The Marcus Garvey Story – Part III

FROM THE moment some people in Jamaica and the United States became aware of Garvey’s existence, and understood what he intended to do, they began to oppose him and attempted to wear down his resolve. The campaign against Garvey came from the wider community and people within his own organisation. Chief among his detractors were W.E.B. DuBois, Wilfred Adolphus Domingo and A. Philip Randolph. The latter two had been early associates and supporters of Garvey and the UNIA.

But, Garvey’s most powerful enemy was the government of the United States, which continually harassed him and other UNIA members. In July 1919, the Bureau of Investigation, a forerunner to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, began to monitor the activities of Garvey and other black radicals. Head of the Bureau, J. Edgar Hoover, a young government attorney fresh out of law school, was the government’s top expert on radical movements, and he led the government’s campaign against Garvey.

BLACK AGENT

In 1919, he hired the bureau’s first black agent, James Wormley Jones, in order to infiltrate the UNIA, and get inside information on its activities. The infiltration of the UNIA was so intense that one of Garvey’s closest confidants, Herbert Boulin, a Jamaican, was a spy for the Bureau.

In 1921, the Department of State tried to keep Garvey out of the country, while he was on a business trip to Central America and the West Indies. He was forcibly kept out of the United States for several months. Upon the complaints of the black politicians, Edwin P. Kilroe, at the time a New York County assistant district attorney, started to investigate the UNIA. He constantly called Garvey to his office, but failed to tell him what exactly was going on.

After about the ninth visit Garvey published an anti-Kilroe article in The Negro World, alleging that District Attorney Kilroe had offered former UNIA auditors immunity from prosecution should they help frame him for breaking the law. It was regarded as a piece of criminal libel for which Garvey was indicted and arrested. Garvey was jailed at the Manhattan Detention Centre in New York City in 1919. He was released once he was able to post bail in the sum of US$3000. The court case was later concluded when Garvey offered a public apology and printed a retraction. When Garvey was shot on October 19, 1919, a man named George Tyler claimed that it was Kilroe who had sent him to shoot Garvey.

ARRESTED AND CHARGED

In January 1922, Marcus Garvey and three officers: Orlando Thompson (vice president); Elie Garcia (secretary) and George Tobias (treasurer) from the Black Star Line Shipping Company were arrested and charged with mail fraud. Garvey had nine counts against himself. The charges stemmed from allegations that they fraudulently collected money through the US mail services to purchase a ship, the SS Phillis Wheatley, that was never acquired. Garvey was later released on a US$2500 bail.

After a four-week trial, on June 18, 1923, the jury that had retired for 10 hours returned with a guilty verdict. Garvey was convicted of one count of mail fraud, and sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison. He was also fined US$1,000, and ordered to pay the entire cost of the trial. His three co-defendants were cleared of all charges, and eventually released.

The court refused to give him bail, but granted a stay of execution pending appeal. He was held for three months. On September 10, 1923 Garvey was finally granted bail to the tune of US$15,000. There were many complaints of bias and irregularities at the trial. There was no concrete evidence to support the charges and Garvey’s conviction. On November 18, 1927 after serving two years in prison, Garvey did, however, have his original sentence commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. Upon his release, Garvey was immediately deported to Jamaica.

FAREWELL SPEECH

Before he left on December 2, he gave his farewell speech to a group of disappointed supporters at the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana who had gathered to see him off as he passed through on the SS Saramacaen route to Jamaica. He was not allowed to leave the ship, but he delivered an impassioned address to them.

When Marcus arrived in Kingston, Jamaica on December 10, 1927 he was greeted by a massive crowd. The Gleaner called it “the most historic event” in Kingston, up to that point. In the evening he gave a most impassioned speech at the Ward Theatre to thousands of his supporters. And for the next eight years he turned his attention to the constitutional rights of black Jamaicans, and, of course, to the messages and objectives of the UNIA.

Garvey established Jamaica’s first modern political party in December 1928, the People’s Political Party. He was elected municipal councillor on October 31, 1929 in the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation to represent the Allman Town Division. He won by 321 to 102 votes. Garvey ran again, unopposed, in 1930 and regained his seat.

TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

Garvey established the Jamaican Workers and Labourers Association in 1930, being its chairman. This organisation is regarded the precursor to the trade union movement in Jamaica. Four years later, he chaired a deputation from the Permanent Jamaica Development Convention, which was established in September 1934 by delegates from all 14 parishes in Jamaica. Garvey also returned to publishing newspapers, The Watchman from 1929 to 1931; The New Jamaican from 1932 to 1933, when he started The Black Man: A Monthly Magazine of Negro Thought and Opinion.

In April 1931, Garvey, the man who was an expert debater and public orator, playwright, poet, publisher, songwriter, established Eidelweiss Park Amusement Company at Slipe Road, St Andrew, to promote a cultural and recreational programme supporting his social and political philosophies. It was a popular showplace, and the new UNIA international headquarters, where on August 6, 1929, the Sixth International Convention of Negro Peoples of the World was held. It was a grand event with thousands of delegates from all over the world in attendance. In retrospect, it was one of Garvey’s last hurrahs as the tides against him were getting much stronger than his resolve.