[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 101 (Friday, July 22, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                MARCUS GARVEY--KEEPING HIS LEGACY ALIVE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 22, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to draw attention to the life and 
legacy of a towering figure in the struggle for global human rights. 
Marcus Garvey is now widely viewed as one of the most crucial figures 
in the modern history of peoples of African descent, and is considered 
a national hero in his native Jamaica. The movement he started with the 
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) during the early 1900's 
is still the largest that the modern Black world has ever seen. During 
a bleak and oppressive period, he gave Black people in this country and 
around the world a pride in themselves and a hope for the future.
  His efforts were a major impetus in the later movements that ended 
legalized discrimination in this country, and freed many parts of the 
Black World from the shackles of colonization. Indeed, his life and 
philosophy were embraced by influential leaders of the 20th century 
such as Kwame Nkrumah, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
  Marcus Garvey has been an inspiration to me since I was a child. I 
was born, raised, and still live in Harlem, where Garvey established 
the Headquarters for the Universal Negro Improvement Association. 
Though I was born three years after Garvey was deported from the United 
States, his imprint on Harlem was still deep throughout my childhood 
and adolescence. I often met followers of Garvey's movement, known as 
Garveyites, who would preach his philosophy. Their words encouraged me 
to do my own research. As I grew older, I came to fully understand the 
importance of Garvey--both the man and his message--, and the injustice 
of his wrongful conviction.
  Despite his future impact, he lived in an early 20th century America 
that was very resistant to change. Many became threatened by the size 
and implications of his movement, and he soon became the target of 
significant government harassment, led by a young J. Edgar Hoover.
  Hoover became determined to rid the country of Garvey and his 
message. After many failed attempts to impugn his reputation and his 
motives, he ultimately became the victim of an unjust prosecution and 
conviction by the United States government in 1923, on a single count 
of mail fraud. So great was the outcry regarding the suspect nature of 
the conviction that President Calvin Coolidge would commute his 
sentence in 1927.

  The actions of J. Edgar Hoover in his capacity as FBI Director are 
well documented, and have been the source of much public objection. 
Indeed, we now know of the efforts he made to undermine and discredit 
Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.
  Outside the issue of J. Edgar Hoover however, the case of Mr. Garvey 
highlights a regrettable period in American history--when groups and 
individuals inexcusably used the American legal system to assail 
innocent people, especially African Americans. Many, like Garvey, who 
had achieved great fame and success, were victims of such malevolence.
  Jack Johnson, the famous African American Boxer, is one example. His 
wrongful prosecution and conviction, which occurred little more than a 
decade before that of Marcus Garvey's, has elicited a bi-partisan 
effort in the Congress to bring about his exoneration.
  Since 1987 I have sought to clear the name of Marcus Garvey by 
seeking Congressional recognition of the injustice done to him, and 
securing a Presidential pardon of his conviction. I have continued this 
effort in 109th Congress with H. Con. Res. 57, and have received the 
most support for the effort since I first introduced legislation nearly 
20 years ago.
  The case of Henry O. Flipper gives me optimism as I move forward with 
the current Garvey effort. Flipper was West Point's first Black 
graduate, and the Army's first black officer. But he was also the 
victim of an unjust, and racially motivated court-martial. President 
Clinton's 1999 exoneration of Mr. Flipper has cleared the way for other 
such posthumous Presidential pardons.
  In addition, I am also heartened by the fact that individuals and 
groups in the U.S. and around the world continue to ensure that the 
deeds and legacy of Marcus Garvey is preserved for future generations. 
UNIA, the organization which Marcus Garvey established nearly 100 years 
ago still exists today, and continues Marcus Garvey's message of self 
improvement and self awareness, through various education and service 
programs around the country. The organization will actually be having a 
91st anniversary celebration here in Washington, DC on July 30th, which 
will serve to further illuminate the life and message of this important 
man.
  Other groups and organizations, such as the Connecticut-based 
International Foundation for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey, have 
been active in spreading awareness of Marcus Garvey's wrongful 
conviction, and building support for the exoneration effort. I thank 
all of them for everything they continue to do to seek justice for 
Marcus Garvey and keep him alive in our hearts and minds.
  Marcus Garvey once asserted that, ``Action, self-reliance, the vision 
of self and the future, have been the only means by which the oppressed 
have seen and realized the light of their own freedom.'' This message 
transcends any race or group; it is a universal human American ideal. 
It is why the world must never forget Marcus Garvey.

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