Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. was the famous proponent of the Black Nationalism in the United States and Jamaica. He was also a leader of the great movement called the Pan-Africanism and proudly founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). He was a big inspiration to the nation of Islam and the famous Rastafarian movement.

Garvey was a social activist and was born on August 17, 1887, in St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. He was the 11^th child of his parents. Where his father used to work as a stonemason and his mother was in domestic services. His father very much inspired Garvey due to his strong support for good knowledge and education. Garvey was a self-taught child. He used to love reading and always dreamt for proper education.

At the age of 14, Garvey got an apprenticeship in a printing press. In 1903, he got the opportunity to travel to Jamaica and soon after that involved himself in different union activities. Few of the events in his life boosted him towards political activism. Later, he traveled throughout the entire Central America writing about migrant workers and also working as a newspaper editor. This journey was not enough, so he traveled to London to work for the African Times and Orient Review, that supported the Pan- Africanism movement.

With lots of social activities going on, Marcus Garvey took another initiative in Jamaica and founded the United Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A) in 1912. The goal of the association was to unite all the African diaspora and establish a country with absolute governance. His work went on smoothly with the involvement of other Black social giants who also worked for the betterment of Africans in America and outside of it. In 1922, Garvey along with three other officials of the U.N.I.A was charged with a mail fraud with the involvement of the Black Star Line. It was the accounting records of the shipping company that had some fishy data. Sadly, on June 23, 1923, Garvey was found guilty and was sent to prison for five years.

Time passed by and after his release from prison, he got busy in his usual social activities, especially working for U.N.I.A in Jamaica. In 1940, Marcus Garvey died in London due to several strokes. His body was interred in London due to travel ban during World War II. His work is still remembered in Jamaica and many parts of Central America. He did something beneficial for all the Blacks around the around and glorified himself even after death.

Source Article:

https://www.biography.com/people/marcus-garvey-9307319