The Back to Africa Effect

What role did Marcus Garvey play in the Civil Rights movement?

When many people think about leaders during Black History Month (February) they think about people like Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman, and Booker T. Washington.. Now that is acceptable, but rarely does anyone remember the man who sparked the Civil Rights movement in America, my cousin, Marcus Garvey. I want to acknowledge my cousin on his achievements and also thank him for what he has done for the African-American race. Marcus Garvey may not have made the same kind of contributions that other Civil Rights leaders have made, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t fight for his people Marcus Garvey made one of the greatest contributions of the Civil Rights movement by trying to help out the Negro community all over the world, in a movement known as “Back to Africa.”

Marcus Garvey had two very different parents.’ Marcus’s mother was a gentle, slim, beautiful woman. “She was known for being kind and helpful woman to her neighbors and for working hard to bring up her family” (Lawler 15).Marcus’s father was different of another sort; he was hard, stern, and stubborn. “A skilled stonemason, he cut and shaped white rock for the walls of nearby plantation houses belonging to Jamaica’s wealthy estate owners. But he only worked when he felt like it.”(Lawler 16).Now although these were good qualities to have, in addition to “brilliant intellect and dashing courage,” his father’s bold, determined, strong, stubborn, and fearless attitude led to his downfall.

Marcus’s father liked to read and received a newspaper every week for 20 years and he thought it was a gift from the editor, yet when the publisher died, the executors of the estate sent Garvey Sr. a bill that he steadfastly ignored and as a result he was then taken to court and in a series of events his including property being sold to cover the debts and quarrels with neighbors over land boundaries the Garvey estate was soon down to the little land that their house stood on. Now Marcus Garvey’s father was stubborn but that runs deep in his blood lines as a Maroon. The Maroons were a group of escaped Jamaican slaves who fought British colonial rule during the 17th & 18th century.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, named after his father, was born on April 17, 1881, to Sarah and Marcus Garvey.