Thursday, February 25, 2010
Straighten It Out:Madam C.J. Walker
Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 on a Delta, Louisiana plantation, this daughter of former slaves transformed herself from an uneducated farm laborer and laundress into one of the twentieth century's most successful, self-made women entrepreneurs.
Orphaned at age seven, she often said, "I got my start by giving myself a start." She and her older sister, Louvenia, survived by working in the cotton fields of Delta and nearby Vicksburg, Mississippi. At 14, she married Moses McWilliams to escape abuse from her cruel brother-in-law, Jesse Powell.
Her only daughter, Lelia (later known as A'Lelia Walker) was born on June 6, 1885. When her husband died two years later, she moved to St. Louis to join her four brothers who had established themselves as barbers. Working for as little as $1.50 a day, she managed to save enough money to educate her daughter in the city's public schools. Friendships with other black women who were members of St. Paul A.M.E. Church and the National Association of Colored Women exposed her to a new way of viewing the world.
During the 1890s, Sarah began to suffer from a scalp ailment that caused her to lose most of her hair. She experimented with many homemade remedies and store-bought products, including those made by Annie Malone, another black woman entrepreneur. In 1905 Sarah moved to Denver as a sales agent for Malone, then married her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman. After changing her name to "Madam" C. J. Walker, she founded her own business and began selling Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing formula, which she claimed had been revealed to her in a dream. Madam Walker, by the way, did NOT invent the straightening comb or chemical perms, though many people incorrectly believe that to be true.
To promote her products, the new "Madam C.J. Walker" traveled for a year and a half on a dizzying crusade throughout the heavily black South and Southeast, selling her products door to door, demonstrating her scalp treatments in churches and lodges, and devising sales and marketing strategies. In 1908, she temporarily moved her base to Pittsburgh where she opened Lelia College to train Walker "hair culturists."
By early 1910, she had settled in Indianapolis, then the nation's largest inland manufacturing center, where she built a factory, hair and manicure salon and another training school. Less than a year after her arrival, Walker grabbed national headlines in the black press when she contributed $1,000 to the building fund of the "colored" YMCA in Indianapolis.
In 1913, while Walker traveled to Central America and the Caribbean to expand her business, her daughter A'Lelia, moved into a fabulous new Harlem townhouse and Walker Salon, designed by black architect, Vertner Tandy. "There is nothing to equal it," she wrote to her attorney, F.B. Ransom. "Not even on Fifth Avenue."
Walker herself moved to New York in 1916, leaving the day-to-day operations of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis to Ransom and Alice Kelly, her factory forelady and a former school teacher. She continued to oversee the business and to work in the New York office. Once in Harlem, she quickly became involved in Harlem's social and political life, taking special interest in the NAACP's anti-lynching movement to which she contributed $5,000.
In July 1917, when a white mob murdered more than three dozen blacks in East St. Louis, Illinois, Walker joined a group of Harlem leaders who visited the White House to present a petition advocating federal anti-lynching legislation.
As her business continued to grow, Walker organized her agents into local and state clubs. Her Madam C. J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America convention in Philadelphia in 1917 must have been one of the first national meetings of businesswomen in the country. Walker used the gathering not only to reward her agents for their business success, but to encourage their political activism as well. "This is the greatest country under the sun," she told them. "But we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice. We should protest until the American sense of justice is so aroused that such affairs as the East St. Louis riot be forever impossible."
By the time she died at her estate, Villa Lewaro, in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, she had helped create the role of the 20th Century, self-made American businesswoman; established herself as a pioneer of the modern black hair-care and cosmetics industry; and set standards in the African-American community for corporate and community giving.
Tenacity and perseverance, faith in herself and in God, quality products and "honest business dealings" were the elements and strategies she prescribed for aspiring entrepreneurs who requested the secret to her rags-to-riches ascent. "There is no royal flower-strewn path to success," she once commented. "And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard."
Monday, February 22, 2010
Respect The Originators:The History of Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life"
Man i was really happy to see my dude the 45 king get props he's the godfather of production.
see for yourself enjoy.
see for yourself enjoy.
This issh is funny: Sommore and Vanessa Fraction Standup Comedy
It's Monday and being that's it's the first day of a long work week I leave you this funny comic clip i found "Laughter is good people"
State Shine! Diamond District representing DMV
Been following this group for a min props to yU,XO,and Oddisee, holding the DMV down. There's allot of talent out in the DMV.
Monday Morning Jam Tune:DJ Kay Slay-Thug Love ft Ray-J,Maino,Papoose,&Red Cafe
"She needs that thug love"
Power in a Box? The Bloom Box
I so support this invention. The Bloom Box can change and shape the way we get power. And it's a green invention. I support anything that's green. Be on the look out folks!
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Thursday, February 18, 2010
psssst check this movie out! Straight out of Brooklyn:
Dennis, living in a housing project in Brooklyn, New York has had enough of poverty, and witnessing his alcoholic father beat his mother. His father is depressed and troubled from working hard for 'the white man' for so many years, yet having nothing to show for it.
Dennis and two friends come up with a plan to rob a local drug dealer and split the money. One of the friends asks his uncle to borrow his car, and then a connection he has gives him a shotgun for the operation.
Dennis keeps telling his girlfriend that they will soon have money and be able to move out of Brooklyn, but he does not actually tell her of the plan. When he does eventually explain what he is about to do, she leaves him and tells him the relationship is over. Meanwhile, his mother loses her job due to the bruises on her face as a result of the ongoing domestic violence.
On the day of the robbery, they wait in the car for the dealer to come out with a briefcase full of cash. As they drive up to him, Dennis points the gun in his face and tells him to hand over the bag, yet he doesn't actually shoot him like his friends were talking about just before. As a result, the dealer sees their faces, and after being ordered to get the money back from the gangster he works for, goes out looking for the three.
When Dennis and his friends take the briefcase back home and realise that it contains much more than they expected, the other two get scared and realize that they will be targeted for stealing the bag in the first place. After an argument with Dennis, they leave all the money with him and say they want nothing to do with it.
The same night, Dennis brings the money home to show his family and tell them they can move out of the projects, but his father is less than happy about what his son has done. This causes an argument in the house which leads to more violence and Dennis's mother having to go to hospital.
The next day at the hospital, Dennis' father goes out for some air when the drug dealer who was robbed sees him and recognizes who he is. They chase him and he is blocked on both sides and shot dead. At the same time, in the hospital Dennis' mother dies with her son and daughter by her side.
"I use to watch this movie like clock work good movie"
Slow Down:David Banner&9th Wonder feat Heather Victoria
This album is so needed for hip hop.
"I ask her why she got to shake her ass on every song? Baby slow down"
"I ask her why she got to shake her ass on every song? Baby slow down"
Band of Brothers:Memphis Bleek speaks About the Beanie Sigel's Dissess
I am a big Fan of both these artist and not taking any sides but Memphis Bleek sounds like he might have a point! Just my opinion.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
What your Life Like: Charles Drew
It's crazy that we do not have more heros or not taught such information like this in school. I will feed you the information it's your job to eat it. Props to Charles Drew-Inventor of the Blood Bank.
New Music: GLC-Lay it Down(feat Trouble Andrew
as all of you know i got my blog title from GLC"elevator hustle song" Props to GLC for making the raw and fresh music. This is my new daily song i play in the morning.
"Shut the F boy you starting to Piss me off"
"Shut the F boy you starting to Piss me off"
Rasheeda f/Nivea "Say Something" rmx
Props to Rasheeda. Been watching her hustle for a minute and she represent the Independent money! Props to all the cats doing their own thing who need no major to make moves and set trends. Salute to Rasheeda! A's up with the ATL brave Hat.
"I been grinding so long trying to reach the top of mount i want it all"
"I been grinding so long trying to reach the top of mount i want it all"
psssst check this out you might learn something: Something the Lord Made"
I am just saying:What is the standard weight limit to fly?
Ok yesterday me and my girl had a conversation she said i was wrong to laugh at this but all jokes aside what is the actual weight limit to fly? Again i am not laughing at this guy in particular i am just asking a question. Being a business owner do i change my resturant,establishment or plane for a person who is over weight? I need feed back people!
(PEOPLE.com) -- Kevin Smith's most famous role is a guy who rarely speaks. But he's got a lot to say -- much of it profane -- after being kicked off a Southwest Air flight because he didn't fit comfortably into the seat.
"You [messed] with the wrong sedentary processed-foods eater!" Smith, whose next film, "Cop Out," comes out February 26, posted on Twitter.
It was one of many Tweets recounting the actor/director's humiliating expulsion Saturday from the Oakland-to-Burbank, California, flight.
Southwest said in a statement airline officials had called Smith to offer their "heartfelt apologies," but also stated his removal was for the "safety and comfort of all customers."
Smith, 39, originally purchased two tickets "as he's been known to do when traveling Southwest," the airline noted, but when he decided to fly standby on an earlier flight, only one seat remained. Although he had been seated, he was asked to leave.
"If a customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement," Southwest said.
CNN: Do you have to be a celeb to tweet for airline help?
I'm Fat
Smith, who played Silent Bob in his "Clerks" movies and who has battled his weight for years -- "I know I'm fat," he confesses -- was given a $100 voucher and arrived in Burbank on a later flight. But he was in no mood to accept an apology.
"I broke no regulation, offered no 'safety risk' (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?)" he tweeted. "I saw someone bigger than me on THAT flight! But I wasn't about to throw a fellow Fatty under the plane as I'm being profiled. But he & I made eye contact, & he was like 'Please don't tell...'"
After landing in Burbank, Smith wrote, "Don't worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised."
Smith added that while the ordeal was embarrassing, his "Jersey Girl training" (the 2004 flop starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez) was helping him cope.
See full article at PEOPLE.com.
R.I.P. Big L
I know i am a day late. But your music and skills will never be matched R.I.P to a Legend. I remeber being in HighSchool Listening to Devils son i recorded off the Stretch and Bobbito show "damn the good ole days!
"Put it on Big L put it on"
"Put it on Big L put it on"
Friday, February 12, 2010
R.I.P. J-Dilla:Common on J-Dilla being the greatest Producer ever
R.I.P J-Dilla your music will always live on being a producer my self. I have listen to your music almost everyday and still can't believe how much music you made.
Here's my top 5 producers
1.J-Dilla
2.DJ Premier/Pete Rock "toss up"
3.DR Dre
4.RZA
5.Marley Marl
Here's my top 5 producers
1.J-Dilla
2.DJ Premier/Pete Rock "toss up"
3.DR Dre
4.RZA
5.Marley Marl
Sean Price: Shut the Fuck UP
http://content.onsmash.com/archives/33386Sean P is one of my favorite artist and my dude never hold his tongue. Love the mike Tyson clips at the end. P
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Biz Markie-Vapors
"I got another partner that's calm and plain he goes by the name of Big Daddy Kane"
New Music Tuesdays: Triple C's (Feat Masspike Miles & Rick Ross)-Finer Things In Life.
"Baraks just a puppet but no one listen to junkies, banana clip for those monkeys"
Dear Summer: Weldon Irvine:
I had a chance to meet this great composer,playwright,poet during my days of performing at the
nuyorican poets cafe. Mr Irvine was a legend.
check Jay-z "Dear Summer"
Weldon Jonathan Irvine, Jr. (October 27, 1943 – April 9, 2002), also known Master Wel,[1] was an American composer, playwright, poet,pianist and organist.
Biography:
Weldon Irvine, an African American, was born in Hampton, Virginia on October 27, 1943. He moved to New York City in 1965.[2] He was involved with various musical genres including Jazz-Funk, jazz, hip hop, funk, rhythm and blues, and gospel.[1] He served as the bandleader for jazz singerNina Simone and was a mentor to many New York hip-hop artists, including Q-Tip and Mos Def. He wrote over 500 songs,[3] including the lyrics for "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black", performed live for the first time by Nina Simone on the album Black Gold (1970). It became the official Civil Rights anthem.
Irvine's last major project was The Price of Freedom (1999), a compilation of original songs by hip-hop, jazz, funk, and R&B artists to respond to the shooting of Amadou Diallo.[2] Irvine committed suicide outside of EAB Plaza and in front of the Nassau Coliseum located in Uniondale, New York on April 9, 2002.[2] In 2004, Madlib produced a tribute to Weldon Irvine, A Tribute to Brother Weldon.[4]
Discography
- 1972: Liberated Brother (Nodlew)
- 1973: Time Capsule (Nodlew)
- 1974: Cosmic Vortex (Justice Divine)
- 1974: In Harmony (Strata-East Records)
- 1975: Spirit Man (RCA)
- 1976: Sinbad (RCA)
- 1979: The Sisters (Saucerman)
- 1994: Music Is the Key (Luv N Haight)
- 1995: Keyboards Wild DJ's Smile (Tuff City Records)
- 1998: Embrace the Positive (Nodlew)
- 2000: The Amadou Project: The Price of Freedom (Nodlew)
Discography
1972: Liberated Brother (Nodlew)
1973: Time Capsule (Nodlew)
1974: Cosmic Vortex (Justice Divine)
1974: In Harmony (Strata-East Records)
1975: Spirit Man (RCA)
1976: Sinbad (RCA)
1979: The Sisters (Saucerman)
1994: Music Is the Key (Luv N Haight)
1995: Keyboards Wild DJ's Smile (Tuff City Records)
1998: Embrace the Positive (Nodlew)
2000: The Amadou Project: The Price of Freedom (Nodlew)
Black History is every day! George Washington Carver
Facts in Brief
Birth:1861, probably on July 12
Died:January 5, 1943
Parents:His parents, Mary and Giles Carver, were slaves owned by Susan and Moses Carver
Education:He went to a school for black children in Neosho, Kansas. He later attended Simpson College and Iowa State University in Iowa.
George Washington Carver was a famous scientist. Carver did some work with agriculture. George discovered and did experiments with different plants used in farming. Carver helped make different pesticides to fight against insects that made life harder for the farmers. George Carver developed new ways or techniques that are still used today in farming today. Carver also found uses for different things like peanuts and other plants. He also was awarded many medals and honors during his life time. So I hope you learn something new about George Washington Carver and enjoy our report.
George Washington Carver was born around 1861, probably on July 12, but nobody really knows for sure. Carver was born to Mary and Giles on the Susan and Moses Carver plantation. George’s mother and father were slaves owned by Susan and Moses Carver in Diamond, Missouri. The Carver Museum marks the place where he was born. Later, after he was born he and his mother were kidnapped and taken down to Arkansas. Moses Carver then paid the money that he owed. They came back, and gave George back to Susan and Moses Carver. They kept Mary because they probably did not want to be bothered by the baby. George was raised by Moses and Susan Carver. As he got older people started calling him the “Plant Doctor”, because he was so good with plants.
When George was a teenager he went to a school for black children in Neosho, Kansas. He then spent the next ten years traveling through the Midwest. Carver studied whatever he could learn. He finally finished school in his early twenties. Then George spent time farming until he had enough money to go to Simpson College in Iowa. After some time at Simpson he went to Iowa State, and in 1894 he became the first black student to graduate from Iowa State University. In 1896, George Washington Carver received his Masters Degree from Iowa State University. At this time George was beginning to be known around the U.S. for the study of fungi and parasites, and also for the study of plants.
Later in 1896, George was invited to work at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He accepted the job, and was given the opportunity to build an agriculture building and laboratory. By 1897, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the small laboratory at Tuskegee Institute. At this time Carver began working on how to solve the problems the South was having with their fields. When Carver came to the Tuskegee Institute the peanut had not even been recognized as a crop. But later it became the sixth leading crop in the United States. In the South the peanut became the second most important crop, by 1940. Carver made more than three hundred different products from the peanut. George made things like wood stains, shampoo, face power, printer ink, vinegar, soap, coffee, butter, milk, and cheese. These were only a few things that he had that he made from peanuts. he also made different things from other plants. Carver produced paint pigment and talcum powder from southern clay and many other plants. George also found 118 ways to make industrial materials from sweet potatoes, like rubber. He also made five hundred dyes from various southern plants.
George Washington Carver received many medals and awards for his discoveries in science and agriculture. He received the Spingarn Medal for research (in agriculture chemistry). George received this medal from the Attorney General of Kansas, in Kansas City on September 4, 1923. Carver was awarded the Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts from the scientific body in Great Britain. George Carver was elected this in November of 1916. He was awarded the Roosevelt Medal for his service in the science field. He received the medal in 1939. George got the Humanitarian Award from the Variety Club of America. George Washington Carver received the Man of the Year Award from the magazine Progressive Farmer, a major south magazine. George had received a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Rochester. It was presented to him by Alan Valentine, the president of the University of Rochester.
One of his major accomplishment was the invention and promotion of the organic fertilizing method. This is the introduction of the crop rotation for restoring nutrients to the soil. Another one of his accomplishments was finding all the different ways to use the peanut and the sweet potato.
Carver was known for being a religious man. He never got married, but you could say that he was married to his work. Near the end of his life he donated his life savings to the George Washington Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee Institute. The institute then had five million dollars for better research thanks to Carver.
George Washington Carver died on January 5, 1943. He died from anemia and for being sick for so long. He was buried next to his friend, Booker T. Carver. In 1953, George Washington Carver National Monument was built, near his birthplace in Missouri. It was the first federal monument dedicated to a black person.
Black History is every day! Marcus Mosiah Garvey, JR
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940[1]) was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator. Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).[2]
Prior to the twentieth century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement focusing on Africa known as Garveyism.[2] Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam, to the Rastafari movement (which proclaims Garvey as a prophet). The intention of the movement was for those of African ancestry to "redeem" Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave it. His essential ideas about Africa were stated in an editorial in the Negro World titled “African Fundamentalism” where he wrote:
“ Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality… let us hold together under all climes and in every country…[3]
Early years
Garvey was born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on 17 August 1887, to Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Sr., a mason, and Sarah Jane Richards, a domestic worker and farmer. Of eleven siblings, only Marcus and his sister Indiana reached maturity.[4] Garvey's father was known to have a large library, and it was from his father that Marcus gained his love for reading.[2][5] Sometime in the year 1900, Garvey entered into an apprenticeship with his uncle, Alfred Burrowes. Like Garvey Sr., Burrowes had an extensive library, of which young Garvey made good use.[6][7] When he was about fourteen, Garvey left St. Ann's Bay for Kingston, where he found employment as a compositor in the printing house of P. A. Benjamin, Limited. He was a master printer and foreman at Benjamin when, in November 1907, he was elected vice-president of the Kingston Union. However, he was fired when he joined a strike by printers in late 1908. Having been blacklisted for his stance in the strike, he later found work at the Government Printing Office. In 1909, his newspaper The Watchman began publication, but it only lasted for three issues.
In 1910 Garvey left Jamaica and began traveling throughout the Central American region. He lived in Costa Rica for several months, where he worked as a time-keeper on a banana plantation. He began work as editor for a daily newspaper titled La Nacionale in 1911. Later that year, he moved to Colón, Panama, where he edited a biweekly newspaper before returning to Jamaica in 1912.
After years of working on the Caribbean, Garvey left Jamaica to live in London from 1912 to 1914, where he attended Birkbeck College, worked for the African Times and Orient Review, published by Dusé Mohamed Ali, and sometimes spoke at Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner.
[edit]Founding and Projects of the UNIA-ACL
During his travels, Garvey became convinced that uniting Blacks was the only way to improve their condition. Towards that end, he departed England on 14 June 1914 aboard the S.S. Trent, reaching Jamaica on 15 July 1914. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in August 1914 as a means of uniting all of Africa and its diaspora into "one grand racial hierarchy." Amy Ashwood, who would later be Garvey's first wife, was among the founders. As the group's first President-General, Garvey's goal was "to unite all people of African ancestry of the world to one great body to establish a country and absolute government of their own."[8]
Following much reflection the following day and night about what he learned, he named the organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League."[9]
After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, Garvey arrived in the U.S. on 23 March 1916 aboard the S.S. Tallac to give a lecture tour and to raise funds to establish a school in Jamaica modeled after Washington's Tuskegee Institute. Garvey visited Tuskegee, and afterward, visited with a number of Black leaders. After moving to New York, he found work as a printer by day. He was influenced by Hubert Harrison. At night he would speak on street corners, much like he did in London's Hyde Park. It was then that Garvey perceived a leadership vacuum among people of African ancestry. On 9 May 1916, he held his first public lecture in New York City at St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery and undertook a 38-state speaking tour.
In May 1917, Garvey and thirteen others formed the first UNIA division outside Jamaica and began advancing ideas to promote social, political, and economic freedom for Blacks. On 2 July, the East St. Louis riots broke out. On July 8, Garvey delivered an address, titled "The Conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots," at Lafayette Hall in Harlem. During the speech, he declared the riot was "one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind." By October, rancor within the UNIA had begun to set in. A split occurred in the Harlem division, with Garvey enlisted to become its leader; although he technically held the same position in Jamaica.
Garvey next set about the business of developing a program to improve the conditions of those of African ancestry "at home and abroad" under UNIA auspices. On 17 August 1918, publication of the widely distributed Negro World newspaper began. Garvey worked as an editor without pay until November 1920. By June 1919 the membership of the organization had grown to over two million.
On 27 June 1919, the Black Star Line of Delaware, was incorporated by the members of the UNIA with Garvey as President. By September, it obtained its first ship. Much fanfare surrounded the inspection of the S.S. Yarmouth and its rechristening as the S.S. Frederick Douglass on 14 September 1919. Such a rapid accomplishment garnered attention from many.
One person who noticed was Edwin P. Kilroe, Assistant District Attorney in the District Attorney's office of the County of New York. Kilroe began an investigation into the activities of the UNIA, without finding any evidence of wrongdoing or mismanagement. After being called to Kilroe's office numerous times, Garvey wrote an editorial on Kilroe's activities for the Negro World. Garvey was arrested and indicted for criminal libel in relation to the article, but charges were dismissed after Garvey published a retraction.
While in his Harlem office at 56 West 156th Street on 14 October 1919, Garvey received a visit from George Tyler, who told him that Kilroe "had sent him" to get Garvey. Tyler then pulled a .38-caliber revolver and fired four shots, wounding Garvey in the right leg and scalp. Garvey was taken to the hospital and Tyler arrested. The next day, it was let out that Tyler had committed suicide by leaping from the third tier of the Harlem jail as he was being taken to his arraignment.
By August 1920, the UNIA claimed four million members. That month, the International Convention of the UNIA was held. With delegates from all over the world in attendance, over 25,000 people filled Madison Square Garden on 1 August to hear Garvey speak.
Another of Garvey's ventures was the Negro Factories Corporation. His plan called for creating the infrastructure to manufacture every marketable commodity in every big U.S. industrial center, as well as in Central America, the West Indies, and Africa. Related endeavors included a grocery chain, restaurant, publishing house, and other businesses.
"Explanation of the Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association"
Complete 1921 speech
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
Convinced that Blacks should have a permanent homeland in Africa, Garvey sought to develop Liberia.
The Liberia program, launched in 1920, was intended to build colleges, universities, industrial plants, and railroads as part of an industrial base from which to operate. However, it was abandoned in the mid-1920s after much opposition from European powers with interests in Liberia. In response to suggestions that he wanted to take all Americans of African ancestry back to Africa, he wrote, "We do not want all the Negroes in Africa. Some are no good here, and naturally will be no good there."[10]
Garvey has been credited with creating the biggest movement of people of African descent. This movement that took place in the 1920s is said to have had more participation from people of African descent than the Civil Rights Movement. In essence the UNIA was the largest Pan-African movement.
[edit]Charge of mail fraud
In a memorandum dated 11 October 1919[11], J. Edgar Hoover, special assistant to the Attorney General, and head of the General Intelligence Division (or "anti-radical division") [12] of The Bureau of Investigation or BOI (after 1935, the Federal Bureau of Investigation),[13] wrote a memorandum to Special Agent Ridgely regarding Marcus Garvey. In the memo, Hoover wrote that:
“ Unfortunately, however, he [Garvey] has not as yet violated any federal law whereby he could be proceeded against on the grounds of being an undesirable alien, from the point of view of deportation.[14][15] ”
Sometime around November 1919 an investigation by the BOI was begun into the activities of Garvey and the UNIA. Toward this end, the BOI hired James Edward Amos, Arthur Lowell Brent, Thomas Leon Jefferson, James Wormley Jones, and Earl E. Titus as its first five African-American agents. Although initial efforts by the BOI were to find grounds upon which to deport Garvey as "an undesirable alien", a charge of mail fraud was brought against Garvey in connection with stock sales of the Black Star Line after the U.S. Post Office and the Attorney General joined the investigation.[15]
The accusation centered on the fact that the corporation had not yet purchased a ship with the name "Phyllis Wheatley".[clarification needed] Although one was pictured with that name emblazoned on its bow on one of the company's stock brochures, it had not actually been purchased by the BSL and still had the name "Orion". The prosecution produced as evidence a single empty envelope which it claimed contained the brochure. During the trial, a man by the name of Benny Dancy testified that he didn't remember what was in the envelope, although he regularly received brochures from the Black Star Line. Another witness for the prosecution, Schuyler Cargill, perjured himself after admitting[16] to having been told to mention certain dates in his testimony by Chief Prosecutor Maxwell S. Mattuck. Furthermore, he admitted that he could not remember the names of any coworkers in the office, including the timekeeper who punched employees' time cards. Ultimately, he acknowledged being told to lie by Postal Inspector F.E. Shea. [17] He said Shea told him to state that he mailed letters containing the purportedly fraudulent brochures. The Black Star Line did own and operate several ships over the course of its history and was in the process of negotiating for the disputed ship at the time the charges were brought. Assistant District Attorney, Leo H. Healy, who was, before he became a District Attorney, attorney for Harris McGill and Co., the sellers of the first ship, the S. S. Yarmouth, to the Black Star Line Inc. was also a key witness for the government during the trial. [18]
Of the four Black Star Line officers charged in connection with the enterprise, only Garvey was found guilty of using the mail service to defraud. His supporters called the trial fraudulent. While there were serious accounting irregularities within the Black Star Line and the claims he used to sell Black Star Line stock could be considered misleading, Garvey's supporters still contest that the prosecution was a politically motivated miscarriage of justice, given the above-mentioned false statement testimony and Hoover's explicit regret that Garvey had committed no crimes.
When the trial ended on 23 June 1923, Garvey had been sentenced to five years in prison. He initially spent three months in the Tombs Jail awaiting approval of bail. While on bail, he continued to maintain his innocence, travel, speak and organize the UNIA. After numerous attempts at appeal were unsuccessful, he was taken into custody and began serving his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on 8 February 1925.[19] Two days later, he penned his well known "First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison" wherein he makes his famous proclamation:
“ Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.[20] ”
Professor Judith Stein has stated, “his politics were on trial.”[21]
Garvey's sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. Upon his release in November 1927, Garvey was deported via New Orleans to Jamaica, where a large crowd met him at Orrett's Wharf in Kingston. A huge procession and band converged on UNIA headquarters.
[edit]Criticism
While W. E. B. Du Bois expressed the Black Star Line was “original and promising,”[22] he also said: “Marcus Garvey is, without doubt, the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and in the world. He is either a lunatic or a traitor.”[23] Du Bois feared that Garvey's activities would undermine his efforts toward black rights.[citation needed]
Garvey suspected Du Bois was prejudiced against him because he was a Caribbean native with darker skin. Du Bois once described Marcus Garvey as "a little, fat black man; ugly, but with intelligent eyes and a big head."[24] Garvey called Du Bois “purely and simply a white man's nigger" and "a little Dutch, a little French, a little Negro … a mulatto … a monstrosity.” This led to an acrimonious relationship between Garvey and the NAACP.[25] Garvey accused Du Bois of paying conspirators to sabotage the Black Star Line to destroy his reputation.[26]
At the National Conference of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1921 a Los Angeles delegate Noah Thompson spoke on the floor complaining on the lack of transparency in the group's financial accounts. When accounts were prepared Thompson highlighted several sections with what he felt were irregularities.
Garvey recognized the influence of the Ku Klux Klan, and in early 1922, he went to Atlanta, Georgia, for a conference with KKK imperial giant Edward Young Clarke.
According to Garvey, “I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman, as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying.”[27] Leo H. Healy publicly accused Garvey of being a member of the Ku Klux Klan in his testimony during the mail fraud trial. [18]
After Garvey's entente with the Ku Klux Klan, a number of African American leaders appealed to U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty to have Garvey incarcerated.[28]
Although historians tend to side with Du Bois, Theodore Vincent's "Black Power and the Garvey Movement" contends that, "Cronon and most other scholars dealing with Garvey have misunderstood their subject, and have written off as unimportant a man who founded a most significant movement for black freedom." This book is devoted to dispelling "militant" criticism of Garvey from people like W. E. B. Du Bois.
[edit]Later years
In 1928, Garvey travelled to Geneva to present the Petition of the Negro Race. This petition outlined the worldwide abuse of Africans to the League of Nations. In September 1929, he founded the People's Political Party (PPP), Jamaica's first modern political party, which focused on workers' rights, education, and aid to the poor.
Also in 1929, Garvey was elected councilor for the Allman Town Division of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). However, he lost his seat because of having to serve a prison sentence for contempt of court. But, in 1930, Garvey was re-elected, unopposed, along with two other PPP candidates.
In April 1931, Garvey launched the Edelweiss Amusement Company. He set the company up to help artists earn their livelihood from their craft. Several Jamaican entertainers — Kidd Harold, Ernest Cupidon, Bim & Bam, and Ranny Williams — went on to become popular after receiving initial exposure that the company gave them.
In 1935, Garvey left Jamaica for London. He lived and worked in London until his death in 1940. During these last five years, Garvey remained active and in touch with events in war-torn Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia) and in the West Indies. In 1937, he wrote the poem Ras Nasibu Of Ogaden[29] in honor of Ethiopian Army Commander (Ras) Nasibu Emmanual. In 1938, he gave evidence before the West Indian Royal Commission on conditions there. Also in 1938 he set up the School of African Philosophy in Toronto to train UNIA leaders. He continued to work on the magazine The Black Man.
In 1937, a group of Garvey's American supporters called the Peace Movement of Ethiopia openly collaborated with Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo in the promotion of a repatriation scheme introduced in the US Congress as the Greater Liberia Act. In the Senate, Bilbo was a supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Bilbo was an outspoken supporter of segregation and white supremacy and, attracted by the ideas of Black separatists like Garvey, Bilbo proposed an amendment to the federal work-relief bill on 6 June 1938, proposing to deport 12 million black Americans to Liberia at federal expense to relieve unemployment.[30] He took the time to write a book titled Take Your Choice, Separation or Mongrelization, advocating the idea. Garvey praised him in return, saying that Bilbo had "done wonderfully well for the Negro".[31]
During this period, Evangeline Rondon Paterson the grandmother of the current (55th) Governor of New York, David Paterson served as his secretary.
[edit]Death
See also: List of premature obituaries
On 10 June 1940, Garvey died after two strokes, putatively after reading a mistaken, and negative, obituary of himself in the Chicago Defender which stated, in part, that Garvey died "broke, alone and unpopular".[32] Because of travel conditions during World War II, he was interred at Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Rumours claimed that Garvey was in fact poisoned on a boat on which he was travelling and that was where and how he actually died.
In 1964, his remains were exhumed and taken to Jamaica. On 15 November 1964, the government of Jamaica, having proclaimed him Jamaica's first national hero, re-interred him at a shrine in National Heroes Park.
[edit]Personal life
Marcus Garvey was married twice: to the Jamaican Pan-African activist Amy Ashwood (married 1919, divorced 1922), who worked with him in the early years of UNIA; then to the journalist and publisher Amy Jacques (married 1922). The latter was mother to his two sons, Marcus Jr. (born 17 September 1930) and Julius.
[edit]Influence
The UNIA flag uses three colors: red, black and green.
Garvey's memory has been kept alive.[33] Schools, colleges, highways, and buildings in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States have been named in his honor. The UNIA red, black, and green flag has been adopted as the Black Liberation Flag. Since 1980, Garvey's bust has been housed in the Organization of American States' Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.
Malcolm X's parents, Earl and Louise Little, met at a UNIA convention in Montreal. Earl was the president of the UNIA division in Omaha, Nebraska and sold the Negro World newspaper while Louise was a contributor to the Negro World.
Kwame Nkrumah named the national shipping line of Ghana the Black Star Line in honor of Garvey and the UNIA. Nkrumah also named the national soccer team the Black Stars as well. The black star at the center of Ghana's flag is also inspired by the Black Star Line.
Flag of Ghana
During a trip to Jamaica, Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King visited the shrine of Marcus Garvey on 20 June 1965 and laid a wreath.[34] In a speech he told the audience that Garvey "was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody."[35]
King was also the posthumous recipient of the first Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights on 10 December 1968 issued by the Jamaican Government and presented to King's widow.
The United States of Africa first saw light in a 1924 poem by Garvey and is still discussed.
There have been pop culture references to Marcus Garvey since he first came on the international scene. Garvey is cited repeatedly in a diverse variety of books, songs and films. He is mentioned particularly frequently in blues, reggae, jazz and hip hop music.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Marcus Garvey on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[36]
[edit]Rastafari and Garvey
Rastafarians consider Garvey a religious prophet, and sometimes even the reincarnation of Saint John the Baptist. This is partly because of his frequent statements uttered in speeches throughout the 1920s, usually along the lines of "Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned for the day of deliverance is at hand!"[37]
His beliefs deeply influenced the Rastafari, who took his statements as a prophecy of the crowning of Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. Early Rastas were associated with his Back-to-Africa movement in Jamaica. This early Rastafari movement was also influenced by a separate, proto-Rasta movement known as the Afro-Athlican Church that was outlined in a religious text known as the Holy Piby — where Garvey was proclaimed to be a prophet as well. Thus, the Rastafari movement can be seen as an offshoot of Garveyite philosophy. As his beliefs have greatly influenced Rastafari, he is often mentioned in reggae music.
Garvey himself never identified with the Rastafari movement, and
was, in fact, raised as a Methodist who went on to become a Catholic.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Killa B, Main Da Medicine, Rayne, LQ, Streets, - Donuts For Dinner Mixtape Hosted by S.L.U.M. Production @ DatPiff.com
Killa B, Main Da Medicine, Rayne, LQ, Streets, - Donuts For Dinner Mixtape Hosted by S.L.U.M. Production @ DatPiff.com
Even though this CD came out last year this is a great CD. Support Good Music i do this for you good music do exist.
one love!
Even though this CD came out last year this is a great CD. Support Good Music i do this for you good music do exist.
one love!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)