Tink Hill gave another slice of history for our last meeting of the year. Marcus Garvey was born in 1877 in Jamaica. When he was young, his father taught him to depend only on himself. His education ended at age 14 and which time he went to work for a printer and learned the power of the printed word. He then started traveling around the Americas and saw blacks were doing the work while remaining on the lowest social rung. Garvey later went to London and read even more. Once of the books he read was Booker T Washington’s “Up from Slavery” which influenced him heavily. Garvey eventually ended up in Harlem where he started speaking about black people having their own country and that they should set up their own businesses relying upon themselves to create better communities. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. and also started a movement to go back to Africa and create a country for blacks. His message started to take off and over 2 million people registered with his group. Parades took place all over the country. Garvey set up his own shipping line for black companies and to transport people back to Africa and sold shares in his company to finance buying ships. These activities made the US and Great Britain nervous. The FBI paid informants to infiltrate Mr. Garvey’s group and provide info on activities. Eventually they accused Garvey of mail fraud and convicted him in 1925. His sentence was commuted and he was deported and died in London in 1940. He was later declared the first national hero of Jamaica and his movement influenced later black civil rights leaders. At the end of his presentation, Tink showed a short video about Marcus Garvey. Thanks, Tink for another enlightening talk!