled. He brought those points to the notice of the members to show that there was something to be proud of in being a member of the U.N.I.A. All that he was asking for was their behaviour. They should realize that in becoming a member of the U.N.I.A. they were open to censure and disadvantage, by that he meant that whereas they could move about freely in not being a member, in becoming a member they were being watched as a part of a unit upon which the whole world was arguing to-day. If one member was to commit a serious crime, the limelight of the organization would be brought to the front more forcibly as being an organization that encouraged crimes, etc. He wanted every member to be serious of his or her position, to be proud of that position and to assist others in a similar way. He hoped they would be respectful to their officers, assist every member of their race and endeavour by a proper explanation of the aims and objects of the U.N.I.A. to bring them into it. Lastly, he would ask them to keep within the laws of the country. They should take him as an example. He obeyed the laws and respect the Constitutions of every country in the world, because he expected that in process of time, every nation would have to do the same to them. They should create no riot, assist in nothing disorderly, but rather they should be useful citizens of the Empire as British Subjects. " I go away from you on the 13th of this month or thereabout. Be steadfast, courageous and ambitious. Stand fast by the banner of the Red, the Black and the Green. D o your part as members of that great race scattered over the four corners of the earth and uphold the honour and dignity of four hundred million negroes who are seeking their nationhood—Africa. God bless you." N o other persons spoke at this meeting and it terminated by the National Anthem followed by the Anthem of Ethiopia. CHAS A.

JA, file is(v) no. D:I:0:2i/28. TLS, recipient's copy. Marked

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"CONFIDENTIAL."

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Article in the Negro World [Nra? York, 7 April 1928] W A N T E D IMMEDIATELY $1,000 FROM 1,000 M E M B E R S

In Miami, Florida, a woman by the name of Laura Champion, of Atlanta, Georgia, but who styled herself as Princess Laura Koffey [Kofey], was fatally shot on March 8, 1928. O f ten officers and members of the Miami Division arrested in connection with the murder, eight were subsequently freed, but Claude Green, exPresident, and J. B. Nemo [Nimmo], Colonel of the Legions, are being held under a charge of first degree murder. 1 There is evidence in abundance to show that these men at the time of the killing were not even in the vicinity of the murder, but the white newspapers in Miami and elsewhere are saying that Marcus Garvey wrote letters from Jamaica, giving orders to these two men to kill Laura KofFey at any cost and promising rewards if they were successful.2 A thousand dollars are needed immediately to defend these men, and I am authorized by the H o n . E. B. Knox, because of my knowledge of this upheaval, to request that 1,000 members of the Association rise up as one and forward to me immediately one dollar each or more so that these innocent men can be represented by proper counsel. Every member of the organization knows of the value of the Miami Division to the entire organization. These men's lives are at stake. The prestige and the existence of the organization in the South are at stake. Therefore there can be no delay. Presidents of Divisions can collect same at meetings and also see that this matter is properly emphasized, but, members, do not wait to be told by your President. As soon as you read this, get an envelope, enclose as much as you can, and forward it immediately to J. A. Craigen, 1516 Russell Street, Detroit, Mich. All donations will be acknowledged in the columns of THE NEGRO WORLD. T H E LIST

Detroit Division N. G. G. Thomas

$55.00 i.oo $56.00

Printed in NW, 7 April 1928. Original headlines abridged. 1. Local authorities arrived to quell the riot that occurred the evening of the Kofey and Cook murders and arrested thirteen suspects. Only Claude Green, president of the Miami U N I A division, and James B. Nimmo (often referred to as Nemo), colonel of the Miami U N I A African Legion (in which Maxwell Cook had also been an officer), were detained after questioning. 166

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Green, who was originally from Texas, was the former president and vice president of the Jacksonville, Fla., UNIA division (NW, 22 December 1923, 20 September 1924, and 20 June 1925). He was elected president in Miami in 1926 (NW, 27 March 1926). He was sworn in by J. A. Craigen after his reelection in March 1927 and was close enough to Garvey to have visited him in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary five months later (NW, 19 March and 17 September 1927; see also NW, 24 September 1925). He corresponded with Garvey during the same period (Garvey to Green 10 August 1927, A F R C , AP). He was alleged to have fired the actual shots that killed Kofey and was charged with first-degree murder. James B. Nimmo (b. 1898) was born in the Bahamas. He joined the Garvey movement in the early 1920s after returning from duty in Europe during World War I. He was attracted to the race pride and Pan-Africanism that Garvey lauded and soon became the head of the African Legion in Miami, where he drilled legion members according to methods learned in the service. He was second vice president of the Miami UNIA division in 1923 (NW, 29 September 1923). He was accused by authorities of being an accessory to the crime, supposedly having signalled Green when it was opportune to fire, and was also charged with murder in the first degree. At least one witness claimed it was Maxwell Cook who gave the signal (by dropping a handkerchief) and Nimmo who had fired the shot. Nimmo freely admitted his opposition to Kofey and later said that he "had been heckling her meetings" and that he "had planned to attend that one [the night she was killed], but luckily I had to work until eight that night" (Miami Times, 21 February 1985). He was employed at a dry-cleaning plant in Buena Vista, Fla., north of Miami. Later that same night Nimmo was arrested at his home, which was located a few blocks from Fox Thompson's converted storefront. The arresting officers were forced to handcuff him to the steering wheel of their patrol car to protect him from an angry crowd of fifty to seventy-five Kofey supporters who were attempting to remove him from police custody in order to practice their own brand of vigilante justice. Later, during his trial, the company bookkeeper confirmed Nimmo's claim about his whereabouts at the time of the murder, testifying that on the evening of the Kofey shooting Nimmo had not punched out on the time clock at the plant until eight o'clock (interview with James B. Nimmo by Robert A. Hill, 14 January 1986; Richard Newman, "Laura Adorker Kofey and the African Universal Church" [unpub. ms.], p. 3 n. 13; notices of arrest, State of Florida v. Claude Green and James B. Nemo, 22 March 1928, file 14-813, Circuit Court of Dade County, Florida). Nimmo and Green were indicted by a grand jury on 24 March 1928 and held in jail from the night of the shooting (8 March 1928) through 12 July 1928, when the circuit court of Miami acquitted them on all charges and ordered their release. Their defense was managed by J. A. Craigen, who successfully used appeals in the Negro World to collect funds from dozens of individual contributors and from local divisions, including donations from the Garvey Club in New York and Craigen's own Detroit UNIA division (NW, 21 April, 21 July, and 27 July 1928; grand jury order of indictment for murder in [the] first degree, State of Florida v. Claude Green and James B. Nemo, 24 March 1928, Circuit Court of Dade County, Florida). The UNIA staunchly defended Nimmo and Green throughout the proceedings, charging that the assassination had actually been committed by a follower of Kofey's (NW, 21 July 1928). The Jacksonville Journal substantiated this version of the story when it (in referring to Maxwell Cook) reported that Kofey "was shot and killed by a dissenting member of her Miami congregation" (17 August 1928). The Florida Times-Union also described her assailant as "a disgruntled member of her flock" (17 August 1928). These two periodicals may, however, have been referring to the A U C C L and the pro-Garvey UNIA contingent as two wings of a single organization. Nimmo has consistently maintained his own innocence in the matter. He also dismisses the idea that Green was involved, claiming that Green lacked the courage and shooting skill to carry out such an act, and was also physically incapable of it, having been bedridden for days before the shooting with a severe cancer-like ailment that caused large open sores on his leg (interview with Nimmo by Hill, 14 January 1986). The murder weapon was never recovered in the case. No individual was ever convicted of the murder of Kofey, nor was anyone ever prosecuted in connection with Maxwell Cook's death. 2. Some Florida newspapers implicated Garvey in the Kofey assassination, and newspapers in other parts of the country, in Canada, and in the Caribbean picked up their version of the story. The Miami Daily News reported that "letters . . . were sent through the mails from Garvey in Jamaica to his agents in Miami to kill Laura Kofey and her staff at any cost," and that these had been "turned over to the federal authorities" (20 March 1928). Another article printed two days later referred to the 8 March 1928 violence as "attributed to Marcus Garvey agents" and reiterated

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T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS the charge that Garvey "wrote letters, directing that [Kofey] be assassinated" (Miami Daily News, 22 March 1928). Articles with almost verbatim information were printed in the New Turk Times, 21 March 1928, and the Montreal Dawn of Tomorrow, 31 March 1928. The Dawn of Tomorrow stated that "the slaying of the princess Laura was a bold stroke on the part of Garvey to put an end to her career," while the New York Times headline claimed "Deported Liberator is Said to Have Sent Agents to Kill Woman Opposing His Plans." Nimmo has reported that when Kofey first came to Miami "we all fell for her," admiring her as "a good woman . . . s m a r t . . . a brilliant speaker" and a person "of great 'charisma'"; and that it was not until after "we was warned by Garvey to beware of her, then we tried to oust her." Asked to speculate on who killed Kofey, Nimmo said "it is my definite belief that someone was sent in here to kill the woman. I don't believe nobody in Miami killed her . . . They sent somebody in, [the UNIA,] they sent somebody in to kill her" (interview with Nimmo by Hill, 14 January 1986).

J. A. Craigen, U N I A Special Representative, to the Miami Daily News [[1516 Russell Street, Detroit, ca. 7 April 1928]] Editor, "Miami Daily News," Miami, Fla. The alleged interview with the firm of Collins & Collins published in your issue of March 20, 1 which apparently caused the Grand Jury to indict, on the 21st of March, Claude Green and J. B. Nemo [Nimmo] for the murder of the self-styled Princess Laura KofFey [Kofey] was the most lying, malicious, pernicious and prejudiced article that could have been published against two innocent men. Your interviewer also informed the public that Marcus Garvey, whose activities this so-called Princess was investigating, sent letters from Jamaica directing these men to kill Laura KofFey—needless to state, a monstrous fabrication. Newspapers, as I understand them, are mediums through which the public is kept informed and they are supposed to give out to the public the truth concerning any happenings, but I presume that because this particular incident surrounds Negroes, it would be an impropriety for a white daily to find out the truth about it. The writer of this letter is one who has been commissioned by the Universal Negro Improvement Association, yes, the Garvey movement—not a movement to rob Negroes, 2 as you put it, but to organize them to save them from such barbaric savagery as what took place in your city at the hands of officers of the law, when they murdered an innocent Negro bell-hop, 3 and to redeem their motherland Africa, there to create a government for Negroes, of Negroes and by Negroes, so they can be protected everywhere. I was in your State for approximately three months and in your city, Miami, five weeks ago, attempting with aid of the courts of your said State to put an end to Laura Koffey's nefarious scheme. If Attorney Collins had taken

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my advice when I stood in his office about thirty minutes and pleaded with him to use his influence toward an adjustment of this matter, perhaps Laura Koffey would have been living today, but I guess he was more concerned with the fifties and hundreds of dollars the Koffey faction was paying him. To give you a synopsis of the history of Laura Koffey, which is the truth beyond all doubt and which I shall ask you to publish as an act of honesty: T H E " P R I N C E S S ' S " ANTECEDENTS

The "Princess Laura Koffey" is not an African Princess. Her correct name is Laura Champin [Champion]. She was born in the State of Georgia and was married to one, Henry Champin [Champion], who now resides in this city of Detroit, Mich. She has also two sisters here by the names of Alternase and Nepi Gale. She also has a brother in Cincinnati, Ohio. This woman lived in Detroit from the year 1920 to 1924. She has always aspired to be a preacher and was a member of the Garvey movement in Detroit. She mysteriously disappeared from this city and in February, 1926, a letter was received from her written in Sierra Leone, West Africa, advising the recipient not to answer for she was on her way home. This writer next met her in the city of New Orleans, La., in October, 1926, where she spoke for several weeks at meetings sponsored by the Garvey organization there. She informed me that her mission was to secure funds with which to build a missionary school in Africa. Leaving there she went to several cities in Alabama and Florida where the Garvey movement has branches and spoke, telling the many thousands that heard her that the Garvey movement was the best organization in the world. Through her, thousands joined in Mobile, Ala., Jacksonville, Tampa, West Palm Beach, St. Petersburg and Miami, Fla. 4 Seeing that her influence was very strong, she engineered a scheme of her own and defrauded thousands of Negroes in your State. The scheme was this: She stated that Marcus Garvey had sent her to collect funds for an African sawmill and sugar mill project, and to make her scheme more successful she told her audiences—all members of the Garvey movement—that the kings of Africa would have ships sent to Miami and Jacksonville to take Negroes to Africa. If you would investigate this matter you'll find Negroes in your city who actually disposed of their property and were waiting for the ships of the kings; the same thing applies to Mobile, Ala., and the cities I mentioned before in your state. INVESTIGATION O R D E R E D BY U . N . I . A .

Naturally some believed her and others didn't, so the headquarters of the Garvey movement was notified and was being besieged with queries as to whether this woman was authorized by Marcus Garvey to collect any such funds. Hence my being sent to investigate. Upon my arrival and after investigation I found that this so-called Princess had fleeced Negroes out of thousands of dollars with the promise 169

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS o f ships, etc. She was then in the public press o f Jacksonville exposed as to her lack o f authority to collect any such funds. She was subsequently arrested in Jacksonville by five warrants for fraud. 5 After traveling through the State I was able to convince the people that this w o m a n was nothing but a fake; hence factions arose, and f r o m this factional feud the killing y o u are attempting to connect Marcus G a r v e y with came about.

It is rumored that Laura KofFey, as she was known, came to

her death at the hands o f some o f her o w n followers w h o turned on her after finding out she was robbing them. A b o u t K i n g Knesiphi coming to the United States to investigate her death, you may as well await Judgment D a y as to await his coming. 6 J. A . C R A I G E N Printed in NW, 7 April 1928. 1. A reference to "King Knesiphi Is Said Coming to Sift Deaths," Miami Daily News, 20 March 1928. The News used an interview with the law firm representing Kofey's African Universal Church as the basis of their article, characterizing the assassination as the result of "a flare-up of Garvey and anti-Garvey feeling" and stating that "both Green and Nemo [Nimmo] were sent to Miami by Garvey." 2. While Garveyites were investigating Kofey and accusing her of using a repatriation program to fraudulently collect money for her own gain, the Miami Daily News was reversing these roles, claiming that Kofey had been sent from the Gold Coast "to investigate the activities of Marcus Garvey, negro 'liberator,' in collecting several millions of dollars, practically all of which is believed to have gone into his own pocket instead of into his scheme for transporting negroes to the African colonies" (22 March 1928; see also 20 March 1928). The argument was echoed in the Montreal Dawn of Tomorrow, which claimed Kofey was sent as a "representative to warn colored Americans to beware of Garvey" (21 March 1928). Kofey's speeches in 1927 were actually laudatory of Garvey and of his cause (NW, 9 July 1927). 3. On is July 1925, H. Kier, a thirty-year-old black man who was employed as a bellhop at the El Comodoro hotel in Miami, was killed while in the custody of Miami police (NW, 10 March 1928). He was arrested after a white woman patron of the hotel filed a complaint claiming that he had made improper advances to her daughter. Kicr was handled roughly by detectives during his arrest at the hotel, then taken to the police station. Once there, the arresting officers were told by the police chief, H. Leslie Quigg, "not to docket the prisoner so there would be no record of the arrest and disposition of the case" (.NW, 7 April 1928). Kier was then driven out of the city in a patrol car with three officers. His bullet-ridden and severely beaten body was found by a roadside later that evening. Two years after Kier's death a county grand jury launched an investigation into Miami police brutality and Chief Quigg, the arresting officers William Beechey and A. W. Pearce, and the three police with Kier in the automobile, John Caudell, A. M. Tibbets, and Thomas Nasworth, were indicted for first-degree murder. After Beechey and Pearce turned state's evidence, Nasworth— who was already suspended from the force because of brutality charges stemming from the abuse of another prisoner—was charged with the actual shooting. Caudell and Tibbets were identified as bystanders in the act and Quigg as the culpable authority in the conspiracy to cover up the crime. After a three-month trial, which was marred by overt race prejudice, the four were acquitted in circuit court. Nevertheless, the grand jury ruled that Quigg was unfit for office, that he had strong ties with organized crime, and that "the police force under his direction [has] developed habits of cruelty and brutality," gradually assuming "the habits of a militant and tyrannical group" (Miami Daily News, 7 May 1928; see also 2 March, 3 March, 5 March, 26 March, 20 April, 23 April, 24 April, 28 April, and 29 April 1928). 4. A reference to Kofey's organizational tour in the spring and summer of 1927. Miami UNIA division member Charles L. Harrison described this period of Kofey's career as a time when "she came not to fight the [Garvey] movement but to add strength to it. She was made National Field Representative, in five months time; put 5,000 new members into the movement at $1.00 per

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APRIL 1928 member, and put new life in the movement at a time when the movement had grown weak for the reason that Garvey was serving a 5 year sentence in the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Ga." Harrison also stated that it was not until Garvey "began to attack her" that she proceeded to form her own organization (Harrison to Theodore G. Bilbo, 2 May 1938, MsHaU, TGB; NW, 7 May, 1+ May, 21 May, 4 June, 11 June, 2 July, and 23 July 1927). 5. Kofey was indicted in Jacksonville "for obtaining money under false pretenses" in connection with her repatriation fund raising. She was interrogated and released without prosecution in February 1928 (Florida-Times Union, 1 February 1928; Jacksonville Journal, 17 August 1928). 6. Another reference to the 20 March 1928 Miami Daily News article, which reported that King Knesiphi of the Gold Coast (Ghana) was coming to the United States to investigate his daughter's death. The same news was carried by the New York Times (21 March 1928). The Montreal Dawn of Tomorrow published the information that "King Knesipi [Knesiphi] has sent word that he is sailing for America . . . within the month" (21 March 1928). The king did not appear, either to investigate or to make funeral arrangements. The Florida-Times Union later claimed that the "parents of the woman in Africa vetoed the proposal to ship the body there for burial and it was finally decided to bury her here" (17 August 1928). While many observers believed Craigen's assertions that Kofey was American-born, others, such as Charles Harrison, accepted her story that she had migrated to the United States from the Gold Coast in 1926 in order to foster the UNLAs African repatriation program. The claim that she was the daughter of an African leader was supported by members of the Ga community in Ghana, who have confirmed that she lived in the Accra area and preached in Asofa and Kumasi before coming to the United States in the mid-i92os (Richard Newman, " 'Warrior Mother of Africa's Warriors of the Most High God': Laura Adorker Kofey and the African Universal Church," in Black Power and Black Religion: Essays and Reviews, ed. Richard Newman [West Cornwall, Conn.: Locust Hill, 1987], pp. 131-145).

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Kingston, April 7, 1928]] Fellowmen o f the N e g r o Race, Greeting: I am now on the eve o f leaving for E u r o p e to represent the interests o f the entire N e g r o race. It is a pleasure for me to g o with the determination to serve not only the Universal N e g r o Improvement Association, but the black people everywhere. RETURNING THANKS I have to return thanks to all those friends, members and divisions w h o have subscribed to the fund to help defray m y expenses. M a y I not [ n o w ] say that m y personal regards are for every one w h o has done his and her part. It is only by this kind o f co-operation that the tremendous work o f our organization can be pushed forward. KNOX IN JAMAICA T h e H o n . E . B . K n o x , my personal representative as President-General in the United States, is n o w in Jamaica, consulting with me over the future o f the organization in America; he returns home a day after I sail for Europe and I shall send by him m y message to the millions o f members in the United States. 171

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His presence in Jamaica has tended to cement to a larger and greater degree the spirit of racial fellowship between the American and West Indian Negroes. Not only has M r . Knox enjoyed his stay in the West Indies, but my private secretary, Miss Hazel Escridge of Utica, New York, who is accompanying Mrs. Garvey and myself on our trip to Europe, is enjoying the new experiences of a closer contact with the West Indies. I feel sure that in a short while thousands of our members in America will come to the West Indies to co-operate with the Negroes here for a better industrial and commercial future in the urge for Africa's redemption. The possibilities of trade relationship between the American and West Indian and African Negroes are great and we must take advantage of the same. LADY DAVIS IN CHARGE

During my absence from Jamaica, Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis, the Fourth Assistant President-General, of Washington, D.C., will be in charge of the headquarters here. T H E GREATEST GOOD

I am asking that during my stay in Europe every member realize the fact that he is a guardian of the rights of the organization. See to it that your division functions as it ought and that it makes its regular monthly report to the Parent Body. Every unit of the Organization must be kept intact for us to achieve the greatest good. T H E NEW PROGRAM

Immediately upon my return from Europe I shall announce our general program, and the speeding up campaign will be started to make our effort a crowning success. During my stay in Europe I shall write as usual to the Negro people of the world through my front page article in this paper. Everyone should read the Negro World for general information as touching my movements abroad. Members are again reminded that the time is now for each and everyone to pay in his and her annual assessment tax. Please do so now by forwarding same to the Parent Body through your local division. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW, 21 April 1928. Original headlines omitted.

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Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detective Office, East Queen Street, Kingston, 9th April 1928 MARCUS GARVEY— S P O K E AT M E E T I N G AT THE K I N G S T O N R A C E C O U R S E

Detective Inspector, I beg to report that a Mass Meeting, under the auspices of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, was held at the Kingston Race Course yesterday evening, commencing at 4.30 P.M. and concluding at 5.55 P.M. The crowd, which consisted of all classes, numbered between five and six thousand (judging from the rife speculation of the majority of a group of very intelligent men who viewed the scene from all points). The speakers for the evening were, the Rev. S. M. Jones—the Commissioner of the Universal Negro Improvement Association for Jamaica, Miss Henrietta Vinton Davis—the fourth Assistant President General of the Organization^] Mr. E. B. Knox—the personal Representative of M r . Garvey in the United States of America, and M r . Marcus Garvey—the President General of the Organization. M r . Jones, who was the Chairman of the meeting, opened and closed the meeting. In his opening remarks, he pointed out that there was a time when no one had thought seriously of the propaganda of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and would have paid no compliment to that Body in taking part in a Meeting at the Race Course. The hour was now come, when they realized to the fullest extent, the aims and objects of the U.N.I.A., and the crowd which presented itself that evening was an illustration of their knowledge of the future of the Black Man under the banner of the Red, the Black and the Green. He wished everyone a happy evening and hoped those who were not yet members would come and join the organization. Miss Davis was introduced to the audience by M r . Garvey who stated that she was the only member of the organization who stood the test from its inception until now. She was not a white woman but a negro. If she was born in Jamaica, she would have been a white woman, but having [been] born in America—the country that taught every man, woman or child where each belonged, she was a negro and proud to be one too. Miss Davis was now in Jamaica and would direct the affairs of the organization during his absence from the Island. It was his very great pleasure to present her to the audience. Miss Davis said it was indeed a pleasure for her to be there. They were celebrating Easter-tide in commemoration of the blessed Saviour, who had risen from the dead, after suffering for the redemption of all mankind. It was a 173

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time for them as negroes to ponder in their hearts whether they were receiving that assurance which Christ had intended, on an equal basis to all mankind. If they /were/ enjoying that right of equality, fair-play and justice, there was no need for the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but as it was to the contrary the U.N.I.A. came on the scene to see that that justice was done. She was there that evening to listen and not to make a speech, hence she could only wish them every thing that was good and a blessed future under the banner of the Red, the Black and the Green. Mr. E. B. Knox. He stated that he came out to Jamaica to confer with the President General on matters appertaining to [the] future of the U.N.I.A. He received all those instructions which he desired, and he was leaving Jamaica with the good news of how the negroes co-operated as a race, and in upholding the ha/n/ds of their leader. There was a very friendly tie at the present time between the American and West Indian Negroes, and he wanted to inform them that the Universal Negro Improvement Association in America was doing all it could for the freedom of the fifteen million negroes in the United States of America. The meeting that evening was for a very serious consequence. He saw by it that the negroes in Jamaica were as firm as the rock of Gibraltar, and he would go away with the glad tidings on Saturday the 14th of this month of how highly their leader, the Hon. Marcus Garvey[,] was held by the people of his own race in Jamaica. Their leader left them for England, the country where every nation at times looked to for a proper adjustment of affairs. He was sure the Hon. Marcus Garvey would put the case of the Negroes fairly before the English people, and it remained to be seen what would be the result. He was glad to be in their Island and could assure them that he enjoyed every moment of it. He felt confident that their fellow members in America would appreciate everything that was done in this Island to make his stay here a happy one. Marcus Garvey. He said:— Fellow citizens, it is indeed a pleasure for me to address you in this public meeting this afternoon. I have selected this occasion to speak to you at this place, which marks the last days for at least five months of my stay in Jamaica. I leave Jamaica on Friday afternoon, the i3th[,] for England, where I am sent by the eleven million members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, representing the negro peoples of the world, who subscribe with the members of this Organization, to represent their interests there and in Europe. I feel it my duty before leaving Jamaica, to meet the black people of Jamaica face to face, so that I may understand them and they understand me, because my mission is on their behalf in common with every other black group of people all over the world. The time has come for the black man to set himself in his national environment. The time has come for the black man to set himself in his international environment. The time has come 174

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for the black man to set himself in his native environment. The time has come for the people all over the world to hear the black man. We remained dormant for quite a long time, not because we were breathless, but because we were abiding our time[.] The time has now come, and the world surely shall hear something from the black man. The world shall hear something from the black man, as they have heard from India, as they have heard from Egypt, as they /have heard from/ Ireland and as they have heard from the Jews. The black man shall make the world know that he is a fixture in the world, a part of God's creation, and as a man he commands the respect of the world, as he is quite capable to exert himself. For a long while it would appear that the black man was nobody, so that he was used as a foot-stool, he was used as a beast of burden, and that he was used for everything else but a man. The hour has struck. Negroes to-day realize their position in this world as good as any other race, their eyes, mouth, ears and hearts are all open to observe and seek their economical rights [,] their moral rights, their physical rights, their educational rights and their political rights, and by God's help they shall get it. By virtue of my position as President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, I am going to England and Europe to put your case truthfully, peacefully, honestly, intelligently and constitutionally before the Government of England, and what you shall receive, if it is not satisfactory to you then don't blame Marcus Garvey. I am sure that you are supposed to be governed under the same constitutional rights here as the people of England, because you are a part of the great British Empire and equality of rights for every man is laid down in the English Constitution—not half the Island in rags, a quarter in filth, naked and starved, while the other quarter goes on their way rejoicing. If I were a white man and saw the condition of Jamaica as I observe the condition of my race to-day, I would grieve over the situation and use every endeavour, as I am now doing, to ameliorate those conditions, but I am not a white /man/, and therefore, I see no reason why I should interfere with the white man. I am a negro and whenever a negro is grieved, I am grieved; whenever a negro is starved I am starved and whenever a negro is naked I felt as if I am naked also. It is for that and other reasons why I promise to lay down my life for this race, as other men had done. As leaders of the early Britons suffered before they were freed from the Romans, so I have promised you a[n]d I am serious about it. All I want is your earnest support. M r . Garvey explained the colour question—mullato, Brown, sambo, black, etc., in Jamaica, and stated that those sections of the race have helped to keep the negroes down, as one group was pulling against the other believing 175

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that one was greater than the other.' He would however explained [explain] to them that even if their eyes were as blue as the sea, so long as there was a drop of negro blood in them they were negroes, so in order to live in harmony, peace and love, they should all realize they were negroes in Jamaica, as they were real negroes in America. He urged on the audience to join the Kingston Division and to make it a real Division worthy of the name it bore. He explained the aims and objects of the Association and had copies of the preamble of the organization distributed to those who were ignorant of it. He referred to Mr. H. A. L. Simpson, S. A. G. Cox and other men, who stood up for the rights of the negro people of this country, but from lack of a proper understanding of how to appreciate their own, those men were not supported in their efforts to bring about a better state of affairs, hence we found to-day that[,] as a black man rose above his fellow men who helped him to that position, he forsook them and went to the class that appeared to appreciate him, but[,] from the heart, he was no better treated than the man in the gutter. He stated that he would sail at 4 o'clock on Friday for England and would be glad to see those who desired to say goodbye to him. Mr. Garvey was roaringly cheered[,] on his rising to speak, during his speech and at the end of his speech. A collection was taken up at this meeting. Nearly £15 was collected. The meeting terminated with the singing of the British National Anthem, followed by the Ethiopian Anthem. Perfect order prevailed through/out/ the whole meeting. At 7. jo P.M. the usual religious service was held at the Liberty Hall. This was concluded at 8.45 P.M. and another Mass meeting in the form of a sacred Concert went on until 10.15 P.M. Miss Davis addressed the audience on the good work of Mr. Garvey and asked the members to pray for him during his absence. Mr. [Charles] Johnson—the president, Mr. [Clifford] Erlington— the first Vice President and Mr. D. Sterling—an old member, all spoke on the new spirit infused in Kingston particularly and throughout the Island since Mr. Garvey's arrival, and requested one and all to faithfully and cheerfully carry on the work during the President General's absence. The Liberty Hall was crowded from end to end and a collection of over £5 was received. C H A S A . PATTERSON J A , file is(v) D : I : 0 : 2 2 / 2 8 . T L S , recipient's copy. 1. The majority of Jamaicans in the 1920s were blacks, descendants of peoples brought to the island as slaves from West and Central Africa. After decades of miscegenation, some 20 percent of the population were of mixed African and European heritage. The racial terms Garvey denounces were popularly used to differentiate between these mixed-race Jamaicans by gradations of skin color. These terms include mulatto (the child of a parent of African descent and a parent of European descent), Sambo (the child of a black and a mulatto parent), quadroon (the child of a white and a mulatto parent), mestee (the child of a quadroon and a white parent), and mestefeena (the child of a mestee and a white parent). Prior to emancipation, the mestefeena were regarded as white by law. Whites make up only about 1 percent of the Jamaican population, which also includes many people of East Indian, Asian, and Middle Eastern extraction (Barry Floyd, Jamaica: An Island Microcosm [New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979], pp. 57-59)-

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Report on Marcus Garvey by Detective Charles A. Patterson Detective Office, East Queen Street, Kingston, 13th April 1928 M R . M A R C U S GARVEY'S DEPARTURE FROM THE I S L A N D — A C T I V I T I E S OF T H E U . N . I . A .

Detective Inspector, I beg to report that Mr. Marcus Garvey will sail to-morrow (Saturday) at or about 4 P.M. for England, instead of to-day, as the boat on which he is to sail—the S. S. "Green Brier"—is a day late in coming into Kingston. Mr. Ernest Benjamin Knox, Mr. Garvey's personal representative in the United States of America, in connection with the U.N.I.A. propaganda, who has been in the Island since the 27th of March this year, and who has been the guest of Mr. Garvey since his arrival, will also leave the Island to-morrow for New York. He will sail on the S. S. "Sixaola," which leaves at about the same hour as the S. S. Green Brier. A résumé of this week's activities is as follows:—Monday 9th April. A farewell reception was given to Mr. and Mrs. Garvey at their home on the Lady Musgrave Road, St. Andrew, by prominent members of the Kingston Division and other well wishers of theirs. This function lasted from 7.3011.40 P.M. 100 guests were present. The Committee on this reception were, Mr. A. W. Henriques—Contractor and Builder of this City, and as rumour has it, one of the wealthiest black men in Jamaica; the Rev. S. M. Jones— Chairman of the function; C. W. Walters—a clerk employed at the Kingston Male Prison and a landed proprietor residing at Price Street, Jones Pen, St. Andrew; P[ercival] A. Aiken—A draughtsman and Electrician and also a landed proprietor residing at Ocean View Avenue, Kingstonf;] J. C[oleman] Beecher1—a printer carrying on business at the lower floor of the Salvation Army Headquarters at North Parade; Leo. Grant—Merchant tailor doing business at Orange Street[;] Miss H. V. Davis—the 4th Asst. President General and her friend Mrs. A. Stewart of Mon Repos, Half-Way Tree, Mrs. Eva Gray—landed proprietress of No. 14 Heywood Street, Kingston and Mrs. Gertrude Jones—a sea[m]stress and landed proprietress residing at Benbow Street, Admiral Town, St. Andrew. Among the guests present were, Leslie Bu/r/ke,2 J. P., St. Thomas, A. W. Walters—contractor of Builder, Windward Road, Kingston; Rev. J. Gordon Hay; G. T. Allen—Furniture dealer and Commission Agent of 72 Princess Street, Kingston; J. J. White—Contractor and Builder, Highholborn Street, Kingston, I. C. Fraser—clerk at the Passport & Permit Office, Ex-Sgt-Major of Police and Pensioner; F. R. Evans3—Solicitor of this City and many others with their wives. 177

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An address accompanied with a purse containing £50 was presented to Mr. Garvey by Mr. Henriques. The address contained the remarks that they came there that evening to wish Mr. Garvey a bon voyage on his trip to England; that they regarded him as their leader and the ablest leader of men in this 20th century, that they were assuring him of the fact that they would keep up the reputation of the U.N.I.A. in his absence and would do all they could to further its advancement; that they felt sure whatever was done by him in England and in Europe would be well done in the interest of the race and that they would look forward to his happy return to Jamaica. Mr. Garvey in replying to the address said he admired the spirit that persuaded them to carry out the reception on his and Mrs. Garvey's behalf, and that was the spirit of the new negro. He felt that was the way they should live—the white man enjoying his best in life with his friends in his way, and the black man enjoying his best in life with his friends in his own way, and yet both sides were doing every good for the sake of humanity, not half the world in luxuries and ease and the other half in poverty and distress. He was going to England where he felt he would be heard by men, who knew the sympathy of humanity, and the sympathy that should be extended out to humanity. He would be heard by men who were themselves reformers, and where records of noble men who paid their lives on the "block" and under circumstances too gloomy for him to reiterate, were to be found, because they were reformers. He would be listened to by men who understood politics and who appreciated politics when intelligently, truthfully and peacefully explained. He was relying under the Constitution of England to accept the sympathy of the British people and he should do all he could to put the case of the negroes clearly before them. He had already had the assurance of members of the Labour party, the Conservative party and a lot of the wide awake people of England to extend to him a hearty welcome in England and everyone in Jamaica, who called himself a black subject[,] could rest assured that he would do everything possible for them. He would ask all of them to keep together, live as a race, and uphold the honour and dignity of the Red, the Black and the Green. Tuesday 10th April. The Drama entitled "Ethiopia at the bar of Justice," was staged by Miss H. V. Davis in the Ward Theatre. Mr. Garvey and Mr. Knox were present. The gathering was a fair one. The admission was 2/-, i/6d and 1/-, respectively. This function began at 7.45 and concluded at 1 1 . 1 0 P.M.

Wednesday 11th April. The annual Nomination and Election of Officers of the Kingston Division took place at the Liberty Hall, No. 76 King Street. Mr. Garvey presided. Mr. Knox and Miss Davis were also in attendance. The following was the result:— President:—Mr. C. D. Johnson, the retiring President, was again reelected, beating Mr. P. A. Aiken 561 votes to 26. Mr. Johnson will now receive a salary of £ 2 per week. Particulars of Mr. Johnson have already been given. 178

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1st Vice-president. Mr. Clifford Erlington—tailor doing business at 123 Luke Lane and lives at 9 3/4 Slipe Pen Road; a young man of 31 years, very intelligent, courteous, much respected; married. 2nd Vice-President:—J. J. White—again re-elected non-opposed. (Already mentioned in the first party [part] of this report.) 3rd Vice-President:—A. S. Burton—a local rubber Stamp maker; does a very lucrative trade; resides at No. 70 West Street, a tenement house; very intelligent, very popular, much respected; between the ages of 35—38, unmarried. Secretary:—H. V. Roberts—A young man of 22 years of age, very intelligent, a Senior Cambridge Honours man, honest, courteous, much respected, neatly dressed at all times, talks but seldom; very attentive to duty; unmarried; gets a salary of 30/- per week[.] He is also supported by his parents, who are residents in the Republic of Panama. Asst. Secretary:—S. M. DeLeon, a customs clerk, lives at Franklin Town; very intelligent; not popular. Treasurer:—D. E. Williams, resides at 14 Sarah Street, Allman Town, Kingston. Owns premises in Matthews Lane, Allman Town, and Smith Village. Carries on a Pawnbroker's business on the Spanish Town Road; married; between the ages of 45 and 50, quiet disposition, very honest, much respected and popular. Lady President:—Mrs. Jestina Gunter, a prominent type of woman, stout, well set up, speaks with a forceful voice as that of Miss Davis, married— husband not a member; resides at 32 East Street; recently from Nassau; independent; respected, popular and courteous, colour brown. 1st Lady President:—Mrs. G. Wilson, carries on a cloth business in Luke Lane, resides at the corner of Luke Lane and Charles St.; resided in the Republic of Costa /Rica1 for many years, very stout and tall, weighs about 240 lbs, courteous, respec/t/ful, charitable, very popular. 2nd Lady-President:—Mrs. E. Simpson—carries on a restaurant at the Liberty Hall, Kingston, lives at Allman Town, landed proprietress, courteous, and popular. 3rd Lady-President:—Miss E. Spence, a young girl of about 27; lives at Craig Town, St. Andrew; very intelligent and well respected, a good reciter and full of amusing stories; a dress-maker by profession. Trustees:—(1) Leo Grant (already mentioned in the first part of this report). (2) G. T. Allen—Already referred to. (3) G. P. Llewellyn—lives at Woodrow Street, Jones Pen, St. Andrew. An ex-Detective Corporal of Police. Has his own place; much respected. As this work lasted from 7.30-11 P.M. no speeches were made. Thursday April 12th:—An address similar to the one read and presented to Mr. Garvey at his home, was read by Mr. S. M. DeLeon and presented to Mr. Garvey by Mr. Fraser. Another address was read and presented by Mr. P. A. Aiken to Mr. E. B. Knox. Both Mr. Garvey and Mr. Knox replied on similar lines as Mr. Garvey's remarks on Monday. 179

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS T h e Liberty Hall was packed from end to end on this occasion.

Many

shed tears when the parting hymn " G o d be with y o u till w e meet again" was sung. This function lasted from 7.30 to 10 P.M. M r . Garvey remarked that arrangements have been made in England for his first speech to be delivered in the R o y a l Albert H a l l 4 — t h e largest T o w n Hall in England. C H A S A . PATTERSON JA, file i5(v) D:I:0:23/28. T L S , recipient's copy. 1. John Coleman Beecher (1886-1959), bom in western Kingston, was a motor transport executive with Jamaica Utilities Ltd. He served on the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation council on two occasions. A sportsman, he founded and edited the Beechers Cricket Annual and served as secretary for the Lucas Cricket Club (Eppie D. Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, + May 1989; G&G, p. 207). 2. Leslie Burke (1884-1974) was born and raised at Bath, St. Thomas. A distinguished member of the black landowning class of Jamaica, he was the proprietor of a sixteen-hundred acre estate comprising Llandewey, near Yallahs, and Mount Sinai in the parish of St. Thomas, both of which he inherited from his father, Charles Simeon Burke, in 1918. He was a member of the parochial board for St. Thomas and was appointed a justice of the peace in 1923 (interview with John Burke, Pluckley, Kent, England, by Robert A. Hill, 12 August 1989). 3. F. R. Evans (1875-1959) served for thirty years as a medical officer at Hardley Hospital in the easternmost Jamaican parish, St. Thomas. He retired in 1933 (Edwards to Hill, 4 May 1989). 4. Royal Albert Hall is located in London on Kensington Road opposite the Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens, two and a half miles west of the Houses of Parliament. It was built at a cost of £200,000 between 1867 and 1871 as a memorial to Queen Victoria's prince consort. It has a seating capacity of more than nine thousand (A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to London [London, New York, and Melbourne: Ward, Lock, & Co., 1904], pp. 126-127; Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, eds., The London Encyclopedia [London: Macmillan, 1983], p. 709).

180

MAY 1928

Front Page of the Negro World

ÎWÂffiorïti »»«Iii nhWd MW YOU, SATURDAY. MAY l I«

VOL. xxiv. rw U

Marcus Garvey, Off For Europe, Sends Greetings To Followers Fclow-Mcn of rhc Negro Race. Greeting: I am aboard ship with just a minute of time to sail for F.uro|\e 1 hail to rush, for the ship sails three hours earlier than was scheduled. so that the time I should have taken to send you n long message is gone 1 desire to say. however, thai all is well. With (¡oil's help. I am in good lighting form anil you may depend on mr to do all lor you during my stay in Kurope It is expected that our enemies will mate all ertorts to einharrasi uv hut if you keep firm and loyal all will work nut tn our satisfaction The Hon. L B Knox. I ady DAVIS, my wile and secretary are all here with me for thefinalgd-hye. All of us feel happy and are locking forward to great success. Be cheerful and determined, for the future i: krforc J» whh great promise. bunny my absence in Furupe I am asking that all the Amenvan Divisions support the parent body ai New York and all the foreign divisions support the parent body at Kingston. JcTdua. H W. I Mr Knox will be in charge of die American Headyuaner« and Lady in ;harge of the Foreign Headquarter« at Kingston. Jamaica My tinii n up fur sailing, so | must say good hye With very best wishes I have the honor to br O.IVIS

Kingston Harbor. Kingston. Jamaica. B W I April 14. 1928.

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(Source: NW, 5 May 1928.) 181

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Article in the Negro World [ N E W YORK, M a y 1 9 , 1 9 2 8 ] H I S T O R Y IN T H E M A K I N G

The importance of the Hon. Marcus Garvey's visit to Europe cannot be overestimated. The leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association is not in Europe on a holiday tour, as some may suppose, nor is he there seeking to clear his name of any taint which may have attached to it in the course of his battle against the mighty forces of hate and prejudice and chicanery here. His visit to Europe was slated to take place in 1924, but the incidence of his persecution, prosecution and imprisonment deferred the event. In the prime of life, hale and hearty, his superb health restored in the balmy atmosphere of the "Isle of Springs,'" his power and prestige among his group reinforced, Marcus Garvey is today in Europe, the charnel-house of Negro progress, on a serious mission. The great protagonist of African redemption has, as is his custom, decided to beard the lion in his den and state the case of the new and awakened Negro in plain and brutal-frank terms. And there will be a far greater repercussion on this occasion than when he invaded the lair of the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. 2 The Negro has year in, year out, begged and pleaded for decent treatment and fair dealing. Liberal white men have off and on raised their voices in protest against the policy of oppression adopted by the powerful in their dealings with the Negro. Far-seeing men and women of every race and nation have, in moments of candor, warned smug white complacency of the danger which threatens when the abused black giant shall come out of his coma. Men like our good friend, Dr. [W. E. B.] Du Bois, have cavorted in European lecture halls, holding "Pan-African" Congresses, 3 in which the lone Piper was Pan and Africa the frightened lass; attempting to solve the most vexing problem of the age by attending garden parties of the near-great, then returning to America to write engaging travel stories and heavenly poems and to revel, in retrospect, in the exquisite delights of a tetea-tete with H. G. Wells or Lady [Nancy] Astor. 4 But never has a black man, who glories in black, compromising, craven phrases spurning, earnestness and sincerity written on his face, told the European oppressors of the Negro race that the demand of black men for a square dealing must be heard and that black men will, if need be, shed their blood, even as other races have, to obtain and regain the things which belong to them. And this is what Marcus Garvey will do. The Universal Negro Improvement Association has many powerful friends throughout Europe who see in the program of Marcus Garvey the only guarantee of future world happiness. He will know how to profit from contact with these friends. There are friendships he will have an opportunity of cementing, and new friendships will be made. Those who fear and hate equally 182

M a y 1928 with those w h o approve and admire will be given the opportunity o f their lives to hear and understand the point o f view o f the N e w N e g r o , whether in Africa or abroad, expounded by a man pre-eminently fitted to do so.

When

he leaves Europe the mists o f misunderstanding will have rolled away, the f o g will have lifted, and if men and w o m e n still walk into the Thames, theirs will be the blame. O n the sixth o f June from the platform o f the R o y a l Albert Hall, 5 L o n d o n , the best loved and best hated N e g r o in the world will speak to the English people, as only he can speak, in behalf of four hundred million Negroes, and the world will be listening. history is being written.

A n important chapter in N e g r o

A n d whether the chapters to follow shall chronicle

the peaceful pursuit o f happiness and a race's desire, or a troublous, critical crusade, is, perhaps, n o w being determined. Printed in NW, 19 May 1928. 1. A reference to Jamaica. The Arawak Indians (also called Tainans) were the first people to populate Jamaica. They originated in the Guiana region of northern South America and migrated northward to the islands of Antilles ca. a.d. iooo. The Arawaks called Jamaica Xaymaca, which means "well watered" or "isle of springs." Although Columbus attempted to rename the island after St. Jago, the patron saint of Spain, it was the descriptive native name and not the colonial appellation that was retained (The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List [London: Waterlow and Sons, 19+0], p. 344; Clinton V. Black, History of Jamaica [London: Collins Sangster, 1979]). 2. A reference to Garvey's meeting with Ku Klux Klan Acting Imperial Wizard Edward Young Clarke in Atlanta, 25 June 1922 (Garvey Papers 4: 679, 707-715). 3. A reference to the Pan-African Congresses of 1919, 1921, 1923, and 1927. Du Bois organized the first congress in Paris with Blaise Diagne. Fifty-seven delegates attended, representing areas of Africa under colonial rule, Britain, the British West Indies, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, the French West Indies, Haiti, Liberia, and the United States. Although representation by Africans was low, Liberian president C. D. B. King and South African activist Sol Plaatje were among those in attendance. Proceedings were moderate and reformist, steering clear of direct criticism of European colonial rule and in some cases pleading for better collaboration between African elites and colonial powers. African representation improved at the second congress, which met in a series of sessions in London, Brussels, and Paris in 1921. The sccond congress was more successful in upholding the principle of African self- determination than the first. It also resulted in the formation of the PanAfrican Association, led by Du Bois and Candacc Beton. The association was beset by financial problems and tensions between African-American and francophone members. It had crumbled in dissension by the meeting of the third congress, which convened in sessions in London and Lisbon in 1923. The third congress was sponsored by the National Association of Colored Women. Bypassing the French, the congress focussed on improving alliances between Americans, the British, and representatives of the British colonies. The fourth Pan-African Congress was held in New York in August 1927. It was attended by 208 delegates from twelve countries, the majority from the United States and the West Indies (Elliott Rudwick, IV. E. B. Du Bois: Voice of the Black Protest Movement [i960; reprint ed., Urbana: University of Illinois, 1982], pp. 208-235; Imanuel Geiss, The Pan-African Movement: A History of Pan-Africanism in America, Europe, and Africa, trans. Ann Keep [New York: Africana Publishing Co., 1974], pp. 234-262). 4. Du Bois's fictional writings included the novels The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) and Dark Princess (1928). British historian H. G. Wells was among those invited to attend the Third Pan-African Congress in 1923. Du Bois made his first trip to Africa following the close of that congress; his writings on the trip were tinged with romanticism. Garvey also refers to Lady Nancy Astor (1879-1964), the American-born wife of Waldorf Astor, who succeeded her husband in the House of Commons, becoming the first woman to sit in Parliament. Garvey frequently criticized Du Bois's romantic removal from practical political affairs and for his association with white elites (Elliott Rudwick, W.E.B. Du Bois, p. 231; Arnold Rampersad, The Art and Imagination ofW.E.B. Du Bois [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976]; Garvey Papers 5: 437-442; WBD).

183

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS 5. Garvey spoke at Royal Albert Hall as scheduled on 6 June 1928. The program included opening remarks by E. B. Knox, solos by Ethyl Oughton Clarke, a choral selection of "Negro Spirituals," including Garvey's "Keep Cool," Garvey's main address, and closing remarks by Charles Garnett (Programme: Oratorical Appearance in London of Hon. Marcus Garvey, D.C.L. [Royal Albert Hall, London, June 6th, 1928]).

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[57 Castletown Road, West Kensington, London, May 21, 1928]] ENGLAND D O E S N O T L A G BEHIND U . S . IN PREJUDICE TOWARD THE BLACKMAN Fellow-Men of the Negro Race, Greeting: I have not written to you for a couple of weeks because I have been extremely busy looking after your affairs. I feel, however, that you have kept the faith and that you are reasonable enough to consider that I must have been engaged not to have sent you the usual weekly message. There is much to do in representing our great cause in Europe, and I am about doing it. C H A N G E IN E N G L A N D

I am now in England,' and the country has changed much since my last visit in 1914. I anticipated the change, however, and I often spoke of it in my public addresses and writing during my stay in America. England has become as prejudiced toward the black man as America, if not more. England has been ruined, in this respect, by the cheap, good-fornothing, notorious, white American tourists. These cheap notoriety-seeking bluffers have scattered their prejudice everywhere over Europe so much so that a decent black man has a hard time finding accommodations or lodgings in any of the first or second-class hotels. I lodged at the Hotel Cecil, 2 the best hotel in London, for two days, much to the displeasure of the low-class white Americans who were guests there; but my stay there was made possible simply because they knew beforehand who I was. If it were not for that I, no doubt, would have been refused accommodations through being a black man, like any other black man. TRAVELING INCOG[NITO]

White staying at the Hotel Cecil, I decided to make a round of London (incog) to visit other first and second-class hotels to find out their attitude toward the black man. In one day I visited fifty hotels seeking reservations for myself and party. Wherever I went, as I approached the door, there was a sudden whispering among the guests and the employe[e]s so that when 184

MAY 1928

I approached the clerk, generally there was the excuse that all rooms have been taken and the hotel is now overcrowded. This is the marked change I have observed since my last visit here, because in 1914 before the war and before the Americans started to flock to England, the black man was given accommodations at any of the first or second-class hotels. In one hotel where I was booked by a lady clerk with courteous welcome, I was given by her my reservation card for myself and wife and another card for my secretary. According to the customs of this country, we had been booked, therefore, all arrangements for the reservation were complete with the understanding that our baggage would be sent over from the Hotel Cecil that afternoon. This was done not because we desired the accommodation, but because we wanted to test their attitude, as explained. When we immediately moved away from the desk where the young lady had booked us, an old American woman rushed up to the front from the sitting room and shouted to the clerk in the hallway, "Porter!" When the man approached her she whispered something to him as to suggest that they were about to entertain "Niggers." The porter immediately rushed to the desk where the booking clerk was, whom they called, and the three of them rushed out into the little ante-room nearby. Just as we were about to leave, one of the attendants asked us to wait awhile. In a short time the lady clerk who had booked us came up apologetically and stated that she was sorry but the rooms she assigned us "had been taken."5 The foolishness of this statement was made manifest in the fact that we held reservation tickets for the rooms. This is a flagrant breach of contract, as you may observe. I have not had time to go into the matter with my attorney to secure damages and to prevent the white Americans carrying out this subtle design to prejudice Europe against the black man. However, I gave the hotel attendants and the American woman a piece of my mind and in the meantime I informed them as to who I was. When we left the hotel all of them seemed to be quite excited. The incident, however, goes to show the peculiar prejudice Europe is assuming toward the man in black. There is no doubt that this American, like all others, must have been telling the European people that the Negroes will eat them up, being cannibals and savages. The experience, however, is opportune in that it helps to concrete [cement?] my belief that the white man's prejudice is not sectional; therefore, we must meet it as a universal problem. B I G M E E T I N G IN L O N D O N

On June 6th we shall stage in the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, S. W., our opening declaration for justice, freedom and human rights. All London already is talking about this meeting and we are hoping for a big time. All my efforts have been toward this end. HEADQUARTERS E S T A B L I S H E D

Our headquarters is already set up here and we are in splendid working order with a staff of ten. 185

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS All members and friends w h o desire to write to me for the next four months may address me at U . N . I. A . , 57 Castletown R o a d , West Kensington, W . 14, L o n d o n , England. P R E P A R I N G STATE PAPERS We are n o w working on the drafts o f our state papers that w e are to present to the Governments, Crownheads, the League and H a g u e o f E u r o p e in behalf of the race. M y desire is to see all sections o f the race lined u p as one to push our great cause forward. Y o u may depend on me to d o m y part, and I feel sure that at the sitting o f our next convention w e shall be well on the w a y to success. Cheer up. W i t h very best wishes, I have the honor to be Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY President-General Universal N e g r o Improvement Association Printed in NW, 9 June 1928. Original headlines abridged. 1. Marcus Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, and Hazel Escridge sailed for England from Kingston on 14 April 1928. They arrived in Liverpool at the end of April and traveled to London, where they established a temporary headquarters (Baltimore Afro-American, 28 April 1928; NW, 5 May and 9 June 1928). 2. The Hotel Cecil was one of the major hotels in London in the 1920s. Located near the Savoy Hotel on the south side of the Strand and extending to the Embankment, its rates placed it among the most expensive hotels. The thirteen-floor structure was known as the largest hotel in the world at the turn of the century. The building filled two blocks, covering both Salisbury and Cecil Streets. It had over a thousand rooms and banquet facilities for some fifteen hundred people. It was built on the site where Salisbury House, the mansion of the Third Marquis of Salisbury, Robert Cecil, once stood. Cecil (1830-1903), who conducted the British role in the South African War (1899-1902), was prime minister and foreign secretary of Great Britain at the turn of the century (1885-1902). The capitol of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was named Fort Salisbury (now Harare) by the British South Africa C o . in his honor in 1890, in order to foster closer ties with the imperial government (A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to London [London, New York, and Melbourne: Ward, Lock, & Co., 1904], pp. xv-xvii, 193; R. Kent Rasmussen, ed., Historical Dictionary of Zimbabwe/Rhodesia [Metuchen, N.J., and London: Scarecrow Press, 1979], pp. 283-284). 3. As Garve/s experience showed, it was not uncommon for first-class London hotels to refuse accommodations to black people in the interwar period. Even distinguished blacks well known in their professions were turned away from hotels in keeping with the informal color bar. Charles E. Mitchell, American minister to Liberia, was refused accommodations in London on his way to take up his post in West Africa in 1931. Robert Abbott, Paul Robeson, and George S. Schuyler were among other prominent black Americans refused a place in London hotels. Amy Jacques Garvey confirmed their experience in her memoirs, stating that she and Garvey had had difficulty securing lodgings in Britain in 1928 "on account of the prejudices against Coloured people" (G&G, p. 180). Nancy Cunard referred to the Garveys' experience of the color bar in The Negro, reporting that the audience at Royal Albert Hall reacted with expressions of "visible shame" when Amy Jacques Garvey addressed them on the issue in June 1928 (Nancy Cunard, The Negro: An Anthology [1934; reprint ed., New York: Frederick Ungar, 1970], p. 283; see also NW, 18 April 1931; Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain [London and Sydney: Pluto Press, 1984], pp. 356, 364).

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M A Y 1928

Article in the New Tork Times [[London, May 26, 1928]] REFUSE H A L L TO GARVEY

Marcus Garvey, the self-styled Emperor of Africa, who arrived in London last week and hopes to interview the Colonial Secretary [Leopold S. Amery] 1 with the view of acquiring part of the African Continent for the establishment of a Negro State has been rebuffed by the Liverpool authorities. Garvey, who announced that he will hold a monster meeting in the Royal Albert Hall, in London, applied to the Liverpool Corporation for the use of St. George's Hall there for lecture purposes, but permission was refused. Printed in NYT, 27 May 1928. Original headlines abridged. 1. An October 1928 British Colonial Office memorandum notes that Garvey sought a meeting with Leopold Amery to present a grievance for his exclusion from British colonies in the Caribbean. Amery decided to reply with "regrets that he is unable to see his way to grant an interview," even though he was advised that such refusal would give Garvey "an opportunity of posing as a martyr." Colonial officials then debated whether Garvey should be allowed to sec a lesser minister in the West Indies department, who would be instructed to tell him that exclusion decisions were solely at the "discretion of the local Governors," and thus out of the colonial office's control (memorandums of n October, 12 October, and 13 October 1928, P R O , C O 318/399, file 76634-2865).

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[London, May 28, 1928]] Fellowmen of the Negro Race, Greeting: I am hoping that every member of the race is thinking, as I am at the present time, in terms of racial self-reliance and progress. ANGLO-SAXON ACTIVITIES

Located, as I am, in an environment of Anglo-Saxon activities, I am very much impressed with the great possibilities confronting us as a growing and ambitious people. GREAT AND MIGHTY CITY

London is a great and mighty city, the largest in the world. All that one can see around is the result and product of the white man's brain and energy. I am wondering how long it will take the Negro to duplicate the white man's

187

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

achievements in nation-building and government. It seems so easy, with a little bit of determined effort, to put over a program like that of the U.N.I.A. N E G R O TO F I N D H I M S E L F

I am determined to use all the power and influence I have to help the Negro to find himself. Here in Europe, and particularly in England, even as in America, the Negro is lost to himself; everything is the other man's. The Negro is regarded as a child of circumstance and an unfortunate object of charity. This should not be so. The time has come for the Negro to be a man. STRIKE OUT I N D E P E N D E N T L Y

Not until the black man strikes out independently to do for himself and proves his mettle in nation building, commerce, industry, politics and war, will he be rated as one of the forces of the world. T I M E IS O P P O R T U N E

I am praying for the time to come when the black man will be so impregnated with the ambition and desire to be great that no power on earth can keep him back. The time is opportune for a great demonstration of impressing the world with the black man's objects and aspirations. He must make up his mind not to take a second place, not to fawn and bow before the mighty forces of opposition, but like a man climb over every barrier, never resting until he sits on the pinnacle of his ambition. SPEAKING TO H E A R T OF E U R O P E

In another week I shall be speaking in person to the heart of Europe. Already there is much uneasiness among certain people as to what I am going to say. A certain part of the press here is very uneasy and they have been suggesting to the authorities to stop the meeting because they are afraid of hearing the truth, that which generally sets men free. But it will be a very hard and difficult thing to stop Marcus Garvey when he is ready to speak on any question affecting the Negro, and he is surely going to give them as much trouble to stop him in Europe, as he did in America, until the Negro is free. I N E U R O P E TO B E H E A R D

I am in Europe to be heard on behalf of the Negro and shall be heard. Another section of the press is quite fair and reasonable, so that opinions are equally divided. The fellows who have been exploiting Africa, also the Negroes in America and the West Indies, are afraid to have the truth told to the conscience of Europe so that they are working hard to prevent me speaking, but things are not done here as they are done in America where politics has no morals. Here you must show just cause and reason before you can interfere with the liberty of a man and surely I shall make them show this. It is 188

MAY 1928

time that the conduct and methods of these exploiters of N [eg] roes be told to the people of England, and, incidentally, the people of Europe, and I am going to do it. W O R K IN E U R O P E

You may rest assured that my work in Europe will be thoroughly done. All I ask is that you keep the home fires burning. After my departure home I feel that a new era will open in Europe for the black man. I say "black man" because he is the man that must be lifted—for it seems that everywhere everybody of color is attempting to pass off either as an Indian, Cuban, Egyptian or something else. It is difficult for the Negro to pass as anything else, for he is black. We must endeavor to make a strong black race to impress the world so that others will not try to avoid us because of any peculiar treatment to us because we are black. Some of the colored race leaders from America and the West Indies are here passing as Indians, Arabians, Persians, so as to escape the black man; the black man, therefore, must buck up and elevate himself. It takes organization, determination, grit and money and all the other necessary forces to make the Negro what he ought to be, and all of this you should put behind the U.N.I.A. so that we may change the outlook of the black man and emancipate the African, indeed. I am urging every black man and black woman to work harder now than ever before to see that the black race is elevated and standardized; to do otherwise is to live in misery and die in disgrace. T H E W O R L D AND Y O U

The world does not care a smack about you, now, and shall never worry about you until you amount to something. Nobody cares a hang about you; they are only trying to deceive you, so my advice to you is to brace up and buckle on your national armor and go forward to elevate your race and liberate your country. You do this by [pursuing?] the course of good will and good judgment under the leadership of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and for that reason I ask you in America, Africa, Central and South America, and the West Indies and all over the world, to rally to the program of the organization. RISKING ALL

I am doing my best for you. I am risking all because I realize that the work must be done and some one has to do it, so well may I do it as anyone else. F O O L I N G THE B L A C K M A N

In America, Africa and the West Indies, the game has been played to fool the black people. Fellows like Du Bois in America are being used to fool all of us. Even fellows like H. G. De Lisser of the West Indies are being used to keep down the Negroes of the Islands. We must be careful and refuse to 189

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

follow such leadership. When the history of our work is to be written, you will find that men like Du Bois have done more harm than good. Negroes, for God's sake, be careful of such leadership. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General, Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW, 16 June 1928. Original headlines omitted.

190

JUNE 1928

Nejjro World Cartoons

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T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

(Source: NW,

2 June 1928.) 192

JUNE 1928

Speech by Marcus Garvey [[Royal Albert Hall, London, June 6th, 1928]] M r . Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen— fellow citizens of the British Empire— I am here this evening as the President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, an organisation of 11,000,000 negroes in Africa, the United States of America, South America, Central America, Canada, and the West Indies, to present to you the claim of our race upon your civilisation. ASSUMED LEADERSHIP

For more than 500 years you assumed a leadership over us, much against our will, the result of which took us into slavery, and we laboured as such slaves for 250 years in the country now known as the United States of America, and for 230 years in the countries known as the West Indies—British, Spanish, and French. I can well remember when [you,] the English, entered upon the slave trafficf.] John Hawkins, who you afterwards elevated to knighthood, in seeking a charter to empower him to take slaves from Africa, from Elizabeth then Queen of England, said that he wanted this charter to empower him and others to take the slaves from Africa for the purpose of civilising and christianising them. Under a pretence of christianising and civilising them the Queen signed the charter. That traffic removed millions of black men, women, and children from the West Coast of Africa to your Dominions and Colonies in the West Indies and in America. T H E B U R D E N OF S L A V E R Y

As I have said, for 250 years we struggled in America under the burden and the rigours of slavery. We were brutalised; we were maimed; we were killed; we were ravaged in every way. Then in America a man sprang up by the name of Abraham Lincoln, and in 1865 he liberated the American negro slaves. A woman by the name of Victoria the Good, the Queen of England, in 1838 emancipated the West Indian negroes. To-night we have on the platform here native sons of Africa, descendants of the slaves in the western world, negroes of America and negroes from the West Indies. We have come to tell you how we feel about it and what we want done at the present time to prevent a recurrence of what happened to us hundreds of years ago. PRESENTING A C A S E

In presenting this case I want to do so with the best of feeling towards all concerned. I came to England under instructions from those millions of people to approach you, through your Government, through public opinion, 193

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

through your King and through the crowned heads and the Governments of Europe, especially those that have dominions at the present time in Africa. England, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, have assumed within the last 50 years the right politically to parcel out the land of our fathers without anybody saying a word to us. At the Versailles [Peace] Conference, at the League of Nations, the representatives of those Governments created certain mandates without asking us—nearly 300,000,000 people—one word about it. We are here in Europe to say something about it. We are here to let not only Europe but the world know that the new negro is not going to be railroaded into slavery, into becoming a peon, into becoming a serf, as was so easily done in the centuries gone by. (Applause.) A F R I C A FOR THE A F R I C A N S

We are men; we have souls, we have passions, we have feelings, we have hopes, we have desires, like any other race in the world. (Applause.) The cry is raised all over the world to-day of Canada for the Canadians, of America for the Americans, of England for the English, of France for the French, of Germany for the Germans—do you think it unreasonable that we, the blacks of the world, should raise the cry of Africa for the Africans? (Applause.) T H E EVIL M I N D

Somebody with an evil mind has placed a wrong interpretation upon our motives and upon my expressions. They have tried to make me all kinds of things. They tried to make me a Socialist and a Bolshevist, and when they found out that I was neither they said I was a crook—(laughter)—and they sent me to prison as a favour (they said) to the coloured people; and after they kept me in prison for two years and ten months and found it was not a pleasure but a grave displeasure[,] they found an excuse to commute my sentence, and then they deported me from America. I thought of coming from America at the request of my Organisation to speak to the English people about whom I read so much and about whom I heard so much for their liberal attitude towards all men; I thought I would have had a fair hearing in England to present a clear case not only for the Organisation I represent but for the negroes of the world, and to clear my character. The first thing they said about me when I arrived here was that I was a desperate crook—and the person who wrote that about me never saw me, knew nothing about me, had had no dealings with me; but he and others were willing to state a case against me so as to prejudice the success of this meeting, without investigating. W E N T TO P R I S O N FOR E M P T Y E N V E L [ O P ] E

D o you know what I went to prison for? They said that some unknown employee of mine, because I was President of the Black Star Line, a steamship corporation, and an auxiliary of the Organisation that I represent now, posted 194

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a letter to somebody; in the evidence an envelope was presented to the witness which he identified as addressed to him, but he could not identify any letter contained in the envelope, and the prosecuting attorney presented it in evidence as a fair assumption that the envelope bore mailed matter from the Black Star Line, of which I was President, and because of that—an empty envelope—I was sent to prison in America for five years. (Cries of "Shame")—and you call me a criminal for that; and the newspapers in England have published only that evil side of it without seeing the good that the Organisation which I represent has done in its 14 years of existence. What have we done in 14 years? In 14 years we have organised 11,000,000 black men. (Applause.) We have made an effort to prove to you who have helped us—some of you, with very good intentions—to help ourselves that we were capable of doing something for ourselves. We started a steamship line called the Black Star Line, the object of which was to offer an opportunity to the negroes in the western world who were desirous of going back to Africa as missionaries and as settlers to help develop their country; preparing the way for that we started a commercial relationship with the near-by negroes of the West Indies and America—a big fruit company in America 1 that has exploited the negroes of the West Indies for 50 years and piled up a reserve of nearly 1,000,000,000 dollars—starting with one little three-masted schooner and to-day having a steamship line of 150 ships—when they saw that we were in earnest and we were making a serious effort to help the negro from a commercial point of view, they influenced the politicians and influenced servants of the American Government, bribed our employees, so as to make it impossible for this little venture of ours to succeed. B L O C K I N G T H E S U C C E S S OF N E G R O E S

After they had done everything in conjunction with others who were desirous of preventing us from entering into any serious business proposition, after they had destroyed the possibility of success, they found some person to comp[la]in and after some pretence, they indicted me for the failure of the company; they found somebody who would vouchsafe to say that he bought stock in the Black Star Line on my urge, on my request. After indicting me they seized the books of our corporation with 35,000 names and sent out a questionnaire to the 35,000 stockholders of the corporation asking them if they were satisfied with the investments they had in the undertakings of Marcus Garvey; did Marcus Garvey influence them to buy stock, and so on—there were over 100 other questions—and out of the 35,000 they got 20 people to say that they were dissatisfied. Those 20 people were all employees of the American Government. Those are the people they used to convict me in America. SECRET SERVICE EMPLOYEES

In addition to the fact that for six years 25 per cent, of our employees were secret service agents of the United States Government, it is peculiar also for you to realise that the Counsel-General [William Matthews] 2 to me and to my Organisation, on whose advice I acted—I not being an American citizen 195

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but a British subject, not knowing the American laws—the Counsel-General of our Organisation and to me, paid, like myself, from the common funds o f the Organisation, an American citizen who was responsible for the legal phase of our business—while he was in our employ he was also in the employ of the Government. When I was indicted by the Government they called him out from serving us as Counsel-General, and, after convicting me, they made him Assistant Attorney-General of the United States. If anybody should have been indicted the Counsel of the Organisation who gave the advice to the Organisation, should have been indicted. They did not indict him, however; they indicted the President who acted on the Counsel-General's advice; and after the President was convicted they honored the Counsel by making him Assistant Attorney-General o f the United States. Those are the morals o f politics in America. And I am surprised that the English Press should influence the English public to condemn me without a hearing, trying to state that I am a criminal and an ex-convict, under those circumstances. A VOICE: Because the principle exists here just the same. ANOTHER VOICE: T h a t is r i g h t .

THE HON. MARCUS GARVEY: Order, please. Now, I am not here to present my story, but I am forced to make a statement so as to clear the minds of you, and I regard you as good friends, who have come here in spite of all the vicious and wicked things that have been said—you have come to hear what I have to say on behalf of my race and on behalf o f my Organisation; though secret propaganda has been engineered to prevent the success of this meeting simply because those who were chiefly instrumental in my imprisonment in America and those who profit most by interrupting the success of this Organisation, desired to do that. It is such a grave question that I will endeavour to present it briefly in parts. But erase from your minds that I am here as an ordinary criminal trying to influence you to do something that is not right. I am here because I am in earnest; because o f my love not only for my own race but because o f my love for humanity. (Applause.) T H E INTERVIEWERS

Since I arrived in London the many interview[er]s of your race who came to see me only wanted to know if we intended to use force in getting possession o f Africa, and they wanted to know what part of Africa, and all the rest of it. We are not evil minded. As the Chairman said, we believe in righteousness. We have a righteous cause, and we are going to present it from that angle. But you Britishers, you Englishmen, who have suffered as much as we have suffered, because you, although far removed from the period to-day, were as much slaves hundreds o f years ago as we were slaves sixty, seventy, or eighty years ago in the western world; you grew out o f slavery, the slavery

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imposed upon you by the Romans; you have developed wonderfully to the point where you are in a position to-day to treat with others. A VOICE: That is why they are good slave-masters. THE HON. MARCUS GARVEY: We want to place you mentally back into the position that you were in in 55 B. c. when you were slaves to the Romans. Surely you do not feel well about it. It is because of that that you have become such a sturdy race, determined that you shall never be slaves again— that Britain shall ever rule the waves, and that Britons never never shall be slaves.3 As you feel about it, so do we feel about it. (Applause.) You arc human beings; we are human beings; we are not asking for anything that is unfair and unreasonable; we are only asking for the right to re-posscss ourselves of our country[.] (Applause.) Would you like anybody to go into your country and dispossess you of it? Surely not. You love the old Homeland too well, too much, for that. So to-night we come to you Englishmen and Englishwomen, you who form public opinion, before going to the Government; because we interpret government as only an Executive for the people. Before we go to the Government we go to the people to test the sentiments of the people so that you can, by that sentiment, direct the attitude of those who represent you from an Executive point of view. We do not contemplate rushing on the Government without proper preparation, for the Government to excuse itself by saying, "Well, we are not instructed to do this and we cannot assume the responsibility of doing this." That is why we have come to you in your public for[u]m to get your opinion about the matter. Wc want to find out if you Englishmen, if you Englishwomen, who make up the bone and sinew of your nation, intend that Africa must be exploited, must be taken away f[ro]m its native peoples, that black men from Africa must be kicked about all over the world without a home, without a vine and fig tree of their own. If you say you empower your Government to carry that out, then we will know exactly the attitude of the English people and how to deal with the matter. But we do not believe that the hearts of Englishmen and Englishwomen are so depraved, so unreasonable, so unfair, so unjust, as to instruct their Government to go into the black man's country and dispossess him of every bit of his native rights in his own home, and, if he goes abroad will tell him—as a lady told me in Hyde Park4 last Sunday—"Go back to your country," when I asked a question of a speaker speaking on the anti-Socialist platform. SOMETHING SERIOUS

Now, this is something about which you ought to be serious. If you want me to go home, should not you make it so, if you can help it, that home is really home to me, and I ought not to be forced to make that home in other lands where I am not wanted. The joke of deporting a negro from America[!] Have you looked upon it from the humorous point of view? It was all a joke 197

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to me. I never took myself to the Western World. They, of their own free will, went 300 years ago to my native land, where I was happy and at peace with myself and with my God, and took me into the bosom of their own country, and then after 300 years deported me. Now, is it not a joke? (Laughter and applause.) They claim that I am an undesirable alien. Just imagine, after 300 years, a negro becoming undesirable in America. It is such a huge joke that we have not finished laughing at it yet. But those are the little things that weaken you, that weaken white civilisation, in the eyes of the thinking darker peoples of the world. Those are the little incidents that cause us to think that you are not serious. NOTHING

UNREASONABLE

We are not here to do anything that is unreasonable. We are here to present a just claim. You who know your relationship with the negro know that we have done everything possible to assist and to help you. The history of the centuries tells it. In nearly all your wars we assumed a common responsibility with you so as to preserve the Empire. Why, we ourselves are responsible for adding so much domain to your Empire. Nearly all your possessions in Africa were made possible by the blood of our men under your direction. The West India Regiment, which you have just disbanded, the West African Regiment, that you have just disbanded, tell a tale in history. You used the British West India Regiment to add nearly all West Africa to your Dominions—(applause)— you used the West Indian and African negro soldiers in the last war to take over all the territories that you have taken over from Germany. 5 (Hear, hear.) Not only have we fought to add new territory to the British Empire, but we have fought to save the American Union; we have fought to make American independence possible. The first man who shed his blood in America for the independence of the American Colonies was a black man in Boston Common by the name of Crispus Attucks. In the Civil War, the black soldiers saved the day many a time.6 The great Theodore Roosevelt that you have heard of—Theodore Roosevelt the Blessed—he was saved to serve his country and humanity not by his own Rough Riders but by black men. 7 BEARING WHITE BURDEN

Do you not know that we have gladly borne your burdens for hundreds of years? The cotton mills of Lancashire, the great shipping port of Liverpool, tell the tale of what we have done as black men for the British Empire. 8 The cotton that you consume and use in keeping your mills going has for centuries come from the Southern States of the United States; it is the product of negro labour. Upon that cotton your industry has prospered and you have been able to build the great British Empire of to-day. (Hear, hear). Have you no gratitude for a people who have helped with all that God gives them to give in fellowship and in good grace to others? We are not before you tonight asking you to pay us for 300 years of labour in slavery. No! We are only 198

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asking you now for common justice. With the terrible system of dishonour that existed in Europe you were forced into a great war—the War of 1914 to 1918; a War that never concerned me; a War that never concerned any black man in the world, because for the last 3,000 years the black man has been a man of peace. It was your War; but when it was too much for you you called for help, and two millions of us black men went from Senegal, from the Sudan, from West Africa, from East Africa, from the West Indies, from the United States of America; and to-night the blood of our boys has soaked the soil and their bones are buried in Flanders where the poppies grow. Not for any political reason on behalf of the negro but in answer to the call to save the world for democracy and to protect the rights of weaker peoples. That was the urge that called us into war. T w o millions of us answered, and hundreds of thousands of us paid the price. T H E PEACE TREATY

At Versailles when the Peace Treaty was to be signed you called everybody in and you distributed the spoils of war to everybody. You gave to the Jew, Palestine; you gave the Egyptians a larger modicum of selfgovernment; you gave the Irish Home Rule Government and Dominion status; you gave the Poles a new Government of their own. But what did you give to the negro? (A VOICE: "Nothing.") What did you do to the negro? You threw his dead body on the streets of Cardiff, smashed the coffin and kicked the corpse about and made a football of it after he came back from the War. In America, 200,000 boys had hardly taken off their uniforms when, on parading in the streets, one of them was lynched in the very uniform of the United States in which they had bled on the battlefields in France and Flanders. Is that a just reward for service so generously given? Yet we are not sore about it; we are not vexed about it; we only want you people to know the truth; because we do not believe that the hearts of all Englishmen are bad; we do not believe that the hearts of all the American people arc bad. When I spoke of the lack of morality in politics in America I did not mean to infer [its lack] among the people, but I mean to infer without any reserve [that it is lacking] among the politicians now in power. (Hear, hear.) H O N O R E D TO B E C O N V I C T E D IN A M E R I C A

Now, I consider myself honored to have been indicted at the time and to have been sent to prison at the time under the Administration of such a rogue and vagabond like the ex-Attorney General of the United States of America, Harry Dougharty [Daugherty] 9 —the very man who engineered my indictment, plotted my indictment with others, was such a rascal that they had to kick him out of office and indict him for fraud in connection with 7,000,000 dollars of alien enemy funds, and whose only plea to the Jury was that he had an old mother; [b]ut because he belonged to the Party in power they convicted the 199

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other fellow who acted under his urge, and let him go. As I have said, I feel honored to have been indicted under the Administration of such a rogue. STATESMEN AND O T H E R S IN P R I S O N

When I was in the Federal Prison in America I was associated with whom? I was associated not with the ordinary criminal of the streets, I was an associate of and a fellow convict in compan[ion]ship with men like ex-Governor [Warren] McCray, of the State of Indiana, and of Senators and Congressmen of the United States; so you will understand that being imprisoned in the United States is not like being imprisoned in England. (Hear, hear.) Therefore you should not condemn me without trying me on the principles of English justice. I do not believe there is any law on your Statute book that would convict a man because some unknown agent of his posted an empty envelope. There is no such law on the Statute Book of England; yet you say I am a criminal because I was convicted on such a flimsy charge in the United States of America. But, men, let me show some of the things that are being done against us. My imprisonment in America was only the means to an end in the commercial and industrial schemes of men who are creating so much trouble in the world to-day. Take the great rubber shortage. T H E FIRESTONE COUP

There was a great rubber shortage from 1922 up till 1925 on the part of the Americans; 10 you English ha[ve] cornered the rubber market; you had all the rubber plantations under your control in the Malay Peninsula. The Americans had no rubber reserve. M r . [Herbert] Hoover acted as foster father for all American rubber interests." He set out to get control of rubber lands in any part of the world where he possibly could get control of them. Just about that time my Organisation in carrying out its serious programme of rebuilding Africa, through the help and influence of the educated negroes of the West going home, had completed an agreement with the Liberian Government for that Government to place at our disposal four sections of the little country of Liberia so that we could start our experiment in helping to build Liberia and make her worthy of a worthwhile negro State in West Africa. We sent four Delegations out to Liberia who were received by the President of Liberia and by the Liberian Government. An agreement was entered into; they advised us at what time we should start sending out our colonists to Liberia. Acting on their instructions and on their urge we spent fully half-a-million dollars in buying machinery and materials and in securing one of the best steamships afloat, known as the S . S . "General G . W . Goethals," a German liner taken away from the Germans during the War; she was a well-constructed boat of 5,500 tons; we bought her from the Panama Railroad Company and paid nearly 260,000 dollars for her and in purchasing equipments. After we had spent nearly half-a-million dollars, after we had entered into agreements with expert civil engineers and mechanical engineers and mining engineers, and had 200

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taken from a company in America one of their best expert civil engineers to be the Director-General of our work in Liberia, after we had everything ready, Firestone's agent found out that it was possible to grow rubber in Liberia. He, therefore, influenced the President of Liberia—Charles King, the man who had entered into a sacred agreement with us—to abrogate the contract between his Government and my Organisation and to place at his (Firestone's) disposal the land that was to be given to our Organisation. Without any advice, without any instructions, when our advance agents landed in Liberia, instead of receiving them, as they promised they would, they deported them. DOUBLE CROSSED IN LIBERIA

When the ships of the Bull Line arrived without [with?] material aboard, nearly 200,000 dollars worth of materials, they landed the materials and have kept them up to now. (Cries of "Shame.") They also gave Firestone 1,000,000 acres of land which they had placed at our disposal for colonisation purposes. Firestone was backed by Mr. Hoover, the Secretary of Commerce in America. Therefore you will understand that it was convenient at that time, in 1924, to rush me to prison, because just at that time I was able to make not only trouble for Charles King, but for Firestone for double-crossing us in Liberia. I had enough influence to have unseated Charles King as President in the next Election. Firestone and the then American Government knew that; Mr. Hoover knew that I had enough influence in Liberia to prevent Charles King being returned for a third time as President of the country, and so as to weaken my influence and make it impossible for me to prevent King being returned, so that he and his Senate could ratify the agreement, they thereupon railroaded me for five years and kept me there for six months after Charles King was re-elected. That is the kind of thing they do. The President of the United States of America said to the ex-Counsel-General of my Organisation, "I know Garvey has not done any wrong, but he was a bad business man." That President had it in his power not only to commute my sentence the very day I was sentenced but to pardon me, yet he never did anything until two years afterwards when it was convenient from a political point of view and from a commercial point of view to let me go; and then they deported me without giving me a chance of going back to my office in New York, where I represented the interests of 4,000,000 American citizens, involving millions of dollars—they called me a rogue and vagabond and did not give me a chance to go back to New York and straighten out the affairs of these people, although I asked to be allowed to do so, and the Secretary for Labour said "No." They commuted my sentence on the 24th November. The Executive authority said that my commutation release should be immediate, but they kept me until nearly the first day of the following month, without notifying me that I was commuted, and although I should have gone away from prison at that time. The reason was that they were devising schemes during those few days as to how they could get me out of the country without my returning to New York. Therefore, I never knew the condition of my commutation until I was on the ship. 201

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So you will realise that being imprisoned in the United States of America is not like being imprisoned in England, where you have morality and principle and justice and law before you can take away the name of a man and deprive him of his character. Consequently I appeal to you Englishmen and Englishwomen who are here to-night not to come to any hasty conclusion touching my character; because I feel it coming before you that, before my God, I can match my character against the character of any man in the world. (Applause.) I dare any man in all the world to say that I have ever defrauded him of one penny—any man in the world; I dare any man to say that I have ever defrauded him of a penny in all my life. (Renewed applause.) So that I trust you will not make it a point of prejudice against me and against the Organisation I represent that I was sent to prison, because that is a minor and an insignificant matter in considering the grave question that we have before us for setdement. REPRESENTING ELEVEN MILLIONS

As I have said, I am here as the representative of 11,000,000 people. They naturally will look towards any treatment meted out to me as a similar treatment meted out to them. I trust you will not make the mistake of thinking that the negro is so simple at this time as to accept any insult without returning it. (Hear, hear.) So that any rebuff you give as touching the representation I make on behalf of the people will not only be an insult to Marcus Garvey but an insult to 280,000,000 negroes whom I represent through the Universal Negro Improvement Association. A M B A S S A D O R S OF A R A C E

We look upon your representatives as the ambassadors of your race. We want to treat with them as honourable men. All this vile propaganda that you have read of within the last week is purely a misrepresentation of the statements I have made as touching the aims and objects of this Organisation.12 I gave clean and intelligent and above-board statements to the Press; they have not published those statements, but they have published things to make me a buffoon, to make me look ridiculous before you, and to defeat the object of this meeting here to-night. I want you therefore to know that the negro is no longer asleep. The intelligent representatives of the race are thinking; but we are intelligent enough to know that you should not be judged and held accountable for the conduct of men who do not truly and thoroughly represent you. F R I E N D S OF T H E W H I T E R A C E

We want to be the friends of the English people; we want to be the friends of the white races the world over; because neither the black race nor the white race nor the brown race nor the yellow race can achieve anything 202

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in the world lastingly except through peaceful methods. We want peace. The negro has always been on the side of peace. We arc not a vile people. You know our history throughout the last 3,000 years. We have committed no outrages upon humanity; we have committed no outrages upon civilisation; we have at our disposal to-day no great armaments; we have no battleships, we have no navies, we have no standing armies; therefore you must conclude that we are a people w h o love peace. Our attitude and our acts prove conclusively that we are not inclined to disturb the peace of the world. All we want is justice; and we are appealing to the hearts of you Englishmen at home and abroad to listen to the plea of bleeding Africa. T H E H I S T O R Y OF S L A V E R Y

I have recounted to you the history of slavery; I have recounted to you our present economic and social difficulties. In your respective countries you do not want us. We cannot g o to Australia and get a living; we cannot g o to Canada and get a living; w e cannot come to England and get a living; you will not employ us. Nearly 90 per cent, of the blacks in England are unemployed because you are prejudiced against employing us." That is not fair. In our countries we treat you with consideration. In the colonies where you send out your men both as emigrants and as colonial administrators, we treat them with the greatest courtesy. I have but to recall the treatment of negroes in Africa towards Stanley 14 and towards Livingstone 1 ' to show our disposition towards strangers. You sent consumptive Livingstone to us; he lived in our midst; we fed him; when he was sick we gave him medicine; when he died and we could do nothing more for him we took his dead body upon our shoulders and walked hundreds of miles through the forests of Africa and brought his remains to you, to the sea, whence you could remove them at your pleasure. The consumptive Cecil Rhodes' 6 went to Africa; we treated him with kindness and consideration. What is the result? They have made Rhodesia so that a black man cannot walk on the sidewalks of that country. That is not a fair return for all that we have done. We have laid our hearts and our souls bare before you. We have always been willing to suffer and to help you in all circumstances, in season and out of season; and therefore we arc only asking you now for a reasonable consideration of our case. A HOMELESS PEOPLE

We are 280 millions of homeless people, with no country and no flag. In America they make a joke of it that every nation has a flag but the coon. You will find that in mimicry and in song. To-night I am appealing to the hearts of you Anglo-Saxons, of you Anglo-Americans, to listen to the plaintive cry of the black man w h o has been abused for nearly 300 years in the Western World. I understand that a great scare was laid around me as a deterrent to holding this meeting here to-night. I want to say to you that up to now you do not understand the negro. You cannot scare the negro any more. (Hear, hear.) The negro is a man. We 203

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represent the new negro. His back is not yet to the wall; we do not want his back to the wall because that would be a peculiar position and a desperate position. We do not want him there. It is because of that that we are asking you for a fair compromise. W H E R E IN A F R I C A ?

Now, you have sent your agents to me asking what part of Africa we want. It is for you to decide; it is for the British Government to decide; it is for the French Government to decide, it is for the Governments of Belgium also and of Portugal and of Spain, all in conference with us, to decide what part of Africa they will place at the disposal of the natives so that they can live in peace in their own native land. (Applause). The Belgians have control of the Belgian Congo which they cannot use— they have not the resources to develop nor the intelligence. (Hear, hear.) The French have more territory than they can develop; the Italians have more territory than they can develop; you English also have more territory than you can develop. There are certain parts of Africa in which you cannot live at all; now it is for you to come together and give us a United States of Black Africa. (Applause). If you want South Africa, you can keep South Africa. (Laughter). If you want East Africa we are reasonable enough even to say, "Have it." But we are going to have our part of Africa whether you will it or not. We are going to have it. (Applause.). Because we are not going to be a race without a country. God never intended it; and we are not going to abuse God's confidence in us as men. We are men, human beings, capable of the same acts as any other race possessing, under fair circumstances, the same intelligence as any other race. You do not know Africa. Africa has been sleeping for centuries—not dead, only sleeping. You have all read the story of Rip Van Winkle17 who got up and walked around. To-day Africa is walking around, not only on its feet but on its brains. (Hear, hear.) You can enslave, as you did for 300 years, the bodies of men, you can shackle the hands of men, you can shackle the feet of men, you can imprison the bodies of men, but you cannot shackle or imprison the minds of men. (Applause). N o R A C E HAS THE LAST W O R D

N o race has the last word on culture and on civilisation. You do not know what the black man is capable of; you do not know what he is thinking. You are thinking in terms of battleships, of dreadnoughts, of submarines, of aeroplanes. D o you know what we are thinking about?—that is our private business. (Applause). So give us credit for being able to use our minds; and with people becoming conscious of themselves, determined to use their minds, you do not know to what extent they can go. Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men. And I am here to-night as a representative of the new negro, the new negro in finance, the new negro in art, the new 204

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negro in literature, the new negro in music, the new negro in economics, the new negro in science. Gentlemen, do not you know that one of the ablest scientists of the world to-day is a black man in the Tus[k]egee Institute of Alabama in the United States?18 D o you know what a scientist can do for the world[?] you had a little fellow over here the other day—I believe his name was Matthews—who had an idea that he had discovered the death ray, and everybody's eyes were set on him. France wanted the secret; England wanted the secret; America wanted the secret; but when they got hold of him they found he had not discovered anything yet. (Laughter.) But the new negro is also thinking in terms of perpetual motion; the negro is also thinking in terms of the hidden mysteries of the world; and you do not know what the oppressed and suppressed negro, by virtue of his condition and circumstance, may give to the world as a surprise. F O R C E D TO D O T H I N G S

D o you know that when men are forced to do things they do them with greater effect than when they are not forced to do them? Are you going to force us into a corner where we have to think, and think evil? I trust you will not do that. For God's sake do not force 280 million black men to think evil; because probably a unit of that great number may think so dangerously as to be a menace to the world; by the time it gets up with him he will have gone away with the world. D o not force us to think that way. Give us a chance to live in ease as you are living, so that we may have a chance to bring out those latent, hidden powers which made a Newton,' 9 which gave us a Darwin and a Huxley. 20 We are capablc of giving such men to the world if we are forced into a corner to think. But, as I have said before, we are a peace-loving people. We love humanity; we love your race not for social fellowship but in the common brotherhood that God intended we should live. We love the white race because we believe the white race has a right to peace and happiness and all those things conducive to a happy life. We believe the yellow man has such claims, and we are not going to deny ourselves the privilege. T H A N K S FOR A T T E N D A N C E

I thank you for coming out here to-night, and I compliment you upon the independence of spirit which has forced you to come to this meeting; because you could have adopted the attitude of other Englishmen who are not here to-night, under the persuasion of the propaganda to destroy me, holding me up in the way that you have read of—the fact that you have come here shows that you are in search of information. I would not for one minute accuse all Englishmen of dishonour; I would not for one minute accuse all the white American people of dishonour; I have good friends in America, and I think I recognise one of them in the audience here, a man who has stuck by me all through because he believed that we were right; he represents one wing of his 205

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS race, the purity side o f his race, and he has been struggling for that and w e have upheld that; w e honour his organisation for that; 21 w e want to see a pure white race, and w e are going to work so that w e are going to have a pure black race. A M O N G R E L POPULATION Circumstances sometimes create conditions over which w e have

no

control. M e n w h o are thrown into foreign places where their o w n people d o not domicile naturally do not d o things because they are right but because they are convenient. Those are the side shows and incidents w e will not discuss, but the bigger issue reveals the fact that w e respect the white race remaining as it is, and w e also demand that y o u allow the black race to remain as it is.

(Applause.)

In the Colonies you have treated us unfairly; y o u went to

Africa and y o u have given us there a mongrel population; in America also y o u have given us a mongrel population—nearly 4 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 people—and so w e are aggrieved socially. But w e are not going to press this grievance; w e are only going to ask y o u to give us a fair chance, a fair opportunity t o express ourselves in terms o f reason. ( L o u d applause) [. . ,] 2 2 Printed pamphlet, London, ca. June 1928. different subheadings. Text abridged.

Reprinted in NW,

30 June 1928, with

1. This is a reference to the United Fruit Co. (Henry P. McCann, An American Company [New York: Crown Publishers, 1976]; Garvey Papers 2: 193 n. 2, 3: 544 n. 2,545 n. 6). 2. William C. Matthews (1877-1928) was an assistant U.S. district attorney in Boston and a special assistant to the U.S. attorney general as well as counsel for the UNLA (Garvey Papers 2: 329 n. 6). 3. A reference to James Thomson, Alfred (1740) act 2, sc. 5: "When Britain first, at Heaven's command, / Arose from out the azure main, / This was the charter of the land, / And guardian angels sung this strain: / Rule, Britannia, rule the waves; / Britons never will be slaves." 4. Hyde Park, London, a large landscaped public park located in Westminster borough, is well known for its Speakers' Corner, a meeting place where street orators and their audiences gather. Garvey often spoke there in the 1930s (CD, 20 May 1940; A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to London [London, New York, and Melbourne: Ward, Lock, & Co., 1904], pp. 116-117). 5. East Africa was the focus of the longest African campaign during World War I; it lasted four years, from 1914 to 1918, as the British sought to conquer German East Africa and force the surrender of German commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. The British West Indian Regiment was among those that served in the East Africa campaign. They were joined by Europeans, Indians, and South Africans of European descent, but the brunt of the campaign was borne by black African soldiers. The British King's African Rifles Corps, for example, was made up of recruits from British East Africa, Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, and Uganda. There were more than thirty thousand members of the Corps when the East African campaign ended in 1918. Other African units that fought in the campaign were recruited from the Belgian Congo, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and Somalia; men were also recruited from West African countries. Africans served not only as soldiers but as porters and laborers, key functions for the British once German forces destroyed roadways and railroads. Thousands of Africans were used for this purpose. The result was, as one Mozambique newspaper stated, "an almost inconceivable wastage of human lives." Over fifty thousand Africans died in the campaign; the majority of these were not soldiers killed in battle but porters dead of exhaustion and disease (Melvin E. Page, "Introduction: Black Men in a White Man's War," in Africa and the First World War, ed. Melvin E. Page [London: Macmillan Press, 1987], pp. 12-15; direct quotation is from the Beira News and East Coast Chronicle, quoted in Page, p. 14). Companies of blacks from the British West Indian Regiment also served in the Anglo-French campaign against the Germans in the Cameroons (1914—1916), where the majority of soldiers, again, were African. The campaign resulted in Britain and France dividing the former 206

J U N E 1928

German colony between them (Byron Farwell, Great War in Africa [New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1986], pp. 68^71; Page, Africa and the First World War, p. 10). 6. When a call went out for northern volunteers to fight in the Civil War, many free blacks went to recruiting centers only to be turned away by War Department officials. Lincoln's policy in 1861 did not include emancipation, and it was feared that black participation in Union troops would cause a white racist response, particularly among white soldiers serving in border states between the North and the South. Frederick Douglass was a persistent advocate for black enlistment. His viewpoint was not accepted by government officials until a large number of slaves began to be taken as "contraband," and it became clear that the war was going to be severe and protracted. Blacks began serving on Union naval vessels in 1861; by the war's end, over one quarter of all seamen who served in the war had been black. By 1862 many white northerners were advocating use of black troops, some of them arguing that "the lives of white men can and ought to be spared by the employment of Blacks as soldiers" (editorial in the Philadelphia North American, quoted in Jack D. Foner, Blacks and the Military in American History [New York: Frederick Praeger, 1974], p. 34). In July 1862 Congress revoked the provision that excluded blacks from the military. President Lincoln, however, still refused to use blacks as combat soldiers, employing them only as laborers. In spite of this official policy, army officers began to establish black volunteer units in various areas, including Louisiana, South Carolina, and Kansas. In January 1865 the black First South Carolina Volunteers, led by white abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson, became an official regiment and fought in Florida and South Carolina. With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in the same month, enlisting black troops became part of Union strategy. The Fifty-fourth and Fiftyfifth Regiments were organized among free blacks in Massachusetts and the mid-Atlantic states, but the majority of black soldiers came from the South. By December 1863 over fifty thousand black men were serving in the Union Army; by the end of the war there were sixteen wholly black regiments, and almost two hundred thousand blacks had served in the army. These members of the U.S. Colored Troops won praise as excellent and courageous soldiers, and blacks were among those awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their valor in battle. Despite the quality of their performance, black soldiers suffered severe discrimination. Kept in segregated regiments, they received low pay and little pension funds, had few opportunities for advancement to officer rank, and were provided with worse provisions and equipment than white troops. Many were assigned to the most dangerous and physically taxing construction details, such as the building of fortifications and the digging of trenches, and those engaged in fighting went into combat with less training than that afforded their white compatriots. They suffered more casualties proportionately than did whites and received little medical care. Blacks (both men and women) also supplied an important function for the Union Army as spies (Foner, Blacks and the Military in American History, pp. 32-51). 7. Black Americans identified strongly with Cuba's war of liberation against Spain, and many former slaves joined the Cuban Army. Others were sent to fight in Cuba as part of four black U.S. regiments. Called "Smoked Yankees," these men were in the forefront of the fighting. Members of the black Twenty-fourth Infantry played a key role in the assault on San Juan Hill. Black cavalry were also critical to the successful assault on Las Guasimas. Rough Rider (and, later, Secretary of the Navy) Frank Knox praised black troops' bravery in battle, and Theodore Roosevelt told a black audience in New York that he did not think "any rough rider will ever forget that tie that binds us to the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry" (Foner, Blacks and the Military in American History, p. 79). The U.S. Army awarded five Medals of Honor and many certificates of merit to blacks for heroism in the Cuban campaign (Edward Johnson, History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War [Raleigh, N.C.: Capital Printing, 1899]). 8. Economic historians have argued that the Afro-Caribbean slave system was central to the development of the British mercantile economy and to the British industrial revolution. The sale and labor of slaves produced a trade network that provided investment capital used by industrialists, including the owners of the cotton mills of Lancashire, to finance manufacturing enterprises. The economy of Liverpool is a case in point. Liverpool was a major slave port in the eighteenth century and later a center of employment for black seamen and dock workers. At the end of the eighteenth century, one quarter of Liverpool's total shipping was devoted to the slave trade; slave ships owned by Liverpool merchants transported three-quarters of all African slaves bound for Jamaica. The trade was profitable; Liverpool merchants earned over twelve million pounds in the decade between 1783 and 1793, exporting some three hundred thousand slaves while importing freight—much of it produced through slave labor—from the West Indies for other merchants. Some of the profits made from this network of trade were invested in the British cotton and

207

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS textile manufacturing industries (Seymour Drescher, "The Decline Thesis of British Slavery since Econocide," Slavery and Abolition 6 [May 1986]: 3-24; Seymour Drescher, "Eric Williams: British Capitalism and British Slavery" History and Theory 26, no. 2 [1987]: 180-196; Eric E. Williams, Capitalism and Slavery [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1944]; Seymour Drescher, Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition [Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1977]; Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain [London and Sydney: Pluto Press, 1984], pp. 36-37; British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy of Eric Williams, ed. Barbara Solow and Stanley Engerman [Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987]). 9. Harry M. Daugherty (1860-1941) was U.S. attorney general in the Harding and Coolidge administrations. Appointed on 21 February 1921, he served until his resignation in March 192+ for reason of misconduct. Daugherty received the appointment as a political plum after managing Harding's bid for nomination at the 1920 Republican National Convention. Opposition to the appointment was widespread. The New York World and other papers published exposés citing a number of allegations against Daugherty ranging from the confiscation of campaign monies to the misappropriation of trust funds and questionable lobbying techniques. As attorney general, Daugherty made the reorganization of the Bureau of Investigation and the pursuit of labor and radical leaders his top priorities. He made J. Edgar Hoover, then twenty-six years old and a leading force in A. Mitchell Palmer's Alien Radical Division, the bureau's new assistant director. In February 1924 Sen. Burton K. Wheeler of Montana began a select Senate committee investigation into Daughert/s affairs. The investigation disclosed Daughert/s close association with organized crime, flagrant abuses of the authority to order surveillance and searches of citizens, and an income grossly incommensurate with his salary as attorney general. President Coolidge requested that Daugherty resign on 27 March 1924. On 7 September 1926 Daugherty was brought to trial in New York. He was charged with fraud for accepting a fee in return for arranging a quasi-legal payment of $7 million in bonds in compensation for German property seized by the U.S. Government during World War I (New York World, 25 and 26 February 1927). He was prosecuted by Emory Buckner, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and tried by Judge Julian Mack, who also presided at Garvey's mail fraud trial. Daugherty's 1926 trial resulted in a hung jury. Retried in February 1927 with his attorney pleading his poor health and family problems, Daugherty was released when a single juror held out against his conviction. His codefendant, Thomas Miller, U.S. custodian of alien property under Harding, was convicted and sentenced to eighteen months in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and a $5,000 fine. Daugherty later employed author Thomas Dixon— author of The Clansman (1905) and Birth of a Nation (1915)—to help him write a self-vindicating memoir of his career as attorney general. It was published as The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy in 1932 (reprint éd., Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971; see also New York World, 1721 February 1921; James N. Giglio, H. M. Daugherty and the Politics of Expediency [Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1978]). 10. The development of the rubber industry in Malaysia began in the mid-nineteenth century. By the end of the century, when most of the peninusla was effectively part of the British Empire, the industry was controlled by British investment. By 1916, the United States had become the primary market for rubber produced with British capital. In the postwar period the industry experienced economic depression and prices fell steadily. The British feared that Americans would attempt to capture the bankrupt rubber industry. Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill instituted a policy of British governmental control of the industry with voluntary support from the British members of the Rubber Growers' Association in the East Indies. Known as the Stevenson Scheme, the policy went into effect in the British Empire in November 1922. It limited the output of each rubber plantation to a set percentage, thus restricting exports just as rubber consumption was rising, causing panic in expectation of rubber shortages, and thus skyrocketing prices. American consumers were outraged, but the high prices caused by the British scheme were maintained through 1925 (Colin Barlow, The Natural Rubber Industry [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978], pp. 56-60). 11. Herbert Hoover was U.S. secretary of commerce from 1921 to 1928 ( WBD). 12. Garvey brought a libel action against the British weekly magazine John Bull for its 23 June 1928 article entided " A Nightmare Negro: Black Rascal's Platform Ramp." The piece depicted him as "one of the choicest humbugs of the age" and "one of the biggest scoundrels and imposters that ever blushed tinder the ebony hue of a negro skin." There is no record of the disposition of this case or the similar action mentioned here against the popular working-class Sunday newspaper News of the World, although it is known that the attorney for the defense contacted both the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and the Justice Department in an effort to obtain information about Garvey's trial and

208

JUNE 1928 imprisonment (Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam, and Roberts to Office of the Solicitor General, 21 July 1928; John T. Monks, solicitor, to Warden, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, 4 July 1928, A F R C , AP). After his Royal Albert Hall speech, Garvey cabled the Negro World to pronounce the speech a "great triumph for [the] organization in Europe," despite the "underground methods of the press" (16 June 1928). He continued to stress the theme of the abuse he received at the hands of the British press as he toured England. In his 2 July 1928 appearance at Parsons Green, he began his speech on the subject of libel by British journalists. Accounts of the speech, which was reported by an anonymous British informant, were filed with the U.S. Embassy in London, the U.S. Department of State, and J. Edgar Hoover. The report of the speech was covered with a memorandum stating that "it is considered here that this man has very little influence in this country" (memorandum, report on speech of Marcus Garvey at Parsons Green, England, DNA, R G 59, file 811.108 G191/29). 13. Black servicemen made a large contribution to the British war effort, but after demobilization at the end of World War I, black soldiers and laborers found themselves unemployed and subjected to racial hostilities. Many black immigrants from the West Indies and West Africa came to England during the war to work in munitions and other war-related manufacturing industries or in the major seaports, notably Liverpool and London. A majority of these immigrants remained after the war, when they faced rising unemployment. Many of them migrated to Cardiff in hope of finding work as merchant seamen, a field that had been relatively lucrative for blacks during the war. The postwar depression in the shipping industry combined with the return of white seamen from the military, however, had already put some fifteen hundred black seamen out of work and on to unemployment rosters in Cardiff. Blacks who retained jobs were relegated to low-paying positions as firemen and stokers. Racial friction increased, and race riots broke out in the summer of 1919, partly over white resentment of black labor. The riots marked a turning point for black workers, setting the tone for a downward spiral of unemployment and deteriorating civil status that extended into the 1920s. The civil situation reached a low in the mid-i92os, when passage of the Coloured Alien Seamen Order of 1925 required the registration of blacks and subjected them to police power, further crippling their already meager employment opportunities. Trade unions also championed the interests of white labor in opposition to the needs of blacks. The result was the unemployment of the vast majority of black men in Britain (Edward Scobic, Black Britannia [Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co., 1972], pp. 154-168). 14. Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), British-American newspaper correspondent, author, and explorer, was commissioned in 1869 to lead an expedition into central Africa to locate David Livingstone. With financial backing and publicity from the New York Herald, his guides eventually found Livingstone at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, thus assuring Stanley's international reputation. He led a second expedition on the Nile and the Congo in 1874-1877, leaving an account of the journey in his Through the Dark Continent (2 vols., 1878). In 1875 his party massacred a group of Africans in Uganda with slight provocation. His colonizing efforts in the service of King Leopold of Belgium in 1879-1884 resulted in the opening up of the Congo region to European commercial inroads and colonial administration (Mark R. Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen, Dictionary of African Historical Biography [London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1978], 225-226). 15. David Livingstone (1815-1873), Scottish missionary and explorer, founded a mission station in South Africa in 1841 and, later in the decade, began expeditions into northern Botswana and along the Zambezi River. In the 1850s he traveled by foot from Luanda, Angola, to Quilimane, Mozambique; during the journey he witnessed the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi River, located on the border of what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe, and gave the natural wonder its European name in honor of the British monarch. He resigned from the London Missionary Society after his Travels and Researches (1857) became a bestseller. He explored the sources of the Nile in the 1860s and died in Zambia two years after his meeting with Stanley. His travels through Tanzania, Zaire, Malawi, and Zambia helped publicize these areas in the Western world and open them to exploitation by European interests. His reputation in Europe as a beloved friend to the African— an image propagated by Stanley's portrayal of his career—was bolstered after his death when his body was brought to England by several of his African employees (Lipschutz and Rasmussen, Dictionary of African Historical Biography, p. 124). 16. Cecil J. Rhodes (1853-1902) was a British imperialist and financier in southern Africa. He made his fortune in diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa, founding the De Beers Mining Co. with Alfred Beit in 1880 and later amalgamating it with a rival company to form the monopolistic De Beers Consolidated Mines in 1888. He also controlled a great deal of Transvaal gold production through his Gold Fields of Southern African Co. In the late 1880s and 1890s he obtained rights of 209

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS sovereignty over territory north of the Limpopo River, and his company agents provoked war with the Ndebele, thus expanding British dominion over the region that was soon renamed Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He became prime minister of the Cape Colony (1890-1896), working to form a British-dominated coalition with Cape Afrikaners, pursuing individualized freehold land policies that undermined traditional African communities, and directing the suppression of the Ndebele. His secret plan in 1895 to instigate an uprising among European residents of the Transvaal and invade the South African Republic (Transvaal) from Rhodesia resulted in a fiasco and destroyed support from Cape Afrikaner leaders, greatly contributing to the outbreak of the South African (Boer) War in 1899 (Lipschutz and Rasmussen, Dictionary ofAfrican Historical Biography, pp. 198199; Robert Rotberg, The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power [New York: Oxford University Press, 1988]). 17. This is a reference to Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, the protagonist of the short story of the same name in The Sketch Book (1819), who fell into a magic sleep and awoke to find that the American Revolution had taken place without him. 18. This is a probable reference to George Washington Carver (1864-1943). Carver was born in Missouri, the son of slave parents. He graduated from Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa, with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science in Agriculture in 1896. He joined the faculty of Tuskegee Institute and became famous for his pathbreaking studies on industrial uses of the peanut and soybean, research which helped to radically alter the single-crop economy of the South by liberating it from primary dependence upon cotton. He was director of Tuskegee's department of agricultural research and a collaborator in the division of mycology and disease, Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture (NW, 10 January 1931; Arna Bontemps, The Story of George Washington Carver [New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1954]; Lawrence Elliott, George Washington Carver: The Man Who Overcame [Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966]). 19. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is credited with the invention of integral and differential calculus and the formulation of the theory of gravity (WBD). 20. Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895), a leading biological theorist, was the foremost advocate of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in England. He was the grandfather of Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), the author of Brave New World (1932) (WBD). 21. Possibly a reference to John Powell, president of the Virginia-based Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America, an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. A friend and associate of Garvey's frequent correspondent, Earnest S. Cox, Powell encouraged the members of his anti-miscegenationist organization to write letters in support of Garvey's release when the U N I A leader was incarcerated in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. He visited Garvey in prison and spoke at U N I A meetings in Garvey's defense (Garvey Papers 6: 201 n. 2, 232 nn. 5, 6). 22. The closing address by Charles Garnett (1855-1930), an Englishman who presided over the Royal Albert Hall meeting, has been omitted. Garnett was an adherent to the cause of the rights of Africans, and his beliefs had an impact upon Garvey's ideas. Born near Liverpool, Garnett was an evangelical convert in his teens and became involved in Methodist missionary and charity work in northern England in the 1880s. He served as a Congregationalist minister in Manchester from 1892 until 1898, then took a pastoral position in London. In the following year, possibly as a result of his involvement with two American religious publications, he was invited to conduct an evangelical tour in the United States and Canada. During the tour he became interested in racial issues, possibly through the influence of Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954), the feminist and racial rights activist, with whom he became friends. While in America he obtained a number of academic degrees from the American Temperance University of Harriman, Tenn., a small college that was founded in 1893 and closed in 1908. The value of these degrees (including an M.A., D.D., and L L . D ) was disputed when Garnett returned to England, resulting in a libel suit successfully defended by a son of Charles Dickens (who satirically suggested during the trial that Harriman resembled the City of Eden in his father's novel Martin Chuzzlewit). Garnett's racial views were shaped not only by his trip to the United States but by his interest in the teachings of the Theosophical Society, the universalist religious organization founded in New York by Helene Blavatsky (1831-1891) and Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) in 1875. Garnett became honorary secretary and a leading member in the English League of Universal Brotherhood and Native Races Association ( L U B N R A ) , an organization whose title echoed that of the Theosophical International Brotherhood League. In 1907, when L U B N R A took up the cause of a group of black South Africans who had come to London to press an ultimately unsuccessful suit over alienated land, Garnett was active in the league's efforts in their behalf. He spoke on the issue at the L U B N R A annual meeting and made it the basis of sermons from his pulpit. T w o years 210

J U L Y 1928

later Garnett traveled to South Africa under the auspices of LUBNRA and remained there seven months, founding a splinter organization called the New Fraternity. Not long after returning to London, he retired from the ministry in order to devote more time to the league, protesting racial discrimination by colonial powers in the London press. The circumstances that first brought Garvey and Garnett together are unknown, but Garnett and the ideas of LUBNRA seem to have played a role of some consequcnce in Garvey's development. Because of the context of their subsequent association, it appears highly probable that the two men met initially during Garvey's first residence in London in 1913-191+, possibly in 1913 through the organization called the World Conferences for Promoting Intcr-Racial Concord, established by the First Universal Races Congress held at the University of London in 1911. Early contact with Garnett and/or the activities of L U B N R A may have influenced Garvey in choosing the UNIA and ACL (a tide that contains two of the same principal words—"universal" and "league") as the name for the organization that he founded upon his return from England in 1914-. Garnett chaired Garvey's meeting at Royal Albert Hall less than three weeks after Garvey arrived in England in 1928, a fact that may imply prior acquaintance between the two. Garnett aided Garvey's cause in several respects, offering advice on Garvey's speeches and providing a connecting link between Garvey and London's Indian community. He spoke at a meeting of the Indian Student Association that Garvey addressed on 19 June 1928 and chaired Garvey's speech at the Century Theater on 2 September 1928 (DNA, RG 59, file 811.108 G191/51; E. A. Willats, London Borough of Islington Library, to Robert A. Hill, 19 August 1980; Kirby Van Mater, Theosophical Society, Pasadena, Calif., to Robert A. Hill, 23 November 1983; Chattanooga Daily News, 17 June 1903; Islington Daily Gazette, 5 December 1905, 29 October 1906, 19 February and 19 June 1907, 13 May, 4 August, 20 August, and 25 August 1909; Daily Chronicle [London], 7 January and 28 March 1907; NW, 30 June, 22 September, and 13 October 1928; "World Conferences for Promoting Inter-Racial Concord," Organizations Promoting Inter-Racial Friendliness [London, 1913], Minutes of Proceedings of the Speech by the Hon. Marcus Garvey on Sunday September 2nd, 1928 [London, 1928]; Owen C. Mathurin, Henry Sylvester Williams and the Origins of the Pan-African Movement, 18691911 [Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press, 1976], pp. 13+-135; Walter T. Pulliam, Harriman: The Town That Temperance Built [Harriman, Tenn., 1978], pp. 253-283).

Marcus Garvey to Frederick Fortune1 57 CASTLETOWN ROAD, WEST KENSINGTON, LONDON, W. 14, July 25, 1928 M y Dear Dr. Fortune: I am acknowledging receipt o f a letter I received from my friend M r . [T. T h o m a s ] Fortune, your deceased father under date o f M a y 18th. Since writing, I have learned o f his death. I should have written before to convey to y o u m y personal grief and sympathy, but I have been running around so much as not to have found it convenient.

I learned o f his death too late to have cabled

before the funeral. I want to state that I regarded M r . Fortune as a very g o o d friend and one w h o did his best to help in the w o r k in which I am engaged.

I shall

ever remember him for his painstaking effort in assisting to promote the best interest o f the N e g r o race.

Be assured that I shall ever think kindly o f his

memory. W i t h very best wishes, I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY President-General Universal N e g r o Improvement Association 211

T H E M A R C U S G A R V E Y AND U N I A PAPERS

Papers of T. Thomas Fortune. TLS, recipient's copy. General, European Headquarters, letterhead.2

On Office of the President

1. Frederick White Fortune (b. 1891) was the son o f veteran black journalist and civil rights leader T . Thomas Fortune (1856-1928) and Carrie Fortune. Frederick Fortune was born in N e w York, where his father owned and edited the New Tork Age and founded the National AfroAmerican League. He attended Shaw University (1910-1914.) and Meharry Medical College ( M . D . , 1919) and practiced as a surgeon at Mercy Hospital in Philadelphia. While he was receiving his medical degree and establishing his practice, his father began writing editorials for the Norfolk Journal and Guide and became first assistant managing editor and then editor o f the Negro World (1923-1928). In early April 1928 T . Thomas Fortune collapsed and was put under his son's care in Philadelphia; after a long illness he died 2 June 1928 ( N W , 9 June 1928; Emma L o u Thornbrough, T. Thomas Fortune: Militant Journalist [Chicago and London: University o f Chicago Press, 1972]; DANB; WWCR). 2. The letterhead identified 142 W. 130th Street, N e w York City, as the main head office o f the U N I A and 76 K i n g Street, Kingston, Jamaica, as the foreign head office.

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Berlin, Germany, 6 A u g . 1928]] GERMAN T H O R O U G H N E S S IMPRESSES M A R C U S GARVEY Fellowmen o f the N e g r o Race, Greeting: It is with a feeling o f hope and inspiration that I write t o y o u today from the capital city o f Germany. M y travels through Europe have brought me in close contact with the different race groups w h o inhabit the Continent. HOSPITALITY OF THE

FRENCH

I must say that I am very much impressed with the genial hospitality o f the French toward us as a race. M y stay in France was in every way a pleasant one, made so by the attitude o f the French toward the black man. I f there has been any unpleasantness it came not from the French, but f r o m the rude and vulgar white Americans w e met o n our way. With all my admiration for France for her social hospitality toward the black race, I pity her, because from my observations she has lost her strength, both moral and physical, and the future seems very dark for her, not only as an imperial power, but as a national entity in Europe.' BELGIANS M O R E FIT THAN

FRENCH

I have found the Belgians more morally and physically fit than the French. T h e Belgians were also courteous and hospitable. But for the contact with the vulgar white Americans w h o are flooding Europe at this time the black man would have no difficulties in traveling through any o f the European countries. It is fortunate, however, that the Europeans seem to pay no attention to the 212

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vulgar ravings of the upstart American tourists who try to create prejudice everywhere against the Negro. England is the only place where they have succeeded in building up a standard of prejudice toward the black man. This, I suppose, is traceable to the fact that the Anglo-American is closely related to the Anglo-Saxon, and that they speak the same language. Because of this England has become hateful toward the black man as America is from a social point of view. 2 IMPRESSED WITH G E R M A N Y

The country that I am most impressed with, however, is Germany. It is amazing to see how Germany has recovered. The Germans are sturdy, courteous and hospitable. This is my opinion of them.' GERMAN THOROUGHNESS

I admire them for their thoroughness. There is no fooling around Germany with the Germans. Every man is serious; he has a purpose, and apparently he is living for it. This is not so with the French; they are gay and lighthearted, and although they may engender hate for Germany and other races in Europe, they do not by moral and physical training prepare themselves to meet their enemy. Their greatest crime is dissipation, which weakens their manhood and character. This, no doubt, is why they have to be courteous and hospitable toward the black man, because to my observation and conclusion they are depending largely upon their Colonial Empire, which is mainly in Africa, for support in the time of trouble. The Germans, on the other hand, are depending upon themselves and their alliances. N E G R O TO M A K E H I S O W N F R I E N D S

I think the time has come for the Negro to court the friendship of the Germans, because with their high sense of discipline they can help the Negro to develop that kind of character that will act as a safeguard against the abusers of other peoples and the insults generally hurled at us because of our lack of character. The time has come for the Negro to make friends, and he must do so voluntarily. It is not necessary for us to ask the advice of any other race or people if it is right for us to make friends; we make them to suit ourselves. Therefore, I am advising the Negro everywhere whenever he comes in contact with the German people to make friends, because we will have more to gain than to lose in doing so. 4 BERLIN W E L L BUILT AND SOLID

Berlin is a well built and solid city, and I am thinking how easy it will be for the Negro to duplicate it in Africa when he starts with the same courage and determination to build as the Germans have done in Europe. Indeed, Germany reflects the progress of the Bismarckian era. Germany has had several strong men to sponsor her imperial development, but among the greatest of all 213

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is Bismarck,5 and the Germans have not failed to pay homage to him in marble and in painting for the great work he has done for the German Fatherland. We, as a people, must now produce our Bismarcks in industry, politics, science and, if necessary, in war. L O O K I N G AT THE W O R L D S E R I O U S L Y

We must look at the world seriously with a set determination to live as men and die as men. The world will not respect the black man until he has made up his mind to live or die as a man. The insults heaped upon us as black men are traceable to no other source than that we have not yet demonstrated to the people around us that we can die with as much grace and satisfaction for those things that are honorable and right as any other people in the world. INSULTS OF A M E R I C A N W H I T E S

It burns me when I think of the insults of the American white man toward the black man. His insolence is becoming overbearing, because anywhere you go, not only in America, but all over the world, you will find him trying to stir prejudice and insults toward the black man. We are not going to stand this very much longer, and we mean this as 400,000,000 men and women. We must make up our minds to return every insult as well as every compliment. This is how every black man and woman should feel throughout the world, and this is why we must have a country of our own. AFRICA MUST BE REDEEMED

Africa must be redeemed; Africa must become a great nation of blacks; therefore I am inspiring you to work as the Germans have worked, to carve out of the scattered tribes in Africa and elsewhere a united racial empire sufficiently strong and self-respecting as to invite the respect of other peoples. Our start toward nation-building may be late, but it is better late than never. Some of the strongest nations of Europe are but a couple of centuries old. They started under greater disadvantages than we are starting under today, and with the rapid stride of progress it is reasonable to assume that what it took them two hundred years to do it will take us but a couple of decades. When we look at Belgian imperialism traceable to only seven million people, we wonder what 400,000,000 black men are doing in the twentieth century not to be able to build up a strong and powerful nation of their own. N E G R O E S S H O U L D B E PROUD

Negroes like [W. E. B.] Du Bois who have decided to solve the race problem by the white race assimilating the black, as is being done in America, where every year five thousand Negroes pass over to the white race, will not see the reasonableness of our advocacy for a black nation, because they do not want to remain black. But those of us who are proud of our race, as proud as the Germans, English and white Americans, can see no other solution to 214

AUGUST 1928 this great race problem than the nationalization o f black men in the urge o f empire building such as will bring satisfaction to other groups w h o think o f themselves in terms o f nationalism. I can picture before me at this very minute in Berlin the rededication that we as 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 black people will make in the urge toward empire. SET HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS H I G H I am beseeching every branch o f our race, the American N e g r o , the West Indian N e g r o , the South and Central American N e g r o and the African N e g r o to forget every internal racial misunderstanding or grievance and set our hopes and aspirations toward the one great urge o f a free Africa and a united black race the world over. M U C H INFORMATION G A I N E D I have gained much by way o f information and inspiration in my travels through Europe.

I hope on my return to headquarters to be able to use

the information which I have for the great expansion o f the Universal N e g r o Improvement Association and the development o f the black race the world over. W i t h very best wishes, I have the honor to be Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY President-General Universal N e g r o Improvement Association Printed in N W , 25 August 1928. Original headlines abridged. 1. France's colonial territory, already amounting to some four million square miles before World War I, increased by some three hundred thousand additional square miles after the redistribution of German holdings following the war. These gains, though politically advantageous, placed a financial burden on France that it was ill-equipped to manage. Francc experienced a financial crisis in the last half of the 1920s as a result of debts acquired from World War I, the failure of reparations payments, and extravagant post-war spending. The value of the franc declined, and the national budget remained in debt despite raised taxes. Military service was reduced to one year in March 1928 and the franc was devalued in June; this seeming diminishment of France's military profile combined with the problems of the economy, which signaled hard times for the working class and capital investors as well as a crisis in government, undoubtedly influenced Garvey's perception that France was in a weakened state (G. Kurt Johannscn and H. H. Kraft, Germany's Colonial Problem [London: Thornton Butterworth, 1937], pp. 21-22; KWH). 2. Garvey's points on the relative attitudes of the French and the British were confirmed by a writer to the Daily Gleaner who used the illustration that "the French admit a Negro to the Senatewhile the English will not even admit him to an hotel" to describe the difference in practices in the two countries (R. S. Murray to the Editor, DG, 30 August 1934; see also Ignotus Et Cie to the Editor, NTAN, 14 May 1930). Joel A. Rogers echoed this opinion in an overview essav he wrote on race relations in Europe in 1930. He noted that Garvey, Roland Haves, Paul Robeson, and others had been barred from some London establishments but had been able to travel freely on the continent. He also took the impact of imperialism on racial status into consideration, writing that "in the British colonics black men are sometimes given positions of importance, but rarely, if ever, over white men, as in the case with the French" (J. A. Rogers, "The American Negro in Europe," American Mercury 10, no. 77 [May 1930]: 1-10, 6). Rogers also addressed the issue of miscegenation in Britain, pointing out that black men far outnumbered black women in England, so that the majority of black men were married to white wives. "These women," he wrote, "take great interest in their men's activities, and at the Marcus Garvey hall in the East End of London, they shouted the 'Back to Africa!' battlccry as enthusiastically as the men. Indeed, the London 215

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS leader of the Garvey movement was himself married to a white woman" (Rogers, "The American Negro in Europe," p. 9; see also N W , 2 July 1921, 8 August and 5 September 1925, and 18 April 1931; NTAN, 16 April and 30 April 1930; Ralph Ellison, "Black Yank in Britain," Negro Digest 2, no. n [September 1944]: 53-56). 3. Amy Jacques Garvey also wrote an editorial on her impressions of Germany. In it she commented on the enormous resurgence of economic strength and militaristic organization and discipline in the recently vanquished nation, and warned of Germany's imperialistic designs on territories outside her boundaries. She concluded her essay with a warning of impending hostilities and with the hope that "Negroes be warned in time, and not be used as tools again" in a war between European powers (NW, 8 September 1928). 4. After losing its African holdings at the close of World War I, Germany remained interested in the activities of black American organizations in its former colonies, especially those that advocated independence from British and French colonial rule. Although the colonial issue received minimal public attention in Germany in the years immediately following the end of World War I and the signing of the Paris peace treaty, it was revived and brought politically to the forefront during the Locarno conference of 1925-1926 and the negotiations involving Germany's entry into the League of Nations. By 1926, there were some thirty colonial interest groups that were active under the organizational umbrella of the ¡Colonial Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft ( K O R A G ) , headed by a former governor of German South-West Africa, Dr. Theodor Seitz. In January 1926, the K O R A G met and passed a resolution that was intended to make Germany's entry into the League of Nations conditional upon the return of her former African colonies. Although it was unsuccessful, the resolution served to renew public and political interest in the question of Germany regaining a colonial empire in Africa. By 1929 (the year following Garvey's visit to Berlin), the societies making up the German colonial lobby attained significant official support, as demonstrated by the attendance at meetings of the various societies by statesmen such as President Paul von Hindenburg, Franz von Papen, and Baron Konstantin von Neurath. Germany colonialists took an especial interest, immediately following the end of World War I and the peace settlement, in black American organizations advocating some form of political selfdetermination for German's former African colonies newly administered under the mandates system by Britain and France. The rationale behind such an interest would have the potential propaganda value to Germany deriving from African-American agitation against the mandatory system in Africa. Chief among the colonial interests at this time was the German Colonial Congress, an organization composed of former colonial officials who sought the return of Germany's ex-African colonies (NTT, 30 November 1922; Royal Institute of International Affairs, Germany's Claim to Colonies, Informational Department Papers No. 23 [London: Royal Institute of International Affairs; New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1938], pp. 25-26). 5. Germany acquired overseas colonies between 1883 and 1885 under the leadership of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck's colonial policy was in part a response to the work of German colonial organizations founded in the 1860s and 1870s that advocated the acquisition of colonies on the British model in order to expand German markets abroad. Popular support for colonialism was bolstered by the economic depression of the 1870s and by arguments presented by emigrationists that the establishment of colonies would revitalize German culture. Bismarck was also interested in using colonial holdings as elements in European political power brokerage, securing Germany's international position in relation to Britain and France. Bismarck rejected the pattern of colonial settlement favored by the emigrationists and established instead trading protectorates administered mainly by German commercial enterprises. Territories were acquired in West Africa (Togo and the Cameroons), Southwest Africa (Namibia), East Africa (Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania), and the South Pacific (including Kiao-chau, the Marshall Islands, New Guinea, and Samoa). Bismarck's actions signaled the beginning of a new phase of imperialism as Britain and France reacted in competition, claiming other African territories for themselves. Bismarck's opposition to central control of the German territories and support of administration by authorized trading companies, contributed to his loss of political support from colonists and his fall from power in 1890. Germany was required to surrender her colonies by the mandates of the Versailles Peace Treaty following World War I (A. J. P. Taylor, Germanfs First Bid for Colonies, 1884-1885 [London: Macmillan and Co., 1938]; Nary Evelyn Townsend, Origins of Modern German Colonialism, 1871-1885 [New York: Howard Fertig, 1974]; Woodruff D. Smith, The German Colonial Empire [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978], pp. 20-45).

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Speech by Marcus Garvey Century Theatre, Archer Street, Westbourne Grove, London, W. 11, September 2nd, 1928 M r . Chairman, ladies and gentlemen— fellow citizens! It was your Shakespeare who said:— There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.' Humanity is in the re-making, and every group is interesting itself in that re-making. I represent a group of 400,000,000 Black people who are engaged in this re-making—hundreds of millions of them in Africa, over 100,000,000 of them in India, relics of the African invasion of the earlier centuries; millions of them in South America, descendants of the slaves; other millions in Central America; and millions more in the country now known as the United States of America, and also the Isles of the West Indies, one of which I am from— known as Jamaica. T A L K ABOUT P E A C E

We are very much interested in your talk about peace. We are very much interested in your sentimental discussions of the future of the world. Just a few days ago M r . [Frank Billings] Kellogg, a good old man from the United States of America, journeyed across the Atlantic with a bit of paper; his purpose was to secure signatures to a Pact; the object of it was outlawing war and permanently establishing peace.2 To the thoughtful mind, to the sober intellect, the whole thing appears so hypocritical and false that I wonder really what is coming to the world. Those of us who have followed the trend of human events within the last half century know well and fully realise how corrupt the world is, especially the statesmanship of the world. A greater era of hypocrisy we have never had than that of the statesmanship of the Twentieth Century. How in the name of goodness intelligent men who claim to be leaders of great groups can imagine that they can, just by signing a bit of paper and making a few statements, put to rest the hopes of millions of down-trodden and oppressed peoples is something marvellous. 217

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS EVERYONE WANTS PEACE

Who does not want peace? Everyone wants peace. The black man wants peace—probably more than anyone else, because up to now for the last 3,000 years he has been a man of peace, the proof of which is that to-day you find him without any battleships or navy, without any standing army, without any big guns, and without any system by which we can take other people's rights or lives. Look around, and wherever you find a black man he is a man of peace. So do not mistake me, that I am for war. I am not. I am out for human justice, and I am sensible enough to know that so long as the robber retains the loot[,] the man who has lost his property cannot be at peace with his vicious neighbour or with anyone else whom he suspects. H o w , in the name of goodness, do you expect you can have peace in the world when you keep down 400,000,000 Indians, when you keep down 400,000,000 other black people, grind the blood and sweat out of them, kick them from pillar to post? Is it not a farce when you declare for peace without taking these people into consideration? Who represented the Indians at the signing of this Peace Pact? Not an Indian. Who represented the Africans at the signing of this Peace Pact? Not an African. Yet the lands of these people have been taken away from them; their homes have been ravaged; and those men think they are so smart that they can sign a bit of paper and all these black people will remain quiet for eternity. They are crazy. REPRESENTING BLACK RACE

I am here representing 400,000,000 black men who are serious— peaceably serious; in that we intend to adopt different means to achieve our ends than you have adopted. You have adopted shot and shell—brute force— to attain all that you have accomplished; and when a summary is to be taken and when a judgment is to be passed, Englishmen, I hope you will so act in the Twentieth Century that the crimes of the past will not stand against you. You believe in a God and you say He is to be the final judge of all men. D o you desire your God to judge you by your brute force, by your shot and shell, by your battleships and your dreadnoughts, and by your aeroplanes and the crimes you have committed or by the kindliness of your souls? You taught us about the God that we worship to-day. We had a different notion of God in the earlier centuries; it was the same Being[,] only we worshipped Him through objects we selected; and then you came and you said: " N o , you must worship Him in spirit and in truth." We have accepted your philosophy of God; we believe in Him; we believe He is the God of love, of mercy, of justice. We have adopted that fine philosophy of approaching Him and all things human through reason, through judgment, and through brotherly and fatherly love. That is why I am here this afternoon not as an admiral, not as a general of the army—we could have been—but as a fellow human being appealing to your reason and to your humanity and to your love of God, truth and justice. 218

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We 400 million black people desire, late though it be, to restore ourselves to the company of nations, with honour, so that we may show the way to the real peace about which these commercial statesmen are talking to-day, but do not mean, except to the extent of more oil monopolies, more diamond monopolies, more rubber concessions, more disarming of the weaker peoples whose lands are so valuable as to supply them, the monopolists, with the resources and wealth that they need. M R . K E L L O G G FROM A M E R I C A

M r . Kellogg came from America to hand in his suggestions about outlawing war. Yet America to-day is doing—what? America is doing the very thing that foments war. What America would not dare do to a powerful Empire like Britain, what America would not dare do to a powerful nation like France, what America would not dare do to a powerful nation like Italy—partners signing this Peace Pact—America, without any reserve, does to Nicaragua and does to Hayti. 5 How preposterous, therefore, for intelligent men to think that there can be any seriousness in discussing peace. One of the principal agents for bringing about peace is doing the very thing that is the principal agency for provoking war. That is not only so of America, it is so of all the Great Powers. C O N D U C T OF E M P I R E

I need not bring to you any information about the conduct of our own Empire because as Englishmen you know as much as I do, and probably more than I do, about the attitude of the whole Government towards the subject peoples in Africa and in India. We are not all asleep. It is not because we have not statesmen as able as yours. You have not read our sentiments in your daily papers; and we have not reached the point yet where you will come in daily contact with that sentiment and with that expression; but the future will bring it to you. We want it to come to you without any surprise, and it is because of that why we are endeavouring to prepare you now to realise that the whole world is not so foolish, not so ignorant, and not so much asleep as to think that everything is well and will remain well when in fact the larger number of humanity is struggling, struggling beyond your knowledge, in a terrible state and condition that you would not like even dogs or pigs to be in. H O W L OF U N E M P L O Y M E N T

There was a great howl in England about unemployment and about the condition of the poor. If you want to see the poor go to Africa; if you want to see the poor go to India, go to the West Indies and the Southern States of America, where men's souls are driven out of them, where their bodies are harassed beyond the physical condition of the brute to add to the wealth of the great capitalists who stand behind your statesmen and say: A bigger navy, a bigger army, for the protection of the Empire. But it is not for the protection of the Empire; it is for the purpose of keeping down these unhappy 219

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millions in India and Africa and elsewhere so that these few capitalists can continue to grind the last bit of sweat and the last drop of blood out of other human beings. Do you think that that contributes to an order whereby we can all feel happy? Impossible. And I represent this afternoon a large group of unhappy people who have not spoken yet. I lived in America for 14 years, where I was elected as the head of an organisation known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which seeks for the higher development of the black race universally. Because I was elected to the position I had to fill it. I had to speak not only my sentiments but the sentiments of the organisation, the sentiments of the people behind the organisation. As I spoke it in America, so I am speaking it here this afternoon. I have personal views of my own— views of fellowship, views of Christian brotherhood with everyone, and I have no enemy in the world. Whether a man be white, yellow, brown or black, if I know nothing about him to the contrary I think of him as a Christian brother and I treat him as such. I therefore do not want you to think that I am expressing my own personal opinion; I am expressing the opinion of 11,000,000 aggrieved negroes, I being only one of the 11 millions. The 11 millions represent 400 millions. When I talk I am not talking for myself, I am talking for those millions of dissatisfied people. These people who are ground down in every part and every section of the world. If you go to the West Indies you will see them; if you go to Central America you will see them struggling under the burden of the day; if you go to South America you will see them smarting under the burden imposed upon them; if you go to East Africa you will see them, outraged by the Colonists; if you go to South Africa you will see them brutalised by a soulless and heartless government under the leadership of Mr. [James] Hertzog [prime minister of South Africa], a man without a soul where the native is concerned; if you go to West Africa you will see them struggling to free themselves and to be men; if you go to America you will see them lynched and burnt by white mob prejudice and violence. But, under the skilful diplomacy of those who do not desire to see them really free men and whose motives and efforts are directed towards keeping them serfs rather than seeing them develop and becoming a free and independent people as they ought to be, they are being misrepresented. Those are the people I represent. Those are the people who give me an expression, and so long as these people remain in such a terrible condition as human beings so long will I find cause to go throughout the length and breadth of the world, whether it be in America or in Great Britain or any part of the European Continent, to let humanity know the truth. SPOKE T R U T H IN AMERICA

I spoke this truth in America for 14 years, as I have said, and all those who were inimical to the interests of negro progress could do was to undermine me and frame me up and imprison me for nearly 2 years and 10 months, thinking that that would be a deterrent not only to my expressions on behalf of the Negroes but that it would be a means of scaring Negroes from continuing 220

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the agitation for freedom. Fools that they are, who know not that prison bars cannot deaden or kill the souls and minds of men; fools that they are, who do not realise that there is no power on earth to suppress the hopes of men. They may imprison men by the million, they may execute them by the thousand—as they did to you before you became a free people, as they have done to the Continental nations which have risen through stages of barbarism to what they are; but they shall never stop the machine of progress because that is evolutionary. The black man is in a state similar to yours when you were slaves of another people. You know your history, as Englishmen, too well not to appreciate the stand we take to-day in working towards the freedom of our country, Africa. T H E H I S T O R Y OF S L A V E R Y

In a previous speech, at the Albert Hall, I tried to impress you with the history of slavery; how your people took mine from their homes in Africa to the strange lands of the Western world and kept them as slaves for 250 years, kept not only our bodies in slavery but kept our souls in slavery—millions of us. Through the good graces of others of your own race who had more human love and sympathy than your predecessors—notably Victoria of England and Abraham Lincoln of America—we were emancipated and became free men; but even under freedom we are being robbed and exploited and brutalised the world over to an alarming extent and degree. R E A S O N OF V I S I T TO E N G L A N D

It is to acquaint you of this that I have been sent to England to speak to you at these public meetings, to speak to you by other approaches, as I have done, to gather your opinion and sentiment touching not only your future but the future of the darker peoples whom you dominate. It is pleasant for me to state that I have some very good responses from some of the most representative men in the country, men with souls; not all of your representatives are heartless, some of your men known in public life sympathise with the conditions of black men in Africa, the West Indies, and America. Those are the men who really save your civilisation; those are the men who really make history better for those of you who have no hearts and those of you who will not think. Because those of you who will not think are equally responsible with those of you who have no heart and act without a heart, because by that action other people are impelled to think unkindly of you, for when you do not instruct your representatives to think and act in the way they should we think unkindly not only of them but also of you. So we are glad there is a softening of feeling when we can find men and women in England who are sympathetic and responsive to the call of others of the human family for help so that they also may enjoy the benefits of the creation which was given to us by God in common. Otherwise your history in contact with other peoples would be a terrible one. Do not you ever make the 221

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mistake, Englishmen and women, that you are always going to have the last word in civilisation and in the world. There were other peoples before you. There were black people. Who gave the first civilisation[?]—the black people of Africa. They came before you. They had a wonderful civilisation on the banks of the Nile. When the Blue Nile and the White Nile were dotted by universities, by the highest development in art, when Africa right up to Timbuctoo represented the finest culture the world ever saw, your ancestors were living in caves, were living in holes, were savages, were running wild in Continental Europe. The black man passed out of power, giving it to the brown race—the Indians passed it to the Persians and the Chinese, and they in turn, through the same progress of evolution, passed it on to you. The same cycle is going on, and, whether you will it or not with your battleships and your dreadnoughts, it will evolve back to another condition. You cannot stop it; it is the force of nature; it is the force of God. You smile and say, " G o d " ; and yet you teach me about God; you say " G o d " when you believe in science. We believe in Him; and when that God in his prophecy says, "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God," we do not take it as a mockery nor as a joke, nor that He made a mistake. He placed us here and we are here. We believe in that God—that God has brought us out of slavery without any machine guns. N E G R O E S IN A F R I C A

Some Colonists interested in Africa had the nerve to tell me the other day that if it were not for the white people the Negroes would have died years ago in East Africa. (Laughter.) Sentimentally the thing would appeal to the man who does not think. But how foolish it is for a man to make such a statement when, without the white man, the Negro lived by himself in Africa and to-day we have at least 200,000,000 people in Africa. Who preserved them until the white man came? Yet he is telling us that the black people cannot live in East Africa without the white people. That kind of diplomacy is played out and looks foolish to the new thought that permeates the Negro. There is nothing you can tell the black man that he doesn't know. It is true we have to listen to what you say, but it does not mean that we entirely believe it. You are capable of making any statements you like; your statesmen can make them; but it does not follow that we are to accept them. It is true that we have no medium for expressing ourselves; because your Press does no[t] express our feelings and opinions on the matter. It expresses yours. That is why you are in such a peculiar state, because you are hearing only your opinion, one side only—you are knowing only your side; you are not hearing the opinion of the people on the other side and you do not know what they are thinking about. T H I N K I N G ABOUT H U M A N R I G H T S

I am here to tell you what we are thinking about. We are thinking about our rights as human beings, and we are liberal in doing that. We realise that all human beings are entitled to certain rights, and there are no rights peculiar 222

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to the white man which we desire to invade. We feel that the white man has certain rights that are natural, that are moral, that are legal, and we would be as ready and as quick as himself to defend him and those rights as he would. If you doubt me, I bring up the history of the war in which we have fought for you. Did you think you could buy us to fight for you in the Nineteenth and the Twentieth Centuries? D o you think you could pay us to fight for you? No, you could not. But when you made your statement and your appeal for help, when you based that statement and the appeal on the larger democracy, and humanity, as Woodrow Wilson did in the last war, the protection of the weaker peoples, that appeal touched our hearts and, without any conscription, without any begging us to help we voluntarily came to your aid in the last war, two millions of us, and we fought like bloodhounds in Mesopotamia, we fought like mad dogs in East Africa. We fought like frenzied men on the various battle fronts in France and Flanders, and we never laid down our arms or rested our heads until we threw the Germans across the Rhine and brought back to you the salvation of your civilisation. We trusted you without asking for reward before we entered, thinking that you were honest and upright in your profession of protecting the rights of weaker peoples. We came out of the war, leaving in Flanders our dead, leaving in Mesopotamia our dead. Then we asked you for consideration, and you said to us in England, 'There is no employment for black men; if you happen to be here we will not give you work, but we may give you a little dole for a short while—on which you cannot live—but we will make sure you will get no permanent employment and so after a while you will die, a discouragement for every black man to come to England and the British Isles." You said to us in Continental Europe, "There is no room in Europe for the black man except continually to use him as a soldier in the Rhineland to protect France." 4 A C C U S E D IN G E R M A N Y

When I was accused in Germany of helping to defeat Germany and therefore encouraged the enmity of Germany towards the blacks, I felt ashamed that the German should accuse me of leaving my home in the West Indies and Africa and America to come into Europe to kill him when he did not interfere with me as far as that was concerned. I felt ashamed, and I had to hang my head. But I was doing the best I could to help someone whom I trusted—the Allies. And while the German now hates me because I helped to defeat him, the friend for whom I fought, causing me to offend the Germans, leaves me in the cold, and therefore I am still more friendless; I have two enemies now instead of a friend. Is it not a peculiar state to be in? Englishmen, that is the position. We feel very unpleasant about it, and we do not feel happy having it all pent up in our minds. That is why we want you to know about it—quite inoffensively. I hope you will not take anything I have said this afternoon as an offence. God forbid. The truth should offend no man except the villain and the vagabond. You are all Christian people and cannot be offended by what I have said. 223

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Now, you English people, how would you feel if a foreign race, not like yours, should come in here and take everything you have—take away your Parliament, take away your Westminster Abbey, take away your University o f London, your St. Paul's, your museums, your art galleries, take away all your great industries, take away your land, take charge of you, take your shoes off your feet, take your good clothes off your backs and give you rags to wear and place heavy loads upon your shoulders by way o f everyday labour so that you can work for them? How would you like that? Would you like that? I want an answer from you—would you like that? (Laughter.) I am asking you a question—would you like that? (Renewed laughter.) I am sorry to be embarrassing, but it seems like you would like it. I f you would like it, my appeal falls flat because you agree that someone else should do that! But I do not believe that your silence means agreement. You could not agree with a condition like that. But that is what you are doing to us in Africa. You have come into our homes, deceived us in every way under the guise of Christianity—but do not you ever believe I am not a Christian. I believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; I endorse the Nicene Creed;5 I believe that Jesus died for me; I believe that God lives for me as for all men; and no condition you can impose on me by deceiving me about Christianity will cause me to doubt Jesus Christ and to doubt God. I shall never hold Christ or God responsible for the commercialisation o f Christianity by the heartless men who adopt it as the easiest means o f fooling and robbing other people out o f their land and country. If I indicted Christianity your Bishops would stand aghast. I f I told you the history of the London Missionary Society 6 which is followed by the commercial agent and the soldier, you would really try to ask God for pardon for the things that have been done to the poor, defenceless heathens in the name of Christianity. R E C O R D OF C H R I S T I A N I T Y AMONG T H E BLACKS

Have you ever stopped, Englishmen, to read the record of your Christian penetration of the East and the result o f it? I want to set you thinking, you Englishmen and women, because I believe the majority o f you are good at heart and you do not know, and that is why you smile complaisantly on things as they happen to-day. Go to your libraries and read the history o f Christianity in the lands of the heathens, and compare those lands to-day and the condition of the peoples there in the Twentieth Century with the period prior to the advent of Christianity. Practically every African will tell you today that prior to the advent of Christianity he had his own land, he owned it, he lived on it, but to-day, because of Christianity, it is not his, it is the Lord's. (Laughter.) What a terrible Lord that is, to adopt such methods to take away the property o f other peoples. Now, you know, there is no Lord like that. And because that is the result, some of us have changed our opinions and 224

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our desires about Christianity. But I have not changed because I am sensible enough and intelligent enough to know that the Lord never intended that as an attitude of those who profess His faith towards others to be brought within the pale of His doctrine. UNIVERSAL SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY

I really want to see a universal spirit of Christianity, of brotherly love— when all men would be willing to greet each other in sympathy and love. But to-day, because of the peculiar statesmanship that rules the world, there is only thought for a certain type of race and group of people, and without them there is no consideration for the rest of humanity. That is not fair. Yet we have the Pope and we have the Archbishop of Canterbury, the two primary representatives of Christianity. H o w do they think they have impressed us who have learnt to think? H o w do they think we compare their philosophy with human reason? (A VOICE: They are in the swim.) It is illogical; it is ridiculous. And because they have spoken of themselves and we have not spoken, they think it is all right. Now we have started to speak, and I am only the forerunner of an awakened Africa that shall never go back to sleep. N O T SPEAKING FOR SELF

Remember, I am not speaking for myself. If I were to speak for myself I believe I would be a preacher; I would be a devout man after the fashion of Jesus Christ. That is how I would like to move about the world, because I have a deep feeling for humanity in my soul. But I cannot be myself just now because I have been elected by 11,000,000 peoples to express their thoughts, and I would be a traitor to my oath of service if I did not speak to you as they command me and as they demand of me. I speak so that you may know the truth. The truth will set you free and set them free. 7 We want an everlasting peace; not an hypocritical peace that a few aged men, who have been trained in the school of commercial graft, think of; their interests are so closely allied with their brothers and fellows in similar pecuniary positions like themselves that they cannot see justice outside of their immediate needs and desires. They do not suffer like common men, therefore they cannot interpret the feelings of common men. When M r . Kellogg comes to represent the American people, really he does not represent the American people, he represents about 500 millionaires in America, of whom he is one. He represents a man like M r . [Andrew] Mellon, 8 one of the richest men in the world with hundreds of millions of dollars to protect; such a man wants peace—he would be a fool if he did not want peace, when there are millions of his own countrymen who cannot find bread for the next day. Those latter are the people who are dissatisfied, and these men who represent these great commercial interests say, "We have to get together, all we who have so much at stake, because these fellows will get unruly, so we must have bigger armies and bigger navies, so when these other fellows want to give vent to their grievances we will let loose

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these armies and navies for the preservation of the State.["] But it is not for the preservation of the State but for the protection of these few men with hoarded millions. Left alone we would not require such a tremendous overhead expense for navies and armies, but it is the desire of those who have so much more than they should have; why we have to pay these high rates for armies and navies to keep in subjugation people about whom we do not know anything. I am appealing to you for a larger sympathy. Do not misunderstand me, Englishmen and Englishwomen; I am not a fomentor of trouble; I love humanity too much to advocate any disturbance that would make humanity unhappy. I am the head of a great organisation and know what order is—sometimes I am in the midst of 25,000 people in a convention and, as the head of a strong organisation, I must have order and discipline. Do not interpret anything I say as a suggestion of any kind of disorder among black or white. It is only an effort to present the truth, because it is only by this truth that we can have everlasting and eternal peace. We want you Englishmen and Englishwomen to know that the people of India have souls like you; we want you to know that the people of Africa have souls like you; they have passions like you; they are human beings who must live like you; they must have the same attention like you; they must live in good homes to be able to preserve their bodies in a sanitary state; they must have good food in order to maintain their physical strength; they must have advantages and opportunities so that life can be made pleasant. What is life with eternal misery?—and that is what you, by the power of your Empire, impose upon us—eternal misery. Good God! what a day it will be when black, brown, yellow and white meet before that great Throne which Christian men have taught us about, for you to pass your judgment! Good God, shall we go to another Hell other than the Hell we are in now in India and in Africa? O, God, it would be too much for us to bear! J U S T I C E TO D A R K E R P E O P L E S

I asked your presence at this meeting this afternoon to touch the hearts of Englishmen and women so that those who are innocent and know not what is being done in their name may understand and reach the point where they will use their influence to see that justice is done to the darker peoples of the world. I have not yet approached your Government and my Government, because you have made me by compulsion a British subject, when by election I would be an African citizen—your Government is my Government—I hope to approach our Government in a short while to lay before them certain facts upon which I am endeavouring to enlighten you. I have not approached them yet because I want to test out your sentiment; because I know the Government will do nothing except it is with your approval. Therefore it is better judgment and good sense to find out how you feel first before going to your Executives who represent you in government, so as to know what will be the future of the blacks of Africa. There is no future for us in the Western world. You Anglo226

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Saxons who have become the Americans of to-day across the Atlantic, took us into slavery after it was introduced by the Portuguese under the influence of Pope Nicholas V., 9 and took us to America and kept us there as slaves; though you worked us to death 4,000,000 survived and in 60 years we have grown to 15,000,000; and now in America white statemanship is devising ways and means by which they can, by economic starvation, starve out the Negroes in 50 years so that they will have no more Negro problem. In the last sixty years they have had enough immigration from the European countries to be able to do without the blacks who have brought America up to where she is today. See how ungrateful a certain branch of your race is, after using us for 250 years as slaves and for 50 years as peons and serfs—now that there is a white population in America sufficiently strong to develop the future of America without the black man, they have evolved a system of economic pressure so that the Negro cannot earn enough money to pay the high cost of living; and it is only a question of 50 or 100 years before voluntarily the Negro, by means of economic starvation, will die out in America and there will be no more Negro problem to confront the white man who wants to make America a white man's country. That is the silent method of men like Kellogg; men without souls where struggling humanity is concerned; men who think they have the last word in intelligence and can fool everyone. T H E N E G R O A DIPLOMAT

D o not forget that the Negro is the greatest diplomat the world has ever seen. It may be immodest for me to say so, but if it had not been for our diplomacy we should not have survived but should have died like the North American Indian. You are dealing with a people who were the first teachers of diplomacy, because we were the first teachers of civilisation. We have not lost all our virtues, although we have slept on them for a long while; but that does not mean death—we were only resting. To-day our intellect is virile and strong; and that is why I say you cannot pull the leg of a half-dead cow with impunity; it may develop into a healthy heifer later if it gets the right kind of pasturage; and although you may look upon the black man as insignificant, you do not know what is in the Negro's mind. Why, we have the same playground for science as any other race. Do you know that we can also be scientific as any other race? Do you know that there arc mysteries hidden in Africa that have not been unearthed for the last 3,000 years because the time has not come yet? You have been digging up some of the things we have done in Africa. You have been to Luxor to dig up Tutank[ha]men's tomb, and so on. When you find these signs of civilisation you arc artful enough to say they "belonged to a different branch of the human race." Yet you have not been skilful enough, when you say that, to prove it. The features of the Pharaohs make them nothing else but black men. 10 R I G H T TO W R I T E H I S T O R Y

You assume a right to write history within the last 500 years, and simply because you have been able to dump so many tons of your history in the world 227

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and other people have not said anything by way of complaint, you think your history rests there. But a lot of things your Mr. Wells has said we Negroes treat as bunk. Mr. H . G . Wells may divert civilisation for the benefit of his Anglo-Saxon group, but that does not make it the fact that the people who laid claims to the civilisation he attributed to others are going to give them up easily. The black man knows his past. It is a past of which he can be nobly proud. That is why I stand before you this afternoon a proud black man, honoured to be a black man, who would be nothing else in God's creation but a black man. (Hear, hear.) N O T H I N G TO B E A S H A M E D O F

I have nothing to be ashamed of. Surely I shall not be ashamed of my God who made me what I am. It is said that the group I represent is looking for social equality. We do not want any social equality except with ourselves; but we look for social freedom from everyone and we will return it to them. But we do not want to take charge of your social life and to embarrass you in your social life if you feel like being among yourselves. We are too proud to embarrass anyone but ourselves. So we want you to understand that the time has come for us both, black and white, to be more serious in our thoughts about each other because some of you white men think we are animals; they have given you pictures to look at to make us look like wild animals; they give you pictures of us with rings through our noses, big mouths, and ugly features, and they say, "That is a black man," so that when a child sees a black man in a subway station he shouts: "Mamma, mamma, look black man!" {indicating). (Laughter.) But that is the wrong kind of education; because black men have the future in their making, and when you grow up with wrong notions and ideas you may get yourselves into the state of attempting to deal with black men like brutes instead of like men. As evidence of it, you send out to the Colonies some of your colonial administrators, men whom you have trained in your schools to think that the black man is not to be considered; and when they come out in their khaki uniforms they look as cockish as the Maharajahs of Mysore—(laughter)—and when we approach them they want us to take off our hats and to bow and cringe before them. That kind of attitude is of the past. Black men are not going to cringe before anyone but God. Black men have learnt the value of life, the value of self-respect, like white men. We realise that you are men like ourselves and we are men like you. We intend to give you a man's share, and we demand the same from you. It is a 50/50 proposition. There is nothing in England that we black people want but to see you English people prosper and continue, until God calls you, a happy people within the British Isles; and we want to be left alone in our own country, Africa, to develop as God and we ourselves see best. That is all we are asking for. If we live like that there will not be any trouble. W H A T W E W A N T IN E N G L A N D

If we want anything in England we either send over and get it or come over and get it. You come over to us and find out what we want and sell 228

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us what we want. If we have no coal, we buy coal from you, and so on; if we have not the materials with which to manufacture cloth, and so on, we get them from you. But what we have got that you have not got, you must buy from us and not steal. What right have you to expect me to come across the street to your home or to your shop and buy milk and butter and ham and bacon and fat and oil and bread, and pay you two sovereigns, whereas if you want cloth and coal you come in my backyard and steal it. D o you know what will happen to you?—you will be caught one day. That is what happens to a thief who steals in the dark; and we are only saying to the white people of Europe: D o not be so sentimental as to imagine that the other people are still so blind as not to be able to see that they are being unfairly dealt with. You are very skilful; you adopt peculiar methods when you find native people advanced to the extent that they have representative men who can express the thoughts of the masses; you have a peculiar method of diplomacy whereby you weave certain things around them to frame them up, to get them incriminated in some way, so that you can do something to them and say, " H e is a criminal; he has been to prison; he cannot represent you." You tried that game with me, but it did not work with the Negroes. I went to prison because of the cunning and stealing propensities of low-down politicians who would put Jesus Christ in jail for two votes. I can talk about American politics because I have lived in its midst for 14 years and studied it from A to Z. I can tell you of the damnable moods of American white politicians, the methods they will use to get into office. An American white politician would sell his own family, he would sell the whole State, he would sell the name of Jesus Christ across the ballot box so that he could get into office. Because I represented an honourable, moral movement where I would not pay politicians to keep me at the head, they were able to imprison me; and especially because I was a British subject it made it easier for them to dispose of me. They thought when they imprisoned me that they had finally disposed of me; but, fortunately for me, they have given our movement a momentum of 1,000 per cent., and to-day my movement is known in all parts of the world; and though an Englishman may treat my words with levity and think I am a fool, as newspapers like the "Daily Sketch" tried to make out, you will find ten years from now, or 100 years from now, Garvey was not an idle buffoon but was representing the new vision of the Negro who was looking forward to great accomplishments in the future. I bless you, a God would have me bless you, with good will; no enmity or malice, only with a desire for you to know the truth. You have heard the one side from your own men; you must hear the other side from the other people. You must hear India's side, you must hear Africa's side; and fortunately it is my good fortune now to speak for Africa, and I feel that at some other time you will hear from India. Let us have a better understanding to know each other better and I think we will have a better world. N O T E N G L I S H M A N BY R A C E

I am going to close in five minutes with this application. I am not an Englishman by race, I am a Britisher by nationality. Just as you are true to 229

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your Anglo-Saxon race and type—and you would be unworthy if you were not—so am I true to my African race and African type. Before you became Englishmen you were Anglo-Saxons by race. Before a man is born to a nation he is conceived to a race; so his nationality is only accident whilst his race is positive. I am positively a Negro; there is no mistake about it. Not one drop of anybody else's blood in my veins—if there were, I would try to get rid of it by draining it out as quickly as possible so that I could be a 100 per cent. African as you are 100 per cent. Anglo-Saxon. I respect you for your purity of blood, and you ought to respect me for my purity of blood. God intended us to have different outlooks from the social and political points of view; that is why geographically he suited you for Europe and suited me for Africa. C O N D I T I O N S IN A M E R I C A

If you go to America you can hardly tell who is a Negro and who is not; because you have half-white negroes, three-quarters white Negroes, onefifth Negroes, one-eighth Negroes, one-tenth Negroes—you have a mixture there, all caused by the advantages you have taken of us by bringing us within the pale of your civilisation. You call us "coloured people." Indeed, we are coloured. The great trouble in America is to find out who is white. That is why the white American wants to get rid of the black man so that it will not be a question of whether the American nation will be a mulatto nation or a black nation. America is no better than France; these two nations have got into trouble and cannot get out of it. You were sensible enough not to bring trouble home to England; that is why you are not interested, that is why you are not here to the number of 10,000 this afternoon. If I were in America I would be addressing 25,000 people, because there it is a real problem; it is a nightmare. Every white man in America goes to bed thinking that on the next day a Negro will be President of the United States of America; and judging by the way the Negroes are running an independent ticket" and acting against [Herbert] Hoover, it is likely we shall have a Negro President in America. (Laughter.) But in case the Negroes are unable to elect a President of their own, I am throwing support for Alfred Smith. 12 D o you know why I am for Smith [and] against Hoover? It is because Smith is a man from the people; Smith is a man who has sprung from the common people, he knows their wants and their heart beats and their pulse. Hoover has been pampered by the monopolist class; he himself is a millionaire; he can only see American politics and American power from the capitalist point of view. You must have read of the great Rubber Combine in America. Hoover was one of the men responsible for sending me to prison because it was to America's interest, and, not only that, but to the interest of certain American capitalists, to have me imprisoned so that Hoover could back Firestone in Liberia in connection with the rubber lands, land which should have been disposed of to us by agreement with the Liberian Government. When Firestone found there was a possibility of a shortage of rubber in America and there was nowhere where America 230

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could obtain rubber other than from England, they sent their commerical investigators all over the world and they found that it was possible for rubber to be grown in Liberia. Then Hoover backed up Firestone to get the President of Liberia [C. D . B. King] to give up the contract he had entered into with me so that the American Negroes could repatriate themselves and help build up Liberia—to have a permanent and peaceful home of their o w n — H o o v e r used his power as Secretary of Commerce not only to imprison me but to take away from the Negroes a concession that had been given to them and to give it to Firestone so that the natives o f Liberia could be exploited for the benefit of American capital. T w o years after Firestone went there he reduced the natives to virtual slavery; he got the Government to use the natives to build roads to give access to his plantations; they had to work without proper provision for food and without any pay. Hoover represents in American life people w h o will [do] that." Through my organisation it is my duty, before God and before man, to see to it that a man like that, if possible, is not returned as President o f the United States, such a great country with such a great power that can do so much good or ill. That is why I am for Smith, a man w h o would not tolerate such a method in politics; a man w h o has been fair and square in all his dealings as Governor o f N e w York State. The Negroes of America can put their trust in him, and I hope he will be returned as President o f the United States of America at the next Election. In conclusion, G o d bless you Englishmen and women. I trust that you will not take offence at anything I have said to-day. What I have said has been said so that you may adopt a policy and attitude to us Negroes beyond what is being done to them to-day. I thank you, and G o d bless you. (Loud applause.) 14 Printed pamphlet, Minutes of Proceedings of the Speech by the Hon. Marcus Garvey (London, 1928); also printed in NW, 29 September 1928. Original headlines and introductory remarks omitted. 1. This is a stanza from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, act 4, sc. 3, lines 217-224. 2. Frank Billings Kellogg negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 with French Minister of Foreign Affairs Aristide Briand. The multilateral treaty sought to outlaw war as an instrument of foreign policy. First signed in Paris on 27 August 1928, it was eventually endorsed by sixty-four nations. Both Briand and Kellogg were recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize: Briand in 1926 for his work with the League of Nations, and Kellogg in 1930 for his role in the peace pact. Garve/s skepticism was soon borne out by events, as the 1928 pact was quickly nullified by the rise of fascism in the 1930s and the overwhelming militarism of the World War II era (Robert H. Ferrell, Peace in Their Time: The Origins of the Kellogg-Briand Pact [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952]; Lewis Ellis, Frank B. Kellogg and American Foreign Relations, 1925-1929 [New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1961]). 3. Nicaragua has been one of the primary locations of United States involvement in Central America since the mid-nineteenth century, due largely to its strategic location, which interested investors as a possible site of a trans-oceanic canal. In 1855 a proslavery American adventurer, William Walker, established himself as president of the country but was overthrown the following year. American military intervention in Nicaragua first occurred in 1909 in response to an insurrection and its consequent disorder. A similar outbreak in 1912 resulted in occupation by the U.S. Marines for the next twelve years. Withdrawal of American troops in 1924 was followed by yet another rebellion the following year and to the subsequent return of the marines. This 231

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS time, however, the American presence spawned a nationalist resistance under Augusto C. Sandino (1893-1934)- The protracted opposition of the Sandino forces resulted in the American public's disenchantment with the costs of military occupation. As one historian noted, "in the United States itself there was strong opposition to the intervention in the press and in Congress" (Neill Macaulay, The Sandino Affair [Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1967], p. 31). President Franklin D. Roosevelt withdrew the marines in 1934. The U.S. government initially considered military operations in Haiti during the early 1870s, when President Ulysses S. Grant was negotiating for the purchase of the neighboring Dominican Republic. The Haitian government objected to the proposed annexation and in response Grant sent American warships to the region with orders to prevent Haiti from interfering "in any way with the Dominican Republic" (speech of Sen. Carl Schurz, "Usurpation of the War Powers," quoted in Oakley Johnson, "Influence of the Haitian Revolution on New York," in "Negroes of New York," New York Writers' Program, 1939, NN-Sc). Following a series of revolutionary upheavals in Haiti, the U.S. government sent military forces to occupy the country in 1914-1915, giving as justification a wish to protect foreigners and property and claiming that the nation had failed to pay its foreign debt. The American government envisioned a permanent role, undertaking by treaty to "collect, receive and apply all customs duties on imports and exports accruing at the several custom houses and ports of entry of the Republic of Haiti" (James H. McCrocklin, comp., Garde d'Haiti, 1915-1934: Twenty Tears of Organization and Training by the United States Marine Corps [Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute, 1956], p. 239). Several revolts occurred against the U.S. presence in the following years but were speedily suppressed. The long continued American occupation of Haiti caused considerable resentment among many African-Americans including the Garveyites; as early as 1920 the UNLA was cooperating with the N A A C P and other black organizations to lobby for withdrawal of the marines. As in Nicaragua, American marines finally left Haiti in 1934 (Brenda Gayle Plummer, "The Afro-American Response to the Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934," Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture 43, no. 2 [June 1982]: 133-138; Marvin Goldwert, The Constabulary in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua: Progeny and Legacy of United States Intervention [Gainesville, Fla.: University of Florida Press, 1962], pp. 22-42; Macaulay, The Sandino Affair, pp. 19-30). 4. Black American troops, including the 369th, 370th, 371st, and 372d U.S. Infantry, served with distinction in France during World War I. Africans from French North Africa and French West Africa were also recruited to fight on the Western Front. Some of these men remained professional soldiers after the war's end, using the Western military as a means to socioeconomic advancement. Hausa and Mossi people from French West Africa served with the British Army as well as with the French (Jack D. Foner, Blacks and the Military in American History [New York: Frederick Praeger, 1974], pp. 109-132; A. D. Roberts, ed., The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 7, From 1905 to 1940 [London and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986], p. 226). 5. The Nicene Creed is a Christian text expanded from a creed issued by the first ecumenical Christian council which met at Nicaea in Asia Minor in A.D. 325. Beginning " I believe in one God," it is used in liturgical worship (EWH). 6. Preceded by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts which was begun in England in 1701, the London Missionary Society (LMS) was founded in London in 1795 during a period of rapid growth of missionary societies. While L M S missions were established throughout much of the non-Western world, the practices Garvey criticizes can be illustrated by the behavior of its missionaries in Northern Rhodesia. By the end of the nineteenth century, the L M S missions of the region found themselves with numerous responsibilities apart from their religious work. Missionaries in many cases became the de facto governors of their areas, taking full control of villages and exercising their powers with an iron fist. Africans were subjected to a system of rigid rules and to an equally harsh system of penalties that included unpaid labor, heavy fines, and floggings. The latter punishment, inflicted by the missionaries themselves, was particularly onerous since it was administered with a citoki made of cured hippopotamus hide. "In one of our stations at this moment," one missionary wrote from Northern Riiodesia in 1898, "there are half a dozen long strips of hippo-hide hanging from a tree, with heavy weights, being cured for the abominable practice in the hands of the missionaries of the L M S , of horsewhipping the natives" (Robert I. Rotberg, "Missionaries as Chiefs and Entrepreneurs: Northern Rhodesia, 18821924," in Boston University Papers in African History, ed. Jeffrey Butler [Boston: Boston University Press, 1964], p. 205; see also Norman Goodall, A History of the London Missionary Society, 1895-1945 [London: Oxford University Press, 1954], pp. 241-380). 7. A reference to John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

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SEPTEMBER 1928 8. Andrew Mellon (1855-1937), a major American financier who amassed large fortunes in coal, coke, and steel enterprises, was president of the Mellon National Bank of Pittsburgh as well as U.S. secretary of the treasury during the Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover administrations (19211932). He also served as ambassador to Great Britain (1932-1933) (WBD). 9. Tommaso Parentucelli (also known as Tommaso da Sarzana) (1397?—14-55) was named Nicholas V when he became Pope in 1447, a position he held until his death. The brief of Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso V of Portugal in 1454 granted the rights of conquest and enslavement over the territories and peoples of West Africa. In May 1493, Pope Alexander V I was approached by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to have the same rights of occupation extended by papal permission to their newly occupied territories in the West Indies, including the right to enslave the native "Indian" populace found there. Alexander V I issued a papal bull allowing the same "full and free permission to invade, search out, capture and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be . . . and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery" that had been granted the Portuguese by Nicholas V (John Francis Maxwell, Slavery and the Catholic Church [London: Barry Rose Publishers, 1975], pp. 55-56; WBD). 10. The tomb of Tutankhamen was discovered in Luxor, Egypt, in November 1922. The burial place of the youthful king, who was married as a boy to the young Ankhesenpaaten, the daughter of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, during the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty (ca. 1375-1350 B.C.), the tomb was excavated by a team of British archaeologists and Egyptian workers and specialists headed by Howard Carter and funded largely through the estate of Lord Carnarvon of England, who had been granted an earlier concession to the area by the Egyptian government. Although the tomb had been briefly plundered near the time of the burial of the boy king, a wealth of awesomely beautiful artifacts that remained virtually untouched for some three thousand years were discovered intact during the excavation. These objects depict racial types as symbols of the political relationship of Egyptian, African, and Asian cultures. These included ornamental friezes on a state chariot in which Tutankhamen appears as a human-headed lion, ruling over subservient kneeling figures with negroid features being held in bondage, and ceremonial walking sticks that depicted African prisoners, carved from ebony, and their Asian counterparts, carved from ivory, each with bound arms and feet (Howard Carter, The Tomb of Tutankhamen, 3 vols. [1923-1933; reprint ed., New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1963], vol. 1, p. 115, plates 69, 70; vol. 2, plates 18, 19, 20, 41; see also NW, 3 January and 11 April 1931). 11. Fear of black voting power was particularly pronounced in the South, where the Democratic party was in effect the only viable political party, and many elections were decided in primaries. Party officials were not so much fearful of black domination through the ballot box but of a shift in the nature of white control, or, as Ralph Bunche has stated it, fear of changing the character of "white domination in a political game in which the Negro voter is only a pawn." The restriction of black voters from Democratic primaries, from registration, and from leadership in Republican organizations in the South, effectively negated potential change through black enfranchisement. In the North, blacks frequently became involved in machine politics in urban centers, exchanging patronage for gains in police and fire protection and other local services; in national politics there was a shift of black support from the Republican to the Democratic party, or to a stance independent of either major party. The black independent vote was taken seriously and wooed by both major political parties; black organizations were able to use this bargaining power to good effect in lobbying Washington. By the end of the 1930s it was estimated that the blacks controlled "the political balance of power in some seventeen of the Northern states." The formation of this independent block of black voters can be traced to Herbert Hoover's 1928 campaign, when Hoover's allegiance to the "Republican lily-white campaign in the South," combined with the Democratic party's appeal to working- and lower-class people, began seriously to erode the traditional pattern of black adherence to the Republican party (W. E. B. Du Bois, "The Negro Voter," Crisis 35, no. 8 [August 1928]: 275-276; Ralph J. Bunche, "The Negro in the Political Life of the United States," Journal of Negro Education 10, no. 3 [July 1941]: 575,580). 12. Garvey and his Universal Negro Political Union aggressively supported Alfred Smith's presidential bid. At one point Garvey actually wrote that "any Negro who votes for Hoover is voting against his race, is disloyal to the race and to the race's cause, and should not continue to be a member of the U N I A " (NW, 20 October 1928). The Negro World presented a number of arguments for this position; one advertisement proclaimed that Garveyites should counteract the "Republican Deal with The Ku Klux Klan" by voting for Smith (NW, 3 November 1928). One reason Garvey gave for his stand was Republican candidate Herbert Hoover's ties to Harvey Firestone and the Firestone Rubber Co. "Firestone and Hoover," he wrote, "endeavored to reduce

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS the independent Republic of Liberia to an American commercial state and reduce the black people of that Republic to a virtual state of slavery" (NW, i September 1928). Another reason was Smith's policy of nonintervention in the Caribbean and Latin America. Garvey reportedly told an audience "that they should vote for Smith against Hoover, for he [Garvey] hopes that the triumph of the former will result in the evacuation of Haiti by American troops" (Mario Roustan, "Comparisons," Annates Coloniales, 20 October 1928.) Smith had expressly denounced the presence of U.S. troops in Nicaragua during his acceptance speech as a candidate for president (Address of Acceptance of the Nomination for President [New York: Democratic National Committee, 1928], pp. 9 10). Garvey also felt animosity toward the Republican administration due to the circumstances of his deportation, and this contributed to his enthusiasm for Smith and the Democrats (AW, 20 October 1928; WBD). 13. The Negro World reported this sentence as "Hoover represents in American life people like that" (NW, 29 September 1928). 14. Garvc/s speech was preceded by introductory remarks by Amy Jacques Garvey and Charles Garnett (NW, 29 September 1928).

Marcus Garvey to H. M. Cundall1 LONDON, September 3, 1928

Dear Mr. Cundall: I am charged by the Universal Negro Improvement Association, an Organization of Eleven Million Negroes, of which I am President General, and which represents the interests of the entire black race, to approach you and other representative members of your race,2 through this symposium to ascertain your opinion on the Negro question, and your attitude toward the solution of the problem that involves the Negro's liberty and future. You are regarded by our people as being a representative type of your race, a type with which our race must deal in the mass effort to determine our rights and in the favourable promotion of racial nationalism. Because of this, we think it right to solicit your opinion on the effort we are making to develop ourselves as a people under our own direction, a privilege that is claimed by all the progressive groups of humanity. An answer in your own way to this symposium is respectfully requested. Any answer you may give will be treated with confidence except you express a desire to the contrary. The idea of the symposium is to help us arrive at some definite conclusion as to how our programme of racial self-help and improvement, with the co-operation of our friends, is regarded by those representative individuals whose races and nations have been dealing with us for centuries and under whose assumptive control the black man has laboured up to the present time. SYMPOSIUM

(1) Do you believe the Negro or black man to be a human being? (2) Do you believe the Negro is entitled to all the rights of other human beings? 234

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(3) Do you think it right to reduce the Negro to the condition of an economic slave and treat and hold him as such? (4) Do you think because of the Negro's color he is humanly inferior? ($) Do you think the Negro has been given in modern times a fair chance to develop himself? (6) Do you think the Negro can best develop himself under the tutelage and direction of other races? (7) To what extent do you think the Negro should be allowed to develop? (8) That the institution of slavery scattered or dispersed the Negro all over the world, do you think it proper that the race should re-unite itself at this time? (9) Do you believe Africa to be the proper, moral and legal home of the black race? (10) Do you think it commendable that the black race should seek to remain black? (11) Do you think the effort and urge to build a substantial black nation in Africa for the black race as a solution of the Negro problem, improper? (12) Do you think it proper that the powers that be, commercially and politically, should undermine independent Negro intelligence by discrediting it and by seeking to imprison it as a means of discouraging the Negro from agitating for his manhood rights, a privilege allowed other peoples.? (13) Do you think it immoral that the Negro should be tricked, fleeced and robbed out of his lands and other valuables in Africa and America and elsewhere without protest? (14) Do you think the other Governmental Powers of the world, especially the large nations, have treated Haiti, Liberia and Abyssinia fairly in their effort to continue their political freedom and assisting them to help themselves as has been done to other small nations? (15) If Haiti were a white Republic, do you think the United States of America would give the same excuses for occupying the Country, or would they lend friendly assistance to her as a neighbouring State? (16) If Liberia were a white Republic, do you think she would have been so humiliated in securing a loan from another white Nation for her internal development? (17) Do you think the Black Republics of Haiti and Liberia have been given a fair chance to develop as a proof of the ability of the Negro for selfgovernment? (18) With the ungrudging service the black man has rendered in the many wars of the Nations, wars that never concerned him, but to which he contributed for the good of humanity, do you think he has been rewarded or repaid for such service? 235

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(19) When the time comes for the Negro or black race to be repatriated back to their ancestral home, Africa, will you be sympathetic toward the movement, and, if possible, help to make it a reality? (20) Do you think the blacks of America, the West Indies, Central and South America and Europe should be interfered with or discouraged in their effort to trade with each other and to promote peaceful relationships that would tend to re-unite them as one people? (21) Because of the higher cultural attainments of the Negroes of the Western World, and those of West Africa, do you not think that they should be the real and only missionaries to their own people in Africa? (22) Are you in sympathy with the following Aims and Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities league? [. . .] Believing you to be seriously desirous of helping to bring about universal peace, and to see that justice in the meanwhile is done to all humanity, I submit this Symposium, as I am directed to do, while trusting you will find it convenient and worth while to favor us with an answer. With very best wishes, I have the honour to be, Your Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association [Address:] H.M. Cundall, Esq., 4 Marchmont Gardens, Richmond, Surrey W I R L , Ms. 1670. T L S , recipient's copy. On U N I A Office of the President General, European Headquarters, letterhead. Text abridged. 1. Herbert M. Cundall (1849-19+0), curator and historian, was an established member of British society in 1928. He was educated at King's College in London and became an historian for the public service in 1865. He was a member of the British Commission for the Paris Exhibition of 1867 and then joined the staff of the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he remained in curatorial positions until his retirement in 1910. He was the author of numerous articles on art history and editor of The Etcher from 1879 to 1883 (NTT, 31 May 1940). It is possible that he was a relative of Frank Cundall, the secretary and librarian of the Institute of Jamaica from 1894 until his death in 1937. Frank Cundall was the founder of the West India Reference Library, a specialized section of the public library of the Institute of Jamaica, in 1894. Garvey was well acquainted with the latter Cundall. 2. Garvey sent a nearly identical letter to Mr. F. A. Bather of 46 Marryat Road, Wimbledon (Marcus Garvey to Bather, 5 September 1928, WIRL).

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Negro World Notice

STOP! TAKE NOTICE!! SPECIAL PROGRAMME Lest We Forget Oar Duty to the Negro Peoples of the World

Special Call and Mass Meeting m Behalf of the Coming Daily Paper, T h e Black Man" WILL BE S T A G E D A T

LIBERTY HALL, NEW YORK, 120 West 138th Street Sunday, S e p t 9 , 1 9 2 8 , a t 3 P . M , 8 P . M. Ail Members, Friends and Weil Wishers Are Invited to Attend

PRINCIPAL SPEAKERS

HON. E. B. KNOX Personal Representative of the President-General HON. MME. M. L. DE MENA Assistant International Organizer

Big Musical Programme

Choir and Band

Hear the "Famous Seven" of Liberty Hall

Subscription, 25 Cents

(Source: NW,

8 September 1928.) 237

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Paris, France, Sept. 11, 1928]] Fellowmen of the Negro Race, Greeting: It is my duty to bring to your attention this week a grave evil that afflicts us as a people at this time. Our race, within recent years, has developed a new group of writers who have been prostituting their intelligence, under the direction of the white man, to bring out and show up the worse traits of our people. Several of these writers are American and West Indian Negroes. They have been writings books, novels and poems, under the advice of white publishers, to portray to the world the looseness, laxity and immorality that are peculiar to our group, for the purpose of these publishers circulating the libel against us among the white peoples of the world, to further hold us up to ridicule and contempt and universal prejudice. M C K A Y ' S " H O M E TO H A R L E M "

Several of these books have been published in America recently, the last of which is Claude McKay's "Home to Harlem," published by Harper Bros. of New York. 1 This book of Claude McKay's is a damnable libel against the Negro. It is doing a great deal of harm in further creating prejudice among the white people against the Negro. I have now before me what purports to be a writeup or review of the book by "John O'London's Weekly." I am going to reproduce the entire review for the benefit of those who desire to see the impression such books create on the mind of white people. Claude McKay, the Jamaican Negro, is not singular in the authorship of such books. W. E. B. DuBois, of America; Walter White, [James] Weldon Johnson, Eric Walronfd], of British Guiana, and others, have written similar books, while we have had recendy a large number of sappy poems from the rising poets. 2 WHITE PUBLISHERS USE NEGROES

The white people have these Negroes to write the kind of stuff that they desire to feed their public with so that the Negro can still be regarded as a monkey, or some imbecilic creature.3 Whenever authors of the Negro race write good literature for publication the white publishers refuse to publish it, but wherever the Negro is sufficiently known to attract attention he is advised to write in the way that the white man wants. That is just what has happened to Claude McKay. The time has come for us to boycott such Negro authors whom we may fairly designate as "literary prostitutes." We must make them understand that we are not going to stand for their insults indulged in to suit prejudiced white people who desire to hold the Negro up to contempt and ridicule. We must encourage our own black authors who have character, 238

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who are loyal to their race, who feel proud to be black, and in every way let them feel that we appreciate their efforts to advance our race through healthy and decent literature. WRITERS TO FIGHT N E G R O C A U S E

We want writers who will fight the Negro's cause, as H. G. Wells of the white race fights for the cause of the Anglo-Saxon group. Let us imagine Wells prostituting his intelligence and ability as an author to suit Negro publishers, as against the morals or interest of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is impossible. Yet there are many Negro writers who have prostituted their intelligence to do the most damaging harm to the morals and reputations of the black race. The following is the review of Claude McKay's book by the white paper, "John O'London's Weekly": T H I N K I N G BLACK A NEGRO'S EXTRAORDINARY N O V E L ABOUT N E G R O E S

If we may judge by the novels and plays which reach us in gay and unEuropean bindings, "high brow" America has "gone nigger." A few years ago there was Mr. Eugene O'Neill's "Emperor Jones" (it was, alas! a dismal failure on the London stage); 4 more recently there has M r . Carl van Vechten's "Nigger Heaven" 5 — which became almost a "best seller," even in England—the poems of Louis Varrey, Mr. J. W. Vandercook's "Black Majesty," 6 and many others of which the average English reader has never even heard. Now, in "Home to Harlem" (Harpers, 7s. 6d.), we have a remarkable novel about Negro life in America by a Negro author who has spared us neither vividness nor truth. A WANDERER

Mr. Claude McKay has had a career highly colored with the romance that belongs to all wanderers. He was born in Jamaica, of parents who had been abducted from their native Madagascar and auctioned as slaves. At the auction, we are told, they went on a "death-strike," vowing that if they were not sold to the same master they would kill themselves. Mr. McKay, who seems to have shown an early aptitude for learning, was offered the chance of an education in the United States by a friend and took it. For two years he studied scientific farming in an American college, but the call of literature was not to be resisted, and so he left college to become a wanderer, a stoker, a Pullman-car attendant, a dock hand on the quays not only of New York but of London and Marseilles. It is in Europe, indeed, that he does his writing. "Home to Harlem," which is his first novel, has already gone into three editions in America within the space of two months. 239

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS A SOCIAL D O C U M E N T

"Home to Harlem" is not so much a novel as a social document about a race that few of us have tried to understand. Its hero is a slightly sentimental gentleman of color named Jake, who deserts from the American Expeditionary Force in France, not because he is a coward but because he is impatient to be "doing something." He comes to London to work at the docks at Limehouse, but after a time there comes the irresistible call of New York's colored colony: "it was two years since he had left Harlem. Fifth Avenue, Lenox Avenue, and One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Street, with their chocolate-brown and walnut-brown girls, were calling him. 'Oh, them legs!' Jake thought. 'Them tantalizing brown legs!' . . . Barron's Cabaret! . . . Leroy's Cabaret! . . . Oh boy!'" 7 And so Jake goes back to Harlem, with its cabaret, "speakeasies," its gin and flashing razors, its cinemas, in which only colored actors and actresses are shown on the screen, its rouged dusky-brown girls ("rouge on brown, a warm, insidious chestnut,")8 its intermingled poverty and luxury—a riot of color and gaiety (mixed with squalor), at which the white man can only stand amazed. And as for the morals of Harlem, we are shocked only when we begin to reflect that there aren't any morals there at all. FANTASIA

Jake has his adventures. He falls in love with a Congo entertainer at a cabaret, who disappears from his life as quickly as she comes into it. He gets mixed up with a gin-drinking Negress and her odd assortment of friends; becomes embroiled in a strike; becomes (as did his creator) a Pullman-car attendant; meets a Negro student who opens a new world of culture to his gaze; falls ill almost to death; recovers, and, at the end, meets again the little Congo Rose who had set his heart aflame at the beginning. These are some of the episodes that make up a book that in spite of the fact that it has the most slender of plots, holds our attention till the last page. We read on, not so much because of Jakes's adventures as because of the shock and surprise of being in a new and unfamiliar world; because of the extraordinary vividness with which Mr. McKay brings its scenes before us. Here, for instance, is how Mr. McKay describes an all-black Harlem cabaret:— It was a scene of blazing color. Soft, barbaric, burning, savage, clashing, planless colors . . . all rioting together in wonderful harmony. There is no human sight so rich as an assembly of Negroes ranging from lacquer black through 240

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brown to cream, decked out in their ceremonial finery. Negroes are like trees. They wear all colors naturally. And Felice, rouged in a ravishing maroon, and wearing a closefitting, chrome-orange frock and cork-brown slippers, just melted into the scene.'" We learn from M r . McKay many hitherto unsuspected things about Negro life, about their cooking, their food, about their attitudes to white men and to each other, about their work, and about their almost incredible night life. The full-blooded Negro, for instance, has a contempt for the half-caste that is almost as violent as the old Marylander's for the Negro. And again: "Jake was very American in spirit and sharefd] a little of that comfortable Yankee contempt for poor foreigners. And as an American Negro he looked askew at foreign niggers. Africa was jungle, and African bush niggers, cannibals. And West Indians were monkey-chasers.'" 0 T H E REAL TRAGEDY

But the real tragedian of "Home to Harlem," in spite of his many misfortunes, is not Jake, but Ray, the Negro student. As he himself confided to Jake:— The fact is, I don't know what I'll do with my little education. I wonder sometimes if I could get rid of it and go and lose myself in some savage culture in the jungles of Africa. I am a misfit—as the doctors who dole out newspaper advice to the well-fit might say—a misfit with my little education and constant dreaming, when I should be getting the nightmare habit to hog in a whole lot of dough like everybody else in this country. Would you like to be educated to be like me?"" Here, one feels, is unspeakable tragedy. P R O U D B L O O D OF T H E N E G R O

In the autobiography Claude McKay tries to make out that his parents were from Madagascar, and that they were so proud as to have gone on a death strike against being enslaved. I do not believe this. I don't believe McKay can trace his ancestry back to Madagascar. It is most likely that he came from the Congo. Negroes who are descendants from proud ancestors generally retain some of their proud blood. N o proud man of any race ever debases his race. It is always those of low ancestry who are always willing to play the monkey for the satisfaction of others. But it is a trait of those libellers against the black race to always suggest when they come in contact with white people that they represent the best blood of the Negro. 241

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS D U B o i s ' ROYAL HOUSE If I am not mistaken, a friend told me that D u Bois stated and suggested that he has claim to the ancestry o f a R o y a l H o u s e in East Africa. 1 2 It is rather amusing to hear these libellers o f the race talking abut their royal ancestry when they represent the lowest type o f ancestry.

N e g r o e s o f royal ancestry

always want to be proud of their race; they d o not think any race better than their own. Yet D u Bois called a black man an ugly man simply because he was black. T h o s e of y o u w h o remember his article in the " C e n t u r y M a g a z i n e " in 1920 will remember that he positively stated that to be black w a s t o be ugly. 1 3 T h e black royal blood of East Africa believes in the honor and integrity o f the black race. D u Bois to the contrary believes that the standard o f beauty is to be found in the white man. SOMETHING FUNNY It is funny that these writers are always suggesting that they are from royal black blood and yet they are prostituting their intelligence and ability as authors and writers against their race for the satisfaction o f white people. We are calling a halt on these libelous writers so that w e m a y develop authors and poets worthy o f our race and w h o will fight for the cause of the race. 1 4 W i t h very best wishes, I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY President-General Universal N e g r o Improvement Association Printed in NW, 29 September 1928. Original headlines omitted. 1. Home to Harlem was published by Harper and Brothers (New York) in early spring 1928. Claude McKay wrote the novel while living at the residence of Max Eastman in France. His efforts were aided substantially by Louise Bryant, who found him a prominent literary agent in Paris (William Aspenwall BradJey, whose clients included Gertrude Stein and Edith Wharton) and helped to negotiate a contract with the New York publishing house. Bradley counseled McKay to expand one of his short stories about a young black soldier's return to New York into a novel. The story had previously been submitted to a competition for New Negro writers sponsored by Opportunity magazine in 1926. The novel also incorporated material from McKay's "Color Scheme," a story about an alienated black intellectual (the basis for the character of Ray in the novel), and from McKay's own experience working and socializing with black dock workers and seamen in France. The novel was a bestseller, reportedly some eleven thousand copies of the book sold in the first two weeks of its availability in New York. It received acclaim from the white press and caused controversy among black editors and writers, who split along generational lines between those supportive of the new forms of artistic freedom and those who saw the literary manifestations of the New Negro movement as contrary to racial advancement. While Langston Hughes loved the novel, James Weldon Johnson was one of the few members of the older generation who praised it. Most other established leaders, like Garvey, were critical of it. W. E. B. Du Bois found it offensive ana racially derogatory, and Garveyite journalist William Ferris denounced what he felt was McKay's willingness to subvert race loyalty for commercial success. Surprisingly, in contrast to Garveys own expressions of disgust over the book, the Negro World staff ran advertisements for the book and reprinted Louis Sherwin's enthusiastic and race-conscious review from the 2+ March 1928 New York Sun. Sherwin called the book "brilliant, vivid, [and] absorbing," and stated that it was the best novel he had ever read, "infinitely superior to any work by a white man on this subject" (NW, 14 April and 30 June 1928; see also William Ferris, "Obscenity in Our Literature," 242

SEPTEMBER 1928 Pittsburgh Courier, 21 March 1928; W. E. B. Du Bois, "Review of Home to Harlem," Crisis 35, no. 6 [June 1928]: 202; Wayne F. Cooper, Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance [Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1987], pp. 232-24S). In addition to Home to Harlem, McKay wrote a volume of poetry, Harlem Shadows (1922), a novel, Banjo (1929), and numerous short stories during the 1920s. The stories were later collected in Gingertown (1932). 2. W. E. B. Du Bois wrote two novels in this era, The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) and Dark Princes (1928); he also included poetry in Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil (1920). Walter White was the author of Fire in the Flint (1924) and Flight (1926). James Weldon Johnson published the novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man anonymously in 1912; it was reissued under his name in 1927. His poems were collected in Fifty Tears and Other Poems (1917) and God's Trombones (1927). Eric Walrond's contribution to the literature of the 1920s was Tropic Death (1926). Rising writers during this era, which came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance, included Gwendolyn Bennett, Arna Bontemps, William Stanley Braithwaite, Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, Jessie Fauset, Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Helene Johnson, Nella Larscn, Anne Spencer, and Jean Toomer (Bruce Kellncr, ed., The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era [Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984]; Richard A. Long and Eugenia W. Collier, eds., AfroAmerican Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry, 2d ed. [University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1985]). 3. Animal imagery pervades McKay's Home to Harlem. His main character, Jake, is presented as a sensitive but unschooled noble savage whose reaction to life is visceral, not intellectual. The world, in McKay's vision, is alternately a jungle or a barnyard, peopled with women "like shameless wild animals hungry for raw meat," and individuals described as gorillas, apes, leopards, panthers, jackals, tigers, rhinoceroses, "mischievous monkeys" or "monkey-chasers"; or, alternately, as ram goats, rats, mules, hogs, bulldogs, hounds, cowed brutes and "black piggies" (McKay, Home to Harlem pp. 97, 197, 263). In his adherence to realism and the presentation of folkways and the vernacular, McKay brings the reader into the cabarets, saloons, pool halls and rooming houses of Harlem, displaying "simple, raw emotions" that "may frighten and repel refined souls, because they arc too intensely real" (p. 338). The primitivism of his imagery is part of this naturalistic style and of his efforts to reawaken a racial consciousness by linking exotic aspects of contemporary black culture with their African "ancestral source" (p. 196). The violence and rapacious sexuality of McKay's modern vision arc not strictly race-linked, however, nor are his animal metaphors. When his protagonist is involved in an angry and potentially lethal encounter with a black friend, his thoughts turn to the "vivid brutality" he had witnessed among racist working-class whites in Britain during the war. "He was infinitely disgusted with himself," McKay writes, "to think that he had just been moved by the same savage emotions as those vile, vicious, villainous white men who, like hyenas and rattlers, had fought, murdered, and clawed the entrails out of black men" (p. 328). In McKay's novel it is humankind and civilization itself—not black culture per se—that is depicted as brutish and barbaric beneath its refined facade. 4. O'Neill's psychological drama is set on the eve of a rebellion on an island in the West Indies. Jones, a proud and powerfully built African-American who has established himself as emperor on the island, is warned of an impending coup and escapes from his palace into the woods by night. There he is haunted by a series of visions. These are representative of subconscious fears and feelings of guilt stemming from his personal past and present predicament, but also of the collective consciousness or history of his race. These visions include the degrading and brutalizing experiences of a slave auction and a slave ship. At each encounter with these horrific hallucinations, Jones becomes more lost, disheveled, and desperate, until he is finally reduced to the vulnerability of one of his envisioned slaves, stripped of his lofty uniform and clothed only in a loin cloth. In this victimized state he is hunted down and assassinated by his enemies. O'Neill stated that he wrote The Emperor Jones to provide a precedent for playwrights to create plays "for the Negro as a serious actor," counteracting the conditions current in the American theater where major dramatic roles "would always be played by white actors in black face, with the exception of musical comedy and vaudeville" (O'Neill to Abdias do Nascimento, founder, Negro Experimental Theater, Rio de Janeiro, 6 December 1944, quoted in Carl N. Degler, Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States [New York: Macmillan, 1971], p. 181). W. E. B. Du Bois characterized this lack of opportunity in the arts by saying "we can go on the stage; we can be just as funny as white Americans wish us to be; we can play all the sordid parts that America likes to assign to Negroes; but for any thing else there is still small place for us" (Du Bois, "Criteria of Negro Art," Crisis 32, no. 2 [October 1926]: 290-297, 296). 243

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS The Emperor Jones was first produced by the Provincetown Players in 1920 and premiered in New York in 1921 with Charles Gilpin in the starring role. The play was produced in Paris in 1923 and opened in London at the Ambassador's Theatre in the West End in September 1925. It closed five weeks later after receiving mixed reviews. Reviewers praised the performance of Paul Robeson in the title role but criticized O'Neill for mounting "a brutal attack on the nerves," stating that the playwright "shocks and surprises but he does not charm, he does not amuse" (NW, 26 February 1921; Times [London], 14 November 1923 and 11 September 1925; Spectator [London], 17 October 1925). j. A reference to Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven (1926; reprint ed., New York: Octagon Books, 1980), a novel that chronicled the potential tragedy of the "in-betweenness" experienced by members of the educated black middle class. It traces the lives of a young New York librarian whose social acquaintances include a cross section of the black middle and upper classes—young intellectuals and writers, professionals, business people, and rich entertainers whose trade brings them into contact with the "nigger heaven" of the underworld and underclass—and her love interest, Byron Kasson, an aspiring writer fresh from the University of Pennsylvania, for whom Harlem turns out to be not a heaven of fulfillment, but the scene of hellish decay. After experiencing continual prejudice from white employers who refuse to hire him for white-collar positions because he is black, and black employers who fire him from blue-collar positions because he cannot fit in with less educated black workers, Kasson sinks into a tragic moral decline, slipping from the proud young man he was at the beginning of the book into seemingly irreversible bitterness and degradation. The novel contains five direct references to Garvey and Garveyism, which are set in the thematic contexts of race pride, economic separatism, and belief in a black God. The fact of Garve/s imprisonment is raised, and the Black Star Line is mentioned in the context of the possible occupations open to Harlemites. In another scene a character who says "we've got to have money to fight the system and earn the respect of the world" is told "You'd think this was a Marcus Garvey meeting" (Nigger Heaven, p. 120). Garvey's name is also brought up by a white editor who advises Kasson to turn away from the theme of black-white intermarriage in his writing and write instead about the real heart of Harlem—about the lives of determined black domestic workers or the strength of Marcus Garvey (pp. 30, 46, 120, 156, 225). The issue of the sensationalization and commercialization of black lower-class life and the avoidance of middle-class black experience as subject matter on the part of publishers and writers became the focus of a symposium printed in the Crisis in 1926. Carl Van Vechten responded to the question of the negative portrayal of a black underclass in fiction by saying that objections to "attempts to picture the lower strata of the race" were "completely inimical to art" (Van Vechten to the editor, 'The Negro in Art: How Shall He Be Portrayed," Crisis 31, no. 5 [March 1926]: 219). Countee Cullen joined Sherwood Anderson, Alfred A. Knopf, Sinclair Lewis, Vachel Lindsay, Mary Ovington, Julia Peterkin, Walter White, and others in the debate, arguing that it was not the depiction of a black underclass that marred popular fiction, but the authors' willingness to "pander to the popular trend of seeing no cleanliness in their squalor, no nobleness in their meanness and no commonscnse in their ignorance" (Cullen to the editor, 'The Negro in Art: How Shall He Be Portrayed," Crisis 31, no. 5 [August 1926]: 194; see also Nathan I. Huggins, Harlem Renaissance [New York: Oxford University Press, 1971], pp. 93~»8). 6. In Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven the young librarian advises the novice writer to turn to the life of the Haitian ruler Henri Christophe to find subject matter for his fiction (pp. 122-125) • While the advice serves as foreshadowing of Kasson's eventual downfall in Van Vechten's novel, it has its literal fulfillment in John W. Vandercook's Black Majesty (New York: Literary Guild of America, 1928), a melodramatic and pedestrian treatment of the life of the Haitian ruler (1767-1820) who was born a slave in Grenada and became a leader in Toussaint L'Ouverture's army of rebellion (1791), declaring himself king after the death of Dessalines. Christophe was crowned as king in 1812 and created a black aristocracy by royal order, including an elaborate system of court costumes, military garb, and titles. He became infamous for his tyrannical actions, including his merciless execution of former allies. However, he also became a symbol of black political power, pride, and great wealth, an image connected with his Citadel la Ferrière, a massive fortress, which Vandercook described as a "dream of empire wrought in everlasting stone" (Black Majesty, p. 159). Both his meteoric, rapacious career and his ghoulish suicide by means of a silver bullet make Christophe the historical prototype for O'Neill's fictional Emperor Jones (see Berniza De Mena, "Christophe," NW, 28 April 1931). 7. McKay, Home to Harlem, p. 8. 8. McKay, Home to Harlem, p. 11. 244

SEPTEMBER 1928 9. McKay, Home to Harlem, p. 320. The first part of the passage begins with racial stereotyping: "The owner of the cabaret knew that Negro people, like his people [Jews], love the pageantry of life, the expensive, the fine, the striking, the showy . . ." (p. 319). McKay plays on the use of color throughout the novel, creating scenarios in which the vivid and colliding shades of dancers' satin gowns or the brazen "yellow in the music" convey "a sense of that primitive, ancient, eternal, inexplicable antagonism in the color taboo of sex and society" (pp. 296-297). 10. McKay, Home to Harlem, p. 134. McKay's Darwinistic world is one that pits "white against white and black against white and yellow against black and brown" (p. 34). The passage quoted, however, is the prejudiced view of foreign blacks held by the sweetly ignorant hero, Jake. McKay creates an alter ego for Jake in the intellectual West Indian, Ray, whose prejudices on the issue of national origin are reversed. For him, American values and mores are vulgar in contrast to those of the much-missed West Indies, the scene of his boyhood and of the awakening of his political and historical consciousness. 11. McKay, Home to Harlem, p. 274. The tragedy of Ray's life is his alienation from lowerclass black culture because of his intellectualism; his simultaneous ostracism from conventional elite circles of knowledge because of his class and color; and his self-ostracism from a middle-class black alternative because of his bohemian repugnance for a staid, domestic and materialistic lifestyle. The content of Ray's education mirrors McKay's own. It is also strikingly Garveycsque. When Jake first meets him, Ray informs him of the proud black heritage of his native Haiti, of the spirit of revolution, and the heroism of L'Ouverture. He goes on to describe the ancient origins of slavery and the wonders of past civilizations in West Africa, including stories "of black kings who struggled stoutly for the independence of their kingdoms: Prempreh of Ashanti, Tofa of Dahomey, Gbehanzin of Benin, Cetawayo of Zulu-Land, Menelik of Abyssinia." He continues his black history lesson by drawing an analogy between Palestine and Abyssinia and Liberia, telling Jake that Sheba "was black but beautiful," and the mother of a great ruling dynasty (pp. 134-136). Ray takes Jake to a poolroom in Pittsburgh frequented by race-conscious railroad workers, where "there were pretty chocolate dolls and pictures of Negroid types on sale" including those of a "black Madonna and child" (p. 142). McKay tells the reader that Ray regularly buys an assortment of black newspapers, including the Negro World (p. 144). (Indeed, when the novel was advertised for sale in the 30 June 1928 Negro World the advertising asked . . . "What kind of Negro reads this newspaper? All these questions are answered in the new novel, Home to Harlem written by the Jamaican Negro Claude McKay"). Ray also is steeped in the standards of Western literary thought. On his off-hours as a Pullman porter he reads Dostoevski and Chekhov, Hugo and Shaw, Joyce and D. H. Lawrence. He is also sharply critical of the vocational trends in modern education (pp. 159, 166, 227-228, 243). His dissatisfied sense of being a misfit comes not only from feelings of social alienation but from a modern philosophical attitude of existential angst (p. 274). 12. Du Bois wrote in his memoirs that he was of Bantu, Dutch, and West African heritage on his mother's side and from a Bahamian, French Huguenot and Haitian background on his father's (W. E. B. Du Bois, The Autobiography ofW. E. B. Du Bois [New York: International Publishers, 1968], pp. 62^71). 13. There is a slight confusion of journals and dates in this reference by Garvcy. Although Du Bois published an article on Garvey in December 1920, it appeared in the Crisis, not the Century, magazine. Du Bois's Century article, "Back to Africa," was published in February 1923. He used the term "ugly" once in that essay, when he described Garvey as "a little, fat black man, ugly, but with intelligent eyes and big head" (p. 539). Other black commentators concurred with Du Bois's general assessment of Garvey's physical appearance. Kelly Miller described Garvey as a man possessing a keen will, an active intellect, and a "rebellious spirit," but added that "he possessed neither comeliness of appearance nor attractive physical personality" (Norfolk Journal and Guide, 23 April 1927). In a biographical sketch on Garvcy published in Harlem: Negro Metropolis, Claude McKay stated that "by purely Negroid standards he is an ugly man. As a boy in Jamaica he had been nicknamed 'Ugly Mug.' He was short and ungainly, built something in the shape of a puncheon" ([New York: E. P. Dutton, 1940], pp. 146-147). Garvey's close colleague, William Ferris, described him as "homely and short" but "with keen eyes, heavy jaw, broad shoulders and resonant voice" (The Spokesman [August 1927]: 12-13). 14. McKay, like other black socialists, had initially supported the Garvey movement. In England in the post-war period, he submitted a series of articles about black soldiers and sailors in London to the Negro World and wrote about the Garvey phenomenon for the socialist London press. By 1922 he was comparing the Garvey movement to Bedwardism, the Jamaican religious sect that raised enthusiasm among thousands of lower-class followers, and describing it as "fantastically Utopian."

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Garvey, he wrote, had a revolutionary spirit but was not willing to face the full implications of his rhetoric or the realities of the modern world. McKay later followed up on this assessment of Garvey in his book of essays on Harlem life, Harlem: Negro Metropolis (pp. 143-180). In his chapter on Garvey he ascribed many of the same qualities to the Garvey movement that he had portrayed as part of the Harlem scene in his novels. Garveyism, he wrote, was "glorious with romance and riotous, clashing emotions." " A weaver of dreams," Garvey "translated into a fantastic pattern of reality the gaudy strands of the vicarious desires of the submerged members of the Negro race . . . [who] were overwhelmed by waves of emotion, subterranean waves rising and sweeping over them, waves which might have frightened Garvey himself' (pp. 143,152). Ultimately, McKay felt Garvey had captured the popular imagination but had failed to act pragmatically on his opportunities, exalting his own power through ritual, but denying the movement real political substance (Claude McKay, "Garvey as Negro Moses," Liberator 5 [April 1922]: 8-9; Wayne F. Cooper, The Passion of Claude McKay: Selected Poetry and Prose, ¡912-1948 [New York: Schocken Books, 1973], PP. 15, 53, 65-69).

Marcus Garvey to Herluf Zahle,1 President, League of Nations Hotel Victoria, Genève, September 11, 1928 May It please Your Excellency: It is my privil[e]ged honor to draw to the attention of Your Excellency the fact that the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League, representing a membership of eleven million Negroes of the United States of America, the Islands of the West Indies, South and Central America /Africa/ and Europe, in turn representing the hundreds of millions of black peoples of the world, have this day, through me, handed in to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, an additional petition supplementary to the one handed in to the League in 1922, through the good services of the Persian Delegation. An accompanying letter to the Secretary-General respectfully asks that the additional or renewed petition be brought before the present session of the League. One hundred copies of the petition have also been placed in the hands of the Secretary-General, for distribution among the members of the League of Nations. This petition is an earnest entreaty and appeal of the hundreds of millions of black peoples of the world to your League for a consideration of their complaints and claims, and a review of their conditions throughout the world, as a scattered race of people. This petition is a sentiment, in fact, and I feel sure that Your Excellency and the members of the League will not treat with levity the matter contained therein. The entire Negro race prays for an early consideration of the matter, and in convention shall await the reply of the League. I have the honor to be Your Excellency's Obedient Servant, 246

SEPTEMBER 1928 MARCUS

GARVEY

President-General, Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League, Commissioner to Europe, and the League of Nations 1928 P.S. Three copies of the renewed petition are hereto attached for Your Excellency's further information and action. M. G. L N A , file 6A/7158/7158. T L S , recipient's c o p y . G e n e r a l , E u r o p e a n H e a d q u a r t e r s , letterhead.

O n U N I A O f f i c e o f the President

1. Herluf Zahle (1873-1941) was Danish minister to Paris, Stockholm and London before becoming secretary of foreign affairs in 1910 and chamberlain to the King of Denmark in 1911. He presided at the International Conference on Prisoners of War held at Copenhagen in 1917 and became a member of the Danish delegation to the League of Nations in 1920. He was president of the League assembly in 1928. He acknowledged receipt of Garvey's letter on the following day. Garvey wrote to other League of Nations officials on the same day he wrote to Zahle. He also addressed a second letter to Zahle in his capacity as a member of the Danish delegation, enclosing two more copies of the petition. (Zahle to Garvey, 12 September 1928, and Garvey to Zahle, 15 September 1928, L N A , file 6A/7158/7158; N T T , 6 May 1941).

Marcus Garvey to Sir Eric Drummond, 1 Secretary General, League of Nations Hotel Victoria, Genève, September 11, 1928 May It please Your Excellency: I have it in command from the Universal Negro Improvement and African Communities' League, representing a membership of eleven million Negroes of the United States of America, the Islands of the West Indies, South and Central America, Africa and Europe, in turn representing the hundreds of millions of black peoples of the world, to present to the League of Nations, through you, the accompanying petition, as an additional document to the one presented before the League's Assembly, through the good offices of the Persian Delegation, at its sitting in September, 1922. At that session the original petition was received. We are, therefore, asking that this renewed petition in addition with the original one of 1922 be placed before the League for its consideration. The Negroes of the world shall await the answer of the League in international convention, to be assembled in August, 1929, from the 1st to the 31st, at which time, on the presentation of the League's answer to the convention, a new Delegation shall be sent to your August Body in 1929 to consult with any individual, committee, or the League itself, that may be 247

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appointed by the League, to receive additional data on the petitions and for discussing the possibilities of an early adjustment of the international Negro race question. I respectfully desire to impress upon Your Excellency that the Negro peoples of the world, who desire a lasting and abiding peace, are in a serious mood, touching the many injustices and wrongs heaped upon them everywhere, and it is for this reason that they anxiously await the League's reply or decision in the matter of the petitions presented. I may state to Your Excellency, that the International Convention of the Negro race of 1929 shall be dutiful in the observance of any reasonable suggestion made to them by the League for an adjustment of the grievous complaints they have made and the horrible conditions under which they live. The Negro race at large feels that the League of Nations is anxious to settle these perplexing racial differences, and in view of the fact that the Negro race constitutes one of the major branches of humanity, it becomes absolutely necessary for a definite policy to be adhered to as touching the future of these people. Feeling assured of Your Excellency's helpful service in bringing this petition before the present session of the League, I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant, 2 MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League, Commissioner to Europe and the League of Nations 1928 P.S. I desire to inform Your Excellency that millions of copies of the renewed petition are being circulated among the millions of representative and cultured civilized peoples of the world to inform them of what effort the Negroes are making to bring their case before the League of Nations. These peoples shall anxiously await the decision of the League, on this matter, as the entire world believes that the League will not ignore the cry of the Negro race for Justice. Copies are also being filed with all the Governments of the world. One hundred copies are also sent to Your Excellency, under separate cover, for presentation to every member of the League Assembly and the League Council. M. G. LNA, file 6A/7158/7158. TLS, recipient's copy. General, European Headquarters, letterhead.

On UNIA Office of the President

1. Sir Eric Drummond (1876-1951), British diplomat and sixteenth Earl of Perth, was secretary general of the League of Nations from 1919 to 1933. As the first secretary general of the newly formed international body, he was responsible for the creation of its permanent secretariat (Times [London], 17 December 1951; Garvey Papers 4: 12 n. 1). 2. Garvey made a handwritten notation below his signature indicating he would be at the designated address in Switzerland "until Thursday Sept. 13th." The letterhead listed a "SubEuropean Headquarters" of the U N I A at 5 Rue Paul Lovis Courier (VII), Paris, in addition to the Kingston, London, and New York headquarters listed on earlier versions of the letterhead. 248

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Enclosure 57 CASTLETOWN ROAD, WEST KENSINGTON LONDON, W. 1 4 ,

September, 1928 R E N E W A L OF PETITION OF THE U N I V E R S A L N E G R O IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION AND A F R I C A N C O M M U N I T I E S ' L E A G U E TO THE L E A G U E OF N A T I O N S , GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, AND TO THE SEPARATE AND D I S T I N C T N A T I O N S OF THE W O R L D , AND T H E I R NATIONALS AND PEOPLES, ON B E H A L F OF THE H U N D R E D S OF M I L L I O N S OF BLACK, S T R U G G L I N G AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE OF THE W O R L D

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCIES:

(1) Your respectful petitioners are the Black Race, popularly known, and classified ethnologically, as Negroes, whose proper and legitimate home was, is, and ever shall be, Africa but who are now scattered and dispersed the world over, not by their wish, but by the woeful trick of circumstance that reveals a terrible history of the traffic of man in the bodies of men. (2) We are a people who have already suffered most terribly from the greed, lust and viciousness and injustice of others of the human race, who have for centuries imposed upon us the horrors of slavery—chattel and industrial— and we are now smarting under the lash of a new economic, social and political domination that forces us to cry out to you, and to your and our God—whom we believe to be no respecter of persons, but who influences and inspires justice to all mankind—for relief and protection. (3) We, your petitioners, believe that you are serious in the practise of your religions, and that your adoration of a God Head is not farce nor a mockery but a substantial truth upon which you place your hope of spiritual salvation. We further believe that you have not given the blood of your fathers in crusades, and in sacrifice, for the worship of a God of Stone, but the evangelizing of the world to the acceptance of the truth that there is but one God, who is the Father of all mankind, and that He looks with like favor upon all races and nations, whether they be white, yellow, brown or black. (4) We, your petitioners, have accepted your theory of the God Head, but have watched your practise with profound astonishment, yet believing that a time would come when you in the fullness of your righteousness, in keeping with your theory of the God Head, would extend to us, the black peoples of the world, the kindly principles on which your faith is founded. 249

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(5) The hour for such approach has come, and we, your petitioners, now lay at your feet our grievances, woes and sorrows and tribulations, imposed upon us by other children of the same God that you worship with us—the God that you claim shall be the judge of all mankind and of whom you have taught us by your missionary zeal. (6) We love this God in whose name you have approached us, and we have pinned our faith and hope in Him, and now we call upon Him, in all His love and Divine terror, to touch and move your hearts, and the hearts of those who may be responsible, but hard, to save us, His black children, from the sin and sneer with which corrupt humanity has engulfed us. H e is God, and we know Him to be such, therefore, we are imploring Him, being a people and oppressed race without armaments—battleships, dreadnoughts, cruisers, submarines, airplanes, guns and liquid gases—to plead before you our case for justice and righteousness, in that you have made no provision for us to appear before you, in august assembly, otherwise than through His Divine Presence. (7) Your petitioners beg to draw to your attention that consequent upon the slave trade, we have been scattered all over the world, under different climes, environments and circumstances, and thus we have chiefly to-day the African, American, South and Central American, West Indian and Asiatic Negroes, all of whom still look to Africa as their Motherland, even though the continent has been robbed and despoiled by the ungodly and unjust political behaviour of others. We now implore you to set right, on the principles of your religion and belief in the justice of God, this great wrong. (8) While your petitioners are no longer in the mass chattel slaves, we beg to draw to your attention that the commercial, educational, industrial, political, religious and general economic bondage, which has since been substituted, has reduced us to a state bordering on semi-slavery and a condition that places us in an awkward position as children of the one and same God who is the Father of all mankind, and of whom you taught us, in your missionary zeal, to trust, even as you do. (9) In following the lead of those who have evangelized us, our lands and all our valuables in Africa have been expropriated and everything worthwhile on the continent, the land of our Fathers, taken away, and new governments, not ours, and spheres of influence set up. We must confess that the various doctrines of how to acquire another man's property by stealth, to render him helpless, ha[ve] never appealed to us, and, because it was not moral nor ethical, we have always tried to keep ourselves from trespassing upon our neighbour, and to make sure that we do not covet nor take his vineyard; but the teaching of the religion of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man was so appealing, with all its moral precepts, that we gladly followed you, to see the light; but, lo! and behold! the twentieth century realization of the practise of our religion has found us slaves—chattel and economic—peons and serfs, with our lands and country taken from us by the white race, our teachers. (10) Our petition to Your Excellencies, is also a petition to the God you taught us to love; so even as we place before you to-day a copy of the 250

S E P T E M B E R 1928

document, praying for justice, so do we send a like prayer to God and to Heaven. We shall daily and nightly, until Ethiopia stretches forth her hands, and princes come out of Egypt, send this petition up to our Father, with supplications, so that He may send His judgment upon those who are guilty in denying justice, righteousness and love to even the least of His children, who call Him Father! and we hope He might touch the hearts of the righteous, to yield and give to us the things that are ours, as it was proper and right to "give unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's'" and to do battle with the forces of evil, to confuse and destroy them, as was done in the help He gave to His chosen people when the powers of darkness encompassed them. (11) It is true, that under the wrong version of Christianity, the early Fathers of the Church, and Theologians, inspired the outrage upon us, in the practise of the Decree of the Popes, that "the lands inhabited by the infidels were open to acquisition by Christians, and the Europeans had rights to invade, conquer, storm, attack and subjugate the Saraceans, pagans, etc., and to reduce them to perpetual servitude; to subdue the lands, the islands and the habitations of the pagans." 2 But Pope Nicholas V's decree to the Portuguese, and others, could not have meant to hold the lands of the converted Christians—converts from paganism—hence, whatever excuses may be given, to still hold our lands in Africa, it cannot be said that we are all still pagans. (12) Yet your petitioners feel that the European nations have acted upon the principles enunciated by Pope Nicholas since the Fifteenth Century, and the result is a complete devastation and despoilation of Africa, by Europeans, as against the interest of our race, the lawful owners of Africa, with its lands and valuables. (13) Your petitioners respectfully aver that had the Christian Nations of Europe, who came to us in the Fifteenth Century, started and continued honorably to trade with us in gold, diamond, ivory, timber, spices, pepper and oil, etc., this sort of legitimate trade would have been so developed, by both Africans and Europeans, that the present problem of racial inequality would never have arisen. (14) Again, at the abolition of the slave traffic, the section of your petitioners remaining in the homeland, Africa, were invaded by a new policy, as enunciated in the Berlin Decree3 of 1885, as passed by the then Family of Nations, among themselves, and to which we were no parties. The policy consisted of taking our lands and properties in Africa, and reducing us, the rightful owners, to serfs upon these lands. This has been the new method of seizing our lands and properties and threatening our race, as in South Africa, East Africa and South-West Africa, with extinction or extermination. By virtue of, and under the provision of the Berlin Decree, our Kings, Chiefs and Peoples, in various parts of Africa, have been tricked, intrigued and forced into accepting numerous so-called treaties, whereby they were unconsciously made to cede their sovereignties over their lands and holdings to the Christians. 251

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(15) Your petitioners aver here most emphatically that these our Kings, Chiefs and Peoples never understood the purport of what these treaties conveyed to the Christian Nations and their peoples. They never intended to cede their sovereignties over their lands nor to subjugate themselves as a people in any shape or form. They did not understand what they signed, and the God of Heaven knows this to be true, and shall judge in the act; but they were forced to sign, under compulsion, and under pressure of superior force, still represented in battleships, cruisers, dreadnoughts, submarines, airplanes, guns and liquid gases. (16) Your petitioners respectfully beg to illustrate the complications of the terms of the treaties, which could not have been understood by our Chiefs, when they were forced to sign, by relating a case in question. In the case of the treaties concluded by the Germans with the Chiefs and Natives of East Africa, in the eighties of the last century,4 these Chiefs are said to have "Ceded all sovereign rights, all the rights, which, according to the European ideas, are comprised in the sovereign rights of a Prince," and "all rights, which, according to the law of European Nations, are comprised in the idea of sovereignty," including ["]the right to have their own laws and administration, the right to levy customs and taxes, the right to maintain an armed force permanendy in the country." All this view, we declare, was wholly unintelligible to those Kings and Chiefs who signed those treaties, hence, an undue advantage has been taken of our ignorance, in the premises, and, according to the interpretation and ethics of international law, and the law of equity and justice, all such treaties should be pronounced null and void, before man and God, and those who have benefited therefrom should restore their stolen gain, even in the name of Jesus and Christanity. (17) Your petitioners aver that the breakdown of the policy in the Berlin Decree constituted one of the real causes that led up to the Great European War of 1914 to 1918,5 because God was not pleased with the method of the Decree, hence the policy in practise, resulted in creating jealousy and greed among the members of the then Family of Nations themselves in their race to establish a monopoly over as great an area as they could acquire from our lands in Africa. (18) Your petitioners aver, that, the policy in the Berlin Decree, having become impossible, for further practical purposes, another policy was recently evolved, under what is called the doctrine of the Trusteeship for the Africans. This consists in declaring the lands of the Africans as being vested in the Crown, or some European Power, as Trustee for the Africans, and the parcelling out of them in leasehold tenures of 999 and 99 years, respectively, to Europeans, and, curiously enough, of leasing them again to the African Natives themselves (the very owners of these lands) making them to pay rents to the Crown, their so-called trustee. (19) Your petitioners declare, that under this new principle of seizing our lands and property, those sections of our race, inhabiting East Africa (Kenya), and the whole of South Africa, have been systematically dispossesed 252

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of their lands, by the white settlers, and they have now been turned over with their lands as mere serfs and wage-earners in the hands of a hostile people. Your Honourable Body, to which we appeal, may gather further facts and information on this question from us and from such friends like that British Noble, Lord [Sydney] Olivier, 6 who has properly exposed, from time to time, at lectures, in the House of Lords, and in public speeches, the breakdown of the system of Trusteeship for the Africans. (Theory and Practice.) (20) It may seem strange to Your Excellencies that so much confusion exists in the world to-day, but when it is considered that there is so much injustice, one should not wonder that out of the many conferences and councils that have been held, resulting in new pacts and decrees, nothing else but death, further confusion and disappointment have occurred in the midst of apparent wisdom. The world, within recent years, has lost the presence of several eminent statesmen, who, apparently, desired peace, and spoke of it, notably Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding and others well known to your August Body. One wonders, with the untimely natural death of these great men, apparentiy in the prime of life,7 if it is not a warning, and a handwriting on the wall of God's way, to show how displeased He is with the unfair methods of men, even when they talk about justice, peace and human love, when there is none? We respectfully ask Your Excellencies to ponder the matter, and to weigh it in the light of the effect of human prayers to God to help the oppressed and submerged multitude. The weak and helpless have only their prayers to God as their defence and protection, while the mighty of the earth have their battleships and their armies as their means of offence, even in the name of Christ our Master. (21) Your petitioners are aware of the present existing state of affairs among their own kith and kin, in Africa, as regards the Land question, and its economic development, and aver that these their brethren in Africa do really and eamesdy need the assistance of their own brethren abroad, who have already been properly equipped with Western culture, to return to Africa to assist in the proper development of their homeland. (22) Your petitioners respectfully beg to draw to Your Excellencies' attention the following facts of history, that in 1857 to 1859, the Negroes abroad sent certain of their people, from America to Africa, as Commissioners with a view to effecting with the Native Chiefs a means to bring about proper economic development of Africa in a co-operative manner,8 and had not that arrangement been frustrated, by design, the present African economic problems would certainly have been avoided. (23) Your petitioners now humbly beg to recite certain grievances, from which we are suffering, in all parts of the world, and beg that you take immediate or early steps to remedy them, so that the world may grow to live in peace, that peace which you have so nobly declared for and talked about so much within recent years, and which is contained in that divine invocation of the Angels, in proclaiming: "Peace on earth and good-will toward all men." 9 253

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(24) It is for us, Honourable Sirs, to emphasize these abuses and abominations from which we suffer, as a people, to further impress you with the true state of affairs that exist and under the conditions we have to live:— (25) In Africa, our people have been reduced to a state of social, economic and educational indignities. In South Africa, East Africa, and South-West Africa, the natives are regarded as inferior human beings, and, in some instances, not as human beings at all, by the white settlers; and, in sections, laws of repression and discrimination have been made against the interests of the natives. They are being denied the privilege of receiving higher education, the right to vote and to take part in the affairs of the government, and denied the privilege to work as they choose or to move about in their own country as they desire. They have been excluded from the ownership of lands, in certain areas, and, are in most places, driven to live in compounds, while the white settlers, through the government, arrogate to themselves the right to possess the lands and values that have been the natives hereditary right for ages.10 In some sections of South Africa, the natives are not allowed to walk on the same sidewalks with the white citizenry. (26) The Colour Bar Bills," and discriminating legislative enactments of the South African Government, unfit the South Africans to become mandatory guardians and trustees of the rights of the black people, in the area placed under their control.12 And we further state that the blacks in the Americas, the West Indies and West Africa are far more cultured and advanced, educationally, than the white South Africans, and that they are better able to exercise the proper governmental control over their people, in Mandatory Africa, than the prejudiced Africanders [Afrikaners]. (27) To show the unfitness of the South Africans to administer the affairs of government, for other peoples, we beg to cite some of the acts of injustice that exist in South Africa, between the Native Peoples, the coloured population and the whites. The following are among the prohibitions imposed by their Parliament since the accomplishment of Union: 13 — (a) In Cape Colony (where Natives have exercised the Franchise for sixty years) coloured voters may not now elect a man of colour to represent them in the Legislative Assembly. No Native taxpayer is entitled to a vote in Transvaal, Orange Free State or Natal. (The South Africa Act, 1909).14 (b) Coloured persons are excluded by Act of Parliament from membership rights in the Dutch Reformed Church outside Cape Colony (i9ii).'s (c) Coloured mechanics are precluded from working as skilled labourers in the industrial centres (Mining Regulations, 1911). (d) Coloured Citizens are excluded from military training in the Citizens' Defence force of the Union (Act 13 of 1912).16 (e) The settlement of Europeans on Crown land and the establishment of a Land Bank to advance State funds to white 254

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farmers is limited to Europeans to the exclusion of Native taxpayers (Acts 15 and 18 of 1912). 17 (f) Native miners are not allowed to benefit by the pensions and other advantages provided by law for miners who contract Miners' Phthisis (Act 19 of I9i2).'8 (g) Natives are prohibited from buying fixed property in the Union except in tribal locations, that are already overcrowded and where tribal lands, being legally inalienable, cannot be bought or sold (Act 27 of 1913).19 (h) The lease of landed property to Natives is forbidden in the Union under a penalty of £100 or Six months' Imprisonment. They may only acquire interest in land from other Natives, and this means nothing as Natives never had any land to let (practically the whole of the land being in the hands of Europeans). 20 (i) Native passengers holding tickets are not allowed to travel in any train other than in a native compartment. The effect hereof is that when a crotchetty conductor refuses to carry Natives in his train, even though there be plenty of room in the carriages, it is lawful for him to leave them stranded in the veld with their tickets in their pockets, if his excuse be that he had no compartment available for Natives. This hardship was imposed under sub-sections 4-6, Section 4, of Act 22 of 1916.21 (j) Natives, whatever their qualification may be, are not employed in the public service except as "casual" menial labourers (Public Service Regulations 1912). (k) Native interpreters have been dismissed [from] the law courts and their places filled by white men, some of them with the most imperfect knowledge of the vernacular, thus reducing to a farce the administration of justice as far as native litigants are concerned. O L D RESTRICTIONS H A V E B E E N D R A W N T I G H T E R BY R E C E N T PROCLAMATIONS, AND E X T E N D E D THROUGHOUT THE U N I O N D U R I N G AND S I N C E THE G R E A T W A R

1.—No natives can get licenses to search for precious stones even in proclaimed diggings outside Cape Colony. In the Cape Province men of colour exercised this right along the Vaal River Diggings for forty years before the Union. But now, committees of white diggers are empowered to examine all applicants and to refuse or recommend their applications for diggers' licences. These Committees consistently refuse all coloured applicants in Cape Colony and recommend white ones only. 2.—After the British occupation of the Orange River Colony, the Crown Colony Government made it lawful for Natives to hire land and graze their 255

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cattle in the Orange River Colony—now Orange Free State. This right was abolished by the Union Parliament in 1913 and Natives can only live in the Orange Free State as serfs in the employ of Europeans.22 3.—The Pass Laws23 on Farms. A native employed on a farm must have a service Pass. He cannot visit his brother on an adjoining farm without a "special" pass in addition to his service pass; and if he finds it necessary to continue such a visit, from the adjoining farm to the next, (his master not being there to give him a third pass) the service pass and the "special" will not avail him anything. 4.—If a Native earns say 20s ($5.00) per month under one white farmer, and another white farmer offers him £3 ($15.00) per month, it is a crime under the pass law to take the better job without a consenting pass signed by his master—the One Pounder ($5.00). 5.—Urban Pass Laws vary in different towns and Municipalities but their rigorous operation is not dissimilar in the several districts. A native arriving in an industrial town from the territories, obtains a free pass which gives him one week in which to look for work. Failure to find work in the week gets him into trouble. He thus takes on anything that offers. Before commencing to work he must be contracted to his employer for a number of months and pay the Government a fee of two shillings per month for the service contract. This contract entitles him to stay on the mining property or in the particular part of the town where he works. He requires a "special" pass to visit his brother in the same town. If when he obtains leave to see his brother he finds him away in another part of town, and attempts to follow him up, the monthly pass and the "special" pass will not save him from imprisonment. 6.—Natives residing in the town and holding all their passes and permits are not allowed outside their own houses after 9 p.m. without a special pass signed by their employer. 7.—In some of the towns married women are not allowed to stay in their husband's houses without paying the town clerk one shilling each per month for the privilege of enjoying the conjugal rights. Failure to keep up this payment involves a fine of £1 or 30 days' imprisonment. 8.— Daughters are not permitted to stay under the parental roof unless they:— (a) Work for a white person; and (b) Pay the town clerk a fee of one shilling per month. The girls so taxed often earn only 10/- to 15/- per month. 9.—The multifarious Pass enactments in force in the different districts of the several Provinces of the Union, are embodied in Acts of Parliament, in Ordinances and in a thousand Proclamations, and Government Notices, and Regulations each of them having the force of Law the moment a new issue of the Government Gazette containing one or more fresh ones leaves the Government Printing Works. 256

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These Curfew regulations and Pass laws are now extended to the Cape Colony, where they never existed before the date of the Union. 10.—In the Northern Provinces, Natives pay over and above the ordinary taxes (which are also paid by white men), special native taxes that are not leviable against the whites. 24 From the proceeds of the special native tax, the Transvaal Provincial Council gets £340,000 per year for the maintenance of educational institutions for the free and compulsory education of white children—institutions in which the children of native taxpayers are not admitted.25 If there were no missionaries, the children of native taxpayers would get absolutely no education. 11.— Latterly we have had to pay taxes in order to provide pensions for white war widows and white orphans, while our own war widows and orphans whose bread-winners fell in the recent great war are not cared for. The Land Act (G.&H.).—Of all the anti-native laws conceived by white men in the history of European colonization in South Africa, no single measure has ever created so much misery and distress among the natives as did the Natives Land Act of 1913. It has cut off the very roots of native life by depriving us of nature's richest gift—our ancient occupation of breeding cattle and cultivating the soil. Natives may only carry on their ancestral occupation as servants in the employ of, and for the profit and benefit of, white men; and any European permitting native cattle to graze on his farm is liable to a fine of £ 1 0 0 or six months' imprisonment. This means that Natives who formerly earned a decent livelihood by hiring pieces of land from White men, cultivating the same and sharing the produce with the landowner, have since been evicted and replaced largely by ill-requited labour. Thousands of former farm tenants, finding their life-long occupation suddenly made illegal, have been forced to sell their cattle for what they would fetch, and have drifted into the cities where, among strange surroundings and incomprehensible restrictions, their lot has become unbearable. Others, after trekking round with their emaciated stock in search of a place to graze them, and losing many head by starvation on the trek, have left Union territory altogether to seek places of abode in the Protectorates or in Portuguese East Africa. Many of such evicted tenants—men, women and children—perished through privations or succumbed to malarial fever or other climatic diseases in strange regions. Hundreds of such victims now lie buried at Madiloje, Southern Rhodesia, etc. Others have got rid of their stock, accepted the new conditions and become serfs, so that men who formerly earned up to £200 per year as farm tenants, with plenty of spare time for their improvement, had perforce to submit themselves and their families to complete indenture at £ 2 0 to £30 per annum per family, and their time is never their own. These prohibitions operate nowhere so harshly as in the Orange Free State, where even the tribal locations, which have in a measure mitigated the severity of the operation of the Land Act in other parts, do not exist. T w o 257

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men in the o . F . s., each of whom had a farm left to him under their uncle's will, were debarred from taking transfer as it was unlawful to pass landed property to persons of colour. And whatever may be said of other restrictions, those involved in the Land Act certainly call for instant abrogation. When first passed it was said to be only temporary—"for a period of two years." But this is the fourteenth year of our suffering, and the end is not yet in sight. PROJECTED HARDSHIPS

The Native Affairs Administration Bill passed the second reading in 1917, the further stages being postponed apparently till after the general election in 1920.26 Among other drastic designs it proposes to confirm and make permanent all the temporary hardships of the Land Act of 1913 and to introduce prohibitions that are not now in existence. The Judges, for instance, are to be deprived of all jurisdiction over Natives, so that the Provincial Divisions of the Supreme Court may exist solely for the benefit of white litigants, thus abolishing Magna Charta as far as it concerns the Natives, who are to be left to the caprices of the officials of the Department that taxes and rules them. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court—a court too high for the scanty means of the native population—alone will be open to them. It further proposes to divide the Union into white and black areas, allot[t]ing over 87 per cent, of South Africa to the one million whites, leaving 12 1/2 per cent. of South Africa to the five million blacks, much of the 12 1/2 per cent. being awarded to the blacks by reason of its unsuitablility for cultivation and its unhealthy climate. A curious part of this unjust segregation proposal is that the bulk of the 12 per cent, awarded to Natives is in the English Province of Natal. No allotment is made in favour of the tribes in the Cape Midlands. There is practically no place in the Orange Free State where Natives could pasture their stock, and no provision for the black mealie planters of Transvaal, except the uninhabitable malarial districts of the North, which, plus the tribal locations, make up the 12 per cent. in the entire Union. The Natives Urban Areas Bill.27—It has been found that some Natives, evicted from the rural districts under the Natives Land Act, have become partly free by migrating to urban areas and complying with the numerous pass regulations. So this Bill provides for a fine of £100 or six months' imprisonment on anyone attempting to sell or lease a house to a Native in any town or village of the Union. Native men and women may only work if they obtain passes and pay a shilling a month each for the privilege. These new restrictions and prohibitions are to operate even in towns and villages at present free from the pass laws. IMPERIAL RESPONSIBILITY

In official quarters it is sometimes said that, the Union of South Africa being a self-governing Dominion, the Empire cannot interfere. But if the Union Parliament is permitted to make South Africa absolutely 258

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uninhabitable to the native population because of their loyalty to the Empire, has Britain got room enough in her little island to accommodate the black millions thus hounded out of their own homes? Many of these hardships are imposed to placate the overbearing section of the Boer population, who refer to the Union Jack as "the rag," and oppose the Government because of its imperialistic leanings. The statement that an autonomous Government cannot be interfered with is not supported by precedents. But for British public opinion, the Belgian atrocities would still be flourishing in the Congo. Lord [Charles] Hardinge, 28 as Viceroy of India, has successfully interceded against a Union Act of Parliament passed in 1913, aimed at the few thousand Indian residents in South Africa. The result of this intercession was the Indian Relief Act 22 of 191+.29 Equally ironic is it to say the Natives "must fight their case against their own Government in their own country." The Natives have protested by written and telegraphic resolutions and by personal deputations to the South African Government ever since 1911, and the only response has been a multiplication of the Draconian prohibitions, because the only means of talking to a constitutional Government is the Ballot, which, the Natives have not got. And it sounds sarcastic in the sufferers' ears to hear of references to "their own country," especially in these parts of South Africa where a native cannot even buy or hire a house. On February 28th, 1906, the following resolution was proposed by Sir William Byles 3 ° and accepted by the House of Commons without division:— That in any setdement of South African Affairs this House desires a recognition of Imperial responsibility for the protection of all races excluded from equal political rights, the safeguarding of all immigrants against servile conditions of labour, and the guarantee of the native population of at least their existing status, with the unbroken possession of their liberties in Basutoland, Bechuanaland and other tribal countries and reservations.31 The Imperial Government of the day, through the Under Colonial Secretary, Mr. Winston Churchill, 32 accepted the resolution in language which left nothing to be desired, for he said:— His Majesty's Government will not resist the motion of my hon[orable] friend, but, on the contrary, we shall gladly further his wish to inscribe it in the journals of the House. We accept fully the proposition that there is an Imperial responsibility for the protection of native races not represented in legislative assemblies, and I have in former times, not so long ago, joined with my hon[orable] and gallant friend Major [John] Seely 33 in asserting, as I hope it may always be in my power to assert, 259

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the right of any British subject of any race or any colour, however humble may be his position, and however distant the land in which he dwells, to the sympathy and respect of the House of Commons. . . . A self-governing Colony is not entitled to say one day, "hands off: no dictation in our international affairs," and the next day to telegraph for the protection of a brigade of British infantry. The South African abominations mentioned above are aimed principally at "native races not represented in legislative assemblies"; and if a resolution, by the Imperial Parliament, is to be trampled under foot it will be difficult to make the suffering natives believe that the Allies have not lost the great war, in which they participated in the hope that it was waged for the amelioration of the condition of oppressed people. And to-day, those native races who had been impelled by what they believed to be Britain's love of justice and fair play, to make enormous sacrifices for the spread of British Dominion in South Africa, are bitterly disappointed to find that a British Dominion can be so outrageous against the rights of man. Behold, Honourable Gentlemen, the rule of the white man in the Colonies and Dominions of Africa and among Native races. (28) The custom in West Africa, and other parts of Central Africa, where black men have been forced to doff their hats, in the presence of any white man or be insulted and often kicked, is obnoxious and repulsive to the cultured sense of Negroes, and we suggest that this outrage be stopped, as its continuation may lead to serious consequences, in that, in many instances, cultured black men, of high standing, have been insulted, and even forced to take off their hats in the presence of white men who were far below them in culture and refinement, and even in social status. (29) That the subtle scheme of discouraging native Africans from going abroad, to seek higher education, 34 for the purpose of helping their country, is well known to us, and that all the barriers placed in their way are but a father proof of the insincerity of the present profession of fellowship which the missionaries to Africa have tried to impart. We realize that there is a scheme to deprive us of the blessings of higher learning, so that we may not develop the intelligence necessary to protect ourselves against the astute method of those who seek to rob and to despoil us, commercially and politically. We, therefore, respectfully request some action in this direction that would free us from all snares in the way, such as restrictive immigration and emigration, non-issuance of passports, non-accommodation on steamships and other barriers of one kind or the other. (30) We also beg to protest against the unfair method adopted by the Colonial Governments in Africa, where they have set up restrictive legislations and barriers against intelligent Negroes going from the United States and the West Indies to their homeland, Africa, for the purpose of peacefully settling 260

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and to help in the development of their country—a privilege that is granted European settlers, but surprisingly denied the Africans abroad. It is almost impos[s]ible for an intelligent Negro to land in South Africa, or other parts of the Continent, yet any white settler from any part of the world who seeks an entry is welcomed. This is unfair. In certain colonies in Africa and in the West Indies, the local governments have passed discriminating laws against the circulation of Negro newspapers, seeking to educate the black races and to help them to become self-reliant, while a free circulation is given to any and all white papers to print the most abusive and disgusting statements against the Negro. This is also unfair, and we petition Your Excellencies to bring about a remedy in the matter. (31) We respectfully desire to draw to your attention that in certain parts of Europe an unfair and unchristian attitude has been adopted towards us as a people, in that, while in our own countries, we demonstrate the best and greatest courtesy and practise the best hospitality to the Europeans, when we, for business, pleasure or otherwise, visit Europe, there is a disposition among the white people to discriminate against us in the hotels and public places, and to render us embarrassed and sometimes ill-convenienced. A case in question is that of not so long [ago] a respectable member of our race, with his family, travelling in cog., arrived in England; he desired to lodge at a second class hotel in London, so naturally he made the usual personal request for admission, but during the course of an entire day, he visited more than fifty hotels, in the city of London, and all of the hotels, except one, denied him accommodation, purely on account of colour. A taxi bill of more the £3 15s. was incurred that day, going from place to place, in London, without finding the necessary accommodations. One hotel attendant booked the reservations for the gentleman and his party, but cancelled them five minutes after when he was approached by a white American woman protesting that they were about to admit Negroes into the hotel. This demonstration of Christian Fellowship is rather questionable and a reflection against sincere missionary evangelization, and we desire to call it to the attention of the League as it leaves a nasty impression upon the minds of us who profess the Christian Faith, and furthermore this prejudice is increasing in all sections of Europe where the white tourists of America visit. The continuation of this prejudice will tend to develop a hostile disposition on the part of the intelligent Negroes, which may lead to retaliation not pleasant to both races." (32) There has been an unfair boycott of Negro labour in certain parts of Europe, and particularly in the British Isles.'6 The employment of black labour is discouraged, leaving most of our people who reside in these particular parts to starve, and in many cases to die from want. This is pronouncedly unfair, when it is considered that in the West Indies, and in Africa, the home of the black man, provisions are made for, and employment given to, the white colonists, without any discrimination, and in most cases they enjoy the best consideration for their labour to which the natives contribute.'7 261

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(34) In the United States, where fifteen million of our people are being held in economic, political and social bondage, we are often abused, maltreated and murdered without redress, although we form one-tenth of the population of that country. It is a well known fact that the Negro has contributed in slavery and out of slavery to the development of the United States, and that he represents a great amount of the wealth of the country, yet, any white immigrant, who has just arrived in this country, receives better consideration at the hands of the people of the country and the government than the blacks who were born there, and whose ancestors have been domiciled there for centuries. There is a system of oppression and repression that seeks to keep the Negro below the level of the white man, but yet in the time of stress, he is used as a convenience, as in the case of the last world war, and other wars of America, such as the Spanish-American war and the Mexican war. 38 In the Southern States, where he is denied the use of the franchise, although a citizen, he is brutalized by mob violence, where he is lynched for the most trivial offence with which he may be charged and not even tried. Lynching of Negroes in that section of the country has been so brutal that even mothers, with unborn children, have been ripped open, after [being] suspended from trees, for the unborn to fall from them to the ground and the mob to trample upon the foetus. Souvenirs have been collected by these white mobs, from the remains of burnt men and women lynched by them. Peonage is a common practise in these parts of the United States, and there is an agreement between the politicians and the statesmen of the North and South to economically starve the Negro, and thereby force his extermination in another fifty or a hundred years. The war of 1914-18 created a breach in the unholy scheme, but it is a fact that the scheme is being worked out, and we the intelligent people of the black race know that there is no future for the black man in America, because the white man wants to make Amcrica a white nation. In the prosecution of this plan in America to exterminate the Negro, there have been several schemes started to lull him into a state of watchful waiting, and then to spring the result upon him when it will be too late for him to help himself. In the prosecution of this scheme, coloured leaders are used to deceive the black or Negro population so that they may make no effort to help themselves, notably among such leaders is a coloured man by the name of W. E. B. Du Bois. (35) In America, Africa and West Indies, the Europeans have raped and abused our womanhood for centuries, to the extent that they have given us a mongrel type of several million which they are now skillfully using to undermine the Negro in Africa and the West Indies, by creating a buffer caste between black and white, and using them as a class to nullify the progress of the blacks and to keep them in a state of permanent subjugation and stagnation. This evil is very pronounced in South Africa and the Islands of the West Indies, and is very dangerous to the interest of our people, and we respectfully ask that something be done to prevent a continuation of it. (36) It is a fact that in Africa, and the West Indies and America, there is an effort to discourage independent black or Negro leadership of the black people, 262

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and at times highly coloured persons would be selected as the natural leaders of our groups, so as to discourage the blacks from leading themselves. We respectfully beg to protest against this scheme of selection, and to ask that it be made so, that the Negro can become his own leader, and that neither the white nor the selected highly coloured person be forced upon us without our consent. We also further protest against the scheme to place any group of people above us because of their caste or colour, as is now happening in America, Africa and the West Indies. (37) We beg further to draw to your attention the terrible state of economic poverty that exi[s]ts among our people in the West Indies, and in parts of Central and South America, and the Southern section of the United States. Most of the black people of these parts are kept in the lowest state of pauperism while other people of the section are allowed to prosper and live decently and advance above their heads. An investigation into the economic condition of any of the islands of the West Indies will reveal the truthfulness of this statement. It is a fact that in the West Indies men are given positions, and advanced in those positions, purely because of their colour, and that black men are excluded and kept down because they are black. We respectfully beg relief, through the effort of the League, from the continuation of such conditions. (38) In certain countries in the West Indies, like Cuba, our labour is discriminated against, and in little coloured republics like Panama, laws have been made specially discriminating against us. Recent laws have been made in Panama seeking to deny the Negro the right to enter that Republic, even in spite of the fact that the black people of the West Indies made the greatest contribution in helping to erect the Panama Canal, in making the place fit for healthy habitation. Even though we arc nationals of different governments, none of these governments took offence on our behalf against these discriminative laws, while they would have taken offence if those laws had been directed against the white sections of their citizenry. We respectfully beg to draw your attention to such matters and ask for relief. (39) In Cuba, thousands of our people are held there in a stranded condition, without any sympathy shown them by anyone nor any sympathy shown them by the respective governments of which they arc nationals. Thousands of our people have been murdered in Cuba and in countries of South and Central America, without any interference on their behalf. Working for such gigantic trusts in Central America, as the United Fruit Company, we have been led into ambush, and have been killed by native Indians and others to receive no redress. It is for these and other reasons that we feel that we ought to be allowed to look after and protect ourselves by the creation of a government of our own. (40) It is true that wherever a black man or Negro attempts to help his race, through intelligent leadership, that the commercial, industrial and political forces that control governments seek to destroy him either through economic pressure of starvation or framed-up imprisonment, so as to discourage him 263

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and others to continue in that direction. A point in question is the trial of a celebrated case in the United States of America, where a Negro leader was sought to be disposed of because of the tremendous influence he had over his people. He was framed-up by the government, on a manufactured charge. He was taken by a white District Attorney before a white judge, a prejudiced white jury, found guilty and sent to jail for the maximum term. When a common friend asked the judge why he imposed such a sentence, he answered, "Because the man had too much influence over the Negro people." Another official of the same government, who had the power to pardon, said that they did not want to punish the man, but that they wanted to set an example to other Negroes of that country not to attempt to do things that this Negro sought to do—that of becoming self-reliant and to work out for themselves the creation of a nation of their own. (41) These, and manifold other grievances, we lay before you, praying that you take steps to remedy them for the insurance of world peace and the establishment of a common brotherhood. (42) We also beg to draw to your attention that in 1922 a delegation from the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League, waited on your August Body, at Geneva, and through the kind offices of the Persian delegation, presented the following petition, which you referred to a special committee for action, but up to the present time we have received no notification of any action, other than to observe that at a subsequent meeting you carried a resolution that all nationals who had grievances should present them through their respective governments. This we interpret as a diplomatic move to destroy the effect of our appeal, although it might not have been apparent to the League at the time they passed the resolution. (43) Being ourselves experts in diplomacy, we are fully able and competent to determine the effect of any measure upon any given situation, therefore, we respectfully beg to further impress the importance of the matter upon Your Excellencies. (44) As you may observe, the blacks or Negroes belong to no one nationality, in fact, nationality is only a matter of accident, as far as the Negro is concerned, for he had no choice of nationality, hence our petition should not be considered as one in the category of nationals, but one of races, with the right to appeal to the soul and conscience of civilized humanity. (45) We are again trusting ourselves to the humane care of Your Excellencies and feel sure that you will give us a better treatment and consideration than we have had in the past. The petition of 1922: [. . . reprint ofpetition followed. . . ].39 (46) Since the presentation and filing of the foregoing petition, certain things have happened to affect our political and economic interests in Africa, which we desire to draw to the attention of Your Excellencies, for whatsoever action may be possible. One Harvey Firestone, a white rubber magnate of the United States of America, who controls the Firestone Rubber Corporation, has 264

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recently influenced and inveigled the President of Liberia, one Charles Dunbar King, to pass over to him, by agreement with the Liberian Government (influenced and backed by the commercial interests of the government of the United States of America), one million acres of Liberian lands, for the exclusive use of the Firestone interests, in the exploitation of rubber development, thereby depriving the natives, the rightful owners of the lands with other Negroes, who have claims of precedence to the occupation, from settling on the lands that were intended for them by the persons and governments and powers that helped to create Liberia a free Negro State, with the hope of offering the Negro an accommodation of a home when he needed one. We are of the belief that the conceding of the lands was done for a consideration, because the entire proceedings are against the constitutional customs of the Republic of Liberia. We further believe that the President of the Republic, M r . Charles Dunbar King, profited by the agreement, and that the very act of forcing himself upon the people of Liberia for a third consecutive term as President after undertaking this affair, is indicative of questionable purpose. There is no doubt that the act of granting this concession to the Firestone interests was against the best interests of Liberia, and the natives thereof, and the Negro race at large, for whom the Republic of Liberia was intended. Since the granting of this concession to Firestone the natives of Liberia have been forced to contribute free labour for the building of roads, etc., for the convenience of the Firestone interests, and in many instances they have been treated as virtual slaves. This is respectfully brought to the attention of your Excellencies to show how wealthy white capitalists do bribe and influence^] with the assistance of their governments, Negroes, to act against their own interests, thereby occasioning great suffering among the black people. (47) There are other instances, and manifold, where representative members of our race have been bribed, paid and influenced to injure the reputation and goodwill of our race, for the selfish benefit of those who may be benefited thereby. The method of singling out, honouring and patronizing certain Negroes, so as to use them against the best interests of their own people, is dishonourable, destructive and unbecoming a Christian brotherhood, therefore, we are appealing to the League to discourage such a practise among the white nations and governments. The practise is a means of exploiting the black race by patronizing such individuals who are generally kept and made wealthy. (48) We further beg to call to your attention that we are very much aggrieved over the politically continued occupation of the black Republic of Haiti by the powerful American Nation, an occupation that never would have commenced if Haiti had been a white country. (49) We feel that the black Republics of Haiti and Liberia have not been given a fair chance to develop, but that they have been marked out as countries to be harrassed and not accommodated in the same manner of dealing with white nations. 265

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(50) We also submit that the entire region of West Africa could be brought together as one United Commonwealth of Black Nations, and placed under the government of black men, as the solution of the Negro problem, both in Africa and the Western World; and we further believe that an amicable agreement could be reached between the United States, England, France and Belgium and the other nations concerned and the natives of Africa, their Chiefs and Kings, and the Negroes of the Western World, looking toward a solution of the vexed and dangerous problem that may lead to other consequences if not now adjusted on fair lines. (51) We respectfully beg to draw to the attention of Your Excellencies the evil practise indulged in by a large number of European merchants, that of artfully exploiting the native producers of West Africa, and fleecing them out of the value of their raw products and other materials, in some cases sold to them for which they do not pay the reasonable market price, and in other cases shipped in consignment which they skillfully manipulate in prices so as to deny the native their proper value. The Europeans have designed many schemes by which they are able easily to fleece the natives and from this injustice and fraud we pray for relief. (52) In the Southern section of the United States a similar practise is indulged in by the large white farmers and produce dealers, where they actually rob the Negroes of their values in their crops and produce and farm lands. A large number of Negroes in those parts are held as peons and are forbidden to leave those plantations and farms on which they work for a whole lifetime, with the threat of death. Others are held because of an alleged indebtedness to the farmers, an indebtedness that grows out of the catch of a few dollars and which according to the peculiar method of bookkeeping by the farmer can never be repaid, but which seems to increase more and more so as to make it possible for the borrower to keep working out the payment, which never occurs, but which gives the farmer a legal right to detain the borrower. In the attempt of the labourer to escape, he is likely to be shot down or punished. 40 (53) We are forced to draw to the attention of Your Excellencies the peculiar custom that exists in a large number of the colonies of the European nations in Africa and the West Indies, where in a large number of cases officials and semi-officials and colonists of the lowest calibre and character have been sent to administer the affairs of the native countries, and where these representatives have assumed the attitude of arrogance, rudeness and disrespect, not maintainable in the home countries, among their own people, but indulged in by them among us much to our disgust and to the point of causing us to disrespect authority. We ask, that until proper relief be given us, pains be taken to send to the native peoples, only cultured white men, who have learned to respect the rights of other people, and who are not obsessed with the idea that they are gods and not mortals like other people simply because the home government that they represent may have battleships and airplanes and other armaments of destruction to destroy the native people on the urge of themselves, as colonists and officials. This complaint must not be 266

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interpreted to mean a reflection upon the sane and decent administration of some of our colonial Governors and other high officials w h o are generally men of good character. (54) We desire to again bring to the attention of Your Excellencies, and emphasize, the unfair methods adopted by several of the colonial governments in Africa and the West Indies, where they have passed restrictive laws forbidding the circulation of certain N e g r o newspapers, especially such papers as the " N e g r o World," 4 1 a medium of education for the N e g r o people, while all the white papers and periodicals of Europe, America and elsewhere are allowed free circulation, containing as some of them do, the most pernicious propaganda against the N e g r o or black people. In some places to be seen with a " N e g r o World" causes the punishment of life imprisonment, and in some places a long term in the workhouse, and still in others, the penalty of death. Isn't this shameful and a reflection against the justice of the white race in dealing with native populations? (55) It is desirous to bring to the attention of Your Excellencies the custom in some of the colonies in Africa and the West Indies to pass certain ordinances calculated ostensibly to interfere with and suppress the liberty of the black people, particularly through the activities and movements of their esteemed and intelligent representatives w h o may be working in their interest. A case in point is that recently the Legislature of the Island of Trinidad was inspired to pass legislation, the purport of which was to hinder a certain influential black man, w h o is engaged in working for the advancement of the black people, from visiting the colony, although the said person claims the same citizenship within an Empire with the islanders. 42 The minority white colonists and the nonracial coloured class w h o have jointly lived o f f the ignorance and unfortunate condition of the black masses, seeking to perpetrate their way of exploiting the blacks, and rendering them no assistance by which they may improve themselves, when they learnt that it was likely for some one interested in these blacks visiting the colony to confer with them as touching ways and means of bettering their condition, suddenly schemed to introduce a law and have it passed in the Legislature whereby power would be placed in the hands of the Governor of the Colony [Horace Byatt] 4 3 to order the non-entry of such a person into the Colony. When asked if the ordinance was not intended as a special measure against a particular person, the Attorney General [Atholl MacGregor], 4 4 w h o knew well it was, essayed to state that it was not, yet everybody knew that the object really was to prevent, at that particular time, a certain black man from visiting the colony in the interest of other black people, fellow citizens of the same Empire like himself. It is common knowledge that the explanation of the Attorney General was not above board, but only a gesture to make the passage of the ordinance possible and uninterrupted. What is true of the method that is applied in Trinidad, is also true of nearly all the colonies of Africa where ordinances and legislations are myriad in the effort to suppress and discourage the contact of intelligent black leaders with their o w n people. While we know most of these ordinances and legislations 267

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to be unconstitutional and amendable by appeals to superior courts of law in the mother countries, yet the tremendous expense of taking these test cases up on appeal is beyond the immediate financial ability of the blacks, and all the means of exposing the methods and acts to the observance of civilization as a whole are always limited as the white Press is generally interested in exposing bad legislation that affect the white race, but not the black. Yet it is well known that these legislations and ordinances made against the interest of the blacks could not be enforced or even contemplated against members of the white race. Another method indulged in by those who exploit the unfortunate blacks is, that whenever they hear of the visit of any influential black person to the colony to assist the poor black population to improve themselves, the Governors of these Islands or countries are inspired to write a letter or letters to another Governor where such person may be domiciled, asking that particular Governor not to issue a passport or visé the passport of such individual to visit the Colony. A case in point is that recently the Governor of the Island of Barbados [William Robertson] 45 wrote a letter to the Governor of another Colony asking him not to issue a passport to a certain influential black man who had contemplated visiting Barbabos to confer with the poor black people of that island relative to some means of improving themselves. This is also true of the Governor of British Honduras [John Burdon] who wrote a similar letter of request to the Governor of the Colony to prevent the individual visiting British Honduras. (56) We desire to draw to the attention of Your Excellencies in some places, the stagnant and undeveloped condition of the Natives, especially of French, Belgian, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish Africa, in comparison with the progress made by other peoples in Europe and elsewhere within the same period of time of occupation. We submit that there is no real sympathetic effort or interest to help the Natives for themselves, and to see them develop to the highest standard as Negroes, but wherever a little progress is marked, it is the result of necessity in promoting the selfish commercial and other interests represented by the political occupations. We fully understand that the previous policy of acquiring political control in Africa by Europeans was to exploit the lands and peoples without any consideration for their interests as human beings, but in the light of modern thought, where all peoples are seeking freedom and liberty, even to the point of dying for it, and in view of the fact that everybody desires peace, we feel that there should be a change of attitude among the Colonial Governments. We positively desire to see the black people advanced on the same plane of progress as the Europeans, and we are capable of supplying the sympathetic intelligence and genius necessary for helping our people forward without any sinister or selfish motive, if given the chance, as we do not desire, in the cause of peace, to take the chance. We also beg to remind you of the horrors of the Belgian Congo, under the régimé [régime] of King Leopold, 46 and to state that the same principle that actuated the exploiters in that period is still in evidence in certain parts of Africa, our dear Homeland. We admire the more liberal attitude of France in treating with 268

SEPTEMBER 1928 us as a p e o p l e , b u t w e f u l l y realize that the aim o f the said t r e a t m e n t is skillfully calculated t o m a k e us m o r e F r e n c h m e n than self-respecting N e g r o e s , 4 7 inspired t o self-reliance and political i n d e p e n d e n c e , s u c h as w e desire, in k e e p i n g w i t h the principle o f h u m a n liberty. (57) It is n o t o u r intention at this particular t i m e t o indict the w h i t e race, as a w h o l e , f o r the w r o n g s t h e y h a v e h e a p e d u p o n u s ; the iniquities are n u m e r o u s a n d b e y o n d r e c k o n i n g , a n d h i s t o r y and tradition are replete w i t h the t e r r o r a n d v i o l e n c e w i t h w h i c h t h e y h a v e been perpetrated. C i v i l i z a t i o n w o u l d s t a n d aghast at the e n u m e r a t i o n s o f the enormities o f these w r o n g s , a n d the p l e a d i n g o f the plaint. W e prefer t o seek an amicable a d j u s t m e n t , rather t h a n press the i n d i c t m e n t f o r a trial b e f o r e the bar o f o u r civilization. P r a y i n g h o p e f u l l y f o r a f a v o u r a b l e c o n s i d e r a t i o n o f all o u r g r i e v a n c e s , as set f o r t h a n d indicated in these petitions, I b e g t o remain y o u r E x c e l l e n c i e s ' Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY President-General, by Constitutional Election, o f the U n i v e r s a l N e g r o I m p r o v e m e n t A s s o c i a t i o n and A f r i c a n C o m m u n i t i e s ' L e a g u e , Commissioner to E u r o p e , R e p r e s e n t i n g the B l a c k Peoples o f the W o r l d L N A , file 6A/7158/7158. P D . Reprinted with slight revisions in NW,

27 October 1928.

1. This is a reference to Jesus's entreaty in Matt. 22:21, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that arc God's." 2. See Garvey Papers 7: 233 n. 9. 3. The General Act of the Berlin Conference was signed at the culmination of the Berlin West Africa Conference, which had been convened by France and Germany (November 1884February 1885) ostensibly to discuss issues dealing with the regulation of international trade along the Niger River in West Africa and in the Congo River basin. One of the underlying reasons for the conference was a belief held by some European leaders that armed conflict between European states was imminent unless a way of controlling commercial competition was instituted. The act established the policy of "effective occupation" whereby signatories (most European nations, the Ottoman empire, and the United States) were required to demonstrate formal control over specific areas in Africa in order to claim exclusive commercial rights in those regions. Formal authority was to be designated through the notification of other signatories when treaties granting trading privileges were established with African rulers. By 1900, largely as a result of this policy, nearly fifty colonial state administrations had been superimposed on hundreds of African political entities. All of these colonial states "asserted sovereign authority within the juridical and political framework" of the world economic system dominated by western Europe and the United States. There were no African representatives to the conference and African rulers were rarely told the significance of the treaties they signed (Immanuel Wallerstein, Africa: One Hundred Tears after the Berlin Conference [Trenton, N.J.: Africa Research and Publications Project, 1984], p. 3; sec also Woodruff D. Smith, The German Colonial Empire [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978], p. 39). 4- The German colonial empire was established in 1884-1885; German East Africa was officially formed in May 1885. Its formation was preceded by German negotiations for the Cameroons (July 1884), German Southwest Africa (August 1884), and New Guinea (December 1884). At the time of colonization, Arab and Swahili peoples lived along the coast of East Africa. Bantu peoples lived in the southern interior, and the Gallas, Masai, and Somalis to the north. In September 1884 the Society for German Colonization sent an expedition to East Africa, and its agents "signed treaties with native chiefs whose territories lav in the hinterland between Pangani and Kingani," gaining 269

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS nominal control over some sixty thousand square miles of territory (W. O. Henderson, "German East Africa, 1884-1918," in History of East Africa, eds. Vincent Harlow et al. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965], p. 124). The agents then returned to Germany, where they received a charter in 1885 granting them use of all territories west of Zanzibar not under the authority of any state recognized by Germany. The Society for German Colonization appointed directors to supervise German interests in the area and in 1887-1888 these directors established the German East African Co. (for the text of treaties established by the Society for German Colonization with African leaders, see Peters, Das deutsch-ostafrickanische Schutzgebiet [Munich, 1895]; see also A. J. P. Taylor, Germany's First Bid for Colonies, ¡884-1885 [London: Macmillan, 1938], p. 3; Henderson, "German East Africa," pp. 123-128). 5. On the issue of the role of the Berlin Decree in the development of animosities resulting in World War I, see W. E. B. Du Bois, ' T h e African Roots of War," Atlantic Monthly 115 [May 1915]: 707-^14. 6. Lord Sydney H. Olivier (1859-1943), governor of Jamaica from 1907 to 1913, was a critic of Britain's exploitation of its African colonies. He was particularly critical of the doctrine of British trusteeship for Africans, which he argued did not protect the interests of Africans but instead extracted their labor by force for the benefit of white settlers and colonial companies. In 1927 he told Parliament "I do not like this talk about trusteeship. I was brought up in the Colonial Office . . . to maintain the principles of freedom and absolute justice in dealing with native races" (Parliamentary Debates [Lords], 5th ser., vol. 69 [1927], col. 573). Despite his criticism of trusteeship, Olivier was often autocratic as a colonial administrator. He was posted in Honduras and the Leeward Islands before coming to Jamaica in 1900. In the 1920s he became secretary of state for India under Ramsay MacDonald's first Labour party government. A member of the Fabian Society, Olivier was the author of a number of historical and political studies, including White Capital, Coloured Labour (1906), The Anatomy of African Misery (1927), and Jamaica, The Blessed Island (1936) (The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List [London: Waterlow and Sons, 1936], pp. 752-753; DNB; Garvey Papers 1: 45 n. 3). 7. Woodrow Wilson died in 1924 at the age of sixty-eight; he had been an invalid since suffering a paralytic stroke in 1919. Warren Harding died suddenly while on a presidential speaking tour in 1923. He was fifty-eight (WBD). 8. African-American interest in emigration increased dramatically in the 1850s, particularly among those blacks associated with the abolitionist movement. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, along with the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, disheartened many northern blacks from further political agitation, and large numbers abandoned hope of progress within the United States. As one historian noted, most black leaders "did not look unfavorably upon emigration— or championed it as the true road to progress" (Howard H. Bell, The Negro Convention Movement, 1830-1861 [New York: Arno Press, 1969], p. 223). Black abolitionist Martin R. Delany (1812-1885) is one of those who became increasingly interested in Pan-Africanism during this period. Delany organized a series of emigrationist conferences in the mid-nineteenth century, including a major gathering held in Cleveland in August 1854, at which he denounced previous colonization efforts focused on Liberia. He and his associates formed a party to explore Yorubaland (now western Nigeria) as a potential destination for large-scale emigration, hoping that there he would "see the realization of his dream of black men from America and Africa working together to build a viable economy" (Cyril E. Griffith, The African Dream: Martin Delany and the Emergence of Pan-African Thought [University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975], pp. 38-39). In mid-1859 Delany set out for Africa after several years of gathering financial support for his venture. He was joined by Robert Campbell, a West Indian emigrationist, and together they journeyed through the region, eventually choosing Abeokuta, near Lagos, as a site for AfricanAmerican settlement. Delany then negotiated a treaty with local leaders of the Egbas for "the right and privilege of settling in common with the Egba people, on any part of the territory . . . not otherwise occupied" (Griffith, The African Dream, p. 126). Delany returned to the United States in the mid-i86os to recruit colonists, but soon learned that the Egba had repudiated the treaty and warfare had broken out in the region; meanwhile African-American interest in emigration had waned with the events of the Civil War (P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865 [New York: Columbia University Press, 1961], pp. 240-250; Floyd Miller, The Search for a Black Nationality: Black Emigration and Colonization, 1787-1863 [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975]). 9. This is a reference to Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

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SEPTEMBER 1928 10. The Native Land Act of 1913 provided the basis for much subsequent legislation restricting African rights in the Union of South Africa. At the center of the restrictive legislation was the "principle of territorial separation under which Africans and whites were to occupy and acquire land in separate, designated areas" (Sheridan Johns m , ed., Protest and Hope, 1882-1934, vol. 1 of From ProUst to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882-1964, 4 vols., eds. Thomas Karis and Gwendolen M. Carter [Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1972], p. 63). Specifically excluding the Cape Province the act forbade Africans the right to purchase, hire, or otherwise acquire land from anyone other than another African; all existing tenancy arrangements between Africans and members of other racial groups were nullified. The act thereby aimed to transform black tenant farmers into landless laborers who, lacking other means of subsistence, would be obliged to accept work on white-owned farms and mines. Africans organized public opposition to the act, including petition drives against its implementation by the South African Native National Congress ( S A N N C , later renamed the African National Congress, or A N C ) and some Natal chiefs. Funds were also raised to send a delegation to London to appeal to the British government. S A N N C leader Sol T. Plaatje denounced the legislation, describing its intent as the creation of a permanent class of African laborers. (Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa [London: P. S. King and Son, 1916], pp. 21-28; see also C. M. Tatz, Shadow and Substance in South Africa: A Study in Land and Franchise Policies Affecting Africans, 1910-1960 [Pictermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1962], pp. 17—22; H. J. Simons and R. E. Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa 1850-1950 [Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1969], pp. 130-137). 11. The so-called "Colour-Bar bills" introduced by the Hertzog government in 1926 explicitly reenacted racial exclusion practices legalized in such earlier legislation as the Mines and Works Act of 1911. The bills resulted in the displacement of black workers by more highly paid white workers, simultaneously providing whites with a "civilized wage" while further limiting the economic opportunities of Africans (George M. Fredrickson, White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981], p. 233). 12. The Union of South Africa was granted administration of the German colony of Southwest Africa (Namibia) under the provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The area at the time of the partitioning of German holdings had a population of some 328,000 blacks and some 31,000 whites (G. Kurt Johannsen and H. H. Kraft, Germany's Colonial Problem [London: Thornton Butterworth, 1937], P- 20). 13. The Union of South Africa was officially formed with passage of the South Africa Act in 1909; it went into effect in May 1910. It united Cape Colony, Natal, Orange River Colony (Orange Free State), and Transvaal as provinces under a two-chamber parliament. Administrators of each province were appointed by the Union government ( E W H ) . 14. The franchise in the Cape Colony was extended to non-white males who met property and education qualifications as early as 1854. After the South African (Boer) War, non-white enfranchisement became legally dependent upon consent by the white electorate. After the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the limited franchise for non-whites continued in the Cape Colony but was not extended to other provinces; in no case could non-whites be elected to Parliament (Edward Roux, Time Longer Than Rope: A History of the Black Man's Struggle for Freedom in South Africa [Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966], pp. 1 0 1 102; T. R. H. Davenport, South Africa: A Modern History [London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1977], p. 152; Fredrickson, White Supremacy, pp. 195-197). 15. The Dutch Reformed Church Act of 1911 "excluded coloured persons from membership in the church in any province other than the Cape" (Simons and Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa, p. 128). 16. The South Africa Defence act of 1912, guaranteeing rights to train in time of peace, to serve in a rifle association, or to undergo cadet training, stipulated "limited application of the act to persons not of European descent" (The Union Statutes, 1910-1947, 13 vols. [Durban: Butterworth and Co., Ltd., 1948-1952], 5: 119). 17. A reference to the Transvaal and Orange Free State Land Settlements Amendment Act, No. 15, of 1912. 18. This statute, which provided compensation for the contraction of phthisis (silicosis) of the lungs, specified that miner as covered in its provisions "shall mean any person of European descent." Non-whites were to receive the benefits prescribed by the Native Labour Regulation Act of 1911. According to that act, families of blacks and coloureds deemed to have died of a workrelated injury were to receive ten pounds; surviving families of white workers, by contrast, were to receive up to four hundred pounds (Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1910 and 1911 [Pretoria, 1911], p. 546; Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1912 [Cape Town, 1912], pp. 420, 444). 271

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS 19. A further reference to the Native Land Act of 1913. In commenting on the effects of the act, Sol T. Plaatje similarly observed that the "scheduled Native Areas" provided for under the act were the same as previously reserved native locations, the lands of which were supposedly "inalienable and cannot be bought or sold, yet the Act says that in these 'Scheduled Native Areas' Natives only may buy land." He further remarked that with the exception of arid tracts that fall within presentday Botswana, "these locations appear to have been granted on such a small scale that each of them got so overcrowded that much of the population had to go out and settle on the farms of white farmers through lack of space in the locations" (Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa, pp. 19-20). 20. The right to lease land was abolished in 1913 under the Native Land Act. 21. Subsections of the Railways and Harbours Regulation, Control, and Management Act of 1916 allowed for the racial segregation of train carriages and toilet facilities. The act provided that railroads could establish regulations respecting "the accommodation and convenience of passengers, the manner in which they travel . . . the reservation of railway premises (including conveniences) or of any train, or any portion thereof, for the exclusive use of males or females, persons of particular races or different classes of persons or natives, and the restriction of any such person to the use of the premises, train, or portion thereof so reserved" (The Union Statutes, 1910-1947, 5: 1,251-1,253). 22. Further reference to the Native Land Act of 1913. 23. The pass laws as they operated in the early years of the Union of South African and in later years had pre-Union origins. The pass system was well established in South Africa before the onset of industrialization. In 1760, a Cape of Good Hope regulation required that every slave traveling from town to country or from country to town carry a pass signed by the owner authorizing the journey; in 18+4 Africans in the Transvaal were required to obtain official permission before setding near towns. Forty years later in Cape Colony the pass act then in force was the object of protest for Africans. Petitions calling for the abolition of the pass system were presented to authorities before and after the South African War both in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Passive resistance, especially among women, became widespread in the period between the formation of the Union and World War I (Simons and Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa, p. 136; Davenport, South Africa: A Modem History, p. 179). 24. The Transvaal levied a poll tax and the Orange Free State collected a "hut tax" from their African populations (Peter Walshe, The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa: The African National Congress 1912-1952 [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971]). 25. Of the £770,000 collected in native poll taxes and pass fees in the Transvaal in 1921, £48,000 was allocated for primary education of Africans; of the £73,000 procured by native taxation in the Orange Free State, £5,000 was used for the same purpose. The £340,000 fixed grant mentioned in the petition was a sum allocated for African education to each province by the Native Taxation and Development Act of 1925. Despite this allocation, educational opportunities for black and white children remained grossly unequal. More than four and one half times the per capita rate was spent on the education of white children than on black children in the Transvaal in 1928, and the majority of African children were provided with no public education whatsoever. As historian Peter Walshe has pointed out, although all African adult males were tax-payers, in 1928 only one-quarter of their children received any schooling. Of these 60 percent were in substandards (kindergarten) and 0.5 percent above the level of standard VI. With the exception of a handful of schools, there was no free education such as existed for Europeans, Coloured, and Indians, while the Government's commitment to meet teachers' salaries only went so far as the ceiling of the funds available. This meant in practice very low salaries, severe restrictions on the number of schools and many extremely poor unaided institutions. (The Rise ofAfrican Nationalism, p. 151) 26. The Native Affairs Administration Bill passed its second reading in March 1917 but was withdrawn by the government following presentation in July 1917 of findings by the select committee set up to report on it. The bill had been introduced by Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts and Minister of Native Affairs Louis Botha to provide a "definite, comprehensive and final measure" for the implementation of territorial segregation of Africans and whites, the arrangements enacted by the Native Land Act of 1913 having been intended as temporary. The bill provided that the government be empowered to legislate for African areas by proclamation and that local native councils be guided by white officials; it also mandated gradual elimination of all African squatters and renters from white areas. In 1927 a new Native Administration Bill was passed enacting many of the elements of the earlier 1917 version. It broadly increased the powers 272

SEPTEMBER 1928 of the government over Africans in every province except the Cape. The governor general "was made Supreme Chief over all Africans, with authority to appoint native commissioners, chiefs and headmen, define tribal boundaries, alter the composition of tribes, and move tribes or individuals at will 'from any place to any other place within the Union upon such conditions as he may determine' (provided Parliamentary approval was obtained if a tribe—as distinct from an individual—objected)" (Davenport, South Africa: A Modern History, pp. 206-207). He also was given official authority over registration of African-owned land and all civil and criminal procedures affecting Africans, as well as the institution of censorship and pass laws (Tatz, Shadow and Substance in South Africa, pp. 29-35, 43, 141). 27. The Native Urban Areas Act was passed in 1923, with many subsequent amendments. The act regulated African movement into urban areas. It required that Africans entering cities have jobs or be granted a limited amount of time to look for work; it discouraged workers from bringing their families with them; and it directed new arrivals to housing in controlled compounds (Simons and Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa, pp. 315, 318-320; Ernest Harsch, South Africa: White Rule, Black Revolt [New York: Monad Press, 1980], p. 45). 28. Charles Hardingc (1858-1944), Lord of Penshurst, was governor general and viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916. His grandfather, the first Viscount Hardinge, was also governor general of India (1844-1848). Charles Hardinge was assistant under secretary of state in 1903 and became British ambassador to Russia in 1904, under secretary of state in 1907, and, after his period in India, British ambassador t o France (1920-1922) (Times [London], 3 August 1944). 29. The Indian Relief Act of 1914 provided for the official registration (and thus recognition) of non-Christian marriages among Indians and authorized the immigration of families of Indian laborers working in South Africa. Indians began migrating to Natal in the 1860s when many were recruited to work as indentured laborers on sugar plantations and as domestic servants. After fulfilling their periods of contracted service, many Indians remained in South Africa and worked as craftsmen, fishermen, and merchants. As Indian merchants found success in dealing not only with other Indians but also with the Zulu and Europeans, they suffered a backlash of white discrimination. The rights of Indians were formally limited in 1893, and heavy taxes were imposed upon Indian workers who were no longer indentured. In 1896 Indians were excluded from the franchise. In the Transvaal, Indians had been excluded from civil rights and property ownership since 1885, and pass laws were instituted against them in 1906. These discriminatory regulations were the focus of the South African passive resistance movement led by Mohandas K. Gandhi that reached a climax with strikes and marches following a Union of South Africa Supreme Court ruling in 1913 that "only Christian marriages were legal, thus reducing Indian women to the legal status of concubines" (Edward Roux, Time Longer Than Rope, p. 107). Indian immigration to the Union of South Africa virtually ceased in 1910-1914. An agreement reached between Gandhi and Jan Christiaan Smuts in 1914 brought an end to the resistance movement and resulted in the compromises of the Indian Relief Act, abolishing the heavy tax placed upon Indian workers who had completed their terms of indenturement and recognizing the legality of Hindu, Moslem, and Parsee marriages. The act did not end pass-law restrictions and Indians were still not free to move between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State and Natal (Edgar H . Brookes and Colin de B. Webb, A History of Natal [Cape Town: University of Natal Press, 1965], pp. 286-287). 30. William Pollard Byles (1839-1917), a Radical party politician, was a member of Parliament for Salford North, a Manchester constituency (WWW). 31. From Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 4th ser., vol. 152 (1906), col. 1,248. Basutoland and Bechuanaland are present day Lesotho and Botswana. 32. Winston Churchill was under secretary for the colonies in the government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman from 1905 to 1908. For the speech referred to, sec Parliamentary Debates ( C o m m o n s ) , 4th ser., vol. 152 (1906), c o l . 1,231.

33. Major General John Edward Bernard Seely (1868-1947), first baron Mottistone, was a member of Parliament in 1900-1906 and 1923-1924; he succeeded Churchill as under secretary for the colonies (1908-1910) and was later secretary of state for war (1912-1914). H e served with the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa in 1900-1901 (WW). 34- Colonial educational policy in Africa focussed on cooperation between government and mission officials in the development of vocational or technical schools for Africans. These schools differentiated sharply between African and European, elite, education, in effect socializing African children to a separate role in life from (and subordinate to) that of Europeans. This attitude of limitation, or what one historian of African education has called the "formula for contentment," had "little effect upon African . . . aspirations in politics and education." Africans who studied abroad found themselves caught between these two approaches, receiving "an education identical 273

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS to that of whites," but also feeling that it was their role "to reinterpret African traditions in the modern world" (Kenneth King, Pan-Africanism and Education [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971], pp. 258, 253). 35. While this account of racial discrimination in London cannot be verified, there is no dearth of evidence that racial friction was common in Britain after World War I and that it affected many aspects of race relations, including employment. Garvey himself claimed that there had been a precipitous decline in racial fair dealing between his first visit to Britain in 1911 and his third visit in 1928, when he professed himself "astounded to be confronted with a pronounced prejudice that shocked our concept of things English" (Robert A. Hill, "The First England Years and After, 1912-1916," in Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa, ed. John Henrik Clarke [New York: Vintage Books, 197+], pp. 38-39). Amy Jacques Garvey told an audience that she and Garvey had been subjected to a color bar in London hotels; Charles E. Mitchell, newly appointed American minister to Liberia, was refused accommodation in London on account of his race when he traveled there with his wife (Nancy Cunard, ed., Negro [1934; reprint ed., New York: Frederick Ungar, 1970], p. 283). 36. Race relations in Britain had deteriorated in the post-war years. An influx of blacks to Britain during the war to work both in the munitions industries and in the merchant marine resulted in considerable unemployment among these new entrants at the war's end. In 1919 competition for maritime jobs in port cities, especially in the face of a post-war depression, led to serious race rioting in Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester, and other cities, including London. Hard-pressed ship owners appealed to Parliament for aid and were granted subsidies, but with the condition that only British subjects be employed on subsidized vessels. Under 1920 and 1925 alien registration orders, blacks who possessed British passports were said to have been nevertheless registered as aliens and therefore excluded from the subsidized enterprises. More generally it has been said that the racial discrimination practiced in employment in Britain during this period "almost entirely prevented social development and cultural advancement" and by the 1940s, racial discrimination in various aspects of British life were widely noted by observers (Edward Scobie, Black Britannia [Chicago: Johnson Publishing, 1972], p. 163; see also Roi Ottley, No Green Pastures [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951], pp. 14-69; editorial, Keys [London] 3, no. 2 [October-December 1935]: 15-2+). 37. Text reproduced as per original. No clause no. 33 appeared in either printed pamphlet or Negro World versions of the petition. 38. Despite black achievement in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Seminole wars, "blacks served in the Mexican War only as body servants." Black soldiers played an important part, however, in both the Civil War and the Spanish-American War (Jack D. Foner, Blacks and the Military in American History [New York: Frederick Praeger, 1974], p. 30; see also Edward A. Johnson, History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War [1899; reprint ed., New York: Johnson Reprint, 1970). 39. See Garvey Papers 4: 735-740 for the original U N I A petition to the League of Nations of July 1922. 40. Both slavery and debt peonage were banned under federal law since the Civil War era, but in the former slave states many blacks were held in quasi-slavery by their employers. The precise number involved is difficult to gauge, but during the early twentieth century there were a series of prosecutions under antipeonage statutes. The most notorious of these cases occurred in Georgia in 1921, when a white farmer named John S. Williams decided to avoid prosecution for holding his laborers in slavery by killing them, thus disposing of potential witnesses. Williams was convicted of murder, thus becoming one of the few southern whites punished for such a crime until recent years. Beyond extralegal measures by individual planters, many of the southern laws themselves approached the establishment of peonage. Legislation existed making violation of a labor contract a criminal offense. As one Alabama judge described his state's law, "the laborer or renter who once enters into a contract and breaches it, no matter how righteously, subjects himself to risk of prosecution if he takes like employment with others" (Daniel A. Novak, The Wheel of Servitude: Black Forced Labor after Slavery [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1978], p. 49). Antienticement laws limited the right of northern labor agents to recruit in the South, thus foreclosing options to the blacks. The convict lease system and the "chain gangs" used by local and state governments also resembled labor conditions under slavery (William H. Harris, The Harder We Run: Black Workers since the Civil War [New York: Oxford University Press, 1982], pp. 96-97). 41. The Negro World was restricted in many areas of the West Indies and in regions of Central America where large numbers of migrant West Indian laborers were employed. In Trinidad, where Garveyism was associated with labor agitation, copies of the U N I A paper were seized from ships 274

SEPTEMBER 1928 as they were delivered or confiscated from the mails. British colonial officials justified the seizure under a war censorship ordinance, claiming that the paper incited racial hatred and violence. In 1919 Henry Baker, the American consul to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, wrote to his superiors at the State Department that the paper was "responsible for the rapid growth of class and race feeling, and of anarchistic and Bolshevist ideas among the ignorant population here" (Tony Martin, "Marcus Garvey and Trinidad, 1912-1947," in Garvey, Africa, Europe, the Americas, cds. Rupert Lewis and Maureen Warner-Lewis [Kingston: Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1986], p. 55). Despite official efforts to suppress the paper, copies continued to be circulated, and in 1920 the Trinidadian government passed the Seditious Publications Ordinance in conjunction with other West Indian governments. The ordinance was aimed at other radical black publications emanating from N e w York as well as the Negro World (Martin, "Marcus Garvey and Trinidad," pp. 52-88). Many European colonial authorities in Africa were equally nervous about the Garvey movement, which grew along with the spread of its newspaper throughout several regions of the continent. In order to stem what was perceived as a dangerous alien influence, authorities banned the Negro World in such territories as Nigeria, Nyasaland, the Belgian C o n g o , and French West Africa (J. Ayodcle Langley, Pan-Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa, 1900-1945 [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973], p. 97). In 1923 the Nyasaland government arrested Isa Macdonald Lawrence—later a pioneer Malawi nationalist—for entering the protectorate with copies of the Negro World. Three years later, after intercepting his mail, the government discovered he was a subscription agent for the Negro World and convicted him of possessing proscribed publications. H e served two years at hard labor and was proclaimed bv the Negro World "a martyr to a great cause" (NW, 27 November 1926). The Union of South Africa government took a more relaxed attitude toward the U N I A paper, which it occasionally confiscated but never officially banned (Martin, "Marcus Garvey and Trinidad," p. 121; Robert A. Hill and Gregory A. Pirio, '"Africa for the Africans': The Garvey Movement in South Africa, 1920-1940," in The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in TwentiethCentury South Africa, cds. Shula Marks and Stanley Trapido [London: Longman, 1987], pp. 209-253). 42. In December 1927 Governor Horace Byart of Trinidad wrote a secret despatch to L . S. Amery of the British Colonial Office reporting a meeting of the governing executive council in which Garvcy's planned visit to the island was discussed. The council members labeled Garvey "an undesirable immigrant" and the decision was made to issue an order "prohibiting him from landing in Trinidad" (memorandum, 20 December 1927, P R O , C O 318/391, 5663+). In April 1928 a bill was passed that officially granted the governor expulsion powers over those termed undesirables, including nonresident British subjects. The American vice consul's confidential report on the bill described it as granting the governor power "to prevent the landing and residence in the colony of dangerous, social or political, agitators of negro or other races, who have served prison terms in the U.S. or elsewhere," and went on to state that "it is believed that this Act might be enforced against Marcus Garvey, the notorious negro agitator, should he attempt to come to Trinidad" (Alfredo L . Demorcst to the U.S. Secretary of State, 10 April 1928, D N A , R G 59, file 844 G.004/3). 43. Sir Horace Archer Byatt (1875-1933) was governor and commander in chief of Trinidad and Tobago from 1924 to 1929. Byatt began his carcer with the British colonial service in Nyasaland (now Malawi) and British Somaliland (now part of Somalia) (1899-1914). H e became colonial secretary at Gibraltar in May 1914 and lieutenant governor at Malta in the following year. H e served as administrator of German East Africa during the wartime British occupation and governor and commander in chief of the British republic of Tanganyika (the same territory, now part o f Tanzania) in the post-war period (1920-1924) before ending his colonial career in Trinidad (Times [London], 10 April 1933; Anthony Kirk-Greene, A Biographical Dictionary of the British Colonial Governor [Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1980], p. 88; WWW). 44. Sir Atholl MacGregor (1883-1945) was attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago from 1926 to 1929. H e had previously served as assistant district commissioner o f Southern Nigeria (1912-1914), as police magistrate at Lagos, Nigeria, (1914-1922), and as crown counsel and solicitor general of Nigeria (1922-1926). After serving in Trinidad he was transferred to Kenya (1929) and then to Hong K o n g , where he became chief justice of the supreme court in 1934. H e was held by the Japanese in the Stanley internment camp during World War II and died at Port Sudan, Sudan, en route to England after his release (Times [London], 17 November 1945; WWW). 45. Sir William Charles Fleming Robertson (1867-1937) was governor o f Barbados from 1925 to 1932. Robertson was inspector of schools in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1898 and held a variety of offices there during the repression of the Ashanti rebellion and the development of the cocoa industry through British use of native labor. H e became secretary for native affairs in 1907 and redistricted traditional African territories, making, as the British press put it, "satisfactory

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS progress . . . in the pacification of the wild tribes" (Times [London], 29 June 1937). He was promoted up the administrative ranks in the Gold Coast before being transferred to Gibraltar in 1915 and to Malta in 1917, ending his career in Barbados (The Dominions Office and Colonial Officer List [London: Waterlow and Sons, 1940]. p. 811). 46. King Leopold II of Belgium (1865-1909) became notorious for the gross exploitation of African labor and the mass atrocities committed against Africans under his administration of the Congo Free State (Ruth Slade, King Leopold's Congo [London: Oxford University Press, 1962]; Garvey Papers 5: 800 n. 8). 47. French colonial history is characterized by efforts at direct rule and political assimilation, in contrast to that of the British, who ruled indirectly through indigenous institutions and who were anti-assimilationist. In practice the lines between the two policies were blurred, with assimilation most successful in Senegal. The French policy was based, as historian Michael Crowder has written, on the idea of the equality of man and at the same time on the assumption of the superiority of European, and in particular, French, civilization. Thus the French, when confronted with people they considered barbarians, believed it their mission to convert them into Frenchmen. This implied a fundamental acceptance of their potential human equality, but a total dismissal of African culture as of any value. (Senegal: A Study in French Assimilation Policy [London: Oxford University Press, 1962], pp. 1-2)

Karel Rood, 1 Private Secretary, Union of South Africa Delegation to the League of Nations, to Marcus Garvey Hotel Beau Rivage, Geneva, 13th September 1928 Sir, I have been directed by the Delegation of the U n i o n o f S o u t h Africa to acknowledge the receipt o f your letter o f the 12th instant requesting its sympathetic help in the matter o f your Petition to the League o f Nations. T h e South African Delegation supported by its Government will always resolutely uphold the ideals o f the League, one o f which is the spreading o f Truth. O n this account, therefore, the South African Delegation is precluded from rendering your Petition the assistance sought. Yours faithfully, K . ROOD Private Secretary L N A , file 6A/7158/7158. T L S , carbon copy. 1. Karel Rood was the secretary general of the South African delegation to the League of Nations in 1928. He was also private secretary to Mr. J. S. Smit, South Africa's high commissioner in London and head of the delegation (Delegates and Members of Delegations, 9th ordinary session of the Assembly of the League of Nations [Geneva, 1928], no. 2, p. 3).

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Marcus Garvey to Aristide Briand,1 French Minister of Foreign Affairs London, 21st. September, 1928 May it please Your Excellency: I am directed by the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, an international organisation of eleven million members, representing the hundreds of millions of the black peoples of the world, including those of the United States of America, the countries of South and Central America, the Islands of the West Indies and the countries of Europe, Africa and Asia, to respectfully acquaint you and your good Government of the fact that they have, on the nth. of September, 1928, presented to the League of Nations, at Geneva, Switzerland, a petition, praying for the League's action in the matter of adjusting the international problem affecting the Negro race as a whole and the granting to them of certain political, economic, social and other rights of which they are deprived and denied, at the present time, simply on account of their race and condition. The petition to the League is also a petition to the respective nations of the world and their nationals, therefore, I am charged to respectfully request that you bring the petition to the notice of your Government for their action thereon. T w o copies of the petition are herein enclosed. Should you require additional copies, they shall be gladly supplied. The Negro peoples of the world are asking for the kindly sympathy of your Government in the matters set forth in the petition. It is hoped that at the next session of the League of Nations Assembly the matter will be fully discussed. At that time, representatives of the Negro Peoples of the world shall wait on the League to supply them with additional data or any information required, leading to an adjustment of the problem as set forth in the petition. I am also charged to state that the Negro peoples of the world are seriously determined to have the matter of their condition settled once and for all, and I respectfully ask that you be good enough to give this matter the attention it deserves. Feeling assured of Your Excellences friendly and sympathetic effort in bringing the matter to the attention of your Government on behalf of the Negro peoples of the world, I have the honour to be Your obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President General Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League A M A E , DAPC. T L R . On U N I A Office of the President General, European Headquarters, letterhead.

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS i. Aristide Briand (1862-1932), Socialist prime minister of France (1909—1911, 1913, 1921-1922, 1925-1926, 1929), was a French delegate to the League of Nations in 1924 and French minister of foreign affairs from 1925 to 1932. He participated in all but the fiftieth session of the League of Nations in 1928, including the fifty-first and fifty-second sessions, 30 August-8 September and 12 September-26 September 1928 ("Minutes of Council Sessions," League of Nations Official Journal 9, nos. 1—12 [1928]: 8, 109, 367, 854, 1427, 1641; WBD). The French ambassador to London also received a letter and a copy of the UNIA petition to the League of Nations from Garvey; he forwarded his copy to Briand, who wrote the following observation on its contents: Interesting brochure on account of its feelings towards us. The author, while addressing violent reproaches to the United States and some British Dominions (in particular South Africa) for the way in which the Black race is treated there, recognizes the relative liberalism of France, but acknowledges that we want to treat the Blacks as Frenchmen and not as self-conscious Blacks. But Mr. Garvey would like to create in Africa, on the model of what was done in Palestine for the Jews, a homeland for the Black race. This federation of independent Black republics, carved out of the English, French and Portuguese colonies would certainly welcome the American Blacks whom Mr. Garvey does not seem to hope to be able to coexist with the Whites. To note also: the condemnation of American action in Liberia, and of Dr. [C. D. B.] King, accused of having sold his country to the Firestone Corporation, (recipient's note on M. de Fleuriau, French Ambassador to London, to Briand, 25 September 1928, AMAE, DAPC, file K-4-1)

Report of Speech by Marcus Garvey [ [ C l u b du Faubourg,

1

Paris

6 October 1928]] Declaring that France is the only country which offers to the N e g r o legal equality and the humane rights o f citizenship, Marcus Garvey, self-styled liberator o f the N e g r o race, yesterday told the members o f the F a u b o u r g club o f Paris that the French republic must continue to aid the N e g r o in his ambition to establish his o w n country and his o w n government in Africa. M r . Garvey emphasized that the N e g r o must be given an opportunity to govern himself. H e declared that if this problem were not settled very soon, the nations o f the world would find themselves dragged d o w n to the mire by the complications which would arise.

H e emphasized that the N e g r o had a

legal right to many portions o f the African continent and that his race does not intend to forfeit this right. " I bring to you a message from the Negroes o f the w o r l d , " said Garvey. I represent the Universal N e g r o Improvement Association which has 11,000,000 members. We represent a new thought in the N e g r o race. It is because w e recognize France as our real friend that w e come to you for support. In America and England, the N e g r o suffers from a terrible prejudice.

There are 15,000,000 Negroes in the United

but they have no voice in government. 278

States

I mean they have n o

OCTOBER 1928

representatives in the national governing bodies; except, perhaps, a Negro doorman or janitor who might be seen in the house of Congress or in the halls of the Senate. America does not give us political equality and equality of jurisprudence. DECRIES BRITISH BARRIERS

That situation exists in England. In both countries, the Negro is a taxpayer; yet he has no voice. I led the agitation in the United States during 1+ years for the liberation of the Negro. During that time various political machinations were indulged in to stop my propaganda. I served two years and five months of a fiveyear sentence in an American prison. If you have heard slanderous reports about me, it is because my oppressors were careful to conceal my real activities and to make known my prison record. The Negro came to the aid of France during the war. H e came to the aid of every country in which he was a citizen. Our race was promised certain things by President Wilson when he started out to liberate the small nations of the world. We never realized any of the benefits that had been promised us. Garvey declared that the American Negro laborer was now being replaced by the white man. He said that the members of his race in the United States were gradually losing out in the struggle of life and would eventually be exterminated. He pointed out that a petition had been sent to the League of Nations asking that body to consider the question of Negro liberation. He expressed the wish that the petition would be considered at the next session of that body. Various questions were flung at M r . Garvey at the conclusion o f his speech. A French Negro in the audience wished to know whether the IS,000,000 Negroes in the United States would all quit their homes to become citizens of a negro republic in Africa. Another Negro asked why Garvey only wanted parts of Africa rather than the entire continent. Several Americans in the audience spoke up at intervals to announce to Garvey that the future for the Negro in the United States was not as dark as he had painted. One member of Garvey's race argued so violently with the champion liberator of the race that he was almost ejected from the hall. Printed in the Chicago Tribune, Paris edition, ca. 6 October 1928. 1. The Club du Faubourg was a cultural club devoted to the free discussion of humanist topics. Its headquarters were in the Salle de Sociétés savantes, rue Danton, but it held lecture meetings in various parts of Paris. Individuals of various political philosophies and heritages were invited to speak at these programs, and colonial policy was frequently the topic of debate. According to a police report, six hundred persons attended the program featuring Garvey, which was held at the Theater of the Gaieté Rochechouart. According to Garvev, "there were about 1,500 white people, Frenchmen and women, and scattered Americans, as well as about 70 Negroes in the club at the meeting" (NW, 10 November 1928). The meeting began with a debate on the status of women and the issues of adulter)' and divorcc, followed by Garvey's specch, which was delivered in English 279

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS with a French interpreter. After Garvey presented his views, he was refuted on different issues by René Maran and Desdemance Hugon. Hugon, who presented the view that the black race was inferior, was in turn reproached by Maran and additional speakers (French newspaper clipping and police report, A N S O M , SLOTFOM, ser. ill, c. 37, 24; New "fork World, 7 November 1928; NW, 10 November 1928).

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[London, October 8, 1928]] Fellowmen of the Negro Race, Greeting: I trust that my visit to Europe has impressed each and every one of you with the seriousness of the present world situation affecting the Negro race. I have written many messages to you since my advent here, suggestive of many ideas that we probably would not have had but for the experiences I have gained during my stay in Europe. B E ON G U A R D

To sum up my impression in but a few words, the Negro race, not only as scattered units, but as a whole, must be on guard. Every unit of the race must be a soldier, holding his post, assuming full responsibility for his duty, so that the enemy forces operating against our common interest may not pass in the dead of the night. Like the sentry we must keep our post with careful vigil. T H E H E A R T OF P O L I T I C S IS D E A D

The heart of the political world is dead. It can only be recharged with life by the united action of a determined people who will not allow their interests to be thwarted or their rights to be abused. If the Negro would adopt the attitude of aggressive determination in demanding his rights it is only a question of another short while when we should wrest our liberty from the selfish and hellish powers that be. The Negro forms one of the strongest groups of the human family at the present time; yet he does not know it. He is weakened by the corrupting forces around him, because they have skilfully calculated that by division they can successfully rule a race as potential as the black race. This is what I have discovered during my visit to Europe. A UNITED ORGANIZATION

A united organization of Negroes can shake the pillars of the world, and this must be done within another five or ten years. Every unit of the black race must be brought together for action. We must individually and collectively ignore the persuasions and appeals and suggestions of other peoples relative to their false interracial settlement, fellowship and compromises, because their 280

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effort is only another trick to perpetuate domination over the blacks. The blacks, while respecting the rights of all other raccs, must unite among themselves for their own protection, for their own good. N o other leadership can successfully direct the Negro but his own, therefore, any newspaper sentiment or pulpit oratory that seeks still to keep the Negro a part of the activities of the other races is but a sinister scheme to divide us and prevent us as a race from enjoying those human rights to which we arc fully entitled. REAL DETERMINATION

I am returning to headquarters with a determination that I never had before. I am returning with a Bismarckian determination to weld together not the scattered Prussian States, but the scattered groups of Negroes everywhere for united action.1 I have no apology to make for this determination. It is the right of the Negro to do this, and by the Gods that be we shall do it. The compromising talk of the past is all tommy-rot. There can be no progress for the Negro except that which is engineered by himself. He must be his own master, he must be his own ruler, he must be his own legislator; he must be his own leader in religion, in art, in literature and in every branch of science; he must not obligate himself to any race or people except in co-operation for the common good of humanity. The Negro must depend upon himself; if not, he hasn't another one hundred years to live, because the soulless and conscienceless world around is organizing for his defeat, yet smiling in his face so as to make it easy to destroy him. M A N Y F R I E N D S IN E U R O P E

We have made lots of friends in Europe, but wc must realize that the politics of Europe is cold and soulless. We must come together and organize our forces for our own protection and for the protection of our posterity. The insolence of other people toward us because of our color is past understanding. Very few people look upon the Negro as a man like other men, but they look upon him as an ape or some lower animal or someone not to be considered in the serious affairs of life. That might have been satisfactory to the Negro in the past, but it is not satisfactory to the Negro of today, and so I call upon the Negro the world over to organize himself for declaring for his rights so that we may guarantee the continuance not only of our own lives but the lives of our posterity. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be, Your Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW,

27 O c t o b e r 1928. Original headlines omitted.

I. This is a reference to German Chancellor Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck's opposition to Austrian dominance through confederation of the German people under Prussian leadership (EWH; WBD).

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Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacques Garvey 858 Richmond Square, Montreal, Canada, [ca. 29 October 1928]' M y darling Mopsie: Just a line to let you know that I went to the steamship company's office this morning and unfortunately they are all booked up to the 1st Dec., so we can't sail from here. But I am arranging for you to sail from N e w York on the Furniss Line to Bermuda on the 10th and they are to see by Wednesday when I here [hear] from you if they can give me a rough passage from here to Bermuda, where I would meet you on the 14th from which place we will have first class to Jamaica. As soon as I get the money to pay for your passage through from N e w York Bermuda Jamaica then I can make definite arrangements for mine. In that case you and Miss Escridge will sail from N e w York. I shall wire you finally on Wednesday evening to Philadelphia. 2 Much love. POPSIE

TNF, AJG. ALS, recipient's copy. On UNLA Office of the President General, European Headquarters, letterhead. 1. Amy Jacques Garvey noted that the letter had a Montreal post mark and dated it October 29, 1928 (handwritten endorsement by Amy Jacques Garvey, Marcus Garvey to Amy Jacues Garvey, ca. 29 October 1928, TNF, AJG). 2. Amy Jacques Garvey and Hazel Escridge, Marcus Garvey's personal secretary, arrived in Hamilton, Bermuda, sometime during the second week of November 1928. In her memoirs Amy Jacques Garvey wrote that Garvey "sent me a second class ticket for Bermuda, stating that was the only accommodation available for that date" (G&G, p. 184). Garvey himself arrived in Bermuda from Montreal on 15 November 1928 but was not allowed to land because of his refusal to promise not to deliver speeches. Amy Jacques Garvey and Escridge joined Garvey and sailed to Jamaica by way of Nassau, Bahamas, BWI. The governor of the Bahamas reported that Garvey had exhibited "perfectly harmless behavior" on his visit there (memorandum, 25 November 1928, West Indies despatch no. 56634 [December 1927-December 1928], PRO, CO 318/391). Garvey, Amy JacquesGarvey, and Escridge finally arrived in Kingston on 23 November 1928 (NW, 1 December and 15 December 1928).

Amy Jacques Garvey to Marcus Garvey [Nra? York,] 10/29/28 Letter Recd[.] Must I meet you in Toronto after Detroit meeting[?] If so bring trunk & hat box from Montreal to Toronto I will bring same N e w York. If you care to I will speak Brooklyn seventh, Newark eighth[.] You wire & make arrangem[en]ts & inform me.1 Joscelyn [Jacques] can sail with car direct Jamaica. MOPSIE

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[Address:] Marcus Garvey, 858 Richmond Square, Montreal Canada TNF, AJG. ALS, recipient's copy. I. Marcus Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey arrived in Quebec, Canada, in late October and traveled to Montreal on board the S.S. Empress of Scotland. Amy Jacques Garvey later recalled that "among the passengers was the Hon. McKenzie King, who was courteous to us on deck." The Garveys traveled on to Toronto together; she left on 23 October to speak in various American cities, while he remained behind in Canada (Amy Jacques Garvey to the Editor, newsclipping, unspecified periodical, 6 October 196+, TNF, AJG, box 1, folder 14; M , 10 November 1928; G&G, p. 183).

Interview with Marcus Garvey by Hubert W. Peet1 [West Kensington, London, ca. October 1928] Posters and handbills have informed many Londoners recently that "the Hon. Marcus Garvey, President General of the U.N.I.A. and A.C.L., the greatest orator in the world and master advocate of human rights, shall present to the people of England the case of the Negro for international adjustment, at the Albert Hall on June 6." As a student of interracial relations, I sought a personal interview with this African, born in the West Indies, who is head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, which claims a membership of 11,000,000. In a "first floor front" in West Kensington, to the accompaniment of clicking typewriters, Mr. Garvey, a thick set, square-shouldered Negro, who both in appearance and in his undoubted powers of leadership and attraction of men reminds one of Mr. [Horatio] Bottomley,2 talked to me on his aims for his racc. It was a little time before we got to the point, for this former editor of Negro journals—Garvefs Watchman in Jamaica; La National in Costa Rica; The Tribune, Colon, Panama; and present editor of The Negro World, New York—felt that some other journalists who had seen him have been more interested to harp on his sentence of five years' imprisonment in the United States and subsequent deportation to the West Indies, than to listen to his program for the betterment of his race. After stating that their attitude was due to similar influences to those which brought about his own persecution, namely, the machinations of those who wished to exploit the Negro race, Mr. Garvey came more definitely to the point. "As a result of my knowledge of Negro conditions in America and the West Indies, and my travels in Europe in 1912—14,1 was forced to the conclusion that Negro salvation lay on an emphasis on nationalism," he declared. 283

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It is not an empire, but a nation we desire to form in Africa. We shall demand a part of Africa on which to settle. Where this will be depends on what I hope will be a friendly agreement with one of the European nations involved. Incidentally, it is as absurd to call me a would-be 'Emperor of Africa' as it is to say M r . Ramsey MacDonald is a would-be King of England because he is leader of the Labor Party. I am President General of the U.N.I.A., but in the new state the leader would be chosen by millions of Negroes from all parts of the world who would settle there. The population would be drawn from the 15,000,000 dissatisfied Negroes in [the] U.S.A., the 7,000,000 in the West Indies, the 25,000 in Europe, the 50,000,000 in Asia, and the 180,000,000 in Africa, all now subjects of different governments. It appears that M r . Garvey must be the "Potentate and Supreme Commissioner" who figures in the little green book of the "Constitution and Laws" of the U.N.I.A., but although he did not actually admit it, he explained that such a title is a picturesque one like those used by the Masons, Elks, and other brotherhoods in America. M r . Garvey claims that though it may be 25 or 30 years before this African empire in Africa is established— Liberia is on far too small a scale—it won't take twelve months to show that its inhabitants are as capable as any other race. Negro talent in science, literature, and the arts is now scattered all over the world and claimed by the countries in which the Negroes happen to be living. We shall soon show that we can put on the stage of life the best there is from statesmanship to religion. At present in every country religion is as corrupt as politics. Which remark brought us to the question of missionaries. Of their work M r . Garvey seems to have as great a suspicion as Lord Inchcape,3 though for exactly opposite reasons. The latter objects to simple people becoming sophisticated. M r . Garvey, who claims that M r . Wells in his "Outline of History" has filched from the peoples of Africa the right to be deemed the pioneers of world civilization, holds that Christianity has mainly served to make the Negro a serf and a peon, and to deprive him of ambition and privileges, destroy his culture, and reduce him to a state of servility. Nevertheless, M r . Garvey declares himself to be "a believer in God and in the Nicene Creed." "But I refuse to be bamboozled," he said.

Livingstone, Stanley, and Speke 4 have been the forerunners of the reduction of Africa until today there are only two independent states, Liberia and Abyssinia. We cannot accept an impossible 284

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idealism for the Negro race. The British Empire, the United States are all built solely on force. We can't get back to the 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' standard. Any man who lets an aesthetical ideal get the better of him is a fool. I hope for a friendly acceptance of our demands when the time has come for us to formulate them fully to the powers concerned, but if not— (expressive gestures as M r . Garvey rose and walked about the room indicated that he could not commit himself to any expression of opinion as to what might happen). Within the last year or two I have discussed questions concerning the future of Africa, black and white, with black men like D r . R . R. Moton, successor of Booker Washington at Tuskegee, the late D r . J. E. K. Aggrey 5 of Achimota, Dr. Du Bois the talented Negro writer, and Professor D. D. T. Jabavu 6 of Fort Hare College, C.fape] P.frovince], and white men like Sir Gordon Guggisberg, 7 D r . Robert Laws, 8 and D r . Thomas Jesse Jones, 9 and I wondered what desire M r . Garvey had to cooperate with workers for the African race like these. "All these Africans are just the tools of the missionaries, who in turn are the tools of the rich men who support the societies and use them for their own ends," declared M r . Garvey. Du Bois is a misfit. He is neither a Negro nor a white man. Moton and Aggrey are the children of circumstance. They adapt themselves to any position in which they find themselves, as they think it will be profitable and offers the line of least resistance. Guggisberg is a hypocrite. The Prince of Wales College at Achimota, which he helped to found, is not an honest effort to help the Negro, for the latter doesn't control it. H o w would you like your universities packed with Negro professors? In those scraps of conversation you have before you some of the main features of the "brief for the Negro" which M r . Garvey, I believe, wishes to present. It is not fair to measure a man's power of oratory, whether it is comparable, as his friends assert, with that of Demosthenes, 10 Cicero, and Mark Anthony, from a personal talk. But it was evident that he had great and magnetic powers, which explain the immense following he has gathered round him in the West Indies and the United States. He is a believer in the dramatic method, and his organization with its potentate, and counts and dukes, court receptions and insignia, has probably an attraction and appeal similar to that of the Ku Klux Klan and other bodies among certain white folk. However, in London M r . Garvey wears no robes, but an ordinary brown suit. The only badge is the badge of the membership of the U.N.I.A., a tricolor button of red, black, and green. I imagined it must have some mystic significance, but I could get no light on this. M r . Garvey thought the red was the same as the red in the British flag (neither of us could say what it particularly signified). 285

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Black, o f course, was for the N e g r o race, while the President General thought I might be right in thinking that green was a reminder o f Ireland in her days o f trouble. W e may not agree with Marcus Garvey; w e may think his methods and ideals are w r o n g ; but w e must nevertheless recognize that there are thousands o f simple, honest, black folk whose emotions have been profoundly stirred by his words and schemes.

H e represents an attitude o f mind towards the

w o r l d problem o f race that w e must study in his followers perhaps, rather than in himself. Printed in the Southern Workman 57, no. 10 (October 1928): 423-426. printed in the South African Outlook1 September 1928.

Previously

1. Hubert William Peet (1886-1951), British editor and journalist, was an active member of the Friends' Service Committee (Quakers). During World War I he was secretary of that organization, published pacifistic editorials, and was imprisoned as a conscientious objector. He worked on the editorial staffs of several periodicals during his career, including the London Daily Sketch and Daily News, and was editor of the Quaker publications The Ploughshare (1916-1919) and The Friend, (193219+9). During the period that he interviewed Garvey he was employed by the Far and Near Press Bureau, London (1924-1937). The Southern Workman accepted several contributions from Peet, characterizing him in April 1928 as a man whose "contacts with the missionary field are unusual, and his comment always interesting." His contributions to the journal included an interview with Sir Gordon Guggisberg, former governor of the Gold Coast, and a profile of Kgaleman Moseti, of Bechuanaland (Botswana), the first black to earn a bachelor of divinity degree from the University of London (Southern Workman 57, no. 4 [April 1928]: 180-183, and 57, no. 12 [December 1928]: 516-517; WWW). 2. A reference to the editor and publisher of the English weekly, John Bull (Garvey Papers 4: 227 n. 1,5: 431 n.3). 3. James Lyle Mackay (1852-1932), first Earl of Inchcape, was a British industrialist and statesman active in British colonial interests in India at the turn of the century (WBD). 4. John Harming Speke (1827-1864), British explorer and writer, conducted expeditions in order to establish European trade routes in Africa and to identify the source of the Nile River. Because of a lack of African language skills, he relied heavily upon his African guides. In his writings he popularized the Eurocentric theory that the original creators of the Ugandan state-systems were Caucasian (Mark R. Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen, Dictionary of African Historical Biography [London: Heinemann, 1978], p. 225). 5. James E. Kwegyir Aggrey (1875-1927), a proponent of Western education as a means of social reform and personal achievement for Africans, was born at Ahamabu, Gold Coast (Ghana) and educated in missionary schools. He traveled to the United States, where he attended Livingstone College, Salisbury, N.C., an African Methodist Episcopal Church undergraduate institution, and Columbia University graduate school in New York. He married an American and joined the faculty of Livingstone College. He became the only African member of the Phelps-Stokes Commission on education and toured Africa for the commission in 1920 and 1924. He joined the staff of Achimota College in Ghana in 1924 and was on leave from the college when he died suddenly in New York three years later (Kenneth J. King, Pan-Africanism and Education [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971]; Lipschutz and Rasmussen, Dictionary ofAfrican Historical Biography, p. 7). 6. John Tengo Jabavu (1859-1921), black South African journalist and educator, was the founder and editor of the Imvo Zabantsundu ("the views of the Bantu People"), the first Bantu language newspaper in the country. He used the paper to win support among Africans for Liberal party politics, but was disillusioned by the "pro-white legislation" that resulted from Liberal victory in 1890. His political influence subsequently waned due to his association with pro-white politicians and he devoted his efforts to African education, helping to found Fort Hare University College in 1916 (Lipschutz and Rasmussen, Dictionary of African Historical Biography, pp. 90-91). 7. Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg (1869-1930) was the Canadian-born governor of the Gold Coast (1919-1927). His long-range plan of development included the building of harbors, railroads, roads, hydroelectric projects, hospitals, prisons, and schools, including Achimota College. The college, which was the forerunner of the University of Ghana, opened in 1925 and was initially named, the Prince of Wales' College. The school accepted male and female students 286

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from kindergarten through the collegiatc level. Guggisberg backed other liberal reforms, including a training program designed to staff half of state technical departments with Africans and the granting of elected representation in legislative council to Africans (Lipschutz and Rasmussen, Dictionary of African Historical Biography, p. 78; Daniel Miles McFarland, Historical Dictionary of Ghana [Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985], pp. 16, 93-94). 8. D r . Robert Laws (1851-1935), a Scottish medical missionary, was the founder of Livingstonia mission and the Overtoun Institute at Khondowe, northern Ngoniland (Malawi), a Presbyterian mission and training institute with affiliated schools that stressed the teaching of Western medicine and construction, printing, teaching, and technical skills, as well as more standard European educational and biblical curriculums. The mission was first established by Laws after negotiation with Mbelwa, the Ngoni Paramount, in 1879 and it existed for more than twenty years under Ngoni rule before the region was formally taken over by the British in 1904. Colonial administrators reported that when the British took over northern Ngoniland all government clerical and technical positions were filled by Africans educated in the mission school system. However, many articulate leaders of African associations also were products of mission educations, and the parents of Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda, were trained at Overtoun (Victor Turner, ed., Profiles of Change: African Society and Colonial Rule, vol. 3 of Colonialism in Africa [London: Cambridge University Press, 1971], pp. 353-359; John J. Grotpeter, Historical Dictionary of Zambia [Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1979], p. 139; Cynthia A. Crosby, Historical Dictionary of Malawi [Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1980], pp. 69-^70). 9. Thomas Jesse Jones was the Welsh-born educational director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund and a supporter of vocational education for blacks. H e pursued graduate studies in sociology at Columbia University, New York, where he studied under Franklin Henry Giddings whose theory of "consciousness of kind" remained a central tenet in his own separatist and deterministic world view. He joined the predominantly white staff of the Hampton Institute as director of the research department and lecturer in sociology, advocating a social Darwinist explanation of separate racial development that downplayed the role of racial discrimination while rejecting the idea of black self-sufficiency as unrealistic. His beliefs received government sanction with his appointment to the Census Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Education as a specialist in racial affairs. In 19131916 he collaborated with the newly-established Phelps-Stokes Fund in conducting a nation-wide survey of black education. His report denigrated college preparatory courses, recommended the closing of small under-financed local schools with all-black staffs, ignored the job expectations that accompanied the process of urbanization, and upheld a static vision of agricultural training as the model to which northern philanthropy should be directed. Jones's ideas were attractive in British missionary circles, wherein technical education had been in vogue since the 1890s, and to white colonial administrators, who were interested in inhibiting African political development while increasing African contributions to colonial economies. By the 1920s white missionary societies were seeking to employ American blacks trained under the Tuskegee model to counteract the political influence of both Garvey and Du Bois upon West Africans and Jones was chosen to head the Phelps-Stokes Education Commission investigations into African educational systems. The first investigation resulted in the publication of Jones's Education in Africa (1922), which encouraged the close cooperation of missions and colonial governments in African education (W. E. B. Du Bois, 'Thomas Jesse Jones," Crisis 12, no. 6 [October 1921]: 254; Kenneth J. King, Pan-Africanism and Education,

p p . 2 1 - 4 9 , 9 5 - 1 0 1 , 115-120).

10. Demosthenes (ca. 384-322 B.C.), Athenian statesman, was famous for his political orations, including his series of Philippics and Olynthiacs, which urged Greeks to defend their liberty against the growing power of the Macedonians (Orations of Demosthenes, trans. Thomas Leland, rev. ed. [New York: Colonial Press, 1900]; Werner Jaeger, Demosthenes: The Origin and Growth of His Policy, trans. Edward Schouten Robinson [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1938]). 11. The South African Outlook is the oldest continuous mission publication produced in South Africa. It began publication in 1870 under the auspices of the Glasgow Missionary Society and was printed at the Lovedale Mission Press. Now an English-language publication, it has undergone a series of name changes. Under its first title, Kaffir Express, the publication featured a Xhosalanguage section. The journal was written for a liberal, elite, and multi-racial Christian readership (Les Switzer and Donna Switzer, The Black Press in South Africa and Lesotho [Boston: G. K. Hall, 1979], pp. 269-270).

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Article in the Montreal Gazette [Montreal, i November 1928] DEPORTATION FOR MARCUS GARVEY If the Canadian immigration authorities can prevent it, Canada shall not be used as a base for the purpose of the attack of neighboring countries, or parties therein, by people who are barred from those neighboring countries. It is for this reason that the Canadian Government decided that Marcus Garvey, negro leader, must leave Canada. Garvey appeared yesterday before a board of enquiry at the local Canadian immigration offices, and was ordered to be deported under the clauses in the Immigration Act which prohibit the entry of certain categories of people.1 Garvey came to Canada by the c.p.s. [Canadian Pacific Steamship] Empress of Scotland, landing at Quebec last Saturday night. On board the ship he gave an interview to the effect that he would ask the 4,000,000 negro electors in the United States to vote for A1 Smith at the forthcoming election. He was scheduled to speak on Tuesday evening in Montreal, and later in the week at Toronto, but as he was arrested on orders from Ottawa prior to the Tuesday meeting, he had no opportunity of speaking. The board of enquiry yesterday ordered his deportation, but on his representation that he was in Canada merely in transit, and did not intend to remain in Canada for any length of time, he was released on bond, fixed at the nominal amount of $100, until November 7th, at which date he must leave the country. A condition was attached, however, he being required to sign a document to the effect that while here he would do nothing to stir up trouble of any kind, either in Canada or elsewhere, and in that connection would give no more interviews nor give any public addresses whatever. ACTION MADE NECESSARY

The immigration officers here pointed out that Garvey should not have been admitted to Canada, owing to his having served a penitentiary term in the United States and was deported from that country as an undesirable after release from the penitentiary. It was also intimated by the local immigration authorities that the mere entry of Garvey would not in itself have brought about an order for his deportation, but that it was his claim to public attention by the holding of meetings, and the granting of interviews, which had called the attention of the authorities to him in such way as to make action necessary. It was also pointed out that the fact that the order of deportation made here yesterday was not made immediately operative, and consequently does not tend to interfere with his personal arrangements for leaving the country, and means no undue desire on the part of the department to exercise arbitrarily the powers conferred by the act. 288

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Printed in the Montreal Gazette, 1 November 1928. Original headlines abridged. 1. Amy Jacqucs Garvey reported that when she and Garvey landed at Montreal "each of us received a blue Visitor's Landing Card, stamped and signed by the Immigration Officer." Garvey was interviewed by reporters, and a mass meeting was planned for the evening. " A couple of hours before the start of the meeting," Amy Jacques Garvey continued, policemen came to the home where he stayed and arrested him for "illegal entry"; despite the fact that he showed them the blue card, signed and stamped. He was marched off to jail. While news flashes went out, that caused newspapers to get a juicy scoop, which some expected, as Garvey was never left to pursue the work of his Organization without embarrassment and harassment. Head-lines on some newspapers were—"Canadian Government bags Garvey, Garvey caught entering Canada, Garvey in jail again." Garvey telegraphed the Prime Minister the facts, and secured a [l]awyer. The next day he was released and told that a mistake had been made. But rumour had it that the American Republicans influenced the action; as they were afraid that Garvey—who had suffered at their hands—would influence their coming election from across the border, and he should not be allowed to stay in Canada. But his [l]awyer argued—having given him a Visitor's Permit the charge of "illegal entry" could not be sustained, and not producing any valid reason for cancelling same, he should remain until the expiry date of the permit. (Amy Jacques Garvey to the Editor, unspecified periodical, 6 October 1964, T N F , A J G , box 1, folder 1+) Garvey later reported that upon his release "I agreed not to speak publicly during my stay in Canada, during the election . . . what has happened in Canada only convinces us as Negroes that there is a great need for an Independent Negro Nation" (NW, 22 December 1928).

H. G. Armstrong,1 British Consul General, New York, to R. Edward Stubbs,2 Governor, Jamaica BRITISH CONSULATE GENERAL, N E W YORK, NOV. 7 , 1928

Sir, I have the honour to state that it is rumored here that Marcus Garvey will be deported direct from Canada to Jamaica. I had a visit from Mrs. A m y Garvey, whose maiden name was Ashwood, a native of Jamaica and at present living at 249 West 122nd Street, N e w York City, making application for an extension of her British passport to enable her to travel to Jamaica. This has been granted. She is apparently desirous of proceeding to Jamaica to institute an action against Marcus Garvey as she contends that he is a bigamist and that she is still his lawful wife. A m y Garvey was born in Jamaica on the 10th January, 1897, and is the daughter of Michael Ashwood, deceased, her address in Jamaica being c/o H . G. Delisser, The Gleaner, Kingston. Upon the completion of her action, Mrs. Garvey intends to return to this country and carry on her work as business manager of the West Indian and American Times. She is writing a long story of Garvey's life, which will be published in due course, she anticipates, by one of the N e w York newspapers. 289

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS M r s . G a r v e y is sailing o n the ioth N o v e m b e r in the S / S " C a r r i l l o . " ' I h a v e the h o n o u r to be, S i r , Y o u r E x c e l l e n c y ' s o b e d i e n t S e r v a n t , H . G . ARMSTRONG H [ e r ] M[ajesty]'s Consul General [Endorsement:] C o p y to Embassy. J A , C S O , file 1B/5/78&79. T L S . Stamped received by colonial secretary's office, Jamaica, 19 November 1928. 1. Harry Glostcr Armstrong (1861-1938) was British Consul General, New York, from 1920 to 1931. A veteran of the British army, Armstrong worked as a Shakespearean actor before entering the consulate service. He was also commercial adviser to the Manchester Ship Canal Co. (WWW). 2. Reginald Edward Stubbs (1876-1947) was colonial governor of Jamaica from 1926 to 1932. Earlier in his colonial-office career he served in the Malay Peninsula and Hong Kong, as a member of the West African Lands Committee, and as colonial secretary of Ceylon. After leaving Jamaica he became governor of Cyprus and then of Ceylon, retiring from the colonial service in 1937 to pursue a career in jurisprudence (Times [London], 9 December 1947; David P. Henige, Colonial Governors front the Fifteenth Century to the Present [Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970], p. 129; WWW). 3. Armstrong made regular reports to the governor regarding Amy Ashwood Garvey's travel plans. On 21 December 1928 he reported that " M r s . Garvey conveyed to me the impression that Marcus Garvey hopes to start a revolution in Jamaica. I suspect, however, that this is an exaggeration and has been stated to me in order to create sympathy for her, in her matrimonial difficulties." One week later Armstrong wrote to the governor again to inform him that Amy Ashwood Garvey had sailed to Jamaica as scheduled (on 28 December 1928) and that "this woman, prior to her departure, requested me to obtain a copy of the certificate of her husband's marriage with Amy E. Jacques, but was not in a position to pay the necessary fee at that time for same." Armstrong enclosed a copy of the 27 July 1922 certificate of marriage of Marcus Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey issued by the Clerk's Office of the Court of Common Pleas, Baltimore, Md., and requested that it be given to Ashwood Garvey should she call for it (Armstrong to Stubbs, io November, 6 December, 13 December, 21 December, and 29 December 1928, JA, C S O , file 1B/5/78&79).

Wesley Frost,1 American Consul General, to Frank Billings Kellogg M o n t r e a l , N o v e m b e r 8, 1928 Sir: I h a v e the h o n o r t o report, as o f possible interest, that t h e n o t o r i o u s n e g r o agitator, M a r c u s G a r v e y , landed in C a n a d a at the city o f Q u e b e c a b o u t a f o r t n i g h t a g o and, after a f e w d a y s at that city, p r o c e e d e d t o M o n t r e a l .

He

g a v e t w o o r three extensive interviews t o the local press here, a n d a n n o u n c e d the a r r a n g e m e n t o f public meetings at this city and at T o r o n t o w i t h the p u r p o s e o f influencing A m e r i c a n n e g r o e s t o v o t e f o r the D e m o c r a t i c candidate f o r the presidency.

H e appeared at this C o n s u l a t e G e n e r a l , apparently w i t h the

intention o f a p p l y i n g f o r permission t o visit the U n i t e d States, b u t after w a i t i n g a f e w m o m e n t s , departed prior t o an interview. H i s presence, h o w e v e r , w a s o b s e r v e d b y C o n s u l S m a l e 2 a n d V i c e C o n s u l C l a r k ; ' and the latter c o m m u n i c a t e d w i t h the U n i t e d States 290

Commissioner

NOVEMBER 1928 o f I m m i g r a t i o n L a n d i s . 4 T h r o u g h M r . L a n d i s the attention o f the C a n a d i a n I m m i g r a t i o n authorities w a s directed t o the fact that G a r v e y is an e x - c o n v i c t and as s u c h inadmissible t o C a n a d a .

T h e C a n a d i a n authorities acted quietly

and p r o m p t l y in the m a t t e r and f o r b a d e G a r v e y t o g i v e a n y f u r t h e r interviews or t o speak in public. M r . G a r v e y w a s g r a n t e d e i g h t days to d e p a r t f r o m the c o u n t r y ; and it is u n d e r s t o o d that he t o o k ship f o r the W e s t Indies o n the e v e n i n g o f N o v e m b e r 7 , 1928. I h a v e the h o n o r t o be, Sir, Y o u r o b e d i e n t servant, WESLEY FROST American Consul General Sent in triplicate. C o p y sent to the Legation at Ottawa. D N A , R G J9, file 811.108 G191/50. T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Wesley Frost (1884-1968) a career diplomat, was American consul general in Montreal from 1928 to 1935. He worked for the U.S. Under Committee on Public Information after World War I and became U.S. consul to Marseilles, France (1921-1924) before being assigned to Quebec. He focused on the issues of population and immigration during the 1920s, and many of his suggestions on policies concerning the issuing of visas were incorporated into U.S. immigration law (NAB; WWWA). His brother, Stanley Frost (1881-19+2), was a reporter who contributed articles on U.S./Canadian immigration policies to the Outlook in 1923. In these articles he made clear that he believed U.S. officials should follow Canada's lead in regarding black people and radicals as "inassimilable aliens" who should be prohibited from immigrating by subtle rather than outright means (Stanley Frost, "A Nation that Shops for New Neighbors," Outlook 135, no. 15 [12 December 1923]: 639). He lauded the Canadian system of using unofficial reasons, such as health, to justify rejection, writing: ". . . the law gives the Governor in Council full power to put in a regulation barring all members of this race [blacks], but an indirect policy is used instead. When they reach the border, they are told that they are not fitted to stand the rigors of the northern climate, though there are thousands of them already in Canada. . . . Lack of health is also often made the excuse for barring people who are suspected of political beliefs which Canada does not desire to import" (Stanley Frost, "Selective Immigration at Work," Outlook 135, no. 14 [5 December 1923]: 58$). Frost concluded that Canada "is much too busy to wish to spend time trying to make them [blacks and those perceived as radicals] over, and she has not the least intention of letting them try to make her over" (Frost, "A Nation that Shops for New Neighbors," p. 639; WWWA). 2. William Apsley Smale (b. 1896) was assigned to Montreal as vice consul on 10 June 1927 and was promoted to consul 17 May 1928. He was transferred to Guaymas, Mexico, 4 December 1929. Smale was born in Beloit, Wise., and grew up in San Diego (Evelyn R. Manning, Department of State, research division, to Robert A. Hill, 29 March 1985). 3. John Henry Clark (b. 1858) was an American vice consul at Montreal beginning in 1924. Clark was a member of the New York State Legislature (1894-1895) before he became an immigration inspector (1900-1905) and commissioner of immigration (1905-1924) and succeeded to the consulate position (Delois Ruffin, Department of State, to Robert A. Hill, 3 March 1986). 4. There is no record of a U.S. Commissioner of Immigration Landis. According to federal records, the commissioner of naturalization from 1923 to 1933 was Raymond Crist and the commissioner of immigration for the same period was Harry Hall (Robert P. Amerine, Immigration and Naturalization Service, to Robert A. Hill, 28 February 1985).

291

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Kingston, December 5, 1928]] TRAVEL AS A I D TO R A C E ADVANCEMENT Fellowmen of the Negro Race, Greeting: It is a pleasure for me to write to you from our Headquarters,1 at which I am now located. I have to report that we have now settled down to prepare for our great forthcoming International Convention. A WONDERFUL SPIRIT

On my arrival in Jamaica I found a wonderful spirit awaiting us, the spirit that is indicated everywhere expressive of the new urge of the Negro to accomplish on his own account. From indications, it is fair to prophesy that our International Convention of 1929 will be the biggest thing in the history of the Negro race. We have just acquired wonderful bit of property, at which our Headquarters are now established, in preparation for the forthcoming convention. The convention grounds at Headquarters will be ample to accommodate at least twenty thousand people, and we are looking forward to such a gathering as has never been seen before. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION IN JAMAICA

At Toronto, on the 3rd of November last, the American delegates at the conference voted that we shall hold the convention next year at Kingston, Jamaica, B.W.I. 2 This was decided upon because there is a strong desire to bring the American Negroes into closer contact with the Negroes of the West Indies for trade and commercial and industrial relationship. As the white people of America are brought into closer relationship with white people in other parts of the world for their economic interest, out of which they are able to carry on such businesses as to afford them the finanical recognition that is necessary, so also must the Negro start out to develop such a relationship. There is no reason why the Negroes of America cannot become the industrial purveyors of the commodities needed by the African, West Indian and Central American Negroes, thereby making the people so related as to economically assist each other to become independent. The West Indian, American and African Negroes can develop a similar relationship as the whites, out of which will grow an economic stability that will place the Negro far beyond the possibility of being industrially or commercially injured by any other race group. There are possibilities for the Negroes in the West Indies and South and Central America that the American Negroes should know about. 292

D E C E M B E R 1928

Unfortunately, the American Negro has not travelled; he has not been trained to invest his capital in foreign countries as white Americans have done, with great success. H o w THE W H I T E S INVEST

A fair example of the white man investing his money in foreign countries and reaping great results is here shown: About forty years ago an American by the name of Capt. Baker invested a few dollars in a schooner-load of bananas from Jamaica, B.W.I. The bananas he took to America from Jamaica found a ready market, and the result was that, after a short while, the Boston Fruit Company was organized to market the fruit; out of the Boston Fruit Company grew the United Fruit Company, a tremendous American trust, that controls not only the banana industry of Jamaica, but also that of all Central America. The United Fruit Company is one of the richest American corporations today. It has a surplus of over a billion dollars. They have a line of steamships larger than that of any other steamship company in the world. All of this is the result of a lone white man, Capt. Baker, starting the ball rolling. By way of further information, I may state that the very bananas that made the United Fruit Company so rich have been planted and reared by black men for the United Fruit Company. Other white American corporations also invested in sugar estates and cocoa plantations and other plantations in the West Indies and Central America out of which they draw annually countless millions of dollars. We want to bring the American Negroes into closer relationship with the West Indian and Central American Negroes so that a similar relationship can develop. AMERICAN NEGROES MUST TRAVEL

The International Convention of 1929 will, therefore, offer the American Negroes an opportunity to see the great possibilities of the Negroes in the West Indies. An excursion ship will sail from New York for Jamaica to arrive at Kingston on July 31, 1929. Therefore, all those who desire to attend the convention from the United States of America will have ample accommodations and facilities for so doing. The trip from New York to Kingston will take six days. In another few weeks we shall announce through the columns of the Negro World the sale of passages so that all those who desire to make the trip may be able to book their passage in advance. A cordial invitation is extended to all those who would like to spend their holiday in the tropics next year. The convention will be from the 1st to the 31st of August. The excursion ship will make two trips back to America; one on August 15 and the other on the 31st, so that those who cannot spend the entire month in Jamaica can take a holiday of two weeks. I am suggesting that all those who plan to spend a holiday in 1929 to make Jamaica the point to be visited so as to see the great International Convention that is to be held. Trips around the island will be arranged for all visitors so that they may see the beautiful tropics. 293

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

As everyone knows, Jamaica is the most beautiful spot of all the tropics. It is known as the "Isle of Springs." Thousands of white tourists from all parts of the world come to Jamaica for their health and to see the beauty of the island. This, therefore, will be a wonderful chance for the Negroes of America to see the beautiful tropics and enter into closer relationship with the people. O R G A N I Z A T I O N ON W A Y TO S U C C E S S

There is no doubt about it, the Universal Negro Improvement Association is now on the way to permanent success. We are now laying the foundation upon which the most permanent structure shall be built. This is not the time to create idle sentiment of opposition, but as a people we must unite our effort to pull together, and I do hope that no one will do anything to impede this great work. The Negro must learn to love himself better than he has done in the past. STOP P U L L I N G AGAINST E A C H O T H E R

There is absolutely no good purpose to be served in Negroes of one section of the world pulling against Negroes in other parts of the world. We must be united in purpose. When the white man attempts to do anything for his race or nation, he co-operates with every force that will help him to bring about the desired results. We must no longer stop to think whether we are from Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, N e w York, Mississippi or Africa, but we must fully realize that we must unite as one people to go forward with the great work that is before us. [. . . ] MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW,

5 January 1929. Text abridged.

1. Garvey maintained that the international headquarters of the U N I A was located where he resided, rather than at the original parent body headquarters in New York. While in Europe, his Office of the President General letterhead indicated headquarters in London, Paris, or Geneva, depending on his particular residence during the course of his travels. Soon after his return from Europe and Canada, he purchased the Edelweiss Park property at 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads, St. Andrew, and established it as the new headquarters of the movement. A large program was held on 10 December 1928 to celebrate the opening of the headquarters. Several hundred people listened to speeches by Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, Henrietta Vinton Davis, H . A. L . Simpson, and others. Garvey told the crowd that "Edelweiss would in future be used as a social centre for the Negro people of Kingston and St. Andrew. They will carry on their own social life there with dignity, honor, and respect." He told the crowd of future plans to establish a moving picture theater and other recreational facilities in the park and notified them that a U N I A convention would be held there the following August (Jamaica Mail, 11 December 192«; reprinted in NW, 12 January 1929). 2. The decision to hold the 1929 U N I A convention in Jamaica was partly a response to the Canadian government's detention of Garvey. As the Negro World observed in an editorial, plans to hold the meeting in Toronto were abandoned after Canadian authorities interfered with his speaking tour there, and "Marcus Garvey must look about for another meeting-place for the representatives of Negroes to assemble in 1929" (NW> 17 November 1928).

294

DECEMBER 1928

Negro World Notice

IMPORTANT NOTICE To All Divisions and Chapters of the

Universal Negro Improvement Association in the

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA All Divisions and Chapters of the U N I V E R S A L N E G R O I M P R O V E M E N T A S S O C I A T I O N are hereby instructed that at a conference of the High Commissioners and their Assistants, called by the Hon. E. B. Knox. Personal Representative of the President-General, which was held in Chicago, Illinois, December 5 and 6, 1928. it was decided that, in order that we might be able to effectively carry out the instructions of the Hon. Marcus Garvey concerning our educational program, as given to us in the conference at Toronto, Canada, that S U N D A Y , D E C E M B E R 16, 1928, should be set aside as P A R E N T B O D Y D A Y . and on this day, A L L proceeds be sent direct to the P A R E N T B O D Y , 142 West 130th street. New York City. A communication bearing on this matter will be received from the Parent Body, through the Personal Representative of the P R E S I D E N T G E N E R A L . Hon. E . B . Knox, and we are hereby instructing all divisional and chapter Presidents, Officers and members in our respective districts to obey this order in every respect, without fail. Yours for the cause " A F R I C , " H O N . E. B. K N O X . PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HON. MARCUS GARVEY Sir William Ware Hon. Arthur S. Gray Hon. S. A. Haynes Hon. W . A. Wallace Hon. Dr. J . J . Peters Hon. Joseph A. Craigen HIGH C O M M I S S I O N E R S O F T H E U N I V E R S A L N E G R O IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.

(Source: NW, 15 December 1928.) 295

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A

PAPERS

Marcus Garvey to Julian D. Steele1 67 S L I P E R O A D , C R O S S R O A D S 2 P. O . ST. A N D R E W , JAMAICA, B . W . I .

7th February [i9]29 M y dear Mr. Steele:— At last the hour has come for us to work together as one race of people. The Negro race has suffered in the past terribly and we shall continue to suffer until we unitedly decide to pull together. We are taking a world census of the entire Negro race—in America, in Africa, in the West Indies, in Central and South America, in Canada, in Europe and elsewhere. Your name is included in the census and we are glad of it. The object of the census is to bring every unit of the race into a closer bond so that co-operatively we may put over the program that is to redeem and re-establish us as a great people. Starting with the year 1929 we are to raise a fund of Six Hundred Million Dollars to carry out in Ten Years the greatest program ever undertaken in our behalf as a people. The money raised from the race is to be used to carry out the accompanying program through which we shall hand down to posterity of our race a living institution to be continued by those who shall follow us as we pass on as a people from one generation to the other. Every Dollar donated to this fund will be for the race for which we will carry on the great program herein outlined. Every Negro in the world is being asked to contribute a stated donation to the fund according to his or her ability, so we are, therefore, respectfully asking you to make your contribution. There is no Negro so poor as not to be able to contribute something toward this fund. The bulk of the Six Hundred Million Dollars is to be subscribed within ten years so that every Negro in the world may state how much he will donate within the ten years towards this fund for racial progress. There are some Negroes who can give Five Thousand Dollars in ten years, some T w o Thousand Dollars in ten years, some One Thousand Dollars in ten years, some Five Hundred Dollars in ten years, some Three Hundred Dollars in ten years, some T w o Hundred Dollars in ten years, some One Hundred Dollars in ten years, some Fifty Dollars in ten years, some Twenty-five Dollars in ten years, and some ten Dollars in ten years. The amount pledged to be donated in ten years can be paid yearly, halfyearly, quarterly or monthly, as is convenient to you. You will find herein enclosed a donation book on which you can write the exact amount you will donate in ten years to help to put over the program. This amount, you can arrange with us to pay monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly until it is paid in. You may send, when returning the book, your first donation of any amount, the next to be sent to us as you find it convenient within the stated time.

296

FEBRUARY 1929

We are endeavouring to do the following for the good of the race within ten years: (1) To agitate for and secure the political and social freedom of the entire race. (2) To agitate and fight for, constitutionally, the establishing of a powerful Negro Nation in Africa for the black races of the world. (3) The Creating of a thorough educational system for higher education for the Negroes of America, the West Indies, Africa and elsewhere, resulting in the founding of three Negro Universities of purely technical character, one in America, one in the West Indies, and one in Africa. (4) The creating of general economic opportunities in agriculture, industry and commerce for the Negro people of the world whereby a brisk trade relationship may develop between the Negroes of America, Africa, the West Indies, and South and Central America to insure a stable economic status. (5) The acquiring and controlling of productive agricultural lands for the scientific development of agriculture and also the establishment of factories and industrial enterprises in various Negro communities to guarantee permanent employment to the Negroes of America, Africa, the West Indies and South and Central America, Europe and Canada. (6) To launch a powerful line of steamships to facilitate Negro Trade and Commerce throughout the world. (7) To establish in London, Washington, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Brussels, Geneva, Tokio[,] China, India, West Africa, South Africa, Embassies, or Commissionaries to represent the interest of the entire Negro race and to watch and protect their rights. (8) To establish daily newspapers in several large cities of the world to shape sentiment in favour of the entire Negro race; namely, London, Paris, Berli[n] Capetown, South Africa, New York, Washington, Gold Coast, West Africa, and several of the important Islands of the West Indies. If you stop to think a while, you will realize how necessary it is that the race take early steps to make the above objects possible. The future of our race is to our own making and if we will only co-operate on the above lines, there is absolutely no reason why in another ten years we cannot become a great and powerful race among the nations of the world. All the above endeavours will be owned and controlled by the Negro race through the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League. Everything by way of Accumulation will be the property of the race to be handed down from generation to generation so that the entire race will benefit always from the result of this fund. Every four years the people will elect the International Officers to direct the Association for the good of the race. Your children and the other Negroes' children shall be entitled to the first claim and consideration always for employment and service in this great institution which will be owned by the race. This is the first time in the history of our people that such a large effort has been made and we feel sure that you shall not fail to make your contribution toward it. Please, therefore, write down on the accompanying donation book the exact amount you can donate in ten years and state to us by letter how you will pay this amount. As suggested, it can be paid in monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly, to suit your convenience. You can return with the donation book your 297

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

first donation in the amount you are donating. N o w please don't fail to specify the amount you will give in ten years. When the amount is fully subscribed, you will receive a certificate from the Organization proving to our children and posterity of our race that you did your duty in helping to bring about the economic and political changes necessary for our freedom and progress. At the end of the period when the total fund is raised, we shall publish a Blue Book which shall contain the name of every Negro in the world w h o has contributed to the fund. Three monuments will be erected, one in Africa, one in America, and one in the West Indies where copies of this book will be placed on exhibition so that tourists, visitors and pilgrims of our race visiting these monuments down the ages will see inscribed in these books the names of the people who have helped to make the Negro race what it ought to be. A copy of this book will also be placed in every Negro Library all over the world so that generations will have the privilege to acquaint themselves with those w h o were loyal in helping to shape the destiny of the race. We shall expect to hear from you by return mail, returning to us the donation book with your letter and the first donation. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be, Your Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association P. S. Use enclosed envelopfe] in returning the book with your donation. You may send same by registered mail with cash or with postal Money Order, or Cashier's bank check or otherwise, M.G.3 [Address:] Mr. Julian D. Steele, Harvard University, 8 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. MBU, Julian D. Steele Papers. letterhead.4

TLS, recipient's copy.

On UNIA Parent Body

1. Julian D. Steele (1906-1970), civil servant, social worker, and urban planner, was president of the N A A C P from 1945 to 19+8. Steele was born in Savannah, Ga., and graduated with honors from Harvard in 1929. After graduate study at the New School for Social Work, he became director of the Robert Gould Shaw House and later of the Armstrong-Hemenway Foundation. He served in executive positions for a number of state commissions and private charities in Massachusetts, including the Model Cities Program and the Massachusetts Department of Community Affairs. In 1954 he became the first black moderator for the Massachusetts Congregation Christian Conference. In the 1960s he became deputy commissioner for urban renewal in Massachusetts and assistant administrator for the Federal House and Home Finance Agency in the New York and New England region (Joanne K. Woods, Harvard Alumni Association, to Robert A. Hill, 26 April 1985; Harvard Class of 1929 [Cambridge, Mass., 1979], p. 620). 2. Cross Roads, an area of greater Kingston where Slipe Road forks into Half Way Tree Road and Old Hope Road, was a subsidiary commercial center located on thoroughfares linking downtown Kingston to suburban neighborhoods (Colin G. Clarke, Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development ani Social Change, 1692-1962 [Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of Califonria Press, 1975], pp. 35, 57, 88, 91). 3. The following notice appeared in fine print at the bottom of the letterhead: "All Money Orders and Cheques must be made payable to Parent Body UNIA. All Communications must be sent to the Association and NOT TO INDIVIDUALS."

298

FEBRUARY 1929 4. The letterhead used for this mailing reflects the widening breach between the headquarters of the U N I A , Inc., in New York, and Garvey's branch of the organization in Jamaica. Garvey's letterhead in this time period identified the "head office" of the U N I A parent body as 142 West 130th Street, New York; the "general head office" (formerly "foreign office") as 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads, S t . Andrew (Garvey's office at Edelweiss Park); and two other offices, a "European Headquarters" at 57 Casdetown Road, West Kensington, London, and a "sub-European Headquarters" at 5 rue Paul Louis-Courier (VII), Paris. The latter addresses were reflections of Garvey's 1928 trip to Europe. The letterhead also announced that there were "3,000 Branches all Over the World" and "11,000,000 Members in America, Africa, West Indies, South and Central America, Canada and Europe." The shift to viewing the Edelweiss Park office as the central headquarters of the movement would become formalized with the creation of the U N I A , August 1929, of the World at the U N I A convention in Kingston in August.

Article in the New Tork Hemld

Tribune

[New York, February 8, 1929] The latest scheme of Marcus Garvey, a world-wide appeal by mail for $600,000,000 to build a Negro empire in Africa, suffered a setback yesterday when C. W. Clarahan, 1 chief postal inspector, intercepted one of the thousands of letters sent by Garvey to Negroes in this country. Nothing so colossal, but something of the sort had been expected from Garvey, who is president general of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and erstwhile potentate of Harlem, soon after the postal inspectors put an abrupt end last December to his plan for taking a Negro census in America—a scheme which the inspectors saw as the means of obtaining a "sucker list" for use in some idea similar to that which resulted in his being sentenced for fraud to Atlanta and his subsequent exile from the United States and Canada. I N S P E C T O R C A L L S IT F R A U D

M r . Clarahan was outspoken in declaring a fraud the latest project to emanate from the fertile mind of the "Black King." This latest effusion makes insignificant his old Black Star Line, African Republic and Black Cross schemes. The Negro empire plan contains the best feature of all of these and adds to them a score of new details that must have come to Garvey while at Atlanta, from where he was released in 1927. A copy of the letter outlining the Negro Utopia has been sent to Horace J. Donnelly, 2 solicitor for the Post Office Department at Washington, and if his opinion classifies Garvey's scheme as a fraud, all letters mailed to Garvey at his home in Jamaica, British West Indies, will be returned to their senders thereby saving millions of dollars for American Negroes dazzled by the brilliance of the African haven depicted in glowing terms in the Garvey dream of empire. The campaign for the $600,000,000 fund is being conducted here by the Negro Universal Improvement Association under the direction of E. B. Knox, personal representative of Garvey. The association offices at 142 West 130th Street were closed recently and none of the officials was found recently.' 299

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS PROMISES ECONOMIC FREEDOM W i t h the great fund he asks, Garvey, according to the letter, offers to make every N e g r o in the world economically, socially and politically free within ten years. T h e entire letter deals in generalities except the appeal for money, Garvey making it plain that contributions are to be sent to him only. M o r e o v e r , he is willing to take the money in any form he can get it, and pledges may be made g o o d in installments spread over the next ten years. A record book for this purpose is enclosed with each appeal. T o loosen the pockets o f those he promises to " f r e e , " Garvey adds the bait o f promising to place the names o f all contributors on gigantic monuments that he says will be erected in America, Africa and the West Indies. H e also offers to make shrines o f these places so that in centuries to come N e g r o pilgrims can journey to them and read the names o f men and w o m e n w h o made possible the N e g r o empire. [. . . ] 4 These promises, M r . Clarahan said, were impossible o f fulfillment. T h e sending o f the Garvey appeal indicated to M r . Clarahan that the post office had not been entirely successful in forestalling the taking o f the N e g r o census, which was curtailed after an investigation by Postal Inspector F . E . Shea, w h o also uncovered Garvey's fraudulent practices in 1925. 5 In the letter for the census Garvey promised that when all names are in he would "launch a program that shall redeem and save the N e g r o race." Printed in the New York Herald Tribune, 8 February 1929. Original headlines omitted, text abridged. 1. The New York Sun also covered Garvey's fund raising project and the resulting post office investigation headed by C. W. Clarahan. Clarahan (b. 1871) was a newspaper publisher and teacher before he joined the Post Office Department as a railway clerk in 1899. He was promoted to postal inspector in January 1907 and was appointed inspector in charge at New York (1926—1933) (New York Sun, 28 December 1928). 2. Horace J. Donnelly (b. 1879), Washington, D.C., attorney and civil servant, joined the Post Office Department on 1 June 1906 as a clerk. He became an attorney for the Post Office Department (1910-1919), assistant solicitor (1919-1925), solicitor (1925-1933), and, finally, special counsel (1934). Upon retiring, Donnelly was commended for his enforcement of postal fraud order statutes involving cases that had netted many millions of dollars (Rita L. Moroney, Office of the Postmaster General, to Robert A. Hill, 21 February 1985; WWWA). 3. On the following day, M. L. T. De Mena announced that the offices of the UNIA and the Negro World had moved from 142 W. 130th Street to 355 Lenox Avenue (NW, 9 February 1929). 4. The summation of Garvey's program, fully described in the reports from the sixth international convention held in Jamaica in August 1929, is omitted here. 5. It was reported that by the end of 1928 forty thousand letters had been sent out by Garvey in his effort to complete a Negro census. The mail campaign came under the scrutiny of post office inspectors in a number of localities, including Inspector F. E. Shea in New York, who began seeking out UNIA officers for questioning in regard to suspected fraudulence (NYT, 24 December 1928).

300

MARCH 1929

Front Page of the Blackman BUY K N J A M I N s JAMAICAN PRODUCTS

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To-day mark« a n e w rpoch in the history of ike N e f r o race. ir t h t wr have n o « launched the first n i a line of D t i l y Newspaper» to be published in civilised aed poyutoua centre of the w o r l d t v r \ where our race or cmww in contact with the .• e h a v e w o r k e d side by side for centuries and have g r o w n m each othev's cemfidence, but the t u n * h a s come w h e n the N e g r o , like every other race, m u s t seek to promote his a w n Interest and establish himself as a part of the w o r l d ' s g r o w i n g prosperity, it is for that reason that " T h e B l a c k m a n " takes its stand j n the cornm unity -without offence tP ajiy j-aca, to a n y party, or institution. W e shall a l w a y s rtairtelrk, to 0 « beet of c u r a b i l i t y , the jnost honest friendship w i t h those w h o are disposed ta b e o u r -fnewfa- "We s t a l l lose n o opportunity, however, i n dealing as Severely as possible with o u r enemies w h o w e v e r Lhay j n a y be. W e anticipate*-© trouble Itoir> a n y quarters. V^e shall a l v s y s respect the L a w a n d teach strfct obedience to the Constitution. W e s h a l l also assist the G o v e r n m e n t at all toes i n doii^g the best possible 0 c o d { o r the count r j a M the yeopie. "WORKING

Fellowship.

could work for mi nobler e*u»e li it natural lo ex peel, however, thai in every i-ommunity we will Have little-minded men and women who will seek lo prevanl any by way ol reform W ^ »hail alway* be ready to deal with »uih person) when they »how themselves

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MANKIND

I n m a k i n g our bow -we balu-te all m a n k i n d i n fellowship a n J g o o d grace W e p r o m l s * to grew with the tixnas, and -we f«el s u « that this, the elder jiatar of our D a i l y Journals shall Jive to see universal sisterhood oi D a i l y Newspapers established (or the N e g r o as we h s v t o u t l m e i The fine issua of the paper and the succeeding Issues for another two or thrae month« will be diminutive i n sice as we have not yet completely assembled our P r i n t i n g Plant, but we feel sure that within another few months when our Linotypes a n d other heavier machinery h a v e a r r i v e d and erected, o u r paper will take second place to none as 4 first class D a i l y Journal. W e pjoiwse to give y o u f r o m time to time the bast i n us, and w e shall expect from you. a similar return. W i t h v e r y ba^t wishes, I h a v e the h o n o u r to be, Y o u r Obedient Servant,

MARCUS GARVEY, E d i t o r i n Chief. Edelwejs Park« Cross R o o d s , Andrew, Jasnaka, M a r c h 30, 1929.

CAUSE.

W e w a n t Jamaica to stand o u t as a beacon of race l o l e r a n a i o r d f e l l o v « h i p , a n d g o o d w i l l . O n e

(Source: Bm, 30 March 1929.) 301

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Article in the Blackman1 [Kingston, May 20, 1929] "COLOURED" K U KLUX KLAN THREATENS GARVEY WITH DEATH IN T E N DAYS ENVELOPE

No. 4018 Marcus Garvey Edelweis Park Slipe Road X Road P/O [in lefthand corner:] K.K.K. F R O N T OF N O T E

Name[:] (No. 4,018) Garvey, Marcus Date of Death[:] 23d May [to?] 3rd June (ten days) Reasonf:] Request of Jamaican Secret Society of Colored Men. Garvey, we've never failed yet! You Black swine! K.K.K. B A C K OF N O T E

Klu [Ku] Klux Klan [Commentary:] The above addressed envelope photographed along with pen printed note, back and front, was mailed from Kingston and received by our Editorin-Chief, Hon. Marcus Garvey, on Thursday last. It is evident that there are elements in our community who are afraid of the truth the Press reveals and presents for the public good. Certain people have enjoyed so long the privilege of oppressing the Negro masses that they seriously believe that any attempt to re-adjust conditions is an outrage upon their rights. The note says a secret Society of "coloured" men desire[s] Mr. Garvey's death. It must be understood that the term or word "coloured" as used does not mean to refer to that self-respecting element of the coloured people who realize that they are members of the honourable Negro race, but that very small group of "unfortunates" who would like to be white and therefore, hate being Negroes. This Society—a new kind of K.K.K.—will find Mr. Garvey very much about, and he welcomes the attempt at any time to kill him. The paper desires it to be clearly understood that we recognize but three races in Jamaica, the European or White, the African or Negro, and the Asiatic. There is no other recognized 302

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race here—we must belong to one or the other as a race. We feel sure that the Europeans are proud of their race and we respect them for it; we are also sure that the Asiatics are proud of their race, and there is no doubt that the Negro race of self-respecting black and coloured people are proud of themselves. We have a few black and coloured unfortunates who would like to be white but ethnologically cannot, so they have classed themselves with a society operating under the name of the Ku Klux Klan. If the American Klan were to hear of their audacity to use their name, it wouldn't be Garvey killed, but these unfortunate persons whom the real Ku Klux Klan despise with more hate than they would Garvey, for trying to be white when they are not. How is the "Man of Many Colours?" Twenty pounds reward will be paid by this paper to anyone giving information that will lead to the positive identification of the person who wrote and mailed the letter to Mr. Garvey. Printed in Bm, 20 M a y 1929. Hand-addressed envelope and handwritten note reproduced in original as facsimile reprint; editorial commentary printed. 1. Garvey began publishing a daily newspaper called the Blackman in Kingston in March 1929. The Blackman was published as a daily until April 1930 when it became a weekly. It ceased publication in February 1931. T. Alexander Aikman was the paper's literary editor, Leo Rankin its news editor, and A. Wesley Atherton and }. Coleman Beecher were contributing editors/reporters. The paper reached a circulation of some 15,000 copies, despite harassment of its vendors by public officials and delays in delivery by the Jamaican Post Office. In December 1933 Garvey began a monthly magazine called the Blackman: A Monthly Magazine of Negro Thought and Opinion. After the first six issues the name of the magazine was changed to the Black Man, and in June 1935 Garvey moved its publication from Kingston to London, where it was published until June 1939 (Bm; BM; Rupert Lewis, "The Question of Imperialism and Aspects of Garvcy's Political Activities in Jamaica, 1929-30," in Garvey: Africa, Europe, the Americas, eds. Rupert Lewis and Maureen Warner-Lewis [Kingston, Jamaica: Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1986], pp. 89-110).

J. R. Ralph Casimir1 to Marcus Garvey [[Roseau, Dominica, ca. 30 May 1929]] Sir[:] The enclosed census list was handed over to me with your circular /at my request/ by a certain gentleman here who is not in the position to take census as requested. I have seen other parties to whom you sent instructions to take census and most of them have done so, but I am quite positive that many of the persons whose names I have written would not consent to write down their names hence my reason for writing down names myself which I hope will be to your satisfaction. I have put down the names of some of the most prominent Negro citizens of this town. It will certainly be very difficult for any one [not apprised of this] to take a complete census of the population of this Island. I am however sending certain facts as to the Negro population. In an article /published/ in the Negro World of Jan. 14,1922 [again] I stated that "the returns of the last census (1921) 303

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gave the population of Dominica as 37,059 (36,362 Negroes, 141 pure blooded Caribs and J J 6 ( ? ) whites)." 2 I am still of the opinion that there was not at that time and there is not now as many as 300 whites in this Island. Some coloured folks who evidently want to pass as whites simply reported themselves as being white on the census papers. For example it was found out by the chief clerk at the General Registrar's Office that 141 pure blooded Caribs described themselves "white" but were however grouped with "coloured." If the chief clerk had taken the pains, as I then stated in my article above referred to, /to make an investigation/ he would no doubt have found out some, if not all, of the "white" Negroes. The estimated population to 31st December 1928 was +1,671. With the exception of some 200 whites and about 250 pure-blooded Caribs all the inhabitants are Negroes. Births in 1928: 1,579, the highest for the last four years. Deaths in 1928: 984. The death rate was 23.61 per 1,000. I would be very thankful for a sample copy of the "Daily Black Man" of which paper I read in a recent copy of the Negro World. God bless you! Hoping to hear from you at your earliest convenience and wishing you all success very best wishes too. I am, Sir[,] yours for the cause Afric 3 JRRC. AL, draft copy. 1. Casimir, a founding member of the Roseau, Dominica, U N I A division, was a distributor for several black periodicals, including the Negro World and the Crisis (Garvey Papers 4: 520-521 n. 1). 2. The 1921 Dominica Census used three racial categories in cataloging the Dominica population: Black (24,940 individuals), Coloured (11,56?), and White (556). Casimir grouped the black and coloured figures together as Negros and separated out the Carib populations (141) from the white (Census of Dominica, British West Indies Report [1921; reprint ed., Port of Spain, Trinidad: Central Statistical Office, 1964], table 14). 5. Garvey replied to Casimir's letter 6 September 1929. Garvey acknowledged that the population of Dominica "consists of nearly all coloured folks" and affirmed that Casimir would be sent a sample copy of the Blackman (Marcus Garvey to }. R. Ralph Casimir, 6 September 1929, JRRC).

Article in the New York Times [New York, 24 June 1929] SABERS U S E D IN FIGHT OF NEGRO FACTIONS R I V A L G A R V E Y C L U B S IN F U L L R E G A L I A BATTLE IN STREETS FOR H A R L E M H A L L

Fifty members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association resplendent in blue uniforms with gold braid and armed with unloaded Springfield rifles and with sabers started a riot last night when they tried to force their way into Liberty Hall, at 120 West 138th Street, near Lenox Avenue, where the Garvey Club,1 a rival negro organization similarly equipped, was holding a meeting.2 For fifteen minutes the opposing factions fought, using their rifles as clubs and striking out wildly with drawn sabers. The battle spread to the 304

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street, where occupants of neighboring tenements showered down a variety of missiles upon the contestants. It ended abruptly after fifteen minutes when the clanging of patrol wagon gongs announced the arrival of the police riot squad with gas bombs and machine guns. SEVEN [ E I G H T ] IN HOSPITALS.

The combatants scattered in all directions. Just how many were injured could not be ascertained. But eight of them were sent to Harlem Hospital, 3 three in serious condition. Those in the hospital are: GRANT, WILLIAM.4 29 years old, 137 West 138th Street. Lacerations of the head and face. FRANCIS, ARTHUR. 30. 358 West 127th Street. Scalp wounds. SPALDING, JOHN. 66. 344 West 145th Street. Lacerations of head and body. Condition grave. BURKE, DANIEL. 45. 299 West 138th Street. Lacerations of head and body. Condition grave. DOBLING, JOHN. 29. 625 Lenox Avenue; lacerations of head and face; condition grave. DARAEL, DANIEL. 27. 105 West 138th Street; laceration of right hand and body. EDEN, ALEXANDER. 49. 165 Henry Street, Brooklyn; lacerations of right hand and face. JEFFERY, ERNEST, 25 years old, of 150 West 117th Street; scalp wounds. SCORE T A K E N TO POLICE STATION

The police rounded up a score or more of adherents of both sides and took them to the West 135th Street station for questioning. Later six of the invaders were held for rioting. They were: Charles Bramble of 152 West 145th Street, Leonard Corbin of 101 West 141st Street, Edward Anglin of 291 Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn; Vincent Wattley5 of 248 West 138th Street, and Tony Wallace of 122 West 117th Street. T w o of the Garvey Club adherents were also arrested. They were Mrs. Ruby Thornhill of 151 West 128th Street and Dermott Bailey of 58 East 113th Street. They were charged with felonious assault. All those in the hospital, except Alexander Eden, also were arrested. Saint William Grant, the only Garvey Club member among the injured, was charged with felonious assault and the invaders with rioting. In all, fifteen were arrested. The Garvey Club was founded by Marcus Garvey, West Indian negro, self-styled President General of the African Republic, advocate of a negro God for colored Christians and Impresario of the Black Star Steamship lines, who was deported from the United States in 1927 and subsequently ordered out of Canada. It has been using Liberty Hall as its headquarters for several years. It 305

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is the parent organization of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The latter organization broke away about eighteen months ago because of a disagreement in leadership, and since then has had its headquarters at 108 West 138th Street only a few doors from Liberty Hall. Garvey is honorary president of both organizations. Lately the newer group has been making efforts to get Liberty Hall away from the parent organization. Several weeks ago, they said, they had arranged with Jacobson & Jacobson, who have charge of the renting of the hall, to take it for the month of June and paid $200 rental. Garvey Club officials, however, contended that they already had rented the hall for June. At any rate, when between 500 and 600 members of the Garvey Club assembled last night in the hall, brilliant in their uniforms and many of them accompanied by women, fifty members of the rival organization appeared suddenly at the entrances which were guarded by sentries armed with unloaded rifles and sabers. The sentries refused to let the invaders in. An official of the improvement association produced a receipt for $200 which he said was for the June rental and announced that his organization intended to take immediate possession of the hall. He ordered his men to advance. One of them pushed a Garvey Club sentry aside. The latter seized his rifle by the muzzle and raised it threateningly over his head. His opponent also had a rifle. He didn't bother to raise it. He simply lunged. The muzzle struck the Garvey Club sentry. He doubled up and collapsed. Then the fight started. Pandemonium reigned. The shouts of the Garvey Club sentries brought reinforcements from within. The shouts of the Unia [UNIA] men brought reinforcements from without. They met at the entrances to the hall. Shouts, screams, curses and the sound of thudding blows filled the air. Women within the hall and women in the street screamed and fainted. RAIDERS STORM HALL

The Unia raiding party carried one of the entrances and swept into the hall, swinging their rifles and sabres aloft. The hall is in a low-ceilinged onestory building. The air was close and sultry and filled with tobacco smoke. The raiders pushed through the hazy atmosphere, driving the Garvey Club guards before them. Benches were overturned. Men fell and were trampled on. Then a section of the Garvey forces became panic stricken. They jumped through the windows into the street. There, seeing that the attacking forces were greatly outnumbered, they rallied and returned to the fray. They attacked the raiders from behind. The street, too, was filled with cries and shouts of combatants. Heads bobbed out of tenement windows. Women screamed to stop. A score of telephones buzzed news of the riot to Police Headquarters. POLICE RESERVES CALLED OUT

Emergency Squad 2 at the West i52d Street police station was ordered to the scene. They brought machine guns and gas bombs. Captain Edward 306

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Bracken6 mobilized every available reserve and ordered all men from near-by posts to the scene. The fight was raging when the police arrived. Somewhat weary but undismayed, the combatants were clubbing at each other's heads with rifles and sabres. The blue uniforms were bedraggled and torn. The gold braid had lost its lustre. Above the din and uproar in the street rose the shouts of residents in the tenements. Angered at having their Sunday quiet disturbed, they showered down missiles of every sort. The missiles had no effect. But the magic of the patrol wagon gong did. Barely had it sounded in the street when the fighting stopped. Heads were turned, ears strained to catch the direction of the sound. Then, forgetting their bruised heads and faces, their grievances and grudges, Garvey Club and association men alike fled in the opposite direction. Not all of those in the hall had time to get away. When the patrol wagons raced up to the door and the blue-coated officers, minus gold braid, but well armed and apparently meaning business, leaped out and barred every exit, the sounds of scuffling and shouts gave place to groans. Captain Bracken gave his orders in brisk military fashion. None was to be permitted to leave the hall. Then the police entered the building and began questioning those who were left. Meanwhile the police began rounding up the injured and sending them in ambulances or in automobiles to Harlem Hospital, which is only a few blocks away. Long after the uproar had subsided an air of nervous tension could be observed in the vicinity of Liberty Hall. Residents of the tenements conversed in whispers, and did not congregate before the steps of their homes as usual. The police were still on guard. Printed in NTT, 24 June 1929. Original headlines abridged. 1. In 1929 the Garvey Club of New York became officially affiliated with Garvey's Jamaica-based U N I A and A C L , August 1929, of the World. Members of the original Garvey Club maintained close ties with both Amy Jacques Garvey and Marcus Garvey. They were instrumental in organizing a memorial for Garvey after his death in 1940 as well as in reorganizing the central administration of the U N I A in the months following his demise ("Special Mass Meeting at the Garvey Club, Inc." and "Memorial Service" handbills, NN-Sc, U C D , box 14, f. 23; NTAN, 17 August 1940). After the rival New York factions disputed their respective claims to rightful use of the original Liberty Hall at 120 West 138th Street, the Garvey Club began to meet at 2667 Eighth Avenue in New York. They referred to the building at that new location as their Liberty Hall (NW, 9 November 1929, 25 April 1931). The club claimed "over 900 members" in 1929, and Garvey asked delegates at the 1929 U N I A convention in Jamaica "to let it be known that the only recognized body in New York was the Garvey Club and the U N I A Incorporated was not in any way connected with the body meeting in convention" (DG, 30 August 1929). The Garvey Club shared offices with the staff of the Negro World at 355 Lenox Avenue in 1930 (NW, 7 June 1930). By 1934 it was using rooms above the Gem Theatre at 36 West 135th Street. These rooms were destroved by fire 4 February 1934 (2WAN, 11 February 1934). In the following year the Garvey Club was operating out of 169 West 133rd Street. It maintained offices there at least through 1940 (letterheads, Garvey Club, Inc., of the U N I A , August 1929, of the World, 1935-1940, NN-Sc, U C D , box 16, h. 7; box 8 d. 13; box 9, d. 51). Garvey Club divisions were also formed in other cities in the United States and abroad, including Camden, N. J.; Chicago; Dayton and Hamilton, Ohio; Lim6n, Costa Rica; Natchez, Miss.; and New Orleans (Nugent Dodds to E. L. Murray, 16 January 1933, D N A , R G 28; NW, 21 February, 8 March, 4 April, and 2 May 1931; BM 2, no. 5 [January 1937]: 15-16).

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS 2. The Garvey Club worked in close conjunction with the Tiger divison in New York. Several of the individuals named in this report were Tiger division activists. The Tiger division was a uniformed division of the U N I A similar to the African Legion. The name of the Tiger division (which after the 1929 Convention became known officially as the [New York] Tiger Division No. 119 of the U N I A , August 1929, of the World) may have emerged from popular references t o Garvey as "the Tiger," a term emerging from controversy surrounding his mail fraud trial when W. A. Domingo telegrammed prosecutor Maxwell Mattuck and referred to the conviction of Garvey as "bagging the Tiger" (Garvey Papers 6: 17+). Militaristic in its orientation, the name of the division may also have been derived from the fighting reputation of the powerful African animal, as in the nickname for the Louisiana units of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, "Lee's Tigers," known as "the meanest, most notoriously vile and despicably behaved, but also most reliable and efficient combat troops that the Confederacy had" (Herman Hattaway, review of Lee's Tigers: The Louisiana Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia, by Terry L. Jones, Journal of American History 75, no. 1 [June 1988]: 268-269). Like the Garvey Club, the Tiger division was strongly pro-Garvey, canonizing him at a January 1931 meeting "as a saint" (NW, 10 January and 24 January 1931). The division had its headquarters at 73 West 133rd Street, New York. Under the leadership of St. William Wellington Grant, who was both commander and president, the Tiger division developed a reputation for violent confrontation and militaristic interpretations of the repatriation movement. Officers in the divison were assigned paramilitary titles and functions—Lieutenant Dekiod, of the cavalry; Captain Grey, of field artillery; Lieutenant Jones, of the infantry; Major T. Thompson, machine gunner, etc.—and guest speakers at Tiger division meetings included Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Shiori of the Somalialand Army, Major Abdulla Sol of the French Army, and Ashima Takis, w h o told his audience that "the program of redeeming Africa will come true when we arc prepared to die for the freedom of our fatherland" (NW, 2 May 1931). The Tiger division claimed the area on Lenox Avenue between West 133rd and West 135th Streets as its territory. It had many altercations with Communist party members attempting to deliver speeches from the same street corners. The territorial rivalry reached a crisis point in June of 1930, when a Communist party loyalist was killed following a Tiger division-instigated fray. Communists later accused Grant of being involved in the killing and of identifying other leftist activists to the Harlem police, making them open to discrimination from authorities (The Liberator, 6 June 1931; Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983], pp. 37-40Grant's militaristic philosophy was presented in numerous addresses given at New York meetings. O n 3 January 1932, for example, Grant told a Tiger division meeting that "it was through a government carrying an army, navy, air force, marine corps and every implement of war that compelled the Nordic races to respect Japan," and "when we make u p our minds through uniting together and put on land a mighty army and an air force, put on the waters of the seven seas battleships and cruisers, white men and God will call us blessed" (NW, 16 January 1932). In 1932 members of Sufi Abdul Hamid's Oriental and Occidental Scientific Philosophical Society invaded the Tiger division offices on West 133rd Street, wrecking the premises and assaulting U N I A members. Grant, who had been warned that he was "liable to be bumped off," was not present (NTT, 31 August 1932). The attack was a response to repeated street disturbances between Grant's division members and Hamid's forces, w h o were pressuring the Tiger division t o support the boycott of Harlem businesses that did not employ blacks (New York Age, 13 August and 10 September 1932; Baltimore Afro-American, 20 August 1932). 3. The history of Harlem Hospital is symbolic of the gradual inroads made by blacks in their efforts to enter the white-dominated medical profession and demand quality care from the American health care system. The hospital was founded 18 April 1887. O n 13 April 1907 a new 150-bed building was dedicated on Lenox Avenue between West 136th and West 137th Streets; and in April 1915 a new wing was opened, more than doubling the patient capacity. By 1910 over half of the patients treated at the hospital were black, though there were n o black members of the medical staff. In 1919 the New York News ran a series of articles chronicling the abuse of black patients by white staff. This exposé was followed by a NAACP-sponsored study and then by a city investigation of the charges instigated by Mayor John Hylan. During testimony before the Hirshfield Committee in 1922 "it became clear that the attitude of the Medical Board of Harlem Hospital toward both Negro doctors and nurses was unfair, contemptuous, and prejudiced, and that the Board was determined to maintain a solid white control of the institution" (Aubre de L. Maynard, Surgeons to the Poor: The Harlem Hospital Story [New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1978], p. 20). The commission's findings supported the stance of the pro-black Citizens Welfare Council of Harlem, which spearheaded the movement to improve conditions at the hospital. In 308

JUNE 1929 1925 five black physicians were promoted from low posts in the outpatient clinic to provisional house staff status. Affirmative action policies were also begun in regard to the hiring of new staff members from a pool of qualified black interns. In 1925 a nursing school was opened at the hospital, becoming the second in the city to accept black applicants. Black nursing students were, however, denied exchange of instruction with other institutions, subjected to severe discrimination within the hospital's work structure, and limited in job opportunities elsewhere until the advent of nursing shortages during World War II. In 1931-1933 Harlem Hospital became the focus of protests related to the boycott of Harlem businesses that discriminated against black employees. After a group of black physicians resigned from the staff of the hospital to publicize their complaints with the quality of patient care and the lack of hiring and promotion opportunities for black medical personnel employed by the institution, a mass protest meeting was held in Harlem. The protestors—who demanded the right of access for black patients to all private and public hospitals in the city as well as the right of black doctors and nurses to be promoted according to their abilities—were supported by Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., then the assistant pastor at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, and by Harlem communists who had been active in the Scottsboro cause (Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression, pp. 78-79). Years later, Garvey's son, Dr. Julius Winston Garvey, became a practicing physician at Harlem Hospital. 4. St. William Wellington Wellwood Grant (1894-1977) was active in both the Tiger division and Garvey Club in New York. Grant was born at Brandon Hill in the rural area of St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica. He attended St. Phillips Church School in St. Andrew and West Branch Elementary School in Kingston. As a young man he became a dockworker in Kingston. With the advent of World War I he stowed away on a British troop ship, subsequently joining the Eleventh British West India Regiment. After the war he returned briefly to Jamaica, then migrated to New York City in 1920. He worked as a cook in various restaurants during his period of involvement with the Tiger division. The turning point of Grant's career with the U N I A came when he served as a delegate to the 1934 convention in Jamaica. His homecoming in 1934 became permanent after his behavior at the convention drew the negative attention of Garvey, who described him as an "ignorant, irresponsible and boisterous person . . . destructive and rude." Garvey denounced Grant's violent street corner techniques and vetoed the proposal Grant made at the convention that U N I A members be photographed and fingerprinted. He then formally expelled Grant from the UNLA, making it clear in an open letter to members—and the New York police—that Grant was guilty of "misrepresenting the aims and objects of the organization" and should be subjected to restraint (New York Age, 24 November 1934). Remaining in Jamaica, Grant did not cease his involvement with the organization in Jamaica, despite his expulsion from U N I A activities in New York. It also started him onto the track of a new career as a labor leader in his native land. When he returned to Jamaica he continued to make a living as a cook while practicing street oratory, frequently invoking the name of Garvey in defense of repatriationist policies. He transferred these political activities from the streets of New York to various street corners and open air sites at Victoria Park, Cope Memorial Church, and the corners of Oxford Street and Spanish Town Road and of Love Lane and North Parade. Grant became well known for his ostentatious appearances on his speaking platform adorned with the red, black, and green U N I A flag. He often visited rural areas with his imposing figure attired in an elaborately bemedaled Tiger division uniform, or other striking costumes of his own design. In 1937 he invited Alexander Bustamante to speak from his platform. From that point onward Grant's rhetoric began to shift away from the topics of African history and nationalism and toward labor issues. Grant and Bustamante emerged as Jamaican heroes during the labor riots and general strike of 1938. After violence erupted on the Frome estate in Westmoreland on 2 May 1938, Grant led a protest march with some three thousand followers to the offices of the Jamaica Standard (the organ of the National Reform Association, and rival to Herbert DeLisser's Daily Gleaner), delivering a statement on behalf of the Kingston poor and the striking workers, and calling for the recognition of Bustamante. By the end of the month the labor protest had spread from the sugar fields into the city of Kingston, with dock workers leading a massive shutdown march through the streets on 23 May 1938, culminating in a mass meeting addressed by Grant and Bustamante at the Parade Gardens. The next day the pair were arrested while leading another street demonstration and charged with sedition and lesser crimes. The arrests led to Bustamante's rise as the principal spokesperson for the labor movement and Grant's status as a cult hero. The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) movement was born during the two men's brief imprisonment, and the 309

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS release of Bustamante became an ultimatum used by the dock workers in negotiations over the settlement of the general strike. Grant and Bustamante were accordingly released on bail on 28 May 1938. The next day Grant appeared at a mass meeting at the Kingston Race Course "smartly dressed in grey flannels, brown coat, open neck shirt and ultra-modern brown suede shoes." He told the crowd of thousands that "Bustamante now is our God . . . the greatest leader that has ever been known in the shores of the West Indies" (DG, 30 May 1938). Grant's partnership with Bustamante—like his alliance with Garvey—was marked by discord as well as successes. Three months after the men's triumphant release from jail, Grant was briefly expelled from the BITU after quarreling with other members over the place of repatriationist rhetoric in the movement. He was soon reinstated as an organizer for the BITU, which was working to create a federation of maritime, agricultural, and transport workers. In the following months he continued to argue with Bustamante over the relative weight given the issues of the workers' struggle and the redemption of Africa. Bustamante soon became upset not only with Grant's retention of Garveyite concerns but with his laxity in financial matters, a tendency that Bustamante pointed out had contributed to Garvey's decline. Despite these differences, Bustamante continued to back Grant's position in the movement. On 12 February 1939 he went so far as to call a strike against the United Fruit C o . on Montego Bay wharves. Grant's confrontational organizing techniques led to a heated dispute with a member of A. G. S. Coombs' Jamaica Workers' and Tradesmen's Union, and the United Fruit Co. refused to fire the offending man upon Bustarnante's request. The strike, called with little preparation or popular support, was ineffectual and resulted in a reversal of the BITU's organizational momentum. Grant designed uniforms for a special bicycle corps that served as an advance guard for the UNIA Black Cross Nurses in a parade honoring the first anniversary of the labor revolt on 24 May 1939. The unity displayed between him and Bustamante on that occasion was broken on 27 October 1939, when Grant submitted a proposal entitled "For a Better Union." The tract advocated the reorganization of the BITU, including the election of the BITU president. It was thus a direct attack on Bustarnante's authority as president for life. Grant also called for reconciliation between the BITU, the Peoples National Party, the Trade Union Council, and Norman Manley, who had played a role in negotiating Bustarnante's rise to power and release from prison in 1938. As a result of these suggestions Grant was relieved of his position in the BITU on 30 October 1939. Former Garveyite J. A. G. Edwards was also dismissed as secretary of the union on the following day. The breach between Grant and Bustamante widened in 1942, when Grant welcomed Manley to speak on the subject of self-government at a UNIA meeting at Liberty Hall. In a letter to the editor of the Daily Gleaner, a commentator said of Grant's life that "he smashed many organizations he himself built," but that he had also been "a died-in-the-wool disciple of Marcus Garvey" and "an educator" who made a positive impact upon great numbers of the nonelite who listened at the steps of his speaker's platform (Lionel A. Lynch to the Editor, DG, 30 September 1974; see also Thomas Fitzharold Cathcart, "Writer Thinks Street Corner Meetings Have Great Power for Good to the Masses," NW, 10 June 1933). After his split from the BITU, Grant continued to participate in Jamaican politics. He developed his own following as the leader of the Ethiopian Alliance of the World and as a preacher of Ethiopianism with a great popularity in Pocomania circles. In 1950 Bustamante recommended that Grant be appointed watchman at the Central Housing Authority (later called the Ministry of Housing) and Grant accepted, maintaining that position until his death. He continued his street speaking and his participation in UNIA events and was awarded the medal of the Office of the Order of Distinction on National Heroes Day in 1974. The UNIA followed this national recognition with a special tribute to him on 21 December 1974. He died two weeks after Bustamante on 27 August 1977 and was given a state funeral on 5 September 1977. In that same month a motion was passed by the Kingston and the St. Andrew Corporation renaming Victoria Park (also known as Parade Gardens), Kingston, St. William Grant Park after the former Tiger division leader (New "fork Age, 13 August 1932, n August and 24 November 1934; Jamaica Standard, 3 May 1938; DG, 25 May, 26 May, 27 May, 28 May, and 30 May 1938, 25 May 1939, 18 October 1977; The Masses, 21 August 1943; Noel White, "St. William Wellington Grant: A Fighter for Black Diginity "Jamaica Journal 43 [March 1979]: 56-63; William J. Makin, Caribbean Nights [London: Robert Hale, 1939], pp. 68-69; Ken Post, Arise Te Starvelings: The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Aftermath [The Hague, Boston, and London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1978], pp. 239, 277, 414; Ken Post, Strike the Iron: A Colony at War, 2 vols. [Atlantic Heights, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1981], 1: 63-64). 5. Vincent Wattley was active in several para-military groups within the UNIA. He was also involved in other incidents of intraorganizational factionalism. In 1928 Wattley, then Commander of Headquarters Regiment, Universal African Legions, New York, was appointed Chief of Staff for

310

JULY 1929 the First Corps Area (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) by E. B. Knox. The Appointment gave him senior authority over "all Legions, Black Cross Nurses, Motor Corps and Juveniles in this jurisdiction" (NW, n February 1928). In 1951 Wattley was the president of the UNIA Royal Guards, a division that included Harold Saltus (treasurer) and Berniza De Mena (secretary/reporter), the daughter of Madame M. L. T. De Mena, among its officers. The division met at 209 West 131st Street on Sunday evenings, with Wattley as chair of the proceedings. It was reported that at one such meeting "General Vincent Wattley presided, and as usual, delivered a masterful talk, centered mainly upon Militarism" (NW, 3 January 1931; see also NW, 14 February and 28 March 1931). Wattley was chosen as minister of legions in the August 1932 elections held by the Lionel Francis wing of the UNIA, Inc., the New York-based group that challenged Garvey's legitimacy as the leader of the movement and the relocation of the central administration of the UNIA to jamaica. In 1940 Col. Wattley becamc rcaffiliated with the New York Garvey Club, and served as minister of legions commanding a corps area including New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He used the authority of this position to back those supporting Fred A. Toote (against those supporting James Stewart) as the successor to Garvey's position as president general during the power struggle following Garvey's death in the summer of 19+0 (Ethel M. Collins to Amy Jacques Garvey, 30 July 1940, TNF, AJG, box 1, folder 5; NW, 18 April 1931; Baltimore Afro-American, 20 August 1932; New York Age, 30 August 1932). 6. Edward A. Bracken (1877-1947) of Brooklyn was an employee of the New York police department for thirty-three years. He was promoted to captain of the sixteenth precinct in 1929 and later became deputy inspector (1930) and deputy chief inspector (1933). He retired in October 1938 (Nelson Almonte to Robert A. Hill, 10 October 1985; enclosures, Force Record Card and Pension Card of E. A. Bracken, New York Police Department, 20 October 1938).

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[St. A n d r e w , ca.

29 J u l y

1929]]

B I G C O N V E N T I O N PROGRAM All roads shall lead on the 1st o f A u g u s t , 1929, where openeth the Sixth International Convention o f the N e g r o Peoples o f the World.' T h e following program will be discussed: (1) T h e Political and Social Freedom o f the entire N e g r o Race. (2) T h e presentation o f proper evidence before the League o f Nations for an adjustment o f the International Race Problem. (3) T h e

creating o f a thorough

educational

system

for the

higher

education o f the Negroes o f America, the West Indies and Africa, resulting in the founding o f three N e g r o universities o f a purely technical character— one in America, one in the West Indies and one in Africa. (4) T h e

creating

o f general

economic

opportunities

in

agriculture,

industry and commerce for the N e g r o peoples o f the world, whereby a brisk and proper trade relationship may develop between the N e g r o e s o f America, Africa, the West Indies and South America to insure a stable economic status. (5) T h e acquiring and controlling o f agricultural lands for the scientific development o f agriculture and also the establishment o f factories and industrial institutions in various N e g r o communities to guarantee permanent 311

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

employment to the Negroes of America, Africa, the West Indies, and South and Central America, Europe and Canada. (6) The launching of a new line of steamships—The Black Star Line— to facilitate Negro trade and commerce throughout the world. (7) To establish in London, Washington, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Brussels, Geneva, Tokio, China, India, West Africa, South Africa, embassies to represent the interest of the entire Negro race and to watch and protect their rights. (8) The establishing of a daily paper in several large cities of the world to shape sentiment in favor of the entire Negro race, namely, in London, Paris, Berlin, Capetown, New York, Washington, Gold Coast, West Africa, and the several important islands of the West Indies. (9) The practical effort of uniting every unit of the Negro race throughout the world into one organized body. (10) The formulating of plans to unify the religious beliefs and practices of the entire Negro race. (11) The establishing of a universal social code for the Negro race. (12) To make practical and execute each and every one of the above objects within ten years as a solution of the Negro problem, and as a means of saving the Negro race from further exploitation and possible extermination in the world. (13) To budget for the expenditure of a fund of six hundred million dollars in ten years to execute the above program as shall be determined by the convention. (14) To elect the international officials of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League of the World. (15) To elect twelve delegates from the convention to attend the tenth session of the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland. (16) To take up all and such matters as affect the interest of the Negro race. (17) To discuss and amend the Constitution of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and A.C.L. BEST M I N D S OF T H E R A C E TO B E P R E S E N T

The above program will be exhaustively discussed at our forthcoming convention, and it is natural to expect that the best minds of our race will be sent as representatives to take part in these discussions. All branches and chapters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and all other organizations, societies and churches are invited to attend the convention and to take part in its general discussions. Delegates, as usual, will be coming from Africa, Europe, Asia, the West Indies, South and Central America, Canada and the forty-eight States of the American Union. This will be a big time for the Negro race. During the night sessions of the convention (the convention will 312

JULY 1929

be night and day for the thirty-one days of the month of August) several of the prominent leaders of the world will speak to the delegates. We are expecting the presence of several Senators, Congressmen and leaders in American public life and educators. N E G R O POLITICAL U N I O N

Among the important items to be discussed, as outlined by the above program, will be the formation of the Negro Political Union. 2 This union will consolidate the political forces of the Negro through which the race will express its political opinion in America, in the islands of the seas and in all communities where the Negro forms a part. The Political Union shall represent the political hopes and aspirations of the fifteen million Negroes of the United States of America on American questions, domestic to America, and shall represent the interests of the millions of Negroes of the West Indies in their different and respective islands affecting domestic political questions, and so also in the scattered communities of Africa. The union shall have a sympathetic relationship politically, with Negroes all over the world, but each country or community will have its own domestic program for the betterment of the race in that country or community. But the strength of the union will be given to any community or country to politically assist it in putting over its political program. As, for instance, if the Negroes of America were politically agitating or working for the passage of any special measure for the benefit of the race, the entire strength of the union would be placed at the disposal of the American section. If the Negroes of Trinidad desired to carry out any political measure for the benefit of that community, the union would use its strength in assisting them, and so with any community where the Negroes live throughout the world. N o longer, therefore, will individual politicians represent the interests of the Negroes, but the Negroes unitedly will be represented by the Negro Political Union. Let us all, therefore, work for the successful consummation of the program of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, so that we may be able to glory in a brighter day industrially, commercially, socially, religiously and politically. All Negroes should concentrate in helping in her [Africa's] industrial and agricultural development. Her forests should be chopped down, cities should be built thereon, the virgin land should be tilled and worked to produce the products that her native soil is capable of. Why shouldn't we bend our energies in this direction? That is a part of the work of the Universal Improvement Association for 1929 and 1930. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be. Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW, 3 August 1929. 1. The 1929 International U N I A Convention was originally scheduled to be held in Toronto. The location was changed to Kingston when a meeting of the high commissioners and repre313

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS scntativcs from the major divisions was held in Toronto 2-3 November 1928. The Toronto planning conference was attended by J. A. Craigen, Robert L. Ephraim, Garvey, Samuel A. Haynes, Charles James, A. J. Johnson, E. B. Knox, J. J. Peters, A. R. Robertson, S. V . Robertson, Leonard Smith, W. A. Wallace, and William Ware. Announcements for the sixth annual convention, including the points drafted at the conference and oudined above, began appearing in the Negro World in late 1928 and throughout the first half of 1929. The U N I A chartered the S.S. Carrillo to bring delegates from the United States to the Jamaica convention. As of May 1929 approximately 130 persons had made reservations to travel upon the vessel, which was scheduled to leave New York on 20 July 1929 (H. G. Armstrong, British Consulate General, to the Governor of Jamaica, 22 March 1929 and 15 May 1929, P R O , F O 115/3380; NW, 28 January, 10 March, 10 November, and 29 December 1928, 2 March and 24 August 1929). 2. The Universal Negro Political Union was an active lobbying force in U.S. party politics in 1924. Transferred to Jamaica, the U N I A political organization soon became known as the People's Political party (Amy Jacques Garvey, "The Political Activities of Marcus Gravey in Jamaica," in Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa, ed. John Henrik Clarke [New York: Vintage, 1974], pp. 276-283; Garvey Papers 6: 31-33, 45, 103 n. 2).

Speech by Marcus Garvey at the 1929 UNIA Convention [[Edelweiss Park, Kingston, August 5, 1929]] Delegates to the sixth International Convention of the Negro peoples of the world, and to the convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League:' It was rather unfortunate that I was not able this morning to make the official or opening speech of the convention, especially of this business session, neither am I prepared to make it now, because of the tremendous amount of business in the organization. I have been unable to properly prepare same. Nevertheless, I promise you that tomorrow I shall make the official opening speech, in keeping with the position that I hold, as President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, and as leader of the Sixth Annual International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World. But, I may say this, in keeping with the present situation, that it is good that we are here. We are here under serious and important circumstances. The real purpose of this assembly is to organize permanently an organization, as well as to be responsible for the looking after the rights of the Negro race. This convention, I hope, will intelligently understand the present world situation, as that affects our racc. We hope to be able to perfect such an organization out of this convention, as will be able at all times to safe-guard and protect the interest of our race. In fact, the convention is to create a new organization. I have, by my own perseverance, determination and interest tried to hold on to the name that we have brought into the convention, with the hope of giving new vitality, new life and new interest to that name, the name of the Universal Negro Improvement 314

AUGUST

1929

Association and African Communities League. Most of us are from divisions of this organization that have been in existence for nearly fifteen years. By the hand of c[i]rcumstance the world had apparently wrought its wicked hand on the association, to so embarrass it, that prior to my advent in this country from America, and my deportation, as you know, the organization had become bankrupt in the United States of America. All o f you know the history of the organization during my imprisonment. During my imprisonment, the organization fell into the hands of wicked men, vicious men, grafty men, greedy men, men without honor, men without character, men without any respect at all for their race. T h e result was that after two years and ten months, they had made the organization bankrupt in the United States of America. Every penny of the organization was swindled for salary of men w h o had not earned one penny. I was deported from America[,] as you know, and after I came here, I endeavored to give my new life to the organization. I found the 4th Assistant President-General [Henrietta Vinton Davis] had done nothing to give new life to the organization, but when I came here, I saw the situation, and from what money I had, I financed the organization by paying its expenses here, until I was able to get in touch with the foreign branches of the organization, and so the accomplishments you sec here, arc the results of my activities. After the divisions began reporting, we were able to revive the organization here, and in various parts of the islands that I visited. I went to England, as you know, to represent the Negroes of the association, and I have been able to create a great impression on my visit. I went to Europe by the help of the N e g r o peoples of the world, and I am sure that my visit in Europe helped to revive the organization, and the people took new courage to support the cause of Africa. When I found out that the divisions were complaining about the reports being sent to American headquarters, and could receive no answers from same, and were dissatisfied, I decided that, and with their consent, to have all the divisions report to Jamaica; and so from January, 1929, the American divisions linked up with Jamaica, and reported here. T h e organization as I stated before was bankrupt and the trouble of this case in the court this morning, is the result of some of the situations in America. 2 I trust that this convention will not make the mistake that previous conventions have made. Conventions of the past elected men of straw; men who had absolutely nothing but confidence of the people. Men w h o were able to give nothing to the organization, but came in to take something out of it. I trust that you will never make the mistake again. M e n like [George] Marke, w h o is suing the organization for $35,000, and have never earned one penny of it hardly. You can know by this, how disgusted I am. If I had not worked so zealously, there would have been no organization to take to court. Because I live for the organization, because the ideals I draw, perpetuates the organization, and you see the result. I will stoop to nothing, but will work for the freeing of the Negroes from the hands of others. 315

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

I hope to retain all my senses, fortunately I am not a man of strong drinks, and shall not get drunk. I know some of you have come here with the devil in your hearts, but after my past sacrifice and suffering, I will knock the devil out of any man's heart who thinks he is going to implicate me with any of his deviltry. I was imprisoned for two years and ten months, due to your deviltry; and I am not going to be embarrassed again for any deviltry. I made the supreme sacrifice years ago, and I found out that I did it to help those who were unworthy of my sacrifice. I was not in prison two hours, before the scalawags of this organization turned their backs on me. If you want the Universal Negro Improvement Association, you are welcome to it, but Marcus Garvey is not going to have any association with any rascal. I have made my sacrifice, and I know it. I have robbed the organization of nothing. You may search my record, and you will find that I have robbed the U.N.I.A. of nothing. I shall not associate myself with men who will not stand the test of sacrifice. From 1922, I have never yet received a full check for salary from the Universal Negro Improvement Association. All that I possessed in the world has been mortgaged and loaned in the Universal Negro Improvement Association. I have taken chances of being put out of doors, for when it came to a decision between guaranteeing my meals and the next month's rent the money has gone into the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Here I am, re-assembled into the organization for the second time to turn over to the convention a new organization. The $80,000 worth of equity we had in Liberty Hall in New York as a result of my labor, was lost. The branches over all America were bankrupt, as a result of salary of high paid officers in the U.N.I.A. Every one of the officers have sued for salary. [Fred] Toote can state here, W. A. Wallace, who was the Secretary-General at the time, can state here, whether or not, I received $100 during my incarceration in Atlanta prison. I came here and started a new organizaton, paid salaries out of my pocket, paid furniture bills out of my pocket, and now I learn that Miss Davis is demanding money on her back salary.3 I will not associate myself with any rascal that is not honest. I am going to turn over to you another organization, to elect men that will not come in for what they can get out of it, but for what they can put into it. I will be a thorn in the life of any man, who thinks he is going to embarrass me again. Now, I have no agenda worked out for the convention, and I ask for an adjournment until this evening's session, in order that I may prepare an agenda for the convention, that is, in case nobody has anything to say of what I have already stated. Madam de Mena: "I move that the session adjourn until the night session, to give the speaker in convention time to prepare the agenda under which we are to work." Handy McQueen of Indiana Harbour seconded the motion. Mr. Leonard Smith of Detroit: "Not ready, I would like to know whether we are to assemble here to do business tonight or in mass session?"4 316

AUGUST 1929

M r . Garvey: ' T h e minutes were read, and if the speaker failed to hear, I am not responsible." M r . Smith: "I did not hear same." M r . Wallace:5 " I would like the opportunity of getting the proper understanding of the statement the speaker in convention made, that W. A. Wallace was the Secretary-General, and you [were] not receiving $100 during your imprisonment, in order that it would be thoroughly understood that it was not due to any misconduct on my part." M r . Garvey: "I made that reference regarding that the office never sent me a check for $100 during my imprisonment, and that you, as SecretaryGeneral would be able to state whether I was sent a check for $100 or not. I referred to your name only as a verification." M r . Wallace: " I have no knowledge at any time of any check being sent the Hon. Marcus Garvey. I had nothing to do with the paying out of the money, nor the receiving of it. I have served the organization and sacrificed for it, and I have made my reports from time to time of all finance that I collected on my visits to the divisions." M r . Garvey: " I only asked you to verify the statement." Dr. [J.J.] Peters: " N o w , it goes without saying, that any statement made by the President-General will be cherished in the minds of the people. But one thing I think would be necessary, that if the President-General is acquainted with the individuals who have come all the way here to deceive him and with deviltry in their hearts to embarrass him, as he has stated, I think he should call the names of those individuals, in order that the convention might know of them, and might not misinterpret his statement on any particular delegate here assembled. We know that what he says will go, regardless." M r . Garvey: "I am capable of understanding what I say, and I am not ready to have more litigations than what I already have on me now. But when it comes for the time of electing officers, I am not going to associate with those who I do not think capable, and I am going to draw the line, and then tell you why I draw the line." Convention adjourned at 4:50 P.M. until the night session. Printed in NW,

24 A u g u s t 1929.

1. The convention opened on 1 August 1929 with a religious service at Edelweiss Park led by Rev. C. A. Wilson, "followed by a mammoth procession through the streets of Kingston, the like of which has never been seen here before" (DG, 2 August 1929). A stadium was erected at Edelweiss Park that held twelve thousand people during the opening ceremonies. Garvey was joined on the platform by Amy Jacques Garvey, Henrietta Vinton Davis, M. L. T. De Mena, E. B. Knox, and local dignitaries, including the mayor, the custos, and the acting custos of Kingston. The procession, attracted some twenty thousand bystanders along its route, which led from the Kingston Race Course to Liberty Hall and on to Edelweiss Park. Garvey rode in an open car in uniform with cockcd hat and plumes; M. L. T. De Mena made a "striking figure . . . mounted on a grey charger with drawn sword (DG, 2 August 1929). Garvey gave the major address at the evening program, preceded by Ethel Collins, De Mena, Charles James, Laura Dupont Johnson, Knox, William Ware, and others. After gala events were held for the first few days of the convention, business sessions began on the morning of 5 August 1929. Garvey joined the second session of the day, which convened at 2 P.M. (DG, 24. July, 3 August, and 6 August 1929; NTT, 2 August 1929; NW, 10 August and 17 August 1929; Baltimore Afro-American, 10 August 1929). 317

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS 2. In early 1927 George O. Marke, the former supreme deputy potentate of the UNLA, successfully sued the organization in the New York courts for payment of his back salary. In 1929 Marke sued in Jamaica to enforce the American award. The initial Jamaican decision was favorable to Marke. The decision resulted in the court-ordered sale of the Kingston Liberty Hall at auction. After the property was sold, however, the Supreme Court of Jamaica reversed the lower court's finding, declaring that the local UNLA division could not be held responsible for the debts of the UNLA, Inc., in New York, which the court recognized as the official parent body of the organization. Unfortunately, by the time the final decision was made in the case, Marke was dead, his estate insolvent, and the division never recovered its Liberty Hall, although the government of Jamaica did make restitution for wrongfully depriving the division of its property. The Marke case also caused Garvey significant difficulties with the Jamaican judiciary. He was fined twenty-five pounds for contempt when he refused to turn over UNLA records for inspection during the trial. He was later jailed in a separate contempt citation growing out of the litigation (George O. Marke v. VNIA, Inc., no. 38300, New York Supreme Court, ca. 15 December 1926, N N H R ; CD, 10 August 1929; DG, 3 September 1929; NW, 20 September 1930, 24 January 1931; G&G, pp. 193-194; E. David Cronon, The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal "Negro Improvement Association [Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955], P- 15s; Garvey Papers 2: 650). 3. Henrietta Vinton Davis, long a Garvey loyalist and ardent fund raiser, had requested back salary for a reported sum of $12,000. In 1923 a Bureau of Investigation informant reported that Garvey had removed Davis (along with E. L. Gaines and Rudolph Smith) from the salary roster of the UNLA, telling each of them that they could retain fifteen per cent of any money they raised in the field (report by Andrew M. Battle, 24 June 1923, DJ-FBI, file 61-50-345). Davis was sworn in as the secretary general of the newly reincorporated Jamaica-based UNLA, August 1929, of the World by Garvey on 31 August 1929. Following the convention, however, Davis became involved in the rival UNLA, Inc., of New York. In 1932 she became the first assistant president general—second in command to President General Lionel Francis—in that competing organization. She died in Washington, D.C., in 1941 (death certificate of Henrietta Vinton Davis, 23 November 1941, vital records office, Washington, D.C.; NW, 29 December 1928, 2 March 1929; DG, 2 August and 3 September 1929; New York Age, 30 July 1932). 4. Leonard Smith and Garvey clashed again on the following night, when Garvey was reelected as president general of the unincorporated Jamaica-based wing of the UNLA (soon to become the UNIA, August 1929, of the World). Smith, who had handled many of Garvey's legal affairs during the UNLA leader's imprisonment, took issue with Garvey's charges that race traitorship and overt dishonesty had led to the bankruptcy of the organization, suggesting that "the PresidentGeneral adopt a milder attitude towards those opponents of his." ' T h e feeling of the assembly" in response to Smith's remarks "was that Mr. Smith should retire from the meeting in that he had been antagonistic to the expressions of the President General." Garvey allowed Smith to stay (DG, 7 August 1929). 5. The Daily Gleaner reported that it was E. B. Knox who made this inquiry, and Knox (not Wallace) to whom Marcus Garvey had referred earlier when discussing verification of the monies received while at the federal penitentiary (DG, 6 August 1929). Knox had been Garvey's personal representative in charge of the American field in 1928; Wallace was the secretary general of the UNLA Parent Body in 1926.

Article in the Negro World [[KINGSTON, August 7, I929]]

U . N . I . A . AGAIN NAMES M A R C U S G A R V E Y ITS H E A D In a session attended by fifteen thousand delegates, and marked by an undercurrent of opposition, Marcus Garvey, president general and founder of 318

AUGUST 1929

the Universal Negro Improvement Association, was re-elected head of that body at its sixth international congress here Wednesday.' Garvey was also selected to continue as head of the African Communities League which has headquarters in St. Andrews [Andrew]. MEETS OPPOSITION

That there was a well defined opposition however was kept well evident throughout the session. This opposition, however, was kept well under control by the tactful handling of a well oiled majority steam roller. Several times the two factions almost clashed, and at the Tuesday business session, Garvey adherents, after charging that there were delegates present for the sole purpose of making trouble, urged the President General to point them out by name. This, however, Garvey did not do on the ground that it would not be discreet to name the troublemakers and undesirables. No

RELATION

In accepting the presidency of the organization Garvey declared that it had no official relations with the incorporated association in New York. On the eve of the meeting of the congress, Garvey and officials of the association were haled into court by G. Marks [George Marke], who sought to collect obligations incurred by the body which Garvey headed in New York. Printed in NW,

24 August 1929. Original headlines abridged.

1. Garvey was reelected by a unanimous vote and with no opposing nominees. The other officers sworn in on the last day of the convention were Henrietta Vinton Davis, secretary general (Ethel M. Collins had been the acting secretary general during the convention), M. L. T. De Mena, international organizer, Rev. Grover Ford, high chancellor, and E. B. Knox, first assistant president general (DG, 2 September and 3 September 1929).

J. F. Milholland, Lewis Ashenheim, and L. J. Stone,1 Solicitors, to Herbert. P. Cox, 2 Bailiff, Kingston Court Kingston, 13th August 1929 M A R K E , G . O . VS U . N . I . A S S C N .

INC.

Dear Sir,We are instructed by the claimants hereinafter named to notify you that the several chattels specified at the foot thereof (which have been levied on by you under colour of a Writ of Seizure and Sale issued in the above suit) are the property of and owned by them or some of them, and that no justification whatever, legal or otherwise, exists for your seizure of them in respect of a judgment recovered by an alien plaintiff against an alien Corporation. 319

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

We have to caution you against any further trespass at Edelweiss Park, St. Andrew, or interference with any of the chattels or property therein, and to intimate that, unless you forthwith release the chattels herein specified and scrupulously avoid any further act of trespass or interference, our clients will be constrained to issue suit against you in protection of their rights and in reimbursement of all pecuniary loss suffered at your hands. We are to require you to intimate to us your decision within three days failing which we are to take action without further notice in respect of the wrongs committed by you. The claimants represented by us are: (i) Simeon Elisha McKenzie of N o . 22 Stephen Street, Allman Town, Kingston, coachbuilder (1st vice president); Arthur Leopold Forth of N o . 6 Price St., Jones Pen, St. Andrew, barber (2nd vice-president); and Lydia Lawrence Miller of N o . 20 East Race Course, Kingston, elementary school teacher (1st lady vice-president) on behalf of themselves and all other persons members of and or constituting a voluntary society or club known as The St. Andrew Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (whose principal place of meeting is at Edelweiss Park, N o . 67 Slipe Road, St. Andrew) and (ii) Marcus Garvey of Somali Court, Lady Musgrave Road, St. Andrew, Journalist (President General), Henrietta Vinton Davis of Mon Repos, St. Andrew, spinster (4th Assistant President General) and Simeon Mattison Jones of N o . 16+ King St., Kingston, Minister of Religion (Chaplain) on behalf of themselves and all other persons, members of and or constituting a voluntary society or club, known as The Parent Body, Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (whose principal place of meeting is at Edelweiss Park aforesaid). The chattels have all been purchased in Jamaica since November 1928 for the most part with, and by means of funds contributed here by members and well-wishers and also in part by contributions received from cognate organizations abroad voluntarily claiming or acknowledging affiliation or otherwise in sympathy with the Parent Body here. SOCIETY'S FUNDS

The funds of the two Societies represented by us have apparently been blended, and kept in one Bank a/c out of which the chattels in question have been purchased; and although as between themselves, some separation or adjustment of the funds and chattels belonging to each society will have to be arrived at, there does not seem to us to have been any clear earmarking of their respective ownership and we have therefore advised them to claim the chattels as the property of the members of the two Associations jointly or alternatively as held by the members or persons comprising the Parent Body in trust for and on behalf of the members and persons comprising the St. Andrew Branch. Whilst having no real legal bearing whatever on the question of our clients' ownership of the chattels claimed it may perhaps be of interest to you 320

A U G U S T 1929

to be i n f o r m e d that the j u d g m e n t d e b t o r C o r p o r a t i o n has never c o n t r i b u t e d a p e n n y o f the f u n d s w i t h w h i c h the chattels w e r e purchased, has n o c o n n e c t i o n or affiliation w i t h the claimants or their respective Societies and is in fact antagonistic in feeling and action t o w a r d s t h e m

and the principal officers

associated w i t h them. It is elementary that the p r o p e r t y o f the individuals c o m p r i s i n g u n i n c o r porated organizations c a n n o t be seized to a n s w e r a j u d g m e n t d e b t recovered against a corporation and particularly an alien c o r p o r a t i o n ( w h e t h e r c o n n e c t e d w i t h such individuals o r n o t ) and any defiance b y y o u o f s u c h a f u n d a m e n t a l legal principle will place y o u in the position o f a w r o n g - d o e r intending injury w i t h o u t respect f o r the recognized rules g o v e r n i n g the rights o f p r o p e r t y , o r ascertain the propriety o f his actions. Y o u r seizure involves o u r clients in serious consequential pecuniary losses o f w h i c h y o u are a w a r e and as claim to be indemnified in respect o f a n y loss will be incorporated in [legal] proceedings w h i c h will be instituted against y o u at the expiration o f the period notified above. W e trust y o u will not c o m p e l o u r clients t o resort to the law courts in respect o f a trespass and seizure w h i c h appears to us to be o b v i o u s l y lacking in any legal justification. 3 MILHOLLAND, ASHENHEIM &

STONE

Printed in DG, 14 September 1929. 1. Lewis Ashenheim entered the practice of law in 1896, J. F. Milholland in 1887, and L. J. Stone in 1899. The three practiced law together in Kingston until Milholland relocated to London in 1930. The three were members of influential Jewish families in Jamaica; Ashenheim and Milholland were members of the board of the Daily Gleaner, and Ashenheim pursued a career in local politics as well as in the law (Frank Cundall, cd., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: Government Printing Office, 1930], pp. 177-179]; James Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics, 1918-1938 [Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1973], pp. 38, 168, 173). 2. Herbert Palmer Melville Conrad Cox, who lived in St. Andrew, was bailiff of the Kingston Court, a special resident magistrate's court with civil jurisdiction over the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew. Cox joined the Jamaican civil service in 1891. He served under Judge C. E. Law at the Kingston Court in 1929-1930. On 6 August 1929 Cox received a court order to seize U N I A property in pursuance of the settlement of George O. Markc's case against the UNIA, Inc. He proceeded to Edelweiss Park, where the 1929 U N I A convention was underway, and executed a levy on the furniture and other objects—property being utilized by the many delegates to the convention at the time. Garvey had the firm of Milholland, Ashenheim, and Stone file an appeal against Cox's action and the writ of seizure (Cundall, Handbook of Jamaica, p. 188; DG, 14 September 1929). 3. On 13 September 1929 Lewis Ashenheim was tried before the Jamaica Supreme Court on contempt of court charges stemming from his writing of this, and the following, letters to Cox (sup., 27 August 1929). Cox testified that he "was very much perturbed" by the receipt of the letters because he "considered it an attempt to intimidate me in the performance of my duty" as an officer of the court. The court ruled the contempt charge by focusing on the validity of the appeal filed by Milholland, Ashenheim, and Stone, which requested that the court halt execution of the warrant for seizure on the grounds that the issue of ownership of the property in question had not been determined (in short, that the property of the local Kingston U N I A division and the Jamaica-based U N I A headquarters were distinct from one another, and that these properties should furthermore be distinguished from that of the New York-based UNIA, Inc., and thus goods owned by any UNIA organization in Jamaica should not be seized in payment of debts incurred by the American UNIA, Inc.). The court ruled that the original writ of seizure had been properly ordered and thus that the summons against Cox be lifted and he be free to pursue the seizure and sale of U N I A goods. This ruling was a technicality, however, for the court proceeded to order that a stay of execution be placed against the writ for a period of ten days from 21 August 1929, during which 321

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS time officers of the UNIA could file for appeal and deposit the sum of $550 with the court as a credit toward the action, whereby the bailiff would "withdraw from the possession of the goods." If the appeal was filed and no money paid, the bailiff was ordered to proceed with confiscation and sale of the property. Ashenheim was fined £300 in the contempt case ("Ashenheim, Lewis— Contempt of Court," confidential file 1B/5/79; JA; DG, 14 September 1929).

J. F. Milholland, Lewis Ashenheim, and L. J. Stone to Herbert P. Cox Kingston, 27th A u g u s t 1929 M A R K [ E ] VS. U . N . I . A . Dear Sir,— T h e claimants have appealed against the Order o f the H o n . the C h i e f Justice [Fiennes Barrett Lennard] made on your Interpleader S u m m o n s . Pending the termination o f the appeal w e hereby caution y o u formally against any attempted sale or conversion o f the chattels, and w o u l d bring to your notice: (a) That in the event o f the Order being set aside on appeal, y o u will be personally liable as a trespasser and wrong-doer for all loss suffered by the claimant. (b) That, even if the C o u r t stands, it does not afford y o u any protection nor has the issue o f ownership between the claimants and the execution creditor been tried or determined. If y o u proceed to sell after this warning, without a complete indemnity covering y o u against all costs, you must not complain if y o u have personally to make g o o d to our clients any loss suffered by them. Perhaps you will think it wise to take independent legal advice as to your position.' Yours, etc. MILHOLLAND, A S H E N H E I M & STONE Printed in DG, September 14, 19291. When Cox received the 13 August 1929 letter from Milholland, Ashenheim, and Stone, he went to the law firm of Cargill, Cargill, and Dunn, (who were also at that time solicitors for the local Kingston UNIA division) and had an interpleader summons issued so that the question of the seizure of property could be ruled on by the chief justice. He also sought advice from a second firm not involved with UNIA business. When the Jamaica Supreme Court ruled on the legality of the warrant for seizure in September, it also directed that the legal costs incurred by Cox be paid by the UNIA, Inc. (DG, 14 September 1929).

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Negro World Cartoon

(Source: NW,

29 A u g u s t 1929.) 323

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Speech by Marcus Garvey [[Edelweiss Park, Kingston, ca. 30 August 1929]] This is a very important subject. Most of our propagandists have really misrepresented the Organization, chiefly in attacking the churches and religion on a whole. If there is anything I can say or the Convention can do to lay out a set policy in this respect, the effort would be highly appreciated. Man is a religious being; that is to say, he must have some kind of a belief—call it superstition or what not. Man who has started to think traces his origin beyond man; and as such has been groping in the dark to find out the source from whence he came and by our own intuition we have attributed that source to something beyond us; and in so believing we accept the idea of a religion. Some make our God the God of Fire; some make our God the God of Water; some make our God the God of the Elements and others of us accept the Christian belief. Man's religion is something that we cannot eliminate from his system or destroy in him; therefore, it is folly for any man to go about attacking another man's religion because to him it is fundamental. You may be a Christian; you may be a Mohammedan: that is your religion. We are all entitled to our religious belief. Some of us are Catholics; some of us are Presbyterians, some of us are Baptists, and we deem it a right to adhere to our particular belief. Therefore any man who goes out and attacks religion thinking that he can convert men to the Organization by so doing is not helping the Organization. He is doing it more harm than good. We have reached the point where if we are to accomplish anything whatever we should be in unison and accord. We have only to look at the other races, and we find that the majority stand together in one religious belief. We have found men of the white world—the Caucasian world[—]standing together in one belief; we have found men of the brown world standing together in one belief, the yellow people having their singular belief in that respect, and this singular belief has kept them together and has strengthened them. It has been this rallying faith that has preserved them in their political sphere, and if we could arrive at an understanding whereby instead of attacking the religious section of our community—since man is a religious being—we go out and try to induce our hearers to let us be of one faith, of one belief, of one understanding. I believe in so doing we may accomplish something. Instead of denouncing religion we should recognise it, treat it sympathetically; instead of attacking the churches or the preachers we should diplomatically get around them and get them to see the virtues of the Organization so that they may fall in line and preach the doctrine of the Universal Negro Improvement Association to their followers. By so doing we will be harnessing the strongest element on the outside, and in the space of a few years we may have a Negro idealism of our own or any kind of a religion 324

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that will make us strong in our faith. I don't think that anyone w h o gets up to attack religion will get the sympathy of this house, for the Universal N e g r o Improvement Association is fundamentally a religious institution. I have been a Baptist all my life; I have been a Catholic all my life and my fathers before mc have been Baptists or Catholics all their lives, and they found no fault with their religion; it is useless if somebody gets up with some new thoughts endeavouring to tell me there is no G o d , no need to belong to any church, and expect me all in a sudden to give up all the beliefs of my fathers and follow him when he is not a G o d , when he cannnot perform miracles. I would change my faith if the man w h o tells me can do as much as G o d has done for me. When we understand that G o d created the stars that shine in the heavens, when we understand that G o d gives life & takes it; that G o d created all the planets, of which our planet forms a part, except there is somebody w h o is going to prevent the stars from shining; w h o is going to direct the course of the sun; w h o can command the waves of the sea; w h o can raise the dead and make him live again, unless there is such a person, I will not cease paying tribute to G o d and to Christ His son; you cannot move me to be an atheist; you cannot make me differ from that faith I have inherited from my fathers. You have no right to make me an atheist or prevent me following the religion of my fathers. We are safe in following the religion of our fathers because if we err the fault will not be ours. Because if there is a G o d and He is just H e will not blame mc for being a Catholic if my fathers taught me that. The as me as my father will not be blamed for practising the Religion taught him by his father. We should believe fundamentally that there is a G o d ; and w e should worship H i m in spirit and in truth; but we can worship H i m on the same lines as the Jews do, as the Christians do; that is unifying our spiritual belief, having a unified understanding in everything we do. I think if we endeavour to do this we must eventually benefit morally, politically and otherwise. 1 P r i n t e d in Bm,

31 A u g u s t 1929. O r i g i n a l headlines o m i t t e d .

1. Randall Burkett has argued that "Garvcy was self-consciously working to crcate a form of civil religion" through propagating a doctrine of a black G o d and Madonna, through the use of ritual and music, and through propagating respect for the idea of self-actualization and destiny and the related belief in African redemption. Members of the Garvey movement came from a spectrum of faiths. Mostly Christian—either Catholics or members of various Protestant denominations— there were also Black Jews, Islamicists, and atheists. U N I A ritual—formalized in such publications as Chaplain General George Alexander McGuire's Universal Negro Ritual and Universal Negro Catechism and in hymns by Arnold J. Ford—was largely based on Christian practices. Garvcy's speeches, though secular in purpose, were designed like sermons and filled with religious rhetoric. His addresses regularly included mctaphoric references to redemption, conversion, missionary zeal, sacred obligation to self-development, and the martyr-like commitment to a cause. Black clergymen were split in their response to the Garvcy movement, with the more conservative skeptical of its political purposes (Randall Burkett, Garveyism as a Religious Movement [Metuchen, N.J., and London: Scarecrow Press and the American Theological Library Association, 1978], p. 7; Burkett, Black Redemption: Churchmen Speak for the Garvey Movement [Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978]).

325

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{Source: NW,

31 A u g u s t 1929.) 326

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Article in the Negro World [Kingston, 7 September 1929] FRED A . TOOTE TAKES STAND IN C O N V E N T I O N

Public interest centered around the Negro Convention on Friday morning when, according to published information, Mr. Fred A. Toote, President of the U.N.I. A., Incorporated, in New York, gave an account of his stewardship while the Hon. Marcus Garvey, founder of the great world movement and now President of the unincorporated Association, was incarcerated in Atlanta Penitentiary. The much accused gentleman, who is attending the convention on courtesy[,] had his back against the wall of the conversation [convention] assembly room while he answered the scores of questions leveled at him both by delegates on the floor and the speaker who was anxious to find out to what extent the charge[s] placed against Mr. Toote were true, and as to how far his [Garvey's] instructions to his officers during his imprisonment were obeyed. M r . Toote continued to make his oral report during the afternoon session, referring particularly to the instructions of the imprisoned "Tiger" and emphasizing that he carried them out to the best of his ability. Still with his back against the wall, he endeavored to absolve himself from responsibility for the mortgage placed on Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, with the result that it ultimately passed out of the Division. Speculation is rife as to whether M r . Toote will stick to certain promises he made at the convention yesterday afternoon and which seemed somewhat to settle the emotional balance of the house.1 Printed in NW, 7 September 1929. 1. After presenting his case at the 1929 U N I A convention in sessions on 15 and 16 August and responding to charges leveled at him by Thomas Harvey regarding the organization's loss of the Philadelphia Liberty Hall, Toote returned home "because of hostility to him" (NW, 24 August and JI August 1929). A constant theme of the 1929 U N I A convention was the widening breach between the U.S.based and Jamaica-based factions of the Garvey movement. Garveyites loyal to Garvey and his "effort to keep the organization under his personal control" through his leadership of the unincorporated U N I A in Jamaica, were opposed to those affiliating with the U.S.-based U N I A , Inc., headquartered in New York. Much of the ire over this issue of authority and the geographical base of organizational power (an issue that Garvey repeatedly couched in terms of disloyalty and corruption) became focussed on Fred A. Toote, who was the acting president general during much of the time that Garvey was in prison. In 1929 Toote was the president general of the competing U N I A , Inc. He was succeeded in this rival leadership role in 1950 by Clifford Bourne and in 1931 by Lionel Francis. New York became a kind of microcosm of the movement at large as it split into opposing factions, with the members of the New York Tiger division and the Garvey Club remaining loyal to Garvey, while many former stalwarts of the movement became officers in the Francis-led wing of the organization (New Tork Age, 30 July 1932). After Garvey's death in 1940 there was a strong move to make Toote the new president general. Although this role fell to James

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T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Stewart of Cleveland, Toote participated in the New York memorial service for Garvey and had strong backing to become Garvcy's successor (Ethel Collins to Amy Jacques Garvey, 23 August 1940, T N F , A J G , box 1, folder 5).

Speech by Marcus Garvey [[Cross Roads, Kingston 9 September 1929]] M A R C U S GARVEY H O L D S FIRST POLITICAL M E E T I N G AT CROSS ROADS M R . GARVEY'S SPEECH

Mr. Chairman, [. . . ] Fellow citizens, ladies and gentlemen: [T]onight I appear before you under the auspices of the People's Political Party,1 a Political Organization of which I am Chairman—an Organization that is sponsoring the election of fourteen men to the Legislative Council of Jamaica, representing the fourteen parishes of the Island, with the hope of [b] ringing changes that will bring about a better Jamaica under a happier populace. That party is to hold its first National Convention at "Edelweis Park," during the latter part of this month, when the people of Jamaica will be called upon thus to nominate in public Convention the candidates from the fourteen parishes. We shall not allow any small faction of men or any individual man to project himself forward, or to be sent by a small group in the country or in the parishes as candidates of the people. We are going to have the people themselves select these men through the People's Political Party and then support them and see that they are elected. The People's Political Party is to formulate its platform at this Convention, which must be endorsed by every one of the fourteen candidates. Therefore, when we give out the names of the candidates to the public, you will know before hand that these candidates have already endorsed the platform upon which we shall go to the country, so that we will be able to stand firm and carry out the legislation that will bring you better conditions and an improved country generally. ENUNCIATES PLATFORM

Until the Convention has adopted its platform for the fourteen of us, I shall give to you my personal platform which I hope will also be adopted at the convention of the People's Political Party, the platform upon which I will go before the people of St. Andrew, such as you, seeking your suffrage. If you elect me I shall for the five years duration of my seat in the Council do every thing with the cooperation of the other thirteen elected members and thus we shall get from the Government side the necessary assistance for the carrying out of the platform that I shall read to you at this minute. There are 328

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fourteen things that I hope to do in the Legislative Council after my election. First I shall read them to you and then speak on them separately, so that you may understand the issue. The speaker then outlined his platform as follows: P O L I T I C A L PLATFORM OF M A R C U S G A R V E Y

1. Representation in the Imperial Parliament for a larger modicum of self-government for Jamaica. 2. Protection of native labour. 3. A minimum wage for the labouring and working classes of the Island. 4. The expansion and improvement of city town or urban areas without the encumbrance, or restraint, of private proprietorship. 5. Land reform. 6. The compulsory improvement of urban areas from which large profits are made by Trusts, Corporations, Combines or Companies. 7. A law to encourage the promotion of native industries. 8. A Jamaica University and Poly-technic. 9. A National Apero [Opera] House. 10. A law to impeach and imprison such judges who in defiance of British Justice and constitutional] rights will illicitly enter into agreements and arrangements with lawyers and other persons of influence to deprive other subjects in the Realm of their rights in such Courts of Law, over which they may preside; forcing the innocent parties to incur the additional costs of appeals, and other legal expenses which would not have been, but for the injustice occasioned by the illicit arrangements of such Judges with their friends. 11. The creation by law of a Legal Aid Department to render advice and protection to such persons, who may not be able to have themselves properly represented and protected in Courts of Law. 12. A law for the imprisonment of any person who by duress, or undue in[fl]uence, would force another person to vote in any public election against his will. 1 j. The granting to the townships of Montego Bay and Port Antonio 2 the Corporate rights of cities. 14. The beautifying and creating [of] the Kingston Race Course 3 into a National Park, similar to Hyde Park in London. SPEAKER ELABORATES

"That," continued the speaker, "is the platform on wh[i]ch I stand for election as representative in the Legislative Council of Jamaica, and I shall no[w] take these declared issues of my platform one by one. 329

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Representations in the Imperial Parliament or a larger modicum of selfgovernment for Jamaica. There is absolutely no reason why Jamaica, a part of the British Empire, should not have a part in the Imperial Parliament that rules Jamaica. If we are a part of the Empire and can be governed by the laws of the Empire, and we are human beings with statutory rights like any Englishman, or any Britisher, why should we be deprived of representation in that Parliament that makes laws for the Empire? All other democratic countries allow sectional parts of their Empire to be represented in their Parliament and, particularly, I refer to France. France allow[s] her colonies equal rights of representation in the mother Parliament as she allows her colonial possessions such as Morocco and other French colonies in Africa, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent and all her other West Indian colonies are represented in the Imperial Parliament of France, so that the colonies of the Empire can be protected, and if Jamaica is to continue as a part of the British Empire, it is but right that we should have representation in the Imperial Parliament for Jamaica, Br[itish] Guiana and other British West Indian possessions; because the English people at home are ignorant of conditions that exist in the outposts of the Empire, and so Englishmen at home are not competent to rule these people who are outside England. As proof of the ignorance of the people at home, I will bring this to you. When I was in England I established a European Headquarters, and I employed eight Englishmen and women as assistants to my private secretary whom I took with me [Hazel Escridge], and this is what I found: I found the English girl most ignorant not only in regard to foreign affairs but also in regard to domestic affairs. We were sending out questioneers [questionnaires] bearing on questions of racial relationships, and an English girl had to type the envelopes and had to address let[t]ers and would you be surprised to know that the English girl who had passed through all the grades addressed the Lord Bishop of London, "Mr!" (Laughter) that caused the Bishop to ring by telephone and ask for me. My private Secretary went to the telephone and found that the Bishop of London was speaking. The Divine was so annoyed when I went to the phone, and he asked me if I did not know how [to] address the Bishop of London. I did not know what he was talking about. I had not addressed the gentleman before, and when I looked upon the envelope the girl had actually addressed the Bishop, "Dear Mr. Bishop," (laughter). That same girl wrote, "Dear Mr. King." I took some time in going around the girls to test their intelligence, and I went to one girl and showed her the name of Lord Buckmaster with P.C. [Privy Councillor]4 after his name, and asked her what P.C. meant, and what do you think she said?—"Police Constable" (laughter). And then I asked this white girl what right she had to rule my sister in Jamaica, who can better address the Bishop of London and His Majesty the King. That white girl was responsible for my sister; that white girl and had a special privilege to govern me. I said that to prove the average ignorance of the English people outside of those who were properly trained to be sent 330

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abroad. The average white man, in England, cannot tell you where Jamaica is if you were to pay him. It is only isolated cases, that we get the creme-de-lecreme of English intelligence to govern Jamaica and govern other English or British overseas colonies, and let me tell you in Jamaica and the British West Indies, you have no need to take any second place, [fo]r the grounds you have covered within the 91 years of your emancipation. We could take you some place in the British Empire and you would be ashamed of the ignorance of the people who claim to rule us; we do not refuse to be governed by the Mo[th]er Country, and to remain a part of the great [BJritish Commonwealth, but we do object to be ruled and governed by ignorance, and therefore, sin[,] since we want to remain a part of the British Empire, and as British subjects we think it is right for England to give us representations in the Mother Parliament, or give us Dominion status as they have given to Canada. Canada refused to be governed by the limited intelligence at home, because they think they can rule themselves at home. The same is said of Australia and barbaric South Africa, and if Africa can say that I do not see why we cannot say the same thing in cultural Jamaica. (Cheers). The reasons for my going to the Council is to influence changes in the Constitutions, to make it that the British West Indies can be represented in the Mother Parliament of England. PROTECTION FOR NATIVE L A B O U R

In dealing with this very important question the speaker said: There is no doubt that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction in the labour question in Jamaica. Anybody with any honesty will admit that. There is no Constitution to protect our labouring people. All the laws that were made prior to now were made by men who were interested to protect against labour and the workingman. M r . A. S. DeLeon told you of our effort to depr[iv]e the plantocracy of the power to rule. You will al[l] remember [Lester] Simmonds 5 of St. Mary, [Charles] Pringle 6 of St. Mary, [John Henry] Stedman 7 of Portland and [Hugh] Cork 8 of St. Thomas, who were able to make such legislation as to make it possible for hundreds of coolies to come here to work as lab[o]urers and cause you poor labourers to pay their passages to this country and back and to maintain them out of the meagre wages you get. 9 Men like the late M r . S. A. G. Cox, Alexander Dixon, M r . H. A. L. Simpson, M r . DeLeon and myself fought in the National Club to break down the power of the plantocracy, and we succeeded, but another class took control of the Council—men of gib affairs; and they also made laws to protect their own interests as against the interests of the labouring or working people, and so, up to now, you can find no law on the Statute Books of this colony that protect the working man of Jamaica. But I promise you, if you elect us, the first measures we shall advocate will be labour bills to protect the labouring people of the Island. We want to protect them from introduction to cheap competitive labour, so that when we stand up for an equitable wage system they will not have to bring you labour-saving machines as the United Fruit 331

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Company threatened to do, when the Banana labourers endeavoured to get 2/6 instead of is. 9d. per one hundred bunches. But so long as there is a God in Heaven and so long as man exercises his power of speech, the United Fruit Company shall never introduce into Jamaica any labour-saving machine that shall put the black man out of work, and it depends upon you between now and January to see that they do not do that. The next is: A Minimum Wage for the labouring and working classes of the Island. Conditions are such that you cannot trust any one man or any one individual to act honestly with his employees. So long as there is no law to compel men to pay others decently, man will barter with man, and so we are not going to allow any foreign corporation to pay their labourers aft] such a low rate so that they can accumulate large profits at the end of the year. So we are going to introduce laws to compel these Corporations to pay good wages and if you return me to the Council I shall work towards minimum wage for the working classes, and that should be no hardship on anybody except the selfish ones, because nobody cou[l]d be hurt from the economic benefit; because if the poor working man to-day is able to spend per capita only 3d. for his clothes, or his amusement, or his religion each week because of his meagre earnings; if the preacher is ab[le] to live decently now because of the 3d. the working man pays for his religion, if the Chinaman can live bet[t]er because of the 3d. that the working man pays for his grocery; if the Assyrian lives better because of the 3d. he pays for his cloth and if the theatre owner lives better because of the 3d. that these same people pay for amusement, how much better will they not live if 1/- be paid for these same things. It goes to prove that everybody who live[s] off the common people—each of them will be able to take better care of their families by virtue of the fact that the peasantry of the country is happier and wealthier. U N R E S T R A I N E D I M P R O V E M E N T OF A R E A S

The next item is: The Expansion and Improvement of City, Town and Urban Areas, without the encumberance of restraint of private Proprietorship. Now, what does that mean? Those of you who have travelled around the Island will readily see the handicap of such towns as Port Maria, Annotto Bay, Port Antonio, Morant Bay, St. Ann's Bay, Black River, Sav[anna]-laMar, Montego Bay and Lucea 10 —all the towns lying on the sea coast. For the last fifty years they have been unable to extend themselves, because adjacent to these towns we have big estates owned by rich men who will not sell land to the people to improve the towns. A merchant will want to build a store and the owners of these lands will not sell, but they will come right into the town and plant bananas. In Port Maria the people want to build, but the only valuable land there is the estate of Cleme[ts]on" and Clemetson will not sell, or have the Government come in and take away the land and shall [use] it for improving these townships. Justice is a beautiful country and we should help Nature to make Jamaica more beautiful, and there is no reason why we should not extend our townships and make beautiful cities of them. 332

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L A N D REFORM E v e r y b o d y in Jamaica k n o w s that the land o f this c o u n t r y is really in the hands o f a f e w large landed proprietors. W e have a p o p u l a t i o n o f nearly o n e million people, and o u t o f that n u m b e r , n o t five per cent can find land t o settle on. T h e bulk o f the land is in the hands o f a b o u t o n e per cent o f the p o p u l a t i o n — a b s e n t e e proprietors and resident p r o p e r t y o w n e r s w h o have n o other interest in Jamaica and its people than t o bleed the c o u n t r y o f w h a t they w a n t and the rest can g o t o hell! W e have in H a n o v e r , T r e l a w n y , W e s t m o r e l a n d , S t . James, S t . T h o m a s and S t . M a r y , ' 2 t h o u s a n d o f waste acreages. In certain settlements w h e r e w e have t h o u s a n d s o f p e o p l e w h o have n o land o n w h i c h t o w o r k their farms, whilst t h o u s a n d s o f acres o f land lie i d J e — o n e m a n h a v i n g 15,000 acres o f land and 20,000 people have n o place t o build o n and n o farm t o w o r k . If y o u send m e and the thirteen o t h e r m e n o f the People's Political Party t o the Legislative C o u n c i l , w e shall so tax waste lands in Jamaica as t o c o m p e l o w n e r s o f land t o sell or t o cut it u p so that p e o p l e can g e t back t o the farm. B u t land r e f o r m means m o r e than that.

T h o s e w h o m a k e their living by renting their land

to small business m e n — I had an uncle w h o suffered that w a y , and I k n o w o f others w h o died o f a b r o k e n heart because o f the m e a n advantage taken o f t h e m by large landed proprietors.

I can r e m e m b e r a m a n b y the n a m e o f

[ E d w a r d C a r o l ] Pratt in S t . A n n . H e had a large p r o p e r t y . H e rented a b o u t 25 acres o f it t o m y uncle [Joseph R i c h a r d s ] ; and m y uncle w a s a h a r d - w o r k i n g Christian. B e t w e e n his Bible and his h o w e [hoe?] y o u c o u l d n o t separate h i m (laughter). W h e n he w a s n o t reading his Bible he w a s w o r k i n g in his field. H e w o r k e d and planted o u t 25 acres o f land in canes, g r o u n d p r o v i s i o n s and every imaginable agricultural p r o d u c e y o u can think o f in Jamaica. H e had o n e farm that b r o u g h t him an i n c o m e o f a b o u t £ 1 0 0 per year. H e had u p t o his m u l e s e n d i n g his bananas t o market o n M o n d a y s , and he w a s e x p a n d i n g and he w a s intelligent and he w a s able t o educate m e because m y father w o u l d n o t d o it. I helped t o keep his b o o k s and so at the w e e k end I g o t a c o m m i s s i o n o f 13/- f o r selling bananas, some o f w h i c h I g o t h o n e s d y and s o m e I stole (laughter).

I

used t o g o t o S u n d a y S c h o o l and w h e n the girls w e r e l o o k i n g , t h r e w 4/- in the collection plate (laughter). I used t o g o a r o u n d w i t h m o n e y in m y p o c k e t so as t o attract the girls (laughter). B u t m y w i f e is here, and I w a n t t o a n n o u n c e that I have s t o p p e d m y bad w a y s [a] l o n g time a g o (laughter). B u t this is the story: T h a t uncle o f mine, o n e m o r n i n g w h e n he w e n t f r o m his h o m e t o w n t o the farm he f o u n d 100 c o w s in his field. Pratt had instructed his h e a d m a n t o set the c o w s in so that a r o w c o u l d spring u p b e t w e e n h i m s e l f and m y uncle, so that he c o u l d drive h i m o u t o f place and w h e n m y uncle w e n t u p t o his residence he c o u l d drive h i m o u t w i t h o u t any r e c o m p e n s e and t u r n m y uncle o f f his piece o f land. M y uncle never recovered until he died. T o s h o w y o u that the same thing continues: T h e other day I sent t o H a n o v e r t o help the H o n . D r . [Felix G o r d o n ] Veitch' 3 and while I w a s at m y hotel a w o m a n c a m e t o m e w i t h the same story that h a p p e n e d t o m y uncle. 333

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And just as Pratt turned cows into my uncle's farm, they turned two other men into this woman's farm and when she went to complain, the overseer told them to take the woman to Court. It was made to appear in court that the woman did not pay her rent. She was turned out. Therefore, if you send me to the Legislative Council with thirteen other men of the People's Political Party, we shall make laws that shall bring reforms to the land of Jamaica that shall make the people cease to suffer. C O M P U L S O R Y IMPROVEMENTS OF A R E A S BY T R U S T S , C O R P O R A [ T I O N S ]

The next is: The compulsory improvement of urban areas from which large profits are made by Trusts, Corporations, Combines or Companies. Now, what do I mean by that? Those of you who live especially in the outskirts, know that there has been very little improvement made in the Island within the last 50 years. If you go to towns like Sav-la-mar and Lucea, you will find them in a most dilapidated condition while on their very steps companies like the United Fruit Company have made millions from such seaport towns, as Annotto Bay, Port Maria, St. Ann's Bay and Lucea. The United Fruit Company, from the time of Captain [Lorenzo] Baker,14 have made billions and they have not even made a decent dock on the North side. They have not even put up a hospital in return for the kindness they have received in Jamaica. They have not contributed to philanthropy by putting up a school or a university in the West Indies; yet there are millions who have gone to Boston to attend universities. There should be a law, therefore, to compel large corporations, making huge profits in the Island[,] to spend some of it for the improvement of the Island. They could not do that in America—make large profits and then do not leave some of it by way of improvement to the country. The only decent place of the United Fruit Company have in Jamaica is their office in Harbour St. (laughter). But go into countries where they make their millions—they have no decent holdings there. But if you send us to the Council, we will make a law that big companies who make profits here do not send all of it out of the country, so that the country will profit out of its own wealth. PROMOTION OF N A T I V E INDUSTRIES

Number seven: A Law to Encourage the Promotion of Native Industries. Now, because you have had disinterested legislators, we have had no laws on the Statute Books to encourage the promotion of native industries. They have killed the soap factory, the match factory and the tannery. Every little native industry we started here they have made laws to discourage it so that the people would not have enough work, and would, therefore, be unable to consume the things they produce[,] giving other people an opportunity to import things into this country. This is a wicked, heartless policy that should be changed, and if you send us to the Legislative Council, we shall change it, or die. 334

SEPTEMBER 1929 UNEMPLOYMENT

The great cry in England now is work for the unemployed, and so everybody is making laws to protect the unemployed of England. Now why should not we have laws here to prevent 75 per cent of our people going to Cuba to be killed, from going to Costa Rica to be lost for ever, and from going to Guatemala not to be able to return to family, friends and all.15 Half of the things we import into this country we could produce right here, and if you send us to the Council we shall see, in the five years that we will remain in the Council that we shall not have 5 per cent of the unemployment we now have in the country, and we shall also see to it that those who work shall not be working for nothing, but so work as to be able to marry eventually to the credit of society and for the good of his children. The man who gets satisfaction out of seeing other human beings suffer in misery and pain and want and degradation and disease is a brute. I do not care how much he declares his Christianity, he is a brute [in] disguise; and any man in Jamaica who is against Marcus Garvey and the People's Political Party, we count them as brutes, and they can go to hell. N o RACE HATRED

We are not endeavouring to promote any race hatred in Jamaica. God forbid! I understand sociology too well. I understand the different sciences too well. I understand the religion of men too well. I understand the purpose of God too well to hate my fellowman. But when God and Nature have seen fit to draw a distinction between men and divide them up into races and apportion them to separate and distinct habitats, and make me an African whilst he made the others what they are; since Nature has seen it wise to differenciate between the Mongolians, the Malayan, the Asiatic and the Cau[cas]ian, who have evolved leadership distinctly their own; and since I am determined to work for the good of humanity, I shall do so in the interest of the people who look like me (prolonged pause). [. . . ] I want to assure you, [. . . ] that if you return me to the Legislative Council, I shall seek to do everything that will stand to the good and welfare of the government and the people at large. N O T TO F I G H T T H E G O V E R N M E N T

I shall not go there with the pre-conceived notion of fighting the Government because that is a waste of time. We must have a Government. Society has devised the best scheme of control and that scheme is a Government and we have no more stable Government than the British Government, and it would be foolish for me to suggest that we should change in a British colony, British Government: but we can so shape the Government and so use the Government that the majority of the people as well as the Government can benefit, and that is what I shall seek to do in the Legislative Council with the

335

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

co-operation of the nominated members, the officials and the Government. And when we become dissatisfied, and when we outgrow the present system, or Constitution, we shall ask for a larger modicum of self-government, and we shall do so respectfully (applause). "I SHALL RESPECT EVERY BODY"

You shall never have any causc to be ashamed of my representing you in the Legislative Council of Jamaica. (Voices: That's right; you said it). I feel myself competent to measure up to any man on the Legislative floor. Therefore, you shall at no time be ashamed of me in the Council, because I shall respect everybody in the Legislative Council who respects me, and those who do not respect me can go to hell, and they shall find a foeman worthy of their steel, whosoever they may be, because nobody is going to pay my taxi's fare up to Headquarter's House; and if you give me a chance I will make a law that any man who tries to bribe should be sent to prison for six years. I have reached the stage when my reason tells me it is wrong to take [a] bribe from any man (applause). A JAMAICA U N I V E R S I T Y

The next is: A Jamaica University16 and Poly-technic There is no reason why we should not have a University in Jamaica for the higher education of the people of the country. There is no reason why people here should strain to send their sons and daughters to far away England when they could have a University here to give them similar training. If countries like Costa Rica can have a University, if countries like Guatemala can have a University I do not see why an [word illegible] country like Jamaica cannot also have a University of its own. We pay enough taxes to the government to build a University, and if you send us to the Council we will see that this University is built. We should have a technical department to the University. We have no night course in education here, and if we have to work in the day we cannot have a proper course when we are on work at night, and we should make it easy for those who have to work in the day to study at night. Do you believe we should have a University and Poly-technic? (Voices: Yes sir; we want everything you talk about there). A NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE

The next is: A National Opera House. Now, why should not we give opportunity to native talent. There is one thing that is native to the Negro, and that is that he can sing. I do not care where you take him from. Take him from the backyard; take him from the kitchen, the Negro sings his music just the same. He can sing his plantation music, and I believe that such native talent should be encouraged, and the only way you can encourage it is to have a National Theatre in Jamaica, where we can encourage Negro arts, where people can compete at least once a year so that we may, in the next 20 years 336

SEPTEMBER 1929

give to the world a [Enrico] Caruso, 17 a [Dame Nellie] Melba' 8 from our native sons and daughters. But if we do not give them the encouragement, they will never rise. All other countries have their opera houses where the people go to hear the best in the people. The better off people do not know what we are capable of here because they can go to England and hear the best of music, but if we have an opera house in Kingston; they will come to Kingston to hear it. We would soon have a Roland Hayes' 9 coming here for a season. We could put on our evening jackets or our scissors tail coats (laughter). If Englishmen do it in England, we do not sec why we could not do it in Jamaica. D o you believe we should have a National Opera House? (Voices: Yes.) (A voice in the rear: Sure. We want more "Harold and Trim" and more like [Ernest] Cupidon 20 ). Well vote for me on election day and I will see that you have it. (Cheers). A N IMPORTANT F E A T U R E

The next one is a very important one. It is this: A law to impeach and imprison such judges into agreements and arrangements with lawyers and other persons of influence to deprive other subjects in the realm of their rights in such Courts of Law over which they may preside; forcing the innocent parties to incur the additional costs of appeals and other legal expenses which would not have been but for the injustice occasioned by the illicit arrangements of such judges with their friends. Now, this is an evil that Jamaica has suffered from for a long time, and we have not been able to tackle it. The time has come not for us to bring changes, and if we cannot settle it in Jamaica, wc are going to settle it in England. We are not going to have judges here who can meet their friends and others in their club houses and connive and conspire to take away an innocent man's property or his rights simply because they want to satisfy their friends. This invidious practice deprives His Majesty of loyal subjects (hear, hear). Judges who will give judgment against a man and against constitutional rights are the wors[t] enemies of His Majesty the King (applause), and there should be some law to deal with these men so as not to allow them to breed disloyalty in His Majesty's dominions. There is no man that is above the law, and if a judge breaks the law he can be dealt with as any other man who violates the law. If there is any judge in the realm that does not dispense true justice and breeds disloyalty within the British Empire, such a judge should be brought before the Bar and imprisoned for breach of a sacred trust. All over this country as you go you will hear poor people saying: "I have no day in Court. The Court is for the rich man." Whenever a poor man has a case and goes into Court, the rich man sits beside the judge and the poor man cannot get his rights. That cannot continue in a British colony, and if we cannot get it settled in the Legislature, we shall take it to the Imperial Parliament and see that such judges are restrained, and see that such laws are made that if they violate them they shall go to prison as well as anybody else. If you want such changes you should help us to get the Imperial authorities to 337

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

send honourable men here to administer the law. We want men who, when they interpret the law to us, will put loyalty and patriotism in our hearts. One judge can do a great deal of harm; he can cause revolution in a country. We do not want such judges to continue in Jamaica, because we want Jamaica to remain loyal to the British Empire. Sometimes, people who are placed in positions of authority, take advantage of the people in the name of His Majesty the King. It was this representation of His Majesty that caused George III to lose America, and if we can help his Majesty to put down such persons we will also be helping the people. LEGAL A I D DEPARTMENT

Next comes the creation by law of a legal aid Department to render advice and protection to such persons who may not be able to have themselves properly represented and protected in the Courts of Law. You know that nearly everybody gets himself in trouble here and very often has no money to take him out, and when he does find some money he has to pay five to ten guineas so as to get a lawyer to protect him in a little disorderly conduct case, and so all over this country you have advantage being taken of the people. Thousands of pounds yearly are wasted by poor black people paying lawyers 5, 50, and 100 guineas, simply because they have not the necessary knowledge to protect themselves in Court. Therefore, I believe the Government should have a Legal aid Department so that these people will not always be at the mercy of some unscrupulous persons who want to take advantage of them (applause). The next one is: The granting to the townships of Montego [Bay] and Port Antonio the Corporate rights of cities. It is a shame that in a beautiful country like Jamaica we have but one city. Cuba, Haiti and other countries have from three to five cities and there is no reason why we could not have more than one city in Jamaica, so that people could take more interest in the country. Those who do not want to live in the city of Kingston could live in the city of Montego Bay or Port Antonio, so that we would have more cities all other the Island. The other plank in my platform is: The beautifying and creating of the Kingston Race Course into a national park, similar to Hyde Park in England. In the Race course, you have a great Savannah of waste. We could beautify it and make it a sort of social park for the people. If you lived in England and there you would see countless thousands of well dressed people of England showing off their dresses. Some people go to Hyde Park so as to show off their styles. Why could we not have a park like Hyde Park here, so that people could get married to each other and move around each other (laughter). We could have less time for vice, and so I believe the Race Course should not lie idle there, but we should make it a social centre so that people could ride down in their automobiles; have a music stand in the centre and have concerts at nights and during Sunday afternoons so that we could enjoy ourselves pleasantly. 338

SEPTEMBER 1929

A n d that brings m c to the end o f my platform as candidate contesting the seat for S t . Andrew—until the Convention o f the People's Political Party meets, when they may give me an additional platform. I thank you for the attention you have paid me.

I thank you for the

wonderful order you have maintained. I trust I shall meet y o u on election day, but if I d o not meet y o u I want you to remember that a vote for me is a vote for Jamaica and its people. 2 ' Printed in Bm, 11 September and 12 September 1929. Text abridged. 1. The People's Political party was established at Garvey's initiative in late 1928 and was further organized during sessions of the 1929 U N I A convention. Heartened by the promising results of its early activities, the party fielded a full slate of candidates in the 1930 Jamaica Legislative Council races. Its platform detailed support of a broad reform program, including a minimum wage, an eight-hour day, land reform, workers' compensation legislation, public works, and similar measures. The party also had some xenophobic tendencies, being directed in part against the Chinese and Middle Eastern shopkeepers who had been prospering in Kingston. Garvev had ambitious plans for his party to spread beyond Jamaica; as Amy Jacques Garvey noted, it would have been easy "to get the U N I A branches in the French and British Territories of the West Indies and Haiti to organize the Peoples Political Party in all these Units" (G&G, p. 204). Though Garvey's party did acquire a significant following, especially among Kingston's lowermiddle-class population, the organization did not prove an electoral success. Garvey was elected repeatedly to the board of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corp., a municipal governing body, but failed in his efforts to attain higher office. In January 1930 he was defeated in his race for the Jamaica Legislative Council. Soon after the elections the People's Political party disintegrated; as the island's governor R. Edward Stubbs wrote in late February 1930, Garvey appeared "to be losing such influence as he possessed" (Stubbs to Lord Passfield, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 February 1930, JA, C 318/399, file 76634; sec also Bm, 25 April and 27 June 1929; DG, 31 January, 1 February, 19 February, and 8 March 1930; New Tork Age, 3 September 1932; G&G, pp. 192-210; Ken Post, Arise Te Starvelings: The Jamaica Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Aftermath [The Hague, Boston, and London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1978], pp. 208-209). 2. Montego Bay is Jamaica's second largest town. Located on the northwest coast of the island, it is a tourist center, a port city for corporate agricultural commerce, and a market town for small farmers and dairy and beef cattle raisers of St. James Parish. Port Antonio, located on the northeastern coastline in Portland Parish, is an affluent resort area remote from the commercialism of Montego Bay (Ian Sangster, Jamaica [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973], pp. 67, 78-82; Barry Floyd, Jamaica: An Island Microcosm [New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989], pp. 120-125). 3. A reference to the Kingston Race Course, part of King George V I Park in northern Kingston, now National Heroes Park (Sangster, Jamaica, p. 40). Lord 4. F.C. is a proper abbreviation for cither Police Constable or Privy Councillor. Buckmaster (1861-1934) became Lord Chancellor in 1915. He "was recognized as one of the most brilliant judicial intellects of his time, and was known to the public for his advocacy of the reform of the divorce law and other social reforms" (Times [London], 6 December 1934; J. B. Sykes, ed., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English 6th ed. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976], p. 811; WWW). 5. Lester Simmonds (b. 1902), educator and politician, was a member of the House of Representatives for western St. Mary and an officer of the all-Island Banana Growers' Association (WWJ). 6. Charles McKenzie Pringle (b. 1883), planter and custos of St. Mary beginning in 1942, was the director of the Gray's Inn Central (Sugar) Factory, Ltd., since 1920. A member of an influential family, he was the son of Sir John Pringle, a magistrate, planter, and member of the Jamaica Legislative Council (WWJ). 7. John Henry Stedman (b. 1913), planter, penkeeper, and politician, was proprietor of the Woodstock Estate, Buff Bay, Portland, beginning in 1931 and had previously been a staff member of the United Fruit Co. (WWJ). 8. Hugh Cork (b. 1900), educator and politician, was organizer and president of the West Indies Sugar Co. Staff Association (WWJ).

339

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS 9• Organized efforts to bring Chinese workers into Jamaica as indentured labor were made in 1854 and again in 1884. The Chinese population of the island increased during the late nineteenth century, and free immigration of Asian workers began in 1911. Between 1921 and 1945 the Chinese population in Kingston Parish doubled. Asian immigrants played a dominant role in internal trade after the turn of the century (Colin Clarke, Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development and Social Change, 1692-1962 [Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California, 1975], pp. 34, 49). 10. Annotto Bay is located on the east side of the mouth of the Wag Water River, on a railway line between Kingston and Port Antonio, in St. Mary Parish. Black River is the chief town in St. Elizabeth Parish, located at the mouth of the river of the same name. A market and logging area, it is twenty miles from the nearest railway station. Port Maria is the major town and shipping port for St. Mary Parish. Lucea, a pictureseque seaport, is the largest town in Hanover Parish. Savanna-La-Mar, like the other towns Garvey names, is also the main town and seaport of its parish. Located in Westmoreland Parish, it is a commercial center for the west end of the island (Philip Olley, Guide to Jamaica, British West Indies [Kingston: The Tourist Trade Development Board, 1952], p. 172, 173, 205, 220, 222). 11. Clifford Lynne Clemetson (b. 1895), planter and politician, was the proprietor of Frontier Estates in Port Maria beginning in 1920. A wealthy businessman from a well-to-do family, Clemetson became the director of the Jamaica Coconut Producers' Association in 1930 and held executive positions in several other enterprises ( W W J ) . 12. Hanover, one of the smallest parishes, is located at the west end of Jamaica. It is a peasant agriculture and cattle-raising area, famous for its Lucea yams. St. James Parish is located on the northwestern coastline of Jamaica; its chief city is Montego Bay. St. Mary Parish is located on the northeast coastline. It is a major agricultural estate area where bananas, coconuts, oranges, sugar cane, and other products are grown and processed. St. Thomas Parish is in the southeastern end of Jamaica, a mountainous coffee-producing part of the island. Westmoreland is the westernmost parish, bordering on Hanover Parish to the north. The Frome estate, which played a central role in the labor rebellion of 1938, is located there (Olley, Guide to Jamaica, pp. 157, 172, 211, 219, 222). 13. Dr. Felix Gordon Veitch, physician and minister of the Jamaica Baptist Church, was the People's Political party candidate for the Jamaica Legislative Council from Hanover Parish. He was elected to the council on 29 January 1930 and re-elected in 1935 (DG, 2 January 1945; Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: Government Printing Office, 1930], p. 57). 14. Capt. Lorenzo Dow Baker (1840-1908), a Massachusetts sea captain, began transporting bananas from Port Antonio, Jamaica, to Boston in the 1870s. He continually expanded his investments and control over the banana industry, purchasing the Bog Estate to the West of Port Antonio and buying or leasing numerous other properties in the 1880s. His company evolved into the Boston Fruit Co. in 1884 and the United Fruit Co. in 1899. It exerted a massive influence over the economy and labor of Jamaica and the circum-Caribbean region. Both Garvey and Baker were lauded in a book by Garveyite C. A. Wilson that Garvey passed out to participants at the 1929 U N I A convention (autograph inscription by S. U. Smith, 30 August 1929, on endpaper of C. A. Wilson, Men of Vision [Kingston: The Gleaner Co., ca. 1928]; see also pp. 43-56, 127-161). 15. A reference to circum-Caribbean migratory labor as a response to unemployment rates in Jamaica. A continual pattern of low wages, elite monopoly of land ownership, color bias, and labor surplus began after emancipation, forcing many black Jamaicans to migrate out of their home country to seek work elsewhere. Many joined labor reserves in Costa Rica, Cuba, and Panama, where they were recruited by Anglo-American agrobusiness companies or became laborers on the Panama Canal. Unemployment reached crisis proportions in Jamaica during the 1930s, when the international depression caused Jamaican nationals to return from Central America and landless rural peoples to move into Kingston (Clarke, Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development and Social Change, pp. 49-50; Elizabeth McLean Pctras, Jamaican Labor Migration: White Capital and Black Labor, 1850-1930 [Boulder, Colo, and London: Westview Press, 1988]). 16. Jamaicans seeking a university education had to study abroad until 1948, when the University of the West Indies (UWI) began as an overseas college of the University of London. U W I became autonomous in 1962. It offers courses in the arts, sciences, and social sciences, including professional training in education and medicine. Agricultural and engineering courses are offered at the UWI campus in Trinidad and law at the U W I campus in Barbados (Floyd, Jamaica, pp. 68- 69). 17. Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), legendary Italian tenor, made his operatic debut in Naples in 1894. With rudimentary local training, he sang in small settings in southern Italy before securing engagements in Europe, Latin America, and finally the United States, where he appeared almost continuously at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, from 1902 to 1920 (Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol. 3 [London: Macmillan, 1980], pp. 839-840).

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SEPTEMBER 1929 18. Dame Nellie Melba (b. 1861) was the professional name used by Helen Porter Armstrong, a celebrated operatic soprano. Born in Melbourne, Australia, of Scottish parents who objected to her musical aspirations, Armstrong received no professional training until her mid-twenties. After a brief period of private tutelage she made her debut in Brussels in 1887, singing under the name Melba. She pursued a successful international operatic career until her final concert in Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1926 (H. C. Colles, ed., Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 3, jd ed. [New York: Macmillan, 1935], pp. 368-369). 19. Roland Hayes (1887-1976), black American tenor, was born in Curryville, Ga., the son of former slaves. Hayes spent most of his youth working to help support his six siblings and widowed mother. He attended school regularly for the first time at Fisk University, Nashville, where he joined the prestigious Fisk Jubilee Singers. He traveled to Boston with the Jubilee Singers in 1911 and remained there to train with Arthur Holland. He provided musical entertainment for one of Booker T. Washington's 191+ lecture tours, singing ducts with Harn 1 Burleigh. He appeared in several solo recitals in Boston before making his New York debut in 1917. He went to Europe in 1921, where he sang spirituals and classical selections with major orchestras in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Paris, and Vienna. He returned to packed concert halls in the United States and toured for the next four decades, giving his final concert at Carnegie Hall in 1962. Haves used his popularity to open concert halls for appearances by other black performers, particularly in the South. His My Songs: Aframerican Religious Folksongs, an anthology of arrangements of spirituals, was published in 1948 (Bruce Kellner, ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era [Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984], pp. 162-163; NA). 20. Ernest Cupidon, Jamaican actor, appeared in popular recitals and concerts throughout the island. He was well-known for his collaborations with journalist-actor Vcre Johns and actor Tony Ableton in comic performances (The Star [Kingston], 21 September 1966. 21. At the close of the meeting R e v . Norton Bellamy read a resolution in support of the PPP and Garvey's candidacy. Bellamy, of 17 Slipe Road, Cross Roads, Jamaica, was a minister in St. Andrew Parish and a member of the PPP since June 1929. He gave an introductory speech for Garvey at the 9 September 1929 Cross Roads meeting (DG, 26 September 1929).

Article in the Daily Worker [ N e w York, 27 September 1929]

HUISWOOD,' NEGRO ORGANIZER, REPORTS ON L A T E S T T R I C K E R Y ; D E B A T E S G A R V E Y ON C L A S S S T R U G G L E " A flow o f c h e a p o r a t o r y , that lasted f o r 31 d a y s , a n d t o w h i c h t h o u s a n d s , a s s e m b l e d in the G a r v e y c o n v e n t i o n in J a m a i c a d u r i n g the m o n t h o f A u g u s t , h a d t o listen, w a s o n e o f the c h i e f i m p r e s s i o n s Huiswood, of America.

director o f [ t h e ] N e g r o O r g a n i z a t i o n Huiswood

made there,"

states

Otto

in the C o m m u n i s t

Party

is just back f r o m J a m a i c a ,

w h e r e he attended

the

convention. In an i n t e r v i e w y e s t e r d a y w i t h the D a i l y W o r k e r , he g a v e a d e s c r i p t i o n o f the latest activities o f the U n i v e r s a l N e g r o I m p r o v e m e n t A s s o c i a t i o n , usually called the " G a r v e y M o v e m e n t . " FUNDS AND THE "PRESIDENT" " I t w a s quite e v i d e n t , " said H u i s w o o d , " t h a t like o t h e r s u c h c o n v e n t i o n s the o n l y practical a n d t a n g i b l e t h i n g 341

would

b e the collection

of

funds—

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

with Garvey, the self-appointed provisional president of Africa, on the receiving end." The delegation to the convention numbered about 145, with 73 from the United States. Many of them came to have a show-down with Garvey. The opposition showed itself at a very early stage in the convention. Not based on any principle, without a program, and with conflicting interests, the opposition could accomplish little. Their main demand was for removal of the headquarters of the organization to America, to control the finances here and break Garvey's grip. Were it not for the fact that the organization is disintegrating, has lost thousands of members, and depends on the Negroes of America for funds, the opposition would simply have been wiped out. But Garvey is no chump, he is not going to "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs." 2 Though he denounced his opposition as scoundrelly, he was forced to recognize its members, and place them in leading positions. This has alienated some of his staunch supporters and will contribute to father dissen[s]ions. The convention "legislated" a number of things. It decided to buy agricultural lands, erect factories, launch a new Black Star line, adopt a social code for the Negro, establish a secret service, etc. But above all, it decided to raise $600,000,000 in the next ten years to put the program into effect. To grasp the foregoing, it must be remembered that the Garvey movement is a government in embryo. Not only has it a cabinet and an army, called "The Legion," but it has a plan to establish embassies in the leading countries of the world. Throughout the proceedings of the convention, not one practical issue was discussed. The problem confronting the Negro workers, their exploitation, and oppression by the imperialist powers were of no concern. In fact, Garvey expounded a new theory, African or "Race Imperialism." He said: "God divided men into races and gave the separate parts of the world to the different races; Europe to the whites, Asia to the brown, and Africa to the Negroes." And he said: 'The U.N.I.A. is going through the course of establishing an empire—racial imperialism." "As a delegate from the American Negro Labor Congress," said Huiswood, " I challenged his theme, his business schemes, and his sincerity. Exposing the fraud and pointing out the futility of his program, I outlined the program of the A.N.L.C. After my speech, he challenged me to a debate. He was accepted, and the debate was attended by about 3,000 people, mostly his followers. It provided an excellent opportunity to place before the masses our program, to destroy the illusions created by Garvey, to expose his fraudulent business schemes, to show him up as a misleader. It allowed us to point out to the workers that only through solidarity of the working class the world over, destroying capitalism and establishing a working class government, could the Negro and white and other workers hope to attain emancipation. The response shown by the workers after the debate, and their readiness to be organized is indicative of the measure of success obtained." 342

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But Garvey is slowly changing his policies, Huiswood found. He changes them to suit certain local conditions in Jamaica. For the present, at least, he is putting his "Back to Africa" program on the shelf. He is going in for politics in the island of Jamaica, and to this end he has organized the "People's Political Party." H e has also announced his candidacy for the legislative council of the Island, and is putting forward candidates in all the election districts. While his political program is tinged with liberalism, he has come out in unmistakable terms for capitalism. In one of his articles, Garvey says: "Capitalism is necessary to the progress of the world, and those who are unreasonably and wantonly fighting against it are enemies to human advancement, but there should be a limit to individual or corporate use of [or] control of it." During the debate he had this to say: "If we dare destroy the capitalists, we are going to destroy the means of getting some of the good things of the world." This is not surprising, for recently when the longshoremen walked off the job, demanding a higher wage, and went to Garvey to help them in their struggle, he told them: " . . . I would advise you to go back to work. Your strike would be effective if there were nobody to replace you. What is the use of striking now, when probably in one hour they would have people to do the work you are doing, and probably at a cheaper wage." Garvey thus acted as a strikebreaker and tool of the employers, the United Fruit Co., against which the strike was directed. 3 That he is trying to ally himself with the bourgeoisie of the island and to gain their support can be seen from the aid he is giving to one o f the most labor-hating candidates for mayor. 4 Garvey is not concerned with the plight of the workers of Jamaica. He is not concerned with the oppressed and exploited masses who are at the mercy of big foreign corporations, the absentee landlords and the local bourgeoisie. The miserable pittance paid these workers, the poverty they suffer, does not make any impression on this "Moses." But the workers of Jamaica are rapidly realizing the cause of their bad condition. They are awakening to the fact that only through their own organized might can they secure any betterment of their conditions. And when they become class-conscious, when they know the road to freedom from exploitation and poverty, they will turn on their masters and on Garvey, the misleader, and push them off the earth as the real "enemies to human betterment." Printed in DW, 27 September 1929. Original headlines abridged. 1. Otto Huiswoud (sometimes spelled Huiswood, 1893-1961), was one of the most influential early black Communists. Born in Paramaribo, Surinam, Dutch West Indies in 1893, he came to the United States in 1913 and joined the Harlem branch of the Socialist party. In 1919 he became the first black member of the newly formed American Communist party, and in 1922 he attended the Fourth Congress of the Comintern in Moscow as a delegate. During this period Huiswoud also served as national organizer for the African Blood Brotherhood, and in 1925 he helped found the communist-led American Negro Labor Congress (misidentified here as the American N e g r o

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Federation of Labor). Huiswoud returned to the West Indies late in the decade and acted as a party spokesman and labor organizer. He was expelled from Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana as a communist agitator and spent much of his later life in Europe. In 1933 he succeeded George Padmore as the editor of the Negro Worker, the organ of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers. He died in Amsterdam. Huiswoud was the American Negro Labor Congress representative at the 1929 U N I A convention and was appointed to a committee on U N I A policy toward the League of Nations. Huiswoud debated Garvey on Tuesday evening, 13 August 1929, on the subject "The Negro Problem Can Only be Solved by International Labour Co-operation between White and Black Labour." Huiswoud argued the affirmative position and Garvey the negative. Garvey said he agreed to debate Huiswoud in order to "destroy the effects" Huiswoud's remarks "may have created in the minds of the other delegates" (Bm, 12 August 1929). Huiswoud was not expelled from the gathering, as some Communists had been at prior U N I A conventions, and he apparently attended most of the sessions (Bm, 22 August 1929; NW, 14 September 1929; DW, 31 December 1961; Theodore Draper, American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period [New York: Viking Press, i960], p. 320; Bernard K. Johnpoll and Harvey Klehr, eds., Biographical Dictionary of the American Left [New York: Greenwood Press, 1986], pp. 219-221; Garvey Papers 1: 525). 2. A reference to the fable attributed to Aesop (BFQ). 3. On 27 May 1929, a spontaneous labor stoppage occurred on Pier T w o on the Kingston waterfront; several hundred banana carriers struck the United Fruit Co. for higher wages. The leaders of the walkout led a procession of their followers to Edelweiss Park where they conferred with Garvey. Garvey's Blackman newspaper had run several exposés on conditions on the wharves, commenting on one occasion that Jamaican laborers were "nothing but contemptible niggers" to the United Fruit Co. (Bm, 10 May 1929). Garvey was thus considered sympathetic to the cause of the longshoremen and for that reason the strike leaders sought his aid and advice. Garvey informed the gathering that, though their demands were just, the workers had no chance of prevailing. "Unfortunately you of the laboring class never organized yourself into a Union through which you could barter with those who employ you for the kind of wage you desire," he pointed out (Bm, 28 May 1929). Garvey urged the laborers to return to work, in words similar to those attributed to him by Huiswoud. Garvey promised that if they went back to work, he would negotiate with United Fruit on their behalf for an increase in wages. The laborers followed Garvey's advice but were turned away by company officials when they attempted to resume work. The following day Garvey visited J. G. Keifer, United Fruit's top manager in Jamaica. Garvey in part adopted a conciliatory tone, assuring Keifer that he was "a capitalist himself' and would not "pay laborers more than they should get." Garvey also commented that at present he had "no time to go around and organize these laborers so that when they strike it would be a strike in the real sense of the term—I could do it if I had the time—and therefore, I think if I could get the corporation to try [and] help these men, it would be well done" (Bm, 29 May 1929). Keifer responded to this veiled threat with the observation that existing wages were "very high," and he vowed that the company would respond to demands for increased pay by mechanizing its shipping operation. Nothing concrete seems to have resulted from the meeting save an agreement to undertake further negotiations. Garvey later attempted to organize the dock workers, along with other laborers; in 1930 he created a Workers and Laborers Association, with himself as chairman. This organization, he noted, "would not be a union, but would pave the way for Labor unions and such like" ( W , 7 June 1930). The association petitioned the colonial authorities for improved working conditions, but little resulted from these efforts. Garvey's role in these activities is of particular interest in view of the explosive union upsurge in Kingston and the rest of Jamaica that occurred in 1938, when Garvey was away from the island residing in London (DG, 15 April and 12 May 1930). 4. A reference to H. A. L. Simpson, a well-established political figure in Jamaica with close ties to Garvey and the UNIA. Simpson was mayor of Kingston twice (1912-1926, 1935-1937). In 1929 he was a member of the governing council of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. He was the People's Political party's choice for mayor in that year but was not successful in his bid for the position. In February 1930 he was defeated as a candidate for the Jamaican Legislative Council on the People's Political party slate. The Daily Workers characterization of Simpson's political views is misleading. In the 1910s he had been associated with the National Club, a reform organization with strong labor proclivities. It is true that by the time of the labor riots, which shook Jamaica in 1938, he took a conservative stand. He opposed the concept of a minimum wage law in a 1938 article entitled "Ex-Mayor Simpson Urges City Strikers to Keep Calm" (DG, 27 May 1938). Simpson did, however, support public 344

SEPTEMBER 1929 works programs as an anti-Depression measure (DG, 10 September 1929, 31 January, 1 February, and 19 February 1950; Plain Talk, 24 December 1938; Garvey Papers 1: 20-22, 101-102).

José de Olivares to Henry L. Stimson,1 Secretary of State Kingston, Jamaica, September 27, 1929 Sir: I have the honor to report that Marcus Garvey, President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, who was deported from the United States to Jamaica in 1928, after serving a prison sentence for obtaining money by false pretenses, was on September 26, 1929, tried before a tribunal consisting of the Chief Justice [Fiennes Barrett Lennard] 2 and two associate Judges of the Colony [Justice Adrian John Clark 3 and Acting Justice C. E. Law 4 ] on a charge of contempt of court, adjudged guilty and sentenced to three months imprisonment and a fine of one hundred pounds sterling.5 The enclosed newspaper report of the trial sets forth the salient points of the case, and the opinions of the officiating Justices. The charges upon which the accused was convicted consisted of his having, in the coursc of a political speech and in the columns of a local newspaper of which he is the editor, made scurrilous accusations against the Courts of Jamaica, which constituted the offense of contempt of court. M r . Garvey is a candidate for the office of member of the Jamaica Legislative Council. He recently founded a native newspaper known as the BLACKMAN, and a colored amusement resort called Edelweiss Park. He also sponsored a convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association which was held at Kingston during the months of August and September of this year and which was attended by a sizable delegation of negroes from the United States. I have the honor, to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, J O S É DE O L I V A R E S

American Consul Enclosure: Newspaper report of the trial of Marcus Garvey. D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/53. T L S , recipient's copy. On American Consulate letterhead. 1. Henry L. Stimson (1867-1950), who had a life long career in high-level governmental positions under both the Republican and Democratic parties, was secretary of state under President Hoover (1929 to 1933). He was a special envoy to Nicaragua under President Coolidge during the 1926 civil war. Coolidge made him U.S. governor general of the Philippine Islands in 1927, a post he held until he became secretar)' of state in 1929. As governor general, Stimson severely limited 345

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS the measure of autonomy granted to Filipinos under the Wilson administration and informed nationalistic local leaders that their desire for independence was "premature" (NTT, 21 October 1950). As secretary of state he adopted a conservative "non-recognition" policy toward the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, events that foreshadowed the advent of World War II. Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed the seventy-eight-yearold Stimson to be secretary of war in 1940. Stimson focused on the Pacific theatre and was a leader in the development of U.S. nuclear fission policy. As President Truman's senior advisor in 1945, he made the deciding recommendation to drop the first atomic bombs, authorizing the civilian targets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (WBD). 2. The tribunal that tried Garvey consisted of Chief Justice Richard Fiennes Barrett Lennard and two associate justices of the Jamaica Supreme Court. Barrett Lennard (1861-1934) found Garvey guilty of contempt. Fellow justices Adrian Clark and C. E. Law concurred in the judgment, but Justice Clark dissented on the issue of the penalty imposed upon Garvey. In rendering his legal opinion on the case, he stated that Garve/s statements had been seditious as well as contemptuous. While he supported a larger fine than the one hundred pounds ordered by Barrett Lennard, he also recommended a more lenient suspended term of imprisonment (which would have allowed Garvey to continue to campaign). Justice Law, however, concurred with the chief justice on the issue of sentencing, and the three-month jail term and smaller fine were put into effect. Despite his imprisonment, Garvey was elected to the municipal council position in a by-election held during his term in the district prison. He was also a candidate in the January 1930 elections for the Jamaica Legislative Council (Bm, 27 September 1929; DG, 27 September 1929; Lewis,"The Question of Imperialism," p. 100; WWW). 3. Adrian John Clark, second puisne judge of the Jamaica Supreme Court, was appointed to public service in 1924 (Cundall, Handbook of Jamaica, p. 17$). 4. C. E. Law was judge of the Kingston Court, a special court created to transact the civil litigation of the Resident Magistrate's Court for the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew. He acted in the place of H. I. C. Brown, the regular puisne judge of the Jamaica Supreme Court, during Garvey's contempt of court trial (DG, 14 September and 17 September 1929; Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica, [Kingston: The Government Printing Office, 1930], pp. 17s, 188). 5. Garvey was threatened with a contempt of court charge during the Jamaica Supreme Court hearing of George O. Marke v. UNIA, Inc., in Kingston in late July-early August 1929. Garvey initially refused to produce the account books of the organization during questioning about U N I A finances. Threatened with the contempt charge by the chief justice, he reluctantly produced the requested documentation (CD, 10 August 1929). He was found guilty of a second and unrelated contempt of court charge based on the tenth plank of the People's Political party platform, which he had unveiled in a September 1929 speech at Cross Roads. Garvey was imprisoned on the contempt charges until mid-December 1929. Despite his incarceration, UNIA and PPP members campaigned effectively for his 30 October 1929 election to the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation from Urban Ward No. 3 (Bm, 11 and 12 September 1929; NW, 16 November 1929 and 4 January 1930).

Enclosure [Kingston, Jamaica, September 27, 1929] M A R C U S G A R V E Y TO B E I M P R I S O N E D FOR T H R E E M O N T H S A N D O R D E R E D TO P A Y £ 1 0 0 F I N E FOR C O N T E M P T OF C O U R T For the contempt of Court he committed in a political speech at Cross Roads on 9th September last, Marcus Garvey, President General of the U.N.I.A. (1929) [,] was yesterday sentenced to three months imprisonment,

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and was ordered to pay a fine of £ 1 0 0 or serve another three months in the St. Catherine District Prison. [. . . ] T H E C H I E F JUSTICE'S J U D G M E N T The Chief Justice [Ficnnes Barrett Lennard] in delivering judgment said: Marcus Garvey, who claims to be a leader among the negro people of the world, was called on yesterday to answer for a grave contempt of Court, committed by him in the course of a political speech delivered on the 9th of September. The contempt charged is scurrilously abusing all the judges and magistrates of the island. The substance of the speech was: that Garvey, if elected to the Legislature, would propose a Law to punish corrupt judges; that judicial corruption was an evil from which the people of the island had long suffered; that the Courts are for the rich and not for the poor; that the people would not have such judges who were His Majesty's worst enemies and bred disloyalty. One of the affidavits filed on behalf of the Attorney-General [F. C. WellsDurant] 1 includes, as an exhibit, the issue of "The Blackman[,"] of which Garvey is the editor-in-chief, for the 12th of September. It contains an expanded report of the speech. Garvey was so impudent as to inform and give the Court to understand that no language used by him referred to the existing Jamaican judges and magistrates. Secondly, he imputed untruthfulness to the Attorney-General's witnesses, one of whom is the Acting Deputy Inspcctor-General of Police [J. C. Knollys] 2 , and the other of whom is a press reporter [Oscar Joseph Durant]. 3 Thirdly, Garvey read to us 16 affidavits. 4 Not one of the deponents, other than Garvey himself, says definitely that Garvey never used the language attributed to him. Most of the deponents aver that they never heard such language. Not all of them were present during the delivery of the speech. The R E A L L Y I L L U M I N A T I N G P I E C E S OF E V I D E N C E

are to be found in the affidavits sworn by the reporter for the "Blackman" [Arnold Wesley Atherton] and by Garvey himself. The reporter just mentioned, carefully avoids saying that Garvey did not scurrilously abuse the Courts. The reporter says that he may have fallen into mistakes when summarizing, owing to the speed at which Garvey spoke.5 Garvey admits that he undertook to introduce a Law to punish corrupt judges, who, in defiance of British justice, enter into agreements with lawyers and other persons of influence to deprive subjects of the realm of their rights; thus forcing innocent parties to incur the additional costs of appeals and other legal expenses. This admission, when read with the other evidence in the case, seems to us to fully establish the Attorney-General's charge. Fourthly, Garvey said that, if he used the language attributed to him, he was merely exercising his privileges as a candidate for the Legislature. We 347

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explained to him that nobody enjoyed the privilege of indulging in villification of the King's Courts; that adequate means have long existed for dealing with wicked judges; and that the measure suggested by him was not consistent with any genuine desire to reform the law. One of the members of the Court impressed on Garvey the D E S I R A B I L I T Y OF A R E T R A C T I O N AND A P O L O G Y [ . ]

Under the influence of this somewhat ecclesiastical process, the laudable object of which is to relieve an over-burdened conscience, Garvey tacitly admitted that in the hurry of the moment he may have spoken as alleged. He withdrew words used on the 9th of September and tendered an apology which forms a supplement to the written evidence before us yesterday. This act on Garvey's part cannot really be construed as a genuine repentance. A man, who hears a Court inferentially declare him guilty of a crime, does not sensibly mitigate its character by belated expressions of regret. They are not voluntary in any sense. The only value, if any, of such expressions countenanced in the present case is that they aggravate Garvcy's loss of air among his supporters, and thus, perhaps, satisfy them that he is really an impassioned person whose words are not to be taken at their face value. When considering this judgment, we referred to the ca[se] of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Incorporated) and Others versus [Ann Rebecca] Morter (44 Times Law Reports 331). It appears from the report that neither the American Authorities nor the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council were disposed to attach a very serious meaning to Garvey's high-flown and foolish language while he resided in the United States. But, though Garvey may possess a degree of influence much less than he supposes, this Court, in the interests of law and order, must sensibly punish him for his offence. We, as private persons, are indifferent to irresponsible abuse, but experience, illustrated by the actions of the Courts, has shown that abuse, when it INVOLVES THE S C A N D A L I Z I N G OF U S

as judges undesirably weakens the authority of the Courts, thus exciting disobedience to the Laws as communicated by them to the people. In assessing the penalty it is impossible to ignore the fact that Garvey is not a well-meaning man guilty of an offence simply owing to his impulsiveness or folly. The Judicial Committee mention that he was imprisoned for using the United States mail for obtaining money by false pretences from the members of the negro race. Then Garvey on the 5th of August last told one of us, when answering for an earlier contempt, that he had been deported from the United States in 1927 or 1928. The contempt referred to was committed on the 30th of July, and Garvey was lightly fined and severely admonished in respect of it. In the circumstances he will be imprisoned for three calendar months and ordered 348

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to pay a fine of £100, or be further imprisoned for three calendar months unless the fine be sooner paid. This sentence takes much account of the fact that Garvey is a hot headed and foolish man. At first it seemed to us that he ought to be sent to prison for six months at least without the option of a fine. But, mainly for the reason assigned, we have now given him the opportunity of escaping half that sentence. We don't forget that the retractation on his part may allay feelings which it was his apparent policy to arouse, and thus render severity once contemplated unessential. M R . JUSTICE CLARK'S JUDGMENT M r . Justice [Adrian] Clark said: I find myself unable to agree in regard to the penalty suggested by the learned Chief Justice, and therefore I feel it necessary to state my reasons for differing on this point. There can be no doubt that the Respondent's words constituted a grave contempt of Court. They tended not only to obstruct and interfere with the administration of justice, but to undermine public confidence in the impartiality of the whole of the Courts in Jamaica. They amounted, in my view, to the offence of sedition as well as to that of contempt of Court, offences both recognized from the earliest times as being grave misdemeanours. There might indeed have been some question here as to whether the respondent should not rather have been tried on indictment for sedition, but he has stated that he did not claim such trial and was prepared to abide by the decision of this Court. The powers of the Court to punish summarily for contempt are not exercised for the protection of individual judges, but for the protection of the public itself. It is essential that the Courts should retain their authority and independence and be free from scurrilous attacks of this sort; it is essential that the public should remain confident that it can obtain from all Courts of the Colony a just application of its laws, and of the Common Law of England, irrespective of creed, social position or race; irrespective, indeed, of whether they are British subjects or foreigners within its jurisdiction. This confidence must exist in any civilised British community; I am C O N V I N C E D IT D O E S E X I S T IN J A M A I C A

and that any person endeavouring to shake it in the way the respondent has done, is guilty of a serious ofFencc against the Crown through its Courts. It is immaterial whether the words were used as the result of spleen on the part of an unsuccessful litigant; whether they were used as a mere device to further a political candidature, or with any other purpose or intent. A man who, like the respondent, claims to be a leader of any section of His Majesty's subjects should understand the broad principles of public welfare which are involved. The Courts are the King's Courts, administering the King's justice, and an insult to the Courts is an insult to the Crown itself. The Legislature, within the limits of the constitution, may have power to lay down what qualifications the Judges of the Colony shall possess, and in what manner they shall be elected; but once the Judges have been appointed 349

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to constitute the Courts of the Colony; once they have taken the solemn oath that binds them, the Courts over which they preside must be free from attacks o f the kind made upon them by the respondent in this case. Moderate and reasoned critical discussion o f particular decisions o f the Courts may be permissible and even salutary. The Judges themselves, as individuals, are in no way above the law as regards their private doings; and as public servants can be prosecuted if there is evidence justifying a charge o f corruption, or other criminal malpractices, in the EXECUTION OF T H E I R P U B L I C D U T I E S ,

but such charges must be as definite, and the evidence at least as cogent as that which would justify any other criminal charge against any other subject of the Crown. I think it may also be well, in order to clear away any misunderstanding, that might in this case arise among ignorant people, to point out that these proceedings against Mr. Garvey are in no way connected (as other proceedings before this Court may be), with any pending litigation, nor can these proceedings in any way affect the impartial consideration and conclusion of that litigation. Ostensibly, at least, the attack made by M r . Garvey was a general attack against all the Courts o f Justice in this island, and it must be dealt with as such. The respondent has, in my view, committed a grave constitutional offence. I wish it had not been necessary for these proceedings to have been instituted; I wish it could be possible for British Courts always to carry on their very essential work in an atmosphere which would make it unnecessary for them ever to exercise this summary type o f punitive jurisdiction. That the jurisdiction must be exercised in this case, however, is, in my view, beyond doubt. Mr. Garvey was so ill-advised as to come into Court with a defence that AMOUNTED TO AN ATTEMPTED D E N I A L

that he had used the words imputed to him. This attempt was bolstered up be a series of affidavits remarkable only for their disingenuous prevarication. Mr. Garvey also sought to defend himself with the aid o f grammatical quibbles, of unimportant discrepancies in the reports of his speech, and even of mere printers' errors in his own newspaper. Since the gist of his utterances was definitely sworn to by two independent witnesses; since it was clearly set out in the newspaper o f which he is admittedly editor-in-chief; and since his own affidavit in great part corroborated the accusations made against him, I thought it my duty to ask M r . Garvey to consider whether such a line o f defence could have any possible chance of success. Mr. Garvey thereupon unreservedly withdrew any accusation that he in fact had made against the Courts, admitted the untruth o f those that 350

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were published; and offered a complete apology, which apology he has now embodied in an affidavit filed in this court. It is true that this apology was unnecessarily belated but M r . Garvey has assured the Court that it is given, not under pressure but quite sincerely and voluntarily, as a result of a re-consideration of his action in the matter. He has also assured the Court that he is willing to give to this withdrawal as much publicity as was given to his speech. With all deference to other views that have been expressed on the point I consider this assurance to be worthy of consideration by this Court since the grave omen of the offence in this case I s T H E U N D E R M I N I N G OF P U B L I C C O N F I D E N C E

and, although the actual offence of Mr. Garvey was the oral publication of his words to 1,500 persons, any evil influences they might have had, must have been greatly aggravated by their further publication in his newspaper. Now, in cases of this sort, the Court takes action not to revenge any offence to its dignity but rather to protect its usefulness as a public safeguard; and, if Mr. Garvey lets it be known that he sincerely and fully retracts what he has said, the principal aim of this kind of procedure has been achieved. Had Mr. Garvey not taken this step I should myself have had not the slightest hesitation in concurring in the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment for twelve months. In the circumstances, although punishment is clearly essential, I do not think that a definite sentence of imprisonment is necessary. The Courts possess such stability and such very great powers that they can well afford to be generous to offenders of this class. I am sure that there is in fact N E V E R A N Y VINDICTIVENESS IN T H E I R SENTENCES

but it is essential not only that they should actually do justice but that they should also appear to do so with all possible mercy. It is true that a mere fine might fail to inflict any punishment on the offender personally, since Mr. Garvey might obtain the money from sources other than his own pocket. I do not think, however, we are entitled to weigh this possibility in arriving at what is the proper punishment for his offence. In all these circumstances the imposition of a fine, heavier in amount than that proposed by the Chief Justice, and guarded by the detention of M r . Garvey in custody till it be paid, would, in my opinion, be a sufficient punishment and a sufficient reminder that a political candidate has no greater latitude than any other citizen to scatter indiscriminate abuse of the Courts. M R . JUSTICE [ C . E . ] LAW'S JUDGMENT In this matter Marcus Garvey is called on to answer for contempt of Court in uttering and publishing scandalous and contemptuous statements concerning judges of His Majesty's Court in this Island, on the 9th September 1929 at a political meeting of about 1,500 persons at Cross Roads. 351

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The Attorney General alleges that Marcus Garvey, on that occasion, announced that one of the planks (the ioth) of his political platform for candidature for election as member o f the Legislative Council for the parish of Saint Andrew would be: "A law to impeach and imprison such judges, who in defiance o f British justice and constitutional rights will enter into illicit agreement with lawyers and other prominent businessmen to deprive other subjects of the realm of their rights o f such Courts o f Law over which they shall preside, forcing the innocent parties to incur an additional cost o f appeal and other legal expenses which would not have been but for the injustice occasioned by the arrangement o f such judges with such lawyers" and, IN ELABORATION T H E R E O F

in his speech that day, said that: it was an evil which Jamaica had suffered from for a long time but the time had come when a stop would be put to it. They would not have judges who sat around Club tables at nights to decide against poor honest persons who come before them, for men like these were the worst enemies of His Majesty the King and there should be a Law to deal with such men. It would be his endeavour to bring about such a law if they would top him at the poll on election day and further, in effect, said that through meeting lawyers and friends at Clubs, and entertaining them and being entertained, judges in Jamaica had for a long time been open to corruption, and showing favouritism, had given unjust judgments. A newspaper report of his speech at that meeting is an exhibit in these proceedings. O f that newspaper, the "Blackman" Marcus Garvey is Editorin-chief. M R . GARVEY'S A N S W E R

In answering for his contempt yesterday Marcus Garvey admits that the ioth plank o f his political platform is substantially as alleged by the Attorney General. He denies, however, that he ever used language, when speaking in support o f that plank, charging judges in Jamaica with corruption and favouritism. He files several affidavits, sworn to by persons said to have been present at the meeting, in which they state that they did not hear him utter such language. Several of those persons depose to having closely followed Marcus Garvey's speech on the occasion, but it is significant that in no one instance do they state definitely that he did not in fact use the language complained of. 352

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He protests his loyalty to the Crown as a British subject and claims that the 10th plank had no reference whatever to any judge of this Island at present holding a position in the judicial scrvicc of this Island, but wholly and altogether referred to principles which should be established and maintained in his Island as one of His Majesty's loyal Colonies. M R . ATHERTON'S A F F I D A V I T

The chief reporter of the "Blackman," Arnold [Wesley] Atherton, who reported Marcus Garvey's speech of the 9th September for that newspaper, states, in his affidavit, that Marcus Garvey, on the nth or 12th September expressed his disgust at the way in which his speech had been reported. It is regrettable that Marcus Garvey did not take immediate steps, on the 12th or 13th September, through the medium of the same paper, to have his speech corrected where it had been inaccurately reported. I am satisfied that the language used by Marcus Garvey as his 10th plank and in his speech was substantially alleged by the Attorney General and as appears in the affidavits of Oscar Durant, reporter, and John Knollys, Acting Deputy Inspector General of Police. It is immaterial, in my view[,] by what circumstances those utterances were prompted or to what extent they were intended as or amounted to a condemnation of certain judges or the entire judiciary of this Island. In the case of R. v. Gray (190) 2 Q.B. p. 36, Lord Russell, C.J., stated that any act done calculated to bring a Court or judge of the Court into contempt or to lower his authority, is a contempt of Court. Such a CLASS OF CONTEMPT

has been described by Lord Hardwick, L.C., as "scandalising a Court or judge." In the case of R. v. The Editor of the New Statesman i928[?] 44 L . T . R . p. 301, observations were made regarding the distinction between legitimate criticism of judges and such an imputation of unfairness and lack of impartiality as constitutes contempt of Court. In that case reference was also made to p. 255 of Wilmot's "Opinions" where the following principle is to be found: The arraignment of the justice of the judges is arraigning the King's justice, it is an impeachment of his wisdom and goodness in the choice of his judges, and excites in the minds of the people a general dissatisfaction with all judicial determinations and indisposes their minds to obey them; and whenever men's allegiance to the laws is so fundamentally shaken, it is the most final and dangerous obstruction of justicc, and in my opinion calls out for a more rapid and immediate redress than any other obstruction whatsoever; not for the sake of the judges as private individuals, but because they are the channels by which

353

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is conveyed to the people. To be impartial, and to be universally thought so, are both absolutely and necessary for the giving [of] justice that free, open, and uninterrupted current, which it has, for many ages, found all over this kingdom, and which so eminently distinguishes and exalts it above all nations upon the earth. The language complained o f by the Attorney General is perfectly plain and free from ambiguity. It can only mean what in effect it says, namely, that justice no longer exists in this Island by reason o f the corruption of the judges o f the Courts. Such language communicated to a multitude o f persons established at a political meeting is calculated, in my opinion, to excite in the minds of the audience a general dissatisfaction and fundamentally to shake their faith in the administration o f justice in this Island. In no less degree would such language, when reported in a newspaper, shake the faith o f those reading it. It is difficult to imagine a stronger or more sweeping indictment against any judge or Court; it is a contempt o f the highest order. M R . GARVEY'S R E G R E T

In reply to an enquiry pressed by a member o f this Court, Marcus Garvey expressed his regret and desire to apologise fully for the language he had used, involving as it appeared a serious reflection on His Majesty's Courts in this Island. He explained he had no intention nor desire to inspire any disrespect against the judges or Courts. This apology is embodied, in fuller terms, in an affidavit filed by him this morning. Such an apology, however, at this stage, cannot be accepted to excuse completely language of such a seditious and contemptuous nature. Its chief effect will be to diminish in the minds of his supporters the importance which they may have attached to his words. For these reasons, therefore, I would make the rule absolute and express my accord with the punishment pronounced by the learned Chief Justice, with whose judgment I also agree in other respects. M R . GARVEY'S R E Q U E S T

Mr. Garvey: May I be permitted to say something? The Chief Justice: What is that? Mr. Garvey: I desire to make some statements which might probably tend to help the Court to be more lenient in the penalty that it has inflicted upon me, and I crave your indulgence in that respect. The Chief Justice: The only matter at the moment is whether the order should take effect at once or after a short interval. Mr. Attorney-General, do you have anything to say about that?

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SEPTEMBER 1929

T h e Attorney-General: T h e usual course is that where imprisonment is inflicted as a punishment the o f f e n d e r is taken into custody forthwith. Where a fine is imposed o r in the alternative imprisonment, it is usual to allow the offender a day or t w o , but in this case, I am afraid, as far as practicable, the offender must be taken into custody at once. M r . Garvey: Will Your H o n o u r s hear me on the matter I have asked to be heard on? M r . Justice Clark: T h e Officer o f the C o u r t , the Bailiff, will take y o u into his charge and convey you to the St. Catherine Prison as a First Class Misdemeanant. There is n o question of hard labour or anything o f that sort. F r o m there you can prepare and send f o r w a r d any statement y o u wish. M r . Garvey: B u t I have so much unfinished business, I would like some time. The Chief Justice: Subject to any rigid rule o f law, I should N O T BE U N W I L L I N G

to grant you any short extension. I do not know if the rule referred to by the Attorney-General and a learned J u d g e o f this C o u r t , is rigid or not. M r . Justice Clark: We could keep him in custody in this building during the day. M r . Garvey: It w o u l d make it very uneasy to send m e away so suddenly. T h e Chief Justice: There is n o objection at all to the bailiff not actually executing the order, provided M r . Garvey remains about this building, until the close o f this day. M r . G a r v e y being confined according to law, will have access to books and papers subject to the special rules with which I am not familiar. H e will be allowed to see persons desirous o f seeing him. M r . Justice Clark: T h e bailiff must formally effect the arrest, but if he has n o objection, the C o u r t has no objection to M r . Garvey remaining in this building and seeing any visitors during the day. T h e Chief Justice: E v e r y person so confined is at liberty to transact business, subject always to the control o f the G o v e r n o r o f the Prison [W. Shillingford] 6 and the G o v e r n o r o f the colony [ R . E d w a r d Stubbs], M r . Garvey was taken by motor car to Spanish T o w n around 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. 7 Printed in DG, 27 September 1929. Original headlines and text abridged. 355

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PAPERS

1. F. C. Wells-Durrant, K.C., was attorney general of Jamaica in 1929-1930. He was assisted in his prosecution of Garvey by J. A. G. Smith and Colin MacGregor (DG, 26 September 1929; Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: GPO, 1930], p. 175). 2. J. C. Knollys, First Class Inspector, St. James Parish, was Acting Deputy Inspector-General of Police in 1929. Acting Inspector General W. H. F. Sidley, inspectors Owen Wright, J. Murphy, N. Drake, J. M. O'Connor, and Acting Detective Inspector Waters also represented the police at the trial (DG, 26 September 1929; Cundall, Handbook ofJamaica, p. 1+3). 3. Knollys' affidavit was supported by that of Oscar Joseph Durant, a reporter for the Jamaica Daily Mail. Durant testified that Garvey had spoken to a crowd of approximately fifteen hundred persons at Cross Roads on 9 September 1929 and that he had taken shorthand notes of the speech. Durant then quoted the tenth plank of the PPP platform outlined in Garve/s speech, which called for "a law to impeach and imprison such judges" guilty of favoritism and corruption (DG, 14 September 1929). 4. On 25 September 1929, Garvey presented the court with sixteen affidavits, including statements from Arnold Wesley Atherton, reporter for the Blackman; Joscelyn Jacques, general business manager for the Blackman Printing and Publishing Co.; John Coleman Beecher, PPP candidate and councillor with the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation; Rev. Norton Bellamy, a PPP member who reported having heard all of Garve/s campaign speeches; Edward A. Walters, Kingston contractor and builder who was active in the PPP; Simeon E. McKenzie, Kingston undertaker, who was present at the Cross Roads speech; Eustace E. Whyte, cabinet maker and general secretary of the St. Andrew UNIA division; Thomas M. Walker, school teacher and student of political science; and himself. The statements defended his 9 September 1929 statements regarding the Jamaica courts (DG, 26 September 1929). 5. Atherton testified that he was unable to take literal notes because Garvey spoke too quickly and thus was forced to summarize large sections of the speech. He further stated that on the mornings of 11 and 12 September, 1929 when the stories on the speech appeared, he had been "accosted by M r . Garvey through [the] telephone and [Garvey had] personally stat[ed] that he was disgusted with the way in which his speech appeared." Atherton then claimed that the light had gone out "during the time when M r . Garvey was elaborating on the tenth plank of his platform at which time it was difficult to take accurate transcribable notes" (DG, 26 September 1929). 6. William Shillingford (b. 1891) was the Director of Prisons and Inspector of Reformatories and Industrial Schools, Jamaica (1928-1931) (Cundall, Handbook ofJamaica, p. 147; WWJ). 7. Garvey paid the fine levied against him and was imprisoned in the general penitentiary, St. Catherine District Prison at Spanish Town, from 26 September 1929 until 19 December 1929 (NW, 4 January 1930).

356

OCTOBER 1929

Negro World Cartoon

(Source: NW, 5 October 1929.) 357

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Anonymous Letter to Attorney General William DeWitt Mitchell1 [ca. 17 October

1929]

Hon. Sir, In the interest of the poor Negroes of America[,] being a victim myself, I am requesting that you order as early as possible an investigation of the socalled "Liberty University" at Clairmouth [Claremont], Virginia[,] which is supposed to have been bought by the U.N.I.A., A.C.L., from the Smallwood estate at Virginia by F. A. Toote representing Marcus Garvey while in Atlanta prison for the sum of $137,000.00 of which amount $97,000.00 was actually raised and collected from the Negroes in America during several rallies staged by the principle [principal] parties of both sides namely,— F. A. Toote acting pres. genl. George E. Carter, secy. genl. M. L. T. de Mena asst. intern'l organizer J. G. St. Drake, internat'l Organizer Balfour Williams Profs[.] [Caleb] Robinson and [J. H.] Blackwell Percival L. Burrows F. Levi Lord J. A. Craig[e]n J. J. Peters W. Ware E. B. Knox 1st asst Pres Gen'l C. H. Bourne and others lead [led] by Amy Jacques Garvey[,] Garvey's trump card. An investigation will disclose as a matter of fact and in truth that this estate was never sold by the Smallwood people and was never bought by the Garvey gang and that this $97,000.00 that was actually paid by the ignorant people went into the pockets of Amy Jacques and Marcus Garvey and his swindling gang. 2 A federal investigation will find that the deeds now in the possession of E. B. Knox are a fake and that not a legal deed, bill of sale or voucher of any kind can be produced by this gang of international swindlers. 'The 6th international Convention" which is really Marcus Garvey and company, has just designated J. A. Crigan [Craigen], J. J. Peters and Ephrinam [R. L. Ephraim] 3 of Chicago to investigate this school, this is only a move to cover up things as it is expected that I will let the cat out of the bag since they failed to bump me off before the election at the convention in Jamaica—they are still trying to do so[,] where ever I go to live[,] through Hellan D. Westall of 9 E 115 St. N.Y.C.[,] who has the job to kill me. 4 358

NOVEMBER 1929 D N A , R G 60, file 198940. A L , recipient's copy. 1. William De Witt Mitchell (1874-1955) was attorney general of the United States from March 1929 to March 1933. Appointed by President Hoover, Mitchell took office during the transition of authority over the Prohibition Bureau from the Treasury Department to the Attorney General's Office, thus much of his work was overseeing the activities of prohibition agents in a massive enforcement campaign that led to the arrest and imprisonment of tens of thousands of individuals (NTT, 25 August 1955; WWW A). 2. No reference to this investigation has been located in the minutes of the convention. Garvey did, however, use this occasion to express his opinion of the matter. A Daily Gleaner reporter quoted him as saying, "Liberty University was a scandal. It was only a source from which to collect money for which no account was made. . . . [A] lot of money was collected. Unless they were going to find about [$]56,ooo to pay off mortgages and salaries to people it was useless to talk about saving the school there" (DG, 15 August 1929). As Garvey indicated, Liberty University was in acute financial difficulties. The Negro World of 12 October 1929 announced that "owing to contemplated reorganization of Liberty University at Claremont, Va., the school will not be open until further notice." The school never reopened (Garvey Papers 6: 438-440). 3. Robert L. Ephraim was president of the Chicago UNIA division in 1929. He was a personal friend of E. B. Knox, but when difficulties arose between Knox and Garvey in the spring and summer of 1929, he supported Garvey, traveling to New York to present evidence of Knox's efforts to win control over the organization (NW, 9 February 1929 and 14 June 1930). 4. A copy of this letter was forwarded from the attorney general's office to the postmaster general (O. R. Luhring, assistant attorney general, to postmaster general, 18 October 1929, D N A R G 60, file 198940).

Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard, Chief Justice, Jamaica Supreme Court, to Governor R. Edward Stubbs [Kingston,] 12th N o v e m b e r , 1929 Sir, I have the honour to enclose herewith a letter from, and an affidavit sworn by, Marcus Garvey. Paragraphs 2 and 3 o f the last mentioned document indicate unblushing mendacity or a very ill balanced mind or both these defects. W e possess n o information as to the reasons which induced the American authorities to deport the man.

W e k n o w that great nations d o not deport

an alien, w h o m they have once received, unless a very high Officer o f State classes him as undesirable.

Garvey spoke and acted here in a fashion as

violent as his record in America attributes to him.

I humbly agree with the

American authorities in thinking that he is an undesirable person and the free pardon sought is, in m y opinion, inadmissible.

B u t the object o f the C o u r t

can, perhaps, n o w be attained if he were released on the condition o f giving reasonable security for the sum o f £ 3 0 0 to be o f g o o d behaviour during the next twelve months. Whether Your Excellency can grant a pardon subject to such a condition I do not discuss. I have not looked at the p o w e r confided; for the Attorney General [F. C . Wells-Durant] is the person to advise as to its construction.

If he is o f [the] opinion that Y o u r Excellency can impose the

reasonable condition mentioned I am willing that it should be said that the pardon is issued with m y concurrence. 359

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I can pass no order, one reason being that the sentence of the 26th of September is unalterable by the Court as at present constituted. Garvey could have applied to M r . [C. E.] Law and me. He elected not to do [so]. N o doubt he hoped that M r . Justice [H. I. C.] Brown' and M r . Justice [Adrian] Clark would remit the sentence. But M r . Justice Brown told me that, independently of any rule of law, nothing would induce him to dissent from my expressed view. We agreed that neither he nor M r . Justice Clark could act otherwise than as a mere consultant. So law and policy concur. I am, Your Excellency's most obedient servant, FIENNES BARRETT

LENNARD

Chief Justice P.S. Will Your Excellency please return the affidavit, I do not want the letter. J A , C S O , file 1B/5/79/15. T L S , recipient's c o p y . 1. Henry Isaac Close Brown (b. 1874) was one of the two puisne judges who served with Chief Justice Barrett Lennard on the Jamaica Supreme Court. Born in Montego Bay, Brown was the first Jamaican to receive an appointment to the Supreme Court, where he served from 1919 to 1934. He was married to the sister of S. A. G. Cox, the political leader of the anti-colonial National Club of Jamaica. Garvey had been associated with Cox and the National Club prior to World War I. An appeals court judge, C. E. Law, was acting justice in Brown's stead during Garvey's September 1929 contempt of court trial (DG, 14 September and 26 September 1929; Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: G P O , 1930], p. 175; WW]).

Enclosure Saint Catherine District Prison, Spanish Town, 8th November 1929 T o THE HONOURABLE THE C H I E F

JUSTICE

OF J A M A I C A , K I N G S T O N

Sir:— I have the honour to forward herewith an affidavit sworn to by me on the 7th instant, in connection with my committal for contempt of Court. I had intended to use this affidavit in an application to the Supreme Court for a reprieve, but as I have been informed that that course cannot now be taken, I have respectfully to ask Your Honour to receive the said affidavit and the grounds stated therein as a humble application on my behalf for a reprieve of the said sentence, and to ask Your Honour to be so good as to cause my application to be transmitted to His Excellency the Governor of this Island [R. Edward Stubbs], and that Your Honour would be so good as to recommend my application. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant, MARCUS J A , C S O , file 1B/5/79/15. T L S , recipient's c o p y . 360

GARVEY

NOVEMBER 1929

Enclosure [Si. Catherine District Prison, Spanish Town, 7 November 1929] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATION OF JAMAICA IN THE MATTER OF an application by the Attorney General for the committal of MARCUS GARVEY for contempt of Court. I, MARCUS GARVEY, of Somali Court in the parish of Saint Andrew in this Island, Journalist and President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association being duly sworn make oath and say:—

1. My true place of abode and my postal address are Somali Court, Lady Musgrave Road, Half Way Tree Post Office, in the parish of Saint Andrew in this Island. 2. That on hearing from this Honourable Court during the trial aforesaid that the tenth plank of my political platform in my campaign for election to the Legislative Council to represent the parish of Saint Andrew was a contempt of Court (an intention which I never had nor intended) I readily apologized by parole and by affidavit filed in this Honourable Court on the 26th day of September 1929. 3. That when this Honourable Court stated, much to my surprise, that the said tenth plank and comments thereon tended to incite and create disaffection among the loyal subjects of His Majesty (an intention I never had and under no circumstances entertained) but realizing from the statement of the Court that such could have been the result, I felt, as I did express myself in the apologies, and further desired on the day when I was sentenced to have further expressed my sincerest wish that nothing said by me on the said tenth plank or comments thereon might be interpreted by my countrymen or other of His Majesty's subjects to mean any dis-regard or dis-respect for His Majesty's Courts in this Island or to His Majesty's Sovereign Person. This statement I was unable to make to the Court. 4. That since my incarceration there has been no instance of dis-respect shown to the Courts on account of what I said and there has been no indication, happily, of any disposition on the part of the people to show disrespect to law and order. 5. That my continuous imprisonment tends to affect and cause to suffer a large number of people and their families who have directly or indirectly been dependent on me for a livelihood. 6. The complaints of suffering I have heard from these people cause me to feel and believe that my freedom would assist them in the continuance of 361

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

the earning o f a livelihood and to prevent then from augmenting the list o f unemployed o f our community at this time. 7. T h a t I am the head o f several businesses and organisations to which I have been elected by large numbers o f people which I am informed are materially suffering from my absence in attending to matters involving large interests which only my liberty can protect. 8. I hereby respectfully beg to repeat the statements made in m y affidavit filed herein on the 26th day o f September 1929. 9. O n the 9th day o f October 1929 I caused to be paid into this H o n ourable C o u r t the sum o f O n e Hundred Pounds being the amount o f fine imposed on me by this Honourable Court. 10. I hereby respectfully pray that this Honourable C o u r t m a y be pleased to grant me a reprieve o f my said sentence. 11.

A n d I hereby pray that this Honourable C o u r t may be pleased to

grant me a Habeas C o r p u s to enable me to appear on this my application. MARCUS GARVEY SWORN to at Spanish Town in the parish of S t . Catherine this 7th day of November 1929. H . H . Blair,' J.P. This affidavit is filed by H. A. Laselve Simpson of N o . 15 Duke St., Kingston, Solicitor, for and on behalf of the Respondent. J A , C S O , file 1B/5/79/15. T D S . 1. Dr. Homer H. Blair (b. 1866) was resident magistrate, Spanish Town, St. Catherine Parish. Educated at Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, Blair practiced as a surgeon in the United States before returning to Jamaica in 1914, where he was licensed to practicc mcdicine, midwifery, and surgery (Eppie D. Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 27 July 1988; Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: The Government Printing Office, 1930], p. 215; WWJ).

Governor R. Edward Stubbs to Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard [Kingston,] 21 N o v . 1929 Sir, I have the honour to a c k n o w l e d g e ] the receipt o f your letter o f the 12th o f N o v e m b e r with regard to the imprisonment o f M r . Marcus Garvey. 2. I am advised that I have the p o w e r to impose the condition, which y o u suggest, on the release o f M r . G a r v e y but after careful consideration, I d o have doubts as to the advisability o f the adoption o f this course. L e t us assume Assuming that he was released on a bond to be o f g o o d behaviour and then proceeded to make speeches which were or the man in the street might regard 362

NOVEMBER 1929

-as- inflammatory o r seditious /speeches/, it could not, I understand, be possible to enforce the penalty o f the bond without obtaining a conviction in C o u r t on a charge o f sedition. If such a charge were laid and a conviction was not obtained the penalty could not be enforced: and the bond w o u l d While on a conviction f o r sedition could be adequate penalties could be imposed without the existence o f any bond. 3. Unless, therefore, you arc prepared to acquiesce in the release o f M r . G a r v e y without conditions, I think that it will be better to allow him to remain in prison for the present. I may say that I consider that it could be very undesirable that he should be released /he should be set free/ just at Christmas time as it w o u l d and I propose therefore to release him shortly after before the expiration o f his sentence. In order to avoid demonstrations by his followers, /which, especially at that season of the year, might very probably lead to disorder/ I should d o so without giving any previous notice o f my intention. 4- T h e affidavit is returned as requested. /Thanks./ J A , C S O , file 1B/5/79/15. A L , draft copy.

Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard to Governor R. Edward Stubbs [ K i n g s t o n , ] 21st N o v e m b e r , 1929 Your Excellency, M y letter o f the 12th of N o v e m b e r was mainly induced by a wish to meet Y o u r Excellency's supposed wishes so far as I could consistently with the maintenance o f the authority o f the Court. A s the sentence was mild (I have very high authority f o r this statement) G a r v e y can well serve it. I w o u l d release G a r v e y on the 21st, 22nd or 23rd o f D e c e m b e r for the reason assigned by Your Excellency. I respectfully concur in the absence o f any notice. I may add f o r Y o u r Excellency's information that Messrs [J. H . and S . ] Cargill have just charged Garvey with acts which I call, if sustained, gross forgery and subornation o f perjury.' Garvey is no man to encourage. I am. Your Excellency's most obedient Servant, FIENNES

BARRETT-LENNARD

C h i e f Justice JA, CSO, file 1B/5/79/15. T L S , recipient's copy. On Supreme Court, Jamaica, letterhead. M a r k e d "CONFIDENTIAL." 1. J. H . Cargill and S. Cargill, solicitors with the Kingston firm Cargill, Cargill, and Dunn, were agents of the court in charge of the public auction of Libert}' Hall, 76 King Street, Kingston, in September 1929. The U N I A building was sold by court order to satisfy the ruling in George O. Marke v. UNIA, Inc., which made the local U N I A in Kingston liable for debts incurred by the U N I A parent body in New York (DG, 3 September 1929).

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Governor R. Edward Stubbs to Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard [Kingston,] December ioth, 1929 Sir, I have the honour to inform you that I am arranging for the release of Marcus Garvey at about 4.30 this afternoon. 1 I have thought it desirable to select to-day as the date of his release as there is less risk of an ebullition of popular excitement on Thursday, a full working day, than on Friday, pay-day, Saturday, market day, or Sunday, a holiday, and on Monday there will be a good deal of movement in Kingston owing to the reception which is to be given to Lord [Sydney] Olivier. I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, R . E . STUBBS

Governor JA, CSO, file 1B/5/79/15. TLS, recipient's copy. 1. Garvey was scheduled to be released from the St. Catherine District Prison on Christmas Eve, and the UNIA, August 1929 of the World, had planned a mass demonstration to mark the event. The UNIA leader was quietly released by prison officials on 19 December 1929 in order to diffuse the planned public display of support for him and his policies (Baltimore Afro-American, 4 January 1930; NW, 4 January 1930).

Article in the New York Times [[Havana, Cuba, 29 Jan. 1950]] Marcus Garvey will not be permitted to enter Cuba on his projected visit. An expulsion decree was signed against him by President [Gerardo] Machado 1 today. M r . Garvey is at present in Jamaica. His activities in the eastern part of Cuba have been investigated by the Cuban government and it was found he had been engaged in spreading propaganda tending to cause racial disagreements in that part of the island. Printed in NTT, 30 January 1930. Original headlines omitted. 1. Gerardo Machado y Morales (1871-1939) was elected president of Cuba in 1924. Reelected in 1928, he gradually turned the presidency into a dictatorship, ruling until overthrown in a bloodless military coup in 1933. He died in Miami 29 March 1939 (NW, 11 April 1931; DG, 6 June 1932; NTT, 30 March 1939)-

364

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Governor R. Edward Stubbs to Sir Fiennes Barrett Lennard [Kingston,] December ioth, 1929 Sir, I have the honour to inform you that I am arranging for the release of Marcus Garvey at about 4.30 this afternoon. 1 I have thought it desirable to select to-day as the date of his release as there is less risk of an ebullition of popular excitement on Thursday, a full working day, than on Friday, pay-day, Saturday, market day, or Sunday, a holiday, and on Monday there will be a good deal of movement in Kingston owing to the reception which is to be given to Lord [Sydney] Olivier. I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, R . E . STUBBS

Governor JA, CSO, file 1B/5/79/15. TLS, recipient's copy. 1. Garvey was scheduled to be released from the St. Catherine District Prison on Christmas Eve, and the UNIA, August 1929 of the World, had planned a mass demonstration to mark the event. The UNIA leader was quietly released by prison officials on 19 December 1929 in order to diffuse the planned public display of support for him and his policies (Baltimore Afro-American, 4 January 1930; NW, 4 January 1930).

Article in the New York Times [[Havana, Cuba, 29 Jan. 1950]] Marcus Garvey will not be permitted to enter Cuba on his projected visit. An expulsion decree was signed against him by President [Gerardo] Machado 1 today. M r . Garvey is at present in Jamaica. His activities in the eastern part of Cuba have been investigated by the Cuban government and it was found he had been engaged in spreading propaganda tending to cause racial disagreements in that part of the island. Printed in NTT, 30 January 1930. Original headlines omitted. 1. Gerardo Machado y Morales (1871-1939) was elected president of Cuba in 1924. Reelected in 1928, he gradually turned the presidency into a dictatorship, ruling until overthrown in a bloodless military coup in 1933. He died in Miami 29 March 1939 (NW, 11 April 1931; DG, 6 June 1932; NTT, 30 March 1939)-

364

F E B R U A R Y 1930

Marcus Garvey to the Daily Gleaner [[67 Slipe Road, Feby 4 , 1930]] Sir.— Jamaica is a very small portion of our world and it is so far removed from the heart of our civilization that those of us w h o have grown with the intelligence of our time can well afford to treat the country with sympathy from an intelligent and intellectual point of view. Your journal is supposed to be the leading newspaper of the island, and so we must judge the native intelligence from the correspondence you select to publish in your paper. I am a very busy man, and have very little time to read the local papers, not even my own, but during the last election campaign and now immediately following I have had occasion to glance over your editorial and letters written to you by correspondents, most of them criticisms of me. From my observation I am forced to conclude that Jamaica is indeed an ignorant community; it is limited in intelligence, narrow in its intellectual concept, almost to the point where one can honestly say that the country is ridiculous.

In the midst of this we have a small amount of intelligence that

must be surprised at the way things are done and how things are stated. Your editorials and the criticisms of your correspondents of me show how ignorant the country is as touching the economic well being of our population. A s a candidate for election to the Legislative Council I came out on a manifesto that included the following: 1. Representation in the Imperial Parliament for a larger modicum of self-government for Jamaica. 2. Protection of native labour. 3. A minimum wage for the labouring and working classes of the island. 4. A law to protect the working and labouring classes of the country by insurance against accidents, sickness and death, caused during employment. 5. A law to compel the employment of not less than 60 per cent of native labour in all industrial, agricultural and commercial activities engaged in, in this island. 6. The expansion and improvement of city, town or urban areas without the incumberance [encumbrance] or restraint of private proprietorship. 7. A n eight hour working day throughout Jamaica. 8. A law to encourage the promotion of native industries. 9. Land Reform.

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10. The compulsory improvement of urban areas from which large profits are made by trusts, corporations, combines or companies. 11. A Jamaica University and Poly-technic. 12. The establishing of a Government High School in the capital Town of each parish for the supply of free secondary education. Attached to the said High School to be a night continuation school to facilitate those desiring to study at night for the advance of their education. 13. A public library in the capital town of each parish. The above manifesto is branded as "Garveyism" which is sought to be destroyed by you and your anonymous correspondents. Now how foolish and ignorant you appear before the intelligent world. Can you not realize Mr. Editor that if any statesman or Government can succeed in helping the poor people of this island especially the workers and labourers to earn more, say a standard wage, in keeping with the standard of living as demanded by society, that nobody would suffer, but that every class in the island would benefit, in view of the fact that the working people by virtue of earning more would spend more? Your merchants would do bigger business, your professional men would be greater successes, skilled workers would be better paid, tradesmen would have more work, the government would earn more revenue, and society as a whole would be helped because we would have less [fewer] vagrants, less thieves, less insane people and our State would be prosperous and our people happy. This can be worked out by the scientific laws of economics, such as has been worked out in England and other progressive countries in our civilization. Jamaicans or Englishmen in Jamaica who want to see the people still in rag[s], in filth and dirt are poor specimens of our Christian humanity. In fact they are a disgrace to the human race, for in all parts of the world to-day governments and statesmen are endeavouring to make everybody in the State happy, except in Jamaica. I understand that the employe[r]s of the servant classes turned out en masse to vote against me in St. Andrew: 1 and because Mr. [H. A. L.] Simpson was somewhat connected with me by being a personal friend and acquaintance of mine for over 20 years the same class voted against him in Kingston,2 simply because they believed that their servants were to get more wages if I was elected—A silly and preposterous idea. In my effort to help the people and the country I had no idea of helping the servant class only. My desire was to help everybody. So it was pure selfishness on the part of the employers to vote against me because they thought they would have had to pay their servants more, not realizing that they themselves would also earn more and be in a better position to pay their servants more. When I look O N THE NAKEDNESS

of the people all over Jamaica, the poverty and the want, I cannot imagine where those who call themselves our representatives get the heart from to vote 366

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increased salaries to men who are already sufficiently paid whilst those poor people continue to live in misery, and especially when one bears in mind that the increased salaries come out of the general revenue to which the very poor contribute. Mr. Editor [Herbert DeLisser], I want to inform you that I regard you as a heartless man—heartless because you find so many arguments to prove that there is no misery and want in this country, when as a fact there is. Probably you don't know better, because you are so far removed from the misery that exists; but I who have come in contact with the people see their condition all over the island and know what I am talking and writing about. Would I not be a bad citizen if I were to see such misery and not attempt to alleviate it directly or indirectly? If I understand English constitutional principles properly, I think that the one is a better British subject or citizen who will attempt to make his fellow citizens happy than the one who will exploit them and keep them in misery. Yet I am held up as a disloyal man, a bad fellow, because I seek to make the people happy, that we may have a peaceful State,—less prisons, less asylums, less Poor Houses etc. You and your correspondents may be able to convince the unthinking group of our country that I am a bad man and that my doctrine called "Garveyism" should be destroyed, but that does not mean that it will be destroyed. If you are an intelligent student of history you will know that principles are not so easily destroyed. There was no principle so dangerous to the State as that of Christian religion during the time of Jesus Christ, but, to-day even the Bishops profess the religion of Christianity. What are you going to do about it? I suppose because the People's Political Party did not win out in this first attempt as was decided that you conclude that the Party and its principles are dead. Are you aware, M r . Editor, that the Labour Party that now governfs] England had a harder time not fifty years ago than the People's Political Party to-day. That Party was regarded in England with contempt and even said to be disloyal in the effort to free the labouring and working classes, but to-day it is a consolidated power within the British Empire—a power for good. I am afraid M r . Editor that I will have to give you some public lectures or send you for a trip abroad so that you may be better able to write intelligently to the Jamaica public and help them out of their limited intelligence which makes the country look so ridiculous. Let me tell you[,] M r . Editor[,] "Garveyism" is not dead. "Garveyism" the thing that seeks to help humanity, the thing that seeks to make a happier and more prosperous State, will not be dead for centuries. Again, I say that the thing called "Garveyism" seeks to help humanity and if this is the thing to be do[ne] then it will be a fight to the finish. I am, etc, MARCUS GARVEY

Printed in DG, 6 February 1930. j. Garvey's major opponent in the general election for legislative council was George SeymourSeymour, who had been a municipal councillor in the Kingston and S t . Andrew Corporation in 1924, a representative of the S t . Andrew Parish in the legislative council in 1925, and mayor of 367

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Kingston and St. Andrew in 1927. Seymour-Seymour owned the Jamaica Mail newspaper and received support from H. G. DeLisser, editor of the Daily Gleaner. He also belonged to the Jamaica Producers Association, an organization representing the interest of landowners, merchants, and colonial officials whose members gained twelve out of the fourteen seats on the legislative council in the January 1930 election. During the campaign Garvey forged a political alliance with R. Ehrenstein, a planter running for election from the parish of St. Thomas, in an unsuccessful effort to win support from small-property owners and proprietors and lower-middle-class clerical and service workers. Seymour-Seymour received 1,677 votes, while Garvey, with his pro-labor and pro-reform platform, polled second with 915. The overwhelming electoral victory of candidates who represented the interests of major capital investment in the banana industry, and of upperclass white landholders in general, resulted in the effective demise of Garvey's PPP as an ongoing political organization (Michael Case, "An Analysis of the Results of the T w o Elections Contested by Marcus Garvey, 1929-1930," paper presented at "Garvey: His Work and Impact," international conference, University of the West Indies, 5-^7 November 1987; DG, 23 September and 30 October 1929, 24 and 31 January 1930; NW, 1 and 22 February 1930; NTT, 13 February 1930; James Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics, ¡918-1938 [Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1973], pp. 81-82). Prior to the election, Seymour-Seymour wrote to Gov. R. Edward Stubbs to request police protection during the balloting. He asked that one of his supporters, a local druggist, be escorted home and guarded because "he has earned the hatred of the Garveyites by his support of me." He went on to state that: hundreds of Garveyites pay taxes from 4/- up to 9/6. They think they are on the Voters List but [they] are not. Many of them will invade the Polls and demand that they register their votes. They will probably refuse to believe they are not on the list and so block the booths. Can we not have strong bodies of Police to move them on? Seymour-Seymour recommended that eleven officers and fifty-six policemen be assigned to the polls in his district. He explained this request for force by saying that the "Garveyites have broken up so many meetings with impunity that they are growing bolder every day and even if it might appear that I propose to use a 9.2 gun when a Webley might prove enough, one cannot be too careful at a time like this. . . . If Garvey is beaten there is sure to be a demonstration" (SeymourSeymour to Stubbs, 23 January 1930, file on Legislative Council Election of 1930, No. 1B/51-9, JA.). 2. H.A.L. Simpson, PPP candidate for the Kingston district, was defeated by A. E. Da Costa by a vote of 1,508 to 2,065. In addition to Simpson and Garvey's losses, Manasseh Scott was unsuccessful in St. Ann Parish and W. McNeil in St. Catherine Parish. Dr. Felix Gordon Veitch, of Hanover district, was the only PPP-supported candidate who was successful in the January 1930 elections (DG, 21 January 1930).

Marcus Garvey to the Daily Gleaner [ [ K i n g s t o n , F e b . 10. 1 9 3 0 ] ] Sir,— In y o u r issue o f this m o r n i n g ' s date I have o b s e r v e d that y o u are still publishing letters f r o m M r . [ D . T . ] W i n t 1 and a n o n y m o u s persons, the object o f w h i c h is to again impress the public that the t h i n g y o u call " G a r v e y i s m " is dead. M r . W i n t is an artful politician.

H e is e n d e a v o u r i n g t o h o l d himself

u p as the "deliverer o f J a m a i c a , " in that he has " s a v e d " the c o u n t r y f r o m " G a r v e y i s m . " H o w desirous he is o f placing himself in the position o f a " g r e a t h e r o " is m a d e manifest in the first p a r a g r a p h o f his letter o f t o - d a y ' s date. A l l w h i t e Jamaicans should subscribe to a purse f o r the H o n . D . T .

Wint,

and o n the retirement o f o u r g o o d G o v e r n o r o u g h t t o elect h i m G o v e r n o r o f Jamaica.

H e refers t o m e as " H i s H i g h n e s s " in the s e c o n d p a r a g r a p h o f 368

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his letter. I have never had the honour of such a title. The only title I have, as President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, is that of "Honourable," which M r . Wint doesn't regard as properly obtained, although it was voted me by six conventions, where delegates of the Negro race from all parts of the world assembled in thousands to represent the people in millions. M r . Wint thinks he has more claim to "Honourable" than I because he was elected by 800 people in a small parish. M y "Honourable" is like that of "Bishop," "Moderator" or "Commissioner" in the Anglican church, the Presbyterian church or the Salvation Army, but even this M r . Wint and his friends, and probably yourself, would like to dispossess me of, in that I have no right to it, according to you. M r . Wint has tried to make out that I have abused General Moulton Barrett, Sir Thomas Roxburgh, Captain Blagrovc, M r . McGrath etc.2 This is only one of the stunts of M r . Wint to get himself on the good side of rich men who may be of use to him if he can prove his case in their behalf. I have never abused General Moulton Barrett nor Sir Thomas Roxburgh. I do not know Captain Blagrove and have never mentioned his name, neither have I mentioned the name of M r . McGrath. The only reference I made to General Moulton Barrett and Sir Thomas Roxburgh was by way of illustration in speeches I delivered at Claremont and Alexandria, 3 where I pointed out that whilst General Moulton Barrett, Sir Thomas Roxburgh, M r . Wint and myself could afford to cat good food and thereby develop a healthy and sound body, with good blood circulation, fitting us to perform our daily work etc., the poor people who are human beings like ourselves could not develop healthy and robust bodies; that by poor blood circulation they were easier victims to diseases that those of us who could eat better food and thereby have better and healthier blood circulation. If that is an abuse, it proves how ignorant the member for St. Ann is in his not being able to understand logical reasonings, thereby calling it abuse. You have often written of the culture and refinement of M r . Wint, but surely such refinement and eulture was not reflected in his letter of to-day nor in his general conduct during the last campaign. To me M r . Wint is a coarse and vulgar politician; yet you make him so high-toned as to make us feel that Jamaica is so limited in culture that we cannot find any better representative of it than M r . Wint. M r . Wint speaks about my enriching myself. I wonder where he gets this from? He is not a member of my organization absolutely he knows nothing about my organization. The people who know about my organization have by the confidence they have in me re-elected me to the position I have held for over 10 years. I prefer to rely on the testimony of such people than on the criticism of a selfish man like M r . D. T. Wint. I feel sure that if I were the dishonest person M r . Wint tries to make out, I would not hold the position I now hold among Negroes of the world. M r . Wint and yourself have repeated so often that "Garveyism" is dead. It is more than nine days since you have said so. I understand that after 369

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nine days have passed a person who is supposed to be dead, if he is not seen again, is really considered dead, and there is nothing more about him except a memory. More than 9 days have passed since you have all so jubilantly buried Garveyism. Why continue to [illegible word] about the nail in the coffin? O, how ridiculous you mortals are! By your insincerity you appear at times so ridiculous. One wonders where you do get courage to repeat your nonsense in the presence of a thickly populated community that holds some intelligence. Relative to the letter of "St. Ann[,]" 4 I can see much in it that reflects on the character of "St. Ann" himself. He cannot imagine my being any good because he is so prejudiced. He tries to compare me with Rev. A. A. Barclay5 and Mr. [George] Seymour Seymour, two local politicians whom nobody knows O U T S I D E OF T H E ISLAND

with the exception of simple people. In any part of the civilized world where you go, my name and my work stand out; but this anonymous writer can only see the value of my work through the accumulation of money. I have no doubt that "St. Ann" would pocket the money if he was in my position, and so he can imagine me doing nothing else but that: but it is for me to tell him that I do not handle the monies of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The monies of the organization are paid into the different branches all other the world. We have 3,000 branches in Africa, in Europe, in the West Indies and South America, in Central America and in the United States. Each branch of the organization collects its own dues, maintains its own organization and contributes but a small part of the net receipts to the parent organization of which I am head. If he wants to know the work the organization has done, he should go to all the branches in the places I have named and he will realize how much good I have done for my race within the last 20 years. I have been in Jamaica actively only one year and a couple months, yet this man and Wint and yourself expect me to work wonders in that short time—the wonders that Jesus of Nazareth did not work in his three years of active missionary work. "St. Ann," Wint and yourself expect me to have brought to Jamaica millions of pounds from heaven or from somewhere else and freely distributed it among all the people that I am supposed to help. In the absence of doing that, I am no good; yet any impartial student of Jamaica's affairs will readily admit that within the time I have been in Jamaica, there has been a wonderful growth of race consciousness in the education of the black and coloured people. The have become more conscious of race, more self-respecting and are benefiting in every way in helping and supporting themselves. This is only a small fraction of what I have been able to do for my race within the last twenty years. Anyone who goes to America will be told that through my educational propaganda the Negroes there have become more self-conscious, have become more businesslike and that the entire country of Negroes is benefiting from my presence there for several years. There are more negro businesses now, than before I started my propaganda and launched 370

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the Black Star Line, which did set the example for every Negro to go into big business. During my time in America I launched two lines of steamships [the Black Star Line and the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Co.], I launched several chainfs] of grocery stores, restaurants, printing establishments, all as an encouragement to the American Negroes to go into business on their own account. I being a pioneer of that kind of enterprise naturally became a marked man in America. People of my race were used as they are used in Jamaica, to strangle my efforts, the result was I became a marked man and was framed up and sent to prison and deported. Anyone seeking information in America could have learnt from the president down that my conviction there was not because I committed a crime, but because as a foreigner, I had gained too much influence in America over too many American citizens. Politics played A N IMPORTANT PART

in my imprisonment and deportation from America—everybody knows that. I have millions of friends in America who regard me in the highest favour, even as I regard them with the best of respect. Those who are not blind to truth will remember that several of the Black Star Line ships came to Jamaica. The failure of the company was not due to myself, but to the disloyalty of my assistants who generally played the games of my enemies for higher pay, and for other reasons. Outside of these commercial ventures the organization in all parts of the world have establishments of business, of education, and otherwise—the direct result of my efforts. Negroes are employed in the Government service in Africa, through France, Italy, England, Spain, Belgium and Portugal because of the very fear that if nothing was done for them they would fearlessly protect Garveyism. Positions that were held in West Africa by Europeans are now held by natives because of my teachings. Any of the Chancellories of Europe will tell you that Garveyism is a force to be respectcd and to be dealt with intelligently; and ask any French statesman and English statesman and the truth will be unhesitatingly told, yet "St. Ann" being so narrow in his intelligence, tries to compare me with Rev. A. A. Barclay and Mr. Seymour Seymour. If "St. Ann" were to enquire from the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland; he would find out that that supreme and most august body in statescraft recognized Marcus Garvey and what is called Garveyism as forces to be reckoned with intelligently. My organization has had several representations before the League of Nations, and we were admitted to the Assembly where arguments were presented on our behalf. Unfriendly Governments have often made efforts to embarrass the work, not understanding properly that all that is sought by us is to do good for humanity and not evil. The more intelligent countries have treated us friendly—countries like England, France, Italy and America have done nothing directly obstructive to the work of the U.N.I.A.

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because they cannot be impressed by prejudice to the detriment of truth and facts. Garveyism as it is called is a righteous influence, it has no evil intent. It is not an organization to amass a fortune or to enrich individuals; it is something like the Christian religion. It is an educative, moral force, aiming to do good for humanity. If you question what good Garveyism has done[,] then we have to question what good Christianity or Mohamme [danism has done. If] you question the motives of Garveyism, then we must question the motives of Socrates, of Plato, of Confucius, of Jesus of Nazarath. If you can tell us how much Jesus got out of his Christianity and to what extent he paid dividends, then I may be able to answer you to what extent Garvey is going to pay dividends to his followers. Some people are so obsessed with a desire for money that they cannot imagine one working without it, so M r . Wint and "St. Ann" can only see the money value of Garveyism and not the ethical, moral, social force that it is, in lifting humanity to a higher level. My honesty in many things has been challenged by you and some of your correspondents, but outside of the tricks and the frame-ups that have resulted in my imprisonment, I challenge anyone of you to show A CLEANER PUBLIC CAREER.

I challenge anyone of you to trace from your birth up with me and let anyone decide who is the most honest. There is one thing, I have never robbed a man in my life. Most of the people who have criticised me are people who know nothing about me nor my organization. The people with whom I have dealt directly have laid no complaints against me because they have none. I think I have written enough M r . Editor [Herbert DeLisser] seeing, according to you Garveyism is dead, why not let the corps[e] rest in peace? A thing that is dead is out of existence; now, it has been dead according to you for over 9 days, let us have the 9th night and say goodbye to Garveyism for ever according to you, M r . Wint and "St. Ann." As far as Dr. [J. Robert] Love is concerned, in the letter of "St. Ann" and in your reference to him, isn't it rather amusing to those who knew D r . Love for you to refer to him as some one to the opposite of Marcus Garvey? Why, much of my early education in race consciousness is from D r . Love. One cannot read his "Jamaica Advocate" without getting race consciousness, but because the man is dead and cannot be troublesome, you hold him up as an angel and suggest me as a devil. If D r . Love was alive and in his robust health, you would not be attacking me, you would be attacking him, but you cowardly try to impute to the contrary, that the man is dead. You must have been writing about D r . Love in his last days when he was played out. I cannot bring myself, Mr. Editor, to do the things you and Wint are doing. I believe in the manliness of the individual. I do not know if you will consider this abuse M r . Editor, but I generally write as I feel. I am etc., MARCUS GARVEY 372

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P.S.—Mr. Wint has been bragging about his election in St. Ann, suggesting that his victory was a glorious one. Every intelligent person knows it was not, but because Mr. Wint is so limited in intelligence, and so conceited over his own personality he is unable to see or realize that he had a narrow escape from a colossal defeat. I state this proposition for the consideration of every intelligent person. Mr. D. Theo. Wint in politics has been regarded as being as popular as M r . J. A. G. Smith. The two men were held up as the leading members of the Legislative Council. I was often hinted that M r . Wint was so popular that his seat would be unopposed; so much for his advantage of popularity supposedly over M r . Smith. M r . Smith's rival in the campaign was M r . [W. Hyde] Macaulay, 6 a late member of the Parochial Board of the parish, a J.P. and a prominent man of public affairs in the parish for fourteen years. For six months M r . Macaulay campaigned against M r . Smith. The result of the election shows that M r . Macaulay was able to poll only 260 votes or there-about against M r . Smith. M r . Manasseh Scott7 who was dubbed a donkey by M r . Wint in contesting the scat against him in St. Ann, campaigned for only 2 weeks assisted by myself. In those [2] weeks we spoke for three days only. The result of the election in St. Ann shows that M r . Scott polled nearly 600 votes against M r . Wint. M r . Wint won by 800 votes over M r . Scott—a lesser majority than M r . Smith won over M r . Macaulay. Now isn't it fair to assume that if M r . Scott had six months of campaigning with my assistance against Mr. Wint as M r . Macaulay and against M r . Smith, that M r . Wint would have been no longer member of the Legislative Council for St. Ann, and would have been beaten so badly as to have been the greatest disgrace in the recent contest? If M r . Wint had intelligence he would reason on those lines as all intelligent persons naturally would do. To do this would cause him to stop flattering himself that he won such a great victory in St. Ann. MARCUS GARVEY

Printed in DG, 17 February 1930. Original headlines omitted. i. Dunbar Theophilus Wint (1879-1938), educator, journalist, planter, and politician, was an elementary schoolteacher, past president of the Jamaica Union of Teachers, and member of the Board of F.ducation when he was first elected a representative to the Jamaica Legislative Council from St. Ann Parish in 1920. Like Garvey, Wint toured Central and South America as a young man. He was sent to the United States under a Carnegie Corp. grant and the auspices of the Jamaica Department of Education to inspect various vocational education centers as possible models for schools in Jamaica. He edited the weekly Jamaica Tribune from 1908 to 1910. He later published and wrote editorials for his own paper, the monthly Jamaica Critic, which began circulation in 1926 and later became the West Indian Critic and Review. He was a member of the Board of Management of the Jamaica Agricultural Society and involved in other planters' associations and civic groups. He retired from politics in 1934 and became a justice of the peace for the parishes of Clarendon and St. Ann (DG, 31 January 1930, 11 July 1938; James Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics 1918-1938 [Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1973], pp. 64, 73). Wint was reelected to his seat on the Jamaica Legislative Council in St. Ann Parish in 1930. He wrote a scries of letters to the editor of the Daily Gleaner regarding Garvey and the election. In the 7 February 1930 letter Garvey refers to here, Wint stated that the election process in St. Ann had been debased by Garvey, whom, he claimed, electors regarded as a curiosity. He referred to Garvey as "His Highness," and charged that Garvey was "possessed of bluff which might be described as the brass of hell and the cheek of the Devil, to say nothing of a mouth with which 373

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS he roared like a bull and brayed like an ass." Wint went on to state that Galley's performance in the parish had driven "the first nail into the coffin of Garveyism, a poisonous cult on the venom of which Mr. Garvey is feeding ignorant people" (DG, 10 February 1930). 2. Wint stated that Garvey "began to preach race hatred, roundly abusing me for serving the interest of the gentry as well as the masses, and further began to abuse gentlemen like General Moulton Barrett, Sir Thomas Roxburgh, Captain Blagrove, Mr. McGrath, etc., it was realized that we were faced with an irresponsible creature who having a wholesale disregard for truth was out to disturb the peace of the parish and island" (DG, 10 February 1930). Capt. Peter Blagrove (b. 1889) was born at Canterbury, Kent, England, and later established himself as a member of the Jamaica Imperial Association and owner of large cattle herds and grazing pens in St. Ann Parish (Eppie D. Edwards, National Library of Jamaica, to Robert A. Hill, 27 July 1989). 3. Claremont is a village in St. Ann Parish, ten miles south of St. Ann's Bay on the main road to Kingston. Alexandria is also located in the interior of St. Ann Parish, eighteen miles south of Runaway Bay and some eighteen miles from Claremont (Philip P. Oiley, Jamaica, British West Indies [Kingston: Tourist Trade Development Board, 1952], p. 201). 4. A person using the pseudonym "St. Ann" wrote a lengthy letter to the editor of the Daily Gleaner that was published the same day as Wint's "nail in the coffin" letter, 10 February 1930. "St. Ann" discounted Garvey's claim that his defeat was due to "racial considerations" and pointed out that the voters of the parish had elected "a man of undiluted African descent" (Robert Love) to the post in the past. "St. Ann" also accused Garvey of grossly over-estimating the extent of his worldwide following. 5. Alexander A. Barclay, an educator and clergyman of St. Mary Parish, was elected to the Jamaica Legislative Council in 1925. He attended the West Indies Conference in London in 1926 and died soon after. In "St. Ann's" letter to the editor, he used Barclay as an example of a highly esteemed black legislator who had won support of both black and white voters through his strength of character (DG, 10 February 1930; Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics, p. 74). 6. W. Hyde Macaulay was defeated by J.A.G. Smith in Clarendon district by a vote of 1,260 to 272 (DG, 31 January 1930). 7. Manasseh Scott polled 589 votes to D. T. Wint's 1,396 (DG, 31 January 1930).

R. L. Gough to the Daily Gleaner [[Port A n t o n i o , F e b . 20th 1930]] Sir,— I have neither the time nor the desire to discuss " G a r v e y i s m " but as M r . Garvey has been so presumptuous as to compare himself to Jesus o f Nazareth, I would like to make some observations. John the Baptist, [ o f ] w h o m Jesus said, " T h e r e hath not risen a greater," so fully realise his o w n unworthiness as compared with Jesus, that he declared " . . . the latchet o f whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop d o w n and unloose." J o h n declares, " A n d the W o r d was made flesh and dwelt among us and w e beheld his glory, the glory as o f the only begotten o f the Father, full o f grace and truth." Napoleon is credited with the following: Sublimity is said to be an attribute o f divinity; w h a t n a [ m e ] then, shall w e give him in whose character was united every element o f the sublime. Comparison is impossible between him and any other being in the world.

N e a r as I may approach, closely, as I m a y

examine, all remains above comparison. It is in vain that I reflect— all remains unaccountable! I defy y o u to cite another life like that o f Christ. 374

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Yet this is the person with whom M r . Garvey seeks to compare himself. If he were not so filled with the thought of his own greatness, he would have realised that such a comparison is ridiculous. He must have closed his eyes and stopped the operation of his reasoning faculties. He would do well to pray David's prayer: "Keep back thy servant (—it is very unlikely that such a relationship exists between himself and God, but the prayer offered sincerely would be profitable anyway) also from presumptuous sins: let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." Even the devils declared, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Son of God." In this respect M r . Garvey is worse than the devils. Jesus was born poor, He lived poor and He died poor. More than that, He was rich and made Himself poor in order to save us: "Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through poverty might be rich." M r . Garvey on the contrary, was born poor, but is now living in affluence— in a palatial residence, while his people live in dirt. He gets the money and they get the bluff, brag and bluster. M r . Garvey says that "Garveyism" is like Christianity—a moral force. He should realise that his morality is as filthy rags when compared with the Holy One and His teachings. Other teachings upon religion and the various sciences have done good and have ennobled and blessed mankind, to some extent; but all other teachings combined have failed to bring the joy, peace and blessing to the groaning creation that Christianity has brought to both the rich and the poor, to the learned and the unlearned, to the black and the white. Our orphanages, hospitals, asylums, homes for the aged, alms houses, and all the benevolent societies, not excluding the Red Cross Society, are the result of its influence working in the lives of men and women. The essence of Christianity is love, and even though its professors have sometimes compromised and brought reproach on it because of human frailty, yet the thing itself has never compromised; it is just as strong, firm and powerful as the day it entered this sin-cursed world. The essence of "Garveyism" is hatred, distrust, bitterness and strife. I know that M r . G[ar]vey denies ever having preached race hatred, but the truth remains in spite of his denial. N o one could fail to see it in his writings for the past six months or so. Perhaps M r . Garvey does not understand what he writes, or he is incapable of writing what he means, or is it that he is not humble enough to admit the error of his way? If "Garveyism" were what it claims to be—something that will uplift the race and make the people better, purer, and more worthy citizens— it would be hailed as a blessing and would receive the assistance of every government. Mr. Garvey would have us think that the governments especially the government of America and Cuba are very foolish. Wouldn't it be to the advantage of the government of any country to have the people more lawabiding and better in every way? And when they oppose "Garveyism" isn't it because they are convinced that it has the opposite effect, and an evil one at that, on the people? 375

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Mr. Garvey thinks that if we question his motive we must necessarily question the motive of Jesus Christ. But that does not follow; it depends on who the person is, on what his character is, as evidenced in his whole life and his past activities, and on his general conduct in connection with his business. Poor Mr. Garvey! How foolish and fallacious his reasoning. How hard-up he must be for argument, and how lame must be his case, when he resorts to such sophistry to prove his point. Jesus Christ was pure, holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, and was therefore incapable of doing wrong; but since Mr. Garvey is a member of a sin-cursed race—"born in sin and shapen in iniquity"—and since "to err is human" it would be quite excusable if his motive is questioned, even if time proved that we were wrong in so doing. Then again, Jesus lived a life of poverty, and eventually died to save mankind; died, not merely as a martyr, but as a sacrifice for sin—'The just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." Mr. Garvey's own people have questioned (and have good reasons for so doing) his motives, and today he is B E T T E R O F F THAN H E H A S E V E R B E E N

before. Blinded by conceit and pride, and fired by an unholy ambition, he will never be able to understand the great difference that there is between Jesus Christ and himself. One the embodiment of love, the other the representative of darkness and error and falsehood. Your correspondent contends that if he is asked to pay dividends, Jesus should be asked to do so too. How hopelessly ignorant of Christ and His teachings he is. Truly, there is no darkness like the darkness of ignorance. It goes to prove that even a scholar cannot intelligently discuss a subject that he does not understand. The dividend that Christ promises His followers is eternal life, to be paid when He returns. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." The[ir] present blessing—love, joy, peace, holiness of life, and fellowship with God and Christ—is but a foretaste of that dividend. Paul says, we "By patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, honour and immortality, eternal life," Peter says, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature." Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world," so only a foolish person would ask for dividends of a worldly nature. He does not ask people to serve Him blindly and ignorantly. He expects us to acquaint ourselves of the terms [illegible words] the nature of the reward [illegible words] in His army. But since [illegible words] organization is a worldly one [illegible] much of this world, it is perfectly reasonable to expect him to pay dividends. One more point. Mr. Garvey is characteristically ignorant of what Jesus did during His earthly ministry. He did what no one else could have done, and what was necessary to be done before any blessing of a permanent nature could come to mankind; He redeemed us from the curse of sin and death by the sacrifice of Himself. In due time, He will return [to] establish His kingdom, and bless and restore the redeemed. In the meantime He is calling 376

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to Himself all who have ears to hear and hearts to incline, all who are willing to forsake all and follow Him, and the secondary purpose accomplished by the preaching of the Gospel is that of a witness. But I do not expect M r . Garvey to understand these things nor am I surprised that they seem foolish to him. Paul says ' T h e natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." In due time the world will realise that Christians were not fools, but that they chose the better part when they ran for the riches, honours and crown, unseen by them but eternal. And if the world has been greatly blessed and benefited by the influence of Christianity during the time when it is preached only as a witness (so far as the world at large is concerned) what a transformation will take place on this poor earth, when Christ's kingdom is established! Close your eyes for a moment to the scenes of misery and woe, degradation and sorrow that yet prevail on account of sin and picture before your mental vision the glory of the perfect earth. Not a stain of sin mars the harmony and peace of a perfect society; not a bitter thought, not an unkind look or word; love, welling up from every heart, meets a kindred response in every other heart, and benevolence marks every act. There sickness shall be no more: not an ache nor a pain, nor any evidence of decay—not even the fear of such things. Think of all the pictures of comparative health and beauty of human form and feature that you have ever seen, and know that perfect humanity will be of still surpassing loveliness. The inward purity and mental and moral perfection will stamp and glorify every radiant countenance. Such will earth's society be: and weeping bereaved ones will have their tears all wiped away, when thus they realise the resurrection work complete. After reading the above quotation, a gentleman remarked, "That will be heaven on earth." Yes, indeed; it will be God's will being done on earth as it is done in heaven—it will be that glorious kingdom for which we have so long prayed. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done," it will indeed be "the desire of all nations." Blessed are those who follow Him faithfully now, for they will then be in glory with Him, when He thus blesses and uplifts mankind. But such a glorious condition will not be brought about by "Garveyism." It will be brought about by the reign of the Prince of Peace. What better can I do than quote the Master's words: " H o w can ye, being evil, speak good things." The Lord shall reward Him according to his works. He will reap the crop of his own sowing, the retribution that inevitably follows an evil course. He has my pity if not my sympathy. I hate the wrong but not the wrongdoer. I hate the sin always, the sinner never. If M r . Garvey will humbly study the life and teachings of Christ, receive His teachings into a good heart, let the Gospel be the controlling and propelling and impelling 377

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force in his life, and have a desire to do God's will instead of his own he will do more good for his people and be a greater blessing to all with whom he comes in contact. May the Lord, who is rich in mercy, have mercy on him in that day. Let me thank you, Mr. Editor[,] for the necessary space, and apologise for taking up so much of it. I will promise not to write on this subject again, no matter what Mr. Garvey may say, I know all that he is capable of. He will no doubt be still more presumptuous, and resort to further sophistries (if not blasphemies) to justify his evil course, but I will let him alone. I am etc. R. L. GOUGH

Port Antonio Printed in DG, 24 February 1930. Original headlines omitted.

Marcus Garvey to Governor R. Edward Stubbs "Somali Court," Lady Musgrave Rd., St. Andrew, February 21, 1930 Sir: I hereby beg to draw to Your Excellency's attention, a matter of grave importance, which it is my intention to bring before His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies [Lord Passfield]1 and His Majesty's [George V's] Government in England, in which I think it my duty to first bring to your attention, as the Chief Executive of His Majesty's Government in this Island. At a trial2 held in the Resident Magistrate Court of Kingston in which I was cited for Seditious Libel in conjunction with one T. A. Aikman, and John Coleman Beecher3 and tried before His Hon. Mr. A. K. Agar, starting from the 12th. inst., and concluding on the 21st. inst., the Resident Magistrate attempted throughout the proceedings in the most tactful but suggestive manner to create a cleavage between my co-defendants and myself, in actually suggesting to them whilst they were not yet called to the witness stand, that I had made statements tending to incriminate them. The purpose of this could have only meant to arouse the pr[e]judice and ire of my co-defendants on entering the witness box when called, in their defense to malignantly accuse me as /a/ return for the suggested attempt as alleged by the Judge by me to incriminate them. As the accused could speak nothing else but the truth, which they did, I was not incriminated by them, but their testimony tended to support my evidence before the honourable Court. The prejudice of His Honour, the Judge[,] to me was very evident in his continuous reference to my accusation of Beecher and Aikman, when in fact I made no accusation against them, but stated the facts as on the records of 378

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the Court. One of the principle statements was, as can be found in the records of the Court, that I said that /Mr./ Beecher was acting manager of "The Blackman Printing and Publishing Co.," which is a fact. Mr. Leo Rankin,4 another witness in the case[,] when asked said plainly on the records of the court that Mr. Beecher was Manager of "The Blackman Printing and Publishing Co.," and was so during the period of the alleged publication. His Honour ignored that part of the evidence of Mr. Rankin's testifying that Beecher was manager of 'The Blackman Printing and Publishing Co." and emphasised in the presence of Aikman, Beecher and the Court that it was Garvey who said that Beecher was the manager with the intent of stirring the prejudice of Beecher and Aikman in their malignity against me if possible. The Judge[']s prejudice was further shown in his final judgment when he made use of the following remarks: "Throughout the case Garvey has tried to escape, by trying to put everything on Aikman. Aikman said he wrote the article, but it was the intention of Garvey to throw all the responsibility on him. I find Garvey guilty of criminal libel." The Judge made this statement in his judgment as against the evidence on record where Aikman himself admitted that he w[ro]te the article. I submit to Your Excellency that this statement contains not only His Honour['s] judgment but an expression of his prejudice against me, a British subject, tried in his Court. And therefore, I feel it my duty to bring the matter to the attention of Your Excellency before drawing it to the attention of His Majesty's Secretary of State and the Imperial Authorities in England. Continuing His Honour said: The position so far as Beecher is concerned has given me a lot of thought. He is Junior and circulating manager. I am satisfied that he did not read the paper. Garvey in his evidence has called Beecher manager o f ' T h e Blackman Printing and Publishing Co.," whatever that may be. If he is manager of the Printing Plant I should take it that he has something to do with the Plant and that he is liable; but I am not prepared to convict Beecher on the evidence of Garvey. I[n] passing sentence on me the Judge continuing said: Marcus Garvey you have been recently convicted for contempt of Court, you attempted to flout the authority of the Courts of this Colony. You were punished for that. That has no effect upon you. Now, your paper has attempted to flout the authority of the Government. If you are not stopped in this course, serious harm may arise to this Colony and to the people of the Colony. For a person of your position; as head of an important Organization— an Organization which is likely to do a great amount of good— for you to use that position to create contempt of His Majesty's Government, is a very serious offense. You are therefore sentenced to six months hard labour.5 379

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The very prejudice of the Judge is seen in the fact that he passed a sentence that was not prescribed by law—hard labour—in which he was corrected by the Crown Solicitor. 6 The Judge[,] as Your Excellency may [have] observed[,] passed a severe sentence on me with the evidence before his Court tending to prove that I had nothing to do with the writing, never saw, never inspired it, and in the face of those facts in the record, the Judge attempted to create sentiment at the trial as if I were the principle party in the alleged seditious libel. In reciting his judgment, the Judge made use o f the following words: The first thing is whether the article is /a/ seditious article or not. To any man with ordinary intelligence it is clearly seditious. Aikman's meaning of the words he wrote have shaken his innocence. It is not an article that is a fair comment, or a comment at all on the Government. It directly charges the government with certain things. It charges the Government to have instigated Major [H.] Simms,7 the Director o f Public Work[s,] and Dr. [B. M.] Wilson, 8 the Senior Medical Officer, to exert their influence in a certain way—with interfering with the General Election in St. Andrew— with the free choice of the Electo[r]s, and there could be no more serious charge than that. It directly charges the Government o f trying to get the people to do something desperate, and to take the law in their own hands. Continuing he said: Taking all the facts into consideration, Garvey has really some interest in, and some control over the paper "The Blackman[,"] and the onus is cast upon him to show that he has exercised due care and caution to see that libelous matter did not appear in the paper. He has exercised no care or caution; and therefore, he is criminally liable. Despite the facts of the record, the Judge's prejudice was carried so vehemently against me as to suggest that his finding was not in accordance with law or with the facts o f evidence but on h[is] desire through prejudice, to unreasonably punish me. In sentencing Mr. Aikman he said: Aikman you are the writer o f the a[r]ticle, and the writer o f a seditious article is generally taken to be the chief offender, but I am not taking that into consideration. You wrote the article but I am quite satisfied that the responsibility—the inherent responsibility is not yours. I am quite satisfied that Garvey is trying to save himself by putting it on you. I am conscious that you are only the tool for Garvey. Under the circumstances I sentence you to three months imprisonment. 380

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I beg to draw to Your Excellency's attention that there is absolutely no evidence on the record on which the Judge could come to such a conclusion, which ther[e]fore, reveals his prejudice against me, and the violation of the rights of a British subject charged before a British Court of Justice. If your Excellency were to compare the statements above quoted as emanating from the Judge, they would show how illogical and silly the judgment is; in one instance suggesting that Aikman is my tool and as such had no inherent responsibility, yet in another statement the Judge claims by evidence that Aikman, the writer of the article is the chief offender. It is not clear to any intelligent person whether I am sentenced as being the chief offender for writing the article or using Mr. Aikman, my supposed tool to write the article, or that I am sentenced for negligence, according to the imputation of the Judge, in the absence of reason, logical and clear, there is but one assumption and that is that the Judge was prejudiced and not against me and and his judgement was on such prejudice and not on facts or law. I am satisfied that Your Excellency cannot rule in the matter as far as the appeal of the case goes, in that it is on appeal before the Supreme Court; but the purpose of this letter is to draw to Your Excellency's attention the prejudice of the Judge in trying the Plaint, in order that Your Excellency may use your good office in seeing that such prejudice is not maintained against His Majesty's subjects called before the Courts of Law in this Island. And as above stated, it is my intention to bring the matter before His Majesty's Secretary of State and the Imperial Government, therefore, I think it my duty to first lay the matter before you. I have the honour to be, Your Excellency's Obedient Servant, M A R C U S GARVEY [Address:] His Excellency Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs, G.C.M.G. King's House, St. Andrew, Ja. PRO, C O 318/399, file 76634-2865. T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Sydney J. Webb (1859-1947), the first Lord Passfield, was British Secretary of State for the Colonies and for Dominion Affairs from June 1929 through August 1931. Webb was one of the founders of the Fabian Society and the co-author with his wife, Beatrice Webb, of numerous books on economics and socialist political theory (E. B. Fryde, D. Greenway, S. Porter, and I. Roy, eds., Handbook of British Chronology, 3d ed. [London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986], p. 126; WBD). 2. Garvey, T. A. Aikman, the managing and literary editor of the Blackman, and John Coleman Beecher, the advertising and circulation manager of the Blackman Printing and Publishing Co., were charged with seditious libel in connection with an editorial called 'The Vagabonds Again," printed in the 14 January 1930 issue of the Blackman. The editorial attacked the members of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation who voted to declare Garvey's seat on the municipal council vacant. The editorial specifically referred to Mayor George Seymour-Seymour (Garvey's legislative council opponent) and his successor, Mayor D.C. Vaz, as vagabonds "opposed to the welfare of the country." During the trial Garvey based his defense on the claim that he was "merely a trustee of the newspaper, although the responsible head, and knew nothing of the article until it was in print" (NW, 15 March 1930). While Aikman actually wrote the editorial in question, the court found Garvey responsible for the overall content of the newspaper. Garvey was found guilty and sentenced to six months imprisonment; Aikman was sentenced to three months imprisonment; 381

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and Beecher was acquitted. Garvey and Aikman were freed on bond and filed for appeal (NTT, 22 February 1930; Norfolk Journal and Guide, 1 March and 22 March 1930: NW, 15 March 1930). 3. John Coleman Beecher, who lived at 154 Princess Street, Kingston, was a council member of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation from Urban Ward No. 2. He was an active organizer for Garvey's unsuccessful PPP legislative campaign. He submitted an affidavit on Garvey's behalf during Garvey's September contempt of court trial before the Jamaica Supreme Court (Bm, 27 June 1929; DG, 20 September and 7 October 1929). 4. Alexander Leo Rankin, of 8 Albert Street, Franklin Town, Kingston, was a journalist and news editor for the Blackman (DG, 20 September 1929). 5. Garvey was actually sentenced to six months without hard labor (NTT, 22 February 1930; NW, 29 March 1930). 6. A reference to either Assistant Attorney General H. M. RadclifFe or Crown Solicitor G. Harvey Clark. RadclifFe represented the Crown in Garvey's 17 March 1930 appeal. He was also the chairman of the Income Tax Assessment Committee for Jamaica (NW, 5 April 1930; Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook ofJamaica [Kingston: Government Printing Office, 1930], pp. 166, 175). 7. Major H. Simms (b. 1881) was director of the Public Works Department, responsible for the construction and maintenance of all main roads, public buildings, water works, and telegraph and telephone lines on the island. Born in Middlesex, England, Simms worked as a sanitary engineer in Gambia, the Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone before moving to Jamaica in 192$ (Cundall, Handbook of Jamaica, p. 58; WW/}. 8. Dr. B. M. Wilson was the Senior Medical Officer of the Medical Department, Jamaica. He studied at the London School of Tropical Medicine and was appointed to public service in 1904 (Cundall, Handbook of Jamaica, p. 128).

Marcus Garvey to Governor R. Edward Stubbs "Somali Court," Lady Musgrave Road, Half-Way-Tree P.O. February 22, 1930 Sir: In connection with my letter of yesterday's date re my complaint on the prejudiced attitude of the Resident Magistrate for Kingston, His Honour, Mr. A . K. Agar who tried the case of Seditious Libel, in which I was cited as one of the defendants, I am herewith attaching a copy of the Daily Gleaner's report of the Judge's judgment and remarks as published in the issue of the 22nd inst., and also a copy of a similar report published by ' T h e Blackman" of the 22nd inst.. You will observe from the report of the "Gleaner" that the complaint of prejudice against the Judge is further supported by other remarks not quoted in my letter of the 21st., but remarked by me in the "Gleaner" report hereto attached. I do hope you will read the report carefully in keeping with my communication. I have the honour to be, Your Excellency's Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY

P.S. I particularly desire to draw to Your Excellency's attention the additional remarks of the Judge; in his judgment finding he states: 382

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Aikman is already found criminally liable, but I am bound to say that these attempts on the part of the leader of the U.N.I.A. to shift all responsibility on the shoulders of his subordinate is one that would not have been expected of such a leader. There is no need for me to cast any aspersion on this action of Garvey, but it [is] for the people of the U.N.I.A. to consider over this themselves. Garvey does not escape criminal responsibility by throwing the onus on the shoulders of a subordinate. This is clear evidence of propaganda by the Judge to create cleavage between myself and the members of my Organisation; and in the light of the misrepresentation of myself and the Organisation before the public, it seems grossly unfair that the Judge should use his high position to support the controversial question in which politics and public opinion is involved. MARCUS GARVEY PRO, C O 318/399, file 76634-2865. T L S , recipient's copy.

Marcus Garvey to the Daily

Gleaner

[[67 Slipe Road., Feb. 24. 1930]] SinAgain my time is to be occupied, almost robbed from me, in controversy, forced upon me by another irresponsible person by the name of R . L. Gough, whom, I take, to be a Rev. gentleman, as by his letter condemning me in your paper of to-day's date. Again I have to comment upon the ignorance of the people of Jamaica. The cowardice of the Rev. Gough in attacking me like the man who hits and runs, is made manifest in the last paragraph of his letter when he states: " I will promise not to write on this subject again, no matter what M r . Garvey may say, I know all that he is capable of. He will no doubt, be still more presumptuous, and resort to further sophistries (if not blasphemies) to justify his evil course, but I will let him alone." This man who claims to be a Christian, according to his letter, has revealed a most lamentable disposition of devilry. Without knowing me, he condemns me. He says that I am everything else but a good man; yet, I have never seen this man, never had any dealings with him, and yet "Christian" (!) as he is, he relegates me to the worst place in human society. He is the typical Christian—the Christian who does not understand Jesus of Nazareth, the Man who taught the philosophy of love. Christians like M r . Gough do more harm to Christianity than one can imagine. Hence, the great sway of Mohammedanism in the East.

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I will now deal directly with the questions raised in Mr. Gough's letter. The first blunder the gentleman has made, and on which he has written so exhaustively, is to charge me with comparing myself with Jesus of Nazareth, which I never did, but which has been the conclusion of Mr. Gough, because of his limited intelligence and inability to interpret the words I used mentioning Jesus of Nazareth. I am a Christian; I acknowledge the dual personality of Jesus of Nazareth—Man and God. My reference to Jesus of Nazareth was a reference to His physical person, just as I referred to Socrates, Plato and Confucius. The gendeman, not knowing anything about Socrates, Plato and Confucius, didn't charge me with blasphemy against them for referring to them, but with blasphemy against Jesus of Nazareth because I referred to Him. Jesus, as we all know, in the light of history, was a carpenter's son, and as such He lived among the people of His day. Socrates, who was born before Jesus, at Athens, in 4 6 9 [ B . C . ] , was the son of poor parents, his father was a sculptor, his mother a midwife. Plato, also was born at Athens in 427 B.C. These philosophers gave to the world, before the advent of Christ, certain theories and ideas, called philosophy, as a guide to our conduct and way of living. It was in this respect that the reference was made, and not because I personally desired to compare myself with Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The attempt of Mr. Gough to suggest that comparison is the only artful effort to hold me up to contempt and ridicule before my fellow Christians in Jamaica—of which Mr. Gough is a very poor one. Believing Mr. Gough to be a minister of religion, I suggest would it not be wiser fir him to think of himself in his relationship to Christianity as being a greater failure than I could ever be in relationship to "Garveyism" or the principles of'Garveyism"? I could have been a minister of religion like Mr. Gough, but under the P R E S E N T S C H E M E OF T H I N G S

I would have had to sell the beautiful doctrines of Christ to make a living, when He Himself, the Founder, did nothing of the kind. I suppose Mr. Gough is receiving a salary of a few hundred pounds or more a year as minister or pastor of some church, quite contrary to the principles of Christianity, in that the Founder of it never Himself drew a salary as the head of His own Church. Mr. Gough says that I am living in a "palatial" residence while my people live in dirt. He says, that I "get the money and the people get the bluff, brag and bluster." These remarks reveal the fact that Mr. Gough is not a Christian, but like the rest of [the] people in Jamaica, is covetous, envious, malicious and hateful to the extent that no one must prosper, not even live superficially decent. There must be the desire to pull the successful person down. Yes, this is the religion of Mr. Gough, the hateful devilish religion that he knows is not Christianity. He doesn't know whether the house I live in is mine or not, whether it is paid for or not; he has never been inside my house to see whether it is a palace or not; but envy and malice towards me cause him to say 384

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these things. My house cannot be compared with the Vatican or with Lambeth Palace or with the residences of Bishops or Archbishops. The little cottage in which I live on the Lady Musgrave Road cannot be compared with some of the houses of the ministers in Jamaica; I am not a minister of the Gospel— a professional preacher of Christianity; I am only a Christian, yet Mr. Gough would be quite satisfied to see me living in filth and dirt rather than in a decent house. This is the substance of the matter; because I am a black man, I am not to live in a good house, not to appear decent, and if I attempt to do this I cannot be the leader of any ethical movement because of the argument of men like Mr. Gough. Wouldn't it be more just if Mr. Gough should think of himself in his relationship with Jesus of Nazareth, in that as I said before, Jesus preached without price and without money? But Mr. Gough preaches for a salary. First take the mote out of your eye, Mr. Gough, before you attempt to blind Marcus Garvey or hold him up to contempt and ridicule of his fellow Christians. You are such a hateful person, so malicious and cruel, that you condemn me without knowing me, and yet call yourself a Christian, which is a libel on Christianity. But the question must be discussed to show the prejudice or ignorance of Mr. Gough. I state that I have as much right to lead a system of philosophy or a new idea of thought in the world as Socrates had, as Confucius had, as Mohammed had, and as Jesus, the carpenter's son, had. Dissecting world philosophy into parts, the world admits five great philosophies from the birth of Socrates to the death of Jesus, among them: "the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure"; "the Stoic law of self control"; "the Platonic rule of subordination"; "the Artistot[e]lian sense of proportion"; and "the Christian spirit of love." All students of philosophy know to what extent the philosophies are covered. Since the death of Jesus we have had other philosophers, and the world does not think that the philosophers and their philosophies should be excluded comparatively or otherwise, because of the greater philosophy of Jesus. Following, therefore, the license and liberty of our civilization to develop theories and ideas and practise them, I claim the right, like Socrates, Plato, Artistotle or our modern philosophers, to give the world a thought, the doctrine of which is called "Garveyism" or explained in the following: The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League is a social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, institutional, constructive and expansive society; and is founded by persons desiring to the utmost to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world. And the members pledge themselves to do all in their power to conserve the rights of their noble race and to respect the rights of all mankind, believing always in the brotherhood of man, and the Fatherhood of God. The motto of the organization is "One God! One Aim! One Destiny!" Therefore, let justice be done to all mankind, realizing that 385

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if the strong oppresses the weak confusion and discontent will ever mark the path of man, but with love, faith and charity towards all the reign of peace and plenty will be heralded into the world and the generations of men shall be called blessed. The above is what Mr. Gough denounces as preaching race hatred, although in Garveyism is to be found the philosophies of nearly all the great philosophers, including Jesus. Mr. Gough says: If Garveyism were what it claims to be—something that will uplift: the race and make the people better, purer, and more worthy citizens—it would be hailed as a blessing and would receive the assistance of every Government. Mr. Garvey would have us think that the Governments, especially the Governments of America and Cuba, are foolish. This quotation from Mr. Gough shows how ignorant a person he is, and how unworthy he is to be a minister of the gospel, if he is. Does he not know that among all the religions of the world, and among all the philosophies of the world, the religion and philosophy of Jesus was the most despised in the time of the very Founder and for ages after? The quotation from Mr. Gough suggests that I was deported from the United States of America and that Cuba has placed a ban on the activities of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in that island; but he forgets that Peter and John were imprisoned in Jerusalem, that Stephen was taken to the Council, tried and stoned; that Jesus was SLAIN WITHOUT TRIAL

before Herod: that Paul and Barnabas were expelled from Antioch; that they also fled from Iconium to escape stoning; Paul and Silas also fled by night from Thessalonica; Paul was also imprisoned and beaten at Jerusalem. No Christian's life was safe in Rome during the Imperial reign of the Emperors before Constantine. Why, Mr. Gough, you are the most ignorant theologian that I have come across in Jamaica. You know nothing about Christianity. Isn't it a fact that long after Jesus died those who professed Christianity were so harassed that they had to leave the cities and live in woods; that John was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil and exiled to the Isle of Patmos? Have you forgotten, Mr. Gough, that Demetrius of Ephesus, when he saw his occupation as a silversmith threatened by the preaching of St. Paul against idolatry, called the attention of his fellow silversmiths to conspire against the great Apostles in that his teachings would result not only in the cessation of the worship of the goddess Diana but the annihilation of the craft which had brought them wealth? Isn't it a fact that they led a mob through the streets of the State and threw Ephesus into such confusion that the municipal authorities were compelled to take action resulting in the departure of St. Paul to other parts? 386

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And isn't it a fact that, on the same principles, you are attacking me to-day, because you are afraid that the doctrine of "Garveyism" may interfere with your salary earned from preaching the non-saleable religion of Jesus of Nazareth. I am sorry that you have provoked my feeling in this matter because other good and thorough Christian ministers of the Gospel in Jamaica may think that I desire to infer against them. I have too much respect for Christianity to infer anything against anyone, but you, M r . Gough, because I believe you are an unworthy representative of the Christian religion. Why, you have shown so much ignorance about Jesus? He was born humble, and grew humble, because Mary the wife of Joseph, had to bring Him up according to the life of herself and His father. It was because Jesus was born poor and lived poor why most of the Sadducees and Pharisees and the Doctors of His time had no belief in Him. Jesus' poverty was the greatest argument against Him; because the Pharisees and the Sadducees pointed to his condition as a reason why He would be of no great service to the people who were willing to accept Him as the promised Messiah. The people were influenced to expect a Messiah who would restore them to material and political power; and upon this disappointment hangs most of the troubles of Jesus. But let us consider Jesus in the light of history so as to examine the par[a]llel of M r . Gough. Isn't it a fact that Jesus of Nazareth was tried before the Jewish Sanhedri[n] and condemned for blasphemy, not because he really blasphemed, but because he interfered with the rights and the privileges of the class to which the Sadducees and the Pharisees belonged? The trial of Jesus was an outrage. When it was found that He would not be crucified for blasphemy, He was accused before Pilate for sedition, and for that He died. Does not this disprove Mr. Gough's argument against me, in that the very founder of Christianity was murdered in the State because His doctrine was not in keeping with the traditions and customs of the State? Jesus was humiliated, He was buffeted and kicked about, He was spat upon, but in all He taught love— a love that M r . Gough has not got. Intelligent people profit by experience, and because of that, I think it better to personally be in the position to reflect decency, prosperity, culture and all that goes with it in advising people to improve and better their condition, than to select to be in the condition of the very people themselves while advising them to improve and so I cannot promise to please M r . Gough in leaving the home in which I am now living to take off my clothes and put on rags, because even M r . Gough, who should do this, in that he is supposed to be a minister of the Gospel of Christ, doesn't do it as an example. I am not prejudiced against the Gospel. I could have been a minister of the Gospel if I wanted to, but I could not, in keeping with my conscience, preach Jesus and Him crucified whilst living as M r . Gough is. Yet, M r . Gough, professing this doctrine to the extent of preaching it, as a profession, expects me, who represents another doctrine, another philosophy, to do something not in keeping with the concrete ideas of that philosophy; that of the physical culture and ethical improvement of human beings. The 387

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philosophy of Christ sought to redeem the soul. My philosophy seeks to redeem the man physical, which takes in also the salvation of the soul, because if you can make the body happy you insure the goodness of the soul. It is absolutely a question of reason. For the acceptance of the philosophy of Jesus Christ does not mean that mine is wrong. Yet, Mr. Gough condemns me and mine because I compare it with the philosophy of Jesus. I have no doubt that Mr. Gough would condemn Mohammed as he co[n]demns me and then another question would arisef,] namely, that I was impertinent to compare myself with Mohammed; but Mohammed's philosophy whilst ethical and morally good, made Mohammed the prince of the state. Compari[n]g Mohammed with Jesus it may be said that because Jesus selected to be humble and Mohammed selected to be princely, there would not be any justification on the condemnation of the one or the other. I am to be condemned by Mr. Gough because of his hate and malicious feeling, because I do not live in a hut in Smith Village,1 but in a modern cottage in a good residential section. With the knowledge of modern society and the R E Q U I R E M E N T OF T H A T S O C I E T Y

how Mr. Gough arrives at the conclusion that I could make a better leader, living in dirt and filth, than by appearing respectable, is surprising. This conclusion, however, I feel sure is due to his prejudice, his hate, his malice, his enmity, prompted through Jamaica mannerisms. It is only a Christian like Mr. Gough who could suggest this, therefore there is no wonder that men of the Gough stamp cannot succeed in displacing Mohammedism in Africa or India, or displacing Confuci[a]nism in China for Christianity, for their vision of Christianity is not in keeping with the doctrine of Christianity as taught by the humble Nazarene. If I had time I would undertake to teach Mr. Gough something of Christ, but I hope there are true Christian ministers in Jamaica who will try to convert this wicked brother who claims to be a disciple of Christ when in truth he is made up of so much of the devil. Mr. Gough is so wicked that he writes about me as if he were closely associated with me, when, as stated before, he knows nothing about me. Jesus was not so unkind as to speak of people He did not know with the intention of condemning them. Mr. Gough himself says "Jesus was pure, holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners." I wish I could say this of Mr. Gough, an apostle of Jesus; but this Mr. Gough is so charged with sin that he even attempts boldly to break one of the principal commandments: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." Mr. Gough has declared against me without knowing me; ordinarily if he went before a court of law he would be punished for perjury, for he would have testified against one he knew nothing about. Mr. Gough is wicked at heart, and it is a good thing that one's entrance into Heaven is not based upon the judgment of Christians like him. Thank God, I do not need the advice of Mr. Gough as touching the study of the life and teachings of Christ. I know more about Him than Mr. Gough will ever know, and that is why 388

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my organization and myself accept Him as our spiritual leader, even though M r . Gough tries to make out otherwise. As far as purity goes, I did not claim to be as pure as Jesus, yet I believe that my heart is cleaner towards my fellowmen than M r . Gough's because without knowing him, I never attempted to, as he would call it, blaspheme against him. But, he has without knowing me, blasphemed against me. Jamaica is such a small and narrow place that it provokes the intelligence of anyone who knows what civilization is; and what is expected in it, to have to bear with such ignorant people as M r . Gough. Certain people have held sway in the island so long with their ignorance as to almost make it unsafe for one to possess any progressive views. M r . Gough is not singular in this respect, for there are many like him who hold lofty positions in the island, but, I shall not be scared or made afraid by malicious and envious beings like M r . Gough. I shall still hold to my belief, and still think that I have as much right as Socrates, Plato and as Christ to enunciate to the world a new idea. In answering a former correspondent in your paper, M r . Editor, I stated that most of the complaints made through the Press were made by people who knew nothing about me nor my organization. So M r . Gough tries to get around it by saying " M r . Garvey's own people have questioned (and have had good reasons for so doing) his motives, and to-day he is better off than he has ever been before." Who these people are I do not know. M r . Gough has not called them by names; I do not know of anyone directly associated with me who has ever accused me of the things M r . Gough asserts. M r . Gough and others are judging me by their own consciences. If they were in my position they would do the things they are accusing me of doing. M r . Gough is against me because I try to better my condition. Any man in the world, from Jesus down, should be pleased with a man who tries to improve himself from the Cradle to the grave, and the man who does not want to see his fellowmen improve in co[n]dition is no better than a devil. It is only the Devil that seeks to destroy the good that there is, and that M r . Gough desires to destroy the good in me in attempting to declare me to be what I am not, shows he, too, is a devil. But we are warned somewhere to beware of false prophets, and I am not too sure that I am not right in saying that M r . Gough seems to be one of those false prophets professing to be linked up with the Divine man of Calvary, yet doing His principles harm. To sum up everything about M r . Gough and his letter, I think he is afraid that "Garveyism" is going to succeed among the people of Jamaica. So like Demetrius of Ephesus, he wants to drive me out of the State. G o ahead, M r . Gough, it will be a fight between us. I am, etc. MARCUS GARVEY

P.S.—I observed that you published to-day a letter above the signature of Miss Margaret Manning, B.Sc. (Econ.) in which she made reference to me. I thank her ever so much for the kindly reference. As an Englishwoman, I feel sure

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS that she appreciates the position that I take in endeavouring to suggest h o w the people o f the island could be improved. A n y student o f economics would support me in that direction, and she has shown a kindly and Christian spirit, although not a minister o f religion, which ought to be a g o o d lesson for M r . G o u g h .

She stated, a m o n g other

things, " T h o u g h I am not concerned with the practices o f the writer (meaning m e [ ) ] o f which I d o not consider myself sufficiently informed, his professed precepts as set forth in this letter cannot but compel the attention o f any legislator or citizen w h o has the interest o f this beautiful island at heart." H o w splendidly Miss M a n n i n g states the truth.

She knows nothing about

me, therefore she cannot intelligently c[ri]ticise me. M r . G o u g h , w h o has n o better opportunity for judging me than Miss M a n n i n g , and he w h o claims to be a Christian, takes up his sword to slay me on rumour and false report which proves h o w much o f a Christian he i s . — M . G . Printed in DG, 3 March 1930. Original headlines omitted. 1. Smith Village was a high-density slum area that began developing in western Kingston in the mid-nineteenth century. In the 1920s housing there and in other poor parts of the city consisted mainly of deteriorating one-room dwellings constructed of corrugated iron and boarding, many occupicd by more than six persons. Mostly rental properties, these squalid homes usually had earthen floors and no sanitary facilities or direct water supply. Smith Village was also the site of the Kingston city dump. Smith Village residents suffered the highest incidence of dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis, and venereal disease of any inhabitants of Kingston. Unemployment was also very high among those who dwelled in the area, many of whom had migrated from the rural sections of the island in an unsuccessful search for work. Conditions in Smith Village were in marked contrast to those of the wealthier suburbs of Kingston, including East Kingston and central and northern St. Andrew. It was demolished and rebuilt during the late 1950s. The rehousing project built in its place was named Denham Town in honor of Governor Edward Denham. The redevelopment program was designed to house only a few thousand people and thus "failed to house more than one-sixth of the depressed and most needy inhabitants of Kingston." It did, however, establish a precedent for government-supported housing for the poor (Colin Clarke, Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development and Social Change, 1692-1962 [Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1975], p. 56; see also pp. 60-61, 100).

Marcus Garvey to Phillip Snowden, 1 British Chancellor of the Exchequer "Somali Court," Lady Musgrave Road, St. A n d r e w , February 27, 1930 Dear M r .

Snowdon:—

I feel sure that you will remember me from the correspondence I have had with y o u during my stay in England during 1928. You were one o f the broad-minded public men I wrote to during my stay in England where I spoke in the interest o f the N e g r o race. Your many letters o f courtcsy during my presence there impressed me that y o u were one o f the broad-minded statesmen on w h o m one could always rely for attention and help in public matters. 390

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I have recently communicated with you from here by cable; I am now writing you further on the same matter asking your kind help in a matter that affects the constitutional rights of the Negroes of this country and myself. I regard you as being a real sympathetic friend of my race; and I firmly believe you will make an effort to help in the matter I am now outlining. The matter in which I am anxious to have your help is set out as follows:— Jamaica is a British Colony with a population of nearly one million people, of this number, more than 850,000 are black people. There are 15,000 white and the rest are offsprings of white and black-coloured people. In this population there is a social arrangement whereby all positions of influence are held by a minority class. The bulk of the black people are kept in conditions bordering on serfdom, they are made up generally of the labouring class who receive but a pittance of a wage, ranging from sixpence for women a day to a 9d, and for men from 1/- a day to 2/-. Because of this low scale of wages among the people, crime is rife, our poor houses are filled, our lunatic asylums are also filled and our penitentiaries are overcrowded; to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands who live next door to poverty day by day in the island. In the midst of this distress of the black majority we have a prosperous minority of white, coloured and a few black persons who have been taken under the patronage of the privileged minority. I happen to represent an Organization known here as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, that seeks to better the economic, social, industrial and political conditions of these people. M y one motive is to help them to live better so that they may become more satisfied as British subjects. In attempting to do this, I naturally encounter the hate and prejudice of the select and privileged class, the result of which is that they have been moving heaven and earth to destroy me because of my interest in these poor people who are inarticulate. There has been a conspiracy toward the end of destroying me and it is working itself out in ways that are very unconstitutional and un-British, hence my desire to seek your help and that of the other members of Parliament, so that the matter can be brought directly to the attention of the Imperial Government and the office of the Secretary of State for the Colonies [Lord Passfield]. As you may know, Jamaica is governed by a Governor appointed from the Home Office in London and he and other officials represent the Government of the island. It is a custom that when officials come out from England they fall under the influence of the very rich people here with whom they do associate, and their acts are generally shaped by the advice of these rich people who have their own axes to grind at the expense of the poor people. The result is, that the poor people can never get a hearing and have no one to represent them in the way they should be represented. The privileged class from the fact that they have the association of the officials and are rich are able to thwart the poor by the influence of the Government and by law. For you to appreciate 391

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the position I am now in and on which I am asking your help, I have to state the following:— Eight months ago, a foreign judgment creditor [George O. Marke] against the American Branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, filed a summons in Jamaica seeking to collect from the Organization in Jamaica, which had no direct connection with the Organization in the United States, a large sum of money[:] £7,000. The suit was brought in Jamaica against the Organization of which I am head, and on which I was served, by a very prejudiced firm of local lawyers against the Negro. This firm of lawyers have great influence in the local courts in that they move among the official circles. They are native Jamaicans with a strain of coloured blood which they deny and which they hate. This suit was really started in the Supreme Courts here in Chambers in which the Chief Justice [Fiennes Barrett Lennard] of Jamaica presided as the judge in Chambers. The Chief Justice it has been discovered is a friend of the firm of lawyers and particularly the lawyer who brought the suit on behalf of the foreign creditor in his court. In every instance in which the suit was called, the Chief Justice decided against the Organization of which I am part and myself, in favour of the firm of lawyers. During the hearing of the matters in chambers, the Chief Justice was heard to have remarked to a lady that he intended to give judgment in that case in favour of the foreign creditor, because he wanted to help him. This was before the matter was finally disposed of in his chambers. I had the information, but I could not make use of it at the time because I was before the said judge, who forced me to produce the books of another Organization with a fine of £25 for contempt for not producing them through the Secretary who had no connection with the foreign Organization. During the hearing the judge seemed to have developed a dislike for me which was plainly demonstrated. You will understand that judgment was given against my Organization here in favour of the judgment creditor of the Organization in America of the same name, but which had no connection. The matter was taken on appeal and it is still resting on appeal. About three weeks after the Chief Justice's final decision in the matter on which appeal was taken, I was approached and requested by my fellow country men to offer myself as a Candidate for election to represent the Parish of St. Andrew of this island in the Legislative Council, in which Parish I live. I drew up a Manifesto under the direction of an Organization known as the People's Political Party and at my very first meeting I addressed a crowd of about 5,000 people in the open air and commented upon each and every plank of my platform. There was one plank in the platform that dealt with the desire to improve the general system of justice in this country. I was indicted and brought before the said judge in the Supreme Court and found guilty of Contempt of Court in making the speech, copy of which is forwarded and marked. During the said trial, I defended myself and intended to take full advantage of my constitutional rights in so doing, as a candidate for the Legislature, on the grounds that there was no contempt and that the things said and published did not constitute a contempt. In the course of my 392

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pleadings, one of the judges suggested that the better course would have been for me to go into court and say I was sorry. I desired to see to what extent one had any liberty in the Colony and therefore the matter was to me a test case, yet I followed the suggestion of the judge and offered an apology and withdrew my contemplated defence because the Chief Justice in his remarks at the trial tried to make out that the speech I made referring to the courts tended to incite His Majesty's [George V's] subjects, an intent I never had. So as to prevent any such interpretation being placed upon my speech I did not go through with my defcnce b[u]t offered the apology and stated to the Court that I was willing to make any statement that would satisfy the public that I had no such intent as suggested by the court. To prove my loyalty, as stated, I accepted the suggestion of the judge of expressing my sorrow. After this was done the court found me guilty and surprisingly imposed a severe penalty of a fine of £100 and three months imprisonment and if the fine was not paid, another three months. I obediently went to prison and served the [ti]me of three months and paid the fine of £100, during which time, not a single person in the entire island manifested any disposition to be disobedient to law or order, thereby proving that the interpretation placed upon my remarks at the Political Meeting by the court was not correct. I suffered all this to prove my loyalty and to show that there was no need for alarm; but it is a known fact in the island that my imprisonment at that particular time was desired to prevent me from becoming a successful candidate for election to the Legislative Council in the January election of 1930. I was sent to prison on the 25th of September and was released on the 23rd. of December 1929;2 thereby preventing me from continuing my campaign for the election that was to be held on the 29th of January 1930. This gave my opponent an advantage over me for campaigning all during my imprisonment. Everybody here knows it to have been a political dodge. It was even said by the police who were on the alert to catch me in something when they had me indicted for the speech for contempt that "they had me now." So you will realize that they were waiting for an opportunity to prevent me entering the Legislative Council to help the poor people. I want to bring to your attention that it was the same Chief Justice who presided in the matters in Chambers affecting me and my Organization who presided over the hearing for contempt in the Supreme Court. It was plain for anyone to see that he had a hatred for me and I know positively that the hate was the result of my race and because of the attitude I adopted in trying to help in the social and other improvements of the poor people. It was rumoured before my very trial for contempt and widely circulated that I was to be given six months imprisonment, even though the case was not yet tried. This became known, because it was the desire of the powerful influence working against me to have me disposed of for that period of time. It was only through the good office of one of the judges that I did not get the actual six months, but the Chief Justice who wrote the judgment of my conviction gave me three months with a fine of £ 1 0 0 and three months more if the fine was not paid—making it six months that was originally intended. 393

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During the time of my imprisonment, for contempt of court, I was nominated and elected by an overwhelming majority to a seat in the Mayor and Corporation Council of Kingston & St. Andrew in this island. Because of my undergoing incarceration I could not attend the regular meetings; I therefore applied for leave of absence from the Council. The Mayor [D. C. Vaz] and Council which was made up of a majority of my political enemies and over which my political rival for Legislative honours in the parish of St. Andrew [George Seymour Seymour] had great influence being ex-Mayor, having vacated the seat only two weeks before to which his friend was elected as successor, refused the leave of absence. The majority vote denying me the leave was made possible by the vote of my rival for Legislative honours and all his friends of the opposing Political Party. According to the laws governing the Corporation, so long as I did not subscribe to the oath of office, I was not regarded as an active Councillor. After my liberation, I subscribed to the oath and took my seat in the Council and voted there three or four times. Immediately after this, the said Council voted under the influence of the same group of men who voted to deny me leave, that my seat is declared vacant, because of my non-attendance at three regular meetings. They were supposed to be meetings held during the time I was incarcerated. Whilst this seat was declared vacant it was then that I was also requested to stand for the Parish of St. Andrew as above related. It is common knowledge here that plots were arranged to have me incriminated to the extent that my incrimination would prevent me if I was elected to the Council taking my seat. The conspiracy has worked as the conspirators intended and I was further indicted and by powerful influence I was not elected to the Legislative Council to represent the parish of St. Andrew. Just on the eve of the day of election I was served with papers linking me up with a Seditious libel alleged to have been published in a daily newspaper with which I am connected only nominally [the Blackmcm]. The indictment sought to hold me responsible for the publication in the paper under date of the 14th January, which was an editorial comment on the declaring of my seat vacant on the 13th of January. The case has just been tried, and although I was not aware of the article and had nothing to do with it, the Resident Magistrate [A. K. Agar] has found me guilty along with the person who wrote the article [T. A. Aikman] and has given me a sentence for six months and the person who wrote the article a sentence of three months. This case is on appeal and will come up in the appellate court here on the 17th of March. After I lost in the election for the Parish of St. Andrew to the Legislative Council, I was again re-elected unopposed to my vacant seat in the City Council.3 The influence over officials is rife and I am left to expect the worst from the decision of the appellate court in view of the fact that the very Chief Justice will be presiding judge of the appeal. As you may be informed, I was tried summarily in the Resident Magistrate's court and not by judge and jury. There is no customary appeal

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from the appellate court here to the Privy Council in England on criminal matters. The appeal can only be carried to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England by their consent and not by local right here to carry any appeal. I am therefore begging you to impress the Secretary of State for the Colonies with the state of affairs and ask him should my conviction be upheld by the appellate court to give me the right to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, so that I may get my case aired before impartial judges in England. If the case is heard on the 17th of March it will be just a couple days after this letter reaches you. If the appellate court decides against me, it means that I will be sent to prison the same day, so if I am sent to prison I shall ask my representatives to cable you on that very day to ask permission of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to allow the matter to be taken up on appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Lords. I shall ask you to act immediately on the matter as it is the supreme desire to imprison me here because of my desire to do good. The conspiracy I am bringing to your attention sought to deprive me of representations in the Legislative Council and the Corporation Council, the object being that if I should become a member of these Legislative and Municipal bodies I would be able to represent the interest of the poor working and labouring classes and give them a voice that may probably help them to improve and better their condition. This conspiracy is more than can be explained as it is, but can only be fathomed by the probing of a Royal Commission and it is in this respect that I am further asking your assistance in bringing the matter before the Secretary of State for the Colonies and before the Parliament by enquiry and investigation, so that a Royal Commission can be appointed to come to Jamaica to investigate the terrible condition existing in this country to the prejudice and detriment of the most loyal of His Majesty's subjects in this island numbering over 800,000. I am sending you under separate cover, copies of the proceedings on my trial for contempt of court, as also copies of the report of my conviction and trial for seditious libel. I am asking you to go into the matter thoroughly and exhaustively so that something can be done to prevent a limited number of people in this His Majesty's Colony taking advantage of a great number of His Majesty's most loyal and obedient subjects. If you should see the condition of the people in Jamaica where one class is extremely rich and the other class extremely poor, you would wonder how any human being could live in the country without expressing himself from a human point of view. The prominent persons who have visited this island from England, have never had an opportunity of seeing the poor conditions of the people, because they have always been gotten hold of and surrounded by the privileged class who keep them from the condition of poverty of the poor people. On the 27th January 1930, I forwarded to His Excellency the Governor of Jamaica, Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs, the following cable along with my

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cheque to cover the cost of transmission of the cable to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, London:— Secretary of State Colonies, London[:] The constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of His Majesty's most loyal subjects in this island are being conspired against by intimidation and persecution by a limited self-seeking class and desperate efforts are being made to incriminate for free speech. Respectfully pray for Royal Commission to investigate immediately. MARCUS GARVEY

Loyal Subject Candidate for Legislature The Governor through the Colonial Secretary Mr. A. S. Jelf of the 28th of January forwarded the following communication in reply to the request to the Governor to forward the cable:— Colonial Secretary's Office 28th January 1930 Marcus Garvey, Esq., Edelweis Park, Slipe Road, Kingston. Sir, [1.] I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated 27th January 1930, asking that a telegram be despatched to the Secretary of State for the Colonies on your behalf. 2. I am to transmit for your information the accompa[n]ying copy of Colonial Regulation No. 200 and to say that His Excellency will forward to the Secretary of State any communication submitted in accordance with that Regulation, but is unable to telegraph on your behalf. 3. Your cheque for £3.0.0. (No: 2228900) is returned herewith. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, A . S . JELF

Colonial Secretary On the same day, the 27th of January I forwarded to you the following cable, so that the Secretary of State would not be ignorant of the fact of what I had intended in the cable to the Governor here. Phillip Snowdon, Londonf:] Great need Royal Commission to investigate conditions here tending to deprive the poor labouring class of constitutional rights 396

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and freedom of speech. Cabled through Governor to Secretary of State to send same. MARCUS

GARVEY

Candidate to Le[g]islature In the matter of the Chief Justice and his opinion before the trial in Chambers of the case I referred to, the information that I gathered was from his chauffeur who heard him and who also saw him during the trial at the home of the solicitor for the foreign creditor who was appearing before the court. The man vouchsafed the information to me and gave it also to other persons. It seemed that the Chief Justice became aware that his chauffeur was attending at the meetings of my Organization and it is understood that he ordered him to desist. This man therefore is in a predicament where he cannot make the statement ordinarily, but if a Royal Commission was appointed he would be able to make a statement so that he could not be endangered otherwise. I state this so that you may have an idea of the local situation. I desire also to bring to your attention that a great deal has been done to misrepresent me before the English public. I am as loyal a British subject as anyone, and moreso than those who would profess it, because I seek to create such a condition of prosperity among His Majesty's subjects to give no cause for dissatisfaction. They are now forced into economic serfdom and they are left to become criminals, to become charges upon society and to commit the worst crimes against society. Because of this, I seek to relieve their condition and it is on this account why the privileged class seek to destroy me. Except something is done, there will be no relief for the hundreds of thousands of unfortunate people, and those who try to help them will always be conspired against and sent to prison, so that no one will dare to go forward to express the desires of this great inarticulate mass. Knowing of British liberty as I do, I feel safe in appealing to you and other members of Parliament in influencing the Secretary of State to investigate the conditions in Jamaica. This is not to be interpreted to mean that I am trying to influence you against anyone here, but surely there is an influence here through which one can hardly get justice in efforts of the kind that I am making, because the officials are under the influence of the rich men of the country, who belong to the privileged class and except there is some authority to check the situation, one will never get a square deal and the result will be the creating of a condition that may not be to the best interest of His Majesty's subjects and His Majesty's Government. The only remedy is the direct hand of the Imperial Government in c[au]sing some investigation to be made. I am also preparing a memorandum for the Secretary Of State for the Colonies to be presented to His Gracious Ma[j]esty asking for a free pardon in the matter of my conviction here for contempt of court for which I had

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to spend three months in prison. The court in which I was tried was summary in its jurisdiction, therefore I had no right to appeal and so the matter could not be brought before the Judicial Committee in England. These cases are made summary so as to present the appeal to England. As stated before, I was advised by one of the judges to adopt a certain course which I did because I wanted to prove my loyalty to His Majesty and His Majesty's Government and to leave absolutely no impression that I had any desire to incite the people as was alleged through my indictment. I honestly desire to impress the Secretary of State for the Colonies and all the good English people that my one desire is to do good for the people of my race of this island in that they are in a pitiful condition of poverty. If they were English men in England you and other humane Englishmen would try to do something for them just as I am trying to do for them in Jamaica. As you would be obstructed by the selfish of your own countrymen, so am I obstructed here by the privileged and very rich and this is the cause of my trouble. The very fact that with all they have done to me there has /never/ been a single instance of disorder in which any one man has been arrested or done anything that was not proper, is proof that all the charges they have laid against me are not based upon facts. Should I be relieved of the conviction of six months for this Seditious Libel, I hope to be in England in May or early June, at which time I hope to meet you and if the matter is not finally disposed of, I may be able to supply you or anyone concerned with more data but I am imploring you to do everything immediately to impress the Secretary of State for the Colonies with the intent to send a Royal Commission to investigate the economic, social and political conditions in Jamaica. I feel sure the data to be covered will be illuminating and helpful to the English Government at home. This Commission could take up the matters that I have brought to your attention in this letter and I am right on the spot with all the facts and evidence. Please be good enough to interview on my behalf the Secretary of State for the Colonies as soon as you receive the cables around the 17th of March beseeching him to secure the right of an appeal for me to the Judiciary Committee of the Privy Council in the matter of my trial and conviction for Seditious Libel. As suggested elsewhere in this letter I am forwarding you under Registered separate cover the copies of the newspaper containing my trial for contempt of court and my trial for Seditious Libel. I am attaching hereto letters I have sent to His Excellency the Governor of the Island complaining of the prejudice of the trial judge in the case that I was tried for Seditious Libel. Comparing my letters with the newspapers I have sent with the trial, you will be able to draw your own conclusion and see that I am not overstating my case but laying only the real facts before you. Praying for your immediate attention, I have the honour to be, Your obedient servant, 398

MARCH 1930 MARCUS GARVEY Councillor, K i n g s t o n & St. A n d r e w C o r p o r a t i o n P.S.

I h a v e f o r w a r d e d u n d e r separate c o v e r t o - d a y t h e first b a t c h o f n e w s p a -

pers c o n t a i n i n g the trial o f the case f o r S e d i t i o u s L i b e l .

T h i s b e i n g the case

n o w o n appeal I think it w i s e t o s e n d the papers in the batch. f r o m the 13th, 1 4 t h , 15th, 19th, 2 0 t h , 21st t o 2 2 n d F e b r u a r y .

T h e y read as

T h e p a p e r o f the

25th c o n t a i n s the r e p o r t o f m y taking the o a t h as a re-elected C o u n c i l l o r .

The

s e c o n d b a t c h o f p a p e r s will c o n t a i n the r e p o r t o f the case f o r C o n t e m p t . MARCUS GARVEY [Address:] Rt. H o n . Phillip Snowdon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, D o w n i n g St., Westminster, London, England P R O , C O 318/399, file 76634-2865. T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Phillip Snowden (1864-1937), journalist and member of the Privy Council, was the first Labour party Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924, 1929-1911) and the author of several works on socialism and labor rights (Times [London], 17 May 1937; Garvey Papers 5: 556-557,557 n. 1). 2. Other sources indicate that Garvey was released on 19 December 1929 (secret report on Marcus Garvey by A. S. Jelf, acting governor, Kingston, 30 June 1930, P R O , C O 318/399, file 76634-2865; NW, 4 January 1930). 3. The Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation ( K S A C ) was the governing body for the city of Kingston and the greater Kingston area. Garvey was first elected to this municipal council in October 1929 but was removed from office on a technicality in February 1930. H e was reelected, but his term ended prematurely when the colonial administration abolished K S A C on 12 February 1930. In October 1931 Garvey ran yet again for the K S A C position, which had been reinstated by the authorities, and was elected to a two-year term. Garve/s PPP called for an ambitious policy of "increased water supplies, extension of the sewerage system, improvement of slum areas, erection of a Town Hall, adequate quarters for the Fire Brigade, and other works of magnitude that may be necessary in the corporate area" (DG, 20 June 1932; see also N W , 9 November 1929, 25 January 1930, 1 February 1930; NTT, 13 February 1930; E. David Cronon, The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association [1955; reprint ed., Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969], p. 156; G&G, pp. 194-209; James Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics, 19181938 [Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1973], pp. 81-82).

Marcus Garvey to Phillip Snowden 67 Slipe R o a d , C r o s s R o a d s P . O . , St. A n d r e w , nth M a r c h 1930 M y dear M r .

Snowdon:—

I n k e e p i n g w i t h m y letter t o y o u o f the 21st [ ? ]

/(?)/ F e b r u a r y , I a m

f o r w a r d i n g y o u u n d e r separate c o v e r all the p a p e r s relating t o t h e case a g a i n s t m e here f o r C o n t e m p t o f C o u r t , in w h i c h I w a s sentenced f o r three m o n t h s i m p r i s o n m e n t w i t h a fine o f £ 1 0 0 , a n d w h i c h t i m e I served. I feel sure that y o u are d o i n g y o u r best f o r m e o n the case o f S e d i t i o u s Libel w h i c h I have submitted t o y o u .

I a m a l m o s t sure that in g o i n g t h o u g h

the m a t t e r carefully y o u will see that m o r e than o r d i n a r y interest is i n v o l v e d . 399

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The conduct of Colonial Administration will be brought clearly to your attention where prejudice rules instead of law and justice. I do feel that you shall not fail me in bringing the matter of the case of Seditious Libel prominently before the Secretary of State for the Colonies [Lord Passfield]. M y appeal on this case' will be called on the 17th inst., before you get this letter, but I feel sure you will have received the first communication bearing on the matter. Please do your best for me and if you should receive a cable a[s]king you to secure an appeal for me before the Privy Council, to act on it before the Secretary of State for the Colonies. I am also enclosing herewith a copy of my amended Manifesto, amended after my indictment for Contempt of Court, when I had only 14 Planks on my Platform. I have also written to the Hon. Rennie Smith, 2 M.P., Hon. & Rev. James Barr, 3 M.P., Hon. J. Jones 4 M.P., Hon. Chas. Duncan 5 M.P., and the Rt. Hon. Charles William Bowerman, 6 M.P. I am asking you to discuss the matter with these gentlemen so that you may all act unitedly to help me in the situation. With very best wishes, I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President General U.N.I A. & A.C.L., August 1929 City Councillor P.S. The papers forwarded are to be read in serial order, the first is the "Blackman" of Sept. 12, 1929 which contains on page 7, second column under the caption of "An important Feature" my 14th, Plank of my original Election Platform and the comments I made thereon. It was on this plank that I was cited for Contempt of Court and imprisoned for three months. The paper of the "Daily Gleaner" of the 26th, contains the arguments before the Court on the contempt case; that of the 27th, September contains the judgment of the Court. The paper of the 28th, September contains my written apology to the Court as dictated by my solicitor. These four issues will give you a complete understanding of what transpired in the case for contempt. M.G. [Address:] Rt. Hon. Phillip Snowdon Chancellor of the Exchequer, Downing St., Westminster, London, England P R O , C O 318/399, file 76634-2865. August 1929, letterhead.

T L S , recipient's copy.

On U N I A Parent Body,

1. The appeals court heard Garvey and Aikman's case on 17 March 1930. The higher court overturned the 21 February 1930 verdict of Kingston Resident Magistrate A. K. Agar, freeing Garvey and Aikman (NTT, 18 March 1930; NW, 22 March, 29 March, 5 April, and 30 May 1930). 2. Rennie Smith (1888-1962), lecturer and journalist, was a principal of the International People's College and a tutor for the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation before becoming a Labour party member of Parliament for the Penistone division (192+-1931). He became private secretary to the 400

M A R C H 1930 under secretary for foreign affairs and for the British group of the Interparliamentary Union in 1929. He was an editor of the Central European Observer (1940-1946) and the author of works on international peace and disarmament {WWW). 3. James Barr (1862-1949), Scottish pastor and politician, was a member of Parliament from the Motherwell and the Coatbridge divisions of Lanarkshire (1924-1931, 1935-1945). Before entering Labour partv politics he was a minister of the United Free Church of Scotland and focused his energies on the needs of the working poor in his ministry. He was the author of a number of books on pacificism and religious liberty (Times [London], 25 February 19+9; WWW). 4. J. Rheinalt Jones (1884-1953), British editor, and political activist, spent most of his life in South Africa. He was the founder of the South African Institute of Race Relations. He helped to establish the University of the Wirwatersrand (1919-1929) and served as a Senate representative for the Africans of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State (1937-1942). He also edited the South African Quarterly (1915-1926) and Bantu Studies (1921-1944) (Times [London], 31 Januarv 1953; WWW). 5. Charles E. Oliver Duncan (1892-1964), third baronet, served under the Military Intelligence Office of the British War Office and was chairman of British Securities and Estates, Ltd. (Times [London], 25 September 1964; WWW). 6. Charles William Bowcrman (1851-1947), printer, labor leader, and politician, was a member of Parliament from Deptford from 1906 to 1931. A Labour partv member, Bowerman was active with the Trades Union Congress and a promoter of educational opportunities for working-class people. He was sworn as a Privv Council member in 1916 (Times [London], 12 June 1947; WWW).

Enclosure [Kingston, ca. October 1929] M A N I F E S T O OF H O N O U R A B L E M A R C U S G A R V E Y , D . C . L .

Dear Friends: This is to inform you that I have consented to come forward in contesting the vacant seat for the Parish of St. Andrew in the Legislative Council. In entering the contest to represent the parish I am actuated by the best motives— that of serving the people and serving our country. If elected I shall do everything in my power working in cooperation with the other members of the Council to make effective by law the following: 1. Representation in the Imperial Parliament or a larger modicum of self government for Jamaica. 2. Protection of native labour. 3. A minimum wage for the labouring and working classes of the island. 4. A law to protect the working and labouring classes of the country by insurance against accidents, sickness and death, caused during employment. 5. A law to compel the employment of not less than 60 per cent of native labour in all industrial, agricultural and commercial activities engaged in, in this island. 6. The expansion and improvement of city, town or urban areas without the incumbrance or restraint of private proprietorship. 401

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7. An eight hour working day throughout Jamaica. 8. A law to encourage the promotion of native industries. 9. Land reform. 10. The compulsory improvement of urban areas from which large profits are made by trusts, corporations, combines or companies. 11. A Jamaica University and Polytechnic. 12. The establishing of a Government High School in the capital [t]own of each parish for the supply of free secondary education. Attached to the said High School to be a night continuation school to [facilitate those desiring to study at night for the advance of their education. 13. A public library in die capital town of each parish. 14. A National Opera House with an Academy of Music and Art. 15. Prison reform. 16. Legal and judicial reform. 17. The appointing of official court stenographers to take the official notes of all court proceedings in the Supreme Court, Resident Magistrate Courts and Petty Session Courts of the island. 18. The creation by law of a legal Aid Department to render advice and protection to such persons who may not be able to have themselves properly represented and protected in courts of law. 19. A Law for the imprisonment of any person who by duress or undue influence would force another to vote in any public election against his will, because of obligation of employment or otherwise. 20. The granting to the townships of Montego Bay and Port An[t]on[io] the corporate rights of cities. 21. A Law to empower the Government to secure a loan of three million or more pounds from the Imperial Government or otherwise to be used by the Government under the management of a department of the Director of Agriculture in developing the crown lands of the island, agriculturally and otherwise with the object of supplying employment for our surplus unemployed population and to find employment for stranded Jamaicans abroad, and that the Government purchase such ships as are necessary from time to time to facilitate the marketing of the produce gathered from those crown lands and at the same time conveniently offering an opportunity to other producers to ship and market their produce. 22. The beautifying and creating of the Kingston Race Cour[s]e into a National Park similar to Hyde Park in London. 23. The establishing by the Government of an electrical system to supply cheap electricity to such growing and prospering centres as are necessary.

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24. A law to establish clinical centres from which trained nurses are to be sent out to visit the homes in rural districts and to teach and demonstrate sanitary and better health methods in the care of home and family. 25. A law to empower the Parochial Board of each Parish to undertake under the direction of the Central Government the building of model sanitary homes for the peasantry by the system of easy payment to cover a period of 10 to 20 years. 26. A law to prevent criminal profiteering in the sale of lands in urban and suburban areas to the detriment of the expansion of healthy home life for citizens of moderate means—profiteering such as indulged in, in lower St. Andrew by heartless land sharks. I am asking for your vote also that you use your good influence in securing others to vote for me on election day. With very best wishes, I have the honour to be Your Obedient Servant, MARCUS GARVEY

Candidate for Election to Legislative Council to represent the Parish of St. Andrew P R O , C O 318/399, file 76634-2865. P D .

Report by U N I A Secretary General Henrietta Vinton Davis in the Negro World [New York, 3 May 1930] UNIVERSAL N E G R O IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION, A F R I C A N C O M M U N I T I E S L E A G U E ( A U G U S T 1 9 2 9 ) OF W O R L D

Fellowmen of the Negro Race, Greetings: In accordance with the findings of the recent Convention held in Kingston, Jamaica, the Administration of the New Organization, Universal Negro Improvement Association (Aug. 1929) of the World, with headquarters at 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads P.O. St. Andrew, Jamaica, are now issuing Charters of Affiliation to all Divisions making application for such affiliation. Divisions of the old Organization on the payment of $5.00 can have their old Charters renewed, and new Divisions, duly organized under the laws of the Organization, can, on the payment of $25.00, be granted a Charter, after due consideration by the Executive Council. We have very great pleasure in publishing below a list of those Divisions that have applied for, and to whom Charters have been granted. The new numbers replace the old ones, and are given in the order the new Charters are issued. 403

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

We trust that all Divisions will see that their Officers apply for Charters under the new Organization, as early as is possible, so as to push the work, and stabilize this new Organization. Nos. ioo, Algiers, La.; 101, Alton, 111.; 102, Youngstown, Ohio; 103, New Orleans, La.; 104, Macomb Garden, Mich.; 105, Arkansas, Ark.; 106, Pontiac, Mich.; 107, Montclair, N.J.; 108, Newport News, Va.; 109, Alliance, Ohio; no, Winston-Salem, N.C. ma, Winston-Salem, N.C.; 112, Charleston, S.C.; 113, Farrell, Pa.; 114, Excelsior, N.Y.; 115, Cleveland, Ohio; 116, Carrolton, La.; 117, Indianapolis, Ind.; 118, Rio Grande Valley, Tex.; 119, (?); 120, Highland Heights, Ohio. 121, Philadelphia, Pa.; 122, Spanish Town, Jamaica; 123, Violet, La.; 124, New Madrid, Mo.; 125, St. Louis, Mo.; 126, Idlewild, Mich.; 127, (?); 128, St. Bernard, La.; 129, Canton, Ohio; 130, College Hill, Ohio. 131, Gulfport, Miss.; 132, Muskogee, Okla.; 133, Cleveland, Ohio; 134, Burlington, N.J.; 135, Natchez, Miss.; 136, Wasco, Cai.; 137, Garvey Club, N.Y.; 138, Baltimore, Md.; 139, Garvey Club, Cinn., Ohio; 140, Atlanta, Ga. 141, Berckley [Berkeley], W. Va.; 142, Homestead, Pa.; 143, Dewitt, Va.; 144, Resource, Jamaica; 145, Wiggins, Miss.; 146, Toledo, Ohio; 147, (?); 148, Warren, Ohio; 149, White Castle, La.; 150, Trenton, N.J. 151, Kansas City, Mo.; 152, Columbus, Ohio; 153, Eastern Div., Bahamas; 154, Edgard, La.; 155, Pace, Miss.; 156, West Palm Beach, Fla.; 157, Titustown, Va.; 158, Springfield, Ohio; 159, Mobile, Ala.; 160, Gary, Ind. 161, Pine Bluff, Ark.; 162, Philadelphia, Pa.; 163, Rosemount, La.; 164, Risco, Mo.; 165, Cameron, Texas; 166, Gatun, Canal Zone; 167, Central Baguanos, Cuba; 168, Garvey Club, Chicago, 111.; 169, East Bakersfield, Cai.; 170, Detroit, Mich. 171, North Detroit, Mich.; 172, Chicago, 111.; 173, Lily of the Nile, Trinidad; 174, Madre de Dios, Costa Rico; 175, Indiana Harbor, Ind.; 176, Atlantic City, N.J.; 177, Braddock, Pa.; 178, Akron, Ohio; 179, Massilon, Ohio; 180, East Chicago, Ind. 181, Greensboro, N.C.; 182, Jersey City, N.J.; 183, Savannah, Ga.; 184, Puerto Cabeza, Nicaragua; 185, Cristobal, Canal Zone; 186, Private Academy, Panama; 187, Colón, Panama; 188, Burton Spur, Ark.; 189, Miranda, Cuba; 190, (>). 191, Lockport, La.; 192, Hartford, Conn.; 193, Milwaukee, Wis.; 194, Puerto Barrios, Guatemala; 195, San Pedro de Macoris, R. Dominico; 196, Indianapolis, Ind.; 197, Puerto Castilla, Honduras; 198, South Kinlock, Mo.; 199, Old Harbor, Costa Rico; 200, Punta Alegre[;] 201, Miami, Fla. A further list will be published next week. HENRIETTA V I N T O N DAVIS

Secretary-General U.N.I.A. & A.C.L. Aug. 1929 of the World Printed in NW, 3 May 1930.

404

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Notice from Marcus Garvey in the Negro World

Marcus Garvey Makes Statement Regarding Knox; Real Shake-Up Begun; New Leaders Appointed T O WHOM I T MAY CONCERN: This is to certify that Madam M. L. T . D c M e n a , international organizer, is representing the P A R E N T B O D Y of the UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION of August 1929 of the WORLD in the United States of America. She is authorized to visit all divisions, branches and Garvey Clubs in the country, in the interest of ihe organization. All officers and members are requested to observe this notice. (Signed)

MARCUS GARVEY.

"NOTICE Mr. E. B. Knox is no longer regarded as First Asst. President-General and has no authority in the organization. He has disqualified himself by making no r e p o r t s of his activities, and by raising monies for over a year and making no report of same, and by fraudulently collecting funds f r o m divisions from time to time. T h e only recognized SPECIAL P A R E N T BODY REPRES E N T A T I V E S in America are: Mrs. S. V. Robinson, of Cleveland, Ohio, and the Rev. Ethel Williams, of Baltimore, Md. (Signed) MARCUS GARVEY. Pretident-General. linivertal Nepro Improvement Amociation. African Communities League (Augutl 1929) of the World. Edelwei* P a r k . 6 7 S l i p e R o a d , Cross R o a d s P. 0 . . Si. Andrew. Jamaica. B . W . I .

(Source: NW, 28 June 1930.) 405

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Article in the Daily Worker [New York, 30 June 1930] GARVEYITE LEADERS JOIN N . Y . POLICE IN MURDEROUS ATTACK Felled to the ground and murderously beaten by armed police thugs last Friday evening, Alfred Levy, 1 a Negro delegate to the July 4-5 Unemployed Convention in Chicago, died in Harlem Hospital Saturday morning [28 June], Levy had rushed to the defense of his fellow workers when reactionary Garveyite leaders and police attempted to smash an open air meeting called by the Communist Party and the Young Communist League last Friday night at 134th St. and Lenox Avenue. The meeting, which was called to protest against the wave of lynching in the South, had been scheduled for 134th St., but a group of police ordered the workers to move to 133rd St. A Garvey meeting was being held at 133rd St. and the Garveyites immediately pulled up their platform next to the Communist platform and tried to speak at the same time with the Communist speaker. Finally the Garveyites started a fis[t] fight in order to smash the Communist anti-lynch meeting. The night before the Garveyites had also attempted to break up a meeting of the Communist Party, but they did not succeed. Friday night, they came prepared to attack the meeting at which Levy was killed. A Garveyite by the name of Grant was the chief speaker at the Garvey meeting. He personally helped to beat up the workers at the Communist meeting. He pointed out Levy to the police, and they immediately set upon him like a pack of wild jackals, battering his body with clubs and blackjacks. The doctor who reported the death of Levy said that he had been beaten in the stomach with clubs and was bleeding internally. Levy also had a fractured skull. After this combined attack of the Garvey officials and the police, the Communist workers started another meeting on 132nd St., but the Garveyites and police followed and once more broke up the meeting. Levy was beaten on 133rd St. At an open air meeting the next day at the same corner, one of the Garvey leaders stated openly: "We intend to break up every meeting on Lenox Ave. that speak against the Garvey movement. We have killed one and shall kill more." M E M B E R OF U N E M P L O Y E D C O U N C I L 2

Levy was a leading member of the Harlem Unemployed Council of the Trade Union Unity League3 and a member of the Communist Party. He had been out of work for about nine months at the time he was beaten and murdered. His wife lives in Whitehall, Jamaica. 406

JUNE 1930

After the Garvey officials, together with the blackjacking police succeeded in breaking up the 133rd St. meeting, Levy was taken to the Harlem headquarters of the Communist Party, where he fell unconscious. Just before he lost unconsciousness a second time, Levy called upon the comrades and workers of the entire city to go on with the fight. He urged them to mobilize for a determined struggle against the Garvey officials who openly ally themselves with the enemies of the Negro masses and join with the police to club Negro and white workers. The news of Levy's death spread quickly and the revolutionary workers of New York were stirred by a wave of indignation and fury. The New York District of the Communist Party immediately issued a statement calling upon the Negro and white workers of New York to turn out in tens of thousands at a mass funeral for Comrade Levy next Tuesday, and to demonstrate their determination to carry on the struggle for which he gave his life. "In the murder of Alfred Levy," the statement said, "there was exposed not only the role of the police, the direct agents of the bosses, but also those elements who serve the bosses by pretending to be champion[s] of the Negro masses. Comrade Levy was beaten to death not only by the police but also direcdy and with the assistance of leaders of the Garvey movement. Not daring themselves to attack the anti-lynch meeting, the police called upon these Garveyites to lead the attack. The willingness with which these fakers, who speak of improving the conditions of the Negro masses, responded to this call of agents of the white ruling class, exposes plainly the treacherous role which this movement plays, in misleading the Negro masses away from struggle against the white ruling class, which exploits and oppresses Negro and white workers." UNEMPLOYED C O U N C I L SAYS O N WITH FIGHT

The Unemployed Council of which Levy was a militant and active member, issued a call to all its members and all unemployed workers to take part in the funeral demonstration. "Comrade Levy," the Council stated, was elected as a delegate to the National Unemployed Convention in Chicago 4 for July 4. His murder by the police is a part of the brutal campaign against the Unemployed Workers which was preceded by the terror against the March 6 Unemployed Demonstration and the imprisonment of the New York Unemployed Delegation, Foster, Minor, Amter and Raymond. 5 On with the fight for work or wages. The American Negro Labor Congress 6 also called upon all its members and sympathizers, both Negro and white, to take part in a mighty demonstration funeral of Alfred Levy. 7 'The killing of Levy," the Congress said in part, "is an organized part of the new wave of lynching and terrorism turned loose by the capitalist class of the South and North against the Negro masses and white workers." 407

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY A N D U N I A

PAPERS

Levy was also a member of the Marine Workers Industrial Union, 8 which directly upon the news of Levy's death, called upon all the workers of New York to take up the fight for which Levy died. "Comrade Levy," the M . W . I . U . said, "is a victim of police brutality and terror used against all efforts of the workers to organize and struggle against all forms of exploitation and oppression." Levy's body will lie in state at 685 Lenox Ave. at the corner of 144th St. during Monday and Tuesday. Thousands of indignant Negro and white workers are expected to come to see Levy's body. Tuesday afternoon, July 1 at 3 p.m. the funeral procession will begin from the Lenox address. Printed in DW, 30 June 1950. Original headlines abridged. 1. Alfred Lev)' was a sailor who had served in the U.S. Navy during World War I. Levy had been active for several months in the Upper Harlem Unemployed Council and had recently joined the Communist party. H e had been out of work "for some time" when he was killed (DW, 2 July 1930). His death occurred during an antilynching rally called by Communist organizers in Harlem and held in an area that Tiger-division street speakers considered their territory. An altercation arose between the Garveyites and the Communists, and in the course of the confrontation Levy was struck in the head by a thrown brick and his skull was fractured. En route to Harlem Hospital for medical care, Levy was assaulted again, this time by police officers. H e later died of his injuries in the hospital. The police initially claimed that he had died from natural causes, but it seems probable that the internal injuries sustained during the second assault, compounding the disability already suffered from the head wound, were responsible for his death. Communist activists blamed S t . William Wellington Grant for Levy's death. Cyril Briggs claimed that Grant "brought the police to the unemployed headquarters and attempted to frame-up several workers w h o had not even been present at the time of the trouble. This is the same vicious Garvey reformist leader w h o was responsible for the murder of the Negro comrade, Alfred Levy, by police and Garvey gangsters last year" ("The Dccline of the Garvey Movement," International Press Correspondence 2, n o . 21 [23 April 1931]: 407; see also DW, 1 July 1930; New York Age, 5 July and 12 July 1930; Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983], p. 39). 2. The Upper Harlem Unemployed Council, formed in February 1930 by the Communist party in response to the outbreak of the Depression, attracted significant participation by black residents in a number of rallies and other activities. The organization agitated for relief and jobs during this period and in the process allowed the Communists to gain their first significant following in Harlem (Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression, p. 35). 3. The Trade Union Unity League, founded in 1929, was the Communist party's main labor arm during the early 1930s. It favored creating radical "dual unions" to compete with the conservative unions of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) (Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade [New York: Basic Books, 198+], p. 14). 4. The National Unemployed Convention was organized by the Communist party. Over 1,300 delegates from various parts of the United States assembled in Chicago (Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism, p. 51). 5. O n 6 March 1930 the Communists staged a highly successful rally at Union Square to mark the International Day of Unemployment. The New York Times estimated a crowd of thirty-five thousand, among whom were many blacks. Violence broke out when the police refused to allow a march on city hall. The police charged the crowd and in the subsequent fighting about one hundred of the protesters and four police officers were injured. Communist leaders William Z. Foster, Robert Minor, and Israel Amtcr were tried for their role in the demonstration and received six-month sentences. M r . Ravmond has not been identified (NTT, 7 March 1930; Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism, pp. 33-34). 6. The American Negro Labor Congress (ANLC) was an affiliated body of the Trade Union Unity League. The A N L C comprised the Communist party's principal organization among African-Americans from 1925 until it was dissolved in September 1930; its successor was the League of Struggle for Negro Rights (DW, 1 July 1930; Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism, p. 330). 408

JULY 1930 7. Some two thousand persons, mostly white, attended a demonstration after Levy's funeral on 1 July 1930. The police kept a discrete distance from the crowd, and no injuries were reported (Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression, p. 40). 8. The Marine Workers Industrial Union was one of the component unions of the Trade Union Unity League (Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism, pp. 40-41).

Article in the Negro World [Niw York, 19 July 1930] KNOX N O W E N J O I N S U . N . I . A . TO REINSTATE H I M AND TO G E T CONTROL OF THE N E G R O W O R L D H O N . GARVEY INSTRUCTS M M E . D E M E N A BY CABLE, " F I G H T K N O X " E. B. Knox, who recently burst into disloyalty to the cause of his organization and tried to steal the records of The Negro World, is out again on another "hunting trip.'" On his last trip M r . Knox landed in the police court for his gun-man tactics. There are now two charges pending against Mr. Knox at the courts of New York, one on illegal possession of [a] gun and the other on assault charges, and he is out on bail of $2,000. Now Mr. Knox is enjoining the Universal Negro Improvement Association, asking the courts that he be reinstated as the First Assistant President General, contending that the President General has no authority to depose him. He also seeks control of the Negro World. The case will come before the [New York] Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 15th, at ten o'clock in the morning. Mr. Knox will be tried under [the] Sullivan law2 on [the] charge of illegal possession of [a] gun on Thursday, July 17th, at General Sessions Court. Mme. M. L. T. DeMena, the International Organizer, who is now in charge of the American field of the U . N . I . A . , has issued the following statement on this latest Knox affair: To the scattered members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association of August, 1929, greetings: Again we are confronted with difficulties which have unfortunately surrounded our group in the Universal Negro Improvement Association for the past eleven years. During the month of August, 1929, the Honorable Marcus Garvey called the Negro peoples of the world in a convention for the purpose of organizing a new organization then known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Community 409

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[Communities] League of August 1929 of the World. In this convention five officers were appointed and elected. During the discussions in that convention the delegates from all over the world expressed their views in no small terms on the subject of the many difficulties with which we, as a group, have been surrounded for the past 65 years. Negroes who attended that convention made up their minds from the discussions that no more would they stand for men who would take oath of office in this organization and become traitors to the same. The officers elected and appointed on that memorable night when they were installed in the presence of thousands of Negroes at Edelweis Park were agreeable. No one would have thought that in less than one year we would have been confronted with disloyalty, lack of cooperation and deception on the part of either one of those taking the oath of office. How sad it is to the millions of Negroes, members and sypathizers of this organization all over the world when they read of the actions of the first officer next to the President General. How sadder still are we who served with him from day to day, we, the organization of August, 1929, when we are less than one year old and are being dragged into the courts by one who swore before God and man that he would do all in his power to protect and preserve this organization even to the end of life. Mr. E . B . Knox by his own actions has brought upon the organization and himself disgrace that we can scarcely outlive. He seeks now to enjoin us who desire to carry on the program as handed down by the convention of August, 1929, of the world by asking the courts to restore him to his position and give him control of the mouthpiece of this organization The Negro World on the grounds that Mr. Garvey the President General and Administrator has no power to dismiss him as a subordinate. We who know our constitution know that Mr. Garvey does not need to dismiss Mr. Knox, for he dismissed himself by his behavior under the constitution which governs the organization of August, 1929, of the World. The Divisions are asked through cable coming from the Honorable Marcus Garvey to assist us in raising the fluids to fight for the preservation of our cause and to prevent any individual from taking away from Marcus Garvey, the President General and Administrator, the right to control this organization which is the child of his dreams. The American Divisions please take note of the following cable:

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JULY 1930 NAII4 II CABLE K1NGSTONJA J U L 9 I9JO LCO DEMENA 355 LENOX AVENUE NEW YORK RAISE NECESSARY FUNDS F I G H T KNOX GARVEY 742P[.M.] Printed in NW,

19 July 1930. Original headlines abridged.

1. E. B. Knox's difficulties with Garvey first became significant after the 1929 U N I A convention when he, J. A. Craigen, and several other U N I A leaders began agitating for removal of the headquarters of the organization to the United States. In addition, as the 14 June 1950 Chicago Defender observed, Knox and his allies believed that money raised in the United States "should remain here in the States, where it would have some protection." In April 1950 Garvey ordered that Knox, then vice president of the U N I A Chicago division, should no longer have access to the offices of the Negro World located at 355 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. In response, Knox and his assistant, Gladys Parker, surreptitiously entered the building on 24 May 1930 in order to secure copies of the subscriber lists and other documentation of U N I A membership. The pair was discovered in the building by the circulation manager of the newspaper, Marcellus M. Strong. A struggle ensued between the two men, with Strong reportedly striking Knox (who was armed with a pistol) with a lead pipe and disarming him. The fight was broken up by the police, who arrested Knox on charges of felonious assault and carrying an unregistered handgun. Knox was tried on these charges and, in early February 1931, he was sentenced to eighteen months in jail. Garvey and his supporters took great pleasure in this result and heralded Strong for his heroism. The trial transcript was printed verbatim in the Negro World from 14. February through 16 May 1931. Garvey loyalists wrote in to the paper to denounce Knox; Ivan Rodway of Manati, Cuba, went so far as to suggest that he deserved the death penalty for his actions. Despite these highly publicized differences between the two U N I A leaders, Knox was reappointed Garvey's personal representative in the United States in 1933. As the Negro World stated, any "misunderstandings which Mr. Knox might have had with the organization in the past may be considered forgotten" (NW, 1 July 1933). Knox remained a stalwart of the movement for many years. In 1941 he was the executive acting president general of the U N I A , serving as assistant to James Stewart, who was president general ( U N I A Garvey Club announcement, 3 August 1941, W R H S , U N I A - C ; NW, 31 May and 21 June 1930, 24 January, 7 February, and 20 June 1931; Pittsburgh Courier, 14 June 1930; Bm, 14 February 1931). 2. A reference to several statutes regarding the criminal possession of a dangerous weapon known collectively as the Sullivan Law. Court enforcement of this set of statutes turns in part on the question of intent and thus on the court's estimation of the character and actions of the individual wielding a firearm or other weapon. The intent of the Sullivan Law was to impede "the obtaining of weapons by the criminal classes or by those who might use them in connection with crime" rather than to infringe on the right of an upstanding citizen to bear arms (Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Appeals, Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, as well as the Supreme Court and Other Lower Courts of Record, New York Supplement, 2d series, vol. 45 [St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1944], p. 69; see also McKinnefs Consolidated Laws of New York, book 39, Penal Law [St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1980], pp. 438-480).

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Herbert H. Bacon,1 British Security Service, to Sir Gerard Clauson,2 Principal Secretary, British Colonial Office WAR OFFICE, WHITEHALL, S.W. I

[London,] 31st July, 1930 Dear Clauson, The attached extract from a letter, which we have received from our correspondent in Jamaica, [Governor A. S. Jelf,] regarding the activities of Marcus Garvey, is forwarded for your information. Yours sincerely, H . H . BACON [Address:] G. L. M. Clauson, Esq., OBE., Colonial Office, S.W.i PRO, C O 318/399, file 46634-2865. T L S , recipient's copy. Marked "SECRET." 1. Captain (later Major) Herbert H. Bacon joined MI5, one of the military intelligence divisions of the British secret service, during World War I. The division, also known as the Security Service or Counter-Espionage Service, was originally funded by the War Office and was founded by Sir Vernon G. W. Kell around 1904. MI5 was headquartered on Cromwell Road in the interwar years. Functioning as the underground wing of the Home Office, it was designed to conduct secret intelligence and monitor Communist activities in the military and in overseas territories administered by Britain. It also worked in conjunction with other government agencies, including the passport control and aliens departments of the Home Office, and maintained extensive records on aliens and those perceived as radicals within the colonies. It operated as an approximate equivalent to the U.S. Bureau of Investigation. Its counterpart, MI6, or the Secret Service, administered by the Foreign Office with responsibility for espionage beyond British boundaries, was the rough equivalent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. In addition to Kell and his deputy, Lieut. Col. Eric Holt-Wilson, the staff of MI5 in 1930 consisted of five civil assistants of officer rank, including Bacon. Bacon became head of the security division of the expanded MI5 during World War II (Christopher Andrew to Robert A. Hill, 8 April 1986; David Wise and Thomas B. Ross, The Espionage Establishment [New York: Random House, 1967], pp. 8384; Christopher Andrew, Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community [London: Heinemann, 1985], p. 359). 2. Sir Gerard L. M. Clauson (1891-1974), British civil servant and economist, was an outstanding scholar at Oxford and a master of several languages, including Sanskrit, Syrian, and Arabic. He was decorated for his service in the Middle East during World War I and joined the Colonial Office staff as a principal secretary in 1919. He became assistant secretary in 1934, lending his gift for languages "not only to his own department, but to other branches of the Service that sought his aid." He served as a British delegate or chairperson of several international economic conferences in the 1930s and 1940s and was assistant under secretary of state in 1940-1951. He was the author of several scholarly papers and monographs on Turkic languages and history (Times [London], 3 May 1974; WWW).

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Enclosure King's House, Kingston, 30th June, 1930 I think it is time that I sent you a fresh instalment for the Marcus Garvey dossier. When I came back from leave in November last, I found that Garvey was serving a sentence of imprisonment for "Contempt of Court." He had delivered at public meetings some very outrageous remarks about judges etc., and the Chief Justice [Fiennes Barrett Lennard] very properly sat on him. This of course, considerably quenched the ardour not only of Garvey, but of his followers. He was due to come out of prison on the 24th December but we learnt that his release on Christmas Eve would mean that he would be hailed as a "Black Messiah" and a monster procession from the gaol at Spanish Town to Kingston, a distance of 12 miles, with bands and all the rest of it, was being organised. That, of course, would not have done at all, so with a secrecy which was highly applauded throughout the Island, M r . Garvey was released about three or four days before the proper time [19 December 1929]. He was shown the door of the prison at a moment's notice and found his own way back to Kingston. I think he came back in a Police car which we sent out to assist him! The next event was the General Election for the Legislative Council. Garvey lives in the parish of St. Andrew[,] a select residential area, where is also King's House, and he appeared as a candidate for the parish against a very well known land-owner, the sitting member, who had recently been Mayor of Kingston [George Seymour Seymour]. There was a certain amount of excitement during the campaign, and Garvey's people, both in St. Andrew and in various parishes where he made futile attempts to put his own men[,] were responsible for rowdyism and attempts to break up meetings. But the result was that all the decent people in St. Andrew rallied to the support of the sitting member—many bed-ridden old ladies going down to record their votes for him—and Garvey was very heavily defeated. So were his candidates in the three or four parishes where his nominees were put up. The General Election therefore thoroughly discredited him. While Garvey was in prison as aforesaid, he was elected as a Councillor for one of the Municipal Wards of this Town, but for obvious reasons could not take his seat, and there was much talk "about it and about"! Ultimately, however, Garvey, when he came out of prison[,] was allowed to take his seat, and he is functioning now as a regular attendant at meetings of the Corporation. So far as I can see, he won't do any harm. In fact, he is all for exposing the colossal graft that is believed to exist in the Corporation.

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He continues to hold public meetings, but I have not heard of anything seditious. I should not be surprised if he tries it on behind the scenes, but I don't think his following is increasing at all, and his credulous adherents are beginning to wonder where their money goes to! He brought out a paper called "THE BLACKMAN" sometime ago, which I think I mentioned in my last letter, and every now and then be raises the "fiery cross," but the paper has got into financial difficulties, as was to be expected, and it only comes out once a week now. 1 On the whole, I think that Garvey's fortunes are on the wane. H e saw Sir Edward Stubbs two or three months ago, 2 and put forward the most grotesque proposals for the improvement of the human race in general and Jamaica in particular, which could not bear even looking into, still less encouraging. I do not really anticipate any serious trouble from him at present. His adherents are men of no substance, and his defeat at the Polls has shaken his position gready. PRO, CO 318/399, file 46634-2865. T D R , recipient's copy. Extract from original letter. Marked "SECRET." 1. In April 1929 Garvey bought a printing press and installed it in the Blackman Printing and Publishing Co. office at 5-7 Ptters Lane, Kingston. The company primarily produced the newspaper (which began as a daily and became a weekly in 1930), but also, as an advertisement for the company observed, printed "anything from a Visiting Card to a Newspaper" (Bm, 1 February 1930). The purchase agreement for the printing press set the overall price at £375, £100 to be paid on receipt of the press and the remainder due within ninety days. Garvey was unable to meet the terms of this contract but retained use of the press until February 1931, when for "reasons we do not desire to explain" the Blackman abruptly ceased publication. The printing press was seized for debt {Bm, 14 February 1931; see also DG, 29 August 1929). 2. Garvey formed the Jamaica Workers and Laborers Association in June 1930 in an effort to convert former PPP platform planks concerning consumer and labor rights into public policy. A delegation met with Gov. R. Edward Stubbs on 14 April 1930 to discuss the status of poor and working people in Jamaica. The delegation included PPP and UNLA regulars T. A. Aikman, Norton Bellamy, S. M. DeLeon, Charles Johnson, and S. M. Jones. During the meeting Stubbs reportedly responded that the Jamaican poor exhibited "no unusual suffering" (Amy Jacques Garvey, "The Political Activities of Marcus Garvey in Jamaica," in Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa, ed. John Henrik Clarke [New York: Vintage, 1974], p. 282). Getting little response at the local level, Garvey's group then drew up a petition to King George V and submitted it through the British Colonial Office. They also sent copies of the petition to various members of Parliament. As a result a Royal Commission was formed to investigate economic conditions in the British West Indies (Bm, 19 April 1930; NW, 30 May 1930; New Jamaican, 7 September 1932).

Herbert H. Bacon to A. S. Jelf 3$ CROMWELL ROAD, SOUTH KENSINGTON, [London,] 31st July, 1930 Dear Jelf, I am writing to thank you for your letter dated 30th June, 1930 giving us the latest information with regard to Marcus Garvey. 414

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In spite o f his activities this man does not seem to make much headway and it w o u l d seem quite possible that n o w he has been elected to the position o f Councillor he will be content with that for the time being. It certainly was a g o o d idea to release him from prison before his time, and so avoid a demonstration which might possibly have led t o trouble for the police. His vanity must have been considerably hurt! We have a large dossier for Garvey, and w e are always glad to receive your reports concerning him. I hope you are quite fit and not working t o o hard. Yours sincerely, H. H.

BACON

[Address:] Captain A. S. Jelf, C.C., Acting Governor, King's House Kingston, Jamaica JA, file IOOO/8/I/D.S.(A.4). T L S , recipient'S copy. Marked "SECRET."

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Negro World [[Edelweiss Park,1 St. A n d r e w , ] ] [ca. 9 A u g u s t 1930] Fellowmen o f the N e g r o Race, G r e e t i n g : — A s President-General o f the Universal N e g r o Improvement Association, I think it is necessary t o give an explanation as affecting the g o o d and welfare o f the Organization at this time. A s head o f the movement it is my duty t o so act as t o conserve the interest o f the Organization at all times. In keeping with this, I have, since the rising o f our Convention o f 1929, allowed certain persons w h o m I held in grave suspicion to prove by their acts whether they were sincere or not in the effort t o advance the cause o f w h i c h w e pledge ourselves. MISTAKES OF PAST

T h e mistakes o f the past have acted as valuable experiences to prevent us from carelessly entering into the same blunders again. It was with that in view that there was a delay in immediately putting forward certain things w e decided o n at the Convention. O u r judgement in that respect was not at fault because w e are n o w satisfied that several o f the men w h o m w e w o u l d have had to work with in executing the Convention program were dishonest, dishonorable and insincere. SMALL, SELFISH C L I Q U E

D u r i n g the Convention there was a disposition a m o n g a small group o f men t o have things their o w n way. T h e Convention decided t o the contrary; 415

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but these men under the leadership of Mr. E. B. Knox have been trying ever since to usurp the authority of the Convention. The result is that we have had to dismiss Mr. E. B. Knox from the position of First Asst. Pres-General and warned the public against him and those closely identified with him. A SET S C H E M E

There was a scheme to use the new programme of the Organization to fatten their pockets and at my expense, hence the desire to establish a headquarters in Chicago when the Convention decided that it should be in Jamaica. The desire to interfere with the ruling of the Convention was only to put a few scheming men in position where they would control the finances of the Organization and use them to their own purposes, whilst readily hiding themselves under my being President-General, thereby escaping the responsibility that should have fallen upon them. This was the same trick they played on me in the Black Star Line, the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Co., and other activities of the Organization and therefore I am determined not to allow them to play the same game again. KNOX'S D E E D S

It may be surprising to the members to know that since Mr. Knox has been elevated to the position of First Asst. Pres-General, he has collected thousands of dollars while he has never reported one penny to the Parent Body, and in continuation has tried to collect large sums of money from the Negro World. The condition was such that we had to take immediate steps to stop him before going on with his scheme. And those associated with him, giving him aid and succorf,] shall be considered as working against the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Any Division that entertains any person who assists him out of the Funds of the Universal Negro Improvement Association shall also be expelled permanently. There is only one way to deal with a man like Mr. Knox and that is to summarily put him down. He has shown no disposition to be honest with the Organization and we have had enough experience to place us on guard against such persons. His Chicago Conference was only a scheme to intrigue others, and to impress them that he was doing something for them, so that he could continue to get monies from them without reporting to the Headquarters. There is but one headquarters and one President-General, and how any Divisional President could allow himself to be persuaded to attend such a conference without finding out whether it was authorized, I cannot say. T H A N K S TO M E M B E R S H I P

I have however to return humble thanks to the rank and file of the Organization for the loyal manner that they supported the Parent Body from the assumptions of Mr. Knox. There are other men associated with him to fleece the Organization. It is for that reason that no one must be 416

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entertained except bearing properly signed credentials from the Parent Body. There has been too much reckless exploitation of the Divisions by supposed representatives of the Parent Body who are representing M r . Knox and who never reported to the Parent Body any of their activities. LINING U P FOR WORK

The Universal Negro Improvement Association is lining up for its great world programme. Hitherto we thought best that we be careful not to go forward with men of the Knox type. But we now feci free to launch out in a big drive, feeling safe that we have in our ranks people that we can trust. Let everybody do his best. Let everyone rally to the Programme at this time. Keep the enemy on the outside; keep the schemes locked out, and let all of us be determined to go forward with a grand and glorious programme. Wherever members are in doubt it is preferable to deal directly with the Parent Body because we have suffered long by the duplicity and cunning of the many sharpers. We are hoping for a grand and glorious future, and all of us must hope for its consummation. All Divisions are also advised that there will be no Convention this year but the great Convention will be in August of next year, 1931. Let us all prepare for that grand and noble event. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be, Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League August 1929 of the World Printed in NW, 9 August 1930. Original headlines omitted. 1. Garvey had realized several hopes for Edelweiss Park since he obtained it in late 1928. In addition to being a site for organizational headquarters and newspaper offices, it served as a "centre of the social and pleasure life of the Corporate Area" (Bm, 8 August 1929)- A motion picture house and small amusement park would be built in the near future. In the meantime, its large outdoor amphitheater, used to good effect for the 1929 UNIA convention and People's Political party meetings as well as for weekly U N I A events, was the scene for dramatic events and musical concerts. A U N I A theatrical company presented a number of plays at Edelweiss, some of them authored by Garvey himself. One production, 'The Coronation of an African King," was autobiographical; a reviewer commented that from the "time the curtain rose at 8 o'clock up to the time it finally fell at 11:15, the audience was kept spellbound" (Bm, 31 June 1930). As the effects of the Depression were felt in the early 1930s, Edelweiss Park became entangled in financial difficulties. In December 1934 the mortgage on the property was foreclosed. It was sold at public auction, but the buyer continued to rent it out for U N I A activities (Bm, 9 August and 16 August 1930; G&G, p. 218).

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Notice by Harold G. Saltus in the Negro World

You Have Heard the Call WHAT WILL BE YOUR ANSWER TO THE PARENT BODY? Everybody is Saying "Yes" "I WILL BE THERE 1 ' So Lei Us Fall in Line For This

M O N S T E R

P A R A D E

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31st, 1 9 3 0 All Legions, Black Cross Nurses, Motor Corp6 and Juveniles in Greater New York, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Connecticut must report at 144th St. and Lenox Ave., New York City at 1 0 . 0 0 A. M. Sharp Come "Spie and Span". Don't be on the side lines looking — B u t in line marching. That-a-boy. DRESS FOR THIS OCCASION Cortls, Leggings,

Spurs,

White

Cloves

THOSE FROM OUT OF TOWN NEW YORK WILL BE READY TO WELCOME YOU Take Lenox Avenue Subway to 145th Street. Yon Get Off Right at the Door So long until Sunday, HAROLD G. SALTUS, Adjutant

(Source: NW,

30 August 1930.)

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OCTOBER 1930

Article in the Negro World [Kingston, ca. n October 1930] H O N . M A R C U S G A R V E Y C H A M P I O N S C A U S E OF L A B O R F L A Y S G O V E R N O R OF JAMAICA FOR N O T B E L I E V I N G T H A T T H E R E IS A C U T E S U F F E R I N G AMONG W O R K E R S On Thursday night last [7 October] a big political meeting was held at the Coke Chapel steps at which Councillor Marcus Garvey delivered a spirited address bearing on the announcement of the appointment of a Royal Commission to investigate the social, political and economic conditions of the British West Indies.' The meeting was called to order prcciscly at 8 o'clock, by M r . J. Dennis[t]on, z treasurer of the Jamaica Workers and Laborers Association of which M r . Garvey is chairman. In opening the meeting he said that it was a pleasure for him to be present at such an important meeting to be addressed by Councillor Garvey. He felt that the time had come when the people of Jamaica should rally to leadership to have their interests thoroughly and properly represented. He believed that they could find no better representative and spokesman than in Councillor Garvey so without much to say he took great pleasure in introducing Councillor Garvey as the principal speaker of the evening. M R . GARVEY'S SPEECH

Rising amid tumultuous cheers Councillor Garvey said: It was befitting the people at this time as citizens of Jamaica and subjects of the King to assemble in mass meeting, as they were, for the purpose of giving expression to their feelings and opinions touching the things that affect them as citizens of this country. The right to assemble was a constitutional one, and it is good that they have reached the stage of intelligence when they can assemble in large numbers and so conduct themselves as to reflect the highest honors upon them and upon their state of constitutional development and civilization. It was entirely due to the fact that they have been law-abiding and have conducted themselves in such a splendid manner to insure the public order, why he was able to report that His Majesty's good government, through our request, have seen fit to appoint a royal commission to investigate into their poor economic conditions. M r . Garvey went on to state that it was through the services o f our good friends in England why they were able to get the royal commission appointed. He stated that although there were men locally and otherwise, anxious to suppress their aspirations and to hinder their progress, there were other men within the empire who were as anxious to see that nothing was done to impede 419

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the progress of the people who were subjects of the King, and so the request that was made to them asking for a royal commission did not fall on deaf ears. Mr. Garvey said that he had always held and believed that when the proper approach was made to those in authority that everyone who had a cause to be heard, would be heard not only by His Majesty's ministers and government, but by His Majesty himself. That it was not the right of any man to suppress the hopes and aspirations o f the people, because the people constitute and make up what is called the state. Without the people there could be no state and when conditions in the state are such as to create dissatisfaction among the people, it is the right o f the people according to the law and constitution which they themselves have created, to so investigate such conditions as to bring about the remedy that is desired. Mr. Garvey further said that the English people have set the example by establishing the precedence of petitioning the King and the government for the adjustment of any wrongs from which they suffer. In this instance the working and laboring people o f this island sometime ago through a deputation, waited upon His Excellency the Governor [R. Edward Stubbs], asking him to investigate into the terrible conditions of poverty and distress affecting the people of the island. Unfortunately, His Excellency stated that he did not believe that there was any suffering in the island and so the workers and laborers being the sufferers desirous o f having conditions remedied, as presented to His Excellency, made up their minds to appeal to His Majesty the King and the King's good government, being British subjects for an investigation into the conditions. Other representations were made to representative men in England whose hearts are always touched over the conditions of the poor and with their general cooperation we were fortunate to have appointed a royal commission to investigate the conditions explained. This shows, stated Mr. Garvey, that British subjects or citizens are not without rights and if we have been denied our rights in the past it was because we did not know how to go about getting them. According to the statements bearing on the objects o f the commission, they will investigate the social, economic and political conditions affecting the people. He stated that Jamaica has always suffered from bad statesmanship and for the last fifty years there has been no attempt for serious statesmanship to help the island and its people. Hundreds of thousands o f our stalwart laborers and our sons and daughters have been driven to such countries like Chile, Peru, Panama, Bocas del Toro, Nicaragua, Spanish Honduras, Guatemala, simply because there was nothing for them to do at home. It has become a disgrace that these republics have all passed exclusion laws against Jamaicans and some have almost kicked Jamaicans away from their shores. Not only Cuba has kicked out Jamaicans, but several of the republics have passed exclusion laws against Jamaicans simply because Jamaicans and the statesmanship of the country are too incompetent to take care o f their own people.3 As a Jamaican, he said, this was an insult to him and to his intelligence. He had lived abroad in South and Central America and in Cuba with his fellow Jamaicans and he has seen advantage taken o f them simply 420

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because they were Jamaicans. He stated that the majority of the people were unable to express themselves in a way to impress the imperial government,4 but that he, by the blessing of Providence, has become able to speak for himself before any one, and he was assuming the responsibility to interpret the sorrows and sufferings of his people, not only to the local government, but to the imperial government. It was with that in view, knowing the people as he did, that he had the deputation approach His Excellency the Governor, but His Excellency did not see his way to believe that the people were suffering and so they had to take their cause to the imperial government. Mr. Garvey said that he hoped that much good will come from the commission because it will be an opportunity for the laborers to intelligently report to the commission the true conditions. He said that they should all be ready to welcome the commission and to let them feel that they are the ambassadors of the new emancipation because they were suffering a new form of slavery where the poor people were taxed directly and indirectly and could not find ordinary means of sustenance and yet they were contributing to large salaries and the wealth of other men who took no interest in them because they were unable to be represented in the proper way. The speaker impressed upon the audience that the question in Jamaica was purely an economic one, and that an ordinary knowledge of economics would suggest that the various standards of living were not in keeping with the best policy to be adopted in our civilization where the cost of living is raised tremendously high[,] such as selling butter at 2-6 pound, rice at 3d pound, flour at 3d pound, meat at 9d pound, milk at 8d pound, per tin, sugar at 4-d per pound, eggs at 1-6 dozen, and the other ordinary necessities at the same ratio, while paying men 1-6 per day and women 1 for them to provide themselves with these necessities, not only for themselves but for their children, in addition to paying rent, clothing themselves and behaving as decent members of society. Any economist to work out such a standard as shown must either be ignorant of the rules of economics or viciously inhuman in dealing with his fellow creatures. Life, he said, was intended not to be one continuous round of misery, but at least a season of happiness, and they may add even pleasure. He said that the Creator made the world and made man to inherit all that there is in the world but they may ask what pleasure is there in life for the Jamaican when he has to be driven away from his kith and kin, to suffer and die in a foreign country, while but a few heartless and unsympathetic enjoy the benefits of the land. These are the things that we should present to the commission, and our voices must be unanimous and loud in doing so. Printed in NW, 11 October 1930. Original headlines abridged. 1. Several British Commissions of Enquiry were established to examine conditions in the British West Indies in the interwar period. Commissions on Chinese immigration, the cost of living, hookworm, housing, land distribution, unemployment, venereal disease, wages, working conditions, and other socioeconomic issues filed reports in 1918-1938. Sydney Olivier's Sugar Commission Report, a study of conditions on Jamaica sugar estates, was published in 1930. The major report on economic, political, and social conditions in the islands was that of the Royal 421

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS Commission headed by Lord Moyne, a member of the Guiness brewing family, in 1938. The commission had among its members ex-governor of Jamaica, R. Edward Stubbs. The Royal Commission reported on critical problems in education, health, housing, labor, race and social class divisions, unemployment, and the status of women (James Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics: 1918-1938 [Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1973], pp. 35-39; Ken Post, Arise Te Starvelings: The Jamaican Labour Rebellion of 1938 and its Aftermath [The Hague, Boston, London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1978], p. 332). 2. J. I. Denniston was the first vice president of the Kingston U N I A division. He was a dry goods trader and the founder of the Jamaica Success Club. The officers of the Jamaica Workers and Laborers Association were Garvey (chairman), T. A. Aikman (vice chairman), S. M. DeLeon (secretary), and Denniston (treasurer) (Robert A. Hill, "Marcus Garvey and the Racial Economy of the Crown Colony State: A Study in Colonial Political Protest" [M.A. Thesis, University of the West Indies, 1974], pp. 219, 2.31). 3. Garve/s association stressed the development of black entreprcneurship and employment in Jamaica as a response to the exclusion policies developed against migrant Jamaican labor by countries hard-hit by the Depression. In doing so they championed the growth of a black petite bourgeoisie in Jamaica and the displacement of Asians from leading roles in Jamaican agricultural production and commerce. The group also advocated vocational education to produce a more highly skilled work force that would in turn encourage financiers to invest in new industries in Jamaica (Hill, "Marcus Garvey and the Racial Economy of the Crown Colony State," pp. 231-233; New Jamaican, 14 November 1932, 17 June 1933). 4. Garvey often stressed this theme of the inarticulate nature of the masses and his own role as a cultured representative of the common people who could be recognized as a peer by government officials. A few years later he wrote in a Nov Jamaican editorial that "because of the very ignorance of the labouring classes in this country they have no organization. They cannot impress the government, nor the leaders of the country because they have no programme" (n November 1932).

Articles in the Daily Worker [ N e w York, 28 O c t o b e r - i o N o v e m b e r 1 9 3 0 ] T R U E S T O R Y OF T H E C R U I S E OF "BOOKER T. WASHINGTON," GARVEY'S T O L D F O R F I R S T T I M E BY

THE FLAGSHIP,

SEAMAN

[EDITORIAL PREFACE] [28 O c t o b e r 1 9 3 0 ] T h i s is the first o f a series o f articles written b y a m e m b e r o f the c r e w o f the " B o o k e r T . W a s h i n g t o n , " o n its ill-fated cruise in the W e s t F o r o b v i o u s reasons, the n a m e o f the author is w i t h h e l d .

Indies.

T h e articles are

t h o r o u g h l y authentic h o w e v e r , as every reader will a d m i t before the series is over. W i t h this issue, w e publish a photostat c o p y o f a leaflet issued b y the C o l ó n D i v i s i o n o f the U n i v e r s a l N e g r o I m p r o v e m e n t A s s o c i a t i o n . W i t h every issue w e will publish p h o t o g r a p h s ,

including the discharge papers o f the

s e a m [ a ] n w r i t e r — a l l serving t o p r o v e the absolute authenticity o f the series and o f the charges m a d e b y the c r e w against the G a r v e y officials w h o attempted t o m a k e the c r e w the g o a t f o r their o w n misdeeds and mistakes. 422

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This series of articles are of tremendous import to both Negro and white workers. The U.N. I. A. or Garvey Movement, was created out of the discontent of the Negro masses, which found its highest expression at the end of the world war. Based at first on a demand for African liberation and nationalism, the Garvey Movement has since shamelessly betrayed the struggles of the Negro masses. In this series of articles, the thoroughly anti-working class nature of the Garvey movement is vividly set forth by a worker who himself experienced the brutal attitude of Garvey and his officials towards the Negro workers from whose hard-earned savings his movement was built and whom he has so barefacedly betrayed.—Ed[itor].' [INTRODUCTION] B Y A S E A M A N ON T H E C R U I S E OF T H E " B O O K E R T . W A S H I N G T O N "

Thousands of colored people here in Harlem and elsewhere are still waiting to hear the true story concerning the circumstances surrounding the cruise of the steamship "Booker T. Washington," the flagship of the fleet Marcus Garvey was to gather together for the carrying out of his "Back to Africa" scheme. A great many of these people have taken for granted what M r . [George Emonei] Carter and other officials chose to tell them. Through a vicious campaign of lies and slanders these officials have passed the buck to the crew. The workers, obeying orders and faithfully carrying out their duties, have been made the scapegoats before the masses. They have even been accused of keeping the boat in West Indian waters for nearly six months when she had presumably left New York for a 31-day cruise. Until now, the crew has had no opportunity to tell its side of the story. As a member of the crew on that disastrous cruise I will here tell the facts as they are known to every member of the crew—the facts that have been covered up and distorted by the officials. Here those who want the truth and nothing but the truth can learn the true reason why the "Booker T. Washington" had to remain in foreign waters for so long. I will relate in the followi[n]g series of articles how M r . Carter and Lady [Henrietta Vinton] Davis bungled matters, deliberately held up the boat, and even squandered the people's money to an extent where their wanton extravagance brought tears to the eyes of those among the crew who were members of the U.N.I.A. I know beforehand that there are certain people who will try to question the truth of my statements. But it is these same people who have allowed the heat of fanaticism to becloud their minds to the extent where they cannot see facts that are plain as day. But I defy any one to disprove my statements. I defy anyone to prove that the crew had anything to do with the delays of the boat in any of the ports we visited. And I openly invite one and all to use the columns of this newspaper to discuss any of my statements in the following articles. 423

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[29 October 1930] WORKERS STARVE, O F F I C I A L S L I V E H I G H ON C R U I S E OF " B O O K E R T . W A S H I N G T O N " In the city of St. Andrews, Jamaica, British West Indies, there stands a very imposing mansion.2 Even a casual observer will note that the natives passing by will all stop and point their fingers at this house as if in awe of the house itself or of the occupant therein. In fact, from the actions of the natives one would imagine that the house was occupied by an ogre, a dragon, or some other mysterious being. OVER-FAT AND PAUNCHY

If the observer should tarry awhile, his patience would be rewarded by the appearance of a huge, prosperous looking individual who bears all the remarks [marks] of an easy and comfortable life. But let us stop for a minute and give this individual the once-over. As we look on we notice that his stomach is over-fat and paunchy. That alone explains to us that he has never done a day's work in his life. His huge jowls hang loosely on both sides of his face. From this we learn that he is a steady customer at the fount of Bacchus. His entirely overdressed and over-bearing manner advertise to the world that he is selfish, greedy and wanton. If you are a total stranger, you would never guess in a thousand guesses the true identity of this person. Therefore let us introduce him to you. Let us introduce The Honorable Marcus Garvey, the greatest confidence man of the age. CONTRASTED WITH H I S V I C T I M S

There he stands, contented and happy, living in a magnificent home and enjoying all the luxuries of life, while the poor working people who subscribed the money for his high prosperity are still living in the lowest degree of poverty. His Black Cross Navigation Company, and the steamship "Booker T. Washington" ("Gen. G. W. Goethals") are but distant memories now, but every day we come in contact with the poor people who toiled day and night, and even starved themselves and their children so as to make purchase of that boat possible, and as they pour out their troubles to us, we cannot help recall the disastrous cruise of that vessel. I well remember in 1925 when Marcus Garvey was using his slick tongue and imposing bulk to urge the Negro people of the world to subscribe to the purchase of a Negro steamship line. Negro workers, groaning under the oppression and insults of the white bosses and anxious for a way out, had entirely forgotten the lessons of the failure of the Black Star Line. They were again easy victims of Garvey's guile when he urged them to dig down

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and shell out once more. The poor women got down on their knees, and scrubbed the bosses' floor harder, while the men slaved overtime at pick and shovel, sometimes even working on Sundays so as to give M r . Garvey the money he demanded. S Q U E E Z E D M I L L I O N S OUT OF W O M E N

And, as the money came pouring in, Garv[e]y hummed and hawed, parried and thrust until [o]ut of the millions of dollars he collected he finally spent $100,000 for the steamship "Gen. G. W. Goethals," which he secured through the offices of a Negro broker, Anthony Crawford, because the owners of the boat would not have sold it to Garvey himself. At the time I was in New York looking for a berth on some ship, and a friend informed me there were vacancies aboard the "Booker T. Washington." I was a bit cynical about working on any boat that Garvey was in control of, for I had a pretty clear understanding of the Black Star Line. A few friends even advised me not to make the trip, but the novelty of the thing appealed to me, and being myself a Negro and a seaman, I imagined I would be helping my race to some extent by working on board the vessel. $ 1 8 A W E E K EXPLOITATION

To make things short, I went down to the dock and was employed by the boatswain, an old and jovial Barbarian by the name of Bully Hunt. This man was a good sailor and a staunch member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He put me to work with a few others to clean out the ship's hold which was in a filthy condition. I was to get $18 a week. It was damn hard work and several of us wanted to quit, but the boatswain with soft words got us to stay, appealing to our race pride to help a "race enterprise." With the $18 a week that we were "supposed" to receive, we were forced to pay for room and board ashore as there were no accommodations at the time on the boat and no meals were being served. We worked for the first few weeks without receiving a cent. Sometimes we were so hungry that a Jewish woman across the street had to have compassion on us and credit us with meals. While the crew was being mistreated and starved, money was pouring in from all quarters to Mr. Garvey. In the next article I will relate how thousands of dollars were collected in New York and Philadelphia and what became of it. [30 October 1930] WORKERS ROBBED, ILL-TREATED ON C R U I S E OF "BOOKER T . W A S H I N G T O N " While he was starving the crew, failing to put us up on board the ship or to serve meals and refusing to pay our wages, Marcus Garvey was collecting money right and left. But on one pretense or another he failed to pay a cent in wages or even to allow advances. In spite of this brutal treatment, when they 425

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came down and begged us to give the organization a half hour extra every day, we agreed, thinking that we were doing the right thing by our race. At last the day came when the boat was to sail for Philadelphia. It was a Sunday I quite remember, and thousands of workers came from Harlem to inspect the vessel before she got under way. Garvey, always out for the dollars, seized the occasion to dig down further into the pockets of these workers, making them pay $1.00 each to go on board. From what I witnessed, he collected plenty of dollars. Even with this extra money in hand, he refused to pay any part of the wages of the crew. All we got was lectures on Garveyism and race loyalty. Before going any further, I shall describe the crew. The captain was a Norwegian by the name of Yort [J. R. Hiorth], and both the first [Leonard Johnson] and second [B. Bugge] officers were Norwegians also. The chief engineer [Knut Strand] was a Swede. The first [C. J. Ellis] and second [Herman Grimmer] assistants were also white men. The third mate and the third engineer [Harry Forte] were colored, as were the deck and refrigerating engineers. The steward and all his personnel were colored, and so were all the petty officers. The boat left New York Sunday afternoon for Philadelphia, although by waiting until Monday she could have had a contract for carrying United States mail. She had been even advertised as a mail boat by the government. The boat broke down in the Delaware River. The crankshaft was broken. It was a very unusual thing to happen to a steamship, and many among the crew were whispering that the engineer did it intentionally, but those who know anything about machinery knew it was not impossible for such a thing to happen. Garvey came down to Philadelphia by train and held huge meetings, telling the people the vessel was damaged to the extent of $1,100, and calling upon them to dig down some more. While we wondered what he had done with the monies collected in New York, he again proceeded to clean up thousands of dollars from the workers. In Philadelphia, we tried, according to sea custom, to borrow $2.00 on our wages, but Mr. Garvey and the officers told us they had no money for us. Not only did they give us no wages but they treated us like dogs. There was no steam in the crews quarters, and several of the men, as a joke, collected some wood and started a fire on the cement floor. They had no intention of harming the vessel but the fanatics among the crew pretty nearly mobbed them for it. We stood in Philadelphia for 11 days, and then left for Norfolk, Va. In Norfolk we received a tremendous welcome from the Negro workers, and it was rumored while we were there that we could obtain a load of coal to take to the West Indies. We even prepared to take on the coal, but for some reason or other the cargo was turned down. Marcus Garvey collected lots of money in Norfolk, cashing in on the enthusiasm of the people, and we again tried to obtain a few cents on our wages, but were again refused. In Norfolk an incident occurred which further exposed the anti-labor attitude of these Garvey leaders who drew their support from the most 426

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oppressed section of the working class. The storekeeper and the stewards department were asked to help the pantrymen washing dishes at meal times, but the steward had also instructed the storekeeper not to issue any stores except on order by himself. Thus at meal times when the storekeeper was helping the pantrymen, there would be a rush to the storeroom for stores. Kicks followed and the storekeeper informed the steward he could not be in two places at the same time. The steward demanded of the purser that the storekeeper be paid off and fired. The purser, all decked out in a gorgeous uniform, threatened to have the storekeeper logged of every cent he had earned. The storekeeper appealed to the captain, and Mr. Garvey, Mrs. Garvey and Lady Winton [Vinton] Davis came trooping to the scene, all joining in the witch hunting against the storekeeper. Only when the captain warned them of the danger of libel by a member of the crew did they stop trying to bulldoze this worker and rob him of his wages. To-morrow I will tell of the enthusiastic reception we got in Havana, Cuba, and how Carter rather than give the man money for meals on shore, cut off his nose to spite his face, by turning down opportunity to raise larger sums than ever before. [1 November 1930] C R E W FORCED TO BEG ON STREETS ON C R U I S E OF " B O O K E R T . W A S H I N G T O N " When M r . Carter slammed the door in our face at our request for a few dollars to go ashore on, the crew lost its temper. We made such an uproar that he finally agreed to give us 8 shillings each (about $3.00 in U.S. money). This was not the tenth part of what we should have received, but still loyal to the organization the men meekly took it and went ashore. CALL CREW RATS

That night Carter got up in the Liberty Hall in Kingston and called us all kinds of rats in front of the members of the local organization. He then told us that we were scums of the earth. The men were for giving him a damn good beating, but we knew he would have put us in jail and used that as an excuse for holding up the boat as that was his aim all along. We therefore swallowed his insults hoping to handle him when we returned to New York. Preacher Carter was not only avaricious in the extreme, grabbing and holding on tight to every dollar that came into his hands, except as he spent it in luxuries for himself and Lady Davis, but he wanted the best of anything that the crew had. We were in Jamaica five days when the workers sent us some chickens and pigeons. M r . Carter, hearing of this, came aboard demanding the meat of the pigeon's breast. Perhaps he thought he was still in the preaching business with fool wives skimping their husbands and children to give him the best portions. He cursed us and went ashore in high dudgeon when we would not give him the best portions. 427

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS C R E W F O R C E D TO B E G A S H O R E

He laid in Kingston for about 20 days, during which time all we got of our wages was $7.00 apiece. The crew had to go ashore and beg the people for meals, and you could see them at all hours of the day and night begging food and cigarettes in the streets. Carter and the other officers of the organization were all this time living on the fat of the land. What they could not graft from the impoverished workers, they bought at the best hotels. They rode about in automobiles and took sight-seeing trips into the country-side. And in going to and from the boat they would not allow any one so humble as a member of the crew to ride in the same launch with them. We were not permitted to touch the hem of their garments. N o white southern planter could have treated us worse. C R E W CLASHES WITH GARVEY'S IMPERIALIST " F R I E N D S "

An interesting incident occurred at the time we arrived in Kingston Harbor. The imperialist British government was no doubt afraid that the arrival of the vessel would incite the inhabitants of the island to rebellion against British rule, and they sent a battleship and timed its arrival to reach the port at the same time with the Booker T. Washington. Both vessels dropped anchor at the same time, and both put their steam launches into the water at the same instant. Both launches started for the pier, one containing a crew of sailors from his Majesty's battleship, and the other containing the purser, the deck engineer, a quartermaster and the boatswain of our boat. The purser stood in the launch and gave a good imitation of Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, and he ordered the Black, Red and Green to be hoisted in the bow of the launch, as if in defiance of the British battleship. Both launches reached the pier at the same time, and a lively fight ensued between the boatswain of our boat, and one of the sailors of the British battleship as to which launch would make fast first. The boatswain beat up the British tar so badly he had to jump in the water. After that we had no more trouble with them. V E S S E L LIBELLED IN KINGSTON

While in port, preacher Carter had another chance to grease his palms with some libel dough. We had been in port about 15 days when one evening a launch came alongside with government officers; and to our surprise, one who seemed to be in charge, struck our vessel with a staff resembling silver, and declared that he was arresting the boat in the name of his Majesty King George the Fifth, king of Great Britain, Ireland, Emperor of India, and lots of other titles that are too comical to mention here. It turned out that somebody had ordered IJO grate bars from a man by the name of [G. W. V . ] Serrant, the proprietor of the local iron works ashore. Everyone in authority refused the blame for ordering these grate bars because it was known they were not needed. Preacher Carter started immediately inciting the crew to attack the Chief Engineer claiming he must 428

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have ordered them. Only the intervention of the officials in the launch saved the life of the Chief Engineer, the men having started to beat him up. CARTER COLLECTS BIG L I B E L DAMAGES

A few days later, an agent from Lloyd's came aboard and testified that the grate bars were useless and that under the law, Serrant could not libel the boat, in fact he advised Carter that he could start suit for damages against Serrant because the bars were so rotten if we had made a fire on top of those grate bars they would not have lasted one [m]atch. Carter rushed ashore, feverish of the chance of getting some more libel money. We understood that he forced Serrant to pay a fat judgement, although as before we saw not one penny of it. In my next article I will tell how the workers of the Republic of Panama sent Carter $1,100 in cash and what became of it. [3 November 1930] M E M B E R S OF C R E W IN R A G S ON THE C R U I S E OF G A R V E Y S H I P " B O O K E R T . W A S H I N G T O N "

By this time every member of the crew was in a desperate plight, forced to beg on the streets and forced to work all kinds of tricks on the population to get something to eat. The deck Stewart was passing himself off as a voodoo worker from Martinique, and collected quite a few pounds from the more superstitious. Others started in to look for jobs ashore. M O R E R U T H L E S S , THE M O R E H E C O L L E C T S

About this time, the membership in the Republic of Panama sent Carter $1,000 in cash. Most of us were starving and thought surely we would be handed out a few dollars this time. But Carter steadfastly refused to part with a penny of the money, declaring it was his. Challenged on that, he then said he had to send part of the money to the office in New York, and that he did not give a damn whether we starved or not. At this time, Carter was also collecting money right and left ashore, and getting fatter and more prosperous every day, while we of the crew were growing thin from starvation. He got more ruthless in his treatment of the crew, too. That he didn't give a damn for the workers aboard the ship was amply proved in his treatment of the deck steward who became sick on the way to Colón, and subsequently died in Ancon 3 on account of the gross neglect of which he was a victim. The doctor [Solomon Edwards] aboard the vessel quite plainly did not know his business and could not relieve the man who was in intense pain all the time. When we reached Colón we tried to get Carter to buy the man medical treatment ashore, but he absolutely refused to interest himself. Going into Colón, we had to hold the sick man up so that we would not have the boat quarantined. 429

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS M O N E Y PILED IN, C R E W STILL STARVED

In Colón, the Negro workers went wild over us also, and here again Carter collected lots of money. There were two U.N.I.A. factions in this city, both having its own Liberty Hall. Carter as Secretary General of the U.N.I.A. had they [the] opportunity to patch up their differences. Instead of pacifying them, however, he clung to the one that had the most money. I personally know he collected quite a few thousand dollars in Colón. He then went to Panama City, where there were two Liberty Halls also. The people were quite eager to hear him speak, and he charged them a fat entrance fee. He sold stock right and left, and here he also collected thousands of dollars. The halls were so packed that the people strung outside for blocks and blocks. All of them had money and were anxious to give it to Mr. Carter, because he repeatedly told them that if they didn't they would lose the boat. He told them he did not have a cent to buy fuel or provisions to continue the trip. We of the crew were very surprised when he made those statements, because we knew of the immense amounts he had collected from Havana all the way to Colón, and we knew he was not giving the crew anything on account of their wages. We knew too, that most of the provisions on the boat were given him gratis by colored workers in each city we visited. So it came to us plain as day that he was appropriating this money for himself and others higher up in the organization. C R E W H U N G R Y , IN TATTERS

In the meantime, the sad sight could be seen daily of the crew wandering about the streets of Colón with torn clothes and a look on their faces that told plainly that they were hungry. Things became so [b]ad with us that the local branch which Carter had refused to recognize took pity on us and collected a benefit for the members of the crew who were most in need. They had to give some of us clothing, cigarettes, and enough to get a decent meal. And, at this time every man of the crew had over $200 in wages coming to him. In the meantime, Carter and Lady Winton Davis were living high, and buying up all the silk in Colón. He bought silk tropical suits, silk underwear, socks, etc., and Mrs. Davis wore nothing but the very sheerest of silks. In fact, if one had gone into the store of Kalcham and Balcham and asked for silk stockings or silk socks, the proprietor would have told you that Mr. Carter and Mrs. Davis, along with some of the other officers, had bought all the silk they had in stock. The fare on the boat was too plain for them, so they went to live ashore, putting up in the most luxurious style. The local U.N.I.A. furnished them with two servants, a man and a woman, and they ate nothing but chicken, turkey, and the best of foods that the town had. Before this, they were staying on the ship and would go ashore two or three times a day, each time hiring a launch from the Canal Zone government for which they had to pay $s for each 430

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trip one way. Certain members of the crew who were also members of the U.N.I.A. told Carter he should use the ship's launch and not spend the poor people's money that way. He was spending $15 to $25 daily for the Canal Zone launch when he could have used the ship's launch without any cost. Carter told these men to mind their own business. It was after this he took up his residence ashore. In my next article I will tell of how a division of the U.N.I.A. finding conditions of the crew so terrible had to issue a manifesto against conditions on board the vessel. I will also tell of our experiences in Almerante and Bocas del Toro. 4 [4 November 1930] COLÓN DIVISION EXPOSES DISHONESTY ON C R U I S E OF GARVEY SHIP "BOOKER T . W A S H I N G T O N " So notorious was the treatment of the crew by M r . Carter and the other U.N.I.A. officers on board, that the Colón local of the U.N.I.A. on 8th Street felt it necessary to issue a manifesto stating that they were in no way responsible for the terrible conditions on board or for the plight of the crew, which was on the verge of starvation. DIVISION CRITICIZES LEADERS

That manifesto criticized ver}' sharply the dishonesty of the big leaders and their attitude towards the workers in the employ of the organization and its subsidiary companies. This document, a photostat copy of which was published with the first article of the series, stated in part: We regard with much disfavor the many injustices which are being perpetrated against the interests of the ignorant, the credulous, the unsuspecting. We realize that a time will soon come when these poor despicable and visionlcss creatures will awaken only to find themselves victims of adverse irremediable circumstances over which they will have no control. W H A T H A S B E C O M E OF T H E M O N E Y ?

Wc have a membership of 959 adults and 300 school children, many of whom are holding certificates for loans in the Black Cross Navigation & Trading Co. Day by day they are pouring out their distress to us, asking us to intercede in their behalf. They want to know why the S.S. Booker T. Washington is anchored in Cristobal stream unable to proceed according to schedule. They want to know what has become of the many thousands of dollars which have been collected by the ship's managers. . . . Up to the present time we are powerless to give any account of the ghostlike disappearance of the money. 431

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS LOCAL WORKERS FEED CREW

In spite of this, however, Mr. [Hector] Connor, the president of the local, continued to do all in his power to help the crew. Mr. Carter, angered that this local was spending money to help the crew instead of giving in to him, denounced Mr. Connor in the Liberty Hall on nth Street, and further incited the members of this other local to do us bodily harm. Misled by Carter's glib tongue, they would meet us on the streets and curse us, and many a time we were forced to defend ourselves against physical attacks. Miss [M. L. T.] DeMena was the only official who displayed any sympathy towards the crew, and she took sick suddenly, the doctors claiming she was poisoned. It was whispered among the crew that Miss DeMena had been poisoned for fear that her sympathy for the crew would induce her to tell the truth of the sabotage and extravagance of the high officers. LEADERS HAVE BIG ROLLS

One night, driven to desperation, I called at the house where Miss Davis and Mr. Carter were staying, and calling aside Miss Davis I demanded some money out of my wages. She threatened me with the police, but seeing I was not afraid, she opened her pocket-book to give me a few dollars. What I saw in her pocketbook made me gasp. She had a roll of money as big as a cocoanut, and most of the bills ranged from $20 to $100. Of this huge fortune she gave me $3 and told me not to tell the other men. She also wanted me to understand I would get no more money from her. A G A I N SHOWERED WITH M O N E Y

Here we had to hire a new captain. Captain [Charles V.] Vaugh[a]n, and a new chief engineer [-K". A. Jenkins?] to continue the voyage. Arriving at Port Limon we had the same enthusiastic reception as at all other ports at which we touched. In fact, the Negro workers and peasants here declared a holiday. They came down from all parts of the country on box cars, passenger trains, carts and whatever conveyance they could get a ride on. They invaded the local Liberty Halls, and after Carter used his tricky tongue on [th]em, they showered him with money. Here, Carter charged the workers a fat fee for coming aboard the boat, and from 11 in the morning to 11 at night, Mr. [George A.] Williams, traveling treasurer, was carting big bags of money on board. He stood on the gangway, with a colonel of the legion of Chicago dressed up in his uniform, collecting money from everyone who went on board. Certainly the failure of the line and the subsequent seizure and sale of the boat was not due to lack of support. The masses gave that support generously. C R E W STILL STARVED

In spite of the collection of these huge sums, the callousness of the officers toward the suffering of the crew was so great that when Solomon, a fireman, got into trouble ashore and was fined 30 Costa Rican dollars, Mr. Carter 432

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refused to pay his fine, or to advance him enough of his wages to pay it. A woman member of the organization ashore paid his fine, thinking M r . Carter would refund it to her, but he did nothing of the sort. The boat then left Port Limon for Almerante. This is only a small village, but here again the enthusiasm was so great that M r . Carter collected large sums of money. The people told him he could have all he wanted in the line of provisions. They even gave us a small goat and pig. Miss Davis, by the way, claimed the pig for herself, declaring she liked roast pork. Starved as we were, we determined she would not eat that pig. C A L L W O R K E R S S C U M OF E A R T H

The night before we left Almerante, M r . Carter publicly demonstrated his attitude towards the workers. His line was the line of all the exploiters of labor. He told a large crowd of visitors gathered in the salon that we were the scum of the earth, and that whatever he was doing, he was just doing to help us, adding that if we did not like the way we were treated we could go to hell, and he would go back to his pastorate. This was enough to start a mutiny, but remembering the hard working men and women who had pleaded with us in New York to do our best for the boat, and bring it back safely, we took even these insults. We arrived next evening back in Bocas del Toro. Here again large sums were collected. We then went back to Colón, and imagine our surprise when M r . Carter told the people we could not sail because he had no money with which to buy coal. This statement surprised even the president of the nth Street local, who had made the round trip to Port Limo[n] and back with us, and had an opportunity to see the vast sums collected from the people of Colón, Panama City, Port Limon, Almerante and Bocos del Toro. The boat then laid up in a stream, and Carter and Miss Davis went ashore. We got the information later from the Star and Herald, the leading local paper, that they had opened negotiations with the Panama government for private purchase of a banana plantation. Angered beyond endurance, we demanded of Carter how it was he had no money to buy coal but could be negotiating to buy a plantation in his own and Miss Davis' names. In the next article I will show how M r . Carter refused cargoes and passengers and did everything to hold up the boat. He was not interested in taking cargoes because then everybody would know how much money was received for the cargo, and that did not fit his purpose. [5 November 1930] R E F U S E D C A R G O E S FOR B I G G E R G R A F T ON C R U I S E OF G A R V E Y S H I P " B O O K E R T . W A S H I N G T O N " Carter and the rest of the U.N.I.A. officials were all strong on calling on the Negro workers to dig down and give money to buy coal, to buy provisions, etc., but time and again they turned down opportunities to make the ship pay 433

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her way by refusing to take cargo offered. On the very first leg of the voyage, the trip from New York to Philadelphia, M r . Garvey had set the example by leaving cargo on the dock and leaving United States mail for which he had a contract. He sailed on Sunday, while mail for the boat was advertised as closing the next day. W O R K E R P A S S E N G E R S T R E A T E D AS D O G S

In Port Limon we received a wireless that a cargo of 36,000 bags of sugar could be had if the boat would hurry to a certain Cuban port. However, Carter knew if he accepted this cargo, everybody would know of it and the amount received, and he would not be able to get such fine collections, nor could he conceal the amount received. This policy of refusing cargo was also extended to passengers. They were certainly not encouraged. We had four aboard from Port Limon to Jamaica, and it was a shame to see how Carter treated them. Of course, they were only workers, and M r . Carter and the rest of the officials had already shown that while they were ready to collect the hard-earned savings of working people they had no use for them. They were gentlemen and ladies and could not mix with workers. On our way back to Kingston, Jamaica, from Colón, two of the crew took desperately ill. They went to the ship doctor for treatment, but that dignitary, patterning his actions after the other officers, refused even to touch them. We were afraid these men would die, and when we reached Kingston we took them ashore to a hospital. But because no officer would go along with us, the hospital refused to treat them. We then tried to find the ship doctor but he was sporting with the ladies of the island, drinking cocoanut water and rum along with M r . Carter and the other officials and could not be found. The men finally went to the American Consul [José de Olivares], who would have put them in a hospital, but as this would have forced the boat to wait for them or put up a bond to cover their wages and expenses back to the states, the men were against this. They knew that M r . Carter would not put up the bond but would use the case as his long sought for opportunity to hold up the boat indefinitely. So, although the men were suffering terribly they went back aboard. They underwent the most terrible suffering rather than afford Carter the opportunity to hold the vessel. And in the meantime, Carter was sending cables to New York every day inciting the members there against the crew! T R I E S TO A B A N D O N 1 4 OF C R E W

Soon after this the boat left for Port Antonio, Jamaica. Here again Carter collected more money. We now thought he would return straight to New York, but were surprised to learn he was taking the boat to Miami, Fla. Fourteen members of the crew went to Carter and told him they were afraid to take the people's boat to Miami, because they felt the white people down there would do something to destroy the vessel. Carter refused to listen, and went ashore and hired 14 men although the men had not threatened to leave. This 434

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alone shows his disregard for the people's money, for he deliberately added 1+ mouths to feed aboard, and 14 extra men, who would sometime have to collect their wages. The captain tried to dissuade him, but he would not listen. In my next article I will deal with our experiences in Miami; of the reception we met there, of the trouble we had with harbor fees and coal while Carter was close-fistedly holding on to every cent he had collected. [6 November 1930] COLLECT H U G E SUMS Y E T COULD N O T PAY $25 F E E ON C R U I S E OF GARVEY SHIP "BOOKER T . W A S H I N G T O N " On the way to Miami, we overtook everything in our way, and that sure made us feel good. Up to that time the "Booker T. Washington" was the largest ship to enter the harbor of Miami, and she made a pretty sight with flags flying and all the officers decked in uniforms of red, black and green. We docked up at Miami with huge crowds of colored people all around. SOON BECAME L A U G H I N G STOCK

In the face of all this show, however, the U.N.I. A. was soon to be the laughing stock of the capitalist press, of the white capitalist press of Miami, who laughed in glee when it developed that the ship could not even pay the $25 harbor fee. What had become of the huge sums collected by Mr. Carter and Lady Davis in Havana, Kingston, Colón and all the other ports we had stopped at? This was what had also surprised the people of Colón, who had generously dug down in their jeans and handed over thousands of dollars to M r . Carter only to have the boat tied up in the stream "unable to proceed because of lack of funds." What has become of the money? Had Mr. Carter and Lady Davis bought that bananfa] plantation after all? And how is it they could get away with murder like this without creating a stink, if it were not that all the other high officials were in cohorts with them. CARTER, FUTURE ASSURED, UNCONCERNED

In Miami the capitalist press gloated over the fact that the vessel was broke. The bosses' paper even noticed how M r . Carter was unconcerned. He had cause to be unconcerned. He had his future assured. The Miami Herald reported: "Carter found in the beautiful private salon on the forward deck surrounded by directors and private secretaries, apparently cheerful despite the problem of raising funds for coal to continue to New York." Even this boss paper admitted that the crew was more concerned than Carter about getting the ship back to New York: "Members of the crew, however, are concerncd most with getting back home, and are said to be reluctant to consider such delays justified as have been necessitated in each port while the sponsors of the system raise money by soliciting subscriptions from the colored inhabitants to purchase the necessary provision." 435

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In my next article I will tell how armed men came aboard the boat at Jacksonville, Fla., and how through Carter's stubborness we came near losing both our lives and the boat. [7 November 1930] ARMED K U KLUXERS M E N A C E C R E W ON C R U I S E OF GARVEY SHIP "BOOKER T . W A S H I N G T O N " Miami was Carter's home town, and this explained why he was so strong about stopping there. He had been a preacher here, and he only took the ship here to show the people how "big" a man he had grown. INCITES AGAINST THE C R E W

Here again he collected huge sums of money, and here again he incited the people against the crew. However we were fairly happy, figuring we would leave Miami for New York. But Carter, with the feel of easy money in his pockets insisted on stopping at Jacksonville. And here's where the boat was nearly destroyed. We of the crew did not at all like the idea of going into Jacksonville. We had heard many threats against us in Miami, and we knew in Jacksonville the Ku Klux Klan and others would have had lots of time to prepare for us. But with Carter's attitude of "to hell with the crew," our protests were of no avail. As in any other capitalist concern, the workers were to pay the cost but to have no word to say as to how things were run, and we of the crew being "mere workers on the boat" counted as less than dirt in the eyes of the big exploiters. S H I P I N V A D E D BY K U K L U X E R S

The arrival of the "Booker T. Washington" in Jacksonville, Fla., met with the same enthusiastic demonstration on the part of the colored workers as at other ports. And Carter lifted collections and contributions with the same easy success. In addition, he arranged several big dances on the vessel, charging a big admission fee. It was on the night set for the second of these dances that armed white men invaded the vessel. Preventing the workers from coming aboard, the raiders began beating up the crew. On shore, too, the police attacked any member of the crew they got their hands on. After a while the invaders went ashore, and we suggested to Carter that maybe the mayor of the city had an itching palm and he had best see him. M A Y O R A B D I C A T E S TO K L A N

Carter, trembling with fright, was glad enough to follow our suggestion in this case, although he had ignored our protests against bringing the ship into Jacksonville, and had insisted on endangering the lives of the crew so that 436

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he could make a few more collections. He went ashore to see the mayor, but the latter informed him the klansmen had taken things over and he could not interfere. Later that same night, the mob returned. We were all concentrated in the "Glory R o o m " at the time; when I noticed flashlights on deck and went out to investigate. I found the ship full of armed men, and got a glimpse of the night watchman, C. Beckford, rolling along the deck with a white man. I understand they caught him reading the Negro World and tried to beat him up for it. On the pier there were many other white men, all armed with revolvers. It appeared that they had come aboard with the special purpose of doing away with Carter, and finding that he had run away, they tried to take it out on the crew. In my next article I will tell how at last we managed to defeat the plans of the Ku Klux Klan to blow up the boat and how we discovered the trouble had been caused by Negro preachers. [8 November 1930] STOOL PIGEON PREACHERS INSPIRE A T T A C K OF C R E W ON C R U I S E OF G A R V E Y S H I P " B O O K E R T . W A S H I N G T O N " The Ku Kluxers who invaded the boat at Jacksonville were particularly angry with the captain, telling him "you ought to be ashamed of yourself working for niggers." They threatened to throw him overboard. If ever a white man did plead for colored people, I think Captain Vaughan did so that night. He told the Klansmen that if the ship had been an enemy ship in time of war, they would at least have allowed it time to get the crew on board and get fuel and provision. But because the boat was owned by Negroes, even though an American corporation, they would destroy it in the mad hate of the Negroes. The Klansmen told him to leave the boat at once because they were going to blow it up. And at that moment other men appeared on the dock carrying boxes which we understood contained dynamite. By this [time], however, the engineer had managed to get steam up, and we left the dock and anchored in the stream. M E N A S H O R E A T T A C K E D BY P O L I C E A N D K U K L U X

The next morning we learned that most of the members of the crew on shore had been chased into the swamps by the klansmen and police. We finally picked them up. Many of them had their feet swollen from mosquito bites and were otherwise suffering from exposure. As there was still talk that the klansmen were coming out in the stream to murder us, we got together all the fire axes and shovels and prepared to defend ourselves. We were to learn later that the officers had a box of automatics on board but were too damned cowardly to arm the crew to defend themselves. We learned, too, that the trouble had been started by eleven Negro preachers who went to the white bosses with the story that Carter had come 437

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to Jacksonville to preach race equality. In addition to this, we had reached Jacksonville while that city was in a lynching atmosphere, with the klansmen preparing to lynch a Negro [Will Douglass] who had escaped to New York and was expected to be turned back to the Jacksonville authorities. The Negro workers has organized, too, with the slogan "there shall be no lynching in Jacksonville." It was because of the fact that the Negro workers in Jacksonville were aroused and organizing that the klansmen stopped short of blowing up the ship. In spite of our bitter experience in Jacksonville with the K u Klux Klan, Carter's itching palms could not resist the lure of easy money, and he had the vessel put in at Charlotte, N. C., instead of coming straight on to New York. Here, his hopes came true, for he collected huge sums of money, although he ran the boat into some expense as going to the docks, the ship happened to knock down the pier. The dock owners libelled the boat for damages. Here, too, the chief engineer left the boat and libelled it for his wages. The government put a sheriff aboard to see that she did not sail without paying the damages. In starting out, the ship again knocked down the pier, and we had another suit. Such accidents are not rare. They may happen to any boat. In my next and final article I will tell of our arrival in New York, of the sale of the boat by auction after officials had deliberately passed up good opportunities for selling without the wholesale sacrifice of workers' money that subsequently occurred. The reasons behind this failure to sell when selling was good will make workers burn with indignation. [10 November 1930] G A R V E Y O F F I C I A L S J O I N WITH W H I T E INTERESTS TO R O B INVESTORS IN " B O O K E R T . W A S H I N G T O N " Upon our arrival in New York, we were not surprised when everybody started to accuse us of keeping the boat out for nearly six months, when she left on a thirty-one day cruise. We had known all along that Carter was sending back telegrams inciting the people against the crew in furtherance of his plans to make us the goats for all his blunders as well as for his deliberate sabotage in holding up the boat unnecessarily at the various ports. C R E W M A D E THE GOAT

To our chagrin we found that the people had believed all his lies and were hailing as heroes those directly responsible for the disasters and delays suffered on the cruise, namely, Carter and Lady Davis, while branding as traitors the men of the crew who had starved and suffered in their determination to bring back the boat safely. We could hardly reach Liberty Hall at 138th Street without some one calling us vile names, and threatening to attack us. We tried to explain to the people the truth of the matter and the thousands of dollars collected by Carter 438

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and Lady Davis which had mysteriously disappeared, but they would not listen to us as their minds were already poisoned with the vile telegrams. L E A G U E W I T H S H Y S T E R L A W Y E R TO R O B C R E W OF W A G E S

But we were to reccive still another surprise. We found that of the six months wages due us we could only collect $10 to $15. Not content with starving and ill-treating us on the cruise, the big officials were determined to make us sweat to collect our wages. The Shipping Commissioner [T. V . O'Connor] advised us that the only way to get our wages was to libel the boat, but that we were reluctant to do as we were in sympathy with the poor people whose hard-earned money had been used to buy the vessel. The officials told us we would get our wages in a short period of time, and they then turned over the payment of the money to a shyster lawyer by the name of [Stephen] Crick who had his offices on Stone Street. They, along with this shyster lawyer, paid us sums at the rate of 50 cents, one dollar and five dollars at a time. No doubt the officials benefited by this trickery used on us. W H A T H A D B E C O M E OF T H E M O N E Y ?

We had received very little of our wages when news leaked out that the ship was in danger of being sold at auction. This was the biggest surprise to us to hear them telling the people they had no money to meet the liens on the boat. What had become of all the thousands collected by Carter and Lady Davis? Who were the officials on this side who were splitting with Carter and Mrs. Davis and enabling them to hold out on the working-class investors without exposure? Certainly, we all know it was impossible for Lady Davis and Carter to spring this trip without help from the big officials who had remained in the States. W H I T E C O M P A N I E S P O O L TO G R A B B O A T

We were all saddened when the final blow came and the boat was put up for sale. We all knew what this meant, for it was no secret that the "Booker T. Washington" was a good vessel and that there were several big white companies trying to get hold of it. The fact is that the vessel could have been sold at any time at a profit were it not that the officials were not interested in accepting legitimate offers, as to do so would have deprived them of the graft they were after. During the very first week the boat became the property of the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Company, M r . Garvey was made an offer by a British firm, which was ready to pay him $110,000 for the boat—ten thousand more than had been paid for it to the Panama Steamship and Railroad Company. And even up to a few weeks before it was sold at auction for the sum of $25,000, with the white companies in a pool and agreeing not to bid over that sum for it, the company had several good offers which the company turned down. 439

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This was exactly what some of the officials of the company wanted, for they were in close league with these interests who wanted to pick up the vessel for a small part of its cost. Especially were they in league with the white man [Winthrop Waite] who held the mortgage on the boat and who was a sort of go-between for the white shipping interests. So once more, the Negro workers who had put their faith and their all into the company were robbed of their all, as in the case of the Black Star Line, while several of the big U.N.I.A. officials wallowed in blood money received for their part in the dirty deal.5 Printed in DW,

28 O c t o b e r - i o N o v e m b e r 1930.

1. Robert Minor was the primary editor of the Daily Worker. In the autumn of 1930, however, he had just been released from jail after serving a term for participating in a major demonstration the previous March. He spent several weeks gravely ill in the hospital after his release from prison. Due to these circumstances it is unlikely that he was the editor that secured the exposé on the S.S. Goethals for the paper or the author of the editorial headnotes that introduced the articles in the series. It is possible that the editor of the series as well as amanuensis of the articles was Cyril V. Briggs (Joseph North, Robert Minor: Artist and Crusader [New York: International Publishers, 1956], pp. 172-182; Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade [New York: Basic Books, Inc., 198+], pp. 19, 24-25). 2. A reference to Somali Court. 3. Ancon is a northwest suburb of Panama City, Panama. The American Gorgas Hospital is located there ( WNGD). 4. Almirante is a port on the Chiriqui Lagoon in northwest Panama. It is the site of one of the headquarters of the United Fruit Co. The city of Bocas del Toro is a Caribbean seaport on the island of the same name, located off the northwest coast of Panama (WNGD). 5. For related accounts of the voyage of the S.S. General G. W. Goethals; the financial difficulties of the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Co.; and relations between officers, UNLA officials, and the crew, see Garvey Papers 6: 105-119, 135-137, 154-156, 359-360, 373-376, 415-416, and 636-651.

Article in the Blackman [Kingston, November 8, 1930] T H E C O R O N A T I O N OF E M P E R O R R A S T A F A R I 1

Last Sunday, a great ceremony took place at Addis Abbaba [Ababa], the capital of Abyssinia. It was the coronation of the new Emperor of Ethiopia—Ras Tafari. From reports and expectations, the scene was one of great splendour, and will long be remembered by those who were present. Several of the leading nations of Europe sent representatives to the coronation, thereby paying their respects to a rising Negro nation that is destined to play a great part in the future history of the world. Abyssinia is the land of the blacks and we are glad to learn that even though Europeans have been trying to impress the Abyssinians that they are not belonging to the Negro Race, they have returned the retort that they are, and that they are proud to be so. 440

NOVEMBER 1930 R a s Tafari has travelled to E u r o p e and América and is therefore n o stranger to European hypocrisy and methods; he, therefore, must be regarded as a kind o f a modern Emperor, and from w h a t w e understand and k n o w o f him, he intends to introduce modern methods and systems into his country. 2 Already he has started to recruit from different sections o f the world competent men in different branches o f science to help to develop his country to the position that she should occupy among the other nations o f the world. W e do hope that R a s Tafari will live long to carry out his wonderful intentions. F r o m what w e have heard and what w e do know, he is ready and willing to extend the hand o f invitation to any N e g r o w h o desires to settle in his kingdom.

We know o f many w h o are gone to Abyssinia and w h o have

given g o o d report o f the great possibilities there, which they are striving to take advantage of. T h e Psalmist prophesied that Princes w o u l d come out o f E g y p t and Ethiopia would stretch forth her hands unto G o d .

We have n o doubt that

the time is n o w come. Ethiopia is n o w really stretching forth her hands. This great kingdom o f the East has been hidden for many centuries, but gradually she is rising to take a leading place in the world and it is for us o f the N e g r o race to assist in every w a y to hold up the hand o f E m p e r o r R a s Tafari. Printed in Bm, 8 November 1930. 1. Ras Tafari (1891-1975) became king of Ethiopia in 1928. He was crowned emperor of Ethiopia and took the throne name of Haile Selassie I on 2 November 1930. The coronation was an elaborate ceremony attended by the leading rases of Ethiopia as well as representatives of foreign heads of state, including the Duke of Gloucester, representing the King of England, and the Prince of Savoy, representing the King of Italy. The Cathedral of St. George was remodeled and areas of the capital city of Addis Ababa were refurbished for the event. Streets were paved and telephone and electricity lines installed. Horses were purchased from Austria to pull a ceremonial coach previously owned by the ex-emperor of Germany, while the city police were outfitted in khaki uniforms from Belgium; music was provided by a British naval band. The ceremony was carefully planned as "unabashedly modern, although Ethiopian in execution, symbolizing the amalgam that the emperor sought to refine through his administration" (Harold Marcus, Haile Sellassie I: The Formative Tears, 1892-1936 [Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1987], p. 114, see also pp. 109-115; see also Christine Sandford, The Lion offudah Hath Prevailed [London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 195$], pp. 56-57). 2. Ras Tafari had advocated a policy of modernization for many years before becoming emperor and had traveled to Europe to carry on diplomacy with foreign powers in his capacity as regent in the mid-i920s. As a child and member of the Amharic elite, he received a mixture of Western, Christian, and traditional education and became an avid reader of European literature. As regent he constructed a home in modern style and furnished it with European furniture and art work. As one biographer has pointed out, As one entered or left the regent's residence, one could not help noticing that the guard saluted smartly in European style, wore a Khaki uniform, and was armed with modern weapons. Obviously, Tafari had pretensions, mostly European-inspired. It was now time [1924] for him to visit the Continent, to stir people there to assist him in modernizing Ethiopia. Westerners steeped in contemporary racial stereotypes had always found Tafari's features, manners, wit, and intelligence gratifyingly nonAfrican. The ras thus comprised the ingredients for a public relation success in Europe. (Marcus, Haile Sellassie I, p. 58) As emperor, Haile Selassie's modernization policies included creation of a centralized government and civil service, the issuance of a constitution, educational reform, and public works projects.

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Marcus Garvey and Henrietta Vinton Davis to Emperor Haile Selassie I 1 Kingston, [ca. 8 November 1930] His Majesty Ras Tafari, Greetings from Ethiopians of Western World. May your reign be peaceful, prosperous, progressive. Long live your Majesty. MARCUS GARVEY

President-General HENRIETTA DAVIS

Secretary-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW, 8 November 1930. 1. The coronation of Haile Selassie stirred proud identification and enthusiasm among AfricanAmericans, including many Garveyites, who wrote in to the Negro World to express their support. The U N I A paper carried extensive coverage of the events surrounding the coronation (NW, 27 September, 25 October, 1 November, 8 November, and 15 November 1950,7 February 1931). Egerton B. Thomas of the New York Garvey Club associated Ras Tafarai's rise in Ethiopia with "a Negro prince" being "born in Jamaica," a reference to the birth of Marcus Garvey, Jr., who was born to Amy Jacques Garvey and Marcus Garvey on 17 September 1930, two weeks before the coronation of Haile Selassie (G & G, p. 207).

William Ware, President, Cincinnati U N I A Division No. 146, to Nugent Dodds, 1 Acting Head, Criminal Division, Department of Justice 330 G E O R G E STREET, C I N C I N N A T I , OHIO

February 10, 1931 My dear Mr. Dodds: This is in reply to yours of February 6th, ND-i489+o-(EMP-ZCB) for which I thank you. I beleive [believe] it will be necessary for me to state more clearly and also a few details so as to make matters clearer. I might state as I have in my former communication, that in the year of 1918 Marcus Garvey along with others incorporated The Universal Negro Improvement Association under the laws of the state of New York, a membership Organization not for profit. In the same year he Incorporated The African Communities League, an auxiliary of the

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Marcus Garvey and Henrietta Vinton Davis to Emperor Haile Selassie I 1 Kingston, [ca. 8 November 1930] His Majesty Ras Tafari, Greetings from Ethiopians of Western World. May your reign be peaceful, prosperous, progressive. Long live your Majesty. MARCUS GARVEY

President-General HENRIETTA DAVIS

Secretary-General Universal Negro Improvement Association Printed in NW, 8 November 1930. 1. The coronation of Haile Selassie stirred proud identification and enthusiasm among AfricanAmericans, including many Garveyites, who wrote in to the Negro World to express their support. The U N I A paper carried extensive coverage of the events surrounding the coronation (NW, 27 September, 25 October, 1 November, 8 November, and 15 November 1950,7 February 1931). Egerton B. Thomas of the New York Garvey Club associated Ras Tafarai's rise in Ethiopia with "a Negro prince" being "born in Jamaica," a reference to the birth of Marcus Garvey, Jr., who was born to Amy Jacques Garvey and Marcus Garvey on 17 September 1930, two weeks before the coronation of Haile Selassie (G & G, p. 207).

William Ware, President, Cincinnati U N I A Division No. 146, to Nugent Dodds, 1 Acting Head, Criminal Division, Department of Justice 330 G E O R G E STREET, C I N C I N N A T I , OHIO

February 10, 1931 My dear Mr. Dodds: This is in reply to yours of February 6th, ND-i489+o-(EMP-ZCB) for which I thank you. I beleive [believe] it will be necessary for me to state more clearly and also a few details so as to make matters clearer. I might state as I have in my former communication, that in the year of 1918 Marcus Garvey along with others incorporated The Universal Negro Improvement Association under the laws of the state of New York, a membership Organization not for profit. In the same year he Incorporated The African Communities League, an auxiliary of the

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Universal Negro Improvement Association, a business Corporation for Profit; headquarters located first at 54-56 west 135th Street, New York City. From 1918 up until 1929 The said Universal Negro Improvement Association and its auxiliaries was under Marcus Garvey's supervision and administration, he being President-General. During the time mentioned above he sold shares and bonds in the various business projects to members of the Organization throughout the United States. For further explanation I will quote the following: From 1919 up until 1922 he sold shares in the Black Star Line to the amount of $900,000.00. After the Company was defunct he sold shares in this Company, hence he was sentenced to Atlanta Federal Prison for using the mails to defraud. From 1920 up until (October) bonds were sold up until 1922 to the members to the amount of $144,450.58, in denominations from $10.00 to $1,000.00, bearing five percent interest annually. Up to the present time there has not been three percent of the interest paid on such shares and Bonds, nor even seven percent of the principal of such bonds have been redeemed. In February 1922 he launched a Membership Thrift Loan System in the various Divisions throughout the United States in which between $50,000.00 and $75,000.00 was realized. In 1924 he started another Steamship Company, name to wit:— The Black Cross Navigation and Trading Company. Bonds were sold in this Company ranging from $20.00 to $1,000.00 with Five percent interest annually. Between $250,000.00 and $275,000.00 was collected by way of loans and donations. All of this money has never been returned to the members. In 1923 when he was sentenced to the Fed[e]ral Prison in Atlanta and fined $1,000.00, he appealed his case and in this instance his bo[n]d was fixed at $25,000.00. This, rather funds for this purpose was borrowed from the following four Divisions, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, which amount was $30,000.00. All of this money has never been returned. Some of [the] persons who loaned this money did so in good faith and with the hopes of receiving the principal if not the interest. But, despite the fact Garvey announced through the columns of the Negro World, the official organ of the Organization edited in New York and published there, before the Convention of August 1929, that each member would receive his and her money back at said Convention with interest and compound interest, he changed or formed a supposedly new Organization, which he claims has no connection with the American Corporation, name to wit:—The Universal Negro Improvement Association Of August 1929 of the World." (Uninc.) He formed this so as to dodge the debts, liabilities and other responsibilities of the American Corporation incurred under his supervision and at his command. Now the question that arises in my mind is this; how are these poor people going to get any redress for their money./?/ Those who hold loan books, bonds and etc of the various auxiliaries or Parent Body come or write to the office here daily for consideration or settlement of such loans, when same is the indebtedness of the Parent Body, which Garvey removed to Kingston, Jamaica after his depor[t]ation there in December 1927 prior to forming his new Organization in 1929. In 1929 he mapped out another scheme to collect 443

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money from Negroes of the United States. Instead of borrowing same he communicated with the different members asking them to pledge to the $600.000.000.00 Drive to be raised in ten years and sent to his Office in Kingston, Jamaica. I think it imperative that the Department of Justice do something as quick a[s] possible to stop Garvey in his scheme of fleecing the poor people of America of group out of thousands of more dollars. Communications of this effect are already in the possession of the Postoffice Inspector at Washington. Also, I wish to state that Garvey has sent charters of this new organization to various sections of the United States, and three of which are in Cincinnati. I am enclosing herewith a duplicate of said charters. Sincerely trusting that I have made the matter clear, and also thanking you in advance for your early attention in the matter at issue,2 Yours very truly, WILLIAM WARE

President of the Cin'ti Div., # 1 + 6 Universal Negro Improvement Association Inc. P. S. Also The Incorporation Papers, duplicate, are in the hands of Postoffice Inspector. W. W. DNA, R G 59, file 811.108 G191/54. TLS, recipient's copy. On Cincinnati UNIA Division No. 146 letterhead. 1. Nugent Dodds (b. 1887), Michigan lawyer, was special assistant to the attorney general from 192+ to 1930 and acting head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department from August 1930 to February 1931. He became assistant attorney general in charge of criminal prosecutions in February 1931 ( W W A ) . 2. Assistant Attorney General Dodds sent William Ware's letter and its enclosure to Secretary of State Henry Stimson's office. The Department of State, in turn, passed on copies of the correspondence to American Consul Paul C. Squire in Kingston, requesting that he "endeavor to ascertain the present status and activities of Garvey and submit a report concerning the result of your investigation, together with any comments which you may deem relevant with regard to the possibility of any successful enforcement against property owned by Garvey in Jamaica, or judgments rendered against him" (W. R. Castle, Jr., for the Secretary of State, to Squire, 2 March 1931, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/54). W. R. Castle, Jr., of the Department of State also wrote to Ware, informing him that a copy of his letter had been transmitted to Squire and stating that "there would seem to be no action which the Department can take at the present time in regard to this case," but promising to communicate with Ware again "upon the receipt of a report from the Consul" (Castle to Ware, 2 March 1931; see also Dodds to Stimson, 19 February 1931; D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/54).

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Enclosure [Kingston, ca. February 1931] CHARTER T H E E X E C U T I V E C O U N C I L OF T H E U N I V E R S A L N E G R O IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION, JAMAICA, B . W . I . C O N T R O L L E R S OF THE AFRICAN COMMUNITIES LEAGUE

To All Of Those Present Shall come, Greeting: Know Ye, that we the Executive Council of the Universal Negro Improvement Association Nine hundred and thirty upon the application of Frank Hardy, Fred Davis, Wade Jenkins, J. S. Croom, President, Mrs. Mary A. Carrall, Pirscilla Furgerson, Carnelia Brown, George Mitchell, Emma L. Dickerson, Secretary: Have granted this Charter No 221 for a Division of the Association to include the limits of the Garvey Club of Philadelphia, Pa. and this charter shall hold good always, except revoked by the authority of the Potentate and Executive Council, or the accredited Representives of the Parent Body. Accordingly, we by virtue of authority vested in us as members of the Executive Council do hereby authorize and empower the above named persons and their duly accredited successors to constitute said Division under the number above stated, and we confer upon them all the rights and privilidges granted to a Division by the Constitution and by-laws of The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. MARCUS GARVEY

President-General HENR[IE]TTA VINTON DAVIS

Secretary General MADAM M . L . T. DEMENA

International Organizer, 1st G.C.F. GROVER C. FORD

Chancellor DNA, RG 59,

file

811.108 G191/54. TDR. Marked " T R U E

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Lord Sydney Olivier to the Blackman [Kingston, February 14, 1931] LORD OLIVIER'S A D V I C E TO U S Lord Olivier, First Baron of Ramsden, G.M.G., C.B., has courteously favoured this paper with an academic reply to a questionnaire which we recently sent him on matters intimately connected with the progress and future of the Negro race, and asking, in view of conclusive proofs of his [repeated line omitted] interest in the race, for an advice for its future guidance. We publish below, the reply of the estimable Lord to the questionnaire, which we are sure will be read with a great deal of interest. THE REPLY

Gentlemen, I have received the letter of the 10th instant addressed to me on your behalf by Mr. A. Wesley Atherton, enclosing a questionnaire which you asked me to consider and reply to. I am at present engaged in the observation of economic and social conditions in the West Indies and especially in Jamaica, my considered opinions on which I hope in due course to publish, but do not at present feel myself prepared to pronounce in regard to any particular section of the topics into which it may, after a full review of the ground, appear convenient to classify them. In the meantime it may assist me if you will elucidate for my information the significance which you attach to some of the terms used in your questionnaire, and if I indicate to you in what respect I should find it difficult, if not impossible, at this moment to give any precise reply to it. T H E WEST INDIAN NEGRO

Your questions speak of "the Negro race" in Jamaica and other parts of the West Indies. In the United States of America all persons in any degree of African racial descent are classed as "negroes." That is not the case in Jamaica or the other West Indian Colonies. In these the term "Negro" is usually understood to be applicable only to persons exclusively, or presumed to be exclusively, of unmixed African racial descent. It appears to me to be, in these Colonies, impossible either to distinguish and classify by themselves those individuals who are or may reasonably be presumed to be of such unmixed descent, or to frame

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applicable to their "progress" which is not equally applicable to other members of the communities who are spoken of as "brown," "coloured" or white. Some progress—some do not. I have several times since I landed here publicly expressed my pleasure at the evidences I see of general progress in the community, and some of the particular examples I have referred to have manifestly been furnished by men and women of African racial descent; but it would be impossible for me to isolate the track of "the Negro race" or to discriminate the contribution of "Negro" character (if there is such) in this general progress, which is a complex product of the whole mixed community. For these reasons, similarly, I cannot express any special opinion as to "the future of the West Indian Negro." It cannot, in my apprehension, be dissociated from that of the West Indian coloured people or West Indian white people of similar class, profession or occupation. Nor can I formulate any special advice for the future guidance of "the race." The progenitors of the African and part-African in these Colonies remained for ages shut off from the active spiritual centres of human civilization—Egypt, India, Arabia, Palestine, Greece, Rome—and the culmination of their philosophies and religions in European Catholic (i.e. "universal") culture—its Churches and its Universities. West Indian Africans have been transplanted into contract with that civilisation, and they have largely assimilated and profited by its inheritance. Catholic Christian civilization is the greatest of all the great formulations of the as [pi] rations of men to become human. Its principles are not ambiguous. It has clearly defined its conceptions of the cardinal virtues and of the deadly sins. Africans have the same conscience [consciousness] of these as have other men. They accept and practise them well, ill or indifferently, better or worse, as do men of other colours. I certainly cannot suggest any better guidance for a "Negro race" than that of the Churches and Universities which embody and maintain the tradition of the world's best human achievement in the spiritual and intellectual domains. Yours faithfully, (Signed) OLIVIER Printed in Btn, 14 February 1931. Original headlines abridged.

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Article in the Blnckman [Kingston, ca. 14 February 1931] Marcus Garvey gave a reporter an account of the circumstances which he said had forced him to decide to withdraw from here. In the first place, he said, the success [of] the convention which he called at "Edelweis Park" in 1929 was undermined by a re-actionary element from New York, and to which E. B. Knox[,] recendy committed to prison in New York, and who was then elected first Assistant President General, was secretly connected. Others who comprised this S E L F I S H AND REBELLIOUS

faction were delegates [J. A.] Craigen and [Leonard] Smith from Detroit. After the rising of the Convention and the delegates has returned to the United States, the effect of the influence and propaganda of Knox and his coterie were reflected in persistent requests that the headquarters of the Association be removed from Jamaica to the United States. His refusal to allow this transfer resulted in a fight between Knox and himself for the control of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and of the "Negro World." Knox and his propaganda were eventually defeated, but there resulted a demoralization of sentiment which for a time hampered the progress of the Organization in America and the West Indies. It is a fact that more recent circumstances opened up avenues for the complete revival of the spirit of the movement, notably the overturned judgment in the celebrated Markes [George O. Marke]-UNIA legal battle in the courts of this country, and the yeoman services of Madame [M. L.] T. DeMena, International Organizer, in eliminating from the rank and file of the Association in the U.S. persons who had been motivated in their e[ff]orts more by personal aggrandisement than by any sincere endeavour to assist the people. [. . . ] It is understood that Mr. Garvey will go to London. 1 Printed in Brn, 14 February 1931. Original headlines omitted, text abridged. 1. Garvey's plan to move to London in 1931 never materialized. Garvey had initially wanted to leave Jamaica for England in April 1931; instead he postponed his departure until September, perhaps due to financial pressures. He also did not relocate to London on a long-term basis; rather he visited England, France, and Switzerland, then returned to Jamaica in mid-November 1931 (Robert A. Hill, "Introduction," The Black Man: A Monthly Magazine of Negro Thought ami Opinion, comp. Robert A. Hill [Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus-Thomson, 1975], p. 13).

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M. L. T. De Mena, U N I A International Organizer, to the Negro World [Kingston, ca. 21 February 1931] To the loyal members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association of August, 1929: Ere this you are informed of my absence from America for a short stay in the island of Jamaica in conference with the President[-]General in matters that concern the organization and its workings in general, and especially the American field. I am pleased to note that on my arrival, I found the President-General, notwithstanding the great economic pressure, still harnessed as usual, doing everything he can to keep the doors of the organization open. This, however, he will be impossible to continue without the financial co-operation of each individual who has his name upon the books of this, our noble, organization. It is deplorable when we think of the many divisions which are constantly appealing to the sentiments of our members by telling them of the great work of the Hon. Marcus Garvey and this organization, collecting dues, annual assessments, etc., and in turn fail to realize that it is impossible for the parent body to live in Jamaica unless the President-General can get the financial support of the divisions. I am, therefore, as officer in charge of the American field, calling upon all loyal members and officers to see to it that the now past and present due yearly tax be remitted at once to headquarters, so as to enable the parent body to meet its obligations in Jamaica and save the administrator from so many embarrassing situations which arise from time to time from the lack of funds to carry on in the name of the people. We could not complain if the President-General would ever become discouraged because of our slackness as officers and members of the divisions, for, after all, the Hon. Marcus Garvey, though a genius, a magnet, and a great organizer, cannot coin money to meet the obligations of our organization when called upon. I am again asking you, the presidents who have not reported for months, and I might say for years, to immediately send in reports on such monies as you have on hand for the people, so as to facilitate the conditions now existing in the parent body because of lack of support on the part of those who locally lead the people. I am exceptionally glad that I came down to be in conference with the President-General, for, after all, one never knows what he has to undergo as leader of this organization unless in direct daily contact with his activities at headquarters. You who desire to facilitate the President-General's tremendous task instead of sending communications to the office asking for replies to your many 449

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varied questions, must realize that it costs five cents United States currency for each letter sent from this office to the American field. How can this be done by the hundreds if the members fail to pay their dues, etc., and if they do pay, the parent body quota of the funds is held in the local divisions to the detriment of the parent body. I shall soon be returning to America, when I hope to visit all the divisions that I have not as yet had the opportunity to visit, and many others, at which time I shall deliver to you the President-General's message. Sincerely hoping that you will abide by the constitution, and let headquarters hear from you immediately. With very best wishes for your continued success, I have the honor to remain, M. L. T. D E

MENA

International Organizer Printed in NW, 21 February 1931. Original headlines omitted.

Report by Altaman Sutherland1 Captain, New York Tiger Division [New York, 7 March 1931]

On Sunday, February 22, the Tiger Division carried on their mass meeting in the new religion known as Garveyism. The members and friends were very pleased with the outcome of the meeting. Private Green of the U.A.L. [Universal African Legions] rendered a wonderful selection. The principal speaker was Mr. Lewis Thomas.2 In our midst was Lieut. Col. Mohamed Ali Teka of a certain military organization on the shores of Africa. The President-Commander St. William Wellington Wellwood Grant invites every uniformed man and woman that belongs to the Legions to take part in a monster street parade in honor of Haile Selassie I[,] Emperor of Abyssinia, on Palm Sunday, March 29.' Uniformed men from every division in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania are especially asked to take part. Lodges, churches and other societies will be along with us in the line of march. Remember Legions, we failed to turn out and honor Ras Tafari on November 9 and 16 of last year, because of narrow-minded individual leaders, but let's get together this time. Remember, we are Africa bound! Rabbi W. Matthews [Matthew],4 Bishop J. Hill[,] Attorney Drew and St. William Wellington Wellwood Grant will represent the Hon. Marcus Garvey, the President-General of the U.N.I.A., August 1929 of the World. We fed 1,563 unemployed the week before last and 974 last week.5 CAPT. A . SUTHERLAND

Reporter Printed in NW, 7 March 1931. Original headlines omitted. 450

M A R C H I9?I 1. Altaman Sutherland was an active member of the N e w York Tiger division. He was an officer in the infantry section of the division, sometimes listed with the rank of captain, and sometimes with that of lieutenant. H e periodically reported on division affairs to the Negro World and spoke at many meetings. In early 1931 Sutherland spoke about the members of the Tiger division at a Garvey Club meeting, telling of "the cooperation that they have decided to give to the Garvcy Club, relative to the program of racial uplift" (ATW7, 2+ January 1931; see also NW, 3 January, 10 January, and 2 May 1931). 2. Lewis Thomas was a frequent speaker at New York Tiger division meetings. H e delivered an introductory address along with Ladv President M . P. Callendar and other officers when Ashima Takis appeared before the Tiger division in April 1931 (NW, 2 May 19.ii). 3. A11 additional announcement for the march appeared in the 21 March 1931 Negro World, along with news that Emanuel Tamrat, the Ethiopian minister o f education, would be participating. The Negro World reported the parade and mass meeting as a joint affair of "the Hebrew Church of Beth Beni and other churches," and that Rabbi Wentworth Matthew " o f the Colored Hebrew Church told people of that great assembly [t]hat Marcus Garvev was a disciple of G o d to the N e g r o peoples o f the World." S t . William Wellington Grant was said to have proclaimed that "Haile Selassie I is the greatest man in the universe, and H o n . Marcus Garvev next" (11 April 1931). 4. Wentworth Arthur Matthew (1892-1973) was the founder o f the Commandment Keepers Congregation in New York. Although accounts o f Matthew's earlv life and education vary, he was reportedly born in a black Jewish colony in Lagos, Nigeria, or British West Africa (Ghana). His father, Benyehuda, was supposedly a Falasha, or black Jew of Ethiopian desccnt. His mother, a Christian, was the daughter o f a slave in Nevis, B W I , w h o returned to Africa after he was freed with the abolition of slavery in the West Indies in 1833. Matthew was named Yoseh Ben Moshca Benyehuda by his parents, but assumed the anglicized name he used for the rest of his life when he and his mother immigrated to S t . Kitts when he was a child. The name was based 011 his maternal grandfather's slave appellation as "Matthew's man." As a young man Matthew migrated from the West Indies to New York, where he was reported to have been a student at the Havden Theological Seminary and the Bishop Ecclesiastical School. As the story goes, while studying in these Christian institutions he felt called back to his Jewish heritage and transferred to the Rose of Sharon Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. However, no records of a Rose of Sharon Seminary in Cincinnati can be located and accounts that Matthew graduated from Hebrew Union College are apparently unfounded. Matthew became chief rabbi at the Temple of Commandment Keepers in New York in 1919. The congregation, which was primarily working-class, numbered approximately one thousand, with some two hundred regular attendants w h o came from New Jersey and surrounding urban neighborhoods as well as from Harlem. The congregation was preponderated female and sponsored the Willing Workers G o - F o r w a r d Club, a women's social service organization. It also maintained a shul, Beth Hatphala Number 1, in a tenement building 011 Lenox Avenue, which conducted both Talmud Torah classes for children and a Yeshiva for adults. In addition, the Ethiopian Hebrew Rabbinical College was founded at 1 West 123d Street in 1925. Its curriculum included the study of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French; sociology. Middle Eastern and African geography and history; ethics and law; and etiquette, decorum, and grammar. With time the congregation also reportedly supported a home for black Jewish aged, a burial ground, and numerous small businesses, including tailor shops, laundries, cigar and stationery stores, and kosher restaurants. Many of the members were employed as kosher cooks in Jewish homes and Matthew maintained an informal domestic employee referral service for the congregation. H e also encouraged members to patronize Jewish businesses and to employ fellow orthodox Jews, white or black. In a 1936 interview Matthew said that "the philosophy of the Jews is to acquire wealth and command respect. It is this religion . . . which impels a Jew to walk several miles from the Bronx to the Battery to spend a dollar with another Jew . . . the sooner the black man is imbued with this philosophy, the sooner will come the race's forward movement" (Baltimore Afro-American, 8 February 1936; see also Albert F.hrman, "Black Judaism in N e w York," Journal of Ecumenical Studies 8, no. 1 [winter 1971]: 1 0 3 - m ) . In 1924 Matthew reportedly went to Germany to further his studies in theology at the University of Berlin and Rabbi Arnold J. Ford, a Garveyite who was originally from Barbados, served in his place until his return in 1927. Ford exemplifies the significant overlap between members o f the N e w York U N I A divisions and the Harlem black Jewish congregation. Like Ford, a majority of the members of the Commandment Keepers were immigrants from the West Indies and involved in the Garvcy movement, despite some serious ideological differences on the subjects of religion and racial heritage. 451

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Matthew taught his congregation that "the black man is a Jew . . . bccause he is a direct lineal descendant of Abraham and of Solomon" (Roi Ottley, New World A-Coming [New York and Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1943], p. 1+4). He rejected the label of "Negro" for his people, preferring instead that they refer to one another as Egyptians or Hebrews and reserve "Negro" as a term applying to African-Americans outside the faith (Fannie Zelcer, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, to Robert A. Hill, 21 June 1985; Nathan M. Kaganoff, American Jewish Historical Society, to Robert A. Hill, 3 July 1985; "Black Israel: Harlem Jews Keep the Fast of Yom Kippur" Newsweek [29 September 193+]: 25); Howard Brotz, "Negro Jews in the United States," Phylon 13 [December 1952]: 325; Albert Ehrman, 'The Commandment Keepers: A Negro Jewish Cult in America Today" Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought 8, no. 3 [Summer 1959]: 266-270; NTT, 5 December 1973; Howard Brotz, The Black Jews of Harlem [Glencoe, III., and London: The Free Press of Glencoe and Collier-Macmillan, 1964]). 5. Other UNIA divisions also developed food programs during the Depression. In Gar)', Ind., some seventy-five people were fed daily at Liberty Hall. Groceries were also delivered to the homes of those unable to attend the Liberty Hall meal. These food items were distributed through the Ideal Community Grocer)' Store on 2183 Washington Street in Gary (NW, 14 February 1931).

Paul C. Squire,1 American Consul, Kingston, to Henry L. Stimson AMERICAN CONSULATE,

Kingston, March 13, 1931 SUBJECT: STATUS AND ACTIVITIES OF M A R C U S G A R V E Y , P R E S I D E N T - G E N E R A L OF THE U N I V E R S A L N E G R O IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department's instruction dated March 2, 1931, (File N o . 811.108 G191/54) directing me to endeavor to ascertain the present status and activities of one Marcus Garvey, President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, now residing at "Somali Court," Lady Musgrave Road, Saint Andrew, near Kingston, Jamaica, and to submit a report concerning the result of my investigation, together with any comments which I may deem relevant with regard to the possibility of any successful enforcement against property owned by Garvey in Jamaica, of judgments rendered against him. In reply, enquiry from local sources believed to be reliable, the principal of which being Sir William Morrison/ Commissioner of the Kingston and Saint Andrew Corporation (Municipality), reveals that Garvey is financially embarrassed, that even his city water service has been shut off and that he is contemplating sailing for England within a few weeks, presumably to further the interests of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in that country. It is stated that Garvey's periodical, THE BLACKMAN, ceased to appear about the end of January and that he owes arrear wages to his printer. ' A local lumber firm is reported to be desirous of suing Garvey for its account were there any 452

MARCH 1931 assets to be attached. It is said that the head quarters o f the Association named above are mortgaged for considerably more than they are worth. It is stated that Garvey is now acting as an auctioneer 4 or is pursuing any possible means o f gaining a livelihood. T h e assertion is made that there is property in the name o f Garvey's wife [ A m y Jacques G a r v e y ] and a rumour, which has not been confirmed, that Garvey has money to his credit in a bank in France. Sir William Morrison, a lawyer by profession, states unequivocally that there is no possibility o f any successful enforcement o f any judgments rendered against him.

All persons interviewed agree that Garvey has lost his local

following and that he has considerable debts in Jamaica. Respectfully yours, PAUL C . SQUIRE American Consul D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/56. T L S , recipient's copy. 1. Paul Chapin Squire (1890-1966) joined the diplomatic service in May 1919 and served as American consul in several countries, including England, France, and Switzerland as well as Jamaica (Evelyn R. Manning, Research Division, Department of State, to Robert A. Hill, 29 March 1985; NTT, 23 November 1966). 2. Sir William Morrison, solicitor and Kingston and St. Andrew Corp. commissioner, was a member, with partner C. S. Morrison, of the Kingston law firm Morrison and Morrison. He was one of six Jamaican citizens who received knighthoods in the period between World War I and World War II (Frank Cundall, ed., Handbook of Jamaica [Kingston: Government Printing Office, 1930], p. 179; James Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics: 1918-1938 [Kingston, Institute of Jamaica, 1973], P- 40). 3. The Blackman ceased publication at the beginning of February 1931. Garvey did not begin publication of his Black Man magazine (initially called the Blackman) until 1933. Although he began publication of the periodical in Jamaica, he moved its production to London in 1935. In the meantime he launched a new publication, the New Jamaican, a daily evening paper, in July 1932 (New Jamaican, 9 July 1932; BM, 1, no. 1 [December 1933]). 4. Garvey operated an auction company called Marcus Garvey & Co., Auctioneers, from his office at Edelweiss Park. In some advertisements for the company it was listed as a real estate agency as well as an enterprise arranging the sale of furniture and household items (DC, 18 June, 29 June, and 5 July 1932).

William Ware to W. N. Cault, Assistant Secretary of State 330 GEORGE STREET CINCINNATI, OHIO M a r c h 16, 1931 Dear Sir: Your communication o f March 2nd., is n o w before me and for which I thank you. In reply thereto permit me to state that for more than 12 months I have been trying to get this matter adjusted in the proper way in order that this man Marcus Garvey might be stopped from further fleecing many o f the unthinking members o f our group out o f their moneys. 453

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In the Fall of 1929 the Legal Aid Society here was retained by one Levi Simmons to collect funds which he loaned to a Corporation known as the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Company with Marcus Garvey as President and administrator. After having talked with the Attorney of the Legal Aid Society and explaining to him the situation he referred me to the Prosecuting Attorney of Hamilton County here, who was Hon. Nelson B. Schwab at the time. I was in his office on the 10th of April 1930. He in turn sent me to the Federal Building to the United States District Attorney here. Mr. Abraim, I think that is his name, the Assistant Atty. General referred me to Mr. Wilbur, the Postoffice Inspector here. Mr. Wilbur in turn referred me to the PostmasterGeneral [Walter F. Brown]' in Washington. On the 18th day of April I was in Washington and remained there two days. I left certain communications and other evidence with the Post Office Inspector there to verify and which showed just what I was working for. I am therefore at sea as to know why each one, apparently, is passing the BUCK one to the other from the Fall of 1929 up until the present time. In the meantime Marcus Garvey who is residing in Jamaica his home to which he was deported in December 1927 by this Government, along with his foreign-born agents in this co[un]try continues his whole-sale robbery and unscrupulous methods of fleecing the American Negro out of thousands of dollars. You state[d] in your communication that you were sending copies of my letters to the American Counsel [Paul C. Squire] in Jamaica. I am forced to state, and I speak the conviction of others, who are by no means not few in numbers, that it doesn't seem reasonable that this man should be permitted to continue to use the mails to defraud, the Western Union and other means, such as his foreign-born agents stationed in this country, and thereby fleece American Negroes out of their moneys with the promise that he is fostering certain Industrial projects for their soul benefit, when in truth he is using same for his personal benefit and use. Probably I have interpreted your communication in the wrong light, if so I would be pleased to have you inform me. I learned through a reliable source, and which information is true, that all of the property which is supposed to belong to the Parent Body of the Organization, and which American Dollars have bought, that Marcus Garvey is selling such properties and is planning to make his permanent Home in England from which point he will continue to use the mails to defraud the Negroes of America. It is truly a pathetic case. The poor ignorant members of our group, those who do not have sufficient intelligence to think for themselves are being taken advantage of, and it seems a shame that they, seemingly cannot get any redress for the moneys they have entrusted to Marcus Garvey for the building up of enterprises and other industries for their racial benefit, when in truth Garvey has so fixed it that everything belongs to him and the poor people have nothing to show for their untold sacrifices. Many of us in this country are apealing to the laws of this country to safeguard us and our interests. And best of all, and most important, we would appreciate it very much if the authorities would take steps immediately to adjust this matter.2 454

M A R C H 1931

Thanking you in advance for your prompt attention in this matter, Yours very truly, WILLIAM WARE

President of the Cin'ti Div., # 1 4 6 Universal Negro Improvement Association Inc. DNA, RG 59, file 811.108 G191/55. TLS, recipient's copy. On Cincinnati UNIA Division No. 146 letterhead. 1. Walter F. Brown (b. 1869), Toledo, Ohio, lawyer, was assistant secretary of commerce (19271929) before he became postmaster general in March 1929 (WWA). 2. Assistant Secretary of State James Grafton Rogers replied to Ware's letter on 4 April 1931, informing him that he was sending on copies of Ware's 10 February 1931 and 16 March 1931 letters to the postmaster general. The copies were sent on the same date, along with a cover letter alerting the postmaster general of "the alleged fraudulent use of the United States mails by one Marcus Garvey" (Rogers to Ware, 4 April 1931, and Rogers to the Postmaster General, 4 April 1931, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/56). Meanwhile, W. R. Castle, Jr., sent copies of Ware's February and March 1931 letters and the March 1931 despatch from American Consul Paul C. Squire to Charles G. Dawes, the American ambassador in London, informing Dawes that it was rumored that Garvey was "soon to proceed to London" and suggesting he might wish to inform the British authorities of this fact (Castle to Dawes, 13 April 1931, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/56).

A. S. Jelf to Sir Vernon G. W. Kell Colonial Secretary's Office, Kingston, 28th March 1931 Dear Colonel Kell, I send you a further, and what so far as Jamaica is concerned, I believe will be a final, instalment about Marcus Garvey. In the course of the summer it became my duty as Officer Administering the Government, for reasons into which I need not enter now, to dissolve the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation—a step which was inevitable and generally recognised as such.1 But you will readily imagine that Marcus Garvey, already disgruntled and seeing his public life ending, displayed an intense hatred of me and of everybody concerned. His paper, "The Blackman," contained violent articles against me describing this "death blow to democracy" and all the rest of it, comparing me to Nero (rather a complimcnt really!) and so on and so forth. But the dissolution was effected with some celerity and took the principal malefactors rather by surprise so that the articles fell flat even among his supporters. I will tell you all about it when I see you which will, I hope, be in July. Marcus Garvey thus lost his last chance of appearing in the public eye and is, I gather, now entirely discredited. "The Blackman" has ceased publication; he has given up his printing estblishment; he is selling his Headquarters and his private house near me /and/—I break it to you gently, my dear Colonel!— has announced that he is leaving these shores for England almost immediately. I wish you joy of him! 455

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

I will advise you by what steamer he is arriving. Whether he intends to "raise the fiery cross" in England or on the Continent, I do not know, and I do not suppose he knows himself. Yours sincerely, A . S. JELF J A , C S O , file 1B/5/79/15. T L S , recipient's copy. Marked "SECRET." 1. As acting governor of Jamaica in February 1930, Colonial Secretary A. S. Jelf was the driving force behind the dissolution of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). He named Garvey's nemesis, Chief Justice Fiennes Barrett Lennard of the Jamaica Supreme Court, the chair of a Commission of Enquiry to examine graft accusations made against the council members. Jelfs and Barrett Lennard's autocratic actions caused much dissent among those who saw the dissolution of the council as a direct attack upon the principle of representative government (James Carnegie, Some Aspects of Jamaica's Politics, 1918-1938 [Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1973], pp. 81-82).

William Ware to James G. Rogers, 1 Assistant Secretary of State 330 GEORGE STREET CINCINNATI, OHIO,

April 10, 1931 My dear Mr. Rogers: Your communication of the 4th instant is now before me and for which I thank you. Permit me to state that as per the contents of your letter there is not a possible chance of getting any judgments for moneys against Marcus [Garvey] as he has so well fortified his scheme re his holdings until not even this government or any other can take any legal actions against him in this respect. Our reason for getting in touch with the authorities of the Federal Garvernment [Government] was to have them stop him from operating in this country. He sent any number of charters to this country to further enlarge his supposedly new organization even after my conference with the Postmaster General [Walter F. Brown] there in April 1930. I might frankly state that the whole scheme of Garvey's new organization name to wit: The U.N.I.A. & A.C.L. of August 1929 of the World was to prevent the bequest which the late Sir I. E. Morter left to the U.N.I.A. Inc. in the U.S.A. instead of his newly formed organization in Jamaica. I might state more clearly that the Late Sir Isaiah Emanual Morter of Belize[,] British Honduras[,] who died in 1923 left a Will of $150,000 to the U.N.I.A. Inc. of New York an organization confined to the United States and its concessions. There had never been any such organization as the U.N.I.A. & A.C.L. of August 1929 of the World prior to Garvey's deportation to Jamaica by this Government in 1927. This case has been in the lower Courts of Beleize [Belize] since 1924, and each time the bequest was awarded to the U.N.I.A. Inc. of the Unite[d] States. In 1928 Garvey appealed the case before the privy Council 456

A P R I L 1931

in England, and in July 1928 said Body again awarded the residue of Sir Morter to the U.N.I.A. Inc. of the U.S.A. In the Fall of 1930 Garvey filed a cross petition in Belize, British Hondurasf,] Courts attempting to show that the Will was not left to the U.N.I.A. Inc., despite all of this on March 4, 1931 His Hon. Sir H. K. M. Sisnett of Belize, British Honduras[,] gave his final dicision in the case awarding the bequest to the U.N.I.A. Inc. Garvey was attempting to get the bequest for the, rather is [his?] newly formed organization, headquarters in Kingston Jamaica, and at which place he resided. The Incorporated Body wants Garvey stopped even if there or it requires a Federal Grand-Jury investigation. There is one Madam M. L. T. DeMena representing Garvey in this country, offices located at 355 Lenox Avenue, New York City, and who was appointed head of the Organization (new) by Garvey. Now the citizens of these United States do not feel that they are getting a square deal and are being justly treated by the Federal Authorities in this Case. I would appreciate a reply at your earliest convicnce. Yours very truly, WILLIAM WARE

President of the Cin'ti Div., # 1 4 6 Universal Negro Improvement Association Inc. D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/57. T L S , recipient's copy. On Cincinnati U N I A Division N o . 146 letterhead. 1. James Grafton Rogers (b. 1883), Denver civic leader, lawyer, and professor and dean at Denver University Law School (1910-1927), became an assistant secretary of state in 1931 ( W W A).

William Ware to James G. Rogers 330 G E O R G E S T R E E T CINCINNATI,

OHIO

April 13, 1931 Dear Sir: I am enclosing for your further information re Marcus Garvey a Negro World of April 11, 1931 in which he has criminally attacked me and others and also made libelous and scandelous statements which have a tendency to damage my character and standing in my community and the United States and other countries where I am known. I desire action in the matter at issue as quick as possible. 1 Yours very truly, WILLIAM WARE

President of the Cin'ti Div., # 1 4 6 Universal Negro Improvement Association Inc. D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/58. T L S , recipient's copy. O n Cincinnati U N I A Division N o . 146 letterhead. 457

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS I. Assistant Secretary of State Francis White replied to Ware's letter, informing him that the "alleged libelous statements made by Mr. Garvey in the N E G R O W O R L D of April n, 1931" constituted "a private matter in which the [State] Department would not be warranted in taking any action" (White to Ware, 21 April 1931, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/58).

Enclosure [[EDELWEISS PARK, 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads P.O., St. Andrew, Jamaica,]] [ca. 11 April 1931] GARVEY'S W E E K L Y D I G E S T F E L L O W M E N OF T H E N E G R O R A C E , G r e e t i n g :

For quite a while, I have watched the trend of events within and surrounding the U.N.I.A. in America. I kept quiet for the purpose of arriving at a correct and definite conclusion how to deal with the PRESIDENT-GENERAL'S

ATTITUDE^]

Some of the friends of the movement and of myself, took my attitude as a weakness, but I have had to inform them that as President-General of the Organization, I feel myself quite competent to handle any situation, which I am always prepared to submit for the judgment of the people at our Conventions. J. A . C R A I G E N

One J. A. Craigen who styles himself as Executive Secretary of the U.N.I.A. in Detroit, and William Ware, who was connected with the Organization as president of the Cincinnati Division, along with J. J. Peters and Leonard Smith of Detroit, also President of the Detroit Division, have, ever since the rising of the Convention in Jamaica in 1929, been most viciously carrying on a propaganda to discourage the loyalty of the Divisions of the Organization, that would not otherwise entertain a thought of being disloyal to the Parent Body and the cause. The object being that these men who, during my imprisonment, reaped a wonderful financial harvest out of the Organization, thought that it would be a splendid thing for them to get control of the Organization in America, so that they could carry on their escapades without reporting to anyone within the Organization but themselves. In a declaration of not long ago, I stated to the Negroes of America and the U.N.I.A. that I would rather be hanged a million times and be sent to the deepest depths of Hell than to associate myself with the men who have ruined the U.N.I.A. and me in their unscrupulous transactions.

458

A P R I L 1931 IMPORTANT DATA

I have in my possession, data dealing with nearly every man that I have had to deal with, and these villains and rascals will not die, even though they perpetrate the greatest abuses upon the Organization. WILD

RIDES

During my incarceration, these men who constituted this committee rode from one part of the United States to the other in Parlor Cars, spending the Organization's money most riotously without accounting to anyone. When I refused to allow them the licensc to continue robbing the people, they started a campaign to abuse me and the Parent Body of the Organization, with a hope of destroying the work, which is impossible. I have before me now, a circular written by the supposed J. A. Craigen, of Detroit, talking about startling disclosures he has, about the U.N.I.A. and who owns "EDELWEIS PARK" in Jamaica, and other properties that American dollars have bought. ASSESSMENT TAX COLLECTED

Craigen as Secretary of the Detroit Division, knows more than anyone else that his Division since 1929 has never sent a penny to anyone in Jamaica for purchasing "EDELWEIS PARK," or any properties connected with the Parent Body; neither has William Ware, of Cincinnati, although they have collected thousands of dollars in the name of the Parent Body for the Organization. There is no Division that has contributed any amount of money for the purchase of Edelweis Park. Edelweis Park is a tremendous financial outlay, on which I have had to borrow money and mortgage my two homes to secure, for the Organization to house a Convention. D I S L O Y A L T Y OF M E N

If Craigen and Ware had been loyal to the Organization, the Parent Body would have owned Edelweis Park, because it would have had the money to pay for it; but instead of that, I have had to mortgage my two homes in Jamaica to be able to accommodate the Organization in securing the Park.1 On top of this sacrifice that I have personally made, these men who have lived off the U.N.I.A. have the audacity to publish—"who owns Edelweis Park in Kingston, Jamaica." S T E A L I N G ON T H E S P O T

If those who steal from the people on the spot and rob even the Assessment Tax of the Parent Body, would pay it into the Parent Body, they would not have to ask questions as touching the Parent Body, because the Parent Body would flourish as it has always flourished, when I was able to control those under me, and the great work would go on. 459

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

It is because these men didn't went to be controlled, but allowed liberty to fleece the people, why they create disruption; but I can promise the American people and the Negroes all over the world, that my name, shall not be used by those whom I think to be rogues and vagabonds to deceive them. A DECEIVER

J. A. Craigen, who hails from British Guiana, is stirring up the loyal American members in prejudice against West Indians and other Negroes, when he himself was born in British Guiana and only became known when the U.N.I.A. in Detroit elected him as Secretary. This man takes upon himself the viciousness to raise questions about the integrity of the Parent Body, when he has not supported the Parent Body. We leave him to the American public to ask him what he has done with the Assessment Tax collected in thousands for the Parent Body, and which he and his President have not turned in nor given any account for. WATCH FOR W A R E AND C R A I G E N

Wherever Craigen and Ware appear, let the loyal members of the U.N.I.A. ask them what they have done with the monies they have collected from the American Public in the name of Marcus Garvey. Ask them since when they are against foreign born Negroes in the U.N.I.A., while the principle of the Organization seeks to link the four hundred million Negroes of the world together. Weren't these men lying then, when they talked about the cause of Africa and the four hundred million Negroes of the worldf?] Weren't they then laying the foundation, hoping they would gain ascendency in the U.N.I.A. in helping to destroy Marcus Garvey? Can the American public not realize the reason why it was impossible for me to secure the loyal co-operation of certain people while in America? Their scheme of villainy was too deeply laid and set, but everything happens for the best, and as President-General of the U.N.I.A., I have carefully watched the trend of events, and when the U.N.I.A. SHALL RISE to its higher work, the villains shall be buried and honest men shall remain carrying the banner of the red, black and green until the work is accomplished. This is the first of a series of articles that shall be written, 2 to give a complete exposé of those who have tried to usurp the U.N.I.A. Let every loyal member rally to the cause of the U.N.I.A. and to the Parent Body and stick firmly to the principles of the great Organization. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be, Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General U.N.I.A. & A . C . L . August, 1929 of the World

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A P R I L 1931

P. S.—All Divisions and Chapters are requested to send in their reports with Assessment Tax for 1931 to the Secretery-General, U . N . I . A . , Edelweis Park, 67 Slipe Road, St. Andrew, Jamaica, B.W.I. M.G. Printed in NW, 11 April 1931. 1. A reference to Somali Court, the Garvcys' home on Lady Musgrave Road, St. Andrew Parish, and a second residence at 76 King Street, Kingston (Robert A. Hill, "Introduction," The Black Man: A Monthly Magazine of Negro Thought and Opinion, comp. Robert A. Hill [Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus-Thompson, 1975], p. 3+, n- 37)2. N o subsequent articles appeared in the Negro World regarding this issue.

Sir Vernon G. W. Kell to A. S. Jelf 35 C R O M W E L L R O A D , SOUTH KENSINGTON,

[London,]

18 April, 1931 M y dear Jelf Many thanks for your letter of the 28th March regarding Marcus GARVEY. We will keep a look out for him on his arrival here and I would be glad if you will let me know by what steamer he is sailing from Jamaica. There is one thing quite certain, and that is, he can do very little harm over here as his campaign in this country some few years ago was a distinctly abortive one! I hope you are fit and well. I, myself, have just returned from a visit to Egypt which I enjoyed very much. VERNON G. W.

KELL

J A , file S F . 1000/8/1/D.S.A. T L S , recipient's c o p y . M a r k e d "SECRET."

Detroit UNIA Division Circular [Detroit ca. 19 April 1931] HEAR! HEAR!

HEAR!

A P A R T I A L A N S W E R TO

MARCUS GARVEY, S E L F - S T Y L E D P R E S I D E N T - G E N E R A L OF U . N . I . A . , IN H I S A R T I C L E IN THE N E G R O W O R L D ' BY J . A . C R A I G E N , E X E C U T I V E S E C R E T A R Y , DETROIT DIVISION

461

U.N.I.A.

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS AT L I B E R T Y H A L L , 1516 R U S S E L L S U N D A Y A P R I L 1 9 AT 3 P . M . REASONS W H Y

1. Marcus Garvey morally killed, and co[n]nived to physically kill every intelligent young man who became associated with him in the U.N.I.A. when they refused to further carry out his criminal instructions. 2. He classed [William] Ware, Craigen, [J. J.] Peters, [Leonard] Smith, [Samuel A.] Haynes and [Fred A.] Toote as enemies of the U.N.I.A. 3. He became a semi-maniac and almost broke up the convention when asked to report to the convention the moneys he collected for the U.N.I.A. although Detroit and other Divisions made their reports. 4. Divisions refused to send any more money to Jamaica because all moneys were put in Garvey's bank account, then loaned to the U.N.I.A. 5. Toote was asked by Garvey to remain out of the U.N.I.A. for five years [.] 6. The organizing of a new U.N.I.A.[,] and yet [he] had delegates Craigen, Smith, Ware, Peters, and others to sign power of Attorney to him so that he can collect the Morter Estate of $150,000.00 in the name of the old U.N.I.A., Inc.[,] of New York. 7. He says he was a pauper and had only $3.38 in the bank when he went to Atlanta Prison, and although he received no salary from the Government or the U.N.I.A. while there, yet when he went to Jamaica, had enough money to buy two homes which he says he mortgaged to buy EDELWEISS Park. 8. The members who loaned over $25,000.00 to bail Marcus Garvey from the Tombs Prison were never totally repaid. 2 9. The members of the Detroit Division [a]re now owed by Garvey's Parent-Body over $375,000.00. 10. Because Craigen used the Parent-Body Assessment Tax money to pay back to some of these members who are now in the bread lines instead of sending it to Jamaica, he is a traitor. 11. Although all the men who were ever connected with Marcus Garvey in the U.N.I.A. are now paupers and Garvey has several homes in Jamaica and as alleged over $60,000 in the banks of the world. 12. In all the world there is no other honest Negro but Marcus Garvey. 13. Garvey became furiously disturbed when asked, as the new U.N.I.A. is going to take over all the property of the old U.N.I.[A.] including the $150,000.00 of the Morter Est[ate] will it pay back to the members the hundreds of thousands owed them by the Parent-Body. 14. The New U.N.I.A. is not recognized in the courts of this Country.

462

APRIL 1931 15. T h e Belixe [ B e l i z e ] S u p r e m e C o u r t s [ C o u r t ] w a s specific in its d e c i s i o n in n a m i n g the U . N . I . A .

Inc. of N e w

Y o r k , w h o m u s t receive the

Morter

Estate. 16.

G a r v e y w i l f u l l y lied t o the delegates in T o r o n t o ,

him buying a new

p r i n t i n g plant in L o n d o n ,

England,

Canada,

about

t o print the daily

B L A C K M A N n e w s p a p e r , w h e n in f a c t that the P r i n t i n g Plant he d i d b u y w i t h A m e r i c a n D o l l a r s is o v e r t w e n t y years o l d and w a s b o u g h t f r o m a f r i e n d o f his in J a m a i c a . ' 17.

G a r v e y p u r p o s e l y a l l o w e d the A m e r i c a n o r g a n i z a t i o n t o lose o v e r

$ 8 , 0 0 0 . 0 0 in the s c h o o l p r o p e r t y in C l a r c m o n t , V i r g i n i a , b e c a u s e he instructed T o o t e n o t t o b u y t h e s c h o o l , b u t m u s t g i v e t o h i m this m o n e y he i n t e n d e d b u y i n g the s c h o o l w i t h so that he G a r v e y m a y h a v e it t o leave the c o u n t r y if d e p o r t e d . 18.

Although

the

members

of

the

U.N.I.A.

Inc.,

contributed

over

$ 1 0 , 0 0 0 . 0 0 f o r the a p p e a l o f the M o r t e r E s t a t e , y e t n o t o n e w o r d has been p r i n t e d in the N e g r o W o r l d t o let t h e m k n o w that the c o u r t s h a v e g i v e n the U . N . I . A . Inc. this m o n e y . 19.

The

Negro

World

newspaper

which

was

owned

b y the

African

C o m m u n i t i e s L e a g u e is n o w o w n e d b y the N e g r o W o r l d C o r p o r a t i o n is n o w owned

and c o n t r o l l e d b y M a r c u s G a r v e y ,

M.

L. T.

de M e n a

and

Harold

G . Saltus.4 T H E S E A N D OTHER R E A S O N S W H Y T H E U . N . I . A . IS SPLIT A L L OVER T H E W O R L D — COME ONE—COME

ALL.

N N - S c , U C D . Printed circular. 1. A reference to Garvey's editorial in the Negro World, 11 April 1931. 2. It appears that Garvey's bail actually was fifteen thousand dollars, but there is some basis for the use of the higher figure here. Amy Jacques Garvey stated that "a total of about $26,000 had been collected" by the Garvey Defense Fund (NW, 27 March 1926). "Out of this," she noted "$15,000 was paid for M r . Garvey's bail and the balance was taken . . . and deposited in the bank." This remainder was subsequently loaned to the U N I A parent body. N o evidence has been found that the money was ever repaid to the U N I A membership (G&G, p. 118; Tony Martin, Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association [Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976], p. 194). 3. Garvey announced his intention of starting the Blackman newspaper during his stop in Toronto on his return from his extended stay in London in 1928. In April 1929 he bought a used printing press in Kingston. The press was purchased from his former employers, the P. A. Benjamin Co. It was purchased in the names of Garvey and Henrietta Vinton Davis rather than in the name of the U N I A (Bm, 1+ February 1931; see also NW, 10 November 1928, 29 August 1929). 4. The certificate of incorporation of the Negro World Publishing Co., Inc., was signed 1 April 1930 by Harold Saltus, Florence Bruce, and Leona Saddler, who were listed as the directors and major stockholders of the corporation. According to Negro World mastheads, M. L. T. De Mena was officer in charge of the paper from 15 April to 17 October 1933, and Garvey retained the title of managing editor until 11 June 1932. Saltus was circulation and business manager in the early 1930s, serving a total of over ten years in the position (NN-Sc, U C D ; New fork Age, 20 August 1932; NYAN, 10 August 1940).

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THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

S. MacNeil Campbell, British Colonial Office, to A. S. Jelf Downing Street, [London,] 9 May, 1931 Dear Jelf, We have been informed that Marcus Garvey appears to be planning to come to London in the near future. There is some indication that he is still active in trying to raise money from negroes in the United States by methods which may again involve a questionable use of the mails. His purpose in coming to London is to further the interests of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but an official of that organisation [William Ware] has recently complained to the United States postal authorities that through agents in the United States with whom he keeps in touch Garvey is continuing his fraudulent tactics. The American authorities would welcome any information regarding Garvey's activities, particularly as to the date and mode of his journey, if it is in fact made. We should be glad if you could institute discre[te] inquiries with a view to eliciting this information for us. Garvey's present address is believed to be "Somali Court," Lady Musgrave Road, Saint Andrew, near Kingston. Yours sincerely, S. M A C N E I L CAMPBELL J A , C S O , file 81953/31. T L S , recipient's copy. Marked " S E C R E T . "

A. S. Jelf to M. D. Harrel [Kingston,] 1st June 1931 My dear Harrel, I learn from London that Marcus Garvey is believed to be still active in trying to raise money from negroes in the United States by methods which may involve again the questionable use of the mails. An official of the U.N.I. A. has actually complained to the United States Postal Authorities that through agents in the United States, with whom he keeps in touch, Garvey is continuing his fraudulent tactics. Can you give me any information of this? I notice in today's Gleaner a relevant paragraph which I attach. I have told London that Garvey is probably going to England shortly, but I hear rumours that he has postponed his departure; whether in[def]intely or not, I do not know. Both the American and English Authorities are anxious

464

J U N E 1931

to know all we can tell them about the date and mode of Mr. Garvey's journey. I wonder if you can find out anything about it? Yours sincerely, JA, CSO, file iB/5/79/ij. T L , carbon copy. Marked "CONFIDENTIAL."

A. S. Jelf to Sir Vernon G. W. Kell [Kingston,] 13th June 1931 M y dear Colonel, Further about Marcus Garvey. He has apparently changed his mind, and I cannot get much information that is worth having, except that he is reported to have said that he will be leaving for England and France in October or November. On the other hand, I see a paragraph in the local press announcing his intention to stand for election in the newly constituted [Kingston and S t . Andrew] Corporation. At the moment he is trying to float an Amusement Company' for £15,000, with which he proposes to purchase the house referred to in my letter of the 7th January 1929, which apparently belongs to his wife, for £15,000. As it only cost him £ 4 , 0 0 0 , there is big money in it! But the public is not rushing for it, and in any case, I should suppose that he is trying to raise the wind before clearing out. Three officials of the U . N . I . A . have recently left for the United States. Their names are:— Madame [M. L. T . ] de Mena, Vice President [First Assistant President General] of the American Division, left on 10th April 1931 by S.S. "METAPAN" for N e w York. Miss Hazel J. Escridge and Miss Gladys Warren, described as Secretaries, left on the 15th April for the same destination. Passages for these people were paid in part by Garvey w h o has given a promissory note for the balance due. I do not think he has much cash now. Yours sincerely, 2 A . S.

JELF

P.S. I hope to leave here on 24th June. JA, CSO, file 1B/5/79/15. TLS, carbon copy. Marked "CONFIDENTIAL." 1. The Edelweiss Amusement C o . , Ltd., was the corporate name adopted for Garvey's enterprises located at Edelweiss Park including an amusement park area, a movie theater, and an outdoor amphitheater for concerts and plays. The company, officially organized in 1931, experienced increasing financial difficulties as the Depression lengthened into the mid-1950s. Squire sent a police report to Stimson stating that when Garvey attempted to sell stock in the company from late 1931

465

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

to early 1932, some sixteen thousand shares were pledged at a price of one pound each, but many of the would-be purchasers failed to pay the amounts due for their shares. According to the same report, Edelweiss Park hosted concerts and vaudeville shows almost nightly, with Garvey taking "an active part in the management of these entertainments" (report by M. D. Harrel, inspector general, Jamaica Constabulary, June 1932, DNA, R G 59, file 811.108 G191/66; Bm, 3 January 1931; DG, 15 February, 18 February, 1 July, and 5 July 1932). 2. In his reply to S. MacNeil Campbell's 9 May 1931 letter, Acting Governor A. S. Jelf conveyed the same information as that written here to Kell, adding that he would relay to the colonial office any further information about Garvey's movements or his use of the U. S. Postal Service (Jelf to Campbell, 13 June 1931, JA, file C.2j). Jamaican and British officials were also in touch with the U.S. Department of State regarding Garvey's activities. An extract of Jelf s letter on De Mena, Escridge, and Warren's departures was passed on to Scotland Yard via the American embassy in London as part of a Department of State dispatch (Ray Atherton, Charge d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy, London, to Henry Stimson, Secretary of State, 15 July 1931; Benjamin Thaw, American Embassy, London, to H. M. Miller, Metropolitan Police, Special Branch, Scotland House, 22 April 1931; Miller to Thaw, 8 July 1931; DNA, RG 59, file 811.108 G191/60).

A. C. Aderhold,1 Warden, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, to Austin H. MacCormick,2 Acting Director, Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice Atlanta, July 11, 1931 Dear Sir: I beg to refer to your communication dated June 27th., file AHMacc in which it is requested that your office be furnished with a statement o f the money received here for the credit o f prisoner Marcus Garvey, Register N o . 19359, during his term o f imprisonment here. 3 In reference to this account I advise y o u that w e have checked back thru our records and prepared the enclosed statement s h o w i n g dates and amounts credited to his account and where the information was available the name o f the party depositing the money and the address is also furnished. It will be noted that a number o f these credits were received by wire on which no record was made o f the party sending same as this information was contained only on the check issued by the local office o f the telegraph company, and on some o f the credits the name only o f the party leaving same is available; in most cases o f this kind it was probably left by visitors at the institution. 4 Very respectfully. A. C. ADERHOLD

Warden D N A , R G 60, file 198940. T L S , recipient's copy. On Department of Justice, U.S. Penitentiary, Atlanta, Georgia, letterhead. 1. Austin C. Aderhold (b. 1881) was the record clerk at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary during Garvey's imprisonment. Born in Carroll County, Georgia, Aderhold became assistant foreman at the penitentiary in 1906. He served as custodial officer before becoming record clerk (1918-1927), deputy warden (1927-1929), and, finally, warden, succeeding John W. Snook in 1929 and remaining 466

J U L Y 1931

in that position until 1937. He was warden at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kans., from 1937 to 1941 and president of the Wardens' Association in 1935 ( W W W A ) . 2. Austin H. MacCormick ( b . 1893) was acting director of the Bureau of Prisons in 1931. He began his career in academics, teaching at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1916-1917 and joining the administrations of Bowdoin College and later of Bennington College, Bennington, Vt., in the 1920s. He was an executive officer of the U.S. Naval Prison, Portsmouth, N . H . , during World War I and became assistant director of the Bureau of Prisons in 1929. He served on many advisory commissions on crime and authored The Education of Adult Prisoners (1931) and other works on prison matters (Who's Who in Government, vol. 2 [New York: Biographical Research Bureau, 1932], p. 812). 3. In June 1931 William Ware contacted Aderhold and requested information regarding sums of money received by Garvey. Aderhold replied that he was not authorized to give out such information and referred Ware to the director of the Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D . C . (Aderhold to Ware, 23 June 1931, D N A , R G 60, file 198940). Ware duly wrote to the director on 25 June 1931. MacCormick answered the letter but also refrained from giving out precisc information. He did inform Ware that "considerable amounts of money were received during the years 1925, 1926, and 1927 and that any statements made by Mr. Garvey to the effect that he did not receive one dime [arc] not correct." He recommended that Ware initiate legal proceedings if he wished to learn more about Garvey's accounts (MacCormick to Ware, 25 Julv 1931, D N A , R G 60, file 198940). T w o days after receiving Ware's letter, MacCormick wrote to Aderhold requesting a statement of money received by Garvey (MacCormick to Aderhold, 27 June 1931, D N A , R G 60, file 198940). 4. Regulation of monies received by prisoners was not among the rules and regulations regarding privileges noted by officials who evaluated Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in February 1928, three months after Garvey's release. Although rules stipulated that books, magazines, and newspapers must be received directly from publishers, during his term of imprisonment (19251927), Garvey not only subscribed to periodicals but received books and other items from visitors; he also had access to the prison's twenty-thousand-volume library. Rules did stipulate that visits be limited to two a month, with visitors coming from a distance permitted one hour per day visits

over a period of three days. Uarvcy r a c i v e d many visitors during his imprisonment and often met with groups or individuals who were representatives or officials of the U N I A , any of whom could

have potentially carried money to him. Supplies for prison recreation programs were purchased using interest from prisoners' deposits and from unregistered monev found in the possession of inmates and confiscated by prison officials, a fact that indicates that some prisoners did accumulate sums of money that were not officially accounted for. In addition to money contributed in their behalf from outside the prison, some prisoners received pay for work they conducted in the prison dairy, duck mill, or tailor shop. However, prisoners on maintenance details (approximately half the prison population) did not receive any remuneration. Garvey was assigned to cleaning duty until Warden John W. Snook transferred him to less arduous tasks; it is unlikely that he received compensation for any of the work he performed while an inmate ( A F R C , A P ; Paul W. Garrett and Austin H. MacCormick, eds., Handbook of American Prisons and Reformatories [New York: National Society of Penal Information, 1929], pp. 17-26).

Enclosure [Atlanta, February 1925—November 1927] 1925

Feby.

2

5 19 19 21 21

25.00 16.83 2.00 .02

N c a p s i e [Mopsic], U p o n Arrival. Dr. F. P. Dean, Mary Massier,

467

N e w York City White Castle, La. Detroit, Mich.

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

23

26 26 2 2 5 14

i8 23 25 25 253 25 30

3i 8 8 25

30 2 12 23 I

19 23 24 24 26 27 27 6

28 28 29

8 8 17 18 18 18 14

24 24 26

25.00 25.00 10.00 7.00

New York City.

A. J. Garvey, By wire; H

II

Nurses, Left in corridor.

.08 Mary E. Fax, 25.00 By Wire. 29.00 Geo. Weston. 55.00 By Wire. 5.00 H. Johnson, .50 Magazines. 1.25 2.10 1.50 25.00 By Wire. 5.00 40.00 .02 H. L. Morant, 10.00 }. A. Craigcn, 7.00 W. L. Sherrell [Shcrrill]. 10.00 Wife. 5.00 n 40.00 By Wire. 100.00 Wife. 120.00 H 2.00 B. Hunter, 5.00 M. Mosey, 168.00 By Wire; 50.00 12.00 130.00 32.00 40.00 .02 G. Wade, 25.00 Parent Body U.N.I.A. 12.50 L. J. Van Pelt, 150.00 By Wire. 100.00 11 11 100.00 60.00 A. J. Gainey [Garvey], 80.00 By Wire. 11 104.84 11 n 350.00 11 it .02 n 3.00 Whitney Bishop,

11

1.25

"

Refund on telegram. 468

Chicago, 111.

Arden, N. C.

New York City. St. Louis, M o . Detroit, Mich.

Brooklyn, N. Y. Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland, Ohio.

JULY 1931

28

30-00

28

100.00

28

Nov.

Dec.

7

15.00 30.00

11

.12

19 4 7

5.00

12

3.00 10.00

By Wire. Friend. Samuel Chisholm, By Wire. Friend. S. V. Robinson, Ada Jackson, Buffalo Trust Co.

Philadelphia, Pa.

Poplar Bluff, Mo. Buffalo N. Y.

I.96

22 200.00 22

58.15

24

5O.OO

24

IO.OO

4 22

50.00

28

1.00

By Wire. Chelsea Exchange Bank, By Wire. Leta Strachan,

New York City. Philadelphia, Pa.

1926

Jan

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

95-00

I

2.00

I

15.00

3 5

5.00 I.OO

16

IO.OO

26

38.00

19 22

140.00

29

1.00

30

9.00

3 9 9

5.00

.18

50.00 5.00

14 15 23

50.00

26

IO.OO

.06

19.42

By Wire. Chelsea Exchange Bank, J. P. Gillian, L. W. Alonzo, E. B. Knox, J. W. Turner, Annie Berry, E. B. Knox, Chelsea Exchange Bk. By Wire. Friend. M. Bankhead, S. Chisholm, Daniel Steward, By Wire. H . J. Thomas, H. J. Thomas, By Wire. Chelsea Exchange Bk. Gertrude Stowers, By Wire.

I

100.00

I

100.00

tf

100.00

By Wire. 11 11

5 5 6 7

50.00 5.00

100.00

10

81.00

10

30.00

14

5.00

26

2.00

Philadelphia, Pa. Chicago, 111. Chicago, 111. Chicago, 111. New York City. Cincinnati, Ohio.

It

Cy. Robinson. Chelsea Exc[h]an[g]e Bank. By Wire. II

New York City. Chicago, 111 Chicago, II Chicago, II Chicago, II Chicago, II Chicago, 111 New York City.

New York City.

Tt

T. E. Johnson. B. Shaw,

Trenton, N. J. 469

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

June

July

29 20.00 4 30.00 9 100.00 12 10.00 15 25.00

Chelsea Exchange Bank. By wire, 11 ". Chelsea Exchange Bank. By Wire.

26 30 8 8

02 20.00 -02 30.00 9 3100 60.00 10.00 10.00 10.00

l J. Van Pelt, Chelsea Exchange Bank, Mrs. Babum, Rupert Christian, By Wire. Chelsea Exchange Bank, Rupert Christian Prisoner #20815 R U pert Christian,

Cleveland, Ohio. New York City. Philadelphia, Pa. Columbus, Ohio.

*3 50.00 14 20.75 16 35-oo 16 5 00 18 10.00 18 5 00 19 75-00 20 7.00 21 125.00 24 5 00 24 100.00 24 20.00 24 11.00 24 40.00 25 20.00

Chelsea Exchange Bank. Ledie Hickman, By Wire; Mrs. H. Cain, By Wire. r N. Robinson, By Wire. Rupert Christian, By Wire. E S S ex Trust; By Wire. " ". 11 » . " ". Wm. Ware.

New York City. Dayton, Ohio.

26 30

Lottie Blake, Lois Banks.

Knoxville, Tenn.

13 14 19 22 Aug.

Sept.

2

8 21

Oct.

2

2 2 +

Nov. Dec.

6 29 5 17 1

7 8

100 1.00

5 0 0 Addena Wilson, .02 Rev. [George W.] Hurley, 11 Macy & Co. 50.00 Left By Visitor 25.00 " " ». 15.00 " » ». -°2

J. Herks,

New York City.

New York City.

New York City. Columbus, Ohio. Columbus, Ohio.

New York City Detroit, Mich. Columbus, Ohio. East Orange, N. J.

Yonkers, N. Y. Detroit, Mich. New York City

Saginau, Mich.

By Wire. e . Steward, Left By Visitor. Chelsea Exchange Bank 0 2 Lime, .06 H. J. Thomas, 5.00 » » "

39.00 15.00 1.00 20.00

470

Gary, Ind. New York City. Cleveland, Ohio. Chicago, 111. " ".

J U L Y 1931

9 IO

10.50

17

1.00

24

25.00

.04

22

5.20

28

30.00

29 29 29

70.00

30

28.00

4 6 IO

1.00

5.00 2.00

By Wire. Teddie Hickman, Left By Visitor. By Wire. Daniel Stewart. By Wire. H

Dayton, Ohio. Philadelphia, Pa.

H

R. W. Jones, Mrs. M. Lewis, Left By Visitor.

Rochmond, W. Va. Koppel, Pa.

1927

Jan

Feb. Mar.

10.00

18

30.00

22

10.00

4 9 19 3 15 19 19 31 9 16

June

10.00 10.00 5.00 .02

i.00 10.00 5.00 5.00 10.00 35.00

21

10.00

25

12.00 .02

5 13

100.00

16

10.00

17

.02

65.00

2

10.00

7

10.00

8

17.00

8

30.00

8

25.00

11 15

Left By Visitor. Emma Bantum, S. Jeffery, N. O. Davidson, U. Negro Imp. Asso. E. B. Knox,

Philadelphia, Pa. New York City. New Orleans, La. Atlantic City, N. J. Chicago, 111.

.10 15.00

19

28

May

2.00

15

18

Apr.

.04

.04 50.00

20

24.85

22

43.00

By Wire. E. B. Knox, J. Malloy H. H. Jones, Emma Bantum, Teddy Hickman, U. Negro Imp. Asso. T. Brooks, E. Stewart, E. T. Wright, By Wire. U. Negro Imp. Asso. S. E. Buchanan, Emma Bantum, By wire. Il M Joseph Callender Emma Ban um By wire J. Malloy M D C Mena [M. L. T. De Mena] By wire. M n G. By J J By

W. Hurley wire James wire.

Chicago, 111. Saginau, Mich. Philadelphia, Pa. Dayton, Ohio. New Orleans, La. E. Gary, Ind. New York City Cincinnati, Ohio. New Orleans, La. Philadelphia, Pa. New York City. Philadelphia, Pa. Saginaw, Mich.

Detroit, Mich. Newark, N. J. A71

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

July

Aug.

23 27 5 5 6

50.00

9 14 15 16 18 25 2 5 27 27 8 8 10 11

14-00 -So .02 500 5.00 49-75 13.50 17.00 15.00 i.oo i.oo 1.00 .50

B. Montgomery u . Negro Imp. Asso. Emma Bancum R. Mason By wire. Dr. Thorpe R. Kitchen Robert Myers A L Fee YV. McDonald [Holder?] U. Negro Imp. Asso. » » j 0 h n Carr By wire e . Styles Andrew Cook j. Cliffton Eugene

25.00

By

25.00

»

19

120.55

"

"

19

10.00

11

»

5.00 Q a r a .22 a G Taylor 3.00 Zeledes Greer [Zebedee GreenP]

100.00

25.00

"

»

24

10.50

»

"

25 25 30

10.00 Knox 18.00 E. Collins 29.75 u. Negro Imp. Asso. 5 0 . 0 0 By wire

30

50.00

16 16 19 21 30 + 5 8 18 19

Philadelphia, Pa. Gary, Ind.

New York City. Brooklyn, N. Y. Pittsburgh], Pa.

23

12

Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. New York City Newark, N. J. Camden, N. J.

»

23

27

Oct.

w

Dayton, Ohio. Camden, N. J. Philadelphia, Pa. Camden, N. J.

ire

19 19

19 20 20

Sept.

13-25 11.00 °4 .02

B y wire

»

New York City Atlantic City, N. J.

»

18-78 13 00 04 .50 04 .02

E. Steward u . Negro Imp. Asso & ACL Ruth M. Smith Doubleday Page & Co Mrs Hickman Emma Bancum 2 3 . 0 0 H . Hoxie *o2 Ada Alexander 25.50 u N e g r 0 i m p . Asso ID # 2 3 9.85 J J James 8.00 By wire 472

Gary, Ind. Cincinnati, Ohio. Detroit, Mich. Garden City, N. Y. Dayton, Ohio. New York City Philadelphia, Pa. Chicago, 111. Newark, N. J.

AUGUST 1931

21

.02

IO

30.00

IO

12.00

14

11.00

I6

25.00

I8

.06

24 24

2.37 3.00

26

25.00

26

50.00

26

100.00

26

5.00

Fred Jones By wire. 11 II II II II II

Bradley, Ohio.

Rebecca McCall Postage Selena Wilson G. Blansom By wire 11 M

Detroit, Mich. Dayton, Ohio.

S. Jeffry

New York City

D N A , RG 60, file 198940. T D .

Article in the Negro World [New York, 15 August 1931] OPPORTUNITIES OF GARVEYISM IN AMERICA Everyone that has any intelligence knows that the Garvcy movement has really awakened the slumbering Negro all over the world. It has breathed into him a spirit of self-reliance, self-assertion and self-determination. It has made him conscious of his handicaps and mistreatment which he now refuses to suffer silently and igno[m]i[n]ously but which he seeks to overthrow. Garveyism is an international movement, a movement both political, economic and industrial in its scope. It seeks to resurrect Africa by freeing that continent from the yokes of European imperialists, by education and uniting the natives of the entire land. The grand plan is to build a F R E E , U N I T E D STATES OF A L L A F R I C A .

[. . . ]

The entire world knows that a great part of this program was actually put into practice, with success almost at hand. Failure overtook only when the lieutenants of Marcus Garvey, the genius that has given this movement to the Negro Race, became traitors to the Race and their chief. But that is all now past history which we do not care to dig up. What The Negro World is interested in now is H O W A R E WE G O I N G TO M A K E G A R V E Y I S M A V I T A L FACTOR IN T H E S O L U T I O N OF T H E N E G R O Q U E S T I O N O N C E M O R E AS IT WAS B E F O R E . LET U S FACE REALITIES

As we look around us, we should be honest, if we mean to succeed with our program, to recognize that N O T H I N G W O R T H W H I L E is being done nor 473

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

is the movement making any headway. If we are not drifting backward as a Race WE ARE NOT MAKING ANY PROGRESS EITHER. This we must confess

to ourselves. Simply to try to keep various divisions of the U.N.I.A. alive, or to try to hold parades, or deliver speeches without backing them with action will not become an asset to the Negro Race. Let us remember that GARVEYISM IS ACTION. OPPORTUNITIES

It is the profound belief of The Negro World that there is a great psychological moment to again make Garveyism the MOST DYNAMIC MOVEMENT and ACTUALLY REDEEM THE NEGRO. For there are more Negroes today in

the United States, in the West Indies and in Africa who consciously or unconsciously are either agreeing with or advocating Garveyism, pure and simple. The leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People, who used to be the enemies of Garveyism, have recently fallen down humbly in dust and accepted the program of Garveyism.1 So have done the Urban League leaders.2 The Negro businessmen, professional men, workers and even politicians have come to realize the importance of and act upon the philosophy of Garveyism. Even Communists are catching hundreds of Negro workers by promising them Garveyism with a wrapper of red tissue.' T H E HANDICAPS

But unfortunately there is nobody at present among the U.N.I.A. leaders in America that is capable of exploiting this fertile situation that is present now and rebuild the fortunes of Garveyism. Whichever way we turn there is dissension, disunity, jealousy, slander, bickering, fighting within the groups. If there were LEADERSHIP such a state of affairs would not be existing. It is plain that the U . N . I . A . movement has NO LEADER IN AMERICA AT PRESENT WHO IS CAPABLE AND INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO COPE WITH THE MAGNITUDE OF THE WORK TO BE DONE.

Section four of Article i of the Constitution says: A charter may be issued to seven or more citizens of any community whose intelligence is such as to bring them within respectful recognition of the educated and cultured of such a community. But the unfortunate truth is that the movement is saturated today in some localities with ignorance which will not enable 99 per cent of the leaders, whether of the divisions or of the entire organization, to be even within a m i l e o f "RESPECTFUL RECOGNITION OF THE EDUCATED AND CULTURED."

It is no exaggeration to say that there are IRRESPONSIBLE ELEMENTS in the MOVEMENT THAT HAVE ALMOST DEMORALIZED

IT.

THIS MUST

BE

CORRECTED IF GARVEYISM INTENDS TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE FREEDOM OF THE NEGRO RACE.

474

AUGUST 1931 A L L WANT GARVEYISM

We know it to be a fact that the masses are extremely eager to follow and sacrifice, but they also want to see something done and done quickly. We know it to be a fact that young men and women who were not hitherto interested in Garveyism would like to join it; but they hesitate to even approach the movement when they see the sort of leadership that is riding rough shod in the organization in America today, THE PRESENT LEADERSHIP, INSTEAD OF ATTRACTING NEW R E C R U I T S INTO THE MOVEMENT, IS ACTUALLY F R I G H T E N I N G AWAY ALL POSSIBLE NEWCOMERS, YOUNG OR OLD, W H E T H E R

THE ORDINARY MASSES OR THE EDUCATED CLASSES.

With Such a frightful

handicap, how can the movement make progress? WANTED NEW, INTELLIGENT LEADERS

We are therefore appealing to Hon. Marcus Garvey on this his fortyfourth birthday [17 August 1931] to take prompt steps to appoint an INTELLIGENT, V I G O R O U S , TACTFUL a n d R E S O U R C E F U L LEADER w i t h e n o u g h p o w e r t o

take the INITIATIVE in order to build up the movement. Delay is dangerous, which might result in the collapse of the movement in America. The leadership of the American field is so arduous that it cannot be handled to advantage by feminine hands even if she were ever so intelligent.4 But ignorance, whether masculine or feminine, will march Garveyism to sure defeat. It is not our intention, however, to completely discredit the present National leaders of the organization. But it can be easily gathered from reports from all over the country that the movement deserves a better leadership. This warning of danger and hope of resurrection is the best birthday present The Negro World can present to Marcus Garvey, the greatest Negro leader in history, and it is the earnest hope of the entire staff that the PresidentGeneral will act promptly in the interest of the U.N.I.A. movement and of the Race. Printed in NW, IJ August 1931. Text abridged. 1. An apparent reference to W. E. B. Du Bois, who, during the early 1930s, became disillusioned with the NAACP's traditional program of integrationism, especially in financial matters, and advocated a "new, deliberate, and purposeful segregation for economic defense" (The Autobiography ofW. E. B. Du Bois [New York: International Publishers, 1968], p. 298). Such calls for economic independence were strongly reminiscent of Garvey's own program of economic nationalism. Du Bois's change of perspective awakened tremendous controversy within the NAACP and contributed to his later departure from the editorship of the Crisis (Elliot M. Rudwick, W. E. B. Du Bois: Propagandist of the Negro Protest [New York: Atheneum, 1969], pp. 276-277). 2. The Urban League espoused economic uplift through cooperation between organization leaders and corporate executives; after the economic collapse of 1929, however, it developed a more aggressive approach to securing employment for blacks, including the use of letter-writing campaigns, public petitions, and boycotts of businesses that refused to employ blacks. By the mid1950s the Urban League had become enthusiastically supportive of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal; while this represented a departure from the pre-Depression policies of the organization, it did not constitute adoption of a separatist position on economic matters (Nancy J. Weiss, The National Urban League, 1910-1940 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1974]; Jesse Thomas Moore, Jr., A 475

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND UNIA PAPERS Search for Equality: The National Urban League, 1910-1940 [University Park, Penn., and London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1981]). 3. An apparent reference to the Communist party position advocating national self-determination for blacks living in the deep South (Garvey Papers 5: 841-854). 4. A reference to M. L. T. De Mena, who was officer in charge of the American field for the UNIA, August 1929, of the World, from August 1929 to May 1933 (NN-Sc, UCD).

Marcus Garvey to Sir Eric Drummond [Geneva, ca. 20 October 1931] Councillor Marcus Garvey, President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association^] presents his Compliments to the Secretary General of the League of Nations and respectfully requests the privilege of speaking to him for a few minutes on the most important matter of the two petitions presented to the League by himself and the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1922-28 on behalf of the Negro Race of the World. 1 L N A , file 6A/7158/7158/86. TN, recipient's copy. On UNIA Parent Body, August 1929, letterhead. Handwritten note designating date of reception of document as "22.X.1931." 1. Garvey later told a Daily Gleaner reporter that he had met with Drummond on 20 October 1931 (DG, 18 December 1931).

Peter Anker, Mandates Section, League of Nations, to Mr. Catastini,1 Chief Officer, Mandates Section [Geneva,] 22 October 1931 Mr. Catastini: Today I was visited by Mr. Marcus GARVEY, President of the "Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities' League," who had asked the Secretary General [Eric Drummond] to grant him an interview. M r . GARVEY informed me about the goals of the association he represents, and while we were on this subject, I drew his attention to the work accomplished by the League of Nations in the area of mandated territories. M r . Garvey asked me for the response given to his petition of 11 September 1928. Since the Secretary General's letter of 12 September 1928 never reached him, I promised to send him a copy of the letter as well as the memorandum inserted into the Journal of the 9th Assembly, no. 12, 1928. 2 Finally, Mr. Garvey gave me two volumes entitled "Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey" which will be placed in the library. PETER ANKER 476

DECEMBER 1931

LNA, file 6A/7158/7158/86. TLS, translated from French. 1. Catastini, an Italian, became chief of the mandates section of the League of Nations in 1925 (Quincy Wright, Mandates Under the League of Nations [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930], p. 136). 2. An autograph marginal notation indicated that this letter was sent 22 October [1931].

Editorial by Marcus Garvey in the Nejjro World [Kingston, Jamaica, ca. 12 December 1931] Fellowmen of the Negro Race, Greetings: There is a great deal of speculation at the present time touching the future of our manifold and scattered race. Our Leaders everywhere seem to be, as usual, lacking in vision and preparation for the events that must be encountered a[s] we march on not only through one decade to another but through one generation to the next. L E A D S TO P E R F E C T D E S T I N Y

Unfortunately, our race has not yet evolved the kind of universal leadership that is necessary to lead the people on to perfect destiny. The races that have risen in history to prominence were those who at an early stage evolved the kind of leadership that was independent, who did not take their dictation from others. Our supposed leaders from the many Continents, are only, in fact, followers of other men, hence the stagnation of our race at the present time. I N D E P E N D E N C E OF L E A D E R S H I P

The Universal Negro Improvement Associaton has always stood for independence of leadership. It was that independence of leadership that fifteen years ago laid out a program not only for the Negroes of America, Africa, and the West Indies, but for the Negroes of the entire World, and which if it had been adopted would have placed the Negro today as one of the controlling forces of our disorganized world. We were opposed on every hand by petty leaders and narrow visionaries—men who knew nothing about leadership, men who knew nothing about the social questions, who knew nothing about world economics, men who did not understand the systems of world government; but, because they had words and could frothily use them they made a big noise, created disturbance and confusion everywhere and caused the people to be unsettled as to what they should do, in consequence of which the people are now suffering, and paying the price of the ignorance of the bogus leaders.

477

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS M A K E A STRONG EFFORT

It is for the people to now call a halt and make the strongest effort to steady themselves and determine whom they should follow; whether the leaders who have principle and policy or the frothy demagogues who make a lot of noise and accomplish nothing. The Universal Negro Improvement Association is now calling black men and women everywhere to rally to the colors of the Red, the Black and the Green; to rally to the idealism of Africa's freedom and redemption; to rally to the one solving force; to rally to economic penetration and industrial conquest from the possible world. As we have said before, in ten years we must accomplish something; and we are urging you men and women to get in line; keep the great object in view, and the great march will be accomplished, our dreams will be realized, and our fears pass away forever. N E W T H O U G H T S AND V I S I O N

New thoughts and visions have come to me from my contact with the people of Europe on my last visit there, and my four years of silent observations convince me that now is the time to strike for the success we want. Every traitor must be side-tracked from the marching battalion of moving men and women. A WARNING SOUNDED

Again we sound a warning. Let nobody divert you from your object. Let nobody intrigue you by any high-sounding proposition. There is but one Universal Negro Improvement Association, and it has one proposition, and if that proposition is not officially endorsed by the leader of the Movement have nothing to do with it, because if you do, there is bound to be chaos and suffering. We have no Liberian project; no African project yet announced as an Organization. Don't allow scamps and villains to take your money away from you placing you in the belief that you are supporting the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Don't allow them to introduce to you any highsounding propositions. Remember a broken march suggests a defeated Army, and a dis-united people suggests a people easily destroyed. Let us get together; let us have one program. Let us keep to it for ten years and put it over. If there is anything that you would like to be informed about get in touch with Parent Body, Universal Negro Improvement Association, 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads, P.O., St. Andrew, Jamaica, B. W. I. We hold ourselves responsible only for what we put forward officially. If you deal with any unauthorized person and get robbed, we are not responsible. We have a program, let us put it over. Let us unite our forces to do it. With very best wishes, I have the honor to be, Your obedient servant, MARCUS GARVEY

President-General Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League of the World, Aug., 1929 478

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P.S.—All members and Divisions of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and Garvey Clubs are again requested to send in their reports regularly to the Parent Body, Universal Negro Improvement Association, 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads P.O. Box, St. Andrew, Jamaica, B.W.I. N o w is the time for everyone to get financial so that the great work can be resusci[t]ated and carried on.—M.G. Printed in NW,

12 December 1951.

William Ware to W. N. Cault 3JO G E O R G E STREET CINCINNATI, O H I O

December 21, 1931 Dear Sir: This is with reference to your last communication of April +th, 1931 in which you, in referring to one Marcus Garvey, stated that the American Consulate at Kingston, Jamaica where Garvey resides had informed your office that Garvey was in financial straights and that he was contemplating on sailing for England taking up or making his permanent residence. Allow us to call your attention to property purchased in Jamaica with American dollars name to wit: Edelweis Park, 67 Slipe Road, St. Andrew, Jamaica. This property bought with American dollars collected from poor people, members of the U.N.I.A. Inc. in America before and since Garvey's release from the Atlanta Federal Prison for using the mail to defraud, and since his deportation to Jamaica was used as the Headquarters of the Organization in Jamaica as Garvey was President-General, has been converted into the Edelweis Amusement Corporation by Garvey to furnish the entire Island of Jamaica with High-class amusement without consulting the American cooperation [corporation] about the change he was making. On the other hand he is pretending to the American Negro that he is still operating the supposedly new organization, name to wit: U.N.I.A. of August 1929 of the World which he organized in August 1929 Uninc. Then members of the Incorporated Body in the United States do not think or feel that the Government is treating them fair or justly by permitting Garvey to continue to fleece the poor people out of their hard earned moneys when thousands of them are being kept up by the State, County and City Governments. Your Department is the only one that can stop this unfair treatment by Garvey to the American Negro. Hon. Lionel A. Francis, 277 East 166th St., New York city and Lady Henreitta [Henrietta] Vinton Davis are two of the national officers of the American Corporation, the latter can be located at or communicated with at 246 West 139th Street, Apt. 46, New York City or at her home, 1219 Linden Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 479

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These two parties can verify our statements in this letter, as well as hundreds of others scattered over the United States. I am also enclosing herewith clippings from the leading News-papers in Kingston, Jamaica.1 We sincerely trust that you will favor us with a favorable reply around the first of the year as to what steps you are going to take re this unfair treatment our people are getting from Garvey. Yours very truly, WILLIAM WARE

President of the Cin'ti Div., #1+6 Universal Negro Improvement Association Inc. DNA, R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. TLS, recipient's copy. On Cincinnati UNIA Division No. 1+6 letterhead. 1. The Department of State acknowledged receipt of Ware's letter and its enclosures and passed them on to American Consul Paul C. Squire in Kingston, asking Squire to file a report concerning Garve/s activities (Green H. Hackworth, legal advisor, Department of State, to Ware, 12 January 1932, and Wilbur J. Carr, assistant secretary of state, to Squire, 12 January 1932, D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61).

Enclosure [Daily Gleaner, Kingston, 18 December 1931] M R . MARCUS GARVEY IS WELCOMED BACK H O M E SAYS IN INTERVIEW T H A T O N L Y U N I T Y IN EMPIRE CAN PULL ENGLAND THROUGH T H E PRESENT CRISIS

Over two thousand of the Corporate Area's population formed themselves into a procession, marched down to the No. 2 Pier yesterday morning, and gave an ovation to Mr. Marcus Garvey as he stepped from the Elders and Fyffe's steamer "Changuinola.["] Mr. Garvey returns to Jamaica after having succeeded in getting a petition on behalf of the negro peoples of the world placed on the agenda for discussion at the next meeting of the League of Nations at Geneva, and during his stay abroad he studied economic and political conditions very closely, and has brought back some very interesting opinions. He sees England's salvation resting solely on her ability to secure greater Empire unity, and we quote the following passage from an interview with Mr. Garvey at his residence "Somali Court" soon after his arrival: "Candidly," he said, after commenting on the precarious position of Europe generally, I feel that the statesmanship of Europe is bankrupt. By that I mean that the statesmen are unable to fully cope with conditions. 480

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England is feeling her way through that bankruptcy, and she is likely to come out on top, because she has been greatly stirred within the last six months, and has come to realize the seriousness of the situation. The present Cabinet seems to be made up of men who are appreciative of the fact that they must work to save the Empire, and not England alone. There is therefore a c[a]mpaign for greater EMPIRE UNITY

and if the need for this can be properly brought home to the various units of the Empire, there is no reason why Great Britain should not ride to the top in the great economic storm. Jamaica, I think, can play a wonderful part in the future of the British Empire. People everywhere are almost afraid to invest money in the big countries because of the many reverses which have come about recently. If our statesmen in Jamaica can therefore rise to the occasion, they may be able to offer to the English public and the investing world opportunities in Jamaica that people are afraid to take any further chance with elsewhere. In the interview M r . Garvey made reference to the Manchurian situation' as he had observed it from Geneva, and spoke of the English political campaign, 2 during the course of which he delivered two addresses. The Changuinola berthed about 11 o'clock, and at 10 o'clock the procession had already lined up at the headquarters of the U.N.I.A. in Kingston and marched off to the sound of drums and fifes. A tremendous crowd joined in on the way to the pier, and the United Fruit Company officials had to refuse them entrance after over a thousand had thronged the wharf premises and made it difficult to get about. The band, the Legion, Black Cross Nurses, Girl Guides, and the Motor Corps, lined up in the wharf house and the leaders of the various units—all auxiliaries of the U.N.I.A.—gathered at the gangway to escort M r . Garvey to his car. So great was the throng that sought to assemble at the foot of the gangway that portable railings had to be placed on either side of it and an AVENUE KEPT CLEAR

for Mr. Garvey to pass through. M r . J. G. Keiffer gave instructions that nobody was to go aboard before M r . Garvey had come off, and so soon as the ship got within hailing distance he requested M r . Garvey to come down as quickly as possible, as there were a thousand people waiting to welcome him. So it was that in a very few minutes, preceded by a steward carrying his handbag, M r . Garvey walked down the gangway and received a loud ovation. M r . Albert McLarty, President of the Kingston Division of the U.N.I.A., 481

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M r . A. J. Williams Q/M. General of the Legion, Mrs. E. Gray (Treasurer), Mrs. C. Jacques Francis, M r . L. Edwards, Messrs. Geo. Levy, Chairman of the Trustees), M r . C. Simon and M r . Benton (Trustees), Mrs. Bowlin, (Asst. Treasurer), M r . A. Wellesley Atherton, and M r . A. Hardware, were amongst those who personally welcomed M r . Garvey. Within a few minutes of his landing, M r . Garvey left for his home, but the procession re-formed and marched back to Liberty Hall, where the people remained for the greater part of the day in a spirit of festivity. THE LEAGUE

"And what would you like me to tell you?" M r . Garvey asked our reporter who saw him at "Somali Court" an hour later. "Please mention first things first," the reporter said; and so M r . Garvey began to tell of his visits to Geneva. "I made two trips to Geneva," he said, the first was immediately on my arrival—around the 4th October— and I arranged for a second visit which I paid on the 20th of October. On this last occasion I interviewed the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, Sir Eric Drummond, and the Chairman of the Mandates Commission Section, Mr. Peter Anker. They are [were] both very pleasant and helpful in their talk and conversations on the subject of the petitions that were presented on behalf of the Negro Race, through me, in 1921 and again in 1928. Those petitions are now before the League to be brought up at its next Session for general discussion. They have, of course, got to be brought up through presentation by a National Member of the League. On the first occasion our Petition was presented by the Delegate from Persia, but at next year's Session we are expecting to have the Petition brought directly before the League for discussion by another National Delegate. Nearly all the National Delegates attending the League have expressed their sympathy with the petition, and have promised to support the matter when brought before the League. I spoke to some of them and was in communication with others. I am happy to say that the whole atmosphere of the League WAS FRIENDLY

towards the Negro Race. I was very much interested while in Geneva, in listening to discussions bearing on the Manchurian Situation—the trouble between China and Japan. Personally, I am impressed with the fact that the League is the only saviour of world peace at the present time. Were it not for the League, I feel sure that the world would 482

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have been thrown into the toils of war, particularly during the crisis resulting from the economic stagnation of the nations. The present economic situation with trade rivalries and now, the possibility of international tariff war, is bound to lead to grave unpleasantness. Europe, on the whole, is in a terrible state. It lacks proper leadership among the different nations. Blunder after blunder has been made and is being made, and all that is being done to-day only leaves conditions patched up—a situation which is bound to have serious after results. The only hopeful sign is the League's growing influence, morally, upon all the nations. Without the League the world would be in a terrible state of political unrest. I had the opportunity of seeing men like M. [Aristide] Briand at work at the League, and because of their earnest endeavours we can hope for some good results. T H E GENERAL ELECTION

The interviewer asked M r . Garvey whether he had any observations to offer on the recent election in England, and this is what he said in reply:— I was fortunate in arriving in England just at the time when the change of government took place. The Labour Government found itself unable to cope with the situation, and so as everyone knows, a National Government was brought into being. There was grave speculation as to whether the National Government would merit the confidence of the British people. To test the attitude, M r . [Ramsey] MacDonald went to the country. He ousted Labour and returned as head of his Government with flying colours. I was fearful during the campaign that he would lose, and my fears were due to the heated and radical demonstrations that I saw in and around London, against him and against the National Government generally. On one occasion nearly 200,000 working class people turned out at Hyde Park, and for nearly two hours speakers harangued the multitude. If one had judged from their behaviour, one would have concluded that M r . MacDonald would be swept away. But the reverse came, as he and M r . [Phillip] Snowden and M r . [James Henry] Thomas made such determined efforts to enlighten the country on the true situation that in a short while sentiment turned which had its exemplification in his sweeping victory. The people, nevertheless, are dissatisfied with present general conditions, and are anxious about the future. T H E EMPIRE

I had the privilege of addressing large crowds at Hyde Park during the election, on behalf of some of my friends of the Labour 483

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Party, on conditions in general. My addresses were well received, I think. I pointed out, and there was a general agreement, apparently, that the future of the British Empire was more bound up with Africa and India than with any of the self-governing Dominions, in that the self-governing Dominions were almost independent of the Mother Country and showed a disposition to take their own course. Those Dominions had also been building up immigration barriers against the Motherland, and had built up tariff barriers. Those circumstances I told them, did not suggest that anything very bright within the Empire is coming from the self-governing Dominions, namely: Canada, Australia, and South Africa. India with her teeming millions and Africa with her other millions of undeveloped subjects, offered a grand opportunity to England for trade expansion. I took this view independently, and since I left England [,] I have had the pleasure of reading a comment on the present Imperial situation by the Rt. Hon. L. S. Amery and he seems to agree with me in those opinions. T H E G O L D STANDARD

Speaking of the effects of the suspension of the Gold Standard, M r . Garvey said that it came as a shock, and did England no good at first. People who used to regard investments in England as being absolutely above being interfered with started withdrawing their money. "If by statesmanship they can impress the rest of the world, outside of France and America" M r . Garvey continued, that it was wise and best for them to go off the Gold Standard, they will be able to place France and America in a very precarious and unfavourable position which England would be able to take advantage of. But to my mind, the first thing necessary is for England to build up an international confidence among the units of the Empire, and for that purpose there would have to be acceptance of a common system of exchange within the Empire, which would thus stabilize itself and force others to follow. M r . Garvey mentioned that he has been able to visit the COLONIAL EXHIBITION

in Paris. It was a most wonderful spectacle. The exposition grounds covered 250 acres, and every phase of French colonial life was brought prominently before the visiting public. It was indeed a wonderful education. "And then I ask you," M r . Garvey went on to say, to be good enough M r . Reporter, to convey to friends and wellwishers my grateful thanks for the splendid demonstration of 484

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welcome extended to me on my arrival. It made me feci good to be at home again among those who appreciate the little effort that I am making towards the cause of human uplift. Since I have been abroad and have studied seriously the conditions affecting the outside countries, I have seen that there is much hope for Jamaica, and I intend to devote much of my time to helping to realize this hope from an economic, social and educational point of view. I expect to attend the next meeting of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation and there to do my bit for the municipality's welfare. To-night, a big public welcome will be given to M r . Garvey at Edelweiss Park by the members of the U.N.I.A. and he will give an address. D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. P D , newspaper clipping. Headlines abridged. 1. A reference to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria (1931-1932), especially the Mukden incident of 18-21 September 1931, when the Kuantung army seized an arsenal at Mukden and proceeded to subdue Ant'ung, Changchun, Kirin, and Yingk'ou, forcing Chinese troops into withdrawal. The League of Nations, like the United States, rejected the view that the incident was a result of a genuine independence movement and denied official recognition of any territorial gains achieved through armed aggression (EWH). 2. In 1931 Ramsey MacDonald accepted the dissolution of the Labour party government. H e assumed leadership of the new coalition National party government and remained prime minister until 1935 (Carl F. Brand, The British Labour Party [Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution, 1974]; David Marquand, Ramsey MacDonald [Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977])-

Enclosure [Kingston, ca. 20 December 1931] F I N E C O N C E R T ON S U N D A Y AT E D E L W E I S PK. A large crowd assembled at Edelweis Park on Sunday night to listen to the usual weekly programme given by the Edelweis Amusement Company, the feature being their newly organised Choir of 200 voices under Mr. Granville Campbell. The programme rendered by the Choir was excellent in every detail, and evoked applause and acclamation from the appreciative crowd. Among the items that were most strikingly rendered were the opening Chorus "Sweet and L o w " (unaccompanied) and the Spiritual sung by the Choir, Misses S. Lee and Daisy Greenwich rendered a beautiful duet entitled "Whispering Hope," which revealed sound technical training under Mr. Campbell's direction. The feature singer of the evening was Madam Foster, an English lady who has recently arrived in the island and has connected herself with the Edelweis Choir. Her two selections were well received and gained generous applause, especially her Spiritual. The Guest of the evening was Dr. E. E. Penso, Deputy 485

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Mayor of Kingston, who was introduced by Councillor Marcus Garvey. Mr. Garvey pointed out, in introducing Dr. Penso, that their guest was one of the best known men in the Corporate Area, and one of the most useful. Proof of the fact was that in the recent city election he was given a tremendous majority over all candidates. But that, of course, was because he (Mr. Garvey) was absent (laughter). However, he did not mind Dr. Penso topping the poll, because they were good friends (hear hear). He would ask the Deputy Mayor to address them. D E P U T Y M A Y O R ' S ADDRESS

Dr. Penso first thanked Councillor Garvey and the Edelweis Amusement Company for their kind invitation, and assured the gathering that he was pleased to be present. Councillor Garvey had made reference to his election to the Corporation Council, and although it might be a little out of place he took that opportunity of thanking them for the confidence they reposed in him by putting him at the top of the poll. N o doubt, if Councillor Garvey had been in Jamaica at the time, the results would have been different. That, however, would not have mattered to him (the speaker), because, as Mr. Garvey had said they were firm friends. And whenever Mr. Garvey was not available they could always come to him with any grievance and they could put their heads together to gain the desired improvement. He wished to address them that evening on 'Talent." N o w they must realize that talent was not alone a possession of those of high birth, but was for everybody: and he knew that there was a lot of talent among the working and poorer people. Years ago, the community of Kingston and St. Andrew depended chiefly on foreign people, with only a few local performers, for the entertainment, but to-day he was glad to find [a] considerable amount of talent in music, elocution, etc., which he hoped they would all do their best to encourage. By encouraging talent among themselves it would tend to the educational, social and moral advancement and improvement of the people generally. He had to congratulate Councillor Garvey on taking the interest he had exhibited in bringing out their talent, and especially so when they considered that his efforts were not confined to Kingston and St. Andrew, but to the young men and young women of talent from all the parishes in the island, who would all be welcome to the Edelweis Amusement Company for improvement in their sphere of art. He had been very much impressed with the items he had heard. What had so far taken place, showed that the material was good and the training was good, and there was no reason why such a good performance as they were able to give should not attract continued support. He exhorted them with all the force at his command to continue to support the Company, as the general social improvement that would be derived therefrom would tend for a better, happier Jamaica for themselves and for the generations to come, (applause.)

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GARVEY'S

SUBJECT

Mr. Garvey also spoke on "The Rise and Decline of Peoples." In the course of his speech he pointed out that it was up to the people of Jamaica at this particular time, to assume the responsibility for their own existence, and that whatever may happen to the outer portions of the world, we should be careful to safeguard our insular interests. After Mr. Garvey's speech, the moving picture: "Streets of Sorrow" was shown, and seemed to have been enjoyed by the throng for its deep and telling moral. D N A , RG 59, file 811.108 G191/61. PD, newspaper clipping. Original headlines abridged.

Enclosure [Kingston, 21 December 1931] W E L C O M E FUNCTION TO M R . M A R C U S GARVEY AT EDELWEISS PARK M r . Marcus Garvey, President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Associationf,] was welcomed back to the island at a function held in his honour at Edelweiss Park last night and which was attended by over a thousand persons. On the beautifully decorated platform were Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Garvey, M r . and Mrs. Jacques Francis, Mr. J. Hume Stewart, Mrs. Joseph Kennedy, M r . Morris Knibbs, Mrs. Llewellyn and Mr. J. A. G. Edwards, master of ceremonies. An orchestra with M r . D. Best at the piano provided music. M r . Edwards in opening the proceedings, welcomed the gathering, announced the purpose of the function and called upon the orchestra to play a selection. A delightful song "Palace of Dreams" by Miss Myrtle Bennet followed. M r . Granville Campbell accompanied on the piano. At this stage Mr. Garvey entered and took his seat. He was given a rousing ovation. Miss Patterson recited a poem of wclcome to M r . Garvey. Loud applause followed her well uttered welcome to the "man of the hour." She had to repeat her performance. Mrs. Stedman next sang. M r . Campbell accompanied. The piece "Spring is Calling" was well rendered and well received. Madame Wayne placed an enjoyable violin solo. She executed the piece admirably with Mr. Campbell accompanying. Well merited applause was given her rendition. 487

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Mr. S. U. Smith gave a very humerous recitation entitled "The Bacon." The fun of it was well brought out and the audience laughed heartily. Miss Hewey sang "Dream a Little Dream of Me." She was loudly applauded. Mr. Leon next entertained. In a grotesque costume and funny makeup he sang an amusing song "Ignorant mamma you papa's going to educate you." The applause was loud and persistent and an encore followed. He sang, "I wish I was single again." The orchestra played another selection and the intermission followed. M R . GARVEY SPEAKS

After the intermission Mr. Garvey delivered an eloquent and stirring address. Mr. Miller welcomed Mr. Garvey back to Jamaica and presented him with a beautiful card on behalf of Miss Demo. Mr. Garvey in replying paid tribute to Miss Demo's work. He referred to the beautiful display of flowers on the platform and thanked the St. Andrew Division for how they had decorated the platform. Mr. Garvey handed presents he brought from Europe with him to Mr. V. Campbell, Mr. S. B. Miller, Miss H. Lewis and Mrs. Bramford, Mrs. Jackson and Miss Lindsay, Mr. Reid, Miss Douglas, Mrs. Murphy, Mr. Barclay, Miss Simpson, Miss Harris, Miss Moore, M r . Roberts and Mrs. J. Reid. The concert programme was resumed with a solo by Mr. Estick. His singing was well received. A comic sketch by Slim and Jim followed and then another item by Mr. S. DeLeon. Mr. Granville Campbell sang next. He was given loud applause. Racca and Sandy entertained next. Their turn was so screamingly funny that the applause was thunderous. Before the function concluded Mr. Garvey made some announcements [document torn . . .] D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. P D , newspaper clipping. Headlines abridged.

Enclosure 168 Dundas St. West, Royal Bank Building TORONTO, S e p t . 2 0 t h , 1 9 3 0

Dear Miss Davis: I am in receipt of your letter in reference to itinerary. I am very sorry that I was not in New York to send cut. Owing to my Law suit in Canada I am detained here for a few days. 488

DECEMBER 1931 I went through Boston /1/aid the land for your visit there and trust you will have a pleasant stay. I regretted very much indeed to learn that you had visited M r . Ware's Division in Cinnanatti [Cincinnati] especially on account of the Law suit that the New Organization had in Cinnanatti which M r . Ware brought against us. I may be wrong but I fail to see how the new Organization can flirt with the old Organization or anyone connected therewith. M r . Ware has written a series of articles to the newspapers and has publicly denounced the new Organization from the pulpit and before the Courts of the Country. I am positive that you are aware of this. Laying aside the fact that he has deliberately attacked the administration policies. I am writing this communication that you may know my attitude with respect to any person or persons who make a thing such as the new Organization, was made by these very men and now they seek to break it. I have letters from M r . Ware which I would not even answer[.] I would not even refer to the personal conversation held with him and the statements uttered by him during said conversation[.] Nevertheless the visit has been made and I must say that in my humble opinion [it] was not good politic on part of the Secretary General of the New Organization. All mails will reach me at 312 W. 121st Street, New York City, or C/O Negro World, 355 Lennox Avenue, New York City. Yours Sincerely, MADAM M. L. T. DEMENA International Organizer U N I A August 1929 of the World P.S. I trust you will take this in the spirit in which I write. [Address:] Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis, Secretary General, U.N.I.A., 8 4 4 Beacon Street. % Aiken, Boston, Mass. [.Handwritten endorsement:] Pleas Return D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. T L S , recipient's copy. On B. J. Spencer-Pitt, L . L B . , Barrister, Solicitor, Notary Public, Conveyances, Etc., 168 Dundas St. West, Royal Bank Building, letterhead.

Enclosure [Cincinnati,] July 31, 1930 M y dear Mrs. [M. L. T . ] De Mena; I was Certainly surprised to know that you would come to Cincinnati and remain two or three days without Calling to see me at the office[.] This goes to show the thanks encuragement and curtesy high officals O f the Organization show to those who ha[ve] served the Organization Honestly and loyally, and especially one who has given untiring service and sacrifice for ten years. I could not have treated you thus no matter What had been said against you. 489

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Seemingly, you are out for the same old game; misusing the truth in order to get finance. I think it is high time that lying and hypocrisy cease in this Organization, this is the Cause of it being in the grave perdicament it is in today. You informed some of your friends either via wire or Special d[e]livery that Ware had lost out in Cincinnati[.] Now These are the Kind of lies that have wrecked the Organization^] I want to stafte] for you much needed Information, that the Situation, rather THE CASE HERE HAS NOT BEEN SETTLED, a n d W I L L NOT BE SETTLED U N T I L SOMETIME THIS W E E K .

Among

the other things you stased ware [stated were]; that Mr. Garvey was elected to the legislature and was serving. Now, Why don't you tell the people the truth? Isn't it the fact that you are attempting to assist in raising funds to meet the 2000.00 on the Lumber at Elderweis [Edelweiss] park? why did you not tell the people that the Courts of Jamaica decided Mr. Garvey on May 28th this year why did you Want to tell the people that Mr. Garvey Would be Back to America That is the United States. Now when such Statements are made in the Presence of so many ignorant people and those who do not know the law it makes it very difficult for the Organization to Succeed, and the Thinking public looses confidence in the party or parties who make Same[.] Frankly, I am Compelled to state that you have made so many statements without any weight to them untill I am Inclined to beleive that your System is actually Contaminated with this method procedure, and moreover it seems to be a daily food for you. Re Mr. [E. B.] Knox. Several of my friends there have Written to me about the regretable affair that Occured in the Negro World office. But none of them seem to know the real truth of the matter, and all I Know is what I have read in the Negro World. I might state here that Some of the things appeared on the front page of the Negro World should not have been on toilet paper l[e]t alone anything elce and Aspecially a greeat Wee[k]ly like the Negro World. Now that Cable that you had published in the Negro World from Mr Garvey was all Uncalled For. and a Woman of your ability and Education should be carried before a probate court for a thorough mental examination. From All indications you certainly are a fit subject for the insane asylum. [An]other thing I cannot see why you all say that I am against Mr. Garvey as I have never done anything to impede his progress nor that of the Organization, it is true that Mr Garvey has made mistakes, Grave mistakes that have jeopardised himself, The Organization and Others, but that shall never make me stop advocating the great cause. And I am going to remain in this Organization and fight for a right, Truth and Justice, which as they surely must, will get a hearing. Now my advice is that you cease so much hypocrisy and tell the people the truth, for just as sure as there is day and night the scales are bound to turn on you not only you but, all of those who have attempted to keep truth Concealed and beleive me things are not going to be so pleasant. Now, so much for that, when the case is settled here, I shall let you know by wire of Special Delivery Whether it is against or for me. perhaps they will be ready to publish another lie as they did in the Issue of June 21st., 490

DECEMBER 1931 in the N e g r o World.' I am enclosing herewith a C o p y O f m y statement to the N e g r o World, and which up to this date they have failed to Publish. Yours respectfully WILLIAM W A R E President o f Cinti Div.

#146

Universal N e g r o Improvement Association Inc. [Handwritten endorsement:] Pleas Return D N A R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. T L D . Marked "TRUE COPY." 1. A reference to "Injunction Sought to Bar Use of U.N.I.A.," a story published in the 21 June 1930 Negro World. The story reported that Ware had filed an injunction against the new local Cincinnati UNIA Division N o . 139, which had been chartered by Garve/s UNIA, August 1929, of the World. The new division rivaled Ware's Cincinnati UNIA Division N o . 146, which was affiliated with the old UNIA, Inc., in New York. The author of the story concluded that "Mr. Ware is under some misunderstanding, for the new Division's title, 'The Universal Negro Improvement Association of August 1929, of the World,' has nothing to do with his old title of simple 'U.N.I.A'." De Mena published a warning to UNIA members to beware of Ware in the 6 December 1930 issue of the Negro World.

491

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Enclosure

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To-night!

I MUSIC! I

COMEDY!

To-night! 1

MUSIC! COMEDY!

MUSIC! i COMEDY!

Edelweiss Park, 67 SL1PE ROAD.

" T H E W E M B L E Y OF JAMAICA".

The Edelweiss Amusement Company presents THEIR FIRST MUSICAL REVUE "SNAPSHOTS OF 1931". With the Glorious Glorias and Tropical Swains. A COMPANY OP 200. A Rip-roaring, Stirring Revue filled -with _ MUSIC—DANCING—COMEDY A BEAUTY. Under the Direction of Gerardo Leon. ^ BEAUTY. BEAUTY. B E A U T Y ! Jamaica never saw this before. Kjl Six Nights of continuous Show from Monday Night 7th Inst, to UN Saturday Night 12th Inst, inclusive. You need not eo to Paris, London or New York. The Show is right here. Come and see it. Laugh and Live. Admission: Box Scats 3/, Special Reserved Seats 2/6 Reserved Seats 2/, Side Seats 1/. Book your Seats at Edelweiss, — Phone 2289.

(Source: DNA, RG 59, file 811.108 G191/61.) 492

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DECEMBER 1931

Essay by George Padmore1 Hamburg, Germany, 1931 M A R C U S G A R V E Y AND T H E L E A G U E OF N A T I O N S

The treachery, corruption, and betrayal of all these black politicians who proclaim themselves self-appointed leaders of the Negro toiling masses of the United States, Africa, and the West Indies, can hardly be equalled, much less surpassed by those of other oppressed peoples. Chief among them is Marcus Garvey who is out to exploit the racial consciousness of the Negro toiling masses in order to advance his own selfish interest and to cash in as much as possible before selling them out to the highest bidder. We have already seen the shameful way in which Ghandi has betrayed the national liberation struggle of the Indian workers and peasants.2 Marcus Garvey, the negro national reformist leader[,] has also sold out the struggle of his oppressed people, and has brazenly announced his intention to go over to the side of the British imperialist, whose interests he is serving in Jamiaca. If Garvey was a real revolutionist and any danger to British imperialism, he would never be permitted to occupy a seat in the City Council of Kingston, much less, to travel to Europe on his Britannic Majesty's passport. The British government is not so foolish as to permit a man whom they consider dangerous to run around the world under their protection. Scotland Yard knows that despite all of Garvey's big talk he hates Moscow and loves London. In order to cover up his fakery and make it appear that he is still on the "war path," Garvey[,] despite the suffering, unemployment and starvation of thousands of his former followers, could still afford money to take a holiday trip to Geneva with his secretaries and other bootlickers to beg the League of Nations to "give" him Africa. What nonsense! Garvey himself knows better, for he was the very one who, several years ago, declared that the League of Nations was nothing else but a League of Thieves. In so much so that he even had enacted at the Universal Negro Improvement Assoication convention held in New York [in] 1920 the following paragraph (45) in the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples: Be it further resolved, that we as a race of people declare the League of Nations null and void as far as the Negro is concerned, in that it seeks to deprive Negroes of their liberty. But this fraud[ulent] and unprincipled politician, realizing that his days are over, that the masses can no longer be fooled and are breaking way from under his influence, is now trying to create the impression, that if they still continue to supply him with money that he could get the League of Nations to "give" Africa back as a "present" to the Negroes. 493

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Now, what is really the League of Nations, that this charlatan, Garvey, is trying to make the poor Negro workers have faith in? The League is composed of the biggest theives, landgrabbers and exploiters which the world has ever known, namely, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Italy (Germany having lost her share since the war) who by the terms of the treaty of Berlin enacted in February I88J solemly declared "In the Name of Almighty God"—a name which the imperialist never forget to invoke when they are out to make war or enslave other people—that they were out to civilize Africa. We all know how this civilization has been carried out: [b]y machine guns, battleships and bombing planes. It should now be clear to every honest worker and peasant that in spite of the high-sounding phrases behind which Garvey masquaraded for all these years, his action to-day shows that he never intended to lead the Negro masses in their struggle against the exploiters and oppressors. Garvey was merely out to get as much money as possible out of the sweat and toil of the working class. Now that the whole capitalist world is in a crisis, and the Negro workers have no more jobs and therefore cannot give him any more money, Garvey is playing his trump card before giving up the game. After which, he will draw even closer to the British imperialists who will utilize him just as the French are using [Blaise] Diagne and the Yankees use [George] Schuyler in Liberia in order to mislead the black workers and peasants in the African and West Indian colonies and mobilize them for "King and country." The year 1931 is one which no worker and oppressed toiler can ever forget. For in this year, the two most outstanding misleaders of the most oppressed people under British imperialism—the Indian and Negro toiling masses—have openly revealed themselves as traitors and made peace with the white imperialist exploiters and robbers. Printed in George Padmore, Negro Workers and the Imperialist War—Intervention in the Soviet Union [Hamburg, Germany: International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, 1931], pp. 14-15. PD. 1. George Padmore (1900-1959), Communist party leader and Pan-African theorist and author, was born in Trinidad, BWI. He moved to New York in 1924 and joined the Communist party, participating in a number of key party conferences in the 1920s, including the Second Congress of the League Against Imperialism, Frankfurt, July 1929, and the Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions (Profintern), Moscow, December 1929. In 1931 he succeeded James W. Ford as editor of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers' journal, The Negro Worker, published in Hamburg, Germany. After writing several pamphlets for the committee (including the one from which this document is taken), he was arrested and then deported to England by German police. He resigned from the Communist party in 1933 after the Soviet Union made overtures to European colonial powers in an effort to counterbalance the influence of German and Italian fascism. In the mid-1950s he became involved with C. L. R. James in organizing against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and in 1937 he chaired the International African Service Bureau. In the late 1930s he was a correspondent for African-American newspapers, including the Chicago Defender. He is best known for his 1956 book, Pan-Africanism or Communism? (James R. Hooker, Black Revolutionary: George Padmore's Path from Communism to Pan-Africanism [London: Pall Mall Press, 1967]). 2. In January 1931 Gandhi was released from prison and entered into discussions with the Indian government that resulted in the Delhi pact, wherein he agreed to discontinue the civil disobedience campaign and to recognize the government's roundtable conferences. In return, the government 494

FEBRUARY 1932 agreed to release some categories of political prisoners. In September 1931 Gandhi went to London as the sole delegate of the Indian National Congress to the second roundtable conference. Despite earlier promises, no agreement was reached at the conference regarding the status of minorities. In the meantime, Lord Irwin, who had requested Gandhi's participation in the talks, was replaced by the Earl of Willingdon as viceroy of India. Gandhi returned to India after the conference and resumed the civil disobedience campaign. The Indian National Congress was banned, and Gandhi was imprisoned again in January 1932 (EWH).

Department of State, Division of Western European Affairs, Memorandum February 29, 1932 Mr. [William R . ] Vallancc:' Attached is the file on Marcus Garvey, who seems to be dividing his time between conducting a Coney Island named after the Swiss national flower [edelweiss] in Kingston, Jamaica, and making propaganda for his old "Emperor of Africa" racket. To my regret, our British Cousins seem to have discovered nothing sufficiently sinister to merit his incarceration at the expense of Jamaican taxpayers. D o you wish to send a copy of his diverting document to our spies in the Department of Justice?2 EOB DNA, RG 59, file 811.108 G191/62. TLI, recipient's copy. 1. William Roy Vallance (b. 1887), lawyer and Department of State legal staff member, was an assistant to Legal Advisor Green H. Hackworth in 1932 (Register of the Department of State [Washington, D.C.: G P O , 1952], pp. 257-258). 2. This dispatch along with its enclosures was forwarded to the attorney general's office by the assistant secretary of state (2 April 1932, D N A , R G 60, file 811.108 G191/62).

Enclosure Kingston, Jamaica, February 16, 1932 Sir: I have the honor to conform with the [State] Department's instruction dated January 12, 1932 (File N o . 811.108 G 191/61), and to submit herewith a report dated February 6, 1932, concerning Marcus Garvey by the Inspector General of the Jamaica Constabulary [M. D. Harrel], which has been obtained through the courtesy of the Colonial Secretary [A. S. Jelf]. It is stated that the report represents all the Jamaican Government knows concerning the present whereabouts and activities of M r . Garvey. 495

FEBRUARY 1932 agreed to release some categories of political prisoners. In September 1931 Gandhi went to London as the sole delegate of the Indian National Congress to the second roundtable conference. Despite earlier promises, no agreement was reached at the conference regarding the status of minorities. In the meantime, Lord Irwin, who had requested Gandhi's participation in the talks, was replaced by the Earl of Willingdon as viceroy of India. Gandhi returned to India after the conference and resumed the civil disobedience campaign. The Indian National Congress was banned, and Gandhi was imprisoned again in January 1932 (EWH).

Department of State, Division of Western European Affairs, Memorandum February 29, 1932 Mr. [William R . ] Vallancc:' Attached is the file on Marcus Garvey, who seems to be dividing his time between conducting a Coney Island named after the Swiss national flower [edelweiss] in Kingston, Jamaica, and making propaganda for his old "Emperor of Africa" racket. To my regret, our British Cousins seem to have discovered nothing sufficiently sinister to merit his incarceration at the expense of Jamaican taxpayers. D o you wish to send a copy of his diverting document to our spies in the Department of Justice?2 EOB DNA, RG 59, file 811.108 G191/62. TLI, recipient's copy. 1. William Roy Vallance (b. 1887), lawyer and Department of State legal staff member, was an assistant to Legal Advisor Green H. Hackworth in 1932 (Register of the Department of State [Washington, D.C.: G P O , 1952], pp. 257-258). 2. This dispatch along with its enclosures was forwarded to the attorney general's office by the assistant secretary of state (2 April 1932, D N A , R G 60, file 811.108 G191/62).

Enclosure Kingston, Jamaica, February 16, 1932 Sir: I have the honor to conform with the [State] Department's instruction dated January 12, 1932 (File N o . 811.108 G 191/61), and to submit herewith a report dated February 6, 1932, concerning Marcus Garvey by the Inspector General of the Jamaica Constabulary [M. D. Harrel], which has been obtained through the courtesy of the Colonial Secretary [A. S. Jelf]. It is stated that the report represents all the Jamaican Government knows concerning the present whereabouts and activities of M r . Garvey. 495

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

Relative to current comment on Mr. Garvey's activities, it may prove interesting to peruse the observations of a columnist [Frank Taylor] in the DAILY GLEANER o f F e b r u a r y 12,1932 (enclosure N o . 2), and M r . G a r v e y ' s reply

in the same newspaper's issue of February 15, 1932 (Enclosure N o . 3). There is a persistent rumor, although not verified, that Mr. Garvey has funds in France. On the other hand, he is frequently viewed as being financially embarrassed and as not meeting his obligations. Relative to Mr. Garvey's promotion of the Edelweiss Amusement Company, Limited, I am enclosing a copy of his letter to me of February 12, 1932 (enclosure N o . 4), requesting support by the purchase of tickets to one of his performances. With reference to the Department's request that I state whether the Jamaican authorities are disposed to take any action to interfere with Mr. Garvey's alleged efforts to obtain money from American citizens through fraudulent representations, I beg to quote herebelow from the Colonial Secretary's confidential communication to me of February 11, 1932: This Government has no knowledge of any fraudulent actions on Mr. Garvey's part, and I am not disposed to accept without full evidence, statements on the subject made by members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, as for some years past there has been internal strife in the Association and there have been several law-suits between various branches of it. You will remember the famous case here out of which arose the sentence of three months imprisonment passed on Mr. Garvey for contempt of Court. Details of this will be found in the Gleaner of 14th September 1929. Respectfully yours, PAUL C . SQUIRE

American Consul Enclosures: N o . 1. Confidential report o f Inspector General concerning Marcus Garvey; 2. Clipping from "Daily Gleaner" of February 12,1932; 3. Clipping from "Daily Gleaner" o f February 15,1932; 4. C o p y o f letter dated February 12,1932, from Marcus Garvey to American Consul, Kingston. D N A , R G 59, file Consulate letterhead.

811.108

G191/61.

TLS,

496

carbon

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American

FEBRUARY 1932

Enclosure H E A D Q U A R T E R S JAMAICA C O N S T A B U L A R Y

Kingston, Jamaica, 6th February 1952 Sir, In reply to your letter C.397 (3) of the 23rd June 1932 I beg to report as follows:— Mr. Garvey returned from England on 17th November 1931 and during his absence he attended the Council of the League of Nations where he presented certain proposals on behalf of the U.N.I.A. While he was away, Mr. Garvey was elected a member of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Since his return he has been engaged principally in selling the shares of the Edelweis Park Amusement Company. The par value of these shares is £1 and I am informed that about 16,000 shares have been sold but many of the purchasers have only paid a small portion of the amount due. Concerts and Vaudeville shows have been held at Edelweis Park almost nightly. The Artists being local people. The prices of admission vary from 6d. to 2/6. Mr. Garvey takes an active part in the management of these entertainments. A few public meetings have been held but on the whole very little has been heard of Garvey or his activities of recent months. Garvey lives at Somali Court, Lady Musgrave Road and spends most of his time at Edelweis Park near Cross Roads. I have etc., M . D. HARREL

Inspector General D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. T L R , recipient's copy. Marked " C O N F I D E N T I A L . "

Enclosure [Daily Gleaner, Kingston, 12th February 1932] MARCUS GARVEY'S IDEA [BY F R A N K T A Y L O R ]

I have seen the "Back to Africa" movement using all kinds of arguments, but Marcus Garvey certainly slips a new one over on us in this week's issue of the "Negro World," published in New York [13 February 1932]. 497

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

On the front page, in big bold letters, he hints that we can expect a world war any moment; and that as soon as the European nations have blown each other to dust and followed the example of ancient Rome, Marcus and the Universal Negro Improvement Association will step in, grab Africa for themselves, and a new Ethiopia will rise phoenix-like on the ashes of its old traditions. Then possibly our worthy Councillor will achieve his ambition of being President of Africa; the gentlemen on whom he has bestowed the title of "duke," "earl" or what-not will probably get a nice fat slice of land and a share of Africa's latent wealth; and everybody in Jamaica will pack their toothbrushes, buy a change of socks, and catch the very next boat for the new Eldorado. Nor is that all. In addition, he apparently wants an army, and maybe a navy, too; and you and me—and 400 million other people besides—will be expected to form fours, shoulder arms, and fight like heroes under the flag of the red, black and green. INTERNATIONAL IGNORANCE

Now this might be good propaganda—the sort of stuff to start the pennies rolling into 67 Slipe Road [Edelweiss Park]—but as a sample of international politics it shows more ignorance than common-sense; and one wonders how M r . Garvey came to write such "revolutionary" and almost seditious nonsense at a time when he is living under the protection of the British flag. He knows as well as I do that if a European war started to-morrow, the present rulers of Africa would still stick to their territory, and that no amount of clap-trap in the "Negro World" would make one jot of difference to that fact. Unless, of course, he has an idea to start a little war of his own, and make a conquest of Africa by force. And even then he would run his head against a stone wall; for without money there could be no war, and unless he has discovered a gold mine in the Corporate area I am afraid very few of the Negro Improvement people would do much fighting if they had to provide their own rations and draw no pay. For generally I have found that the people who talk the most about the "Back to Africa" movement are those who want an easy job, with somebody else doing the hard work. So that very probably every member of the U.N.I.A. would want to be an officer, and carry a sword; and our friend Marcus would have to dig his own trenches, cook his own breadfruit, and do the fighting himself. W H Y THE SECRECY?

There's a good bit of mystery behind all this. You remember a few months ago that M r . Garvey went to Geneva to see the League of Nations about his petition for the re-arrangement of Africa? And how he came back with some rather obscure hints of what he had done, and what he would tell us when the time was ripe? 498

F E B R U A R Y 1932

But up to the moment Mr. Garvey—who in the "Negro World" is termed the "god of the Negro race"—has kept his lips very closely sealed on this point; and I believe we may be pardoned for thinking that his mission to the League was none too successful after all. At any rate, it is logical to suppose that if the League had been favourably impressed by his petition, there would have been no necessity to use a war scare to bolster up his theory that the coloured peoples of the world would soon be growing bananas in the fruitful soil of Africa, or to throw out ridiculous suggestions that the nations of Europe were on their last legs. Unless of course he has grown tired of diplomacy and thinks a war would settle the business in half the time. And that would be a strange turn of mind for a man who has told us so many times that the officials of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are born diplomats, whose only purpose in life is to "seek peace and pursue it." All of which makes me wonder what excuse Mr. Garvey will give for wringing the neck of the white dove of peace in this week's "Negro World" and waving aloft the red flag of war. D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. Newspaper clipping, printed in DG, 12 February 1932.

Enclosure [Daily Gleaner, Kingston, 15 February 1932] M R . MARCUS GARVEY REPLIES TO ARTICLE BY M R . FRANK TAYLOR

Sir,— I must confess that out[side] of a glance at the foreign Press reports in the morning, I seldom read the articles (good or otherwise) that appear in your paper. Not because the Gleaner is not of high merit, but because there is very little for me to learn from those who write from time to time in the paper. I have never read a full paragraph of Mr. Frank Taylor's articles, because I have never had any time to waste in reading the contributions of men who do not count for much; but, this morning, while still in bed, my wife came in and dashed a "Gleaner" at me, and asked if I had seen what Frank Taylor had written and said about me. My curiosity was aroused, and I took the time to read some of the mischievous nonsense that Mr. Frank Taylor is capable of producing, and it is in this respect, since some of the nonsense affects me, that I am writing, hoping that you will give the same publicity to what I have to say about Mr. Frank Taylor as he has said about me. I want to assure you that the Gleaner's management to me is a wonderful object lesson to Jamaica businessmen. The paper, as an institution, is a credit 499

T H E MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

to the island and would be to big business anywhere. Personally, I have the highest regard for the management o f the "Gleaner." I have always stated to my friends and others that it reflects wonderful ability in producing results. The management o f the "Gleaner" and the staff for the last thirty years, at least, have done wonderful work for Jamaica and it is a pity that attempts from time to time have been m[ad]e to spoil the good effect o f this great work done by Jamaicans. You will realize, therefore, that I have the very best o f feeling toward to "Gleaner," but surely I can have no such good feeling toward a man like M r . Frank Taylor who attempts to use the columns o f the paper to libel and hold up to public ridicule people with whom he has no business. Whether I am President o f Africa or Councillor o f the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, I have no personal business with Frank Taylor. His attempt to write about me, no doubt, may be the privilege o f a journalist, but surely he has violated that privilege by his personal insults to me and to the African peoples throughout the world. The reason o f his attack on me in to-days's paper is supposed to be caused through an article that he claims appeared in last week's Negro World, published in New York, o f which I know nothing. I have not written any articles for the "Negro World" for the last three months—I have not seen a copy for the last six weeks, therefore, I am perfectly innocent o f anything that has appeared in that paper for the last three months. I admit that the Negro World is the official organ o f the international movement o f the U.N.I.A. Other writers on the paper have the right to publish their articles and opinions just as I have. N o doubt, for the purpose o f attracting the notice o f the people who are interested in the paper and the movement, someone might have written on the war, and my name might have been used, I do not know; but even if this has been so, there is absolutely no reason why M r . Frank Taylor should attempt to ridicule me and a movement that doesn't consider him at all, for when we come to take a stock o f the serious minds o f the world, minds with which peoples, nations and generations must deal, Frank Taylor is surely not among them. I understand that he is an Englishman. If this is so, from what I have seem o f him, if all Englishmen were like Frank Taylor, there would be very little left o f England. We are glad that this is not so, because those o f us who are British citizens, hope that England will last many centuries longer to do the good work that she has been doing, not only in Empire building, but in exercising restraint upon a vicious generation, whose freedom o f action might have caused greater suffering to humanity. In a comment on what was supposed to have been published in the "Negro World," M r . Taylor referred to me as having created Dukes and Earls in the "Back to Africa movement." This is a gross falsehood. I have never created Dukes nor Earls. I suppose M r . Taylor, because he read o f the facetious remarks o f Lord [Sydney] Olivier in his recent address before the Coloured Peoples' Association in England, thought that he t o o could poke some fun at me at my expense. Lord Olivier is quite different to M r . Taylor. He is an Englishman who is highly regarded and respected by the coloured 500

FEBRUARY 1932

peoples of the world. He has a policy and a constructive one which is helpful to England, and anything that he says, those of us who know him, know that it is not with any intent to injure but to help. I did not read his address, but I heard of it. If I wanted to create dukes and earls in Africa, surely I would not have to ask the permission of Frank Taylor. I would go to Africa and do there just what other men have done in history which resulted in the creation of dukes and earls. But I have not to go to Africa. Africa is quite capable of taking care of itself and taking care of men like Frank Taylor who are audacious and insulting to things African. Frank Taylor may make fun of Africa to-day but tomorrow in the generations to come, a different tale may be told. He suggested in his article that I may be wanting an Army and Navy of which he, M r . Frank Taylor, may be a part. I have no need for an Army or Navy—Africa may have need for that later on, but I hardly believe that any African of serious mind would use Frank Taylor as a soldier—he doesn't look it; and when generals are picking men for soldiers they generally pick out somebody who may be of use, so M r . Taylor need have no fear that I would ever want him to be a soldier for Africa or for myself. It is the impertinence of Englishmen like Frank Taylor that causes England to be in so much trouble from time to time: simply because they happen to be born Englishmen they think they have a right to insult other peoples, and that their insults must be swallowed. I want to tell M r . Frank Taylor that I have no more respect for him and for his kind than the proudest of Englishmen would have for an insolent Yorkshire beggar. I am quite satisfied that Frank Taylor is not belonging to any worthy class among English journalists, judging from the character of his articles in the "Gleaner." M r . Taylor will admit that if he were a journalist of any ability, and an internationalist^] he would not be found in Jamaica at this time, writing in the manner he does in the "Gleaner." Journalists who have sound opinions on international politics are in great demand in Europe, and at the important centres of our civilisation. Mr. Frank Taylor, therefore, must admit that his opinion on international politics doesn't amount to anything, and, therefore, he is not in a position to criticise me in this respect. He refers to the article in the "Negro World" as being propaganda calculated to send more pennies to 67 Slipe Road. It is only a poor imagination that could be capable of thinking that an article written in a paper in New York could bring pennies to the pocket of the writer at his address, 3,000 miles away. Even if the writing of the article was calculated to bring pennies, it would be purely on the good-will of the givers which would be a better method of earning a livelihood than for a man to accept a pay envelope every Saturday on his ability to libel the character of other citizens. I have never offended the man and though I have heard other Jamaicans speak of him contemptuously, I have given him the benefit of the doubt, but we can only act and judge from experience, and when this man has gone out of his way to libel me and to hold me up to ridicule with no just cause, I must give other people credit for 501

THE MARCUS GARVEY AND U N I A PAPERS

their opinion in thinking contemptuously of him because he must have done the same thing to them. Mr. Taylor, if you claim to be a journalist, learn to write decently, and there will be better appreciation for you, than for you to attempt to earn that livelihood by libels, falsehoods and scandals. I trust no one in Jamaica will believe any of the nonsensical suggestions of Mr. Frank Taylor as contained in his article in to-day's "Gleaner," and that I will be given credit for having better sense than he would suggest. I am, etc., MARCUS GARVEY D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. Newspaper clipping, printed in DG, 15 February 1932.

Enclosure Edelweiss Park, 67 Slipe Road, Cross Roads, P.O., St. Andrew, Jamaica, B.W.I., 12th February 1932 Dear Mr. Squire: I am enclosing you herewith 4 tickets for our extraordinary Edelweiss Concert Choir in conjunction with the Jamaica Military Band to be presented at Edelweiss Park on Wednesday night the 17th inst., asking you to support us by the purchase of the tickets and by attending. We are trying to bring together a representative group of our leading citizens, to give them the opportunity of enjoying the productions in which we are making an effort to do our best with local talent. Your attendance and support would greatly encourage these native people in rising to higher usefulness in the musical art. Please do your best to attend. I feel sure that you and your party will appreciate the presentation of this unique programme to suit the season of the year. Very sincerely yours, MARCUS GARVEY

Chairman Board of Directors D N A , R G 59, file 811.108 G191/61. T L R . On Edelweiss Amusement Co., Ltd., letterhead, Marcus Garvey, Chairman, Board o f Directors, and Daisy L. Whyte, Secretary.

John W. Geraty,1 Postmaster, Yonges Island, South Carolina, to F. A. Rickly, Post Office Inspector, Charleston, South Carolina Yonges Island, S.C. P.O. No. 59820 [ca. 27 May 1932] Dear Sir; For the past month or six weeks there has been passing through this office at intervals of about ten days or two weeks fifty to a hundred piece [pieces] 502

MAY 1932

o f first class mail.

(Which is mailed from 67 Slip [Slipe] R o a d , Cross R o a d s

P . O . , St. A n d r e w , Jamaica, British West Indies.) These letters are all mailed to different negros [negroes,] men & w o m e n at this office or on rural rout [routes] & all are addressed c/o M r . C . H e y w a r d . This C . H e y w a r d is a negro w h o does not do any manual labor but makes his living acting as an organizer & kind o f leader a m o n g the more ignorant negro/es/ in their various societies. O n e o f the letters referred to which was Post Marked Kingston Jamaica on M a y 20th 1932 was today handed to me to read. It contained a /circulai/ letter F o r m Letter on letterhead o f (Parent B o d y , Universal N e g r o

Improvement

Association and African Communities League dated 16th M a y , 1932 & signed (in ink personally) by Marcus Garvey, Present [President] General.) instructed the [addressee?]

Letter

method o f selling & remitting for fifteen Lottery

tickets which were inclosed & were to be sold at $ 1 . 0 0 each.

For lottery

drawing to be held at the headquarters of the League at above address in Cross R o a d s P . O . Jamaica on Wednesday N i g h t the 6th o f July 1932. T h e lottery ticket stated on its face that 5 0 % o f Gross receipts will be distributed to purchaser o f tickets at every drawing, which will take place quarterly & balance will be used to assist organization in carrying on its work in the interest o f the N e g r o Race all over the World. O u r negroes are being fleeced. I understand it is illegal to use mails for carrying Lottery ticket[s] therefor I am giving y o u this information. It is evident that C . H e y w a r d is the general A g e n t for this territory. Respt. Yours 2 JOHN W . GERATY

Postmaster D N A , R G 28, file 5929. A L S , recipient's copy. 1. John W. Geraty was appointed postmaster of Yonges Island (now known as Younges Island), S. C., on 25 January 1908 and served five consccutive terms until retiring on 31 August 1946 (Rita L. Moroney, Office of the Postmaster General, to Robert A. Hill, 21 February 1985). 2. F. A. Rickly replied that Garvey's mailing was in violation of the postal laws and advised Geraty to secure a complete letter, including the envelope, printed matter, and lottery tickets, and to send it to the chief post office inspector. Geraty did so on 30 May 1932. The following day Horace Donnelly issued a memorandum to Postmaster General Walter F. Brown, notifying him of Garvey's mail campaign. Brown subsequently issued an order to all offices dispatching mail to Jamaica that postal orders drawn to the order of Garvey or the U N I A should be forbidden and any mailings addressed to Garvey or the U N I A at 67 Slipe Road, St. Andrew, should be stamped as fraudulent and either returned to sender or sent to the Division of Dead Letters (Rickly to Geraty, 28 May 1932; Geraty to chief post office inspector, 30 May 1932; Donnelly to Brown, 31 May 1932 and 3 June 1932; Fraud Order No. 254-9, issued by Brown, 2 June 1932; J. J. Kiely, postmaster, New York, to Donnelly, 17 June 1932, D N A , R G 28). The order applied not only to lottery mailings but to all correspondence to Garvey from the United States. The fraud order was not overturned until April 1934 (Karl A. Crowley, solicitor, Post Office Department, to postmaster general, 21 April 1934; Crowley to postmasters, 25 April 1934; Order No. 5233 issued by Harilee Branch, acting postmaster general, 28 April 1934, D N A , R G 28).

503

T H E M A R C U S GARVEY A N D U N I A P A P E R S

Enclosures PAEENT BODY tyimiersal •MEDI»« MAD OFFIOf

African

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England

Taltohoni.FuHum I7BI SUB'F.UROPEAN HEADQUARTERS: "> Rue Paul Louis-Courier (VII) P.m. France. Talaphon« llllr» 43 9T "HE

CREATED

OF O K E B L O O D

« U

N A T I O N S OF M E N T O D W E L L

fi7 SLIPE R O A D Mrs. Marrla Simmons c/o Mr, C. Heyward, Maggatta P.O., South Carolina, U.S.A.

ON T H E F A C E O F T H E

EARTH"

CROSS K O A D S P . O . ST A N D R E W , J A M A I C A , 16th

May,

BW.I

1932

Dear Mrs. Simmons: We are sending you Herewith enclosed our Drawing Book of fifteen tickets for our International Drawing for tile Universal Negro Improvement Association, that will come off at our Headquarters here on the 6th of July, 1932. We are asking you to go among your friends and sell the fifteen tickets for UB for the Drawing. The price of each ticket is $1.00 as printed thereon. Each person who purchases a ticket will write down on the counterfoil his or her name and address. Youwill give the person the ticket, and the counterfoil with the name and address 13 to be returned to UB along with the amount of money you have collected Tor the tickets, addressed to Headquarters , U.N.I.A., 67 Slipe Road, Cross Road s P, U. , Jamaica, B.W 1., as early as you have sold them off, but surely not later than to reach us by the 27th June. If you sell off the fifteen tickets, you are entitled to one out of the fifteen, and If you succeed In sel ling the ticket that wins the first prize, you will also get five per cent of what the first prize Is. You must explain to the purchasers of the tickets that In purchasing tickets they are helping to build up the Organization for the race as well as to have the chance of winning a prize. Try your best to sell off the tickets and If you want more, you may write for same, but to be sure to return the counterfoil with the nara^s and addresses of the people and what money you have collected. With very best wishes for

success

We have the honour to b e , Your obedient servants,

504

M A Y 1932

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