[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E561-E563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY

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HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

of new york

in the house of representatives

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to enter into the record an
article by Michael

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D. Roberts published on February 27, 2007 in the Carib News, entitled:
The Political Contributions of a Great Son of the Caribbean, Polemics
of Garvey's Ideology Garveyism Is Black Action-Oriented and Just as
Applicable, Today--An Analysis. The article reminds us of Marcus Mosiah
Garvey's ideals of Black nationalism, the need to relinquish what he
referred to as mental slavery and the importance of Black pride.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a pioneer and is credited with creating the
biggest movement of people of African descent. In the 1920's, he
founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African
Communities League (UNIA-ACL), an international self-help organization
with the goal of working for the general uplift of people of African
ancestry. At its zenith, the UNIA had over a million members. This
movement is said to have had more participation from people of African
descent than the Civil Rights Movement, making it the largest Pan-
African movement ever.
For the last several years I have sought to clear the name of Marcus
Mosiah Garvey, which was tarnished by an unjust prosecution and
conviction by the United States Government. I introduced H. Con. Res.
24, Expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should
grant a pardon to Marcus Mosiah Garvey to clear his name and affirm his
innocence of crimes for which he was unjustly prosecuted and convicted.
Marcus Garvey once exhorted, ``Up you mighty race, accomplish what
you will.'' I have always believed that every Black child should know
these words, and from whom they came. By passing this legislation we
will be giving a gift to all people and acknowledge Garvey's teachings.
I urge my colleagues to recognize the contributions of Marcus Mosiah
Garvey and support H. Con. Res. 24.

The Political Contributions of a Great Son of the Caribbean Polemics of
Garvey's Ideology Garveyism Is ``Black Action-Oriented'' and Just as
Applicable Today--an Analysis

(By Michael D. Roberts)

For Marcus Mosiah Garvey, his ministry was clear--the
complete, total and never-ending redemption of the continent
of Africa by the people of African ancestry at home and
abroad. This was his strategic aim and objective. His ``Back
to Africa'' and ``Black is Beautiful'' were consciousness
building tools that hold relevance today though some scholars
will argue that the time for literally ``going back to
Africa'' has long gone.
But there is another school of thought that is relevant
today and that is that ``Back to Africa'' does not simply
mean hopping onto a plane and visiting Africa. It means
learning about Africa, embracing her culture and identifying
with African history. That is something that Blacks in the
Diaspora must do if, as the late great reggae superstar Bob
Marley says they must, ``liberate themselves from mental
slavery.''
I contend that an ideology is, at its most fundamental
stage, simply a collection of ideas. The word ideology was
coined by Count Destutt de Tracy in the late 18th century to
define a ``science of ideas.'' Thus, an ideology can be
thought of as a comprehensive vision; as a way of looking at
things in common sense with several philosophical tendencies.
Ideologies therefore differ depending on socio-economic and
political nuances and class relations in a society and the
dominance (or lack of it) by one class over another (dominant
ideology).
And while I'm at it let me try and define Garveyism so that
this analysis can take on the significance that such an
ideology deserves and exposes its essential lessons for 2007
and beyond. To more learned scholars on the subject and
definition experts I readily admit my shortcomings but will
try within the confines of this definition to set the stage
for my discourse on Garveyism.
The ideology of Garveyism is that detachment of Black
Nationalism which takes its core values and source from the
works, words and actions of The Universal Negro Improvement
Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) and
their founder Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
The basic tenet of Garveyism is its laser-like focus on the
complete, total and neverending redemption of the continent
of Africa by people of African ancestry, at home and abroad.
It is rooted in one basic idea: ``whatsoever things common to
man that man has done, man can do''. Therefore, according to
Garveyism, Africans in the Diaspora must have an
uncompromising and unwavering commitment to the universal
improvement of the Black race since its redemption will
restore Mother Africa to her former greatness.
But how did this potent mix of Black Nationalism, Pan-
Africanism, and African patriotism become so enmeshed in this
Black Liberation ideology that today is paid little attention
by Black leaders in America and the Caribbean who believe
that rabblerousing and posturing are the tools to advance the
Black race? Let us revisit history for these answers.
In 1916 Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) brought his
budding Black Nationalist organization, the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) to Harlem. He had formed this
organization two years before, in 1914, just as the big guns
were booming and wholesale slaughter was taking place during
the barbarism of the First World War in Europe.
UNIA itself was born out of Garvey's experience with
racism, discrimination, and injustice both in his homeland
Jamaica, and in other parts of the world where he traveled,
and where Blacks were always at the bottom rung of the
social, political and economic ladder. But Garveyism, as
his philosophy and principles are now known, remains
today, in 2007, an ideology largely underutilized and to
some extent shunned by those who would lead Blacks to
their promised land--wherever that may be. Nonetheless,
Garveyism is a most powerful weapon and preaches a Black
revolutionary path to achieving Black liberation.
Firstly Garveyism sees the Black problem as having to do
with the cultural, economic and psychological degeneration of
the Black race by centuries of slavery and racial
stereotyping. Garvey himself believed that Blacks lacked
knowledge and pride in their African ancestry and therefore
were easy prey to the ravages and machinations of white
racism.
This philosophy gained immense popularity in the early
twenties when Garveyism was the most popular form of Pan-
Africanism (a movement of union and recognition of cultural
similarity and commonality of interests of all of the
countries of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora) among
Caribbean-Americans and African-Americans. It was an ideology
which would find wide acceptance among Black leaders in
Africa waging anti-colonialist struggles for independence and
freedom.
But central to the teachings of Garveyism is the issue of
race. Marcus Garvey felt that the Black man (and woman) was
universally oppressed at the hands of the white power
structure and that any program of emancipation would have to
be developed around the question of race first. By
establishing a clear perspective on the racial question
Garveyism outlined a comprehensive program of political,
social, and economic action aimed at the total liberation of
the Black race.
So that in 1916, the same year that he brought the UNIA to
Harlem, Garvey convened the First Black Parliament which had
an international flavor. In an historical context the
principles outlined by Garvey and which form the basis of
Garveyism today set the guidelines for all succeeding Pan-
Africanist organizations all over the world and throughout
the Black Diaspora.
Garveyism's cultural principles
Garvey used the UNIA newspaper ``The Negro World'' to
combat the negative propaganda of white supremacist groups
who held that the Black man was biologically inferior and
therefore should be happy to remain enslaved. He waged a
constant campaign against all forms of racism from whatever
quarter they came--white or Black.
Garvey debunked the commonly held white myth about Black
people being visited with a biblical Hamitic curse telling
Blacks that their history was one of greatness, achievement
and pride. UNIA (motto: `One God! One Aim! One Destiny!') and
the ``Negro World'' sponsored Black beauty contests and
published photographs of Black women, Garvey called them
``Black Queens of Beauty,'' and numerous cultural programs
aimed at uplifting the Black race and developing racial
consciousness.
To the critics who assailed Garvey over the fact that he
was placing too much emphasis on the issue of Blackness and
race, saying that his focus should have been on the broader
problem of humanity, Garvey, in his typical blunt fashion,
argued that it was not humanity which was being ``lynched,
burned, Jim Crowed and segregated'' but Black people.
So deep was the issue of race to Garvey that he has left us
with a major statement on the primacy of race in all things.
This is how he put it:
``In a world of wolves one should go armed, and one of the
most powerful defensive weapons within the reach of Negroes
is the practice of race first in all parts of the world.'' It
is a lesson which modern-day Black leaders would do well to
revisit.
Garveyism's economic program
Garveyism places economic emphasis on the development of
Black-owned businesses. That is because although Garvey
believed that the racial consciousness of Black people was
of paramount importance, he also understood that without
economic power Blacks would still be the targets of
exploitation, oppression and discrimination. Garveyism has
left a practical approach to the issue of Black economics
which is more than applicable in today's troubled times of
economic scarcity and uncertainty.
Marcus Garvey was not just an excellent orator. He was a
Pan-Africanist revolutionary who believed in positive action.
The Black Star lines (an international commercial and
passenger steamship line), the African Commercial league and
African Factories Corporation (formed in 1922) were economic
organizations developed by Garvey aimed at the economic
liberation of the Black race.
And although many reactionary scholars pushing a
Eurocentric line have tried to ridicule the idea of the Black
Star Line, the powerful example of a great visionary can
never be smeared. Garvey understood the importance of
international trade and Black self-reliance. It was this
self-reliance which led him and his followers to form Black-

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owned laundries, Black-owned restaurants, and Black-owned
grocery stores. Garvey encouraged Blacks to buy from Black
businesses and even went so far as to have Black factories
manufacture Black dolls for Black children.
Undoubtedly these principles of Garveyism should be dusted
off by the leaders of Black America and the Caribbean today
and used as a guide to positive action in these days when the
Black Diaspora is coming under attack and the gains of past
years are being threatened with erosion.
Garveyism's education program
Garvey stressed the importance of education beginning from
the position that white educational values had completely
contaminated the Black mind. In this Garvey was right. For
one of the first and most lasting forms of slavery, is in
fact ``mental slavery.'' Garvey saw that it was fundamentally
important to re-educate the Black race using Black history
and African heritage as the building blocks. To this end
Garvey formed the Liberty University, a vocational training
school in Virginia which was modeled after Washington's
Tuskegee Institute. This school was part of a wider program
of ongoing education which the UNIA launched to combat the
years of white conditioning of Black minds.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a giant of his time. No Black
leader has so completely dominated the Black liberation
struggle since his ministry. The sad thing is that the
ideology and philosophy which bear his name is not used as a
major tool today by present day Black leaders. But history is
full of the successes of Garveyism.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party of South
Africa began as a Garveyite organization and many of its
guiding principles today have been developed using the tenets
of Garveyism. Malcolm X's father was a Garveyite who was
killed by the Ku Klux Klan and the famous African and Ghanian
anti-colonialist and pro-independence leader Kwame Nkrumah
was also a Garveyite. They understood the necessity to ``go
armed in a world of wolves.''
Today, Garvey's contribution to Black history stands out as
a monumental work of sacrifice and dedication. It is a pity
that as the Black Diaspora suffers at the hands of
international reaction in the form of white supremacists here
in the United States and neo-Nazi skinheads in Europe. Black
leaders are still failing to go armed among the wolves.
For the world of wolves have become much more
sophisticated, but the same problems which confronted Garvey
more than half a century ago, still plague the Black
community and race today.
The wolves have become more sophisticated, more organized,
and have traded in their white hoods, masks and sheets for
Armani business suits.

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