Marcus Garvey

Political Studies: Edexcel A Level, topic 19.3.3

Marcus Garvey 1887 - 1940

Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican immigrant in the US and became a key thinker behind black nationalism.

Garvey placed particular emphasis on the betterment of the economic, social, and political condition of blacks in America when they were still treated as inferior.
The prominence of national black leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm-X helped to develop black nationalism by giving rise to a sense of national pride.
In particular, the cultural links to Africa became the centrepiece for the development of a distinct black nationalism. Africa came to occupy the place as the cultural and spiritual homeland.
Garvey went further with 'Pan-Africanism'.

Garvey considered that the African people, and especially those of African descent like African-Americans, were one people and should unify.
Cultural and ethnic differences between blacks must be overcome to ensure unity.
Pan-Africanism in its most extreme sense meant unity into a single nation; however, it is most commonly understood to mean unity in achieving common economic, political and social objectives.

In 1919, Garvey began the ‘Black Star Line;’ a black owned and operated shipping line to travel between the USA and Africa.
It was envisaged as a way to develop a pan-African economy through the shipment of goods between African and the US. It was also seen as a way to establish a black nation-state in Africa.
Ultimately, the venture failed but its core ideas of economic and political self-sufficiency continued long after Garvey’s death in 1940.

In the late 1960s, black nationalism became wrapped up in the black power movement.
The term black power became a slogan for those who sought political control of majority black areas; particularly in the south. The Black Panther Party became the main vehicle for this objective.
In the contemporary era, black organisations like Black Lives Matters (BLM) have rejected nationalism.