Black History Month
By Nelson A. King
Students, cultural figures
and community activists were
given a good history lesson
while being entertained, as The
People of the Sun Middle Passage
Collective at Brooklyn’s
Medgar Evers College celebrated
the life and work of the late
Black liberation, Black nationalist
leader and Jamaica’s first
national hero Marcus Mosiah
Garvey on Friday, Feb. 14.
As part of the college’s Black
History Month celebration and
in what the group dubbed as a
“cultural extravaganza”, patrons,
in the college’s EOJ Auditorium,
viewed an hour-long film on
Garvey’s works, asked questions
and commented on his legacy,
listened to a captivating address
by renowned New York radio
personality Bob Law, and were
mesmerized by Afrocentric
drumming and rituals.
“As a prominent Black leader,
whose ideas on Black economic
independence and entrepreneurship
Caribbean L 30 ife, Feb. 28-Mar. 5, 2020
inspired and promoted
Black communities to take
ownership and responsibility for
their social and economic destinies,
Marcus Garvey reflects the
significant values of Black History
month and its objective to
celebrate and honor the heroes
of Black culture and their contributions
to the lives of Blacks
throughout the world,” said The
People of the Sun Middle Passage
Collective.
“His influences on outstanding
Black historic leaders like
Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad,
Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela
and Rosa Parks speak to
Garvey’s contributions to Black
thought and actions of our
times,” it added.
According to his biography,
Garvey was an orator for the
Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism
movements, to which
end he founded the Universal
Negro Improvement Association
and African Communities
League.
Garvey advanced a Pan-African
philosophy, which inspired
a global mass movement,
known as Garveyism, the biography
states.
It says Garveyism would
eventually inspire others, from
the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari
movement.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr.
was born on Aug. 17, 1887, in St.
Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.
Self-educated, Garvey founded
the Universal Negro Improvement
Association, dedicated to
promoting African-Americans
and resettlement in Africa, the
biography says.
In the United States, it says
Garvey launched several businesses
A section of the audience at the Black History Month celebrations
at Medgar Evers College. Photo by Nelson A. King
to promote a separate
black nation.
After he was convicted of
mail fraud and deported back
to Jamaica, the biography says
Garvey continued his work for
Black repatriation to Africa.
Convinced of the strong
belief that African-Americans
needed to secure financial independence
from white-dominant
society, Garvey launched
several businesses in the US,
including the Negro Factories
Corporation and Negro World
newspaper.
Students celebrate life, times
of Jamaican Marcus Garvey
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