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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 35. The Negro Protest - 7. The Garvey Movement
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Chapter 35. The Negro Protest 747
black to spare the Negroes the humiliation of worshiping the images of
white men. He preached the purity of the race and condemned amalgama-
tion. He gave Africa a grand history and instilled a new pride of ancestry
among even the downtrodden lower class Negroes in America:
But when we come to consider the history of man, was not the Negro a power,
was he not great once? Yes, honest students of history can recall the day when Egypt,
Ethiopia and Timbuctoo towered in their civilizations, towered above Europe,
towered above Asia. When Europe was inhabited by a race of cannibals, a race of
savages, naked men, heathens and pagans, Africa was peopled with a race of cultured
black men, who were masters in art, science and literature; men who were cultured
and refined; men, who, it was said, were like the gods. Even the great poets of old
sang in beautiful sonnets of the delight it afforded the gods to be in companionship
with the Ethiopians. Why, then, should we lose hope? Black men, you were once
great; you shall be great again. Lose not courage, lose not faith, go forward. The
thing to do is to get organized; keep separated and you will be exploited, you will
be robbed, you will be killed. Get organized, and you will compel the world to
respect you. If the world fails to give you consideration, because you are black men,
because you are Negroes, four hundred millions of you shall, through organization,
shake the pillars of the universe and bring down creation, even as Samson brought
down the temple upon his head and upon the heads of the Philistines.^®
The only hope for American Negroes was to flee this country of oppres-
sion and return to Africa. In solidarity with all the Negro peoples in the
world, they should then build up a country of their own. Negroes should
become a nation and have the opportunity to live under their own leader-
ship and to develop their own culture.
Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa! Let us work toward the one glorious end of
a free, redeemed and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the con-
stellation of nations.^®
He appealed to the League of Nations and took up negotiations with the
Republic of Liberia. An army would eventually be needed to drive out the
white usurpers: and so Garvey founded the Universal African Legion,
The Universal Black Cross Nurses, the Universal African Motor Corps,
the Juvenile, The Black Eagle Flying Corps—all with uniforms and
ofiicers. A steamship line also was needed: and so he sponsored the organiza-
tion of the Black Star Line and purchased ships.
The Empire of Africa was formally announced in 1921, and Garvey was
inaugurated President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Asso-
ciation and provisional President of Africa. He ruled with the assistance of
one Potentate and one Supreme Deputy Potentate and created a nobility of
Knights of the Nile, Knights of the Distinguished Service Order of Ethio-
pia, and Dukes of the Niger and of Uganda. He staged parades and conse-
crated a flag for his organization: black, red, and green
—‘^black for the
race,’^ ^^red for their blood^^ and ^^green for their hopes.^^ In the devices of
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