Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1887 and migrated, as a young man, to New York, where he became intrigued with the idea of creating a separate, economically independent black society, either within American society or in Africa. He opposed the presence of European powers in Africa and took issue with African American reformers who believed that blacks could attain their civil rights and gain economic power in an integrated American society. Garvey's separatist views led to clashes with African American civil rights leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois. During the early 1920s, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and several business ventures—the Black Star Line (a shipping company) and the New Factories Corporation (an organization that promoted black-owned businesses)—to achieve his goals. In 1923, he was indicted and convicted of mail fraud...