Marcus Garvey - Black Moses - US History - Extra History

Marcus Garvey is an interesting and divisive figure in civil rights history. Influenced by the writings of Booker T Washington, he pushed back against the philosophy of the NAACP and W.E.B. Du Bois. On the one hand, he was a passionate and fierce leader who unified the community and worked to fight injustice. On the other hand, he was a separatist to the core, a philosophy that led to him reaching out to the Ku Klux Klan. And that's never the best sentence to hear. But love him or hate him, there is no denying that he was extremely influential on figures like Malcolm X.

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♪ Outro music: "Monopolies" by Tiffany Roman

[kuhluhOG]

"Emperor of Africa"
Considering how many different cultures are in Africa, that would work about as well as an "Emperor of Europe" or an "Emperor of Asia".

[abcdef]

Garvey: “I am the Emperor of Africa!”

Ethiopia, which already had an Emperor at the time: “Excuse me?!”

[killingragethrowback]

To me, that wasn't a lesson in self reliance. That was a lesson on trust. His father taught him to trust no one.

[historyking]

Wow. I never knew Marcus Garvey’s dad made him crawl out of that grave. Like I know it’s important to teach self reliance but that could’ve gone wrong in many ways

[Crackdalf]

As a Jamaican I'm proud you're covering someone from our history

[wezza]

Imagine being the UN and some american sends you a petition to legitimise his claim to be the king of all of Africa.

[nathanmccallum]

The title has given me flashbacks to high school history. Glad to get a more in depth biography.

[King_Nex]

"Colonialism is bad! That's why I'm going to move a bunch of people into Africa against the wishes of the locals!"
Seems legit.

[almostclintnewton]

wow that meeting with the Klan wizard... they really weren't kidding about his "monumental confidence".
Always facsinating to hear about more obsure figures in the civil rights movement and Extra Credits' storytelling just makes it that much better!

[AnExistanceOfNothing]

I'm glad this episode didn't shy away from calling Marcus Garvey a segregationist, and drawing the comparison between their ideas of separatism, and how they mirrored, in certain capacities, the Ku Klux Klan's. While Civil Rights is a just cause to fight for, it is important to remember that not everyone's approach to fighting oppression is the correct one, especially when it leads to recreating that oppression.

[amirsamanzare]

I feel like many of these black nationalist movement or black activist in America has an orientalistic image of Africa and its people. They seem to think that Africans are some sort of homogenous group of people that share a glorious past.

[thedukeofchutney]

I’m really glad Marcus Garvey is getting some attention. I wish they talked about him more (if at all) in schools. While I strongly disagree with his segregationist and racist views I think is a figure who is not talked about enough.

EDIT: For the people who are asking "What racist views?" Allow me to explain. Garvey was a big proponent of keeping the races separate. This was to the degree that he even had a secret meeting with Edward Young Clarke, the then leader of the KKK, in June of 1922. This greatly enraged many people and contributed to the "Garvey must Go" campaign that had been going on at the time.

[PaulGAckerman]

This is not a complaint, but i was hoping to hear about his connection to Rastafarianism. I remember hearing he said that the first leader of a free African nation was the second coming. Since Ethiopia was never fully conquered by Italy, Haile Selassie, was said to be this person and Rastafarianism took its name from Emporer Selassie's pre coronation name Tafari Makonnen. Does anyone know if Garvey actually said this?

[awesomehpt]

The split between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm x was in large part due to Elijahs jealously of Malcolms high profile and popularity alongside the fact that Elijah had several extramarital children with teenage girls which Malcolm saw as hypocritical.

[natethenoble]

As a Jamaican, you have no idea how much this pleases me. The man to start the black power movement, inspired Jesse Jackson, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King Jr, came from this tiny island. Unfortunately he is often relegated to the footnotes of history. I am beyond happy that now, years after his death and his trials and tribulations, he is getting the recognition he deserves.

[camerongrow]

This is what I come to Extra Credits for, I remember this guy being a footnote in my high school history book and I'm amazed at how many details that footnote missed which totally change how I see Marcus Garvey

[shawnheatherly]

Certainly not without controversy, but he does sound like a fascinating individual.

[PHSDM]

As a US-born Jamaican, my mom was surprised that I learned about Marcus Garvey in school. She mentioned about how he was a national hero but I never really saw it that way. I always saw him as an extremist.

[MarkArandjus]

Always been of two minds on Garvey. On one hand Garvey's goals of pride, resisting oppression and fighting injustice are of course good and necessary and he has inspired many. But on the on the other, his ideas of promoting violent action and racial segregation were morally wrong and counter-productive.
A society based on racial segregation, for any reason, is racist by its very definition, and inevitably leads to injustice. No person should be unwelcome anywhere or forced to live somewhere simply because of their race or ethnicity.

And while I'm not an expert on Africa, I know it's a very diverse continent, so pan-Africanism strikes me as strange as pan-Europeanism.

[napoleonibonaparte]

The way he went from colonised to coloniser with that UN thing.