Garveyism is an aspect of black nationalism that refers to the economic, racial and political policies of UNIA-ACL founder Marcus Garvey .
113-532: Ethiopia, thou land of our fathers, Thou land where the gods loved to be, As storm cloud at night suddenly gathers Our armies come rushing to thee. We must in the fight be victorious When swords are thrust outward to gleam; For us will the vict'ry be glorious When led by the red, black, and green. — Lyrics from the UNIA anthem Ideologically, Garvey was a black nationalist . Generally referring to dark-skinned peoples of African descent as "Negroes", he and
226-466: A nondenominational church specifically for Black people. This in turn paved the way for the first independent Black churches in the United States. The church and its members played a key role in the abolition/anti-slavery and equal rights movement of the 1800s and it would later be involved in the civil rights movement. Mutual aid became a foundation of social welfare in the United States until
339-416: A "higher" one. As with most eugenicists at the time, racial hygienists believed that the lack of eugenics would lead to rapid social degeneration , the decline of civilization by the spread of inferior characteristics. The German eugenicist Alfred Ploetz introduced the term "racial hygiene" ( Rassenhygiene ) in 1895 in his Racial Hygiene Basics ( Grundlinien einer Rassenhygiene ). He discussed
452-531: A "nation within a nation," and therefore should seek better rights and political power within a multicultural US. Black nationalists often fought racism, colonialism, and imperialism, and influenced the Organization of Afro-American Unity , Black Panther Party , Black Islam , and the Black Power movement . There are similarities between Black separatism and Black nationalism, since they both advocate for
565-493: A conscientious Christian worship among" them. His belief that Africans would ultimately be liberated by the efforts of the African diaspora which was living outside the continent has been considered condescending. Moses stated that instead of being based on respect for indigenous African cultures, Garvey's views of an ideal united Africa were based on an "imperial model" of the kind which was promoted by western powers. When he extolled
678-491: A distinct national identity , especially in racialized , colonial and postcolonial societies. Its earliest proponents saw it as a way to advocate for democratic representation in culturally plural societies or to establish self-governing independent nation-states for Black people. Modern Black nationalism often aims for the social, political, and economic empowerment of Black communities within white majority societies , either as an alternative to assimilation or as
791-519: A few weeks because of widespread protests by white students. During the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, Delany treated patients, even though many doctors and residents fled the city out of fear of contamination. Beginning in 1847, Delany worked alongside Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to publish the anti-slavery newspaper The North Star . Delany dreamed of establishing
904-732: A good thing for them, it will be a bad thing for the Negroes who will fall under the government of the most ignorant, prejudiced class of the white race." In response, the Communist International characterised Garveyism as a reactionary bourgeois philosophy. Whilst our God has no color, yet it is human to see everything through one's own spectacles, and since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own spectacles. — Garvey, on viewing God as black, 1923 Grant noted that "Garveyism would always remain
1017-453: A model for later African American banks. It operated ten private schools for Blacks across Pennsylvania, performed burials and weddings, and recorded births and marriages. Its activity and open doors served as motivator for growth for the city, inspiring many other Black mutual aid societies to pop up. In 1793, Jones and several other FAS members also founded the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church ,
1130-465: A people perish economically. The Negro is perishing because he has no economic system". In his view, European-American employers would always favor European-American employees, so to gain more security, African Americans needed to form their own businesses. In his words, "the Negro[...] must become independent of white capital and white employers if he wants salvation." He believed that financial independence for
1243-552: A racially mixed population. He inspired a racist social movement in Germany, named Gobinism , and his works were influential on prominent antisemites like Richard Wagner , Houston Stewart Chamberlain , A. C. Cuza , and the Nazi Party . In 1885, Haitian anthropologist and barrister Anténor Firmin published De l'égalité des races humaines ( On the Equality of Human Races ) as
SECTION 10
#17328696958731356-524: A rebuttal to Count Arthur de Gobineau 's work, challenging the idea that brain size was a measure of human intelligence and noting the presence of Black Africans in Pharaonic Egypt . Firmin then explored the significance of the Haitian Revolution of 1804 and the ensuing achievements of Haitians such as Léon Audain , Isaïe Jeanty and Edmond Paul. (Both Audain and Jeanty had obtained prizes from
1469-460: A right to representation or self-governance . Black nationalists therefore seek to acquire political and economic power to improve the quality of life and freedoms of Black people collectively. Black nationalists tend to believe in self-reliance and self-sufficiency for Black people, solidarity among Black people as a nation, and pride in Black achievement and culture , in order to overcome
1582-722: A secular movement with a strong under-tow of religion". Garvey envisioned a form of Christianity which would specifically be designed for black African people, a sort of black religion. Reflecting his own view of religion, he wanted this black-centric Christianity to be as close to Catholicism as possible. Even so, he attended the foundation ceremony of the African Orthodox Church in Chicago in 1921. According to Graves, this Church preached "the orthodox Christian tradition with emphasis on racism", and Cronon suggested that Garvey promoted "racist ideas about religion". Garvey emphasised
1695-783: A settlement in West Africa. He visited Liberia , a United States colony founded by the American Colonization Society , and lived in Canada for several years, but when the American Civil War began, he returned to the United States. When the United States Colored Troops were created in 1863, he recruited for them. Commissioned as a major in February 1865, Delany became the first African American field grade officer in
1808-419: A way to ensure greater representation and equality within predominantly Eurocentric cultures. As an ideology, Black nationalism encompasses a diverse range of beliefs which have variously included forms of economic , political and cultural nationalism , or pan-nationalism . It often overlaps with, but is distinguished from, similar concepts and movements such as Pan-Africanism , Ethiopianism ,
1921-559: Is England, France or Germany, I am told, "This is a white man's country." Wheresoever I travel throughout the United States of America, I am made to understand that I am a "nigger". If the Englishman claims England as his native habitat, and the Frenchman claims France, the time has come for 400 million Negroes to claim Africa as their native land... If you believe that the Negro should have a place in
2034-543: Is especially popular among those who have become disillusioned with "deferred American racial equality". In this schema, Black nationalism without Black separatism is called "cultural nationalism". Separatist nationalism often rejects integration into white society—which may extend into rejection of existing political systems—preferring to organise alternative structures. Black nationalism, however, often focuses on engagement with societal and political structures to enact change, such as by attempting to elect Black representatives at
2147-559: The Académie Nationale de Médecine .) Though marginalized for his belief in the equality of all races, his work influenced Pan-African and Black nationalist thought, and the négritude movement. Firmin influenced Jean Price-Mars , the initiator of Haitian ethnology and developer of the concept of Indigenism , and 20th-century American anthropologist Melville Herskovits . Martin Delany (1812–1885), an African American abolitionist ,
2260-713: The Bible . This helped establish a new class of educated black people in America. Before the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, few slaves were manumitted. On the eve of the American Revolution, there was an estimated 30,000 free African Americans in Colonial America which accounts for about 5% of the total African American population. The Revolutionary War greatly disrupted slave societies and showed Bl With
2373-709: The Black Panther Party and the Revolutionary Action Movement also adopted a set of anti-colonialist politics inspired by the writings of notable revolutionary theorists including Frantz Fanon , Mao Zedong , and Kwame Nkrumah . In the words of Ahmad Muhammad (formerly known as Max Stanford) the national field chairman of the Revolutionary Action Movement: We are revolutionary black nationalist[s], not based on ideas of national superiority, but striving for justice and liberation of all
SECTION 20
#17328696958732486-690: The Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor , a British organization with government support, launched its efforts to establish the Sierra Leone Province of Freedom , a colony in West Africa for London 's "Black poor". After Nova Scotia proved a hostile environment for many of the new settlers, with extreme weather as well as racism from the white Nova Scotians, about a third of the Loyalists, and nearly all of
2599-601: The Communist Party . This led to heavy scrutiny from communist group leaders and figureheads such as Grace Campbell , among others. He believed that the communist movement did not serve the interests of African Americans because it was a white person's creation. He stated that communism was "a dangerous theory of economic or political reformation because it seeks to put government in the hands of an ignorant white mass who have not been able to destroy their natural prejudices towards Negroes and other non-white people. While it may be
2712-617: The English Channel . The precursors of this notion were earlier medical experiments which German doctors performed on African prisoners of war in concentration camps in Namibia during the Herero and Namaqua Genocide . A key aspect of National Socialism was the concept of racial hygiene and it was elevated to the primary philosophy of the German medical community, first by activist physicians within
2825-732: The Fortress of Louisbourg on Île-Royale (now Cape Breton Island ) became the first Black community in Nova Scotia. During this early period, 381 Black people, some free and others enslaved, escaped or were brought to the Fortress, mostly from the Francophone Caribbean colonies. It was home to a mix of freed and unfree enslaved Africans, who undertook a variety of trades and professions, such as gardeners, bakers, stonemasons, musicians, soldiers, sailors, fishermen, hospital workers, and more. After
2938-726: The Free African Society , and the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas lay the groundwork for the independent Black organizations and communities that would follow. Meanwhile, Black people were relocated from the Americas and Britain to new colonies in Sierra Leone and Liberia , paving the way for Black-led nations in those countries. Back in the Caribbean, the Haitian Revolution proved to disparate Black communities across
3051-664: The Holocaust , the German National Socialist effort to purge Europe of Jews, Romani people , Slavs , Blacks , mixed race people , and physically or intellectually disabled people. In the Aktion T4 program, Hitler ordered the execution of mentally-ill patients by euthanasia under the cover of deaths from strokes and illnesses. The methods and equipment that had been used in the murder of thousands of mentally ill persons were then transferred to concentration camps, because
3164-766: The Jamaican Maroons , petitioned the British for passage to Sierra Leone as well, eventually leading to the founding of Freetown in 1792. Their descendants are known as the Sierra Leone Creole people . Since most sources of welfare at the time were controlled by whites, free blacks across the early United States created their own mutual aid societies. These societies offered cultural centers, spiritual assistance, and financial resources to their members. The Free African Union Society , founded in 1780 in Newport, Rhode Island ,
3277-619: The Ku Klux Klan . Interest among the South's Black population in African emigration peaked during the 1890s, a time when racism reached its peak and the greatest number of lynchings in American history took place. During the period known as New Imperialism (1833 to 1914), European nations colonized and occupied Africa in the " Scramble for Africa ". This mobilized Black people in the diaspora to activism in their home nations. Ethiopia and Liberia were
3390-499: The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring , called for the sterilization of any person who had a genetically determined illness. The Sterilization Law was drafted by some of Germany's top racial hygienists, including: Fritz Lenz , Alfred Ploetz , Ernst Rudin , Heinrich Himmler , Gerhard Wagner and Fritz Thyssen . Robert N. Proctor has shown that the list of illnesses which
3503-618: The Negro World titled "African Fundamentalism", in which he called for "the founding of a racial empire whose only natural, spiritual and political aims shall be God and Africa, at home and abroad." Garvey supported the Back-to-Africa movement , which had been influenced by Edward Wilmot Blyden , who migrated to Liberia in 1850. However, Garvey did not believe that all African Americans should migrate to Africa. Instead, he believed that an elite group, namely those African Americans who were of
Garveyism - Misplaced Pages Continue
3616-607: The Nordic race " ( Entnordung ) which would come to dominate its philosophy in Germany from the 1920s to the Second World War . During the last years of the 19th century, the German racial hygienists Alfred Ploetz and Wilhelm Schallmayer regarded certain people as inferior, and they opposed their ability to procreate. These theorists believed that all human behaviors, including crime , alcoholism and divorce , were caused by genetics. With significant post-war activity During
3729-972: The Revolutionary War , General Washington urged the British to return the Black Loyalists as stolen property, under the Treaty of Paris (1783). The British attempted to keep their promise to the Loyalists by relocating them outside the US. The British transported more than 3,000 Black Loyalists and Jamaican Maroons to resettle in Nova Scotia (part of present-day Ontario ). Between 1749 and 1816, approximately 10,000 Black people settled in Nova Scotia. Those settlers who remained in Nova Scotia would go on to found large communities of freed Black people, forming 52 black settlements in total, and would develop their own national identity as Black Nova Scotians . Meanwhile, in 1786,
3842-479: The Revolutionary War , when educated Africans within the colonies became disgusted with the social conditions of Black people, and sought to create organizations that would unite Black people and improve their situation. The third period of Black nationalism arose during the post -Reconstruction era, as community leaders began to articulate the need to separate Blacks from non-Blacks for safety and to collectivize resources. The new ideology of this third period informed
3955-666: The Southern Poverty Law Center , Black nationalist groups have "little or no impact on mainstream politics and no defenders in high office", unlike white supremacists. Black nationalism may also be divided into revolutionary or reactionary Black nationalism. Revolutionary Black nationalism combines cultural nationalism with scientific socialism in order to achieve Black self-determination . Proponents of revolutionary Black nationalism say it rejects all forms of oppression, including class-based exploitation under capitalism. Revolutionary Black nationalist organizations such as
4068-731: The United States Army . After the Civil War, Delany went to the South, settling in South Carolina, where he worked for the Freedmen's Bureau and became politically active, including in the Colored Conventions Movement . Delany ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor as an Independent Republican . He was appointed as a trial judge, but he was removed following a scandal. Delany later switched his party affiliation. He worked for
4181-495: The Virgin Mary that depicted these figures as black Africans. In doing so, he did not make use of pre-existing forms of black-dominated religions. Garvey had little experience with them, because he had attended a white-run Wesleyan congregation when he was a child, and later, he converted to Catholicism. Black nationalism Black nationalism is a nationalist movement which seeks representation for Black people as
4294-567: The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 , when many other residents abandoned the city. Notable members included African-American abolitionists such as Cyrus Bustill , James Forten , and William Gray, as well as survivors of the Haitian Revolution in Saint-Domingue , as well as fugitive slaves escaping from the South. The FAS provided guidance, medical care, and financial advice. The last became particularly important, and would establish
4407-579: The back-to-Africa movement , Afrocentrism , Black Zionism , and Garveyism . Critics of Black nationalism compare it to white nationalism and white supremacy , and say it promotes racial and ethnic nationalism , separatism and Black supremacy . Most experts distinguish between these movements, saying that while white nationalism ultimately seeks to maintain or deepen inequality between racial and ethnic groups, most forms of Black nationalism instead aim to increase equality in response to pre-existing forms of white dominance. Black nationalism reflects
4520-496: The 1775 proclamation of Lord Dunmore , governor of Virginia, the British began recruiting the slaves of American revolutionaries and promised them freedom in return. Free Blacks like Prince Hall proposed that Blacks be allowed to join the American side, believing if they were involved in founding the new nation, it would aid in attaining freedom for all Black people. The Continental Army gradually began to allow Blacks to fight in exchange for their freedom. Between 1713 and 1758,
4633-584: The 18th century, Nanny Town and other Jamaican maroon villages began to fight for independent recognition. Jamaican Maroons consistently fought British colonists, leading to the First Maroon War (1728–1740). By 1740, the British governor of the Colony of Jamaica , Edward Trelawny had signed two treaties promising them 2,500 acres (1,012 ha) in Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) and Crawford's Town , bringing an end to
Garveyism - Misplaced Pages Continue
4746-630: The 1930s and 1940s, institutes in Nazi Germany studied genetics, created genetic registries and researched twins. Nazi scientists also studied blood, and developed theories on the supposed racial specificity of blood types, with the goal of distinguishing an "Aryan" from a Jew by examining their blood. In the 1940s, Josef Mengele , a doctor in the Schutzstaffel ( SS ), provided human remains that were taken from Auschwitz – blood, limbs and other body parts – to be studied at
4859-605: The ACS, as did the abolitionist movement . Many African Americans, both free and enslaved, were pressured into emigrating anyway. By 1833, the Society had transported only 2,769 individuals out of the U.S. and close to half the arrivals in Liberia died from tropical diseases. During the early years, 22% of the settlers in Liberia died within one year. According to Benjamin Quarles , however,
4972-465: The African-American community would ensure greater protection from discrimination, and provide the foundation for social justice . Economically, Garvey supported capitalism , stating that "capitalism is necessary to the progress of the world, and those who unreasonably and wantonly oppose it or fight against it are enemies of human advancement." In the U.S., Garvey promoted a capitalistic ethos for
5085-495: The Americas that they could achieve independence or equality in the law, if they cooperated and worked together. The First Great Awakening ( c. 1730–1755) was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies . The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. Northern Baptist and Methodist preachers converted both white and Black people, whether
5198-552: The Caribbean, escaped slaves began to form independent Black communities either in exile or with Indigenous American groups , becoming known as maroons . Maroons armed themselves to survive attacks by hostile colonists while also obtaining food for subsistence living and setting up their own communities. Others enslaved Africans were freed or bought their freedom, and began to seek their own independence, away from white society. This often included calls to emigrate to Africa and help build independent Black nations there. On some of
5311-460: The Irish independence leader Éamon de Valera . In 1922, he sent a message to Valera stating that "We believe Ireland should be free even as Africa shall be free for the Negroes of the world. Keep up the fight for a free Ireland." For Garvey, Ireland's Sinn Féin and the Irish independence movement served as blueprints for his own black nationalist cause. In July 1919 he stated that "the time has come for
5424-529: The Jamaican writer and poet Claude McKay noted that Garvey "talks of Africa as if it were a little island in the Caribbean Sea." Garvey believed in negative stereotypes about Africa which portrayed it as a backward continent that was in need of the civilizing influence of Western, Christian states. Among his stated aims, he wanted "to assist in civilizing the backward tribes of Africa" and he also wanted "to promote
5537-448: The Negro race to offer up its martyrs upon the altar of liberty even as the Irish [had] given a long list from Robert Emmet to Roger Casement ." He also expressed admiration for the Indian independence movement , which was seeking independence from British rule in India , describing Mahatma Gandhi as "one of the noblest characters of the day". "Race first" was the adage which was widely used in Garveyism. In Garvey's view, "no race in
5650-524: The Negro reactionaries sabotaged it". Garvey never visited Africa himself, and he did not speak any African language. He knew very little about the continent's varied customs, languages, religions, and traditional social structures, and his critics frequently believed that his views of the continent were based on romanticism and ignorance. It has been suggested that the European colonial authorities would not have given Garvey permission to visit colonies where he would be calling for decolonization. For instance,
5763-588: The U.S. should be abandoned. Garvey called for collaboration between black and white separatists, stating that they shared common goals: "the purification of the races, their autonomous separation and the unbridled freedom of self-development and self-expression. Those who are against this are enemies of both races, and rebels against morality, nature and God." In his view, the KKK and other far-right white groups were "better friends" of black people "than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together" because they were honest about their desires and intentions. Garvey
SECTION 50
#17328696958735876-701: The U.S. was a white man's country and thus, he did not think that African Americans should expect equal treatment within it. Thus, he opposed attempts to socially and economically integrate the different races which lived within the country. Garveyism promoted the view that whites had no duty to help blacks achieve racial equality, maintaining the view that the latter needed to advance themselves on their own initiative. He advocated racial separatism, but he did not believe in black supremacy . He also rallied against Eurocentric beauty standards among blacks, seeing them as impediments to black self-respect. [African Americans should] stop making[...] noise about social equality, giving
5989-413: The UNIA insisted that that term should be capitalized, thus affording dignity and respect to those whom it described. His ideas were influenced by a range of sources. According to biographer Colin Grant , while he was living in London, Garvey displayed "an amazing capacity to absorb political tracts , theories of social engineering , African history and the Western Enlightenment ." Garvey was exposed to
6102-409: The West is not orthodox Marxism (although it might be called Maoism or Castroism). As long as American Marxists cannot deal with the implications of revolutionary nationalism, both abroad and at home, they will continue to play the role of revolutionaries by proxy. Historian Wilson Jeremiah Moses suggests the development of Black nationalism can be examined over three different periods, giving rise to
6215-500: The White people the idea that we are hankering after their company, and get down to business and build up a strong race, industrially, commercially, educationally and politically, everything social will come afterwards. — Marcus Garvey, 1921 In the U.S., ideas about the need for black racial purity became central to Garvey's thought. He vehemently denounced miscegenation , believing that mixed-race individuals were "torn by dual allegiances" and they would often ally themselves "with
6328-517: The black race should do likewise. We believe that there is room enough in the world for the various race groups to grow and develop by themselves without seeking to destroy the Creator's plan by the constant introduction of mongrel types." Arguing that Garvey "imitated white supremacist ideas at random", the scholar John L. Graves commented that "racism permeated nearly every iota of his ideology," with Garveyism representing "a gospel of hate for whites". Garvey's belief in racial separatism, his advocacy of
6441-432: The campaign of Democrat Wade Hampton III , who won the 1876 election for governor in a season marked by violent suppression of Black Republican voters by Red Shirts and fraud in balloting. After Emancipation, the back-to-Africa movement eventually began to decline. In 1877, at the end of the Reconstruction era , it would experience a revival as many Black people in the American South faced violence from groups such as
6554-442: The civil rights of Black people. While Black separatists believe that Black people should be physically separated from other races, primarily whites, Black nationalism focuses primarily on civil rights , self-determination , and democratic representation . These two ideologies can also overlap as "separatist nationalism", which typically manifests in the belief in a literal or metaphorical secession from white American society, and
6667-435: The colonies (specifically within New England and Pennsylvania) had become disgusted with the social conditions of Black people. Individuals such as Prince Hall , Richard Allen , Absalom Jones , James Forten , Cyrus Bustill and William Gray sought to create organizations that would unite Black people, who had been excluded from white society, and improve their situation collectively. Institutions such as Black Masonic lodges ,
6780-495: The colonization movement "originated abolitionism" by arousing the free Black people and other opponents of slavery. Between 1822 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, more than 15,000 freed and free-born African Americans , along with 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans , relocated to Liberia. The settlers carried their culture and tradition with them, gradually developing a Black national identity as Americo-Liberians . Liberia declared independence on July 26, 1847, becoming
6893-402: The discrimination African Americans experienced as a result, and the perceived failures of the nonviolent civil rights movement of the time. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, the Black nationalism movement gained increased traction in various African American communities. A focus on returning to Africa became less popular, giving way to the idea that Black people constituted
SECTION 60
#17328696958737006-416: The early 20th century, Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey moved to the US and, inspired by Zionism and Irish independence , promoted Black nationalist and Pan-African ideas, which collectively became known as Garveyism . Modern Black nationalist ideas coalesced as a distinct movement during the era of racial segregation in America , as a response to centuries of institutionalized white supremacy ,
7119-593: The early 20th century. Following the American Revolutionary War , the population of free people of color in the US had grown from 60,000 in 1790 to 300,000 by 1830. The prevailing view of white people was that free people of color could not integrate into U.S. society and slaveowners feared these free Blacks might help their slaves to escape or rebel . In addition, many White Americans believed that African Americans were inherently inferior and should be relocated. In Boston, Black Quaker and activist Paul Cuffe advocated settling freed American slaves in Africa. He
7232-566: The economic development of the African-American community, advocating black capitalism . His emphasis on capitalist ventures meant, according to Grant, that Garvey "was making a straight pitch to the petit-bourgeois capitalist instinct of the majority of black folk." He admired Booker T. Washington 's economic endeavours but criticized his focus on individualism: Garvey believed that African-American interests would best be advanced if businesses included collective decision-making and group profit-sharing. His advocacy of capitalistic wealth distribution
7345-511: The effects of institutionalized inequality , self-hate and internalized racism . The roots of Black nationalism extend back to the time of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans , when some enslaved Africans revolted or formed independent Black settlements (such as the Maroons ), free of European control. By the 19th century, African Americans such as Paul Cuffe and Martin Delany called for free and fugitive Black people to emigrate to Africa to help establish independent nations. In
7458-413: The first African republic to proclaim its independence and Africa's first and oldest modern republic. The U.S. did not recognize Liberia's independence until February 5, 1862. The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue (now the sovereign state of Haiti ). The revolt began on 22 August 1791, and ended in 1804 with
7571-438: The former accusing Du Bois and the NAACP of promoting "amalgamation or general miscegenation". He rallied against what he called the "race destroying doctrine" of those African Americans who were promulgating racial integration in the U.S., instead, he maintained the view that his UNIA stood for "the pride and purity of race. We believe that the white race should uphold its racial pride and perpetuate itself, and we also believe that
7684-419: The former colony's independence. From the revolt, the ex-slave Toussaint Louverture emerged as Haiti's most prominent general. The revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery (though not from forced labour ) and ruled by non-whites and former captives. The successful revolution was a defining moment in the history of the Atlantic World and
7797-493: The glories of Africa, Garvey cited the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians who had built empires and monumental architectural structures, which he cited as evidence of civilization , rather than the smaller-scale societies which lived on other parts of the continent. In doing so, he followed the lead of white academics of that era, who were similarly ignorant of most of African history and who focused nearly exclusively on ancient Egypt. Moses thought that Garvey "had more affinity for
7910-494: The great educational and other institutions necessary", after which other members of the African diaspora could join them. He was aware that the majority of African Americans would not want to move to Africa until it had the more modern comforts that they had become accustomed to in the U.S. Through the UNIA, he discussed plans for a migration to Liberia, but these plans came to nothing and his hope to move African Americans to West Africa ultimately failed. Wheresoever I go, whether it
8023-449: The idea of black people worshipping a God who was also depicted as black. In his words, "If the white man has the idea of a white God, let him worship his God as he desires. Since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out to see our God through our own spectacles[...] we shall worship Him through the spectacles of Ethiopia." He called for black people to worship images of Jesus of Nazareth and
8136-539: The idea that, in racialized societies, people of diverse African descent are often treated as a single racial, ethnic and cultural group (such as African Americans in the US or Black Britons in the UK). Because of a shared history of oppression and a distinct culture shaped by that history, Black nationalism argues that Black people in the African diaspora therefore form a distinct nation (or multiple distinct nations) and so have
8249-563: The ideas about race that were prevalent at the time; his ideas on race were also heavily informed by the writings of Edward Wilmot Blyden and by his work in London with Dusé Mohamed Ali . During the late 1910s and 1920s, Garvey was also influenced by the ideas of the Irish independence movement, to which he was sympathetic. He saw strong parallels between the subjugation of Ireland and the global subjugation of black people, and identified strongly with
8362-750: The immediate aftermath of the European Revolutions of 1848 , French aristocrat Count Arthur de Gobineau wrote the pseudoscientific An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races ( Essai sur l'inégalité des Races Humaines ), legitimizing scientific racism and decrying race-mixing as the doom of civilization . Gobineau's writings were quickly praised by white supremacist , pro-slavery Americans like Josiah C. Nott and Henry Hotze , who translated his book into English, but omitted around 1,000 pages, including parts that negatively described Americans as
8475-530: The importance of German racial purity often served as the theoretical backbone of Nazi policies of racial superiority and later genocide . The policies began in 1935, when the National Socialists enacted the Nuremberg Laws , which legislated racial purity by forbidding sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and non-Aryans as Rassenschande (racial shame). Racial hygienists played key roles in
8588-418: The importance of avoiding "counterselective forces" such as war, inbreeding, free healthcare for the poor, alcohol and venereal disease. In its earliest incarnation it was more concerned by the declining birthrate of the German state and the increasing number of mentally-ill and disabled people in state-run institutions (and their costs to the state) than it was by the " Jewish question " and the "degeneration of
8701-554: The institutes. Harnessing racial hygiene as a justification, the scientists used prisoners from Auschwitz and other concentration camps as test subjects for their human experiments. Theories on racial hygiene led to an elaborate sterilization program, with the goal of eliminating what the Nazis regarded as diseases harmful to the human race. Sterilized individuals, reasoned the Nazis, would not pass on their diseases to their children. The Sterilization Law, passed on July 14, 1933, also known as
8814-446: The larger Caribbean islands, maroon communities were able to grow crops and hunt for food. As more slaves escaped from plantations , their numbers could grow. Seeking to separate themselves from colonisers, the maroons gained in power amid increasing hostility. They raided and pillaged plantations until the planters began to fear a massive slave revolt. As early as 1655, escaped Africans had formed communities in inland Jamaica , and by
8927-519: The latter were free or not. The message of spiritual equality appealed to many enslaved people and, as African religious traditions continued to decline in North America, Black people accepted Christianity in large numbers for the first time. Black people even began to take active roles in these mixed churches, sometimes even preaching. Many leaders of the revivals also proclaimed that enslaved people should be educated so that they could read and study
9040-528: The law targeted included " feeblemindedness , schizophrenia , manic depression , epilepsy , Huntington's chorea , genetic blindness, and 'severe alcoholism.'" The estimated number of citizens who were sterilized in Nazi Germany ranges from 350,000 to 400,000. As a result of the Sterilization Law, sterilization medicine and research soon became one of the largest medical industries. In Nazi propaganda ,
9153-983: The local and national level. Black cultural nationalism has broader support among African-Americans than separatist nationalism; the latter is more popular among young men and people of lower economic status. Examples of Black separatist organizations include the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party . Black nationalists often reject conflation with Black supremacy , as well as comparisons with white supremacists , characterizing their movement as an anti-racist reaction to white supremacy and color-blind white liberalism as racist. Additionally, while white nationalism often seeks to maintain or re-establish systems of white majority dominance, Black nationalism instead aims to challenge white supremacy through increased civil rights and representation (or independence) for black people as an oppressed minority . According to
9266-468: The materials and resources needed to efficiently murder large numbers of people existed and had been proven successful. The nurses and the staff who had assisted and performed the killings were then moved along with the gas chambers to the concentration camps, which were being built in order to be able to replicate the mass murders repeatedly. The doctors who carried out experiments on the prisoners in concentration camps specialised in racial hygiene and used
9379-459: The medical profession, particularly amongst psychiatrists. That was later codified and institutionalized during and after the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, during the process of Gleichschaltung (literally, "coordination" or "unification"), which streamlined the medical and mental hygiene (mental health) profession into a rigid hierarchy with National Socialist-sanctioned leadership at the top. The blueprint for Nazism's attitude toward other races
9492-478: The mid-to-late 18th century, Methodist and Baptist evangelists during the period of the First Great Awakening ( c. 1730–1755) encouraged slave owners to free their slaves, in their belief that all men were equal before God. They converted many slaves to Christianity and approved Black leaders as preachers; Blacks developed their own churches . After the Revolutionary War , educated Africans within
9605-499: The migration of African Americans to Africa, and his opposition to miscegenation endeared him to the KKK, which supported many of the same policies. Garvey was willing to collaborate with the KKK in order to achieve his aims, and it was willing to work with him because his approach effectively acknowledged its belief that the U.S. should only be a country for white people and campaigns for advanced rights for African Americans who are living within
9718-453: The more powerful race," thus, they would become "traitors to the [black] race". Garvey argued that mixed-race people would be bred out of existence. Cronon believed that Garvey exhibited "antipathy and distrust of anybody but the darkest-skinned Negroes"; the hostility towards black people whose African blood was not considered "pure" was a sentiment which Garvey shared with Blyden. This view caused great friction between Garvey and Du Bois, with
9831-495: The natives. Escaped slaves sought refuge away from the coastal plantations of Ponce . In the plantation colony of Suriname , escaped slaves revolted and started to build their own villages. On October 10, 1760, the Ndyuka signed a treaty with the Dutch recognising their territorial autonomy; it was drafted by Adyáko Benti Basiton of Boston , a formerly enslaved African from Jamaica. In
9944-520: The only African countries to maintain their sovereignty and independence during this time. The African Times and Orient Review would later encourage others to emigrate to Ethiopia as part of the back-to-Africa movement. In 1919, Marcus Garvey became President of the Black Star Line , designed to forge a link between North America and Africa and facilitate African-American migration to Liberia . Racial purity The term racial hygiene
10057-473: The oppressed peoples of the world. ... There can be no liberty as long as black people are oppressed and the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America are oppressed by Yankee imperialism and neo-colonialism. After four hundred years of oppression, we realize that slavery, racism and imperialism are all interrelated and that liberty and justice for all cannot exist peacefully with imperialism." Professor and author Harold Cruse said revolutionary Black nationalism
10170-586: The pages of The Negro World. We must prepare now by organizing ourselves all over the world, by building businesses, stores and factories to sustain our people and free ourselves. — Marcus Garvey Garvey believed in economic independence for the African diaspora and through the UNIA, he attempted to achieve it by forming ventures like the Black Star Line and the Negro Factories Corporation. In Garvey's opinion, "without commerce and industry,
10283-617: The philosophy of groups like the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam . In the New World , as early as 1512, African slaves escaped from Spanish captors and either joined indigenous peoples or eked out a living on their own. The first recorded slave rebellion in the region occurred in what is today the Dominican Republic , on the sugar plantations owned by Admiral Diego Columbus , on 26 December 1522. Especially in
10396-502: The pomp and tinsel of European imperialism than he did for black African tribal life". Similarly, the writer Richard Hart noted that Garvey was "much attracted by the glamour of the British nobility", an attraction which was reflected when he honored prominent supporters by giving them such British-derived titles as "Lords", "Ladies", and "Knights". Garvey's head was not turned, however, by the scholarly authority of Harvard University professor George Reisner whose opinion Garvey challenged on
10509-511: The post -Reconstruction era, particularly among various African-American clergy circles. Separated circles were already established and accepted because African-Americans had long endured the oppression of slavery and Jim Crowism in the United States since its inception. The clerical phenomenon led to the birth of a modern form of Black nationalism that stressed the need to separate Blacks from non-Blacks and build separate communities that would promote racial pride and collectivize resources. In
10622-609: The purest African blood, should do so. The rest of the African-American population, he believed, should remain in the United States, where it would become extinct within fifty years. A proponent of the Back-to-Africa movement, Garvey called for a vanguard of educated and skilled African Americans to travel to West Africa, a journey which would be facilitated by his Black Star Line. Garvey stated that "The majority of us may remain here, but we must send our scientists, our mechanics and our artisans and let them build railroads, let them build
10735-533: The revolution's effects on the institution of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. Independence and the abolition of slavery in the former colony was followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former slaves had won, and with the collaboration of already free people of color , of their independence from white Europeans. This had the effect of encouraging other Black communities suffering under slavery or colonialism to imagine independence and self-rule. The third period of Black nationalism arose during
10848-421: The scholar of African-American studies Wilson S. Moses, the future African state which Garvey envisioned was " authoritarian , elitist , collectivist, racist, and capitalistic ", suggesting that it would have resembled the later Haitian government of François Duvalier . Garvey told the historian J. A. Rogers that he and his followers were "the first fascists", adding that " Mussolini copied Fascism from me, but
10961-525: The sun; if you believe that Africa should be one vast empire, controlled by the Negro, then arise. — Garvey, August 1920 In the 1920s, Garvey referred to his desire for a "big black republic" in Africa. Garvey's envisioned Africa was to be a one-party state in which the president could have "absolute authority" to appoint "all of his lieutenants from cabinet ministers, governors of States and Territories, administrators and judges to minor offices". According to
11074-606: The supposed science to back their medical experiments. Some of the experiments were used for general medical research, for example by injecting prisoners with known diseases to test vaccines or possible cures. Other experiments were used to further the Germans' war strategy by putting prisoners in vacuum chambers to see what could happen to pilots' bodies if they were ejected at a high altitude or immerse prisoners in ice water to see how long they would survive and what materials could be used to prolong life if worn by German pilots shot down over
11187-465: The survivors also fled to Sierra Leone . In 1816, modeled after Cuffe's work and the British resettlement of Black people in Sierra Leone , Robert Finley founded the American Colonization Society (ACS). The ACS and organizations like it aimed to encourage and support the migration of freeborn people of color and emancipated slaves to the continent of Africa . The African American community, who wanted to keep their homes, overwhelmingly opposed
11300-418: The term "race" was often interchangeably used to mean the " Aryan " or Germanic " Übermenschen ", which was said to represent an ideal and pure master race that was biologically superior to all other races. In the 1930s, under eugenicist Ernst Rüdin , National Socialist ideology embraced this latter use of "racial hygiene", which demanded Aryan racial purity and condemned miscegenation . That belief in
11413-481: The various ideological perspectives within today's Black nationalism. The first period of pre-classical Black nationalism began when the first Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves through the American Revolutionary period. Many of these slaves rebelled against their captors or formed independent Black societies , beyond the reach of Europeans. The second period of Black nationalism began after
11526-540: The warfare between the communities and effectively freeing the Maroons a century before the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect in 1838. In Cuba , maroon communities formed in the mountains when escaped African slaves joined the indigenous Taínos . Before roads were built into the mountains of Puerto Rico , heavy brush kept many escaped maroons hidden in the southwestern hills where many also intermarried with
11639-408: The world is so just as to give others, for the asking, a square deal in things economic, political and social", but rather each racial group will favor its own interests. Rejecting the " melting pot " notion of much 20th century American nationalism , he thought that European Americans would never willingly grant equality to African Americans, and thus it was inefficient for the latter to ask for it. He
11752-465: Was America's first African benevolent society . Founders and early members included Prince Amy, Lincoln Elliot, Bristol Yamma, Zingo Stevens and Newport Gardner . It became the model for multiple similar organizations across the Northeast. In 1787, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones formed the Free African Society (FAS) of Pennsylvania. It became famous for its members' work as nurses and aides during
11865-596: Was a Pan-Africanist, and an African nationalist . In Jamaica, he and his supporters were heavily influenced by the pan-Africanist teachings of Dr Love and Alexander Bedward . In the wake of the First World War , Garvey called for the formation of "a United Africa for the Africans of the World". The UNIA promoted the view that Africa was the natural homeland of the African diaspora. While he was imprisoned, he penned an editorial for
11978-416: Was a more equitable view of capitalism than the view of capitalism which was then prevalent in the U.S.; he believed that some restrictions should be imposed on individuals and businesses in order to prevent them from acquiring too much wealth, in his view, no individual should be allowed to control more than one million dollars and no company should be allowed to control more than five million dollars. While he
12091-404: Was a necessary and logical progression from other leftist ideologies, as non-Black leftists could not properly assess the particular material conditions of the Black community and other colonized people: Revolutionary nationalism has not waited for Western Marxian thought to catch up with the realities of the "underdeveloped" world...The liberation of the colonies before the socialist revolution in
12204-432: Was a successful ship owner and in 1815, he attempted a settlement for freedmen on Sherbro Island . By 1811, he had transported some members of the Free African Society to Liberia . He also gained broad political support to take emigrants to Sierra Leone , and in 1816, Cuffe took 38 American Black people to Freetown . He died in 1817 before undertaking other voyages. By 1821, his Sherbro Island settlement had failed and
12317-523: Was arguably the first proponent of Black nationalism as we understand it today. Delany is credited with the Pan-African slogan of "Africa for Africans." Born as a free person of color in what is now West Virginia , and raised in Pennsylvania , Delany trained as a physician's assistant. In 1850, Delany was one of the first three Black men admitted to Harvard Medical School , but all were dismissed after
12430-600: Was hostile to the efforts of the progressive movement to agitate for social and political rights for African Americans, arguing that this was ineffective and that laws would never change the underlying racial prejudice of European Americans. He argued that the European-American population of the U.S. would never tolerate the social integration which was being advocated by activists like W. E. B. Du Bois because he believed that campaigns for such integration would lead to anti-black riots and lynchings . He openly conceded that
12543-550: Was living in Harlem, he envisioned the formation of a global network of black people who would trade among themselves, believing that his Black Star Line would contribute to the achievement of this aim. There is no evidence to support the view that Garvey was ever sympathetic to socialism . While he was living in the U.S., he strongly opposed attempts to recruit African Americans into the trade union movement by socialist and communist groups, and he urged African Americans not to support
12656-406: Was used to describe an approach to eugenics in the early 20th century, which found its most extensive implementation in Nazi Germany ( Nazi eugenics ). It was marked by efforts to avoid miscegenation , analogous to an animal breeder seeking purebred animals. This was often motivated by the belief in the existence of a racial hierarchy and the related fear that "lower races" would "contaminate"
12769-538: Was written by Erwin Baur , Fritz Lenz , and Eugen Fischer and published under the title Human Heredity Theory and Racial Hygiene (1936). After World War II, the idea of "racial hygiene" was denounced as unscientific by many, but there continued to be supporters and enforcers of eugenics even after there was widespread awareness of the nature of Nazi eugenics. After 1945, eugenics proponents included Julian Huxley and Marie Stopes , but they typically removed or downplayed
#872127