[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 45 (Thursday, March 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E561-E563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 15, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to enter into the record an 
article by Michael

[[Page E562]]

D. Roberts published on February 27, 2007 in the Carib News, entitled: 
The Political Contributions of a Great Son of the Caribbean, Polemics 
of Garvey's Ideology Garveyism Is Black Action-Oriented and Just as 
Applicable, Today--An Analysis. The article reminds us of Marcus Mosiah 
Garvey's ideals of Black nationalism, the need to relinquish what he 
referred to as mental slavery and the importance of Black pride.
  Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a pioneer and is credited with creating the 
biggest movement of people of African descent. In the 1920's, he 
founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African 
Communities League (UNIA-ACL), an international self-help organization 
with the goal of working for the general uplift of people of African 
ancestry. At its zenith, the UNIA had over a million members. This 
movement is said to have had more participation from people of African 
descent than the Civil Rights Movement, making it the largest Pan-
African movement ever.
  For the last several years I have sought to clear the name of Marcus 
Mosiah Garvey, which was tarnished by an unjust prosecution and 
conviction by the United States Government. I introduced H. Con. Res. 
24, Expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should 
grant a pardon to Marcus Mosiah Garvey to clear his name and affirm his 
innocence of crimes for which he was unjustly prosecuted and convicted.
  Marcus Garvey once exhorted, ``Up you mighty race, accomplish what 
you will.'' I have always believed that every Black child should know 
these words, and from whom they came. By passing this legislation we 
will be giving a gift to all people and acknowledge Garvey's teachings.
  I urge my colleagues to recognize the contributions of Marcus Mosiah 
Garvey and support H. Con. Res. 24.

The Political Contributions of a Great Son of the Caribbean Polemics of 
 Garvey's Ideology Garveyism Is ``Black Action-Oriented'' and Just as 
                     Applicable Today--an Analysis

                        (By Michael D. Roberts)

       For Marcus Mosiah Garvey, his ministry was clear--the 
     complete, total and never-ending redemption of the continent 
     of Africa by the people of African ancestry at home and 
     abroad. This was his strategic aim and objective. His ``Back 
     to Africa'' and ``Black is Beautiful'' were consciousness 
     building tools that hold relevance today though some scholars 
     will argue that the time for literally ``going back to 
     Africa'' has long gone.
       But there is another school of thought that is relevant 
     today and that is that ``Back to Africa'' does not simply 
     mean hopping onto a plane and visiting Africa. It means 
     learning about Africa, embracing her culture and identifying 
     with African history. That is something that Blacks in the 
     Diaspora must do if, as the late great reggae superstar Bob 
     Marley says they must, ``liberate themselves from mental 
     slavery.''
       I contend that an ideology is, at its most fundamental 
     stage, simply a collection of ideas. The word ideology was 
     coined by Count Destutt de Tracy in the late 18th century to 
     define a ``science of ideas.'' Thus, an ideology can be 
     thought of as a comprehensive vision; as a way of looking at 
     things in common sense with several philosophical tendencies. 
     Ideologies therefore differ depending on socio-economic and 
     political nuances and class relations in a society and the 
     dominance (or lack of it) by one class over another (dominant 
     ideology).
       And while I'm at it let me try and define Garveyism so that 
     this analysis can take on the significance that such an 
     ideology deserves and exposes its essential lessons for 2007 
     and beyond. To more learned scholars on the subject and 
     definition experts I readily admit my shortcomings but will 
     try within the confines of this definition to set the stage 
     for my discourse on Garveyism.
       The ideology of Garveyism is that detachment of Black 
     Nationalism which takes its core values and source from the 
     works, words and actions of The Universal Negro Improvement 
     Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) and 
     their founder Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
       The basic tenet of Garveyism is its laser-like focus on the 
     complete, total and neverending redemption of the continent 
     of Africa by people of African ancestry, at home and abroad. 
     It is rooted in one basic idea: ``whatsoever things common to 
     man that man has done, man can do''. Therefore, according to 
     Garveyism, Africans in the Diaspora must have an 
     uncompromising and unwavering commitment to the universal 
     improvement of the Black race since its redemption will 
     restore Mother Africa to her former greatness.
       But how did this potent mix of Black Nationalism, Pan-
     Africanism, and African patriotism become so enmeshed in this 
     Black Liberation ideology that today is paid little attention 
     by Black leaders in America and the Caribbean who believe 
     that rabblerousing and posturing are the tools to advance the 
     Black race? Let us revisit history for these answers.
       In 1916 Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) brought his 
     budding Black Nationalist organization, the Universal Negro 
     Improvement Association (UNIA) to Harlem. He had formed this 
     organization two years before, in 1914, just as the big guns 
     were booming and wholesale slaughter was taking place during 
     the barbarism of the First World War in Europe.
       UNIA itself was born out of Garvey's experience with 
     racism, discrimination, and injustice both in his homeland 
     Jamaica, and in other parts of the world where he traveled, 
     and where Blacks were always at the bottom rung of the 
     social, political and economic ladder. But Garveyism, as 
     his philosophy and principles are now known, remains 
     today, in 2007, an ideology largely underutilized and to 
     some extent shunned by those who would lead Blacks to 
     their promised land--wherever that may be. Nonetheless, 
     Garveyism is a most powerful weapon and preaches a Black 
     revolutionary path to achieving Black liberation.
       Firstly Garveyism sees the Black problem as having to do 
     with the cultural, economic and psychological degeneration of 
     the Black race by centuries of slavery and racial 
     stereotyping. Garvey himself believed that Blacks lacked 
     knowledge and pride in their African ancestry and therefore 
     were easy prey to the ravages and machinations of white 
     racism.
       This philosophy gained immense popularity in the early 
     twenties when Garveyism was the most popular form of Pan-
     Africanism (a movement of union and recognition of cultural 
     similarity and commonality of interests of all of the 
     countries of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora) among 
     Caribbean-Americans and African-Americans. It was an ideology 
     which would find wide acceptance among Black leaders in 
     Africa waging anti-colonialist struggles for independence and 
     freedom.
       But central to the teachings of Garveyism is the issue of 
     race. Marcus Garvey felt that the Black man (and woman) was 
     universally oppressed at the hands of the white power 
     structure and that any program of emancipation would have to 
     be developed around the question of race first. By 
     establishing a clear perspective on the racial question 
     Garveyism outlined a comprehensive program of political, 
     social, and economic action aimed at the total liberation of 
     the Black race.
       So that in 1916, the same year that he brought the UNIA to 
     Harlem, Garvey convened the First Black Parliament which had 
     an international flavor. In an historical context the 
     principles outlined by Garvey and which form the basis of 
     Garveyism today set the guidelines for all succeeding Pan-
     Africanist organizations all over the world and throughout 
     the Black Diaspora.
     Garveyism's cultural principles
       Garvey used the UNIA newspaper ``The Negro World'' to 
     combat the negative propaganda of white supremacist groups 
     who held that the Black man was biologically inferior and 
     therefore should be happy to remain enslaved. He waged a 
     constant campaign against all forms of racism from whatever 
     quarter they came--white or Black.
       Garvey debunked the commonly held white myth about Black 
     people being visited with a biblical Hamitic curse telling 
     Blacks that their history was one of greatness, achievement 
     and pride. UNIA (motto: `One God! One Aim! One Destiny!') and 
     the ``Negro World'' sponsored Black beauty contests and 
     published photographs of Black women, Garvey called them 
     ``Black Queens of Beauty,'' and numerous cultural programs 
     aimed at uplifting the Black race and developing racial 
     consciousness.
       To the critics who assailed Garvey over the fact that he 
     was placing too much emphasis on the issue of Blackness and 
     race, saying that his focus should have been on the broader 
     problem of humanity, Garvey, in his typical blunt fashion, 
     argued that it was not humanity which was being ``lynched, 
     burned, Jim Crowed and segregated'' but Black people.
       So deep was the issue of race to Garvey that he has left us 
     with a major statement on the primacy of race in all things. 
     This is how he put it:
       ``In a world of wolves one should go armed, and one of the 
     most powerful defensive weapons within the reach of Negroes 
     is the practice of race first in all parts of the world.'' It 
     is a lesson which modern-day Black leaders would do well to 
     revisit.
     Garveyism's economic program
       Garveyism places economic emphasis on the development of 
     Black-owned businesses. That is because although Garvey 
     believed that the racial consciousness of Black people was 
     of paramount importance, he also understood that without 
     economic power Blacks would still be the targets of 
     exploitation, oppression and discrimination. Garveyism has 
     left a practical approach to the issue of Black economics 
     which is more than applicable in today's troubled times of 
     economic scarcity and uncertainty.
       Marcus Garvey was not just an excellent orator. He was a 
     Pan-Africanist revolutionary who believed in positive action. 
     The Black Star lines (an international commercial and 
     passenger steamship line), the African Commercial league and 
     African Factories Corporation (formed in 1922) were economic 
     organizations developed by Garvey aimed at the economic 
     liberation of the Black race.
       And although many reactionary scholars pushing a 
     Eurocentric line have tried to ridicule the idea of the Black 
     Star Line, the powerful example of a great visionary can 
     never be smeared. Garvey understood the importance of 
     international trade and Black self-reliance. It was this 
     self-reliance which led him and his followers to form Black-

[[Page E563]]

     owned laundries, Black-owned restaurants, and Black-owned 
     grocery stores. Garvey encouraged Blacks to buy from Black 
     businesses and even went so far as to have Black factories 
     manufacture Black dolls for Black children.
       Undoubtedly these principles of Garveyism should be dusted 
     off by the leaders of Black America and the Caribbean today 
     and used as a guide to positive action in these days when the 
     Black Diaspora is coming under attack and the gains of past 
     years are being threatened with erosion.
     Garveyism's education program
       Garvey stressed the importance of education beginning from 
     the position that white educational values had completely 
     contaminated the Black mind. In this Garvey was right. For 
     one of the first and most lasting forms of slavery, is in 
     fact ``mental slavery.'' Garvey saw that it was fundamentally 
     important to re-educate the Black race using Black history 
     and African heritage as the building blocks. To this end 
     Garvey formed the Liberty University, a vocational training 
     school in Virginia which was modeled after Washington's 
     Tuskegee Institute. This school was part of a wider program 
     of ongoing education which the UNIA launched to combat the 
     years of white conditioning of Black minds.
       Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a giant of his time. No Black 
     leader has so completely dominated the Black liberation 
     struggle since his ministry. The sad thing is that the 
     ideology and philosophy which bear his name is not used as a 
     major tool today by present day Black leaders. But history is 
     full of the successes of Garveyism.
       The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party of South 
     Africa began as a Garveyite organization and many of its 
     guiding principles today have been developed using the tenets 
     of Garveyism. Malcolm X's father was a Garveyite who was 
     killed by the Ku Klux Klan and the famous African and Ghanian 
     anti-colonialist and pro-independence leader Kwame Nkrumah 
     was also a Garveyite. They understood the necessity to ``go 
     armed in a world of wolves.''
       Today, Garvey's contribution to Black history stands out as 
     a monumental work of sacrifice and dedication. It is a pity 
     that as the Black Diaspora suffers at the hands of 
     international reaction in the form of white supremacists here 
     in the United States and neo-Nazi skinheads in Europe. Black 
     leaders are still failing to go armed among the wolves.
       For the world of wolves have become much more 
     sophisticated, but the same problems which confronted Garvey 
     more than half a century ago, still plague the Black 
     community and race today.
       The wolves have become more sophisticated, more organized, 
     and have traded in their white hoods, masks and sheets for 
     Armani business suits.

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