'Back to Africa': Marcus Garvey (1887 - 1940)

Garvey was a Jamaican-born black nationalist who created a 'Back to Africa' movement in the United States. He became an inspirational figure for later civil rights activist

• Marcus Garvey. 
• Born in St Ann's Bay, Jamaica on 17 August 1887, the youngest of 11 children. 
• At the age of 14 he left school and became a printer's apprentice where he led a strike for higher wages. 
• The first voice to clearly demand Black Power, ("A race without authority and power is a race without respect.")
• He returned to Jamaica in 1914 and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). See Garveyism.
• Created Black skinned dolls.
• Garvey founded the Black Star Line, to provide transportation to Africa.
• Founded the Negro Factories Corporation to encourage black economic independence. 
• In 1922, Garvey was arrested for mail fraud in connection with the sale of stock in the Black Star Line and sent to prison and  deported to Jamaica. 
• Died on 10 June 1940, in 1964, his body was returned to Jamaica where he was declared the country's first national hero.

*Read about Marcus.