I was born in the Island of Jamaica, British West Indies, on August 17, 1887.  My parents were black Negroes.  My father was a man of brilliant intellect and dashing courage.  He was unafraid of consequences.  He took human chances in the course of life, as most bold men do, and he failed at the close of his career.  He once had a fortune; he died poor.  My mother was a sober and concientious Christian, too soft and good for the world in which she lived.  She was the direct opposite of my father.  He was severe, firm, determined, bold amd strong, refusing to yield to even superior forces if he believed he was right.  My mother, on the other hand, was willing to return a smile for a blow, and ever ready to bestow charity upon her enemy.  Of this strange combination I was born thirty-six years ago, and ushered into a world of sin, the flesh and the devil.
     I grew up with other black and white boys.  I was never whipped by any, but made them all respect the strength of my arms.  I  got my education from many sources -- through private tutors, two public schools, two grammar or high schools and two colleges.  My teachers were men and women of varied experiences and abilities; four of ehem were eminent preachers.  They studied me and I studied them.  With some I became friendly in after years, others and I drifted apart, because as a boy they wanted to whip me, and I simply refused to be whipped.  It annoys me to be defeated; hence to me, to be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.
     I became a printer's apprentice an early age, while still attending school.  My apprentice master was a highly educated and alert man.  In the affairs of business and the world he had no peer.  He taught me many things before I reached twelve, and at fourteen I had enough intelligence and experience to manage men.  I was strong and manly, and made them respect me.  I developed a strong and forceful character, and have maintained it still.
     To me, at home in my early days, there was no difference between white and black.  One of my father's properties, the place where I lived most of
of the time, was adjoining that of a white man.  He had three girls and two boys; the Wesleyan minister, another white man, whose church my parents attended, also had property adjoining ours.  He had three girls and boy.  All of us were playmates.  We romped and were happy playing together.  The little white girl whom I liked most knew no better than I did myself.  We were two innocent fools who never dreamed of a race feeling and problem.  As a child, I went to school with white boys and girls, like all other Negroes.  We were not called Negroes then.  I never heard the term Negro used once until I was fourteen.
     At fourteen my little white playmate and I parted.  Her parents thought the time had come to separate us and draw the color line.  They sent her and another sister to Edinburgh, Scotland, and told her that she was not to think of me again for I was a "nigger".  It was then that I found for the first time that there was some difference in humanity,  and that there were different races, each having it's own separate and distinct social life.  I did not care about the separation after I was told about it, because I never thought all during our childhood association that the girl and the rest of the children of her race were better than I as; in fact they use to look up to me.  So I simply had no regrets.
     After my first lesson in race distinction I never thought of playing with white girls anymore, even if they might be next door neighbors.  At home my sister's company was good enouigh for me, and at school I made friends with the colored girls next to me.  White boys and I used to frolic together. we played cricket and baseball, ran races and rode bicycles together, took each other to the river, and to the sea beach to learn to swim, and made boyish efforts while out in deep water to drown each other, making a sprint for shore crying out "shark, shark, shark."  In all our expriences, however, only one black boy was drowned.  He went under on a Friday
afternoon after school hours, and his parents found him afloat half eaten by sharks on the following Sunday afternoon.  Since then we boys never went back to sea.....
     At eighteen I had an excellent position as manager of a large printing establishment, having under my control several men old enough to be my grandfathers.  But I got mixed up with public life.  I started to take an interest in the politics of my country, and then I saw the injustice done to my race because it was black, and I became dissatisfied on that account.  I went traveling to South and Central America and parts of the West Indies to find out if it was so elsewhere, and I found the same situation.  I set sail for Europe to find out if it was different there, and again I found the stumbling-block ---- "You are black."  I read the conditions in America.  I read "Up From Slavery, " by Booker T. Washington, and then my doom -- if I may so call it -- of being a race leader dawned upon me in London after I traveled through almost half of Europe.....
     Becoming naturally restless for the opportunity of doing something for the advancement of my race, I was determined that the black man would not continue to be kicked about by all the other races and nations of the world, as I saw it in the West Indies, South and Central America and Europe,  and as I read of it in America.  My young and ambitious mind let me into flights of great imagination.  I saw before me then, even as I do now, a new world of black men, not peons, serfs, dogs and slaves, but a nation of sturdy men making their impress upon civilization and causing a new light to dawn upon the human race.  I could not remain in London anymore.  My brain was afire.  There was a world of thought to conquer.  I had to start before it became to late and the work and the work be not done.  Immediately I boarded a ship at Southhampton for Jamaica, where I arrived on July 5, 1914.  The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial)  League was founded and organized five days after my arrival, with the program of uniting all the Negro peoples of the world into one great body to establish a country and Government absolutely their own.
     Where did he name of the organization come from?  It was while speaking to a West Indian Negro who was a passenger on the ship with me from Southampton, who was returning home to the West Indies from Basuto and with his Basuto wife, that I further learned of the horrors of native life in Africa.  He related to me in converstion such horrible and pitiable tales that my heart bled within me.  Retiring from the conversation to my cabin, all day and the following night I pondered over the subject matter of that conversation, and at midnight, lying flat on my back, the vision and thought came to me that I should name the organization the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League.  Such a name I thought would embrace the purpose of all black humanity.  Thus to the world a name was born, a movement created, and a man became known.
     I never really knew there was so much color prejudice in Jamaica, my own native home, until I started the work of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.  We started immediately before the war.  I had just returned from a successful trip to Europe,  which was an exceptional achievement for a black man.  The daily papers wrote me up with big headlines and told of my movement. But nobody wanted to be a Negro.  "Garvey is crazy: he has lost his head.  Is that the use he is going to make of his experience and intelligence?"
-----such were the criticisms passed upon me.  Men and women as black as I, and even more so, had believed themselves white under the West Indian order of society.  I was simply an impossible man to use openly the term "Negro"; yet every one beneath his breath was calling the black man a Negro.....
     I made my first political enemies in Harlem.  They fought me until they smashed the first organization and reduced its membership to about fifty.  I started again, and in two months built up a new organization of about 1,500 members.  Again the politicians came and divided us into two factions.  They took away all the books of the organization, its treasury and all its belongings.  At that time I was only an organizer, for it was not then my intention to remain in America, but to return to Jamaica.  The organization had its proper officers elected, and I was not an officer of the New York division, but the President of the Jamaica branch.
     On the second split in Harlem thirteen of the members conferred with me and requested me to become President for a time of the New York organization so as to save them from the politicians.  I consented and was elected President.  There then sprung up two factions, one led by the politicians with the books and the money, and the other led by me.  My faction had no money.  I placed at their diposal what money I had, opened an office for them, rented a meeting place, employed two women secretaries, went on the street of Harlem at night to speak for the movement.  In three weeks more than 2,000 new members joined.  By the time I had the association incorporated so as to prevent the other faction using the name, but in two weeks the politicians had stolen all the people's money and had smashed up their faction.
     The organization under my Presidency grew by leaps and bounds.  I started THE NEGRO WORLD.
Being a journalist, I edited this paper free of cost for the association, and worked for them without pay until November, 1920.  I traveled all over the country for the association at my own expense, and established branches in different cities.  By my writing and speeches we were able to build up a large organization of over 2,000,000 by June, 1919, at which time we launched the program of the Black Star Line.
     To have built up a new organization, which was not purely political,  among Negroes in America was a wonderful feat, for the Negro politician does not allow any other kind of organization within his race to thrive.  We succeeded, however, in making the Universal Negro Improvement Association so formidable in 1919 that we encountered more trouble from our political brethren.  They sought the influence of the District Attorney's office of the County of New York to put us out of business.  Edwin P. Kilroe, at that time an Assistant District Attorney, on the complaint of the Negro politicians, started to investigate us and the association.....
     During my many tilts with Mr. Kilgoe, the question of the Black Star Line was discussed.  He did not want us to have a line of ships.  I told him that evern as there was a White Star Line, we would have,
irrespective of his wishes,  a Black Star Line.  On June 27, 1919, we incorporated the Black Star Line of Delaware, and in September we obtained a ship.
     The following month (October) a man by the name of Tyler came to my office at 56 West 135th Street, New York City, and told me that Mr. Kilroe had sent him to "get me,'  and at once fired four shots at me from a .38 caliber revolver.  He wounded me in the right leg and the right side of my scalp.  I was taken to the Harlem Hospital, and he was arrested.  The next day it was reported that he committed suicide in jail just before he was to be taken before a City Magistrate.
     The first year of our activities for the Black Star Line added prestige to the Universal Negro Improvement Association.  Several hundred thousand dollars wosrth of shares were sold.  Our first ship, the steamship Yarmouth, had made two voyages to the West Indies and Central America.  The White press had flashed the news all over the world.  I, a young Negro, as President of the corporation, had become famous.  My name was discussed on five continents.  The Universal Negro Improvement Association gained millions of followers all over the world.  By August, 1920, over 4,000,000 persons had joined the movement.  A convention of all the Negro peoples of the world was called to meet in New York that month.
Delegates came from all parts of the known world.
Over 25,000 persons packed the Madison Square Garden on Aug.1 to hear me speak to the first Internationl Convention of Negroes.  It was a record breaking meeting, the first and the biggest of its kind.
The name of Garvey had become known as a leader of his race.
     Such fame among Negroes was too much for other race leaders and politicians to tolerate.  My downfall was planned by my enemies.  They laid all kinds of traps for me.  they scattered their spies among the employees of the Black Star Line and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.  Our office records were stolen.  Employees started to be openly
Marcus Garvey; In his own words

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