The NAACP was the first organization to defend civil liberties of African Americans

  In 1868, W.E.B. Du Bois was born in New England.  He went to college in the South - Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.  In 1895, he became the first African American to receive his PhD from Harvard University.  From 1897 to 1910, he was a Professor of History at Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. W.E.B. DuBois

  “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”  In 1900, Booker T. Washington was the leading black figure in America.  He founded the Tuskegee Institute, a vocational school in Alabama.  His autobiography, Up from Slavery, was a best-seller.  He argued: Don’t demand equal rights. Start at the bottom and work your way up. We will rise by hard work. Booker T. Washington

  “Fight for equal rights!”  He disagreed strenuously with Booker T. Washington.  He argued: Go to college and then lead the fight against discrimination!  Du Bois believed that the talented 10% of African Americans would lead the movement against discrimination.  He explained this in his essay, “The Talented Tenth” Back to W.E.B. DuBois

  The Souls of Black Folk (1903):  “The problem of the 20th century is the color line.”  A fascinating essay  k/dubstriv.htm k/dubstriv.htm His most famous book

  In 1905, black professionals - ministers, lawyers, teachers - held a conference at Niagara Falls in New York.  They gathered to protest the condition of African- Americans in the U.S.  Led by W.E.B. Du Bois, the conference demanded economic, political, and social equality. The Niagara Movement

  In 1909, Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  The NAACP waged a campaign for civil rights:  Information - W.E.B. Du Bois ran the organization’s newsletter. It was aptly named The Crisis.  Lawsuits - Lawyers defended black citizens who were wrongly accused.  Investigations - Professionals investigated lynchings and race riots.  Organization - Organizers set up branches in 50 cities. The NAACP

 The NAACP fought a long campaign against lynching.  In 1919 it published Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States:  The NAACP put advertisements in major newspapers presenting the facts about lynching.  It held its 1920 annual conference in Atlanta, home of the most active Ku Klux Klan in America.

 Marcus Garvey – Black Nationalism  Marcus Garvey was born in 1887 in Jamaica.  At that time, Jamaica was  an island in the Caribbean.  90% black.  a colony of the British Empire.  In 1901, at fourteen, Marcus Garvey left school, and got a job as a printer.  From 1912 to 1914, he lived in London.

  He joined nationalist groups that sought Jamaican independence from the British Empire.  A nationalist always calls for change. But what kind of change?  Political change - Asia and Africa began calling for independence, 1919  Cultural change - The Harlem Renaissance, 1920s  Social change - The Civil Rights movement, 1955  Economic change - This was Marcus Garvey.  The 1920s was a time of roaring prosperity in the U.S.  Marcus Garvey, a businessman at heart, wanted prosperity for African Americans. A Nationalist

  In Jamaica, Marcus Garvey founded the UNIA - Universal Negro Improvement Association.  It was a combination of black nationalism and black capitalism.  A Newspaper  Marcus Garvey began his working life as a printer.  He now became a publisher.  He published the weekly newspaper, The Negro World.  Membership  By the early 1920s, the UNIA had  two million members in the U.S.  700 chapters in 38 states.  several hundred chapters world-wide. The UNIA – Founded in 1914

  Black is beautiful  The UNIA was wildly popular because Marcus Garvey was the first to express: "Black is beautiful.”  This was a break from the past:  He did not accept the conventional wisdom that African Americans were inferior.  "Garvey was one of the first to say that instead of blackness being a stigma, it should be a source of pride.” - Charles B. Rangel, Congressman from New York City. Black Pride

  In 1916, at the age of 29, he set up a chapter of the UNIA in New York City.  He regarded it as a business: He set up a business charter and incorporated it in the state of New York.  The Harlem Renaissance  Marcus Garvey lived in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.  It was a great cultural flowering of African American artists, novelists, and poets.  Thanks to Marcus Garvey, for the first time, people began to identify with their African roots. Moved to New York

  A lot of people don’t understand the parades run by Marcus Garvey.  First off, New York City has always had parades for ethnic groups:  The St. Patrick’s Day parade is for the Irish, the Columbus Day parade is for the Italians, etc.  They are a matter of ethnic pride. Parades in New York City

  A Businessman  You cannot understand Marcus Garvey unless you understand his desire to become a businessman.  He needed investors - an impossible task for an African American in Or was it?  Investors  He was hoping to raise consciousness and raise capital.  He asked black investors to invest in black-owned businesses. Black Capitalism

  In 1919, Marcus Garvey formed the Black Star Line.  It was a shipping line designed to transport  products from his businesses. (Negro Factories Corporation, 1920).  passengers between the U.S., the Caribbean, and Africa.  Its flagship, the S.S. Yarmouth, made its maiden voyage in  In 1920, two more ships were added.  The Black Star Line was a symbol of black enterprise. A Shipping Line

 Factories  In 1920, Marcus Garvey incorporated the Negro Factories Corporation.  Given time, he was going to set up factories to produce products at home and abroad.  A University  In 1923, the UNIA bought Liberty University in Claremont, Virginia.  Marcus Garvey had always wanted to set up an industrial training school, like Tuskegee Institute.  Its graduates could run the black-owned factories.

  The Motherland  Marcus Garvey preached that African Americans should regard Africa as their home.  “For him, Africa was the ancestral home and spiritual base for all people of African descent. His political goal was to take Africa back from European domination and build a free and United Black Africa. He advocated the Back-to- Africa Movement and organized a shipping company called the Black Star Line which was part of his program to conduct international trade between black Africans and the rest of the world in order to "uplift the race" and eventually return to Africa.” - The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Back to Africa

  Until then, African Americans were made to feel ashamed of their African heritage.  Marcus Garvey did the reverse; he told people to be proud of their African heritage.  Dissatisfaction  The Garvey movement was powerful because he offered new hope.  For those who were dissatisfied with America, Garvey offered Africa as a new hope.  In some ways, you see, Garvey despaired of things improving in the U.S.  He believed that a country with a white majority could never give justice to the black minority.  (W.E.B. Du Bois came to believe the same thing. In 1961, he moved to Ghana.) A Break From the Past

 Liberia 1822  In Africa, the country of Liberia was founded in  It was founded by former slaves from the U.S.  The U.S. President was Monroe, so the capital city was named Monrovia  To mark the 100th anniversary, Marcus Garvey came up with an idea:  If life was hard in America, why not go back to Africa?  If people wanted to go, the ships of his Black Star Line were ready to take them.  In 1921, he sent his first delegation to Monrovia, Liberia.

  In 1922, Marcus Garvey met with the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.  Marcus Garvey was, once again, thinking outside of the box.  The KKK agreed with Marcus Garvey: African Americans should return to Africa!  By doing this, Marcus Garvey lost many supporters.  Difficulties - Marcus Garvey was running against the tide. A Fatal Mistake

  In 1918, when World War I ended, there was unemployment.  In 1919, there were race riots in many U.S. cities.  In 1921, Congress began cutting off immigration.  Marcus Garvey applied for American citizenship in  In 1922, the Ku Klux Klan was in its heyday. What Was it Like in the U.S.?

  In 1922, the federal government cracked down on Marcus Garvey.  The government said he made false claims when selling stock to investors.  This may have been true, but it was odd:  Throughout the 1920s, stock brokers did this on Wall Street.  Which is why the stock market crashed in The Federal Government

  Marcus Garvey was  indicted on mail fraud.  sentenced to prison.  deported to Jamaica in  In 1935, he moved to London  Hitler and Mussolini were driving Europe toward World War II.  Marcus Garvey was horrified when Mussolini’s Italy invaded Ethiopia.  At the time, he was critical of Haile Selassie, the king of Ethiopia.  He died in 1940 and is buried in National Heroes' Park in Kingston, Jamaica. Imprisoned in the U.S.

  Malcolm X  Malcolm X, the leading black nationalist of the 1960s, had no trouble understanding Marcus Garvey.  To him, black nationalism and black capitalism went hand in hand.  Malcolm X told people to set up and patronize black-owned businesses.  Rastafarians  In Marcus Garvey’s home country of Jamaica, he has had a major impact.  Today, Rastafarians regard themselves as citizens of Africa, not of Jamaica.  Symbol today - Today, many places and events are named after Marcus Garvey. His Impact