Marcus Garvey

Marcus "Turnip" Garvey

Hey! My name is Turnip. But today, you can call me Marcus Garvey!

I’m widely known for creating the Universal Negro Improvement Association and starting several businesses to promote a separate Black Nation.

I was born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica on August 17th, 1887 and passed June 10th, 1940.

In 1903, while working as an apprentice to a Printer and being involved in the Union activities. I had my first taste of activism during a Printer’s Strike in 1907 in Kingston, Jamaica.

In 1912, while in Britain, I attended the University of London’s Birkbeck College where I studied Law and Philosophy. After this I returned to Jamaica where I created the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

In 1920, I wrote the “Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World” which was accepted at the Convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was here that I was elected “Provisional President of Africa.”

In 1923, I met with the k.k.k. because I felt we had similar ideas of keeping blacks and white separate as long as African Americans were left unharmed to prosper. A few well known African American activist did not like this idea.

In 1928, I established the People’s Political Party in Jamaica. This was Jamaica’s first modern political organization.

There are over 20 awards, monuments, schools, and parks named after me!

I later established the School of African Philosophy in Toronto to train future leaders of the Universal Negro Improvement.

Today, I am Marcus Garvey. And so are you!