Fact Sheet on Marcus Garvey

Full Name:

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr.

Parents:

• Malcus ("Marcus") Mosiah Garvey, a mason
• Sarah Jane Richards, a domestic servant and produce grower

Born:

17 August 1887, at St. Ann's Bay, north coast of Jamaica

Died:

10 June 1940, London, England

Buried:

Marcus Garvey Memorial, National Heroes' Park, Kingston, Jamaica

Citizenship:

• British colonial subject
• applied for American citizenship in 1921

Education:

• Standard 6, Church of England school, Jamaica
• audited courses, Birkbeck College, London, 1914

Employment:

• printer
• journalist
• publisher

Marriages:

• Amy Ashwood (1897--1969), co-founder of the UNIA in Jamaica, journalist, feminist, playwright, business manager of UNIA offices in Harlem, 1919 (married to Garvey 1919--1922)
  
  
• Amy Jacques (1896--1973), legal assistant in Jamaica before migrating to U.S., where she became business manager and personal secretary to Garvey in 1920, associate editor of the Negro World 1924--1927, and Garvey's unofficial representative during his incarceration in 1925--1927, becomes main propagandist of the Garvey movement with Philosophy and Opinions, published in 2 volumes, 1923, 1925 (married to Garvey 1922--1940)

Children:

• Marcus Garvey Jr. (1931--)
• Julius Winston Garvey (1933--)
  
  both by Amy Jacques; both born in Jamaica, now U.S. residents

Countries of residence:

• Jamaica, 1887--1910
• Panama, 1910
• Costa Rica, 1911
• Jamaica, 1912
• England, 1912--1914
• Jamaica, 1914--1916
• United States, 1916--1927
• Jamaica, 1927--1935
• United Kingdom, 1935--1940

Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Career:

• founds UNIA in Jamaica, July 1914
• forms branch in New York City, May 1916 (January 1918?)
• incorporates movement in New York state, June 1918
• starts Negro World newspaper, August 1918
• starts Black Star Line shipping company, 1919
• starts Negro Factories Corp., 1920
• announces Liberian Colonization Plan, 1920
• sends first delegation to Monrovia, Liberia, 1921
• makes organizational tour of Caribbean and Central America, 1921
• arrested and indicted on Mail Fraud Charges, 1922
• meets with Acting Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, causing backlash of opposition from other black leaders, 1922
• second UNIA delegation sent to Liberia, 1923
• starts Black Cross Navigation and Trading Co. to replace defunct Black Star Line;
• UNIA purchases Smallwood-Corey School ("Liberty University") in Claremont, Virginia
• tours Europe, 1928
• becomes proprietor of Edelweiss Park, a social center for blacks in Kingston
• tries to establish political career in Jamaica
• begins publishing the Blackman, 1929
• begins publishing the New Jamaican
• begins publishing the Black Man, 1933
• bankrupt, announces move to London, 1934
• teaches School of African Philosophy to UNIA leaders in Toronto, 1937
• cerebral hemorrhage, January 1940
• dies 10 June 1940
• James Stewart elected UNIA president, August 1940
• headquarters of UNIA moved to Cleveland, Ohio

Mail Fraud Trial:

• Begins May 1923
• convicted June 1923
• appeal denied February 1925

Imprisonment:

February 1925--November 1927, federal penitentiary, Atlanta, Georgia

Deportation:

December 1927

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Introduction ] [ Marcus Garvey and the UNIA ] [ Fact Sheet on Marcus Garvey ] [ American Series ]