A handsome publication printed in the wake of Marcus Garvey’s death in 1940. This text, drawn from Garvey’s writings, is an imagined dialogue and commences with a son asking his father: “why is it I am born black and placed at such disadvantage among other boys in the world?”
It is a fitting choice, centering on the many themes that occupied Garvey’s thinking and activism. ANB confirms his importance: “His real achievement, however, was in creating the first genuine black mass movement in the United States and in extending that influence to millions of blacks abroad. He emphasized racial pride and purity, the proud history of his race, self-respect, and self-reliance. For his millions of poor and working-class American followers, Garvey’s message of black pride and solidarity in the early 1920s came at a critical nadir of race relations.”
“Elinor Robinson White was a Garvey loyalist from Robbins Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. An officer in the Chicago Garvey Club in the 1920s and early 1930s, she served as a delegate to the 1929 and 1934 conventions in Kingston and the 1937 and 1938 UNIA convention in Toronto. She was among those chosen by Garvey to participate in the ‘School of African Philosophy’ sessions he taught for a small group following the 1937 convention” (Hill).
Very rare: OCLC locates a microform copy at NYPL only. Two copies at auction, both at Swann in 2004 and 2012.
Hill, R., ed, The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Volume VII, (UC Press, 1999) p.604.
