MARCUS GARVEY: A REAPPRAISAL

Author(s): WILSON J. MOSES

Source: The Black Scholar, Vol. 4, No. 3, THE BLACK MASSES (November-December 1972),
pp. 38-49
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41163608
Accessed: 04-11-2017 08:04 UTC

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 MARCUS GARVEY:
A REAPPRAISAL

is NOT my intention to abuse the and that only in recent years have Afro-
memory of Marcus Garvey, but, rather, Americans recovered from the damage done
to attack that uncritical adulation of him that
by Garvey to the extent that they will once
leads to the practice of red baiting andagain to consider Pan-Africanism a respectable
the divisive rhetoric of "Blacker- than- thou."
doctrine.1 The purpose of this paper is to
It is one thing, I submit, to support Pan- explore some of the myths about Garvey and
African Unity and the liberation of Africa, to
as encourage some debate as to the real nature
we all must; quite another to attribute the of the movement over which he assumed
modern Pan- African movement to Garvey. leadership.
It
is particularly dangerous to accept unques-
tioningly those statements made by Garvey
THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE MYTH
when he was attempting to discredit his rivals
for leadership of the black community. When
I have ventured such statements in the past,I suppose that when we use the phrase
the response has usually been, "But, Garvey"a man of the people," we usually mean
was the first man to mobilize the black leader who is able to appeal to a large body
masses!" Or, "He built the black man's self-
of followers who represent the common fo
respect!" My answer is that of course he ofled a nation or a race. I think we also impl
the black masses (and so did Prophet Jones),
that he is one of those people, that he under-
but where to and for what purposes? Didstai he Is those people and that his experienc
really build the black man's self-respect, are
or similar to those of the people he claim
did he simply exploit a strong black pride to represent. Let us look at Garvey's autobiog-
that was already present in the black commun-
raphy and see how well he conforms to the
ity? Those who oppose an elitist history will
standards.2
certainly not attribute the awakening of an
Garvey was born, far better off than th
entire nation to the strength of one man's
average Jamaican, in 1887. He was the son
will.
of a fairly prosperous stone mason, wh
What the Garvey movement suggests to "always acted as if he did not belong amon
me is that the Harlem community of 1919 the villagers. "3 The senior Marcus Garvey wa
was ready for a powerful and meaningful black a morose and solitary man, but he was no
nationalist movement. They deserved better totally anti-social; he was a member of a Wes-
leadership than they got. It could be argued leyan congregation presided over by a whi
that the disillusionment of the black masses man. It was among the four children of th
after the failure of Garvey's movement led white minister and the five children of anothe
to a cynicism about Garvey that was later white man, whose property adjoined that o
transferred to Black Nationalism in general, the Garveys, that young Marcus found hi

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 Wilson J. Moses is an instructor in Afro-American
Studies at the University of Iowa, and he is currently
writing a Ph. D. dissertation in American Civilization
at Brown University. His previous publications include
"The Evolution of Black National-Socialist Thought: A
Study of W.E.B. Du Bois," in Black Academy Review,
Winter, 1970; and poetry, in Negro Digest (Black World),
April, 1966.

by WILSON J. MOSES

first playmates. The early years were unmar-
red by any knowledge of racial prejudice, says
Garvey. "The little white girl whom I liked
most knew no better than I did myself. We
were two innocent fools who never dreamed
of a race feeling and problem."
It WAS AT the remarkably late age of fourteen
for which they were most famous as a result
of their own efforts and not in the college
classroom. Garvey's attempts to discredit
black intellectuals by referring to their formal
education is interesting in view of his own
assertion that he had far more formal educa-
tion than the vast majority of New World black
men.

that Garvey first became aware that he was
different from his playmates. The little daugh-
ters of the Wesleyan minister were forbidden
to play with him and the one he liked most
called him a nigger.
In later life Garvey claimed he "had no
regrets," but his life-long obsession with
intermarriage would seem to indicate that this
experience, coming as it did at the age of
sexual awakening was a very traumatic one.
Garvey continued to play with white boys
until maturity when they rejected him.
Clearly, his religious and social experiences
up to that point were not typical, especially
when compared to those of North American
black boys, whether in the South or in the
emerging ghettoes of the North.
Garvey worked for several years as a printer
and a journalist, and gained experience as
an orator and a union organizer. From 1912
to 1913, Garvey was in London, becoming
acquainted with the Egyptian nationalist
Duse Mohammed Ali, reading in the London
libraries, and possibly attending college. But
Garvey's education, like that of most black
intellectuals, was mostly the result of inde-
pendent study. Even W.E.B. Du Bois and
Carter G. Woodson gained that knowledge
The details of Garvey's early life sho
make us ask just what we are talking
when we call him a man of the peop
was one, only in the sense that he had
followers who were of the people, but h
very different than they, since he had ex
enced a great deal of social contact with w
people, both in church and in his integ
school. He was born a member of the
bourgeois class, and enjoyed cult
economic, and educational advantage
few of his black contemporaries we
priviledged as to know. During his chi
his home was dominated by a strong
who was prosperous and self-educated
THE FIRST MASS LEADER MYTH
We can agree that Garvey organized larger
numbers of ordinary black people than anyone
up to his time. The question I want to ask
at this point is, "How did he do this?" I am
going to argue that Garvey was not the first,
but the last in a series of leaders of his kind
and that it was historical circumstances that
provided him with more followers than his
predecessors ever had.4

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 The dominant feature of Afro- American his- although their resources were more modest
tory from 1876 to 1925 was migration which than Garvey' s and Garvey repatriated none.
took some of the following forms: Also, unlike Garvey, both Turner and Sam
1 - Westward migration, from the South made trips to Africa themselves.
to the Southwest, which was characterized 3 - A third variety of migration was in the
by the setting up of all black towns in Kansas direction of the cities. This brand of migration
and Oklahoma. The best known leader picked up sharply during World War I and
resulted in a number of large black urban
associated with this movement was Benjamin
"Pap" Singleton, who styled himself, "Theghettoes in the North for the first time in
Moses of the Colored Exodus."5 He was United States history. It was to these people,
born a slave at Nashville in 1809. After being
newly arrived from the South, not yet accus-
"sold a dozen times or more," and runningtomed to urban ghetto life, that Garvey
away just as often, he escaped via the Under-
appealed. Garvey was able to exploit the fact
that large numbers of southern blacks, used
ground Railroad to Detroit and then to Canada.
But he soon returned to Detroit where he to thinking in terms of travelling to a promised
was active in the Underground till 1865.land were migrating to Harlem.
Singleton claimed in 1878 to be responsibleNever before had a black migrationist
for the relocation of 7,432 black people in
leader had such a large and yet compact com-
Kansas. Throughout the decade of the munity to draw on. Singleton, Turner, and
seventies, he travelled through Tennessee Sam had never been able to find such a ready-
and Kentucky, urging black people to migrate made large audience of black people and they
to the Kansas colonies, as they were called. were handicapped by the fact that black
Another leader of this type was Edwin P. people were distributed over a broad black
McCabe, who was associated with the "Great belt across the South, but black New York
Black March Westward" during the 1890's.6 in 1920 had a population of 152,467 (still
This Oklahoma migration was climaxed by the rapidly growing) and Garvey discovered - did
establishment of some twenty-five all black noi create - a nationally minded community,
communities. McCabe hoped to see accustomed to the rhetoric of black Christian
Oklahoma become an all black state and his nationalism. In a sense, Garvey, his followers,
organization planned to distribute black vot-and W.E.B. Du Bois were very similar, all
ers in such a way as to create a majority inwere romantic racialists in the tradition of
each representative and senatorial district. Bishop Turner, Alexander Crummell and
Edward Wilmot Blyden.8
2 - Another variety of migration took the
form of a "Back to Africa Movement," which
began with a Liberian exodus in 1878 in which 1 HE romantic black racialism of the nine-
206 people left from Charleston, South teenth century has been the subject of much
Carolina. More were apparently interested recent discussion.9 The romantic nationalists
in leaving, but the company went bankruptGarvey's philosophical forefathers, just as the
before a second trip could be made. The Backmigration leaders were his political precur-
to Africa movement continued throughout thesors. Among them were such names as Martin
late 1800' s and early 1900' s and produced two R. Delaney, whose importance has been
great leaders, Chief Alfred С Sam and Bishopmuch overstated, James T. Holly, Alexander
Henry McNeal Turner, both of whom haveCrummell - the mentor of W.E.B. Du Bois
been subjects of recent studies.7 Both Turnerand William H. Ferris - and Edward Wilmot
and Sam were actively involved in persuadingBlyden, the learned African scholar. 10
black folk to return to Africa, but neither was Blyden became involved in the Pan- African
able to actually relocate any large number. movement - some say he founded it - in the
Their organizations were responsible for thelate nineteenth century. Born on St. Thomas
repatriation of some five hundred blacks, in 1832, he was, like Garvey, a West Indian.

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He emigrated to the United States in 1850 a good-natured army deserter, who lives for
and to Liberia in 1852. Blyden made two tours the moment and chases his little brown girls,
of the United States, the first in 1862 along represents the new urban ghetto hero. Jake
with Alexander Crummell, who was at that is contrasted with Ray, a Haitian nationalist
time a Liberian colonist; the second in 1889- in the Du Bois-Garvey-Blyden tradition. Ray
90, during which he preached the doctrine tells Jake stories of Haiti and of its black
that God had assigned a portion of the earth liberator, Toussaint, and Jake sits, "like a big
to each race. He also argued that racial separa- eager boy," listening for a while, but soon
tion was the will of God. Blacks were not returning to his Jazz- Age existence.
necessarily a master-race, but each race was
a chosen people with its own superiority, and THE MYTH OF THE DU BOIS
it was the duty of the blacks to find their
CONSPIRACY
area of excellence. While encouraging
educated and talented blacks to migrate to It is a well-known fact that Garvey and
Liberia, Blyden did not encourage a mass W.E. Burghardt Du Bois quarrelled vio
exodus. Garvey too, would argue that only ently. A great deal of brutal rhetoric w
the better class of blacks should be allowed
indulged in by both sides in the course
to migrate to Africa. Blyden had been a suc- this debate, but it is my belief that Garve
cessful orator in the Southern United States
was wrong. I believe that Garvey consistently
and Edwin S. Redkey has argued that he had and deliberately falsified facts and attempt
more than a little influence on the masses
to deceive his followers about the position
of black folk in that area, who on several occa-
in American society occupied by brown
sions were cruelly hoaxed by an imposter
skinned Afro- Americans. For example, he
claiming to be the popular African orator.11
one occasion described a vast mulatto consp
This "Blyden" travelled throughout Arkansas,
racy that had "defeated the whites in t
taking advantage of the mass sentiment for
tropics and brought them to terms." H
emigration, and lining his pockets. 12 It should
argued that the "Du Bois school" mulatto con-
be apparent, then, that Garvey preserved and
spiracy was "winning out in America."
popularized a variety of black thought that
had been popular with the masses since theThe men of the Du Bois school have succeeded
end of Reconstruction. Garvey was really in
a getting the ear of the Republican government
throw-back. and the leading Republican politicians of the coun-
try, to the extent that they can get anything done
By the mid-1920's, however, a new from the White House to the Department of Labor.
They can get one of their group appointed an
development would be dominating the
assistant attorney general, ambassador extra-
thought of Afro- Am erica; the Harlem Renais- ordinary, or demand and get the dismissal of any
sance would be in full swing. The year 1925 white government employee, . . .or they can have
would see the publication of Alain Locke's imprisoned anyone they desire. 14
The New Negro in which appeared the pro-
nouncement that "something beyond the Garvey maintained that Du Bois and all
watch and guard of statistics [had] happened other members of the NAACP advocated
in the life of the American Negro." Black intel- "amalgamation or general miscegenation."15
lectuals would begin to abandon the old religi- But Du Bois* attitude toward white women
ous mysticism that had dominated nineteenth was often one of polite contempt. Du Bois
century black nationalism. They would begin opposed anti-miscegenation laws, however,
to interpret the black character in terms of which he called proposals "to encourage pros-
the urban ghetto experience.13 The conflict titution and degrade women of Negro des-
between the old and the new conceptions of cent." In a 1925 Crisis editorial on Intermar-
black nationalism can be seen in Claude riage he said, "Decent custom in all civilized
communities compels the scoundrel who
McKay's Home to Harlem. In this novel, Jake,

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seduces a girl to marry her no matter what White and with other members of the Associa-
race she belongs to .... The whole South tion because of his support of racial separation
refuses to black girls any adequate protec- in some instances where he felt it would be
tion."16 advantageous for black people.

JyAoST PEOPLE who venture opinions on the (jTARVEY'S ATTACKS ON DU BOIS were gener-
Du Bois-Garvey controversy, do not know ally dishonest and more emotional than Du
enough about either man to discuss the ques- Bois'onGrvey. Tobesure, Du Bois did call Gar-
tion with intelligence. Since the publication vey a "little, fat, black man; ugly, but with
of Harold Cruse's much misunderstood The intelligent eyes and a big head." But that will
Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, I have become not support Garvey' s claim that Du Bois hated
aware of a new school of highly misinformed black skin. Du Bois did not say that black
Garvey admirers. This group has misreadpeople were ugly and anyone who has read
Cruse's treatment of the Garvey-Du BoisChapter IV of his Souls of Black Folk in which
debate as an example of the old Nationalist-he describes the deep brown and midnight
Integrationist controversy that has been con- beauty of children in an all-black schoolhouse,
tinuous in Afro-America since Frederick cannot misinterpret him in this way.
Douglass waged war on Henry Highland Gar- Garvey once challenged Du Bois to a "Test
net and the African Civilization Society. Actu- of Education and Ability" asserting that if both
ally, Cruse did not classify Du Bois asmen an "were to dismantle and put aside all they
integrationist, since he recognized that Du possess and [be] placed in the same environ-
Bois was really a part of the Pan-Africanist ment to start life over again . . . Garvey would
tradition of Martin Delaney. 17 As Garvey well make [him] look like a tramp."18 Unfor-
knew, Du Bois had been a Pan-Africanist, tunately for all black Americans, the depres-
while Garvey was still a boy and part ofsion Du soon came and Garvey got his wish, both
Bois* opposition to Garvey stemmed from mena lost their incomes and all their posses-
sincere belief that if Garvey usurped control sions. But the result was not what Garvey
of the movement it would be dominated had by predicted, for Garvey never regained his
incompetents, and influenced by white strength. It seems to me, utterly ridiculous
racists. to attribute to any black man, but especially
to Du Bois, who was ever in rebellion against
Throughout the last half-century of his life,
the establishment, the sabotage of the Garvey
Du Bois strongly supported Pan-Africanism
in spite of the hostility of some factions of
movement. Garvey was defeated by the
the NAACP to the movement. Du Bois' chief imperialistic and greedy goals of the Firestone
Rubber Corporation, interested in Liberian
function with the Association was not to pro-
Rubber and cheap labor. It was not the Voice
mote intermarriage, but to edit The Crisis,
of Du Bois that silenced Garvey; it was the
the "official" organ. During the twenty-four
Voice of Firestone.
years of his editorship, however, The Crisis
editorials were more the voice of Du Bois
than the voice of the Association. Du Bois THE MYTH OF AFRICA
was able to function with such autonomy
CONSCIOUSNESS
because of the tremendous popularity of The
Crisis with the masses of black Americans. There can be no denying that Garvey talked
about Africa and the African heritage a great
The journal was self-supporting until the
beginning of the depression, which caused deal, but that was quite a different thing from
the journal to become dependent on theencouraging respect for Africa's indigenou
NAACP, and at this time Du Bois' enemies cultures. His proposal for a united Africa was
were able to force his resignation. By thisbased on the imperial model of Victorian Eng
time, of course, he had quarrelled with Walterland. We know far too little about the attitude

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of ordinary black Americans toward Africa
from 1863 to the present, to allow us to
generalize about Garvey's impact on those
attitudes. By the time Garvey made his
appearance, black people might indeed have
become ashamed of their African background,
but the fact that the masses maintained a hom-
ing impulse from the end of Reconstruction
to the time of Garvey should cause one to
question this proposition. I do not think that
Garvey consciously attempted to make all the
black people of the world exactly like Euro-
peans, but he certainly had more affinity for
the pomp and tinsel of European imperialism
than he did for black African tribal life, which
earlier black nationalists had praised. 19
When Garvey spoke of African glories, he
referred to Northeast Africa, the Egyptians
and the Ethiopians, because they, having
built empires and raised temples, were consi-
dered civilized. The black people at the con-
tinent's interior were seldom mentioned,
except in terms of their "Redemption." Con-
trast Garvey's attitude with that of Monroe
Work, who in 1916 was saying that "the real
African need by no means resort to the rags
and tatters of bygone European splendor. He
has precious ornaments of his own, of ivory
and plumes, fine plaited willow ware,
weapons of superior workmanship."20 But
Garvey was either unaware of such arguments
or unimpressed by them when he assumed
his archducal raiment. Although Garvey
could, on occasion, be critical of European
accomplishments - the development of "sub-
marines to destroy life," and of "liquid gas
to outdo in the art of killing" - this was clearly
sour grapes. Garvey admired Europe with
her "armies and navies and men of big
affairs."21
William H. Ferris, contributing editor to
Garvey's newspaper, Negro World, a graduate
of Yale, and one of several bourgeois intel-
lectuals who occupied positions of promi-
nence in the Universal Negro Improvement
Association, had written in his sprawling nary force. Unfortunately, his attempt to
work, The African Abroad that "the Anglo- appeal to the religious sentiment, which wa
Saxon ideal of manhood and womanhood is at that time such an important factor in th
lives of black people, opposed black religiou
the highest the world has yet seen, the highest
that will ever be evolved in the history of
the world."22 Ferris, like Garvey, was a long-
time admirer of Duse Mohammed Ali and
a supporter of African independence. He
revealed his hopes that Africa would soon
develop a "civilization."23 His dreams were
fairly Garveyish, even as early as 1912, and
Chapter twenty-four of The African Abroad
was illustrated with photographs of the Sierra
Leoneans, resplendent in their colonial
regalia - again, Garveyish. In all fairness
to Garvey, however, it should be remem-
bered that most black nationalists up to his
time tended to see black nationalism in very
European terms.
But while Garvey and Ferris were planning
to reconstruct Africa on a Victorian model,
Du Bois was calling the African village a
"perfect human thing." In 1919, he wrote in
Darkwater, which Garvey read, of the exem-
plary family life of the African tribe.24 By this
time, Du Bois was well on the way to develop-
ing his concept of African Socialism, but Gar-
vey's attitude toward African tribal life was
essentially that of the old nineteenth century
redemptionists, black men like Lott Carey
and Colin Teague, who sailed to Liberia with
bibles and bullets to civilize the tribes.25
Among the stated "Aims and Objects of Move-
ment for Solution of Negro Problems," was
the plan to "assist in civilizing the backward
tribes of Africa; [and] to promote a conscienti-
ous Spiritual worship among the native tribes
of Africa."26 For the work of promoting this
"conscientious Spiritual worship," Garvey
created the African Orthodox Church.
THE MYTH OF AFRICAN ORTHODOXY
Garvey's noblest effort was his attempt to
create a black religion. One can only praise
his effort to give black people a god in whose
visage they might see their own reflected.
It was certainly shrewd of him to try to utilize
the religiousity of black people as a revolutio-

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traditions, instead of making use of them. Gar- In spite of his insistence on a Black God,
vey was at a disadvantage when trying to deal Garvey wanted a religion that would be as
with black religion. He had little exposure close as possible to his own Roman Catholi-
to the black church, since he had been raised cism, one that would be, in the words of the
as a member of a white congregation, had official history of the African Orthodox
converted to Roman Catholicism, and had Church, "a branch of the ONE, HOLY,
experienced neither the varieties of Obe wor- CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC Church."28
ship, peculiar to the Caribbean, nor the The African Orthodox Church (A. O. C), was
enthusiastic evangelism of the Black Belt. It organized by George Alexander McGuire, an
is not surprising, then, that the religion his Episcopal priest of some ability, who was born
Association came to support was more in Antigua on March 26, 1866. 29 The exact
Orthodox than African. historical relationship between the U.N.I. A.
Garvey was not the first black nationalist and the A.O.C. has never been fully
leader to assert that God was on the black explained. Apparently, McGuire had been
man's side, or even that God was black. Before interested in creating an "Independent Epis-
the Civil War, there had been black preachers copal Church" before the rise of Garvey, who
who felt that God was on the side of the slaves.appointed him chaplain of the U.N.I.A. in
Richard Allen, founder of the African Method-
1920. 30 In creating the А. О. С , McGuire was
faced with the dilemma of wanting to cast
ist Episcopal Church, and James T. Holly,
a Protestant Episcopal clergyman had off white dominance, but at the same time
described the slave revolts as judgements of seeking "the eccleasiastical authority so much
God and the leaders of revolts as instruments desired."31 In other words, he wanted to be
of divine judgement, whom God had used consecrated a bishop by one of the white
to smite the hypocritical Christian slavehol- Christian bodies - Anglican, Catholic,
ders. David Walker and Henry Highland Gar- Orthodox - that claimed episcopal succession
net had argued that submission to slavery was form apostolic times. McGuire approached
a form of idolatry and a mortal sin. Josiah the Roman Catholic Cardinal Hayes and the
Henson came to fear that cooperation with Rt. Rev. William T. Manning, a bishop of
slaveholders was unpardonable in the eyes the protestant Episcopal Church, both of
of God.27 Bishop Turner, the emigrationist, whom rejected his appeal. Finally, Bishop
began in the 1890's to popularize the idea Pere Vilatte of the American Catholic Church
of a black God, saying: was willing to do the job on September 28,
1921. 32 The American Catholic Church, not
Every race of people since time began who have
be confused with the Roman Catholic Church,
attempted to describe their God by words, or by
paintings, or by carvings, or by any other form did not accept the primacy of the Pope; they
or figure, have conveyed the idea that the God were a branch of the Greek Orthodox Church.
who made them and shaped their destinies was
symbolized in themselves, and why should not the
Negro believe that he resembles God as much so 1 HE MONTHLY MAGAZINE of the A.O.C, was
as other people? We do not believe that there is The Negro Churchman; the issues I have seen
any hope for a race of people who do not believe
were quite black, but hardly militant,
they look like God. (Voice of the Missions, Feb.
1, 1898) although in one, Archbishop McGuire did
And this, of course, was the same logic that protest the failure of the Protestant Episcopal
Garvey used: Church to create a black bishopric in the
Whilst our God has no color, yet it is human to United States, and he was also offended by
see everything through one's own spectacles, and the practice of sending white bishops to Haiti
since the white people have seen their God through
and Liberia.33 In that same issue appeared
white spectacles, we have only now started out
(late though it be) to see our God through our
an unsigned article tracing the episcopal suc-
own spectacles. (Philosophy and Opinions, 1923, cession of the A.O.C, from the first bishop
1,44.) of Antioch to Archbishop McGuire. The

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A.O.C, retained its obsession with orthodoxy honest in stating its feelings about the black
as late as 1956, but the masses of black people, people, he was assuming an effective rhetori-
needless to say, cared very little about this cal stance.35 But if he really believed that
debate. The Church's rejection of the Cal- the klansmen had the best interests of black
vinistic process of "gettin' saved," amounted people at heart; if he really believed that the
to a rejection of the whole pentecostal tradi- uneducated, economically depressed south-
tion, so dominant in black religion. And erners, who made up the bulk of Klan mem-
although Garvey would declaim against the bership, were either willing or able to aid
Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. , the Afri- black people in the liberation of Africa, he
can Orthodox Church was never so important was very foolish. The Klan and the Anglo-
in the lives of Harlemites as Powell's Abyssi- Saxon clubs supported Garvey for one obvious
nian Baptist Church. While Organizer reason; Garvey was willing to abandon agita-
McGuire was travelling about the continent tion for the economic, political, and legal rights
in a quest for "ecclesiastical authority," the of black people. He was willing to concede
Reverend Powell was preaching to prostitutes that America was (and ought to be) exclusively
in cold water flats, and holding prayer meet- a white man's country.36
ings among the most depressed class of Har- Today's Garveyites, including his widow,
lem's populace.34 Anyone who believes that deny that Garvey had anything to do with
the sheer ability to "mobilize the masses," the Klan, aside from meeting with the Imper-
and to gain their economic support is positive ial Wizard during June of 1922. Mrs. Garvey
proof of a black leader's validity should says that the Wizard was impressed with what
examine the career of the Reverend Powell, her husband had to say about colonization,
Sr. and his "Church of the Masses." and felt that the U.N.I.A. offered "a new and
candid approach to the old question."37 Gar-
ENTENTE WITH WHITE RACISTS vey never supported wholesale migration,
however. He felt that only the best (and the
purest) blacks should migrate to Africa. The
Most black leaders in the United States
rest, he said, would die out in fifty years.38
have had to cooperate with white people to
In other words, Garvey seems to have
some extent. There is nothing wrong with
intended to migrate to Africa with his chosen
this, but we can understand a great deal about
few, while all other people of African blood
a given black leader by looking at the kind were abandoned to the tender mercies of the
of white allies he selects. Booker T. Washing-
Ku Klux Klan - to die out in fifty years.
ton, like his friend Andrew Carnegie, was
an unscrupulous self-made man. W.E.B. Du
Bois and Jane Addams, both attracted to the V^ERTAIN SOUTHERN INTERESTS, more
NAACP, were genteel intellectuals withruthless,
a more powerful, and more farsighted
than the Klan were not at all favorable to
sense of noblesse oblige. More recently, Mal-
the migration of black folk out of the South.
colm X found it useful to cooperate with the
Socialist Workers Party. The Black Panther It was to this group that Booker T. Washing-
coalition of 1968 is well-known, and even ton appealed when he assumed his anti-
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) has had to make migration stance in 1895. 39 Ida B. Wells
his concessions to political expediency in incurred the wrath of this group when she
Newark. Garvey certainly had as much right spoke in favor of the Great Western Mig-
ration.40 I do not know if Garvey ever had,
to seek white allies as any of the above, but
he could have chosen more respectable ones but most of us have heard the stories of how
than he did. migration from the South was discouraged,
When Garvey proclaimed that the Ku Klux during World War I, of how the Chicago
Klan was a better friend of the Negro than Defender, which encouraged blacks to leave
the NAACP, because the Klan was at least the South was banned in many places, of the

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laws requiring Northern labor recruiters to tionaries sabotaged it." He felt that the salva-
buy licenses at exorbitant fees. The South tion of the black people was to be found only
recognized the importance of black labor. in "extreme nationalism/'44 Garvey dis-
While the racist Southern establishment was avowed any intention of setting up an alien
not at all willing to part with its black labor aristocracy in Africa to exercise an overlord-
force; it was eager to support any black leader ship over the indigenous tribes, but, in prac-
who would renounce all claims to political tice, he tended to be Napoleonic. After all,
rights. the tribes were "backward" and it was the
It is interesting to notice, by the way, that duty of the U.N.I.A. to civilize and Chris-
Garvey very seldom spoke of economic or tianize them.
legal equality, but preferred to speak only We need not depend on Rogers for proof
to the issue of social equality, which in the that Garvey 's ideal state was to be totalitarian.
minds of most Southerners was associated Garvey proclaimed that "government should
with intermarriage. Garvey did a great deal be absolute. . . .When we elect a President
to promote the fallacy that all black people of a nation, he should be endowed with
who were involved in political agitation were absolute authority to appoint all his lieute-
mainly interested in intermarriage.41 When nants from cabinet ministers, governors of
States and Territories, administrators and
it came to legal, political, or civil rights for
black people in the United States, Garvey judges to minor officers."45 Garvey had, of
was an accommodationist, and those who are course, seen to it that he would be Provisional
puzzled by his admiration for Booker TPresident, by staffing his U.N.I.A. with flat-
Washington usually fail to understand thisterers and incompetents who would not chal-
point. Garvey had seriously misinterpreted lenge his authority. He planned to discourage
Booker T. Washington and believed him toa multi-party system, by using the old dic-
be an accommodationist to segregation.42 tator's argument that his government would
More recently we have become aware that operate, "for the good of all the people."46
Washington devoted considerable time and
energy to fighting Jim Crow laws. My own
(jTARVEY ONCE SAID THAT "Capitalism is
studies suggest that he worked through his
wife and the National Association of Colored necessary to the progress of the world, and
those who unreasonably and wantonly oppose
Women to urge white liberals toward a more
or fight against it are enemies to human advan-
militant position on black Civil Rights.43 Most
cement."47 He did propose, however, that
black leaders of the twentieth century have no individual be allowed to control more than
recognized that it is necessary to fight on all
a million dollars, nor any corporation more
fronts. Supporting the doctrine of self-help than five million. Little more need be said
does not mean abandoning the quest for civil
about Garvey's grasp of economics. Garvey
rights. Perhaps Garvey never understood
cannot be blamed for his ignorance in some
this, or perhaps he simply felt that he could
matters, no one man can be expected to know
gain more support for his cause if he avoided
everything. But he can be blamed for his
agitation for equality.
arrogance which would not allow him to make
"WE WERE THE FIRST compromises and call on men of ability, even
FASCISTS"- MARCUS GARVEY if he did not agree with them on all things.
Garvey intended to control even the most
The African regime that Garvey hoped private
to affairs in the lives of black people.
Mulattoes
establish was to be authoritarian, elitist, col- and brown-skinned people were
lectivist, racist, and capitalistic. "Wetowere
think of themselves as monstrosities to be
bred the
the first Fascists," he told J.A. Rogers, out of existence. The race was to be
popular black people's historian, "Mussolini
standardized by inbreeding according to "well
copied Fascism from me, but the Negro understood
reac- and defined codes."48 The ideal

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state was to honor children who reported the economic, and political questions as well. This
criminal acts of their parents.49 If Garvey had was the discovery made by Du Bois and later
come into power, his regime might have been by Malcolm X, who finally ceased using the
very similar to that of Haiti's Duvalier, who term "black nationalism" altogether. We
was also known for a hatred of mulattoes and cannot continue to encourage a silly
communists, and a penchant for using the chitterling-brained escapism which pretends
ideology of blackness. that Harlem is a cultural capitol, while in real-
ity, it is only a desolate, hopeless reservation.
We must avoid the pitfalls into which certain
W.E.B. DU BOIS, MALCOLM X, AND
THE PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL OF black dictators have fallen, of employing the
BLACK NATIONAL-SOCIALISM rhetoric of Negritude while imposing a reign
of terror on the people.
The contribution of Du Bois and Malcolm
My attack on Garveyism is not an attack
X to twentieth century black thought, is the
on black nationalism, I want to make that
awareness that black nationalism must align
clear; it is an attack on the closed-mindedness
itself with the progressive forces of his-
that dominated Garveyist thought and that
tory - freedom, intellectual honesty, toler-
dominates the thinking of many modern-day
ance, and economic reform. To follow in the
black nationalists. Most black nationalists
direction of Garvey is to seek poverty, ignor-
today bewail the existence of factionalism
ance, cruelty, infamy, and ultimate death.
within "The Movement," but few of them
are willing to exercise that spirit of tolerance
and compromise that is necessary if a united FOOTNOTES
black power movement is to come into exis-
1. The idea that there was an eclipse of black natio
tence. I have before me a picture of Malcolm ism from the decline of the Harlem Renaissance to
X that is one of my favorites. It was taken the rise of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X has
been suggested by others. See August Meier, Elliott
on March 26, 1964, and it shows him shaking M. Rudwick, and John H. Bracey, eds., Black
hands with Martin Luther King.50 I like to Nationalism in America, (Indianapolis, 1970), pp. xlvi-
xlvii. The authors of this study do not, however,
pair it off with one of Brother Malcolm's less attribute the decline of black nationalism during the
famous, but more important statements. On thirties, forties and fifties to Garveyism, but rather
to the Great Depression and the war effort. Amiri
January 24, 1965, less than a month before Baraka laments tne swelling of integrationist senti-
his assassination, he warned George Lincoln ment during World War II; see Le Roi Jones, Blues
People y (New York, 1963), pp 177-181. For an example
Rockwell that if his racist agitation caused of Anti-Garvey cynicism, see Roi Ottley, New World
harm to Reverend King, "or any other black A-Coming, (New York, 1943), Chapter VI. For an
intelligent discussion of the influence of Garveyism
Americans," he would be met with "maximum of Pan-Africanism that does not overstate the case,
physical retaliation."51 This was a long way see Jabez Ayodele Langley, "Marcus Garvey and Afri-
can Nationalism" in S. Okechukwu Mezu and Ram
from the spirit of Garveyism. Desai, Black Leaders of the Centuries, (Buflalo, 1970),
185-202.
2. In this essay I have not challenged anything that
Garvey said about himself; however, the reader
JVIodern day black nationalism must be should know that there is some disagreement about
the details of his biography. Garvey's best known
in the spirit of Malcolm X. It must follow autobiographical statement, appropriately titled,
in the tradition of Du Bois, who said in 1919, "The Negro s Greatest Enemy," appeared in Current
History, September, 1923. It was reprinted in Amy
that "To help bear the burden of Africa does Jacques-Garvey, ed. Philosophy and Opinions of Mar-
not mean any lessening of effort in our own cus Garvey, Vol. II. This I supplemented with Amy
Jacques-Garvey, Garvey and Garveyism. Edmund
problem at home."52 It must recognize the David Cronon's sympathetic treatment, Black Moses,
complexity of the problems of black libera- (Madison, Wis. , 1966) was also useful. Two new books
on Garvey have appeared since this study was com-
tion, which will not be solved in a day or pleted: Theodore Vincent, Black Power and the Gar-
in a decade. Black nationalists must recognize vey Movement, (Berkeley, 1972), and Elton C. Fax,
Garvey: The Story of a Pioneer Black Nationalist,
that they are confronted not only with a racial (New York, 1972). All students of Garvey should know
question, but with a vast array of cultural, the chapter on him in William Z. Foster, The Negro

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 People in American History, (New York, 1954), pp. tion," is essentially militant and that Uncle Tom
442-451. stereotyping of black Christians drew negative
3. Garveu and Garveyism, p. 2. Although J.A. Rogers,responses from black intellectuals as early as 1852.
whom black nationalists never tire of quoting, says See William Cooper Nell's praise for Rev. J.B. Smith
that Garvey was born of humble parents and that in Carter G. Woodson, ed., The Mind of the Negro
his father was a breaker of stones on the roadway. as Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis,
See J[oel] A[ugustus] Rogers, Worlds Great Men of 1800-1860, (Washington, 1926), pp. 337-338.
Color, (New York, 1947), 602. Rogers was a friend14. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 84. Du Bois wrote an
of Garvey's from boyhood. He did not become a editorial for The Crisis of May 1924, titled, "A Lunatic
member of the UNIA, and attempted to restrain Gar- or a Traitor," saying, "One of his [Garvey's] former
vey from financial recklessness. Rogers did write for trusted officials, after being put out of the Garvey
Negro World and attended some UNIA meetings. organization, brought the long-concealed cash
4. There are no accurate estimates ot the number ot account of the organization to this office and we pub-
lished
Garvey's followers, nor are there any estimates of it. Within two weeks the man was shot in
the number of people involved in earlier black the back in New Orleans and killed."
15. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 84.
nationalist movements, but it is nonetheless custom-
ary to assume that Garvey had more followers 16. than
W.E.B. Du Bois, An A.B.C, of Color, (Berlin, 1963),
anyone before him. p. 141. Du Bois told the story of an embarrassing
incident on the street in Nashville after which he
5. Walter L. Fleming, Pap Singleton, The Moses ot
the Colored Exodus," American Journal of Sociology,"never knowingly raised [his] hat to a Southern white
woman." See his Darkwater, (New York, 1967), p.
Vol. 15, No. 1, (July, 1909). An often over-looked
6.
aspect of the early migrations is that noted by Herbert
Aptheker in A Documentary History of the 17. Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual,
Negro
(New York, 1967), p. 6.
People in the United States, Vol. II, pp. 713, 715-721.
According to Aptheker, Singleton played only a18. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 315.
minor
role, the real heroes being represented by the 19. Alexander Crummell, Africa and America: Addresses
popul-
ist, Henry Adams. Adams was one of the organizers and Discourses, (Springfield, Mass. , 1891), pp. 87-88.
20. Tournai of Negro History, (January, 1916), 34-41.
of an investigatory committee, functional throughout
the South and Southwest during the 1870's. 21.Their
Philosophy and Opinions, II, 120, 126.
purpose was to investigate living conditions22. Ferris, The African Abroad, Vol. I, 405. Ferris was
among
black people and to petition the federal government Assistant President General of the UNIA and as liter-
ary editor of Negro World his function was to polish
for aid in establishing a colony, either in the territories
of the United States or in Africa. up the writing ofless articulate contributors. See Car-
6. Mozell C. Hill, The All Negro Communities of ter G. Woodson, ed., Works of Francis J. Grimke,
Oklahoma: The Natural History of a Social Move- (Washington, D.C., 1942), Vol. Ill, p. 298. Ferris
ment," Journal of Negro History, Vol. XXXI, No. seems to have been a man of character and integrity.
3, (July, 1946), pp. 254-268. His writing provides us with excellent insights into
7. George B. Tindall, "The Liberian Exodus of 1878," the peculiar variety of racism inflicted upon black
South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. LUI, No. intellectuals. Ferris' offense was being a black man
3, (July, 1952), pp. 133-145. William E. Bittle and and attempting to live the life of the mind in America.
Gilbert Geis, The Longest Way Home: Chief Alfred Men of his type were ridiculed by Tuskeegee and
C. Sams Back to Africa Movement, (Detroit, 1964). jeered at in the popular literature of the era.
Edwin S. Redkey, Black Exodus, (New Haven, 1969). Nevertheless, it is quite an uncommon thing for a
8. If the reader is not accustomed to think of Du Bois
man to triumph, as Ferris did, in the face of such
unfairness. Ferris was well read in literature, history,
as a romantic racialist, I refer him to Vincent Harding, and the social sciences, and earned M.A. degrees
"W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Messianic Vision,"
from Harvard and Yale. Ferris revolted against the
in John Henrik Clarke, et al., eds., Black Titan:
attempts of anyone, black or white, to define the
W.E.B. Du Bois, (Boston, 1970), pp. 52-68, and to terms of his own black consciousness. For more details
Wilson J. Moses, 'The Evolution of Black National-
Socialist Thought: A Study of W. E. B. Du Bois," Black
on Ferris see Rayford Logan, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois:
A Profile, (New York, 1971) pp. 320-321.
Academy Review, (Winter, 1970), pp. 25-45.
23. Ferris, op. cit., Chapter XXIV, Africa, the Dark
9. For example, see Hollis Lynch, "Pan Negro • Continent."
Nationalism in the New World, Before 1862," Boston 24. Du Bois, 'What is Civilization? Áfricas Answer,
University Papers on Africa, Vol. II, African History, in Forum, (February, 1925), also see Darkwater,
Jeflrey Butler, ed., (Boston, 1966), 149-179. Also see (New York, 1920), 166-168.
George Shepperson, "Notes on Negro American 25. See the biographical sketch of Lott Carey in William
Influences on the Emergence of African National- T. Simmons, Men of Mark, (Cleveland, 1887).
ism, "Journal of African History, I, 2, (1960), 294-312. 26. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 38.
There is also an interesting interpretation in Howard 27. Richard Allen, The Life Experience and Gospel
Brotz, Negro Social and Pditical Thought, 1850-1920: Labors . . ., (Philadelphia, 1833), quoted in Benjamin
Representative Texts, (New York, 1966). See the Mays, The Negro's God as Reflected in His Literature,
introduction. (Chapman & Grimes, 1938), pp. 30-40. James T.
10. For details on the life of Blyden, see Hollis R. Lynch, Holly, A Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro
Edward WÜmot Blyden: Pan Negro Patriot, 1832- Race, (New Haven, 1857), Josiah Henson, quoted
1912, (London, 1967). in Benjamin Brawley, Early Negro American Writers,
11. Redkey, 47-72. (Chapel Hill, 1935), pp. 166-167, David Walker, An
12. Redkey, 110-111. Appeal, (Boston, 1828), p. 16, Henry Highland Gar-
13. S.P. Fullinwider, The Mind and Mood of Black nett, An Address to the Slaves of the United States
America: 20th Century Thought, (Homewood, 111., of America, (1848).
1969), comes close to seeing this, but it is a rather 28. A[rthur] C[ornelius] Terry-Thompson, The History
sloppy piece of scholarship, inadequate to its own of the African Orthodox Church, (New York, 1956),
stated purposes, and laden with mistaken ideas. Ful- D. 4.
linwider fails to understand that the "Messianic Tradi- 29. Terry-Thompson, p. 44 ff.

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30. Cronon, pp. 177-183. IL 346.
31. Terry-Thompson, p. 51. 43. Work in progress by the present author.
32. Terry-Thompson, p. 51. 44. Rogers, 602.
33. The Negro Churchman, Vol. V, no. 2, (Feb., 1927) 45. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 74 ff.
p. 2. 46. Ibid. According to Garvey 's own testimony,
34. Gilbert Osofsky, Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, Philosophy and Opinions, II, p. 279, with the excep-
(New York. 1968). o. 14. tions of Bishop McGuire and Lady Henrietta Vinton
35. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 70. Davis, "not one of the elected officers was worth
36. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 106. more than $1200 a year as an office boy or a lackey.
37. Garvev and Garveyism, 100. The men were lazy, incompetent, treacherous, and
38. Philosophy and Opinions, IL 122. visionless." Since not all of diese men were incompe-
39. See his "Atlanta Exposition Address." tent, they were probably not all treacherous and vis-
40. See The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, (Chicago, ionless either. Garvev was, nonetheless, unfortunate
1970Ì. in his selection of Captain Joshua Cockbourne as
41. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 84. maritime advisor, see Cronon, pp. 53-4, and Ottley
42. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 38. This volume of p. 72.
the work includes an advertisement for Earnest 47. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 76.
Sevier Cox's cleverly derogatory work White America48.
. He called Du Bois a monstrosity because of his mixed
As Cronon has noted, in Black Moses, Garvey allowed blood, Philosophy and Opinions, II, 310. Demanded
John Powell of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs to insult an inbreeding, op. cit., II, 86.
audience of black people assembled in Liberty Hall49. Philosophy and Opinions, II, 76.
on October 28, 1925 Ъу saying, "You are not free 50. Photograph in David L. Lewis, King: A Critical Biog-
because the civilization that you are living under is raphy, (New York, 1970).
not your own," which statement the audience was 51 Malcolm X Speaks, (New York, 1965), p. 201.
so benighted as to applaud. Philosophy and Opinions,
52. W.E.B. Du Bois, in TheCrisis, February, 1919.

THEBLACKSCHOLAR
CALENDAR

THE BLACK MASSES - Nov - Dec 1972

THE NEW BLACK BOURGEOISIE - January 1973

PAN-AFRICANISM III - February 1973
BLACK WOMAN'S LIBERATION - March 1973
BLACK DRUGS - April 1973
THE BLACK G.I. - May 1973
THE BLACK CHILD - June 1973

BLACK MEDIA - Summer 1973

THEBLACKSCHOLAR NOV-DBC, 1972 PAGE 49

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