3.2 Garveyism

 

Garveyism

Reflection on Garveyism, Black Power, and the Civil Rights Movement

This reading helped me understand the importance of Marcus Garvey, Garveyism, and the broader struggle for Black liberation. It also helped me see how ideas like Black Power, Black Nationalism, and Pan-Africanism connect to the Civil Rights Movement. The chapter shows that Black freedom movements did not come from one person or one moment. They came from many people, many places, and many generations. These movements were built through pride, resistance, community, and courage.

Marcus Garvey is one of the most important figures discussed in the reading. He was born in Jamaica in 1887 and lived in Jamaica, England, and the United States. This already shows how global his life and ideas were. Garvey believed that Black people around the world shared a common history and destiny. He encouraged people of African descent to see themselves as part of one global community. This idea became known as Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism teaches that unity among Black people worldwide can lead to political strength, economic independence, and cultural pride.

Garveyism focused on pride, empowerment, and economic self-sufficiency. Garvey wanted Black people to control their own institutions, businesses, and futures. He believed that relying on systems controlled by white supremacy would never bring true freedom. Instead, he encouraged Black communities to invest in themselves. His speeches and writings inspired millions of people across the African diaspora. Even though Garvey lived in the early 20th century, his ideas continued to influence later movements, including the global fight against apartheid in South Africa.

The mural of Marcus Garvey in Oakland, California, shows him in a military-style outfit with a royal purple color. This image represents strength, leadership, and pride. It shows that Garvey is still remembered as a symbol of radical Black advocacy. Garvey’s life ended in 1940, when segregation was still legal in the United States. He did not live to see many of the changes he hoped for. Still, his ideas laid an important foundation for future activists and scholars.

The reading explains that two important political frameworks connected to Garveyism are Black Power and Black Nationalism. Black Power emphasizes building institutions that serve Black communities. It also focuses on leadership, self-defense, and independence. The term “Black Power” was made famous by Stokely Carmichael in 1966. It represented frustration with slow progress and continued violence against Black people. Black Nationalism emphasizes pride in Black identity, economic self-sufficiency, and sometimes separation from white-dominated systems.

Both Black Power and Black Nationalism connect strongly to Garveyism. Garvey believed that Black people should define themselves instead of being defined by others. He rejected the idea that Black people needed white approval to succeed. This message was powerful, especially in a world shaped by racism and colonialism. These ideas helped many people reclaim dignity and confidence.

The reading then moves to the Civil Rights Movement. It explains that during the 1940s and 1950s, Black communities organized against Jim Crow laws and racial segregation. These laws controlled almost every part of life, including schools, jobs, housing, voting, and public spaces. Black people were denied basic rights and faced violence with little protection from the law. This made daily life dangerous and exhausting.

One important point in the reading is the role of women in the Civil Rights Movement. Women worked directly in communities. They organized food, housing, education, and care. Churches played a major role by providing space and support. Women built the foundation of the movement. However, formal leadership positions often went to men. Charismatic male leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the public face of the movement. While MLK was an important leader, the reading reminds us that he was not alone. Many women and local organizers made the movement possible.

The statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C., shows how history often highlights certain figures while overlooking others. The reading encourages readers to look beyond famous names. It asks us to recognize the collective effort behind social change. This helped me realize that movements succeed because of ordinary people doing extraordinary work.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is another important part of the reading. SNCC was founded in 1960 and focused on direct action. They organized sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and voter registration drives. SNCC believed in nonviolence but also believed in justice and love. Their statement of purpose shows that they wanted to change not only laws but also moral values. They believed that justice should be rooted in community and care.

One of the most powerful figures discussed in the reading is Fannie Lou Hamer. She was born in Mississippi in 1917 and grew up as a sharecropper. She faced poverty, racism, and violence. Despite this, she became a strong civil rights leader. She helped Black people register to vote and spoke openly about the terror used to stop them. Hamer endured beatings, medical abuse, and threats. Still, she continued to speak out.

Fannie Lou Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in 1964. This was a response to the Democratic Party in Mississippi excluding Black people. The MFDP challenged the legitimacy of the all-white delegation at the National Democratic Convention. This was a bold and risky move. It exposed the hypocrisy of American democracy. Hamer’s testimony showed the nation how Black citizens were denied basic rights.

Hamer believed that leadership should be shared. She did not believe in one person holding all the power. Her famous quote, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free,” shows her vision. She believed liberation must include everyone. This idea connects to Garveyism and Pan-Africanism. It also connects to modern movements for justice. Hamer’s speech in 1971 shows how deeply personal activism can be. Her house was bombed because she spoke out. This shows the real danger activists faced.

What stood out to me most in this reading is the idea of collective struggle. Garvey, King, Hamer, and SNCC all worked in different ways. Some focused on global unity. Some focused on legal change. Some focused on community care. All of them believed that Black people deserved dignity, safety, and power. The reading shows that Black Studies helps us understand these connections. It helps us see patterns of resistance and resilience.

This reading also helped me understand that freedom is not just about laws. It is about economic security, cultural pride, and community strength. Garveyism emphasized economic independence. The Civil Rights Movement emphasized voting and desegregation. SNCC emphasized direct action. Hamer emphasized shared leadership and truth-telling. All of these approaches mattered.

Overall, this reading taught me that Black liberation is a long and ongoing struggle. It did not begin with one leader, and it did not end with one law. It requires courage, unity, and imagination. Garveyism reminds us to dream big and think globally. The Civil Rights Movement reminds us to organize locally and demand justice. Figures like Fannie Lou Hamer remind us that ordinary people can change history. This reflection helped me appreciate the depth, complexity, and power of Black freedom movements.

Works Cited

Espinoza-Kulick, Mario Alberto Viveros, and Teresa Hodges. Garveyism. ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI), CC BY-NC 4.0.

Robnett, Belinda. How Long? How Long?: African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights. Oxford University Press, 1997.

Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1887 and became one of the most influential and well-known political activists in the early 20th Century. In 1910, he left Jamaica for England and later the United States. He continued to call all three countries home over the course of his life. Garvey is widely credited with being the leading voice for Panafricanism. His ideology emphasized pride, empowerment, and economic prosperity for Black communities, and is so widely studied and documented it came to be known as Garveyism. His speeches and writing encouraged people of African descent around the world to see themselves as part of a united community that could forge solidarity for economic and political alliances, as well as cultural and religious development. For example, the shared identity of Black people around the world was an essential mobilizing factor in the global movement to end South African Apartheid in the 1990s.

Black Power and Black Nationalism

Two political frameworks that are important for understanding Garveyism and Black Studies are Black Power and Black Nationalism. Black Power is a movement and political belief system that emphasizes building Black-serving institutions and leaders. The term Black Power was coined by Stokely Carmichael during a speech after being arrested for the 27th time in 1966. Black Nationalism is an ideology emphasizing pride in being Black, economic self-sufficiency, and Black separatism.

Panafricanism became the foundation for the idea of Blackness and Black identity, which brings together the experience of people of African heritage. This includes African people, African immigrants, and communities with origins on the African continent that have been enslaved, trafficked, and settled in various parts of the world, especially in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America. Marcus Garvey’s legacy lives on in the political and social changes that he inspired, and he is celebrated as the first National Hero of Jamaica. Figure  shows a mural of Marcus Garvey in Oakland, California, sporting a military officer’s outfit in a prideful, royal purple hue. This representation reflects Garvey’s ongoing significance as an inspiration for militant, radical advocacy on behalf of Black people. At the end of Garvey’s life in 1940, racial segregation was still legally enforced throughout the United States. It took many other activists and scholars to bring about the wide-scale changes that Garvey called for in his work.

Figure : Marcus Garvey mural in Oakland, CA (CC BY-NC 2.0; Thomas Hawk via Flickr)

The Civil Rights Movement

In the 1940s and 1950s, Black communities in the United States mobilized against Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in all aspects of life. Black people have been formally barred from many aspects of public life, including employment, education, housing, and voting. These legal conventions emboldened white people to participate in racial violence against Black people with no fear of consequence or retribution. This led to further restrictions on Black communities’ ability to travel, participate in culture, observe their religious beliefs, or exist in many public places where white people are present.

Mobilization for the Civil Rights Movement was driven by women working directly in the community in partnership with churches and religious institutions. While organizers had political goals of changing laws and policies, they also identified that community members had immediate needs for food, housing, education, and other social services. Churches often provided these services, and community members cultivated the time, capacity, and skills to participate in activism. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference brought together these religious groups to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. While women carried the movement forward on the front lines, the formal organizations and religious institutions in the Civil Rights Movement often prioritized charismatic male leaders to hold positions of authority and power (Robnett, 1997). This includes famous figures like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Figure  displays the statue of Martin Luther King (MLK) that is part of the U.S. Smithsonian Institute’s National Mall, alongside memorials of famous presidents like Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. Although MLK is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the history of Black people in the United States, he was just one of many influential leaders during this era who made change happen.

Figure : Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial (CC BY-SA 2.0; Scalet Sappho via Flickr)

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded in April 1960 and was widely recognized for their sit-ins, Freedom Rides, voter registration drives, and other direct-action campaigns. SNCC’s founding statement of purpose states, “Non-violence… seeks a social order of justice permeated by love… Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive community supersedes systems of gross social immorality.” 

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and Fannie Lou Hamer

Born to sharecroppers Lou Ella and James Lee Townsend in Montgomery County, Mississippi, on October 6, 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer was the youngest of 20 children. She worked as a sharecropper and a timekeeper for the plantation owner and was married to Perry Hamer. Fannie Lou was an outspoken civil rights activist that endured acts of violence by white doctors, policemen, and politicians. Hamer inspired many people to register to vote and ran for Congress to raise awareness around the acts of terror that white supremacists enacted to prevent Black people from voting.

Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in 1964. The Democratic Party in Mississippi barred participation from Black people, and they formed an all-white delegation for the National Democratic Party Convention. The “Dixiecrats” were a branch of southern Democrats who supported racial segregation and held substantial power in the U.S. South. MFDP organized voter registration drives for Black communities throughout Mississippi and supported Black leaders to run for office. They also protested the legitimacy of the Democratic Party delegation at the National Convention.

Sidebar: Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer was influential because she took a movement-wide perspective on leadership development and change. She was an advocate for the notion that “nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” This remark was delivered in a national speech presented in Washington, DC in 1971, where she said:

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Now, we’ve got to have some changes in this country. And not only changes for the black man, and not only changes for the black woman, but the changes we have to have in this country are going to be for liberation of all people—because nobody’s free until everybody’s free. And as I wage the Fight in the South, and as I move across the country in helping political people get in office, and as I look at the South and I think about the kind of things that have gone on in the South—right after I voiced my opinion about what had happened to Jo-Etha, the insurance was canceled on my house. On the twenty eighth of January 1971—not ‘61, people—after all of the working and all of the trials and all the tribulations that we’ve had in Mississippi, on January 28, 1974, my house was bombed.

– Fannie Lou Hamer, July 10, 1971, Washington, D.C.