First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison | Marcus Garvey, Feb 10, 1925
Fellow Men of the Negro Race, Greeting: I am delighted to inform you, that your humble servant is as happy in suffering for you and our cause as is possible under the circumstances of being viciously outraged by a group of plotters who have connived to do their worst to humiliate you through me, in the fight for real emancipation and African Redemption. I do trust that you have given no credence to the vicious lies of white and enemy newspapers and those who have spoken in reference to my surrender. The liars plotted in every way to make it appear that I was not willing to surrender to the court. My attorney advised me that no mandate would have been handed down for ten or fourteen days, and is the custom of the courts, and that would have given me time to keep speaking engagements I had in Detroit, Cincinnati and Cleveland. I hadn’t left the city of ten hours when the liars flashed the news that I was a fugitive. That was good news to circulate all over the world to demoralize the millions of Negroes in America, Africa, Asia, the West Indies and Central America, but the idiots ought to know by now that they can’t fool all the Negroes at the same time. I do not want at this time to write anything that would make it difficult for you to meet the opposition of the enemy without my assistance. Suffice to it say that the history of the outrage shall form a splendid chapter in the history of Africa redeemed, when black men will no longer be under the heels of others, but have a civilization and country of their own. The whole affair is a disgrace, and the whole black world knows it. We shall not forget. Our day may be fifty, a hundred or two hundred years ahead, but let us watch, work and pray, for the civilization of injustice is bound to crumble and bring destruction down upon the heads of the unjust. The idiots thought that they could humiliate me personally, but in that they are mistaken. The minutes of suffering are counted, and when God and Africa come back and measure out retribution these minutes may multiply by thousands for the sinners. Our Arab and Riffian friends will be ever vigilant, as the rest of Africa and ourselves shall be. Be assured that I planted well the seed of Negro or black nationalism which cannot be destroyed even by the foul play that has been meted out to me. Continue to pray for me and I shall ever be true to my trust. I want you, the black peoples of the world, to know that W.E.B. Du Bois and that vicious Negro-hating organization known as the Association for the Advancement of “Colored” People are the greatest enemies the black people have in the world. I have so much to do in…Download full pdf https://www.slideshare.net/rbgstreetscholar1/first-message-to-the-negroes-of-the-world-from-atlanta-prison-marcus-garvey-feb-10-1925-24737375 Download
…”One of the things that we must recognize is that our oppressor represents death; our oppressor is deadly. One of the things that impressed me most when I went to graduate school and rally had my first real contact with the white educational establishment was that these people are dead. There’s death around them somewhere, which is the reason they are deadly as a people, why every advance of knowledge for them is advancement in the knowledge of destruction. Every advancement in knowledge is an advancement in the ability to kill and destroy the earth, kill and destroy nature, kill and destroy others, rape and rob the earth of its wealth, people and life forms, so much so that now they are having great difficulty even reproducing themselves. At the very center of their lives is death and destruction. We cannot imitate a people who are our oppressors”…
Black Nationalism originated in the 1850’s. While the origins of the movement are most commonly associated with Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) of the 1920s, Garvey was preceded and influenced by Martin Delany, Henry Sylvestre-Williams, Dr. Robert Love and Edward Wilmot Blyden. Even though the future of Africa is seen as being central to Black Nationalist ambitions, some adherents to Black Nationalism are intent on the eventual creation of a separate black nation by Africans in American. Born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, Marcus Garvey was the youngest of 11 children. Garvey moved to Kingston at the age of 14, found work in a printshop, and became acquainted with the abysmal living conditions of the laboring class. He quickly involved himself in social reform, participating in the first Printers’ Union strike in Jamaica in 1907 and in setting up the newspaper The Watchman. Leaving the island to earn money to finance his projects, he visited Central and South America, amassing evidence that black people everywhere were victims of discrimination. He visited the Panama Canal Zone and saw the conditions under which the West Indians lived and worked. He went to Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and Venezuala. Everywhere, blacks were experiencing great hardships.
Garvey returned to Jamaica distressed at the situation in Central America, and appealed to Jamaica’s colonial government to help improve the plight of West Indian workers in Central America. His appeal fell on deaf ears. Garvey also began to lay the groundwork of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, to which he was to devote his life. Undaunted by lack of enthusiasm for his plans, Garvey left for England in 1912 in search of additional financial backing. While there, he met a Sudanese-Egyptian journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali. While working for Ali’s publication African Times and Oriental Review, Garvey began to study the history of Africa, particularly, the exploitation of black peoples by colonial powers. He read Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, which advocated black self-help.
In 1914 Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and its coordinating body, the African Communities League. In 1920 the organization held its first convention in New York. The convention opened with a parade down Harlem’s Lenox Avenue. That evening, before a crowd of 25,000, Garvey outlined his plan to build an African nation-state. In New York City his ideas attracted popular support, and thousands enrolled in the UNIA. He began publishing the newspaper The Negro World and toured the United States preaching Black Nationalism to popular audiences. His efforts were successful, and soon, the association boasted over 1,100 branches in more than 40 countries. Most of these branches were located in the United States, which had become the UNIA’s base of operations. There were, however, offices in several Caribbean countries, Cuba having the most. Branches also existed in places such as Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Namibia and South Africa. He also launched some ambitious business ventures, notably the Black Star Shipping Line.
Stock Certificate, 1920 – Black Star Line, Inc.
Financial betrayal by trusted aides and a host of legal entanglements (based on charges that he had used the U.S. mail to defraud prospective investors) eventually led to Garvey’s imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for a five-year term. In 1927 his half-served sentence was commuted, and he was deported to Jamaica by order of President Calvin Coolidge.Garvey then turned his energies to Jamaican politics, campaigning on a platform of self-government, minimum wage laws, and land and judicial reform. He was soundly defeated at the polls, however, because most of his followers did not have the necessary voting qualifications.In 1935 Garvey left for England where, in near obscurity, he died on June 10, 1940, in a cottage in West Kensington.
In the years following the organization’s first convention, the UNIA began to decline in popularity. With the Black Star Line in serious financial difficulties, Garvey promoted two new business organizations – the African Communities League and the Negro Factories Corporation. He also tried to salvage his colonization scheme by sending a delegation to appeal to the League of Nations for transfer to the UNIA of the African colonies taken from Germany during World War I.
The Philosophy Of Robert F. Williams Provided The Intellectual Foundation For America’s Most Militant Advocates Of Racial And Social Justice. From His Actions, Speeches, And Writings Emerged The Foundation For The Black Power Movement. Studying With Robert F. Williams Is Essential For All RBG Learners Who Intends To Draw Lessons From The 1960’s Liberation Struggle. His Works Will Inform You On The Civil Rights And Black Power Movements, And American Radicalism, And On One Of The Most Extraordinary Political Careers In American History. If One Could Ask The Leaders Commonly Associated With The Black Power And Black Nationalist Movements Of The 1960s-malcolm X, Kwame Torue (Stokely Carmichael), Jamial Al-amin (rap Brown), Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), And Black Panthers Huey Newton, Bobby Seale And Eldridge Cleaver–what Individual Had The Greatest Influence On Their Political Development, Surely One Of The First To Be Named Would Be Robert Franklin Williams.
One Of The Most Underestimated Forces In American Political History: Robert F. Williams, Born In Union County, North Carolina, Is One Of The Most Underestimated Forces In American Political History. To An Extent This Is Understandable Because His Most Influential Years Were Lived In Exile In Cuba And China. His Public Communications Were Suppressed By The CIA And The U.s. Postal Service, And His Ideas Of Armed Struggle Too Militant For The U.s. News Media To Treat Objectively. Williams Lifelong Partner In Politics Was His Wife Mabel, Who Joined Him In Armed Defiance Of Racist Assaults, Co-hosted His Radio Program, And Networked For His Social Causes. Robert And Mabel Williams Provide An Extraordinary Record Of A Husband Wife Partnership In The Cause Of Social Transformation.
A Daring Strategy Of Lethal Force Against Vigilante Violence: Williams Philosophy Was Initially Forged By The Labor Militants He Had Met As A Migrant Industrial Worker In Northern Cities, By His Experience In The US. Military, And By The Rural Southern Tradition Of Armed Self-reliance. After Living Outside The South For Several Years, Williams Returned Home To North Carolina Monroe Union County. His Talents As An Organizer Led To A Surge In Membership. When His Militancy Provoked A Massive Backlash By The Ku Klux Klan, Williams Led Armed And Disciplined NAACP Branch Members Against The Klan Assaults.
At Odds With The Mainstream Civil Rights Movement: Williams Advocacy Of The Use Of Force Resulted In Serious Differences With Both The Long Standing Leadership Of The American Civil Rights Movement And With The Newly Emerging Nonviolent Direct Action Movement Of Martin Luther King Jr. Having Unnerved The NAACP National Office By His Willingness To Work With Communists And Marxists To Dramatize Cases The NAACP Deemed Too Hot To Handle, Williams Was Removed From The Leadership Of The NAACP Branch By Anxious National Leaders.
Counterpoint To The Nonviolent Strategies Of King: By 1961, Williams Seemed Destined To Stand As A National Leader Who Advocated An Alternative To The Nonviolent Direct Action Supported By Martin Luther King. But Williams Was Detoured From National Leadership Because Of An Episode Involving The Freedom Riders In Which He Was Accused Of Kidnapping A Klansman And His Wife. In One Of The Great Escapes In American History, The Williams Family, Including Two Small Children, Eluded The FBI, Klan Vigilantes, State Police From North Carolina To New York, And The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. To The Chagrin Of North Carolina Officials, They Re-emerged In Cuba In The Fall Of 1961.
“The Crusader”: The Prototype Of The Black Power Agenda Evolved In Williams Newsletter, The Crusader, First Published In 1959. Engagingly Written And Including A Column By Mabel, The Crusader Disseminated The Williams Homespun Radicalism And Chronicled The Racial Struggle In North Carolina And Throughout The South. The Crusader’s Daring Content Bedeviled Monroe’s Industrial Development Program, Espoused Militant Armed Resistance, And Chastised Martin Luther King Jr. And The Proponents Of Passive Resistance.
“Radio Free Dixie”: In Cuba, Robert Became A Celebrity And Friend Of Cuban Leader Fidel Castro. The Cuban Government Provided Him With A Transformer Capable Of Broadcasting To The Entire Continental United States. Seizing The Opportunity, Robert And Mabel Created The Weekly Program, “radio Free Dixie.” Their Broadcasts Included An Influential Mix Of Progressive Black Jazz (much Of It Shipped To Cuba By Leroi Jones In New York); Commentary On Global Liberation Movements, And Robert Williams Scathing Commentary On American Political Hypocrisy. He Continued To Publish The Crusader, Whose Circulation Grew To 15,000 In Spite Of Obstruction By The U.s. Postal Service.
Negros With Guns: In 1962, Williams Published The Manifesto, Negroes With Guns. This Tract Recounted The History Of His Armed Struggles Against The Klan And Articulated His Philosophy Of The Place Of Armed Self-defense In The Freedom Struggle. Negroes With Guns Is An American Political Classic, On Par With Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Or Martin Luther King’s “letter From Birmingham Jail.” It Engaged Many Of The Best Minds In The Civil Rights Movement, Such As Bayard Rustin And Martin Luther King, Who Assailed It At Length. Huey P. Newton Drew Heavily On Negroes With Guns In Drafting The Original Constitution Of The Black Panther Party. It Was Extremely Influential In Turning Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee Leaders From Pacifists To Black Power Militants. Williams Was One Of The Very Few Civil Rights Leaders Whom Malcolm X Openly Praised. Antiwar Activity In Vietnam: Williams’ Jeremiads Against American Society Intensified With The Escalation Of The Vietnam War. He Visited With Ho Chi Minh In North Vietnam And Joined In Various Anti-war Activities To Discourage African Americans From Fighting. Years In China: Williams Relocated To China In 1966 During The Height Of The Cultural Revolution. There As In Cuba Williams Enjoyed A Celebrity Status And Fraternized With Mao Zedong And Chou En Lai. His Interest In Maoist Revolutionary Thought Found Its Way Into The Crusader, Which Continued To Reach An Influential Underground Audience Among Black Power Militants In The United States. Profound Influence On The Black Power Movement: In Spite Of His Exile, Robert Williams Influence Was Profound. His Emphasis On Situating The American Civil Rights Struggle In The Context Of International Liberation Movements Gained Wide Acceptance, As Did His Philosophy Of Armed Resistance. His Militant Rhetorical Style-vigorous, Colorful, And Vitriolic-was Emulated Throughout The Movement. A Dedicated Network Of Williams Followers In America And Africa Worked To Promote His Militant Philosophy Among Intellectuals And Activists. The Black Panther Party’s Public Posture Of The Armed Militant Was Consciously Influenced By Williams Vision.
Withdrawal From Leadership After Returning To The United States: In 1969, Robert Williams Returned To The United States With The Quiet Acquiescence Of None Other Than President Richard Nixon. This Was Done As A Gesture Of Goodwill In The President’s Efforts To Cultivate The Chinese Leadership For His Historic Visit To China, Even Though The FBI Had Warned Nixon That Williams Could Likely Fill The Role Of Assassinated Civil Rights Leaders, Malcolm X And Martin Luther King. But After Assessing The State Of The Movement In 1970, Rife With Maddening Internecine Ideological Divisions, And Murders And Incarceration Of Numerous Black Militants, Williams, Now Disillusioned, Withdrew From All But Nominal Leadership In The Militant Groups That Were Founded In His Name. The Material On His Disillusionment With The Movement Is A Subject Of Vast Research Significance In And Of Itself.
Williams Became A Research Associate At The Institute For Chinese Studies At University Of Michigan. He And Mabel Moved To The Remote, Historically Integrated, Michigan Township Of Baldwin, Where They Remained For The Rest Of His Life. In Baldwin, The Williams Continued Their Dedication To Social Transformation, Focusing On The Local Level. His Role As A National Leader Subsided, But His Image Among The Succeeding Generation Of Black Power Advocates Remains Profound. Like The Black Folk Hero “john Henry,” Robert F. Williams Outwitted And Tormented The Oppressors Of African Americans.
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