Showing posts with label Booker T. Washington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Booker T. Washington. Show all posts

8.16.2016

The Great Marcus Garvey - Stop Honoring Him and Start Imitating Him!!!





By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

Ever since I can remember - as a kid in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - there has always been some reverence, reference and respect for the Great Marcus Garvey - whether it was in my home, the homes of my friends, or in school - especially during "Negro History Week" (which later became Black History Month).  

I remember looking at all the clippings my mom, Ruby Love, my aunts and my Maternal Grandparents had of him - some actual photos of him - and being fascinated by this guy in the ornate hat with all the feathers in the big car.  Not that he was particularly attractive;but there was something magnetic about him with that look of confident superiority on his face. There were pictures of him in huge parades with lots of Black people marching with him or following him.   We had a book at home called the "Afro/Asian Encyclopedia" that that this photo of Garvey (below) in it.  From about the fourth grade, all the way through high school, we did school  plays about him, and the guys had to learn his speeches - of course we didn't know much about his Jamaican accent - in fact, I didn't realize that he had one until I was at Lincoln University,  during my Junior year of college.

The First Picture I remember seeing of Garvey as a kid in Oklahoma City, OK


But Garvey fascinated me because he had so many Black people who were ready to move back to Africa - he had so many Black people who loved him.  People always spoke of him in awe - and some with regret that the move never actually happened.  

However,  I never heard about the "betrayal," and what had happened to destroy his movement until we really began to study him in earnest at Douglass Sr. High School.  I was a sophomore then, and it was a sad, cautionary tale that - to some extent - is still played out throughout the Diaspora - where we still are prone to divide and conquer along the lines of skin color and hair texture (and in Africa, along tribal lines).  

You see, according to our instructors, Garvey had an extreme distrust of lighter skinned Black people, because they had a tendency to consider themselves superior to darker skinned Black people.  He trusted those who were his skin tone or darker - which should have worked.  However, these same individuals had a tendency to see themselves as inferior to light skinned Blacks, and had absolutely no experience in dealing with whites in anything other than a subservient manner.  For that reason, they were afraid to criticize or challenge anything these folks said or did in a forthright, open manner.  Especially with whites, where they still had the subconscious fear of reprisal.  So when they were entrusted to purchase the ships for the Black Star Line (BSL), they not only did not do their due diligence in inspecting the ships for seaworthiness, they were so snowed in by the smiles and deference paid to them by these shady dealers, there were several other legalities they neglected to take care of.  

Fold in the conspiracy to entrap Garvey in any way they could; plus the fact that the US and Goodyear Rubber and Tire (a Liberian based British owned company) was afraid that if knowledgeable Black people from the US repatriated to  Africa, it would spell the end of their hegemony over their rubber and cocoa holdings in Africa.  So they conspired with the American government to stop him.  

When it became apparent that these ships were little more than "Leakin' Lenas", painted up to look brand new,  and were no more sea worthy than a paper sail boat, the concept of charging Garvey with conspiracy to commit mail fraud by selling stock to purchase and equip the ships was cooked up.  


When Garvey was arrested, millions of Black Americans came to his rescue.  There was no way the US government could have held a trial with so many of his followers coming forth to protect him.  So, the Brits and the US conspired to have the trial held in Great Britain - claiming that because he was Jamaican, he was still a British subject.  However, if the mail fraud was against the US government, the trial by right should have been held in the US.  Somehow that little factor did not deter the two conspiratorial governments from extraditing him to England anyway. 

The other factor was that the US government knew that few, if any of Garvey's American followers could afford to travel back and forth between the US and Great Britain to either  serve as witnesses, or to provide financial support for his legal representation.  They knew if they delayed the trial long enough, it would dissipate the enthusiasm.  {By the way, I know that some of my friends in the ministry will not like this, but this was the time the rise in Black gospel music and certain types of  uber-religious, negro ministers  began to take place to redirect our attention from Garvey. SMH}

The other - and perhaps most egregious - tragedy during the Garvey era, was the shameless manner in which the meanstream media pitted Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois against each other.  Garvey was  a 101% unadulterated Black man; DuBois, on the other hand was proud of his so-called French Huguenot, mixed background.  What the white media did was to court DuBois as an "expert" on the Back to Africa movement posited by Garvey, and then gave them the front page of their newspapers to "duke" it out.  The invectives these two great men leveled against each other, to the amusement of the racist white readers, was something that our educators at Douglass Sr. High School taught us to never fall prey to.  


W.E.B. DuBOIS

One of the things I will always remember from Mr. Buford and Mr. Harris was this:  "The minute the white newspapers spend the time and the money vilifying a Black man, that Black man (they said Negro back then folks,but we're Black now) must be doing something right - and the white press is trying to poison our minds against him.  The more bad things they say about him, you can bet he is the one closest to the truth, and they are frightened that if we know it, we will follow him.  No matter what they say, he's the one you're supposed to back up.  The more nice things they have to say about the other one, that's the one you cannot and must not trust."  Never forgot that as long as I've lived - and it's almost always turned out to be the total truth.    

You would have thought DuBois, in all his education, could have figured this out - but noooooo!  He just kept on pontificating.  Then when Garvey was extradited, they dropped his behind like a hot potato. He had served his purpose.  He himself came under scrutiny later for certain leanings towards communism - and later - in the 1960s found himself repatriating to Ghana, the very place for which President Kwame Nkrumah named Black Star Square, after Garvey.  DuBois  made a very late, lame and humble apology to Black Americans - waaaaay too late to do many of us any good.  (I still love and respect DuBois - IJS - we all seem to be prone in one way or the other to whites when they shine us on, SMH).  

Can you imagine how great it would have been if these three men could have synthesized their considerable intelligence, talents, and knowhow - Africa and African Americans would be their own sovereign powers right now - oh well....!!! 

I've heard several people who are contemporary historians say some negative things against the Great Booker T Washington, without realizing that they have been fed a line of guff.  Whites are so afraid that Black folks will follow either Garvey, Washington or both, that they have done a great deal to sully his reputation.  Most forget that Garvey was not only an admirer of Washington's, but learned a great deal from his efforts - from founding Tuskeegee Institute, to developing self-help and self-development protocols; to co-founding 5,000 all Black schools throughout the US by leveraging his friendship with Julius Rosenwald - entrepreneur of the Sears Roebuck company (co-founder of Sears Roebuck was Black, folks).  
BOOKER TALIAFERRO WASHINGTON 


So where do you think we got this concept of calling him an Uncle Tom?  His speech "Separate But Equal" was a classic  strategic speech that many so-called modern contemporaries have distorted and contorted to be used against him; but that is the very speech that inspired Garvey, and caused him to come to America to work with Washington.  He wanted to establish the same program in the US and Jamaica that Washington had espoused.  He was not saying that he wanted integration, or segregation - but that Black people should be rising their own boats instead of trying to climb aboard the same ships that threw them overboard in the first place.  

In reading the autobiography of sister/Soror Ida B. Wells Barnett, which was written during the lifetimes of these three great men, showed the bravery and spirit of Washington, who was the driving force behind the progress of so many African Americans right under the nose of "Jim Crow" repressive and racist laws.  

The Great Journalist/Acitivist/Sister/Soror IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT


My Senior Thesis at Lincoln University was a comparison between these three great men. And they were definitely great Black men from which we can actually forge a synthesis from which to forge our way forward.  Add to them the great Carter G. Woodson - who knew and understood the absolute necessity for knowing our history, loving ourselves, maintaining our creativity and talent, and developing our own economic power and source;  George Washington Carver - the great scientist/inventor, who likewise loved Black people, and constantly and continuously used his imagination, scientific knowhow, and creativity to continually develop thousands of products from the simplest to the most complex - including my favorite, PEANUT BUTTER - to enhance the world; Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. who passed more legislation for Black people in Congress - and whose record has yet to be broken; and our most recent ancestor: DR. SEBI- who defied big Pharma and has come up with cures in real time to so many ailments that he became a threat to their industry and had to flee the country in order to continue healing people.  



I just had to use this quote from Booker T. Washington 
- it's as true 
today as it was 100 years ago.  SMH

As we approach Garvey's Birthday of AUGUST 17, we should begin developing the means by which we not only honor him but emulate him - truly teach what he did by teaching each other, our children and ourselves how to do it.  Tired of the accolades - if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we need to each become imitators of Marcus Garvey.  There are surely curriculum masters in the realm of Black education, who can take the Philosophies and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (the unexpurgated version) and turn it into a text book, work book, training manual from which we can all begin to develop our own paradigm shift.  Garvey didn't have a cell phone, or the movie theatre, and very limited access to the telephone - but he motivated and moved millions of Black people to come together and form businesses, banks, schools, factories, communities, hospitals, and so much more -- WHAT'S OUR EXCUSE - and please don't give me that tired old lie that Black folks can't trust each other or don't work together - because I've seen us in action for something less worthy and we make it happen.

I am a firm believer in the fact that if we did it before, we can do it again, and this time 1000 times better.  We have nothing to lose but the chains around our brains.  UP YOU MIGHT RACE!!!

Stay Blessed & 
ECLECTICALLY BLACK 
Gloria 






Wednesday, August 17, 2016 
5:00PM-7:00PM

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante - 
"A Memorial in Honor of Marcus Garvey"

Dr. Asante is Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Temple University.  He is also President and Senior Fellow of the MKA Institute.

Come join us and celebrate the legacy of Marcus Garvey!

Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies
5535 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19144

BELOW ARE SOME POSTS ON GARVEY THAT ARE ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL - AND I WANT TO THANK MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS FOR SHARING THEM:  

MARCUS GARVEY WAS THE FOUNDER OF 
“Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World”: The Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association

After fighting World War I, ostensibly to defend democracy and the right of self-determination, thousands of African-American soldiers returned home to face intensified discrimination, segregation, and racial violence. Drawing on this frustration, Marcus Garvey attracted thousands of disillusioned black working-class and lower middle-class followers to his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The UNIA, committed to notions of racial purity and separatism, insisted that salvation for African Americans meant building an autonomous, black-led nation in Africa. The Black Star Line, an all-black shipping company chartered by the UNIA, was the movement’s boldest and most important project, and many African Americans bought shares of stock in the company. A 1920 Black Star Line business meeting in Harlem’s Liberty Hall brought together 25,000 UNIA delegates from around the world, and produced an important statement of principles, the “Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World.”

Preamble
Be It Resolved, That the Negro people of the world, through their chosen representatives in convention assembled in Liberty Hall, in the City of New York and United States of America, from August 1 to August 31, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty, protest against the wrongs and injustices they are suffering at the hands of their white brethren, and state what they deem their fair and just rights, as well as the treatment they propose to demand of all men in the future.

We complain:
1. That nowhere in the world, with few exceptions, are black men accorded equal treatment with white men, although in the same situation and circumstances, but, on the contrary, are discriminated against and denied the common rights due to human beings for no other reason than their race and color. 
We are not willingly accepted as guests in the public hotels and inns of the world for no other reason than our race and color.

2. In certain parts of the United States of America our race is denied the right of public trial accorded to other races when accused of crime, but are lynched and burned by mobs, and such brutal and inhuman treatment is even practiced upon our women.

3. That European nations have parcelled out among them and taken possession of nearly all of the continent of Africa, and the natives are compelled to surrender their lands to aliens and are treated in most instances like slaves.

4. In the southern portion of the United States of America, although citizens under the Federal Constitution, and in some States almost equal to the whites in population and are qualified land owners and taxpayers, we are, nevertheless, denied all voice in the making and administration of the laws and are taxed without representation by the State governments, and at the same time compelled to do military service in defense of the country.

5. On the public conveyances and common carriers in the southern portion of the United States we are jim-crowed and compelled to accept separate and inferior accommodations and made to pay the same fare charged for first-class accommodations, and our families are often humiliated and insulted by drunken white men who habitually pass through the jim-crow cars going to the smoking car.

6. The physicians of our race are denied the right to attend their patients while in the public hospitals of the cities and States where they reside in certain parts of the United States.
Our children are forced to attend inferior separate schools for shorter terms than white children, and the public school funds are unequally divided between the white and colored schools.

7. We are discriminated against and denied an equal chance to earn wages for the support of our families, and in many instances are refused admission into labor unions and nearly everywhere are paid smaller wages than white men.

8. In the Civil Service and departmental offices we are everywhere discriminated against and made to feel that to be a black man in Europe, America and the West Indies is equivalent to being an outcast and a leper among the races of men, no matter what the character attainments of the black men may be.

9. In the British and other West Indian islands and colonies Negroes are secretly and cunningly discriminated against and denied those fuller rights of government to which white citizens are appointed, nominated and elected.

10. That our people in those parts are forced to work for lower wages than the average standard of white men and are kept in conditions repugnant to good civilized tastes and customs.

11. That the many acts of injustices against members of our race before the courts of law in the respective islands and colonies are of such nature as to create disgust and disrespect for the white man’s sense of justice.

12. Against all such inhuman, unchristian and uncivilized treatment we here and now emphatically protest, and invoke the condemnation of all mankind.
In order to encourage our race all over the world and to stimulate it to overcome the handicaps and difficulties surrounding it, and to push forward to a higher and grander destiny, we demand and insist on the following


Declaration of Rights:
1. Be it known to all men that whereas all men are created equal and entitled to the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and because of this we, the duly elected representatives of the Negro peoples of the world, invoking the aid of the just and Almighty God, do declare all men, women and children of our blood throughout the world free denizens, and do claim them as free citizens of Africa, the Motherland of all Negroes.

2. That we believe in the supreme authority of our race in all things racial; that all things are created and given to man as a common possession; that there should be an equitable distribution and apportionment of all such things, and in consideration of the fact that as a race we are now deprived of those things that are morally and legally ours, we believed it right that all such things should be acquired and held by whatsoever means possible.

3. That we believe the Negro, like any other race, should be governed by the ethics of civilization, and therefore should not be deprived of any of those rights or privileges common to other human beings.

4. We declare that Negroes, wheresoever they form a community among themselves should be given the right to elect their own representatives to represent them in Legislatures, courts of law, or such institutions as may exercise control over that particular community.

5. We assert that the Negro is entitled to even-handed justice before all courts of law and equity in whatever country he may be found, and when this is denied him on account of his race or color such denial is an insult to the race as a whole and should be resented by the entire body of Negroes.

6. We declare it unfair and prejudicial to the rights of Negroes in communities where they exist in considerable numbers to be tried by a judge and jury composed entirely of an alien race, but in all such cases members of our race are entitled to representation on the jury.

7. We believe that any law or practice that tends to deprive any African of his land or the privileges of free citizenship within his country is unjust and immoral, and no native should respect any such law or practice.

8. We declare taxation without representation unjust and tyran[n]ous, and there should be no obligation on the part of the Negro to obey the levy of a tax by any law-making body from which he is excluded and denied representation on account of his race and color.

9. We believe that any law especially directed against the Negro to his detriment and singling him out because of his race or color is unfair and immoral, and should not be respected.

10. We believe all men entitled to common human respect and that our race should in no way tolerate any insults that may be interpreted to mean disrespect to our race or color.

11. We deprecate the use of the term “nigger” as applied to Negroes, and demand that the word “Negro” be written with a capital “N.” (WE CAN AMEND THAT TO READ "BLACK" WITH A CAPITAL "B")

12. We believe that the Negro should adopt every means to protect himself against barbarous practices inflicted upon him because of color.

13. We believe in the freedom of Africa for the Negro people of the world, and by the principle of Europe for the Europeans and Asia for the Asiatics, we also demand Africa for the Africans at home and abroad.

14. We believe in the inherent right of the Negro to possess himself of Africa and that his possession of same shall not be regarded as an infringement of any claim or purchase made by any race or nation.

15. We strongly condemn the cupidity of those nations of the world who, by open aggression or secret schemes, have seized the territories and inexhaustible natural wealth of Africa, and we place on record our most solemn determination to reclaim the treasures and possession of the vast continent of our forefathers.

16. We believe all men should live in peace one with the other, but when races and nations provoke the ire of other races and nations by attempting to infringe upon their rights[,] war becomes inevitable, and the attempt in any way to free one’s self or protect one’s rights or heritage becomes justifiable.

17. Whereas the lynching, by burning, hanging or any other means, of human beings is a barbarous practice and a shame and disgrace to civilization, we therefore declare any country guilty of such atrocities outside the pale of civilization.

18. We protest against the atrocious crime of whipping, flogging and overworking of the native tribes of Africa and Negroes everywhere. These are methods that should be abolished and all means should be taken to prevent a continuance of such brutal practices.

19. We protest against the atrocious practice of shaving the heads of Africans, especially of African women or individuals of Negro blood, when placed in prison as a punishment for crime by an alien race.

10. We protest against segregated districts, separate public conveyances, industrial discrimination, lynchings and limitations of political privileges of any Negro citizen in any part of the world on account of race, color or creed, and will exert our full influence and power against all such.

21. We protest against any punishment inflicted upon a Negro with severity, as against lighter punishment inflicted upon another of an alien race for like offense, as an act of prejudice and injustice, and should be resented by the entire race.

22. We protest against the system of education in any country where Negroes are denied the same privileges and advantages as other races.

23. We declare it inhuman and unfair to boycott Negroes from industries and labor in any part of the world.

24. We believe in the doctrine of the freedom of the press, and we therefore emphatically protest against the suppression of Negro newspapers and periodicals in various parts of the world, and call upon Negroes everywhere to employ all available means to prevent such suppression.

25. We further demand free speech universally for all men.

26. We hereby protest against the publication of scandalous and inflammatory articles by an alien press tending to create racial strife and the exhibition of picture films showing the Negro as a cannibal.

27. We believe in the self-determination of all peoples.

28. We declare for the freedom of religious worship.

29. With the help of Almighty God we declare ourselves the sworn protectors of the honor and virtue of our women and children, and pledge our lives for their protection and defense everywhere and under all circumstances from wrongs and outrages.

30. We demand the right of an unlimited and unprejudiced education for ourselves and our posterity forever[.]

31. We declare that the teaching in any school by alien teachers to our boys and girls, that the alien race is superior to the Negro race, is an insult to the Negro people of the world.

32. Where Negroes form a part of the citizenry of any country, and pass the civil service examination of such country, we declare them entitled to the same consideration as other citizens as to appointments in such civil service.

33. We vigorously protest against the increasingly unfair and unjust treatment accorded Negro travelers on land and sea by the agents and employee of railroad and steamship companies, and insist that for equal fare we receive equal privileges with travelers of other races.

34. We declare it unjust for any country, State or nation to enact laws tending to hinder and obstruct the free immigration of Negroes on account of their race and color.

35. That the right of the Negro to travel unmolested throughout the world be not abridged by any person or persons, and all Negroes are called upon to give aid to a fellow Negro when thus molested.

36. We declare that all Negroes are entitled to the same right to travel over the world as other men. 

37. We hereby demand that the governments of the world recognize our leader and his representatives chosen by the race to look after the welfare of our people under such governments.

38. We demand complete control of our social institutions without interference by any alien race or races.

39. That the colors, Red, Black and Green, be the colors of the Negro race.

40. Resolved, That the anthem “Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our Fathers etc.,” shall be the anthem of the Negro race. . . .

41. We believe that any limited liberty which deprives one of the complete rights and prerogatives of full citizenship is but a modified form of slavery.

42. We declare it an injustice to our people and a serious Impediment to the health of the race to deny to competent licensed Negro physicians the right to practice in the public hospitals of the communities in which they reside, for no other reason than their race and color.

43. We call upon the various government[s] of the world to accept and acknowledge Negro representatives who shall be sent to the said governments to represent the general welfare of the Negro peoples of the world.

44. We deplore and protest against the practice of confining juvenile prisoners in prisons with adults, and we recommend that such youthful prisoners be taught gainful trades under human[e] supervision.

45. Be it further resolved, That we as a race of people declare the League of Nations null and void as far as the Negro is concerned, in that it seeks to deprive Negroes of their liberty.

46. We demand of all men to do unto us as we would do unto them, in the name of justice; and we cheerfully accord to all men all the rights we claim herein for ourselves.

47. We declare that no Negro shall engage himself in battle for an alien race without first obtaining the consent of the leader of the Negro people of the world, except in a matter of national self-defense.

48. We protest against the practice of drafting Negroes and sending them to war with alien forces without proper training, and demand in all cases that Negro soldiers be given the same training as the aliens.

49. We demand that instructions given Negro children in schools include the subject of “Negro History,” to their benefit.

50. We demand a free and unfettered commercial intercourse with all the Negro people of the world.

51. We declare for the absolute freedom of the seas for all peoples.

52. We demand that our duly accredited representatives be given proper recognition in all leagues, conferences, conventions or courts of international arbitration wherever human rights are discussed.

53. We proclaim the 31st day of August of each year to be an international holiday to be observed by all Negroes.

54. We want all men to know that we shall maintain and contend for the freedom and equality of every man, woman and child of our race, with our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

These rights we believe to be justly ours and proper for the protection of the Negro race at large, and because of this belief we, on behalf of the four hundred million Negroes of the world, do pledge herein the sacred blood of the race in defense, and we hereby subscribe our names as a guarantee of the truthfulness and faithfulness hereof, in the presence of Almighty God, on this 13th day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty.

Source: UNIA Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, New York, August 13, 1920. Reprinted in Robert Hill, ed., The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Papers, vol. 2 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1983), 571–580.
See Also:Robert Bagnall on "The Madness of Marcus Garvey"
"The Collapse of the Only Thing in the Garvey Movement Which Was Original or Promising": Du Bois on Garvey
"The Black Star Line": Singing a Song of Garveyism
"If You Believe the Negro Has a Soul": "Back to Africa" with Marcus Garvey
POSTED BY :   Flenoy Withers III
 THE FOLLOWING WAS POSTED ON FACEBOOK, AND CAN BE FOUND IN WIKIPEDIA 

"Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life."
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was born August 17, 1887. He was an African-American Black Nationalist leader, who was a proponent of the "Back to Africa" movement in the United States.
Early Life
Garvey was the youngest of 11 children from Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica. He left school at the age of 14 to serve as a printer's apprentice. A few years later, he took a job at a printing company in Kingston, where in 1907 he led a printers' strike for higher wages. Garvey then traveled to South America and Central America. In 1912, he went to England, where he became interested in African history and culture. He returned to Jamaica in 1914 and shortly thereafter founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities League. In 1916 he moved to the United States and settled in New York City. There he incorporated the UNIA and started a weekly newspaper, the Negro World.
His Work
A persuasive orator and author, Garvey urged American Blacks to be proud of their race and preached their return to their ancestral homeland, Africa. To this end, he founded the Black Star Line in 1919 to provide steamship transportation, and the Negro Factories Corporation to encourage black economic independence. Marcus Garvey attracted thousands of supporters and claimed two million members for the UNIA. He suffered a series of economic disasters, however, and in 1922 he was arrested for mail fraud. Garvey served as his own defense attorney at his trial, was convicted, and went to prison in 1925.
His Trial
When the trial ended on 23 June 1923, Garvey had been sentenced to five years in prison. Garvey blamed Jewish jurors and a Jewish federal judge, Julian Mack, for his conviction. He felt they had been biased because of their political objections to his meeting with the acting imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan the year before. In 1928, Garvey told a journalist: "When they wanted to get me they had a Jewish judge try me, and a Jewish prosecutor. I would have been freed but two Jews on the jury held out against me ten hours and succeeded in convicting me, whereupon the Jewish judge gave me the maximum penalty."
In 1928, Garvey travelled to Geneva to present the Petition of the Negro Race. This petition outlined the worldwide abuse of Africans to the League of Nations. In September 1929, he founded the People's Political Party (PPP), Jamaica's first modern political party, which focused on workers' rights, education, and aid to the poor. Also in 1929, Garvey was elected councilor for the Allman Town Division of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). However, he lost his seat because of having to serve a prison sentence for contempt of court. But, in 1930, Garvey was re-elected, unopposed, along with two other PPP candidates.
In April 1931, Garvey launched the Edelweiss Amusement Company. He set the company up to help artists earn their livelihood from their craft. Several Jamaican entertainers — Kidd Harold, Ernest Cupidon, Bim & Bam, and Ranny Williams — went on to become popular after receiving initial exposure that the company gave them. In 1935, Garvey left Jamaica for London. He lived and worked in London until his death in 1940. During these last five years, Garvey remained active and in touch with events in war-torn Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia) and in the West Indies. In 1937, he wrote the poem Ras Nasibu Of Ogaden. in honor of Ethiopian Army Commander (Ras) Nasibu Emmanual. In 1938, he gave evidence before the West Indian Royal Commission on conditions there. Also in 1938 he set up the School of African Philosophy in Toronto to train UNIA leaders. He continued to work on the magazine The Black Man.
His sentence was commuted two years later, but he was immediately deported to Jamaica. Unable to resurrect the UNIA or regain his influence, Marcus Garvey moved to London, where he died in 1940.
His Influence
Schools, colleges, highways, and buildings in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States have been named in his honor. The UNIA red, black, and green flag has been adopted as the Black Liberation Flag. Since 1980, Garvey's bust has been housed in the Organization of American States' Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.
Malcolm X's parents, Earl and Louise Little, met at a UNIA convention in Montreal. Earl was the president of the UNIA division in Omaha, Nebraska and sold the Negro World newspaper, for which Louise covered UNIA activities.
Kwame Nkrumah named the national shipping line of Ghana the Black Star Line in honor of Garvey and the UNIA. Nkrumah also named the national soccer team the Black Stars as well. The black star at the center of Ghana's flag is also inspired by the Black Star.
During a trip to Jamaica, Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King visited the shrine of Marcus Garvey on 20 June 1965 and laid a wreath. In a speech he told the audience that Garvey "was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody."
Dr. King was a posthumous recipient of the first Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights on 10 December 1968 issued by the Jamaican Government and presented to King's widow. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Marcus Garvey on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Source: Wikipedia

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NOTE:  ONE OF THE WONDERFUL THINGS THAT GARVEY DID WAS HELP BLACK TRADESMEN START AND RUN THEIR OWN BLACK OWNED FACTORIES AND MANUFACTURING PLANTS.  

THE CITATION BELOW IS FROM WIKIPEDIA - JUST HOW HE WAS ABLE TO DO SO WAS NOT DETAILED IN THE CITATION; HOWEVER, IT MAY BE SOMETHING THAT OUR SO-CALLED MODERN DAY TECHIES CAN DISCERN AND BEGIN TO DEVELOP IN REAL TIME - THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF FACTORIES STANDING IDLE ON THE RUST BELT OF THE EAST COAST - WHERE THE JOBS MANUFACTURING HAS BEEN SHIPPED OVER SEAS BY GREEDY BUSINESS MEN - TIME TO BRING THEM BACK HOME.  THIS WAS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA HAD AS PART OF HIS AGENDA - TIME TO GET THE JOB DONE.

Negro Factories Corporation was one of the ventures of Marcus Garvey's UNIA-ACL, a black nationalist and pan-Africanist organization.[1] The Negro Factories Corporation sought to, "build and operate factories in the big industrial centers of the United States, Central America, the West Indies and Africa to manufacture every marketable commodity."[2] A chain of grocery stores, a restaurant, a steam laundry, a tailor and dressmaking shop, a millinery store and a publishing house, were also started.[2]


BOOK:
  1.  "Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement ... - E. David Cronon - Google Books". Books.google.com. 1960-03-15. Retrieved 2013-11-19.


NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?


Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK - Gloria 
eclecticallyblacknews@gmail.com 

8.20.2015

Julian Bond Makes his transition to Ancestor/Angel, Leaving a Legacy for Us to Carry On

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:


It's taken me a few days to deal with the passing of Julian Bond.  What a great brother!  What a great Black Man!  What a Fine Black Man!  What a legend!  Julian definitely was a chip off the old Bond block, many would say.

SUAVE AS EVER, THE LATE GREAT JULIAN BOND AT THE NAACP 106TH NATIONAL CONVENTION JULY 2015

Julian Bond discussing the newly published book: BLACK LEADERS ON LEADERSHIP

He definitely had his dad's DNA for activism, leadership; making a critical difference in the world was his mantra.  And what a difference he made.  

I guess it would be easy to look up his record in Google - but I'm going to ask that you also check him out among the many Black writers and activists who had the honor and pleasure of working with this great Black man - and not get your history third hand.

Julian Bond and Gloria Dulan-Wilson at NAACP 106 Convention in Philadelphia, PA July 2015

There's far to much about Julian Bond of a personal and personable nature to be captured in an internet piece - or via a remote obituary.  There are people who worked side by side with this great brother who "could tell you stories about how he" stood up to racists, oppression, rumor, insinuation - and faced life threatening situations head on.  

By the time I actually met the great Julian Bond in the flesh, he was already a legend among the Black Power and Civil Rights Activists.  Of course, it didn't hurt that he was exceptionally handsome, articulate, knowledgeable, and charismatic.  It was all part of his legend, and charm.

But the fact that he was down to earth, cordial, generous, courageous - the stuff that heroes are made of, those are things that, if you're lucky and blessed, you have to experience for yourself.  And thanks be to God, I was blessed to do so.

I had peeked at Julian Bond at NAACP rallies, but didn't dare to get any closer than that.  He was a celebrity, surrounded by folks who hang with celebrities.  He was on an important mission, so I, who was still wet behind the ears, didn't have enough of significance to contribute to a conversation with him.

It wasn't until I had graduated from Lincoln University, where his Dad, the great Horace Mann Bond, had once been president; and was Director of Student Activities at City University of NY, that I actually first met Julian.  He was taping an interview with Ellis Haislip on WNET Chanel 13 - the first in a series of Black History programs.  I had found out he was taping, and had been invited by friend/producer, Marlayna Franklin, to "sit quietly and watch."  Which I did.  But I also brought my daughter, Kira, who at the time was two years old, so she could be exposed to Black History in the making.  And she was dutifully quiet as well.

After the taping, I got to shake his hand, tell him how much I admired him - I must have babbled on like a teenager - but this was my hero, Julian Bond - in the flesh!!!  (By the way, if I forgot to say it, "Thank you Marlayna!" I am forever grateful).  He couldn't help but notice that Kira had been there the entire time, but had not disrupted the taping, and complimented her for being so smart.  (Kira never remembers this, though I've told this story a million times).  He picked her up and gave her a hug.  As we were leaving the studios to head back to Harlem, he offered us a ride in the car that had been hired to pick him up, and dropped us off at my apartment on Morningside Ave., and 122nd Street.  

We talked about Black history, and it was then that he told me that he had been a Lincoln brat; that his nickname was "Stinky," and that he used to get into all kinds of fracas on the campus.  He expressed the fact that Lincoln would always be his home, even though his Dad moved to another university.  He complimented me on being one of the first coeds - and asked how I liked being surrounded by all those men.   The year was 1968.  I had graduated from Lincoln University in 1967. 

It was a memorable conversation - at least to me.  I don't know how much of it he retained, considering the full life he's led since then.  

My second encounter was while serving as counselor of the SEEK Program at Brooklyn College, in 1971.  Julian had been invited to speak at Brooklyn College, however, not by the African American students of the SEEK program, but by the administration - which happened to have been hostile to the Black students on the campus.  An issue of which I sure he was unaware.  They were trying to feign solidarity without actually practicing it.  In fact, none of the SEEK students were invited to hear him speak.  So I politely brought about 30 of them into the auditorium.  The administration could not eject them in front of Bond, so they let them stay.  After his speech, when they thought they were going to surround him, I managed to let it be known that I was in the audience, and he invited me to join them at the reception.  Of course they were none too pleased - especially since I rode in the limo with Julian, instead of taking a taxi and meeting them there.  I don't think they ever forgave me.  Oh well!

Those are the two stories upon which I hinge my friendship and reverence for Julian Bond.  Of course, from that point on, he rose in the ranks of the NAACP, and in the hearts and minds of millions of Black people world wide.  We ran in concentric circles.  There was always a warm greeting, and once in a while, an opportunity to catch up on events and issues.

When the NAACP celebrated it's 100th Anniversary in New York City, he engaged me in a conversation about how remarkable it was to be here to see this come to pass.  He looked younger than ever, and was as energetic as he had been Black in the day.  He was concerned, as always, about the participation of the youth in the future of the organization.  I was dazzled by the fact that he remembered me; as much as I was by the fact that he was still so vibrant and active.  



Our most recent, and last, encounter was just a scant 30 days ago at the NAACP's 106th  Convention, in Philadelphia, PA.  I was so happy to see him - and, as always, he was energetic, debonair, handsome.  I mentioned that we had known each other off and on for nearly fifty years, but I had never had a photo taken with him.  I was always taking photos of him.  He actually asked about my daughter - you could have knocked me over with a feather that he even remembered I had a daughter.  I responded that she was well, happily married with two handsome sons, living in Virginia.  I also told him she remembered nothing of his picking her up - but then, she was only two at the time.  

I mentioned that the Alumni Association of Lincoln University was considering a crowd fundraiser to renovate the Bond house and dedicate it as a welcome center in the name of his father, Horace Mann Bond.  He was so enthusiastic he asked me to keep him in the loop about the progress.  

His wife graciously took several shots of us together.  And since I didn't look any better than the first shot, and he was looking more and more youthful, I thanked her for being so gracious.  He invited me to a workshop he was holding at the exhibit hall, and a video that was being shown later that evening on Julius Rosenwald.  Of course I said "yes" to both, and then politely left him to his fan club that was beginning to line up behind me.   

Julian had participated in an impromptu panel discussion in the exhibit hall during the NAACP convention with two other panelists - most convention goers weren't even aware it was taking place.  It was so information rich, it should have been presented to a much wider audience; however it was a privilege to have been invited and involved.

The following is an excerpt from the last time I had the privilege of covering the great Julian Bond - it took place at the NAACP 106th National Convention, in Philadelphia, PA July 12, 2015 - 5:30PM:

Frankie Darcel of WDAS-FM hosted the event,  which featured two authors, Jean Love Kush, who wrote "ENDAGERED;" and Erick Boyle, Esq, who wrote "HOW TO DEAL WITH THE POLICE: A BLACK MAN'S SURVIVAL GUIDE," along with Julian and Phyllis Loeffler, who co-wrote a book entitled, "BLACKS IN LEADERSHIP."  And I'm sad to say that I didn't get an autographed copy.   

Phyllis Loeffler and Julian Bond were co-directors of a 15 year project at the University of Virginia, where they invited distinguished African American leaders to the University; conducted video taped aural interviews with them, and the book, BLACK LEADERS ON LEADERSHIP is a compilation of the 51 interviews.  

Julian stated, "The book really tells how these people became the people they are.  I know you've often seen some one that you admire, some figure that you think is great, someone you'd like to emulate; and you wonder how did this person - Johnny or Mary, or Susie or Frank, how did they get to be the person they are.  Well, we had the rare chance that few people have, to make these people sit down before a camera and answer our question: "HOW DID YOU BECOME THE PERSON THAT YOU ARE TODAY?"  And many of them opened up.  Many of them told things about themselves I think they probably wouldn't have told in other circumstances.  If you buy the book, you get a chance through electronic technology to find the things that they told us, to find out how they became the person they are," he concluded.  

On the subject of Black Lives Matter, Frankie Darcel asked, if they matter so much, why don't they matter to Black people.  To which Julian responded, "This was brought up yesterday, the issue of Black on Black crime in America; if we're killing ourselves, what right do we have to complain about other people killing us.  And I think she's absolutely right - that this is a condition that we need to take a hold of.  And I don't think we do as much about it as we ought to do, or could do; because we certainly -- I was reading about a person who was part of the gun lobby - she was a Black female.  But I was surprised to learn about it - when we actually need to have hundreds and hundreds lobbying to get guns out of our community.  Why am I surprised that she's doing it?  And I'm not sure I have an answer to that."

In response to the use of the "N" word a as an indication of systemic self hatred on the part of Blacks, and whether or not education and parental training would modify that behavior, Julian responded:  "It seems to me that what we're really talking about is individual responsibility for behavior.  And if we don't adopt some individual responsibility for behavior and the language - but the behavior primarily; I don't think we're going to get anyplace.  We're not going to progress."

Frankie Darcel really voiced what so many of us felt, when she stated in reference to Julian:  "And clearly, with the contributions that have lived a lifetime, and that have led the fight for all of us to be here, even today, thank you for being with us today, we applaud you for all of your commitments, leadership, civil rights, and what you've given us not only professionally, but what you've given us personally as well, please welcome, as he gives his closing comments, NAACP Chairman Emeritus, Mr. Julian Bond.  Please give him a warm welcome to be here.  Just the legacy of what you have accomplished - Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!  And our children's children's children thank you!"

Julian responded, "There are a couple of things I want to say.  I want to repeat what Phyllis said, that she has produced, and that I created, the interviews that are in the book; she created a guide that anyone can read, and find out what Joe, what Sue, what Sally, what Frank, what Billy - people whose names re more familiar than these, and find out why these people succeeded the way they did.  And there may be some models you can follow yourself; maybe some things you can learn yourself, how others behave, and how you can do the same.  I want to mention something to you that really may not seem to have much interest to people who are talking about how Black lives matter - tomorrow night, in this building, at 8:00PM, in the Convention  Center, in room 108, there will be a movie shown, called ROSENWALD.   How many of you know who Julius Rosenwald was?  (of course yours truly was one of six who raised her hand - that's because I posted an article on him in my blog in 2014).  How many of you know that Julius Rosenwald built 5,320 schools for Black children?  If you don't want to find out why a white man (actually he was Jewish) would build 5,000 schools for Black children, don't come to the movie.  I know you want to know now; you want to learn about it now, you're curious; so tomorrow night, eight o'clock, room 108 A & B; come see the movie.  You'll be crying, you'll be laughing; you'll have a good time."  

Subsequent to the panel, I spoke with Julian and informed him that I had done an article on Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald - and, on his request, sent him a personalized copy of the Blog Post.  

The absolute last time I saw him was at the screening of ROSENWALD.  He thanked me for the post, and for coming to review the video.  And I, of course, thanked him for continuing to be the great man and the guiding light he's always been.  Of course you know I got my parting hugs.

I would say rest well Julian, but this is a brother who is as tireless with the ancestors as he was with us, and he's probably coordinating things with his fellow Ancestor/Angels even as we speak.

My condolences to his wife Pamela, his brother James "Zeke" Bond, and his sister Jane, and his children; as well as to all who had the pleasure and privilege of serving and working with him through his illustrious career as a leader, activist, educator.  





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