Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican political activist who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. He promoted unity among African peoples and advocated for racial pride and separation between black and white peoples. He is best known for his philosophy of Pan-Africanism and Black nationalism which inspired many independence movements during the mid-20th century. Some of his writings included in this document promote themes of empowerment, faith in oneself, racial pride, and the importance of motherhood. A brief biography provides details on Garvey's life experiences, organizing efforts, and the rise and decline of the UNIA during the 1920s before his imprisonment and deportation from the United States.

1. Page 1 of 9
RBG Communiversity

2. Page 2 of 9
Get Up And Go!
Please clear the way and let me pass,
If you intend to give up here:
It seems a shame that you should yield
Your life without its fullest share.
You are a coward for your pains,
To come this way, and then blow out:
Real men are made of stuff to last,
Which they, themselves, would never doubt.
Get up! You broken bits of flesh!
Take courage and go fighting on;
For every black man there's a day,
Which pride in race has well begun.
Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

3. Page 3 of 9
Music In My Soul
There's music in my soul today,
A joy of heart not there before:
This state of conscience I relay
To rich and proud and meek and poor.
There's music in my happy Soul:
From Heaven's realm doth truly flow
This music in my happy Soul,
My conscience tells me riglitly so.
My song of joy I sing to you:
Let peace and love forever be
Among ye men of every hue,
Of every land and charted sea.
I crave no other fortune great,
But joy to live in peace with God;
My hopes are fixed on His Estate,
In faith so true as prophets had.
This music in my soul today
I spread in truth with love unfurled;
On waves of cheer it goes, I pray,
To reach around the belted world.
Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

4. Page 4 of 9
The Black Mother
Where can I find love that never changes
Smiles that are true and always just the same,
Caring not how the fierce tempest rages,
Willing ever to shield my honored name?
This I find at home, only with Mother,
Who cares for me with patient tenderness;
She from every human pain would rather
Save me, and drink the dregs of bitterness.
If on life's way I happen to flounder,
My true thoughts should be of Mother dear,
She is the rock that ne'er rifts asunder,
The cry of her child, be it far or near.
This is love wonderful beyond compare;
It is God's choicest gift to mortal man;
You, who know Mother, in this thought must share,
For, she, of all, is Angel of your Clan.
My Mother is black, loveliest of all;
Yes, she is as pure as the new made morn;
Her song of glee is a clear rythmic call
To these arms of love to which I was born.
I shall never forget you, sweet Mother,
Where'er in life I may happen to roam;
Thou shalt always be the Fairy Charmer
To turn my dearest thoughts to things at home.
Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

5. Page 5 of 9
Have Faith In Self
Today I made myself in life anew,
By going to that royal fount of truth,
And searching for the secret of the few
Whose goal in life and aim is joy forsooth.
I found at last the friend and counsellor
That taught me all that I in life should know;
It is the soul, the sovereign chancellor,
The guide and keeper of the good you sow.
I am advised-"Go ye, have faith in self,
And seek once more the guide that lives in you"
Much better than the world of sordid pelf,
Alas! I found the counsel to be true.
Aha! I know right now that I shall see
The good in life, and be a better man;
I will by thought and deed pull all to me,
In saving others, yea, every one.
Go down and search yourself awhile in part,
And tell me all of what vou see and hear;
Isn't there something pulling at your heart?
Tell me the truth and have ye then no fear!
There is a voice that speaks to man, within,
It is the Soul that longs for you to know
There is no need for you to grope in sin,
For you in truth and light may ever grow.
Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

6. Page 6 of 9
The Rise Of The Negro
To rise and demonstrate en masse
Is way to make the oppressor think,
And so the Negro in his Class,
Sends forth his message to the King.
The King, a symbol of the State,
Sends forth his men to find what's wrong,
And back comes word of awful fate
On which the lives of men do hang.
The State assumes its task at last,
And makes an effort to amend
The wrongs that reigned throughout the past
By giving heed, though laws defend.
Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

7. Page 7 of 9
Some Biography
Born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, Marcus
Garvey was the youngest of 11 children. Garvey moved to
Kingston at the age of 14, found work in a printshop, and became
acquainted with the abysmal living conditions of the laboring
class. He quickly involved himself in social reform, participating
in the first Printers' Union strike in Jamaica in 1907 and in setting
up the newspaper The Watchman. Leaving the island to earn
money to finance his projects, he visited Central and South
America, amassing evidence that black people everywhere were
victims of discrimination. He visited the Panama Canal Zone and
saw the conditions under which the West Indians lived and
worked. He went to Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and
Venezuala. Everywhere, blacks were experiencing great
hardships.
Garvey returned to Jamaica distressed at the situation in Central
America, and appealed to Jamaica's colonial government to help
improve the plight of West Indian workers in Central America.
His appeal fell on deaf ears. Garvey also began to lay the
groundwork of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, to
which he was to devote his life. Undaunted by lack of enthusiasm
for his plans, Garvey left for England in 1912 in search of
additional financial backing. While there, he met a Sudanese-
Egyptian journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali. While working for
Ali's publication African Times and Oriental Review, Garvey
began to study the history of Africa, particularly, the exploitation
of black peoples by colonial powers. He read Booker T.
Washington's Up From Slavery, which advocated black self-help.
In 1914 Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement
Association and its coordinating body, the African Communities
League. In 1920 the organization held its first convention in New
York. The convention opened with a parade down Harlem's Lenox
Avenue. That evening, before a crowd of 25,000, Garvey outlined
his plan to build an African nation-state. In New York City his
ideas attracted popular support, and thousands enrolled in the
UNIA. He began publishing the newspaper The Negro World and
toured the United States preaching black nationalism to popular
audiences. His efforts were successful, and soon, the association
boasted over 1,100 branches in more than 40 countries. Most of
these branches were located in the United States, which had
become the UNIA's base of operations. There were, however,
offices in several Caribbean countries, Cuba having the most.

8. Page 8 of 9
Branches also existed in places such as Panama, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Namibia and
South Africa. He also launched some ambitious business ventures,
notably the Black Star Shipping Line.
In the years following the organization's first convention, the
UNIA began to decline in popularity. With the Black Star Line in
serious financial difficulties, Garvey promoted two new business
organizations - the African Communities League and the Negro
Factories Corporation. He also tried to salvage his colonization
scheme by sending a delegation to appeal to the League of Nations
for transfer to the UNIA of the African colonies taken from
Germany during World War I.
Financial betrayal by trusted aides and a host of legal
entanglements (based on charges that he had used the U.S. mail to
defraud prospective investors) eventually led to Garvey's
imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for a five-year term.
In 1927 his half-served sentence was commuted, and he was
deported to Jamaica by order of President Calvin Coolidge.
Garvey then turned his energies to Jamaican politics, campaigning
on a platform of self-government, minimum wage laws, and land
and judicial reform. He was soundly defeated at the polls,
however, because most of his followers did not have the necessary
voting qualifications.
In 1935 Garvey left for England where, in near obscurity, he died
on June 10, 1940, in a cottage in West Kensington.
Source: http://www.afropoets.net/marcusgarvey.html
For additional Honorable Marcus Garvey
resource see RBG Communiversity on SlideShare and /or
RBG Blakademics on Scribd
Audio/mp3 Downloads: RBG BHM 2012 Special Education
Video: RBG BLAKADEMICS TV

9. Page 9 of 9