Marcus Garvey

 Key years of his work: 1916-1922

 Spent early life in Jamaica

 Began working as a printer’s apprentice at age 14, where he

participated in an unsuccessful printer’s strike that sparked his
passion for political activism.

 Traveled through Central America while working for a

newspaper and wrote about exploited migrant workers
 Attended college in London and worked for African
Times and Orient Review, which advocated Pan-
Africanism

 Pan-Africanism is the belief that black people should be

collectively self-reliant; that is, black people should be
unified as both a continent and a people group
 Returned to Jamaica and founded the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1912 in hopes of
establishing a country and government for blacks.

 The UNIA:

1. Promoted African Americans

2. Advocated resettlement in Africa (Back to Africa

Movement)

3. Promoted a separate black nation in the U.S.

 Garvey traveled to the U.S. in 1916 and worked with
Booker T. Washington. He then established a UNIA
chapter in Harlem

 In 1918, Garvey began publishing Negro World.

 In 1919, he created Black Star Line, a shipping company

specifically for black people in America, Canada, the
Caribbean, South American, Central America, and
Africa

 By 1920, the UNIA had 4 million members and had its

first convention in NYC.
 In 1922 Garvey was charged with mail fraud and found
guilty. After spending 5 years in jail, he was released and
deported to Jamaica

 He moved to London in 1935 and tried to revive his

influence, but could not.

 Garvey worked with Mississippi Senator Theodore

Bilbo, a white supremacist who heavily supported
segregation.

 The two created The Greater Liberia Act of 1939, which

would deport 12 million African-Americans to Liberia
(at federal expense) in an attempt to relieve
unemployment problems. Congress did not pass the act.
 While many praised Garvey and his philosophy, several
established black leaders disagreed. W. E. B. Dubois was
one of those leaders.

 WEBD said Garvey was, “the most dangerous enemy of

the negro race in America.” Garvey said WEBD was a
agent of the white elite.
Ida B. Wells
 Key years: 1884-1916
 Ida B. Wells was an African-American investigative
journalist and newspaper editor
 She was also active in the fight for women’s rights and
suffrage
 After her parents died in 1878 when Ida was 16, she
became a teacher to provide the finances necessary to
keep all of her siblings together
 Ida became interested in fighting racial discrimination
and improving education for blacks when she learned
that white teachers made more than double what she
made
 In 1883, Ida and two of her siblings moved to Memphis,
Tennessee, where they had family and Ida could make
more money as a teacher.
 In 1884, Ida was forced to give up her train seat to a
white person. Ida attempted to sue the railroad company,
but lost the court case when the Tennessee Supreme
Court declared that she was just trying to harass the RR
company.
 After this event, Ida began to frequently write about
racial injustice
 In 1889, Ida became the co-owner and editor of the anti-
segregationist newspaper Free Speech and Headlight ran
out of the Beale Street Baptist Church in Memphis
 Lynching
 Lynching: to murder by mob, most often by hanging,
shooting, or burning at the stake

 March 1892: Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and

William Stewart (three friends of Ida) were lynched just
outside of Memphis.

 They owned and operated a black grocery store, Peoples

Grocery Store, which took some of the business of the
white grocery store across the street.
 The owner of the white grocery store, Barrett, was
unhappy to lose business to black people and started a
riot at Peoples Grocery Store

 Police came and charged Moss, McDowell, and Stewart

with starting a riot

 The three were jailed. Soon after, a mob stole them from
the jail, took them outside the city limits and lynched
them.
 Ida spoke out about the injustice of her friends being
murdered in her newspaper. She tells black people to
leave Memphis, stating that “There is, therefore, only
one thing left to do; save our money and leave a town
which will neither protect our lives and property, nor
give us a fair trial in the courts, but takes us out and
murders us in cold blood when accused by white
persons.”

 Shortly thereafter, while Ida was out of town, a mob

destroyed her newspaper office and threatened her life

 Ida studied lynching in New York, began her anti-

lynching campaign, and published her book Southern
Horrors: Lynch Laws In All Its Phases.
 While studying the patterns of lynching, Ida found that
most people were lynched because they were accused of
crimes

 Often a white person would claim a black person

committed a crime (he stole from me, she tried to murder
me, etc.) just so the black person would be lynched;
many of these accusations were completely fabricated.
 In 1892, there were 241 people lynched.

 Alabama 22
 Arkansas 25
 Florida 11
 Georgia 17
 Tennessee 28
 Texas 15
 Louisiana 29
 Mississippi 16
 Of the 241 people lynched, 156 were blacks living in the
South.
 The top three charges for these 156 were:
 Murder (58)
 Rape (46)
 Attempted rape (11)

 (Information found at
www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/wellslynchlaw.htm
l)
 One particularly sick case of lynching was that of a black
man named Hastings. He was accused of murdering a
white man. When Hastings could not be found, his
teenage son and daughter were lynched by hanging and
their bodies were repeatedly shot before Hastings was
found and lynched.
 In 1895, Ida published The Red Record, a pamphlet based
off her her research that concluded that many lynches
happened on false accusations of black men attempting
to rape white women because white people were
threatened by blacks’ economic progress.
 Ida helped found the National Association of Colored
Women in 1896
 Ida participated in the founding of the NAACP, but
quickly left due to the largely white leadership
 In 1910, Ida forms the Negro Fellowship League in
Chicago to help provide shelter, employment, and other
services to blacks migrating to Chicago for factory jobs
 From 1913-1918, Ida fought for suffrage for both black
and white women

 In 1916, Ida speaks to Marcus Garvey’s UNIA and

congratulates Garvey on uniting black people

 From 1918 until the late 1920’s, Ida challenged racism

and the other issues of her time