Garvey, Marcus Mosiah

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, in 1887, one in a large family of children. His parents, by one account, were direct descendants of Africans some of whom, on his father’s side, had escaped slavery and successfully defended their freedom against British and Spanish efforts to recapture them. It is speculated that this important bit of family history played a quite significant role in the development of Garvey’s racial identity and his passionate commitments to the independence and self-determination of African peoples.

It seems clear now that early in his life Garvey stood out as a precocious young man who was an avid reader, quick thinker, and quite capable in public-speaking abilities. After a period of apprenticeship, he began to practice in the printing trade (1904) and, in 1907, participated in an unsuccessful printers’ strike followed by travels leading to work on a plantation in Costa Rica and on newspapers in Panama. In these contexts in particular,...