Tony Martin Knihy

In 1937, Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and one of the most controversial figures in the history of race relations, assembled his most trusted organizers to impart his life's lessons. For one month he instructed this elite student body — at its peak the largest international mass movement of African peoples — on topics ranging from universal knowledge and how to attain it to leadership, character, God, and the social system.  A crucial guide to the understanding of Garvey's philosophy and teachings, Message to the People features profound insights into the nascent days of the Civil Rights movement. This volume will prove an enlightening companion to students of African American and twentieth-century history.

Originally published in two volumes between 1923 and 1925, Africa for Africans; Or, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey is a compilation of letters, speeches and essays by one of the Fathers of Pan-Africanism. Hailed by Martin Luther King Jr. as, "the first man of color...to make the Negro feel like he was somebody," Garvey was a polarizing yet influential figure whose legacy continues to be felt today. These philosophies, collected by his second wife and pioneering journalist, Amy Jacques Garvey, chronicle Garvey's initial impressions and recollections of America, the formation of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A.), his imprisonment and subsequent trial over the Black Star Line, and his scathing opinions of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) Including such pieces as, "An Appeal to the Soul of White America," "The Negro's Greatest Enemy," and "Declaration of Rights of the Negroes of the World," Africa for Africans; Or, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey is an essential piece of Black history, professionally typeset and reimagined for modern readers.

Focusing on the Garveyites, Martin's book highlights their passionate engagement with literature, challenging the notion that only organizations like the NAACP and Urban League were influential in this realm. By showcasing the literary contributions and cultural fervor of the Garvey movement, it provides a necessary corrective to historical narratives, emphasizing their significance in the broader context of African American literary and cultural history.

This collection of Garvey's writing remains the most famous collection of Garvey's speeches and essays. Marcus Garvey and the "Universal Negro Improvement Association" form a critical link in black America's centuries-long struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. As the leader of the largest organized mass movement in black history and progenitor of the modern "black is beautiful" ideal, Garvey is now best remembered as a champion of the back-to-Africa movement. In his own time he was hailed as a redeemer, a "Black Moses." Though he failed to realize all his objectives, his movement still represents an attempt at liberation from the psychological bondage of racial inferiority.