Marcus Garvey

Profession: Black Nationalist

Nationality:

Biography: Born in Jamaica, Garvey created the "Back-to-Africa" movement first in Jamaica then in New York, centered in Harlem. Garvey was a powerful orator and spoke across the US urging Black Americans to return to their ancestral homeland and installing a sense of pride in black heritage.

Garvey founded a number of businesses to support the movement, including the Black Star Line in 1919 and the newspaper "Negro World". However Garvey's policies of separatism brought him enemies and he was arrested for mail fraud in 1922, serving two years before his sentence was commuted by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927.

Garvey lost much of his influence in his later years, but remained a powerful inspiration for later civil rights leaders.

Born: August 17, 1887
Birthplace: Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica

Generation: Lost Generation
Star Sign: Leo

Died: June 10, 1940 (aged 52)