Document text
'FOLKLORE
Forms to be Filled out for Eacn Interview
NEW YORK
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WIMUTR Vivian Morris
Amuss 225 W. 130th St. New York
DATE Oct. 20, 1938
SUBJECT THE MAN WHO WAS ALMOST MADE KING.
1. Date and time o interview Oct. 4th, 5th, 10th, 12th, 19th
2. Place of interview
Informants home, 224 W. 140th St.
3. Name and address of informant
Wilbert J. Miller, 224 W. 140th Si. Apt 9
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
toucn with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accolilpanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Five room apartment, comfortably
furnished, Neighborhood entirely Negro.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
Personal History of Informant
STATE New York
NAME ()E V.:WAXEn. Vivian Morris
ADDMSS 225 W. 130th S,. New York
DATE Oct. 20th, 1938
SUBJECT THE MAN WHO WAS ALMOST MADE KING.
FOLKLORE
NE'`' YORK
1. Ancestry
2. Place and date of birth Jamaica, B. W. I. April 2nd 1870
8. Family Wife and one daughter
4. Places lived in, with dates Jamaica England and South Africa
5. Education, with dates Elementary
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates Interior Decorator
7. Special skills and interests
8. Community and religious activities Member of Seventh Day Adventist Church
Universal Negro Improvement Association
9. Description of informant About 5 ft 11 in. tall, Negro, mixed gilky hair
weight about 185 lbs.
10. Other Points gained in interview
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
'SANE OF WORKER. Vivian Morris
ADDRESS
225 W. 130th St. New York
DATE Oct. 20th, 1938
SUBJECT THE MAN WHO WAS ALMOST MADE KING.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
So you want me to tell you something about Negro Folklore
well, here's a story about a strapping, jet-black Negro that will live
as long as folk tales are handed down from generation to generation. To
many, he was a clown; a jester who wanted to play at being king but, to
hundreds of thousands of Negroes, he was a magnificent leader and martyr
to a great cause; complete and unconditional social and economic freedom
for Negroes everywhere. And, had it not been for one flaw in his plan
of cLction, there would probably be no more than a handful us Negroes
in America today.
His name was Marcus Garvey. He was born, so the records say,
on the island of Jamaica in the British West Indies about 1887, but few
people ever heard of him until he came to New York. He was a born orator
and his power to attract and hold an audience was destined to make him
famous.
I remember his first important speech.
"Wherever I go, whether it be France, Germany, England -or Spain,
I am told that there is no room for a Negro. The other races have countries
of their own and it is time for the 400,000,000 Negroes of the world to
claim Africa for themselves. Therefore, we shall demand and expect of
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the world a Free Africa. The black man has been serf, a tool, a slave
and peon long enough.
That day has ceased.
We have reached the time when every minute, every second must
count for something done, something achieved in the cause for Africa.
We need the freedom of Africa now. At this moment methinks, I see
Ethiopia stretching forth her hands unto God, and methinks I see the
Angel of God taking up the standard of the Red, the Black, and the
Green, and sayings; Men of the Negro race, Men of Ethiopia, follow me:
"It falls to our lot to tear off the shackles that bind Mother
Africa. Can you do it? You did it in the Revolutionary War. You did
it in the Civil War. You did it in the battles of Maine aid Verdum.
You did it in the Mesopotamia. You can do it marching up the battle
heights of Africa. Climb ye the heights of liberty and cease not in
well -doing until you have planted the banner of the Red, the Black,
and the Green upon the hilltops of Africa/"
These, my child, were the very words of the man Marcus Garvey,
whom many called the black Napoleon.I Remember themwell as you, perhaps,
remember Lincoln's Gettysburg address. He was standing there, strong
and forceful before a crowd of more than 25,000 Negroes who had assembled
in Madison Square Garden to consider the problems of the Negro race.
It was shortly after the World War; August 1920 I believe.
Well that was a sight to thrill you with pride. Imagine, huge
spacious Madison Square Garden, rocking with the yells of 25,000 frenzied
Negro patriots demanding a free Africa, from the Strait of Gibralter
to the cape of Good Hope-- A Negro republic run exclusively by and for
Negroes. Doesn't sound real, does it? Well, it happened --and it can
happen again, but not until another leader with Marcus Garvey's strength,
vision and courage comes along. Some people say that Father Divine is
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the answer to this need. Personally I doubt it. He is a good organizer
but his Divinites are not to b e compared with the powerful and vigorous
following once commanded by the Universal Negro -Improvement Association
that Garvey founded and built single-handed. Why, He had such a magnetic
personality that people flocked to see him wherever he went, and when
he appeafed on any platform to speak he'd have to wait sometimes five or
ten minutes before the loud ovations andsounds of gpplause subsided.
Then he would stride magestically forward in his cap and gown of purple,
green and gold, and the hall, arena, square, or whatever it was, would
become magically silent.
He was always an engima to the white people who flocked, in
great numbers, to hear him, They couldn't decide whether to consider
him a political menace or a harmless buffoon. But to his several
hundred thousand Negro followers he was a great leader with a wonderful
idea, an unequalled program of emancipation. He did not claim to be
a greet intellectual, a Frederich Douglas or Booker T. Washington, but
he was certainly endowned with color and originality; so much so that
he caught the fancy and commanded the solid support of the Negro. masses,
as no other man has done before or since. He had the unusual happy
faculty for stirring their race consciousness.
I can see him even now as he stood and exhorted his followers
at that first organizational meeting.
He read a telegram of greeting To Eamon De Valera, President
of the Irish Republic, Wait a minute, look among my papers and
find a copy of it for you.
Here it is. It says; "25,000 Negrod elegates assembled in
Madison Square
Garden in Mass Meeting, representing 4000,000,000 Negroes
of the world, send you greetings as President of the Irish Republic
Please accept sympathy of the Negroes of the world for your cause We
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believe Ireland should be free even as Africa shall be free for the
Negroes of the world. Keep up the fight for a free Ireland."
After that, he spoke at length and if I remember correctly,
his speech went something like this;
"We are descendants of a suffering people. We are descendants
of a people determined to suffer no longer. Our forefathers suffered
many years of abuse from an alien race.
It was claimed that the black man came from a backward people,
not knowing and not awake to the bigger callings of civilization.
That might have been true years ago, but it is not true today.,
Fifty-five years ago the black man was set free from slavery
on this continent. Now he declares that what is good for the white
man of this age is also good for the Negro. They as a race, claim
freedom, and claim the right to establish a democracy.
We shall now
organize the 400,000,000 Negroes of the World into a vast organization
to plant the banner of freedom on the great continent of Africa. We
have no apologies to make, and will make none. We do not desire what
has belonged to others, though others have always sought to deprive us
of that which belonged to us.
We new Negroes will dispute every inch of the way until we win.
We will begin by framing a bill of rights of the Negro race
with a constitution to guide the life and destiny of the 400,000,000.
The Constitution of the United States means that every white American
would shed his blood to defend that Constitution. The constitution*
of the Negro race will mean that every Negro will shed his blood to
defend his Constitution.
If Europe is for the Europeans, then Africa shall be for the
black peoples of the world, We say it. We mean it."
"WHE MAN WHO WAS ALMOST KING."
(continued)
Following the thirty day organizational convention of the
Universal Negro Improvement Association at Madison Square Garden, more
than three thousand delegates and sympathizers of the group gathered
in Harlem (at Liberty Hall, 140 West 138 Street, where they gave their
final approval of the declaration of rights of the Negro peoples of
the world. Delegates were there from Africa as well as the West Indian
and Bermuda Islands. It was a memorable occasion.
Decorating the huge hall were banners of the various
delegations. Prominently displayed also were the red, black aid
green flags of the new African Republic-toibe. A colorful, forty
piece band, a choir of fifty male and female voices and several
quartettes entertained the assembly all during the early part of the
evening. Afterwards. Marcus Garvey, president general of the association,
announced the business of the meeting and read the declaration.
Much applause greeted the reading of the preamble to the
declaration which stated: "In order to encourage our race all over
the world and to stimulate it to overcome the handicaps and difficulties
surrounding it, and to push forward to a higher and grander destiny,
we demand and insist upon the foll(wing declaration of rights."
Then followed the fifty four statements of rights that the
association demanded for Negroes everywhere. The first was similar
in form to the American Declaration of Independence. It read: 'Whereas
all men are created equal and entitled to the rights of life, liberty
and the pursuits of happiness, andbecause of this, we, dully elected
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representatives of the Negro people of the world, invoking the aid
of the just and almighty God, do declare all men, women and children
of our blook throughout the world free denizens, and do claim them
as free citizens of Africa, the motherland of all Negroes."
The first statement was greeted with loud and prolonged
applause, as were many others that followed it, but there was so much
enthusiasm, shouting, stamping of feet and other exhibitions of
approval at the conclusion of the following statement that the chairman
was forced to appeal, again and again for order. It read: "We
declare that no Negro shall engage himself in battle for an alien
race without first obtaining consent of the leader of the Negro
peoples of the world, except in a matter of national self-defense."
Another statement which met with popular fancy was:
"We assert that the Negro is entitled to even-handed justice before
all courts of law and equity, in whatever country he may be found,
and when this is denied him on account of his race or color, such
denial is an insult to the race as awhole, and should be resented by
the entire body of Negroes.
"We deprecate the use of the term 'nigger/ as applied to
Negores and demand that the word Inegrot be written with a Capital IN1.
"We demand a free and unfettered commercial intereouse with
all the Negro peoples of the world. We demand that the governments of
the world recognize our leader and his representatives chosen by the
race to look after the welfare of our people under such governments.
We call upon the various governments to represent the general welfare
of the Negro peoples of the world.
"We demand that our duly accredited representatives be given
proper recognition in all leagues, conferences, conventions or courts
of international arbitration whenever hvinan rights are discussed.
"We proclaim the first day of August of each year to be an
international holiday to be observed by all Negroes."
The thing that makes this ambitious adventure all the more
remarkable, my child, is the fact that all these strong resolutions
and gigantic plans were cenceived entirely by this one man, Marcus
Garvey, who, in the beginning, was just another underpriveleged
West Indian boy; a printer's apprentice. Fired with the idea of
welding the divided black masses of the world together, however, he
became an entirely different and revolutionary personality.
Garvey worked his way to London and studied, at night,
at the University. His education was supplemented by travel and
observations in the different European countries. He did not get to
Africa but listened attentively to many fellow ships' passengers
wo told of the cruelty inflicted on the natives in many districts.
Later, Garvey worked on freighters that touched several of the West
Indian, Central and South American ports. He had many opportunities
to observe the exploitation of the black workers of quite a few
different countries who createe vast fortunes for their white bosses
while they lived in abject poverty. Once he is quoted as having
said: "Poverty is a hellish state to be in. It is no virtue, It is
a crime."
And so, it was this inti ate knowledge of unfavorable work-
ing conditions for black men everywhere that fired the wandering, giant
Negro with his idea of a separate country and homeland for these
oppressed peoples; a country with a civilization second to none.
Africa, he felt, was the logical country. Thus was born the "Back
to Africa" movement.
Nineteen seventeen saw the actual beginning of the Garvey
movement but not until the Spring of nineteen eighteen did Marcus
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succeed in officially organizing the Universal Negro Improvement
Association.
Later, in the Fall, he established his own newspaper,
The Negro World" and began a systematic appeal for contributions
to the movement. It was also his medium for preaching his doctrines
to the out of town public. Week by week the paper's editorial pages
aired his opinions.
Soon, money began pouring into the coffers of the Association,
and it was not lon7 before Garvey organized a steamship company,
known as the Black Star Line, and scheduled to operate between the
West Indies, Africa and the United States. During the winter, of
1919 alone, more than half a million dollars worth of stock was sold
to Negroes. One Negro college in the state of Louisiana was reputed
to have raised seven thousand dollars for promotion of the scheme.
Three ships, Garvey said, had been bought from the entire proceeds of
the national fund: The Yarmouth, the Maceo and the Shadysiah. Another,
the Phyllis Wheatley, was advertised weekly in the Negro World. It
was claiL,ed that she would ply between Cuba, Si.. Kitts, Barbadoes,
Trinidad, Demerara, Dakar and Monrovia. The only hitch was, the date
of sailing never came. In fact, the mass inspection of the Phyllis
Wheatley that Garvey kept promising his followers, never came. Certain
doubters in the organization then began to wonder whether there was any
ship at all they went even further than that. They sent a delegation
to His Highness, the President, with a demand to See the boat. Garvey,
always at ease in the face of any difficult situation, that them that
he would attend to it the next day, When the next day came, he put
them off again. And so it went from day to day.
This difficult situation arose during the famous "first
convention" that was held in August 1920 and lasted for thirty days.
There was a grand and imposing parade through the streets of Harlem
and the colorful, regal mass meetings at Madison Square Garden and
Liberty Hall. Garvey said he was busy. There was nothing for the
delegates to do but wait. The publicity that the movement received
during this gigantic display of marching legions and blaring trumpets,
skyrocketed the circulation of the "Negro World" to the amazing figure
of 75,000 unprecedented in the field of weekly Negro journalism. It
WAS one of the instruments that made Garvey the most powerful black
man in America at that time. Harlem and black America were literally
at his feet.
Garvey then bought a chain of grocery stores, restaurants,
beauty and barber shops, laundries, womens' wear shops, and a score
or more of other small businesses. He instituted a one-man campaign
to completely monopolize the small industries in Harlem and drive
the white store -keepers out. His one big mistake came, however,
when he printed and issued circulars asking for additional purchasers
of Black Star Line stock and assuring prospective buyers of the
financial soundness of the company. This was too much for the
delegates who had been asking for a detailed accounting of the
Associations' funds thvoughout the entire convention only to get the
run around. They immediately petitioned the U. S. Post Office
Department of Inspection to invdstigate the companys books. When
the true state of affairs was brought to light, Garvey was immediately
indicted for using the mails to defraud. The investigation also
brought to light the fact that Garvey had collected thousand of dollars
for his so called "defense fund".
Well, to make a long story short, by June 1924, instead
of perching niajestically on his golden throne in some far away jungle
clearing, being waited and danced attendance upon by titled nobles,
the erstwhile Black Napoleon and Provisional President of Africa,
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found himself sitting, disconsolate and alone, in a bare cell of the
Tombs prison. It was the culmination of a 27 day trail in the United
States District Court. The jury, after listening to testimony and
arguments for practically the entire duration of that time, brought
in a verdict of 'guilty'. Marcus, the great, had been duly and
officially convicted of using the mails to defraud.
Loyal officers of the movement had a bail bondsman on hand,
ready to s ecure the release of their idol by the Assistant U. S.
District Attorney foiled this move by asking that Garvey be remained
to prison without bail. His req eat was granted when the Court was
told that Garvey's African Legion was well supplied with guns and
ammunition and would probably help their chief to escape.
And so, in the midst of heavily armed U. S. Marshalls and
a detatchment of New Yorlc City policemen, the "Leader of the Negro
Peoples of the World", was marched off to the, anything but comfortable
and homelike, atmosphere, of the Tombs. Later he was transferred to.
Atlanta. With him went his dreams of a great Black Empire, his visions
of a final welding of all Negroes into one strong, powerful nation,
with himself as dictator; his favorite supporters, elegant lords,
princes, dukes and other personages of high-sounding title: like
"High Commissioner", "His Higness and ttoyal Potentate", "Minister
of the African Legion", "The Right Honorable High Chancellor", "His
Excellency, Prince of Uganda", "Lord of the Nile" and so on.
Yes, there's no doubt about it, Garvey had grandiloquent
ideas. Concieving and attempting to put over big things was his
specialty. But like most dreamers, he dreamed just a little too much.
He was too little the realist. Otherwise, his story might have been
different. As it was, few of his dreams ever came true; not, mind
you, of their lack of soundness. I still fee that he was a great man,
honest and sincere. But he was not practical. Conducting a business
enterprise according to dstablished rules meant very little to him.
That was his undoing. But there was no denying the fact that he was
a colorful personality. The way he thought up such grand titles for
his subjects was only one manifestation of it. In defense of conferr-
in these titles, by the way, Garvey said:
"It is human nature that when you make a man know that
you are going to reward him and recognize and appreciate him for
services rendered, and place him above others, he is going to do the
best that is in him."
Garvey also called attention to the fact that the conferring
of degrees by colleges and universities adopted from European customs,
is only parallel to the conferring of titles by the Universal Negro
Improvement Association. The only difference being that one is
scholastic, the other political. And, perhaps he was right.