Home > U.S. Immigration and Migration > Marcus Garvey Biography

Born August 17, 1887

St. Anns Bay, Jamaica

Died June 10, 1940

London, England

Leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which preached black pride and advocated a return to Africa

"I saw before me then, even as I do now, a new world of black men, not peons, serfs, dogs and slaves, but a nation of sturdy men making their impression upon civilization and causing a new light to dawn upon the human race."

Marcus Garvey burst onto the African American scene in March 1916. He had come to Harlem, a black neighborhood in northern Manhattan in New York City, to seek financial support for a school he was trying to establish in his homeland, Jamaica, an island in the Caribbean. He soon went on to promote a mass return to Africa by the descendants of black slaves. Garvey was one of the first effective promoters of black pride, emphasizing the...