Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr., ONH (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940), was a Jamaican political activist leader. He started the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. He inspired Rastafarians and the Nation of Islam. Garvey was a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist. His ideas came to be known as Garveyism.
Garvey was born in Jamaica. He left Jamaica in 1910. He lived in Costa Rica for a few months. In 1912 he moved back to Jamaica. The Marcus Garvey Award is given each year to a Jamaican by JAM. He was an important activist during the Back-to-Africa movement.
Garvey was controversial because he supported the separation of black and white people and even supported the Ku Klux Klan.[1] He thanked white people for Jim Crow laws as well.[1]
Garvey had a stroke in January 1940 and this caused many to believe he had died.[2] In fact, many early obituaries of Garvey were released, some of which Garvey read himself.[2] He died in London on June 10, 1940 shortly after reading another early obituary of him, aged 52.[3][2]