Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois Impact the Fight for Racial Equality

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Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois Impact the Fight for Racial Equality

The beginning of the early twentieth century saw the rise of two important men into the realm of black pride and the start of what would later become the movement towards civil rights. Both Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois influenced these two aforementioned movements, but the question is, to what extent?

Marcus Garvey, born in Jamaica, came to the United States on March 23, 1916 to spread "his program of race improvement" (Cronon, 20). Originally, this was just to gain support for his educational program in Jamaica, but would soon become much more. Because of conditions at the time, the American Negro World took a great liking to him and his ideas of race redemption. Garvey’s organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which was already established, was now the focal point for blacks in America to gather around.

Garvey would later come up with his idea of starting an African Nation that would be the center for all black activity throughout the world. This plan would eventually be called the Back to Africa movement. He did not believe in a mass migration to Africa, but rather, he desired that a group of hardworking and influential blacks move to Africa to establish this new nation. In Philosophy and Opinions, Garvey said, "A race without authority and power is a race without respect." He believed that this new nation, an achievement by and for blacks, would lead to respect for them everywhere. "The prejudice of the world is not so much against skin – it is not so much against color – it is against what you have not done" (Garvey, 39). This nation would be an accomplishment and would provide protection for all blacks, according to Garv...

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...s with their words, whether it be oration or writing. They caused blacks to be proud of who and what they were, and it also showed them that they could do more. These two men squashed the notion that Booker T. Washington spoke of in his speech in Atlanta, Georgia on September 18, 1895, where he said that blacks must accept their inferior role.

Works Cited

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.

Garvey, Marcus. The UNIA Papers Project. http://www.isop.ucla.edu/mgpp/lifesamp.htm. 1925

McKissack, Patricia and Frederick. W.E.B Dubois. New York: Franklin Watt, 1990.

Sewell, Tony. Garvey’s Children: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey. Trenton:Africa World Press, Inc., 1990.

Stein, Judith. The World of Marcus Garvey: Race and Class in Modern Society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1986.

UCLA. http://www.isop.ucla.edu/mgpp/facts.htm. 1995

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