Harlem being dubbed as the “New Mecca for Negros” is very indicative of the kinds of mindsets of some of the people who moved there. Typically, when people think of the Harlem Renaissance they think of the abundant contributions by black people in the arts, media, literature, and music. In all of these forms of expression, in most cases sought to reimagine or tell a story through a lens of a black person in America at the time and their experiences as “Harlemites”. At times, they expressed joy in the (relatively) new freedom. These expressions also spoke on social issues/ injustices, economic disparities, real estate/ home ownership. This gave rise to organizations like the N.A.A.C.P (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)  with pioneers like W.E.B Dubois and Ida B. Wells and the N.U.L (National Urban League). One man from Jamaica who came to reside in Harlem during this period was Marcus Garvey. His perspective on how to move black people forward still resonates to this day when it comes to how black people should interact with the rest of the world in the form of re-centralizing to Africa, building our own societies, and doing business with the globe as one Black nation. Marcus Garvey is considered to be a pioneer to Black Nationalism.

During the Harlem Renaissance the prominent figure from St.Anne’s Bay, Jamaica changed the perception of Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism not only in Jamaica but globally with large visibility in Harlem and London. His idea was to create a fully economic circle where investors, producers, and consumers would all be black people thus creating more wealth in the Black community. His Black Nationalism “Back-to-Africa” campaign started a movement that could be seen as a precursor to the Black Panther Party for Self Defense founded in 1966 rooted in  According to the International Encyclopedia of the Social by William Darity, Jr.

“Garvey corresponded with Booker T. Washington, who had called for black economic self-sufficiency in his Atlanta Address of 1895, and in the early days of his movement shared Washington’s gradualist approach. When Garvey went to the United States in 1916, his hope was to emulate Booker T. Washington by starting a school in Jamaica to train poor blacks in practical subjects. Once in America, however, he established a branch of the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) there, and in the end, it was in North America that the movement had its greatest membership and influence in the period after World War I.”(Opportunity pg.258)

In its conception, the UNIA was supposed to be a hub where black people who were often disenfranchised and poor come and learn trades to help them develop as people not only professionally. Most Ideals at the time of the Harlem Renaissance were less radical than Marcus Garvey. Throughout his travels abroad he realized no matter where he went black people were always treated as less and because of it was often seen as second-class citizens. So what some may see as radical others who come from much less would love to get to be a part of Garvey’s movement in any way they can.

In the eyes of the radical youth, Marcus Garvey was praised as a hero for his innovative ideas and fearless attitude when it came to speaking his thoughts on socio-political issues. Though things may have seemed to be going smoothly in building his success, it was not.

“Marcus Garvey while fundamentally sincere, un happily failed to realize his limitations, and the tremendous sweep of his mind was not balanced by adequate penetrating power . While he dreamed the emotional content of those dreams, the showy fabric of his visions bore him away in method from the immediate or remotely practicable. In short, for the carrying out of such universal aims there seemed wanting in the leader many of the intellectual prerequisites.” (A. F. ELMES, Opportunity, p.140)

While Garvey had good intention when starting the movement, things weren’t simple. While on a walking tour of Harlem, we stood where Garvey once stood on W 138th and Malcolm X Blvd, to deliver soap-box speeches to the people he inspired where St. Mark the Evangelist Church stands. They explained months after initial $500,000 valuation it jumped to $10 million dollars. Eventually, an FBI agent by the name of J. Edgar Hoover infiltrated the organization. (FBI Files)

Marcus’ mail fraud idea in which he served 5 years in prison prior to being deported after the terms of his sentence were finished. Some may have commended his actions because he tried a different approach other than writing literary pieces and appealing to the white masses in ways they were used to. The fact that Garvey had the gall to commit such an act sent ripple effects throughout the United States and even the world. This may have influenced how people may have associated with Garvey and his movement shortly after people found out about his crimes. Negros who lived in Harlem at the time were seen as the upper echelon of the Negros because they relocated to one place to come together for the purpose of new representation, ideas, and community. Yet the action of one person’s organization may have put the whole Harlem Renaissance movement in jeopardy in terms of how people on the outside of the community viewed the new Negro in Harlem. Though I believe that Garvey’s intention was to try to uplift negros by soliciting money from those who were unsuspecting perhaps in some sort of retaliation of all of the impoverished and disenfranchised black people he saw during his time abroad in South America like in Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. Though in the end, oftentimes people do not focus on what negative actions Garvey may have committed. He is often remembered as a revolutionary and to some quite the opposite.

Marcus Garvey

Black Star