MARCUS GARVEY and his impact on Black America 101 Years Later

By Gloria DULAN-Wilson

HELLO ALL:

 

It's November 2020.  It seems that all the great things that Marcus Garvey did or initiated was in November.  Garvey arrived in the US in November 1916 looking to meet Booker T. Washington, who had died prior their meeting.   In November 1919 he started the UNIA - UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.  

This is an interesting account of the history of the Great Marcus Garvey seen in the lens of the 21st century.  The things thar amaze me are those who had the opportunity to see him first hand, and are alive today to tell  about it, and how they look younger than most of us.  And some of those who were more or less pundits or critics and seemed to look with derision on Garvey.

I also interested because my Grandmother (my Mom's Mom) was a Garveyite - so I grew up seeing pictures of him as a kid, and hearing some of the things they learned.  Additionally, as a senior at Lincoln University in the 60s, it was mandatory that each of us write a Senior Thesis - that had to be well researched, annotated, and then presented and defended in front of our department chairs and professors.  Mine was on Marcus Garvey and W.E.B DuBois (duboys - not dubwah - for those who think he used the French pronunciation).  I spent hours in Lincoln University's Vail Memorial Library pouring over authentic news clippings and articles (this was before the days of Google, microfische, and other archival devices - Lincoln had a fantastic Black reference department and repository), and learned a lot of why the rivalry between the two occurred and was encouraged by whites. 

DuBois was proud of his ersatz French Huguenot heritage.  Carolyn Bond Daye, who at that time was a Harvard, used that to blow smoke up his (derriere) and inflate his ego.  He became the darling of the white racists who were looking for someone to tear Garvey down and besmirch him among the Black Bourgeoisie - and gave him the front page of the New York Times and other white papers who wouldn't ordinarily give Black people the time of day, to do so.  In other words, DuBois was used as the instrument for part of Garvey's undermining.  (my teachers taught me that any time whites give Blacks the headlines in their media, they are up to no good - especially if that headline is used to go up against another Black person).  Vail memorial library used to have tons of copies of DuBois making all kinds of allegations against Garvey; in return the whites were funding the NAACP.  Likewise A Phillip Randolph was getting handsomely paid as well.  I remember reading this and losing all respect for DuBois, who actually ended up having to flee the US in the 60s to move to Africa after they tried to brand him a communist.  He later apologized to Garvey - too damned late - when you think of all the Black people who could have been living a much better life had he had his insight 50 years earlier.

The sabotage of the Black Star Line ships arose, not because Garvey was a megalomaniac -as postured by one of the commentators; but because he did not trust light skinned Blacks.  He felt they were so busy trying to be white they would look for opportunities to lord it over their darker skinned brothers.  For that reason, he surrounded himself with dark skinned Brothers he felt he could trust - ignoring the fact that, like most Black people, they had not had the opportunity to gain the expertise required to be accountants, negotiate with whites (they were totally intimidated because of the recent past history with white abuse of Black people, feared reprisal, and would take what they said at face value, rather than take a chance and dispute or disagree with them).  They were also too embarrassed to confess to Garvey they didn't know what they were doing - so he relied to his detriment on these deeply traumatized brothers to be his emissaries and get things done. 

This documentary does not adequately cover the BACK TO AFRICA MOVEMENT that Garvey spawned, and the fact that nearly 12 million African Americans were ready to go; or the conspiracy between Firestone Rubber and the US to prevent him from having any friendly reception in Africa by lying to the chiefs, telling them that Garvey was bringing millions of niggers to Africa to take over and get rid of the chiefs.  This is one of the reasons why the BACK TO AFRICA MOVEMENT, which was originally greeted with much anticipation, was withdrawn, as African leaders began to believe whites over their own people.

I have often said that if BLACK people had been able to expatriate to Africa in 1919-1923, we would have WAKANDA today.  

So, what am I saying?  Look at the documentary, but take it with a grain of salt - because they are only giving you half the story.  The fat guy with the glasses is particularly aggrivating to me because of his acerbic remarks and demeanor in reference to Garvey.  The look on his face is enough for me to see that he is only relating academically, but not realizing the intrinsic value of what our dear Brother was trying to accomplish.

By the way, for all my LINCOLN UNIVERSITY Alumni, Dr. Sam Anderson, LU 1966, is featured in the documentary speaking on the intrinsic value of Marcus Garvey HAIL ! HAIL !  LINCOLN !!

Garvey definitely did have a big ego.  He was a LEO and it goes with the territory - Also, if you don't support and believe in yourself, you can hardly expect anyone else to do so.  Black in the day, it was that confidence that galvanized millions of Black people.

We really need to study Garvey - not from a jaundiced 21 century standpoint, but from the intrinsic values he stood for that we really need to re-inculcate now - because after over 100 years - WHERE IS OUR GOVERNMENT? WHERE IS OUR EMPIRE, WHERE CAN THE BLACK MAN/WOMAN STAND UP AND BE COUNTED AND RESPECTED IN THE WORLD - IN HIS OWN LAND? 

The crackers made sure that no Black man since Garvey can stand up before Black people and galvanize them in the manner in which he did to make AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS - AT HOME AND ABROAD!

 

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO PICK UP THE MANTLE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN?

This is the link to the Documentary -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75qK3Q_j424

 

PS: GARVEY WAS DEPORTED BACK TO JAMAICA IN NOVEMBER 1927 on a ship leaving from a port in Louisiana.

NOW THAT YOU KNOW

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

 

Gloria DULAN-Wilson

 

REMEMBERING THE OKLAHOMA RUIN OF 1889

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson 

Hello All:

I wrote this post in April 2015

There has been something weighing heavy on my consciousness over the past several days - especially leading up to, and on April 22 - and I just had to deal with it before going forward to other matters.

Most of the US celebrates April 22 as Earth Day - and there are a whole slew of activities that have been invented to reinforce this.  And that's wonderful, well and good.

However, in Oklahoma April 22 has a more ominous meaning:  it was the date of the infamous OKLAHOMA RUIN - known to the meanstream as the Oklahoma Run - the biggest landgrab in the history of the US, where millions of families Black and Indian (Native American to the PCs) were forcibly removed for their homes so that they could be taken over and settled by jealous whites who had already ruined the other land they touched. 

THE OKLAHOMA RUIN OF 1889 - BIGGEST LAND GRAB IN THE HISTORY OF THE US WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE BUSH ERA HOUSING COLLAPSE

It took place in what was then Oklahoma Territory in 1889 - on land that had been set aside for the five civilized tribes - Cherokee, Chocktaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek - who were pushed out of Louisiana, the Carolinas and Georgia onto land that was supposed to be only for them as long as the "grass was green and the waters flowed" - i.e. forever.  

THEY WERE CALLED "CIVILIZED" BECAUSE THEY COULD READ, WRITE, RUN THEIR OWN BUSINESSES

 
And they didn't reach that precious red earth by any easy  means either - after having been forced in the 1830s to relinquish their original lands in the south, they were forced marched to Oklahoma Territory, in the freezing cold - they were given blankets that was supposed to protect them from the harsh winter weather - generally speaking, Indian Nations had the good sense to go south for the winter, and generally were not in that portion of the US when it was bitter cold - they were summering in Florida along the Gulf Coast.  This was President Andrew Jackson's (a/k/a Ol' Hickory) Indian Removal Act.  (by the way the Oklahoma Territory was part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1804 - after Dessalines and L'Oveture kicked Napoleon's butt out of Haiti, they decided they didn't want any part of this hemisphere, so they sold the land to the US - Oklahoma was considered undesirable - so they gave it to the Indians). 

OL' HICKORY NUT ANDREW JACKSON STARTED THE WHOLE THING

Now, being forced through the harsh winter to a place they had never been - being given rations of meat that had sat so long that even in the winter they had begun to decay and develop maggots; and the harshest insult of all was the fact that the blankets the soldiers so "generously" gave them were blankets that had been discarded by the Army because the soldiers that had used them had died of smallpox - which later decimated the Indians as well - wiping out nearly half of the population.

Along with the major members of the Five Civilized Tribes who made that initial trip were Black families who had been held as "slaves" and were being evicted as well.  The reason the word "slaves" is in quotes is because whites had tried to force Indians to maintain slavery in the South the way whites did as a condition for their being able to "relate" to each other.  They basically said that in order to be accepted, Indians had to do like wites - or they would not be considered civilized.  So the Indians had Black "slaves."  They did the work, cooked the food, helped with the crops - and after a period of 6 months to a year married into the tribe - which was the tradition.  There was no real concept of slavery among Native Americans.  If you work that intimately with someone, they were considered family.  The next step was marriage - so the Blacks that accompanied the Indians on the trek across the US were family members. 

The Blacks and Indians who lived in Oklahoma lived charmed lives.  It had been deemed illegal for whites to go into Oklahoma Territory for any reason, unless given express permission from the US Government - so we thrived.  When I say we - I mean there were some of my ancestors among those who made that arduous trek across the US.  My mother's mother was a descendant of the Hornbeaks of Oklahoma - Cherokee and proud!

MY GRANDMOMMY CORNELIA HORNBEAK-GAINES  HER FOREBEARERS MADE THAT HORRIBLE TREK ALONG THE TRAIL OF TEARS

Now moving forward Oklahoma Territory became a "steal away" spot for many slaves along the borders of Missouri, Texas and other slave holding plantations - but whites could not legitimately go in and bring them back.  Additionally, after the Civil War, Oklahoma became a destination for many upscale Black families who wanted to raise their children in a land where there was little to no white interference - even Ida B. Wells Barnett had considered moving there. Frederick Douglass, a hero in Oklahoma, had several schools named after him, and visited Oilahoma frequently.

There were originally 67 All Black Towns in Oklahoma, along with of course wonderful outspread of Indian lands - businesses thrived, farms were bountiful, kids were well educated, women were beautiful, you had Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, African American, and a mix of all that in some form or another - we were absolutely gorgeous - when I look at my Mom Ruby Love and my aunts, I am always reminded of what beautiful creatures Black Indian women and men are - jess sayin'!   

They men on the other hand, in addition to being extraordinarly handsome, were independent, self confident, skilled, intelligent, brave, - did I say handsome (like my dad), and determined.  {In fact, in Jake Simpson's book "STAKING A CLAIM" he tells of how whites wouldn't work with Black Indians because they were too independent, too arrogant, had their own land, and looked down on the white settlers.  Great book, by the way - you should really read it.}

Back to the jealous whites - led by David L. Payne -  they were sitting all over on their barren properties that they had over cultivated, not fertilized, depleted of the nutrients, and being totally pissed that the Black and  Indians had it so good - they began lobbying the President to open up the territory to the whites - their reason?  The Blacks and Indians were living too good.  Never mind that there was a treaty.  Never mind that there hadn't been a problem between them for nearly 40 years  - these greedy s.o.b.s wanted the land - and they wrangled, weedled, bribed, and cajoled until they found a president weak and spineless enough to say yes - and that President was Benjamin Harrison - never heard of him? Small wonder - never amounted to much.  However, he and his henchmen actually had the audacity to name the portions of land that were originally Indian territory "unassigned lands."  Now isn't that a hoot.  Clearly families there were living there - but somehow the whites had deemed it unassigned. 

CREEK FARMERS WHO HAD BEEN PUSHED OFF THEIR LAND

 Payne had been sneaking across the border into Oklahoma Territory scouting out these properties and targeting them for his henchmen.  Altogether 2 million acres of property was taken away from Black and Indian families by whites - when, at 12:00 noon on April 22, 1889, people on horseback, buckboard, carriages, and some on feet, made the mad dash for Indian land.  

CLIPPING FROM LOCAL PAPER ANNOUNCING THE RUIN

The true thieves sneaked over the night before and pretended to participate in the race - and were there to stake their claim on the choicest pieces land ahead of the rush.  They are called "Sooners" for which the football team is named.  Whenever I think of Sooners, I think of thieves. They have the audacity to call David Payne the "father of Oklahoma."  By whose history?  Blacks and Indians have been living and thriving in Oklahoma long before his greed.  The name Oklahoma means LAND OF THE RED PEOPLE!!! Not land of David Payne!!! 

Okay - so now I'm ranting!!  And that's just how I felt when I was 10 years old and found out the real truth about Oklahoma. I was pissed off - I could see my grandmom's people being pushed off their land - my grandmom was later forced to go to missionary school where they cut her hair to make her look less appealing to white men (sickos).  Fortunately, my grandfather (on my mother's side) a FINE BLACK MAN had managed to get 180 acres of land on the Texas/Oklahoma border, long before the run - and he wasn't giving it up to no rednecks no matter what - This is a matter of where stand your ground played out on our side - with a double barrelled sawed off shotgun and a Winchester, my granddaddy, Enoch Gaines, held them off - that land stayed in the family until his passing in 1963 (he lived to be 93).  Needless to say, I'm proud of my granddaddy!

But, I was furious because we used to go to celebrations of the Oklahoma Ruin without any indication of what it really stood for - not that my parents didn't know -  they did - they just didn't want to spoil it for us - they thought we were too young to absorb that kind of information - and at the time, there was no civil rights organization addressing the issues.   It was kind of like telling a kid there is no tooth fairy - Mom felt that we would know the harsh truth about the world soon enough - and she was right - because at the age of 10 I joined the NAACP Youth Council. 

It was quite fortunate, as well that I and most of my peers attended  Black schools (yay for segregation)  - Dunbar Elementary School from Kindergarten through 6th grade, and had all Black teachers who were determined to educate us as though each of us was a part of WEB DuBois' Talented 10th, meant that nothing that affected us as Black people was off the table.  

Thank goodness to Ms. Cannon, 4th Grade, Ms. Mukes 5th grade and my favorite, Mr. Hancock 6th grade - who taught us how to take full notes, do research, write term papers, and to know and  love our history - all of it!

So while everybody is going tra-la-la tripping through the tulips and trying to out green one another, I also want to pay homage to those Indian and Black families that were the true, original early settlers in Oklahoma.  It was a thriving great place to live back then because there was very little crime; no racism - Blacks and Indians intercooperated with each other; high education standards; lots of fun - great cross cultural intra action. 

A BLACK INDIAN FAMILY IN OKLAHOMA (BLACK IN THE DAY)

As Ralph Ellison said, Oklahoma was a wonderful place to grow up until they (the whites) came and messed it all up.

Many people talk endlessly about the incident that happened in Greenville, an All Black community outside of Tulsa.  What they forget to say is that the Blacks of the towns and neighboring communities got together and rebuilt the entire town - and it stayed a thriving town until dis"integration" in the 60s.   You'd think they would have learned a thing or two by then, wouldn't you?  Of the 67 All Black towns, 13 remain and are thriving - one of which is Boley, OK - someone mentioned them on FaceBook the other day. 

I've heard so many folks say they didn't know there were Black people in Oklahoma.  The interesting thing for those of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties in OKC, during the Civil Rights Era, was we didn't know how bad our brothers and sisters had it in other parts of the US.   I think we were kind of naive.  We'd read about it, but never experienced it up front.  In Oklahoma City, we had real neighborhoods, no gangs; very few, if any slums; we were segregated, but we had followed the "separate but equal" route, as enunciated by Booker T. Washington.  Our neighborhoods were as nice, if not nicer than the whites because we kept them that way - not because someone else came in and did it for us!  Our schools, places of business, homes - all of which we owned outright were kept clean and bright, not because someone else came in and gave us some funds; but because we did it together - ourselves.    Does that mean there was no discrimination?  Of course not!  Crackers are crackers - and Oklahoma City had more than its share.  They had signs in the window saying they reserved the right to refuse service to anyone - we just reserved the right to ignore it. 

We didn't let the fact that they stole our land, literally pushed us off of it, dampen our spirits or stop us for doing what we knew how to do - doesn't mean we didn't care or mind - we were out gunned by the federal authorities - but they couldn't out think us.  My dad's granddad built a sod house out of mud until he could come up with something sturdier.  They didn't let the Oklahoma Ruin ruin their dreams of having their own farm - he later was able to get 86 acres from a white farmer who gave up because he didn't know what he was doing to begin with.  (Though I was raised in Oklahoma City, we had several relatives in Boley and would visit there frequently - it never struck me that it being an all Black town was significant back then.  Now it's even more special because they're still here and thriving.)

BLACK FOUNDING FATHERS OF BOLEY OKLAHOMA 125 + YEARS AGO

 We had actively resisted being dictated to by the meanstream rednecks of OKC, designed our own curriculum, which incorporated the teachings and philosophies of Carter G. Woodson, DuBois, E. Franklin Frazier, Lerone Bennett, John Hope Franklin, Langston Hughes, and so many other great Black writers and philosophers.  We had managed to complete our education without one white teacher or administrator in our classroom - giving us pretty much "carte noire" to study them as well as ourselves - what a rich body of knowledge we garnered. 

GLORIA DULAN-WILSON - 12TH GRADE DOUGLASS SR. HIGH SCHOOL, OKC/OK!!  

                                         (PS: This is pre-Afro; I made the dress in Home Economics - lol)

 I must express gratitude to my Moon Junior High and Douglass Senior High School teachers:  Ms Lola B. Greer (Homeroom/ Exelerated Math, Ms. Maleen Lee Gallimore (Gen. Science), Ms. Scobey (English Comp), Mr. Emory (Bio - I learned to dissect frogs and worms), Mr. Rucker (Math), Mr. Buford (Political Science), Mr. Sherman (History),  Mr, Mosley (Trigonometry), Otis Dulan, Jr (yes my cousin - Physics & Chemistry), Ms. Lea Wiley (Great Books), Ms. Daisy Harris Server (Aunt), Clara Luper (civil rights mentor/leader), and a  host of others.   And of course, Mr. Perry - even though I never took a class with him, he was the orchestra and band director, and he was tall, fine and spectacular.  And could that brother march!!!  He was a fantabulous drum major!!

Okay, this is beginning to sound more like a homage to my educators - which is as it should be - because, with few exceptions, they were wonderful - and without whom I, and so many of my classmates who came before me, or were my contemporaries, I would not have this fantastic body of knowledge, or love for education.  I would not have known my history or about Carter G. Woodson, or Sequoiah, or the many things meanstream white historians try to hide or distort. 

CARTER G. WOODSON THE FATHER OF BLACK HISTORY

So, next year, as you look forward to the upcoming Earth Day set on April 22, please give a moment of silence for those whose lives were irrevocably changed in the biggest land grab ever.  Also a moment of silence for the Oklahoma bombing of April 19, which took place 20 years ago in 1995. 

Of course, the Oklahoma City we have now is a mere shadow of its former self - many of my peers, including yours truly, have moved away; many of the Black owned businesses no longer exist - however, the pride is still there.  The sense of community is still there - and we  (at least in my family) still call it the OKLAHOMA RUIN.  Those who were born in my Mom Ruby Love's day and time, and know how much we lost as a result of the invasion are fading fast from among us.  It is up to the generation in front of me to tell the history and keep the facts straight - it's an example of what we were able to accomplish without any help or interference from whites; and how whites deliberately went out of their way to destroy all that had been built or developed as the result of a cooperative coalition between Blacks and Indians - and then held a celebration and named an entire football team in honor of it.  

That said - I'm still extremely proud of being an Oklahoma Kid - I'm from that part of Oklahoma City where people stood for something accomplished great things, stood for and by each other; didn't double deal; backed each other up - and still do - I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything in the world - even the Oklahoma Ruin couldn't take away the spirit that exists among and between us.   As my favorite music teacher, Ms. Evelyn La Rue Pittman used to say, "we have a rich heritage!"   

Now that I've gotten that rant off my chest, I can continue with the other articles for my blog - hope you got something positive out of it.  Wow!! That feels so much better!!!   :)

 

NOW THAT YOU KNOW

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

 

Stay Blessed & 
ECLECTICALLY BLACK 

Gloria DULAN-Wilson

 

 

 











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