Wilfred Samuels lecture, "The Afro-Caribbean Political Voices of the New Negro Manhood Movement," at the University of Iowa, June 16, 1975

Speaker 1: The following is a presentation from the seventh annual Institute of Afro-American culture, held at the University of Iowa, June 15th to the 27th, 1975. The Afro-Caribbean political voices of the New Negro Manhood Movement is the subject of this lecture by Wilfred Samuels, a doctoral candidate in Afro-American Studies at the University of Iowa. Introducing Mr. Samuels is Dr. Darwin Turner, chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Iowa. Dr. Darwin Turn...: Last Sunday, those of you who had faith that a film would be shown, had an opportunity to hear a presentation by one of our doctoral candidates in Afro-American Studies. Since I am one of the more immodest people I know and like to boast about the individuals who are associated with our program, it gave me great pleasure that Keith Nelson made that presentation it gives me great pleasure today that you will hear a presentation by a second individual who is completing the doctoral program in Afro-American Studies and American civilization, Wilfred Samuels, whom most if not all, of you know already as Pepe. Dr. Darwin Turn...: He completed a Bachelor of Arts in English and Black Studies at the University of California at Riverside. And since 1971, he has been studying at the University of Iowa, where he's earned the masters and has completed the comprehensives and is presently working arduously on a dissertation, which is the reason that some of you have not seen him quite as often as you did, perhaps the first couple of days. Dr. Darwin Turn...: At Riverside, he served as a graduate assistant at the University of Iowa, he served as a graduate assistant to me, which is a rather arduous experience for most individuals, as I suspect some of you are beginning to feel by this stage. And you've just been institute participants. He's taught also at Kirkwood College and at Iowa Wesleyan while he was attending the University of Iowa. His interest is the Black person of the Caribbean, the individual who has been related to the culture of Blacks in the United States. But his interest as a teacher also is in the individual student. He served at Riverside as a tutor and counselor. He served in counseling aid in Riverside City schools as an information researcher in Los Angeles. And he has established in his teaching in this program, a relationship with students which makes him very promising, both as a teacher and as a researcher. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Wilfred Samuels. Wilfred Samuels: Thank you, Dr. Turner. After an introduction like that, I feel like just walking out the door and say, "Forget about it." Thank you very much. What Dr. Turner didn't say or mention is the fact that I have spoken before as a graduate student and a member of this department, and that I'm the only one that gave a one hour and a half lecture in 50 minutes. But he has made me promise today that I would slow down and take it easy. So Keith has already promised that he's going to sit back and wave at me so that when I get going too fast, I'll slow down. Wilfred Samuels: At any rate, just some informal comments in the beginning. For the past two weeks, we have listened to lectures on the subject of the topics in Afro-American history. The use of the word topics, I believe, is very significant because it points to something that we must constantly bear in mind. And that is that Afro-American history and culture is not something that is one dimensional. In his keynote address, John Bracey was careful to state this fact, emphatically. He noted that Afro-American history as a culture is not monolithic. While warning against oversimplification in dealing with Afro-American history and culture, August Meier pointed out that one should always bear in mind that in dealing with any aspect of Afro-American culture and history, one is dealing primarily with a slice. I emphasize that one, a slice of Afro-American history and culture of the North or the South or both. Wilfred Samuels: The lectures which we have listened to together, as a group, represent essentially slices of Afro-American history. When we listened to August Meier speak, for example, about Booker T. Washington, we heard a lecture about a slice of Afro-American history and culture. When we listened to Dr. Edmonds speak about the historical development of the Black colleges, we heard again, a slice of Afro-American history and culture. The same is true about Bettye Thomas's lecture of ... All the lectures that we have heard. In talking about Afro Caribbean politics, and the New Negro Manhood Movement, I too will be talking about a slice of Afro-American history and culture. Though I believe that it is a slice which remains neglected, or ignored for the most part, I also believe that it is an important slice. It is an integral part of the whole. Wilfred Samuels: Over the past two weeks, to reiterate, we've listened to many lectures, I have listened to them, you listen to them. And I could not control my romantic vision or even my naivete from running wild. I found myself on several occasion, wishing that it was possible to transcend space and time and to be involved with some of these events and to meet some of the personalities. I'm sure that many of you will agree with me that when John Hope Franklin spoke about George Washington Williams, you wanted to be there to see this man and the colonel talking about, if you don't give me some food and water in an hour, I'll be back with my guns. And then when he talked about this man sitting on board the ship, proposing to this lady, knowing darn well that he already had a wife in the United States. [inaudible] I would like to have been there to just check out what this man was doing. Wilfred Samuels: The picture of Du Bois that most of us have, right, is of this guy who is a Harvard graduate, a New England gentleman. Every time you see Du Bois, he's sitting with his Pigeon suit and his starched shirt and his starched mustache and his starched goatee, but yesterday you heard Fred Woodard talk about young William and Great Barrington, New England, who at one point checked out some sister-dash between two buildings. It doesn't sound like the Du Bois that you know, but I would have liked to been there to see this Du Bois go through this process. Wilfred Samuels: Similarly, Gerald talked about Colonel Young or is it a General Young I didn't get the prefix or whatever, but can you imagine this man riding 500 miles just to prove that he doesn't have high blood pressure? I would have liked to seen that man on that horse for 500 miles. And what about the life in the Red Light District of New Orleans that was mentioned in Ted's speech. Clearly the period that we've been talking about is a dynamic period. It's a period that is very alive and visual participation in the experiences and in the personalities would have greatly enhanced our understanding of these things. But it is not possible for us to participate in that manner. But let's use our imagination, okay? Wilfred Samuels: If it was at all possible at this moment for us to transcend time and space, then if it took a button, I'd press it or if it took a switch, then I'd flick it. And I take us back in time and in space to the 1920s and specifically to Harlem, USA during the month of August 1920. During this month, the first international convention of Negroes was held there. Thousands of Harlemites and representatives from every corner of the United States, from Europe, from Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean islands attended this convention. A high point of the convention was a parade through Harlem on the second day. E. David Cronin states, "Harlem streets rang with Sterling Marshall heirs, and the measure tramp of smartly uniform marching bands." Wilfred Samuels: Thousands lined the specially decorated streets to view the splendor and pageantry of the Universal Negro Improvement Association units. For the first time, the component parts of this organization were revealed to an astonished Black world. There was the African Legion. Its members dressed in dark blue uniforms with red trousers stripes, and its officers would dress swords for the occasion. The Black Cross Nurses dressed in white, and wearing caps with black crosses sewn on them marched 200 strong. There was also the Universal Motor Corps, the Black Flying Corps, the UNIA Coaster and a special juvenile axillary. The focus of attention, however, was on the leader and organizer, who on this special occasion appeared, "Raymond [inaudible] Solomon in all his glory." Wilfred Samuels: He led the parade clad in a military cloak of blue, on which was gold aplenty, and wearing a chapeau from which waved red and white plumes. That evening, the delegates met in Madison Square Garden, which with the capacity of 25,000, was filled to overflowing with Harlemites who had earlier cheered and shouted their approval of banners proclaiming Africa for the Africans, and freedom for all. Now, clad in a richly colored cap and gown of purple, green and gold, the leader organizer approached the podium and began to speak. "We are the descendants of a suffering people." He said. Wilfred Samuels: "However, we are descendants of a people determined to suffer no longer, we should organize the 400 million Negroes of the world into a vast organization to plant the flag of freedom on the great continent of Africa." Continuing he declared, "We do not desire what is belong to others, though others have always sought to deprive us of that which belong to us. If Europe is for the Europeans, then Africa shall be for the Black peoples of the world. We say it, we mean it. The other countries have their own, and it is time for the 400 million Negros to claim Africa for themselves." Wilfred Samuels: Following the speech and several other demanding a free Africa and before the delegates returned to their various constituencies, the speaker organizer was elected provisional president of Africa, and President general and Administrator of the universal Negro Improvement Association. The convention drafted a declaration of Negro peoples of the world. Its preamble stated that the UNIA was demanding and insisting upon certain rights, as well as protesting against injustice and [inaudible] Blacks had suffered over the years. Included in its 54 articles of basic rights was the demand for self determination of all people, as well as the demand for a capitalization of the letter N in the word Negro. Wilfred Samuels: In addition, the convention adopted a flag with the colors of red, black and green. Red was to symbolize the blood of the race, no bloodshed in the past and dedicated to the future. Black was to symbolize pride in the color of its skin, and green for the promise of a new and better life in Africa. Ethiopia, The Land of Our Father, was selected as the anthem of the race. The convention was an unprecedented success. For months after its adjournment, it was the talk of Harlem and so was the essential future, its organizer, the provisional President-elect, and the President general, administrative the UNIA, Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Wilfred Samuels: In a great sense, what we would have experienced, had we been able to witness the first international convention of Negroes might very well have been the zenith or the apotheosis of the New Negro Manhood Movement. To best understand what is meant here, it is necessary to give a hurried but comprehensive view of the dynamics of the American ennui in which Garveyism at its genesis. A prevailing idea in the United States at the turn of the century, was to believe that America was well on its way to fulfilling what had traditionally been viewed as the promise of American life. This promise was centered in the belief that America would inevitably become the ideal society, because of its commitments and adherence to democratic ideals. Widespread economic prosperity, as well as political freedom and equality were to be the sine qua non of this ideal society. Wilfred Samuels: For many, the closing of the western frontier and America's emergence as a highly industrialized urban society at the close of the 19th century, signaled the realization of this promise. Paradoxically, many of the problems which resulted from industrialization, threatened the realization of the promise, as well as the very foundation of American democracy. Reform activities of the progressive movement with emphasis in equalitarian idealism were instrumental in ameliorating many of the existing problems. Among the basic premises of the progressive movement, where the idea is that government and countries should belong to the people, that the primary interests of the government should be public welfare and that government has an obligation to protect and promote the interests of the citizen. Wilfred Samuels: Through the effort of the progressive reformers, and President Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, many significant reform legislations were enacted. That there was separate but equal practices in education, housing, public accommodation and the judicial system. Lynchings and disenfranchisement and riots during the early decades of the 20th century, is an indication that Black Americans for the most part, were not enjoying the benefit of the promise of American life. Moreover, the public and private sanctions of these practices by the federal government, under the leadership of President Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson, caused serious questions to be asked about the future of Blacks in America. Wilfred Samuels: As is true of the presidents, most northern progressives share the racial assumptions of their generation. And as Nancy Weiss states, "Blacks benefited less from the political, economic and social reform movement of the early 20th century than any other group in society." Emancipation, constitutional amendments in the early efforts of the reconstruction program had led Blacks to believe that they were being given the rights to enjoy a full participation in American life. They felt, as Frederick Douglass stated that they would be completely adopted into the great national family in America. By 1911, the possibility of such an adoption was quite questionable, the social, political and economic gains made by Blacks since emancipation, especially by Blacks living in the southern section of the United States, approximately nine tenths of the entire Black population in this country, were practically all revoked and or nullified by state constitutions and supreme courts. Wilfred Samuels: At the beginning of the 20th century, no single organization work as an appurtenance of the progressive movement to champion the cause of Black Americans. With the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on May 1910, and the formation of the Committee on urban conditions, the National Urban League in 1911, the fervor of the progressive movement touched base with efforts of Black Americans to organize and gain social and political reform. Like the NAACP, the National Urban League was an interracial organization, where as the primary concern of the NAACP was with political and legal reform, the National Urban League was concerned primarily with economic and social reform. Both organizations shared the philosophy that Black Americans should be granted first class citizenship, and sought to prepare them to assume the burdens and rewards of being citizens. Wilfred Samuels: Black Americans did not desist in their effort to move into fuller participation within the mainstream of American life. Their optimism and determination received great encouragement from two important factors in American history during the early decades of the century. One, World War One and two the Black migration of 1916 to 1918. The participation of Black Americans in the First World War increased their hopes for fuller participation in American life. John Hope Franklin points out in From Slavery To Freedom that wartime propaganda, emphasized the fact that the democratic way of life was one of the ideals for which America was fighting. Participating Black soldiers were optimistic that the democracy they were defending for the rest of the world would not be denied them on their return home. Wilfred Samuels: It has been estimated that the number of Blacks who migrated from the rural South to the urban North and West during 1916 to 1918, over a half a million, exceeded or certainly equal that which had resulted from all other migration from the South in over a period of 40 years. When the European war broke out, European immigration practically ceased, and alien laborers departed leaving a shortage in Northern industry. Black laborers were immediately sought to fill the shortage. Propelled by their desire for fuller and truer self realization, Black Americans were thrusted forward into the 1920s with a new feeling of self determination. They would not abandon their desire for full participation within the American mainstream, nor their aspiration for recognition as human beings. Wilfred Samuels: The dominant activities of the first two decades of this century, was responsible for projecting abroad a great sense of opportunity for development and economic advancement in the United States. They were directly responsible for the large scale immigration of Blacks from the Caribbean islands to the United States that took place between 1900 and 1920. Before the immigration restrictions of 1924, over 238,000 Afro-Caribbeans came to the United States. From 1910 to 1920 alone, their population in New York grew from 10,000 to 36,613. Wilfred Samuels: Given America's declared opportunities of personal development and economic advancement, and most important of all her pronounced belief in democratic ideals, ideals, which theoretically venerated the common man as well as the elite, it is not surprising to find such a large number of Caribbean migrants coming to the United States. Encouraged by the pronouncements and by the progressive reforms, the immigrants sought to escape the intolerable repellent social, political, educational, and economic conditions in the islands. Like the Afro-American kinsmen from the South, they too sought to enjoy the promise of American life. Wilfred Samuels: What they discovered on arrival in the United States, however, is that in America, as in the island, they were up against the hands of tradition, they discovered that the mainstream of American life continued on a course along well defined channels, and that this course was fundamentally no different than the one they had left in the islands. They discovered that American whites like the British settlers in islands, clung with tenacity to their traditional views of Blacks, and that consequently, the new national mood of progressive reforms was not intended for Blacks. Wilfred Samuels: In the main, Afro-Caribbean migrants protested by refusing to be cast in the same mode as the Afro-American kinsmen. The most common mode of adjustment among them was not to adjust. They did this not only by automatically declaring a difference between themselves and Afro-Americans, but also by giving more prominence to their British background and status, rather than their African heritage. They were British subjects, not American citizens. When insulted or discriminated against, they complained to the British Council. They further showed their loyalty to Britain by celebrating British holidays and by flying the union jack, they went as far as to reenact the coronation of George the sixth in Harlem. Wilfred Samuels: Their behavior coupled with the belief that they were willing to work for low wages, created friction between the immigrants and the Afro-Americans. Also, their declared goals of becoming economically successful, and returning to the island was looked at with disfavor by the Afro-Americans who believed that naturalization and American citizenship was more important in that it would increase the franchise power of Blacks in the United States. It goes without saying that they were immigrants from the Caribbean, who did not fit the pattern. There were those who could not and would not accept the established political, social, and economic practices which they found operating in the land of the free, nor would they accept the false out provided by their British status. Many sought ways to directly and or indirectly change the injustices they had found and responded to their various concerns in many ways. Wilfred Samuels: The concerns of Hubert H. Harrison, Wilfred A. Domingo, Cyril V. Briggs and Richard B. Moore were political in nature. They felt that fundamental and lasting changes could only come about through legal and political measures. They sought to affect change through the effort as members of the stepladder brigade of Harlem street corner meetings and as members of the Socialist Party of America, the African Blood Brotherhood, the Liberty League of Negro American, and the Communist Party, USA. Wilfred Samuels: Claude McKay and Eric Walrond sought to effect change through their literary works. McKay a noted poet and novelist, and Walrond a noted short story writer and essayist, used their works as vehicles for exposing the injustices they found in America. Marcus Garvey, a printer by trade and a race leader, sought to effect change through his Universal Negro Improvement Association. His desire was to ameliorate the condition of Blacks, not only in the United States, but universally. Wilfred Samuels: For me, it is impossible to again say, the important historical, social and political roles of these men. It is of course impossible to give you any sort of in depth understanding of the men or their works today. It is possible, however, to give you some insights into an understanding of the basic thesis, programs and pronouncements of at least two of them. Hubert H. Harrison, and Marcus M. Garvey. Wilfred Samuels: As mentioned earlier, Blacks in America were thrusted forward into the 1920s with a new sense of self determination. Garvey and Harrison played significant roles in the movement associated with this new sense of self determination, the New Negro Manhood Movement. Among the leading voices, the vanguard of the New Negro Manhood Movement was Hubert H. Harrison. The formation of the Liberty League of Negro Americans in Harlem on June 12th, 1917, was possibly the first attempt to organize the masses around a movement with the objective of harnessing the newfound soul of the New Negro. The meeting and the formation of the league were due directly to the effort of Hubert H. Harrison, who was elected its first president. Wilfred Samuels: Born April 27 1883, in St. Croix, Virgin Island, Harrison migrated to the United States at the turn of the century, a mere youth of 17 at the age of his arrival. He had advanced rapidly to the best private educational institutions in the islands, and had broadened his educational experiences by traveling around the world. His decision to migrate to the United States was made after he had been made an orphan by the death of his mother. He completed his education in New York, and became a postal clerk in the New York City postal system after passing the civil service exam in 1907. Wilfred Samuels: He remained relatively unknown until 1911, when he began to achieve notoriety as a journalist, critic, orator, debater and agitator. His association with the St. Benedict Lyceum, and Socialist Party branch five during this period, was responsible for his popularity. And if I may, add an aside here. Harrison lost his job with the post office in 1911. He began working with the post office in New York in 1907. The idea, or the rumor, is that because he criticized Booker T Washington so greatly, Washington pulled his strings and got Harrison fired. I don't have the materials to support that but Meier says that he has a letter that would support that, and hopefully he'll send it to me so that I could footnote it in my dissertation. Wilfred Samuels: And we're back to this. Harrison's assessment of the American ennui and his in depth examination of the works of Spencer, Huxley, Darwin, Blyden, Rogers, Marx and Lenin, led him to conclude that socialism was not only the necessary and inevitable solution for Black Americans, but also for America. He believed that problems faced by America in general, and by Black Americans in particular were economic. He became a member of the Socialist Party, and also the assistant editor of it's organ, The Masses. Wilfred Samuels: In his essay, The Meaning of Socialism and Socialism in The Negro, Harrison attempted to explain his belief in socialism. Essentially, he argued that the fundamental problem facing Black Americans was not racial, but economic. Blacks were more proletarians said Harrison than any other American group. Consequently, they were the most ruthlessly exploited working class group in America. As laborers they received less for their work, were excluded from craft unions, worked long hours and under worse conditions. They occupied the lowest social status in America, because their exploitation had resulted in their becoming the most despised group in America. Wilfred Samuels: For Harrison, Blacks occupied a fixed social status in a social care system, which placed them at the bottom. This, he argued, had been a legacy of chattel slavery. And because chattel slavery had been replaced with a system of wage slavery, Blacks were still at the bottom. Socialism had promised to champion the cause of the working man. At the head of its mission, the freeing of the working class from exploitation. Since Blacks were the most ruthlessly exploited working class group, then it followed that it was the duty of the Socialist Party to champion their cause. Moreover, for Harrison, socialism was not a movement away from American democratic ideals, but a movement towards them. Wilfred Samuels: The socialist concept of the ideal state, the cooperative society, was viewed by Harrison as democracy taken to its ideal state. Essentially a political organization, the Socialist Party of America had no organizational commitments to Black Americans in 1911. It had no program for recruiting Blacks, nor did it address itself directly to their social and political needs. This coupled with the fact that segregation was practiced by then seven branches of the party, and that the branches were controlled by white chauvinist, caused Harrison to leave the party in 1915. Though he remained fundamentally a Socialist in thought, he never returned to the party. Wilfred Samuels: The turning point for Harrison was the action of the White rioters during the East St. Louis Riot of 1917. Harrison declared that Blacks could no longer afford to sit idly by and be lynched and rioted against. Much as America and its presidents had declared a new freedom and a new nationalism in government, Harrison felt that it was time for Blacks to make it known that a new Negro lived in America. The Liberty League of liberal Americans was to become the organization that would make this announcement to the country and the world. They sent a resolution to the Congress of the United States, and a petition to the House of Representatives, and this message was precisely stated. Wilfred Samuels: The old Negro as White Americans had projected him was dead. He was an African, whom they had extirpated from his homeland and culture, taken through the death of the Middle Passage, and the season in the islands to life upon the shores of Virginia, Boston, Georgia, and the other colonies. He had been made to live a life of death and dehumanization in an inhuman system of chattel slavery. It was this death and dehumanization that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, the proclamation, emancipation and the civil rights bill for the reconstruction period had tried to eradicate. It was also this death and dehumanization that the disenfranchisement of Blacks, the riots, the lynchings and the labor unions sought to reintroduce at the turn of the century. Wilfred Samuels: Harrison believed that Blacks should let America and the rest of the world know that the new Negro had taken the place of the old Negro. Like the old Negro, the new Negro subscribed to the salient tenets of American democracy. He had adopted the salient principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutions in the Bill of Rights. He believed in the dictates of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments of the Constitution and also in the Civil Rights Act of the reconstruction period. Wilfred Samuels: Unlike the old Negro, who was viewed as a barbarian from Africa, who had made no contributions to American society, the new Negro was, sorry, the new Negro was an American who was proud of his African ancestry. He was an African American, in place of extirpation from his homeland, the voyage through the Middle Passage and the season in the island, the new Negro had migrated voluntarily on the crest of the migration movement from the South through the North, during 1916 to 1918. He had made the decision to migrate, to move outward in search of a better life, better economic conditions, social conditions, political and educational conditions. His was not a journey through debt to a life of dehumanization, and slavery in the South, but instead was a movement from death to life and industrial and urban centers of the North and the East. Wilfred Samuels: World War One and the migration were his second emancipation, his vehicle for moving into the American mainstream. If his experiences as a slave and freeman had not been considered of value to American life, then his contribution to the industrial centers and his defense of American democracy overseas must be recognized. He was a first class citizen who would demand all the privileges of citizenship. The new Negro's sense of race first, race pride, heritage and militant attitude, were adamant projection and announcements of his Americanisms, his culture, his right to self determination, and civil and social justice. Wilfred Samuels: The Voice, the official organ of the Liberty League, was established for the precise purpose of promulgating these ideas. As editor, Harrison stressed the constant need for America to recognize that the new Negro was not begging but demanding his rights, the need for blacks to develop a strong racial consciousness, bond and unity by putting race and not class first. He stressed the need for Blacks to form their own political party, or at least a political bond which would give them a voice in political affair. And most important, he stressed the need for a new leadership, a Black leadership which was selected by the masses. Harrison stated that ultimately the new Negro needed a new leadership and program, which would not beg but declare that Blacks are not satisfied with the fact that the post World War One period still found lynching in the land of liberty and disenfranchisement and segregation in the federal trains and departments. Wilfred Samuels: The new Negro needed a leadership which would declare that the extant condition of Blacks essentially indicated that President Wilson's "protestation of democracy will lie in protestations consciously and deliberately designed to deceive." He needed a leadership that would declare that President Wilson had held up democracy to Blacks, and that they had taken it at its face value, which is equality. "American Blacks," said Harrison, "Are merely trying to present their checks and trying to cash in on the promised democracy." He needed a leadership and program which would make it known that to delay the delivery of the promised democracy would beget "plentiful lack of belief in either the intention or ability to pay." Harrison warned, that if such a leadership failed to emerge, would be unrest and militancy amongst Blacks. Any other form of leadership or programs would leave Blacks in a state of hopelessness, rather than give them a sense of hope and promise for the future. Wilfred Samuels: Borrowing from President Theodore Roosevelt, Harrison stated, "Rights are to be won by those who are ready and willing to fight if necessary, to have those rights as American citizens respected." Harrison envisioned The Liberty League of Negro Americans as the genesis of the sort of organization that he had in mind. Through its efforts, he had hoped to set the foundation for the awakening of Africa. In a sense, he argued that it was the offspring of the NAACP. It had been called into being because there was a need for a more radical policy than that of the NAACP. He felt, however, that the final shaping and directing needed desperately by the race, would come from the young men of the race. He had managed them to guard up their loins for the task of leadership. "The future belongs to the youth, and they must strive," said Harrison, "To give the gift of manhood to this race of ours." Wilfred Samuels: Hubert H. Harrison in a great sense was not a leader of men, but of ideas. The Liberty League of Negro Americans practically disappeared from existence two years after its formation. It had to defer to the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and its leader, Marcus M. Garvey. Sitting in the audience, the first meeting of the Liberty League of Negro Americans was Marcus Garvey, who would eventually attempt to put the [inaudible] thesis, programs and pronouncements of the new Negro movement into practice. Garvey had come to the United States to seek financial assistance for his UNIA program in Jamaica, to establish a branch of his organization in America and also to study the operation of the Tuskegee Machine in Alabama. Wilfred Samuels: Hubert H. Harrison gave Garvey his formal introduction to Harlem when he allowed him to address the more than 2000 people who had gathered on the night of June 12th 1917, to voice their grievances through the Liberty League. Born in Jamaica, West Indies in 1887, Marcus Garvey left his home in 1909, and traveled to parts of Latin America and Europe. His observation and experiences during his travel in particular, his work with Duse Mohamed Effendi on the African Times and Orient Review, coupled with his knowledge of the conditions of Blacks in the Caribbean, made him cognizant of the universal poverty and oppression experienced by the Black masses during that time. Wilfred Samuels: His experiences amplified his desire to see the emergence of "a nation of Black men, making their impress upon civilization and causing a new light to dawn upon the human race." In America, Garvey visited with the Black leaders of the day, only to discover, after a close study, he said that they had no program, but we're mere opportunists who were living off their so called leadership, while the poor people were groping in the dark. In his travels across the United States, Garvey said he found the Black masses in a state of lethargy. The social, political and economic conditions of Blacks in America at the turn of the century, mentioned earlier in this paper, are directly responsible for this state of lethargy that Garvey identified. Wilfred Samuels: The atmosphere provided a soil for Garvey's program of race, pride and uplift, shouting up, "You mighty race, you can accomplish what you wish." Garvey sought to awaken Americans from the lethargy and to recruit them into this organization. As William C. Foster notes, Garvey's movement took root and flourished like a green bay tree. It is necessary to explain here, what I consider to be some of the major tenants of the aims of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in order to gain an understanding of an insight into its major thesis programs and pronouncements and also to ascertain how and why Marcus Garvey seemed to come at such an appropriate time. Wilfred Samuels: Fundamentally, the major purpose of the organization was to unite Blacks of the world into one indissoluble body. Emphasis was placed on establishing confraternity among the races, race, pride and race love. Garvey, who was in a strictly involvement with this organization, makes it impossible to differentiate between him and the UNIA repeated incessantly, that the UNIA wished to establish, "That brotherly cooperation, which will make the interests of the African native and the American and the West Indian Negro, one and the same, we shall enter into a common partnership to build Africa, in the interests of our race." Simply stated, "His goal was to build a universal Black community welfare." Wilfred Samuels: "The hour has come," said Garvey, "For the Negro to take his own initiative. It is obvious according to the communist principle of human action that no man will do as much for you, as you will do for yourself. Any race that has lost hope, lost pride and self respect, lost confidence in self in an age like this such race ought not to survive. 250 years we have been a race of parasites. Now we propose to end all of that, no more fear, no more cringing, no more sycophantic begging and pleading. The Negro must strike straight from the shoulder for manhood rights and full liberty. Destiny leads us to liberty and to freedom. That freedom that Victoria of England never gave that liberty that Lincoln never meant, that freedom, that liberty that will see us men that will make us great and powerful people." Wilfred Samuels: Throughout his life, Garvey maintained that at the core of this philosophy was love, harmony, peace, human sympathy and human justice. He never wavered from this position that the UNIA stood for bigger brotherhood, and universal rights of all races, nor did he waver from his position, and demand that the white, yellow and brown races, "Give the Black man has place in the civilization of the world." He felt that the Black race was too large in number, not to be a great people, a great race and a great nation. "I cannot recall one single race of people," said Garvey, "As strong numerically as we are, who have remained so long under the tutelage of other races. The time has now come when we must seek our place in the sun." Wilfred Samuels: Logically related to Garvey's program of race, pride and unity, was his adamant demand for the liberation and redemption of Africa. The home land of the Black man from colonial powers. He declared, "If Europe is for the Europeans, then Africa shall be for the Black peoples of the world. We form a majority in Africa, and we should naturally govern ourselves there. No man can govern another's house as well as himself. There is no reason why the 400 million Negroes of the world should not make a desperate effort to reconquer our motherland from the white man." Fundamentaley a separatist, Garvey envisioned the eventual return of all Africans to Africa. Wilfred Samuels: He was careful to point out that what he immediately wished for, however, was not an in mass migration to Africa. We are not preaching any doctrines to ask all of Negroes Harlem in the United States to leave for Africa. The majority of us may remain here. But we must send our scientists, our mechanics and our artisans and let them build railroads. Let them build a great educational and other institutions necessary and when they are constructed, the time will come for the command to be given, come home. The immediate goals called for a spiritual and a positive, identification with Africa. Garvey maintained that whites had projected a negative image of Africa and that their negative propaganda had caused Blacks to view Africa as a place where no civilized human being would want to go. Wilfred Samuels: He held that whites had done this for their own selfish purpose of colonial expansion. He claimed that Africa was, "The big game of the nations hunters." Thus Garvey not only called for a spiritual identification with Africa, he also called for an immediate, universal confrontation of the problems faced by Africa. For him, it was a question of survival. Wilfred Samuels: "When it is considered," said Garvey, "That the great white race is making a Herculean struggle to become the only surviving race of the century. And when it is further considered that the great yellow race under the leadership of Japan is making a like struggle, then more than ever, the seriousness of the situation can be realized as far as our race is concerned. If we sit supinely by and allow the great white race to lift itself in numbers and in power, it will mean that in another 500 years, this full grown race of white men will in turn exterminate the weaker race of Black men for the purpose of finding enough room on this limited mundane sphere to accommodate that race, which will numerically multiply itself into many billions. This is the danger points." Said Garvey, "What will become of the Negro in another 500 years if he does not organize now to develop and protect himself? The answer is that he will be exterminated for the purpose of making room for the other races that will be strong enough to hold their own against the opposition of all and sundry." Wilfred Samuels: Garvey explained that this point of view did not mean that Blacks should hate Whites. He attested to a belief in a love for humanity, and a common relationship which we cannot escape. He said that the Black man was necessary for the existence of the White man, and at the White man was necessary for the existence of the Black man. He was careful to point out, however, that blacks must first, "Answer to the cry of our own heir, who cry out to us for the redemption of our country." Blacks should first be interested in seeing Africa with the, "liberty" which she once enjoyed hundreds of years ago, before our own sons and daughters were taken from her shores and brought in chains to this Western world. Wilfred Samuels: To Garvey, there was little doubt that the redemption of Africa represented the self protection and self preservation of the Black race as a whole. He felt that the White man be no different than any other man would struggle to protect that which is his and his own. "In protecting his own self interest," argued Garvey, "The White man would not build for others, but for himself. We do not expect the White man to rob himself and to deprive himself for our racial benefit. How could you reasonably expect that in an age like this when men have divided themselves into racial and national groups, on the one group have its own interests to protect against that of the other." Wilfred Samuels: Consequently, Garvey saw racial purity as a necessary appurtenance of his program. He looked upon miscegenation as a form of race suicide, declared that he believed in a pure Black race, Garvey stated, "I am conscious of the fact that slavery brought upon us the curse of many colors within the Negro race. But that is no reason why we of ourselves should perpetuate the evil. Hence, instead of encouraging a wholesale bastardy in the race, we feel that we should now set out to create a new race type and standard of our own, which could not in the future be stigmatized by bastardy, but could be recognized and respected as the true race type, anteceding, even our own time." In spite of the above pronouncements, Garvey maintained that all Blacks had a common cause and should work towards it. He admonished those of Mixed Blood to combine with children of the Negro race, and to reestablish the purity of their own race, rather than to seek to perpetuate the abuse of both races. Wilfred Samuels: In my opinion, the above represents the premises, which formed the base for the ideas which Garvey propagated throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. The overall success of the Universal Negro Improvement Association was due in no small way to one, the weekly organ of the organization, The Negro World, which recruited members and promulgated Garveyism, two The Black Star Line and the Negro Factories Corporation, and three, the yearly conventions, both national and international. By far, the most successful enterprise of the UNIA was its official organ, The Negro World. It is possible to argue that the overall success of Mr. Garvey's effort was due to his masterful and expert use of the Negro World as a vehicle for propaganda. This is not surprising since as a young man, Garvey pursued printing as a career and was first catapulted into leadership when he championed the cause of striking printers in Kingston, Jamaica. By 1920, Garvey and UNIA had reached the apotheosis of their success. Wilfred Samuels: The Negro World The Black Star Line, The Negro Factories Corporation, the conventions, and probably the most important of all, the dynamic and stabbing oratory of Marcus Garvey, his teachings of racial pride and uplifts had taken the organization to its zenith. As many as four to six million members were claimed, and as many as 500 branches were said to be actively in existence. As E. David Cronin points out, "Garvey as mother had suddenly emerged as a movement of world significance with a spiritual power that reach deep down into the colored peoples of the world. Negros in the United States and elsewhere in the new world were glorified in their color." Wilfred Samuels: One of the major factors responsible for the success of Marcus Garvey, the Black Star Line, was responsible for his downfall. From its inception, the Black Star Line had been a stepping stone, as well as a stumbling block. It served as a stepping stone in achieving the announced goals of the organization. It was a stumbling block because in reality, the organization lacked the necessary expertise to operate or manage such an enterprise. Moreover, with its inception, many Black leaders who had been indifferent to Marcus Garvey and his program were forced to reconsider their opinion of him, realizing that he was serious, and not a mere fanatic, that he was gaining in strength and had become a threat to their own leadership, they found it necessary to bring about his downfall. Wilfred Samuels: By January 1925, Garvey was in jail serving the maximum penalty for mail fraud. In general, it is agreed among historians and critics at the Garvey movement that the organization's lack of business expertise was indeed detrimental towards effort as a whole. Because no records would clarify many of the muddled points and answer many of the questions. No definite conclusions can be reached regarding the early business status of the organization. Yet one fact remains, money poured into the organization with the initiation of the Black Star Line. In addition to revenues from the Black Star Line stock, the UNIA collected membership dues, charged admission to many of Mr. Garvey's speeches and sponsored many fundraising projects and drives. The UNIA and Marcus Garvey were not in any way blameless for their downfall. Wilfred Samuels: There is little doubt, however, that Garvey was an honest man. Similarly, there is little doubt that he was surrounded by a number of avaricious crooks, charlatans and incompetence who depleted the money that flowed into the organization. Foster correctly points out that many of them flocked into the organization when the money began to pour in. The most lucid illustration of the corruption that's [inaudible] the UNIA is offered by the Black Star Line. The Yarmouth, the first ship to be purchased by the Corporation was a 32 year old 1453 turn freighter. Wilfred Samuels: It was purchased by the corporation in the advice of its appointed Captain Joshua Cockburn for $165,000. During Garvey's trial, it was revealed that Captain Cockburn had received $1,600 for his help in arranging the sale of the vessel, which in the final analysis, only made three trips in nine months. For repairs alone during a two year period $194,803 were spent. It was finally sold for $1,625. Similar and sound investments in corruptions surrounded the organization's other maritime endeavor. Wilfred Samuels: It must be said that Garvey's life, his program and pronouncements are not as easily understood as they appear on the surface. What has been said of Malcolm X can also be said of Marcus Garvey. His ideas developed chronologically, they demonstrated themselves in distinct phases, which corresponded loosely with each phase of development, attitude and experience. The youthful Garvey, who championed the cause of the Kingston printers in the early 1900s, was not the same Garvey that traveled to Latin America, studied in London, formed the UNIA in 1914, founded the Negro World in 1918, formed the Black Star Line in 1919, who was imprisoned in 1925 and deported in 1927. Unlike Malcolm X, whose metamorphosis is easily identified by the changes in his name, for example, Malcolm Little, Malcolm X, El-Haji Malik El-Shabazz, Garvey's metamorphosis is not easily identifiable. Regardless, he was not a static man. Wilfred Samuels: As he moved from youth to early manhood and on to adulthood, his ideas matured, his experiences provided him with the insights to move toward the necessary changes, which thought in retrospect, seemed absurd, he thought feasible. However far Garvey wondered, in his ideas, philosophies and programs, one basic fact remained unchanged, the Black race remained of prime importance to him. Garvey attributed his incarceration in 1925 to the efforts of his enemies. After serving two years and nine months in an Atlanta prison, he was released and ordered deported in November 1927. Wilfred Samuels: Hubert H. Harrison died a month later from complications which resulted from minor surgery. The scholarly work on Harrison is next to nil. Much of the available materials on Garvey was not written by Black scholars. Consequently, even the works on Garvey that have been done by Black scholars have relied too heavily on secondary materials, which in many instances are too biased, or most unreliable. There is a need for more work like John Henrik Clarke's, Marcus Garvey and The Vision of Africa, which is indeed a masterpiece and a movement in the right direction. Wilfred Samuels: Harrison and many other Afro-Caribbeans from the same period have been lost in the pages of history, briefly mentioned in passing, or greatly overshadowed by a group of selected men whose historical roles are no greater. Richard B. Moore, Wilfred A. Domingo, Cyril V. Briggs are just a few of those names that could be mentioned. These men joined the Socialist Party in 1917, with the formation of the 21st assembly district in New York City, and sought to recruit Blacks into the party through the people's educational forum, and the Harlem street corner brigade groups. With the fracturing of the Socialist Party in 1919, they formed their own organization, the African Blood Brotherhood. In a sense, they sought to combine the race consciousness, race uplift program of Marcus Garvey with socialist ideology. With the failure of the African Blood Brotherhood, Briggs and Moore became actively involved with the Communist Party, and were among the founders of the American Negro Labor Congress in 1925. Wilfred Samuels: A reason for the exclusion of these men, or the superficial treatment that we find in historical or scholarly work is due to the fact that they are viewed by critics and scholars as foreigners. This is true, even though the majority of them became naturalized American citizen. Another reason is that critics and scholars become too concerned with evaluating what they consider the success or the failure of these men without really attempting to do the scholarly work that is necessary to understand their basic thesis, programs and pronouncements. For example, critics spend time arguing or worrying about whether or not Garvey had a following of six or four million members, or whether he really had less than a million. Wilfred Samuels: Many spend time trying to prove how worthless the Black Star Line ships were, which is already a known fact, or how much Garvey hated Whites, which is not true. Still others dismiss them as West Indians who brought their frustrated, pent up emotions from the islands to the United States and tried to stage the revolution they could not stage in the islands in the United States. I of course, adamantly disagree with these critics and scholars and especially with those who attempt to measure their success or failure. In my opinion, to say that Domingo, Harrison, Moore, Briggs or Garvey failed, is to say that Nat Turner failed because his actions in Virginia resulted in the death of several Blacks. It is to say that Walker, Garnet, Douglass, Malcolm, and all the leaders all the way up to Malcolm and Martin Luther King Jr. failed, because they wrote essays or did things which placed them as well as other Blacks in danger. Wilfred Samuels: For me, failure comes about only when there is a lack of action or response, Nat Turner, [inaudible], Prosser, the leaders all the way up to King and Malcolm X responded to the conditions in their environment, existing conditions, which were not acceptable to them, demanded some response. And these men heeded the cry, the call, the same is true of Garvey, Domingo, Moore, Briggs and Harrison. Ultimately, they all sought to move the race towards wholeness through whatever method they thought feasible. Wilfred Samuels: In conclusion, it must be stated that the Afro-Caribbean experience in America forms an integral part of the American as well as the Afro-American experience. It relates to the wider context of both. There cannot be a true understanding of the American past without an understanding of the Afro-American experience. And there cannot be a fuller understanding of either the American or the Afro-American past without an understanding of the Afro-Caribbean experience within both. To ignore it is to ignore an important slice of our history and culture, which by no means is monolithic. Thank you.