Opinion: As GOP governors obscure Black history, let’s finally tell the truth about Marcus Garvey
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Editor’s Note: Justin Hansford is a Howard University law professor, executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center and elected member of the U.N. Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. His forthcoming book on the Marcus Garvey trial, “Jailing a Rainbow: The Marcus Garvey case,” will be released later this year under the imprint of Black Classic Press. Shaq Al-Hijaz is a second-year law student at Howard University and extern at the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. Read more opinion on CNN.
CNN — Earlier this month, President Joe Biden called out the
GOP for “trying to hide the truth” about Black history. While
politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin have
described their efforts to reform education as bans on teaching critical race theory, in
reality, these bans have been invoked to prohibit teaching
elements of American history, especially Black history. The suppression of stories integral to the American narrative not only
robs us of important historical lessons, but also warps our vision of
ourselves and our future — and makes all of our lives less rich. With some of this country’s most powerful political figures trying to obscure the story of Black history, now is a good time to tell the true stories of Black leaders in America — particularly ones like Marcus Garvey, who was the subject of injustice and distortion. Known superficially as a “Back to Africa” advocate (as in, repatriating Black people to the African continent), Garvey actually founded what might well have been the largest human rights campaign in the history of the African Diaspora. At its zenith, Garvey’s organization boasted a membership of at least 6 million people with chapters registered in more than 40 nations. It provided inspiration for the life’s work of many important Black leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. The Jamaican-born Garvey energized millions by calling for
an end to colonialism in Africa, for economic justice for the entire African
Diaspora and for cultural and political recognition and independence 100
years ago — a time when such declarations were just about unheard of. As part of his push to provide economic opportunity and autonomy for
Black people, Garvey started the Black-owned and -operated Black Star Line shipping company,
stylized after the White Star Line, which owned the Titanic. Garvey’s ships,
in theory, could have helped transport Black people back
to Africa, facilitated trade throughout the diaspora and instilled pride
while providing a vision of economic empowerment. Instead, Garvey’s movement splintered in the summer of 1923, when a federal judge in the southern district of New York convicted him of mail fraud for sending out advertisements for the purchase of stock in the Black Star Line, even though the shipping company was failing economically. The government not only accused Garvey of seeking to sell stock for too high of a price, but it insinuated that Garvey’s entire career was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme designed to make a quick buck. To the contrary, historians have for decades believed that Garvey
was framed for political reasons.
Indeed, as one of us has documented, the entire
legal process dripped with injustice and animosity toward Garvey. For
example, both the trial judge and an appellate judge were conspicuously
friendly with Garvey’s political opponents. In fact, even the initial charges can be traced directly to espionage
and efforts to infiltrate the Black Star Line by J. Edgar Hoover, who hired
some of the first-ever Black Bureau of
Investigation agents in order to stop any “Black Moses”
figures like Garvey from succeeding. Hoover wrote about his
search to find a charge that would allow the government to deport Garvey,
settling on mail fraud when other grounds for charges were unsuccessful. After thousands of Garvey’s followers (the
supposed victims of the fraud) petitioned for his release, his sentence was
commuted in 1927. Ultimately, after Garvey’s political vision had been
silenced, advocates for racial justice in the United States and abroad began
to focus less on economic justice and more on civil and political rights for
most of the 20th century. Today, the widening wealth gap and
other indicators of inequality suggest that this shift in focus was costly. Now Democratic Rep. Yvette D. Clarke of New York, first vice-chair of
the Congressional Black Caucus, and Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia
are trying to set the historical record straight, recognizing the weight of
evidence supporting Garvey’s innocence and identifying him as a champion for
the liberation of people of African descent. “The world deserves to know the truth about Marcus Mosiah Garvey and
the truth about Black history,” Clarke declared in introducing the
resolution to exonerate the civil rights leader. Johnson added that “it’s
time to right this fundamental wrong” given the “utter lack of merit to the
charges on which he was originally convicted, combined with his profound
legacy and contributions to Black history in our country.” To be sure, Garvey’s record involves some controversial decisions. This includes meeting with the KKK, asserting correctly that, during the 1920s, they had a strong voice in the US government. But this cannot stand in the way of learning about Garvey’s true history and exonerating him. This is more than simply an exercise in historical truth telling and providing justice for his family, although both are immensely important. |
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Black
Emergency Managers Association International
Washington,
D.C.
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