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RBG Communiversity

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Get Up And Go!

Please clear the way and let me pass,

If you intend to give up here:

It seems a shame that you should yield

Your life without its fullest share.

You are a coward for your pains,

To come this way, and then blow out:

Real men are made of stuff to last,

Which they, themselves, would never doubt.

Get up! You broken bits of flesh!

Take courage and go fighting on;

For every black man there's a day,

Which pride in race has well begun.

Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

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Music In My Soul

There's music in my soul today,

A joy of heart not there before:

This state of conscience I relay

To rich and proud and meek and poor.

There's music in my happy Soul:

From Heaven's realm doth truly flow

This music in my happy Soul,

My conscience tells me riglitly so.

My song of joy I sing to you:

Let peace and love forever be

Among ye men of every hue,

Of every land and charted sea.

I crave no other fortune great,

But joy to live in peace with God;

My hopes are fixed on His Estate,

In faith so true as prophets had.

This music in my soul today

I spread in truth with love unfurled;

On waves of cheer it goes, I pray,

To reach around the belted world.

Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

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The Black Mother

Where can I find love that never changes

Smiles that are true and always just the same,

Caring not how the fierce tempest rages,

Willing ever to shield my honored name?

This I find at home, only with Mother,

Who cares for me with patient tenderness;

She from every human pain would rather

Save me, and drink the dregs of bitterness.

If on life's way I happen to flounder,

My true thoughts should be of Mother dear,

She is the rock that ne'er rifts asunder,

The cry of her child, be it far or near.

This is love wonderful beyond compare;

It is God's choicest gift to mortal man;

You, who know Mother, in this thought must share,

For, she, of all, is Angel of your Clan.

My Mother is black, loveliest of all;

Yes, she is as pure as the new made morn;

Her song of glee is a clear rythmic call

To these arms of love to which I was born.

I shall never forget you, sweet Mother,

Where'er in life I may happen to roam;

Thou shalt always be the Fairy Charmer

To turn my dearest thoughts to things at home.

Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

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Have Faith In Self

Today I made myself in life anew,

By going to that royal fount of truth,

And searching for the secret of the few

Whose goal in life and aim is joy forsooth.

I found at last the friend and counsellor

That taught me all that I in life should know;

It is the soul, the sovereign chancellor,

The guide and keeper of the good you sow.

I am advised-"Go ye, have faith in self,

And seek once more the guide that lives in you"

Much better than the world of sordid pelf,

Alas! I found the counsel to be true.

Aha! I know right now that I shall see

The good in life, and be a better man;

I will by thought and deed pull all to me,

In saving others, yea, every one.

Go down and search yourself awhile in part,

And tell me all of what vou see and hear;

Isn't there something pulling at your heart?

Tell me the truth and have ye then no fear!

There is a voice that speaks to man, within,

It is the Soul that longs for you to know

There is no need for you to grope in sin,

For you in truth and light may ever grow.

Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

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The Rise Of The Negro

To rise and demonstrate en masse

Is way to make the oppressor think,

And so the Negro in his Class,

Sends forth his message to the King.

The King, a symbol of the State,

Sends forth his men to find what's wrong,

And back comes word of awful fate

On which the lives of men do hang.

The State assumes its task at last,

And makes an effort to amend

The wrongs that reigned throughout the past

By giving heed, though laws defend.

Written by Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

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Some Biography

Born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, Marcus

Garvey was the youngest of 11 children. Garvey moved to

Kingston at the age of 14, found work in a printshop, and became

acquainted with the abysmal living conditions of the laboring

class. He quickly involved himself in social reform, participating

in the first Printers' Union strike in Jamaica in 1907 and in setting

up the newspaper The Watchman. Leaving the island to earn

money to finance his projects, he visited Central and South

America, amassing evidence that black people everywhere were

victims of discrimination. He visited the Panama Canal Zone and

saw the conditions under which the West Indians lived and

worked. He went to Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and

Venezuala. Everywhere, blacks were experiencing great

hardships.

Garvey returned to Jamaica distressed at the situation in Central

America, and appealed to Jamaica's colonial government to help

improve the plight of West Indian workers in Central America.

His appeal fell on deaf ears. Garvey also began to lay the

groundwork of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, to

which he was to devote his life. Undaunted by lack of enthusiasm

for his plans, Garvey left for England in 1912 in search of

additional financial backing. While there, he met a Sudanese-

Egyptian journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali. While working for

Ali's publication African Times and Oriental Review, Garvey

began to study the history of Africa, particularly, the exploitation

of black peoples by colonial powers. He read Booker T.

Washington's Up From Slavery, which advocated black self-help.

In 1914 Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement

Association and its coordinating body, the African Communities

League. In 1920 the organization held its first convention in New

York. The convention opened with a parade down Harlem's Lenox

Avenue. That evening, before a crowd of 25,000, Garvey outlined

his plan to build an African nation-state. In New York City his

ideas attracted popular support, and thousands enrolled in the

UNIA. He began publishing the newspaper The Negro World and

toured the United States preaching black nationalism to popular

audiences. His efforts were successful, and soon, the association

boasted over 1,100 branches in more than 40 countries. Most of

these branches were located in the United States, which had

become the UNIA's base of operations. There were, however,

offices in several Caribbean countries, Cuba having the most.

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Branches also existed in places such as Panama, Costa Rica,

Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Namibia and

South Africa. He also launched some ambitious business ventures,

notably the Black Star Shipping Line.

In the years following the organization's first convention, the

UNIA began to decline in popularity. With the Black Star Line in

serious financial difficulties, Garvey promoted two new business

organizations - the African Communities League and the Negro

Factories Corporation. He also tried to salvage his colonization

scheme by sending a delegation to appeal to the League of Nations

for transfer to the UNIA of the African colonies taken from

Germany during World War I.

Financial betrayal by trusted aides and a host of legal

entanglements (based on charges that he had used the U.S. mail to

defraud prospective investors) eventually led to Garvey's

imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for a five-year term.

In 1927 his half-served sentence was commuted, and he was

deported to Jamaica by order of President Calvin Coolidge.

Garvey then turned his energies to Jamaican politics, campaigning

on a platform of self-government, minimum wage laws, and land

and judicial reform. He was soundly defeated at the polls,

however, because most of his followers did not have the necessary

voting qualifications.

In 1935 Garvey left for England where, in near obscurity, he died

on June 10, 1940, in a cottage in West Kensington.

Source: http://www.afropoets.net/marcusgarvey.html

For additional Honorable Marcus Garvey

resource see RBG Communiversity on SlideShare and /or

RBG Blakademics on Scribd

Audio/mp3 Downloads: RBG BHM 2012 Special Education

Video: RBG BLAKADEMICS TV

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